Sky Masters of the Space Force
The first book (1958-59) of the three-volume Spanish edition of the Jack Kirby/Wally Wood
Sky Masters was released last week at the Barcelona Con, Spain's largest comics convention. At this Barcelona bookstall, note silver ink in logo. With added material to expand beyond Pure Imagination's
Sky Masters, the set is edited and designed by Ferran Delgado for
Glénat.
Here's how the cover was created: Ferran began with a high-res scan of the comic strip's promotional art provided to him by Jim Warden, who owns that original art. A poster of this same image is included with the book.
Next Ferran used some parts of the drawing to create this new vertical image, redoing areas of the background covered by the logo in the original. Note how Ferran redid the logo for his final design in order to maintain the proper perspective. The cover was then digitally colored by Javi Rodriguez.
Click images for enlargements. Click heading to hear Katherine MacLean's "Pictures Don't Lie" on NBC's X Minus One (October 24, 1956), first published in Galaxy Science Fiction (August 1951).
Comparison of strip in progress with finished Wood inking.
Greg Theakston's cover design for Pure Imagination's
Sky Masters (1991) was used by Ferran for reference, serving as a spin-off springboard.
For the Spanish edition, material from the original Pure Imagination book will be split into three volumes. Since the daily strips and the Sunday strips had independent storylines, the first and second volumes feature the dailies with the Sunday strips in the third volume. The third book will publish all the Sunday strips in color for the first time ever.
The first volume has half of the daily strips, Greg Theakston's original introduction, a new introduction by Jack Kirby expert Alvaro Pons, a section with various extras, two pages in support of the Jack Kirby Museum and a poster with a color reproduction of the promo art supplied by Warden. Volume two will be published next year, and the third volume is scheduled for publication in 2010.
Labels: graphic novel, kirby, strip, wood