Various
Before
numbering his works, Russell did some issues of Marvel comics. Most are
not very interesting artistically speaking (and the inkers usually did
improve his work), but they do show how much Russell improved in a
short time. Among others, he did Marvel Feature 7-9
(Ant-Man stories), Marvel Premiere 5 and 7
(Dr. Strange). You'll find some panels from these comics in
the recent C.B.A. interview (see Interviews).
| A two-page spread from Gates
of Eden 1, 1982, Fantaco. Russell reminisces about
his high-school days, using numerous well-known photos from the era.
| |
Fantasy
Illustrated 1 - Spring Issue, 1982. A
short story, "The Hunting of the Hare", with two illustrations by
Russell. |
| The Thief of
Bagdad, 1987, Donning. Russell
drew a wrap-around cover plus fifteen illustrations, five in color, for
this book, a reprint of the story which inspired the film with Douglas
Fairbanks. Russell would come back to Bagdad with Neil Gaiman's The
Sandman - see Opus 36. |
 | The
Scarlet
Letter, 1990, Berkeley/First Publishing. This
is one of the Classics Illustrated. Drawn by Jill
Thompson from script and layouts by Russell. |
 | The
Fall of the House of Usher, 1990, Berkeley/First Publishing. Another
Classics Illustrated. Russell scripted this
adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's story, and also did the layouts. It was
drawn by Jay Geldhof. Geldhof's expressionist style is quite suited to
this dark family tale, and it seems to me that the morbid ambiance of
Poe's story is well rendered. |
| The
X-Men Annual
1, 1992, Marvel Comics. 8
pages by Russell in this comic, done in his cartoony style, and not one
X-men drawn, since it is a prologue set on the Mojo world. |
| Four
one-page stories in Negative Burn #4, 8, 30 and 37,
1993-94-95-96, Caliber Comics. The first one is an adaptation
of a piece by Schoenberg, and the second one is the story of a young
boy 'carried away' by the Erl-King. The third is from a song
by Rossini, and the fourth from a song by Richard Strauss. In
2007, Russell drew another one-pager for Negative Burn
#12 (2006 new series), Desperado Publishing. Whispers of the
Night (Geflüster der Nacht in the original
German) is from an Alexander Zemlinsky piece.
|  | Two
sketchbooks, in Negative Burn 10 and Negative Burn Vol.2 #11 (2007). The
Elric pin-up and the three drawings below are from the first small
sketchbook. The page on the left is from the 2007 issue.
|
| The Visitor in
Ray Bradbury Comics Special Edition n°1 : The
Illustrated Man, 1993, Topps. Russell did the
breakdowns on this adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, drawn by Michael
Lark, then a newcomer in comics. |

| Angels
& Visitations, 1993, Dreamhaven. A
collections of short stories by Neil Gaiman, with one illustration by
Russell, along with a portrait of Gaiman. |
 | The
Crow and the
Pitcher (1993) in Classics Desecrated,
1995, NBM. A one-page fable in the very funny collection of
these fairy tales for grown-ups written by Doug Wheeler. |

| One page in
Aliens: Havoc,
1997, Dark Horse. This was a two-issue mini-series drawn by
many artists. |
 
| WonderCon
2000. One
beautiful cover for the Wonder Con 2000 booklet, and another version of
the same pose. |

| Russell has done
the covers for DC
Comics's The Spectre, from issue #19 to #27. The
drawings are gorgeous. See here for the pencils.



 | 
| Here
is a double-page spread from Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special,
2002, Marvel. |

| Russell has
drawn a five-page
sequence in Daredevil #65, 2004, Marvel.
|  |
Age of Desire A
64-page, hardcover adaptation of a Clive Barker's story, 2009,
Desperado Publishing. Adaptation and layouts by P. Craig
Russell, and art by Tim Bradstreet. This book has
a complex history, having originated right after Human Remains,
when PCR intended to do the whole art by himself. Problems with the
original publisher lead to the project first being drawn by Bradstreet
(after PCR had already penciled a dozen pages) and then being
abandoned, and it was published only in 2009. That being said, it's
rather interesting to see another artist, whose realistic style works
well with Russell's, pencil and ink from Russell's very recognizable
storytelling. With PCR's permission, I'm showing four pages
from the ones he'd penciled before he left the original project, with
Bradstreet's published pages underneath. |
|