Thursday 8 July 2021

Earth's Mightiest Mortal

Caught in the heart of a Nuclear Explosion, victim of Gamma-Radiation gone wild, Doctor Robert Bruce Banner now finds himself transformed in times of stress into six feet, one thousand pounds of unfettered fury - the most powerful creature to ever walk the Earth...

Update of a Hulk sketch I did awhile back.

Monday 5 July 2021

Merged

Here is a small three page strip that I've drawn up just for practice, detailing unseen events in Marvel's INCREDIBLE HULK #377 (which was written and drawn by legendary Hulk team Peter David and Dale Keown). In that landmark issue, Doc Samson and the Ringmaster merged all of Bruce Banner's multiple personas (Banner, Green Hulk and the Grey Hulk) in an attempt to cure Banner. This resulted in the emergence of an all-new Merged Hulk, which had Banner's intelligence (and face!), the Green Hulk's strength and the Grey Hulk's attitude. This is an alternate look at the New Hulk's first moments, unseen in the actual comic.














Monday 28 June 2021

Sic Semper Tyrannus!

Here is a colour version of an old Hulk piece I did back in 2018, featuring Hulk's confrontation with old man Tyrannus. This is a homage to the storyline which appeared in INCREDIBLE HULK issues 240-243.





The Return of the Mekon

Continuing with the EAGLE theme, here's a recent piece of artwork featuring classic Eagle character Dan Dare's legendary nemesis the Mekon. This was a sketch that I painted up using the Painter app on Android. 

Below is also a mock-up cover I did just for fun, which incorporates both this Mekon piece, and an image from the Doomlord strip I posted about recently.





Saturday 26 June 2021

Doomlord Returns! (Kind of)

I thought I would share this I did awhile back... It's different to what I usually post, but I had a lot of fun making this!  

Here's a retro-style Doomlord page, based on the popular photo-strips featured in the 80's version of EAGLE starring the titular alien. Both the Eagle comic and Doomlord  were huge favourites of mine back in the day, so couldn't resist doing this retro-style strip, just for fun! The Doomlord in these pics was created a little differently to how they made the strips back then (using actors for the Photo Strips, and artists Heinzl and Eric Bradbury later taking over the art chores when the strip transitioned into a tradional drawn comic strip). They were actually created (along with a certain Freddy Krueger!) using the create-a-superstar feature in WWE 2K20 on PS4! To my knowledge, this is also the first and only time Enok, Son of Doomlord has been represented in "Photo" form (Yep, I'm getting Kurt Barlow/Salem's Lot vibes from him as well...which is only fitting as the final Doomlord strip ended with Enok becoming a space-vampire!). 




Green Door

Drew this up over the past couple of days. I imagined this as an untold tale set during the Hulk's Crossroads era, where the Hulk seemingly comes face to face with his past... courtesy of a strange Green Door (familiar to those of you reading Al Ewing and Joe Bennett's insanely good IMMORTAL HULK series)! 

I would love to do this story someday!



Tuesday 22 June 2021

Tomb of Dracula

When it comes to Bram Stoker's immortal creation Count Dracula, I consider these to be the three definitive versions of the legendary Lord of Vampires: Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and the Marvel Comics version, as featured in their TOMB OF DRACULA title. Created by the team of writer Marv Wolfman, and artists Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, the book was one of Marvel's line of horror comics in the 70s, along with WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN among others. 

The first time I ever experienced the Marvel version of Bram Stoker's immortal creation was in Marvel UK's MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, where they debuted the Vampire as the second lead strip alongside the Incredible Hulk after MWOM had merged with their cancelled PLANET OF THE APES/DRACULA LIVES title. 

This version of the character (whom artist Gene Colan based on another classic live-action  Dracula, Jack Palance) has remained a favourite of mine to this day. Here is a piece I drew back in 2018, which I recently decided to colour up. 

Hope you like it! 

Artwork by Simon Williams. 


Monday 21 June 2021

Classic Marvel Corner Boxes

Here are some classic Marvel style Corner Boxes that I did last year. I loved those old corner boxes, something I feel is sorely missing from today's Marvel books. 

I hope you like them!






Sunday 20 June 2021

Planet Grimm!

Here's an oldie but a goodie... this is my PLANET GRIMM concept, where the Thing from the Fantastic Four goes on a similar journey that the Hulk experienced in the classic PLANET HULK. Armed with his mighty Hammer Petunir(!), the ever-lovin, ever-worthy blue-eyed idol of millions now possesses even more power to clobber yon crumb bums! 

Verily, 'tis CLOBBERIN' Time! So sayeth the heir to the throne of fabled Yancy Street!



Thursday 10 June 2021

Exiled! (Updated)

In the early 1980s, writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema had a lengthy and memorable run on the Incredible Hulk. During that run, Doctor Robert Bruce Banner finally managed to gain control of his Gamma-powered alter-ego, finally believing that his Savage side was gone forever. With this, he used the Hulk's power for good while continuing his Scientific research to aid humanity and becoming a genuine, bona-fide hero... gaining acceptance from his fellow heroes, and even a Presidential Pardon. Bruce Banner had finally found peace... and even new love, in the form of SHIELD agent Dr. Katherine Waynesboro (originally sent to spy on Banner by SHIELD to make sure that his Savage persona was truly gone). Ultimately though, Banner's newly-found peaceful existence was not to last... with the Savage Hulk re-emerging in full force, leaving a path of destruction like never before. The culprit behind the regression was revealed to be the dream-Demon Nightmare, who had planned to use the Savage Green Goliath to destroy his hated enemy, Dr. Strange. This epic storyline, featuring some of Sal's best art on the book (inked by the amazing Gerry Talaoc), culminated in the epic Incredible Hulk #300, where a now totally Mindless Hulk (due to Banner's persona choosing to die rather than share his existence again with a Savage Hulk) faced off against a solo Human Torch, Power Man and Iron Fist and the Mighty Avengers (during which the Hulk and Thor have a battle for the ages!). It was at the end of this Giant-Size issue that the Hulk's former fellow Defender Dr. Strange, banished the Mindless Hulk to a dimension called the Crossroads... which is a Nexus to multiple different Alien worlds and Dimensions in the hope that the Hulk could find a home where he could neither harm, or be harmed. Again, this issue featured some of Artist Sal Buscema's best work on this book (and genuinely some of the best artwork that book had ever seen). However, due to what I suspect was a deadline issue, the final three pages were drawn by the art team of Alan Kupperberg and Danny Bulanadi... who proved more than capable of ending this issue in an epic fashion,leaving the mindless Hulk Howling with rage in the Crossroads of Realities...

I have always loved this particular issue (the whole Regression storyline is possibly my all-time favourite Hulk story), so just for fun I had a crack at re-drawing the final three pages, in an attempt to fit in more with the style of the rest of the book. While the original Kupperberg/Bulanadi work is amazing (and far better than anything I could produce!), I was always intreagued as to how Sal and Gerry would have drawn it. This is my interpretation... while definitely nowhere near as good as how Sal would have drawn it, and almost certainly completely different, I'm still pleased with how it turned out. Check out my versions, along with the Kupperberg and Bulanadi originals below. 

Enjoy! 












Wednesday 9 June 2021

Transformers - G1 Cartoon-Style

The Transformers was my first professional comics work, producing artwork for Panini Comics' Transformers: Armada, which led to working on the 2003 Metrodome DVD UK release of the original 1980s Transformers cartoon. As someone who collected the toys and loved the Marvel Comic, it was a huge thrill to get to draw those Robots in disguise. 

Recently, I produced several pieces of artwork paying homage to that classic show which proved to be very popular online. Here are some of those pieces, which include a piece based on a Powermaster Optimus Prime vs Hulk fan strip I drew when I was 14 years old (I'm going to have to find that and post it on here sometime!), plus how I imagine that Transformers-hunting Freelance Peacekeeping Agent Death's Head to have looked if he'd have appeared in the cartoon. 

I'm hoping to include these pieces in a limited run Art of Simon Williams sketchbook/art book in the near future... so keep watching this space for more details, yes?






Tuesday 8 June 2021

Hulk Smash!

It's been awhile, folks... I hope you have all been keeping safe and well during this Pandemic. Times have been crazy to say the least, but hopefully now there is a light at the end of the tunnel... 

I've been working away on various projects since I posted last, and even had my work published by Marvel US (in the form of the Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent TPB, reprinting my Hulk vs Death's Head strip from Marvel Heroes!). I'm currently working on an art book, which collects various buts and pieces that I've worked on, so more news on that to come!


Also, this happened! Big Lou Ferrigno, the Original live-action Incredible Hulk himself featured my artwork on his official social media pages! Needless to say, I was ever-so-slightly ecstatic about this, as Lou is a lifelong hero of mine! The artwork is a piece I had done  based on the classic 1978 TV series starring Lou as the Hulk, and the late Bill Bixby as his tragic, tormented alter-ego David Banner. 


Anyways, until next time... here's a recent picture I drew of the ever Incredible Hulk. Enjoy... or you'll make him angry.

And you wouldn't like* him when he's angry...


* We actually love him when he's angry! 
Art by Simon Williams.