DEATH'S HEAD REVISITED

With another year almost over, it's fun to revisit the character that introduced me to the American audience 31 years ago...

Last year marked the 30th birthday of the character Death’s Head II, who I designed and drew for Marvel UK, and which sold directly into the US market place. To this day the first issue of the ongoing series remains the biggest selling comic to ever do that, something I remain very proud of. So to commemorate that milestone I drew this humorous two page story in the vein of a Mad Magazine spoof!

I’ve also icluded a couple of other iterations I did over the years. I still remain hugely fond of the character, and long-term followers of my work will have noted all the times his presence has echoed in other works through the decades!

Annotations

It’s widely known that I love drawing trees! That's largely thanks to his godness, Barry Windsor-Smith. ‘The Devil's Lake’, ‘Withering’, and numerous other masterpieces gave me a clue how to go about it, and his artistic DNA remains in my art to this day. Manthing is here because I loved drawing that book. Wolverine is here because he featured so heavily in those first DHII issues, and was always fun to draw. Bryan Hitch helped with some of the pages too, so there's a nod to him in the title.

On page 2, the Hulk shows up because I mostly got to draw him based on the success of DHII! I couldn't do this tribute without putting the original Death’s Head in there somewhere, and I liked the gag that the older character could take over the liquid metal arm and demand to be returned to the MCU - which, of course, he ultimately was! Sue and Reed also featured heavily in the series, and obviously that's a gag about my ever-changing art styles! Then there's the nod to Biz, who was a big influence on my work 30 years ago. And, of course, who remembers the days when all superhero feet were lost in swirls of dry ice? An 80's movie trope that became a 90's comic trope. Lastly, I had to put Conan in there, because everybody has long known that's a book I always wanted a stab at! (Ironically he's the worst drawn thing in this entire two page story!!!)

This is actually me in the DHII suit that was made, and shipped to the San Diego Comic Con to debut on the Marvel stand, where he proved quite the hit! He lost a horn, though, in customs, who feared it might be full of drugs…

Me again as DHII, with Bryan Hitch as Cyclops! Various creators and editors filled out the rest of the cast, with David Leach as Wolvie. Richard Haigh as a giant-headed Doctor Doom. My future wife, Christina McCormack as an un-masked Spider-Woman. Alan Cowsill as Magneto. Stuart Bartlett was always a really great Cap. I’m pretty sure that the Green Goblin was Bambos Georgiou. The identity of Spidey escapes me though… maybe it was the REAL Spidey all along?

The cover that started it all, and changed my life forever! It upset a lot of fans of the original DH, (and to this day whenever I post about DHII I usually get at least one of those fans telling me the original was better!) but the reality is he was a robot, and it was Marvel, so he was always going to be back one day…

The promo painting I did for the launch of the ongoing Death's Head II series. I painted it in enamel paint, madly! You could eat your dinner off it! I also spilt a pot of it on my parent's new carpet, as I was painting it on a visit home to Derbyshire. I felt so bad! One lean year, some 16 years ago or so, we were struggling financially, so I agreed to sell this for 1,000 pounds. It's been a regret ever since, but I had a family to feed. Ah, the freelance life! It can rough!

About 20 years ago myself and Bryan Hitch pitch a reimagining of the character at Marvel. It was a much grittier, earth-based affair. Now I’m actually glad it didn’t come off, but at the time I was somewhat gutted. Battlestar Galactica was showing the world how a remake could be done with class, and we felt this gave the character a grounded sense of reality. But in truth it was a dour, humorless affair compared to the original.

I confess, I’d still love to revisit the character properly one day…

Lastly, here’s a very low-res scan of the original rough sketch I faxed Paul Neary, and that landed me the job!

I’ll likely come back to DHII again at some point, as there’s so much to say about those times, and that work, but for now, hears to happy memories and my old friend Minion, yes?

Cheers!