Steve Rude really knows how to draw Space Ghost, doesn't he? Rude does a lot of commissions-- I believe-- but he also does pieces for reasons of his own. This one, I believe, he originally did in pencil to sell but no one bought it, so he inked it and then colored it with markers. The end result is so much visual fun.
Rude, of course, is an excellent renderer. Anatomy par excellence. But the thing I most admire about his work is his uncanny ability to capture the feel of a character. When he draws Peter Parker ogling Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy, he doesn't swipe poses from John Romita or Gil Kane, but the end result looks as if someone found it while cleaning out an old filing cabinet of late 60s Marvel inventory pieces. When he draws Thor or a member of the Fantastic Four cast, it's as if Jack Kirby himself sat at his right side and offered advice. His Space Ghost drawing evokes Saturday morning in front of the TV, bowl of Cap'n Crunch or Cocoa Pebbles, Mego Star Trek action figure and Mrs. Beasley doll commercials every five to ten minutes.
He doesn't seem to have that same acumen for DC characters for some reason, unless they're ones Kirby created, like Darkseid or Orion. Don't get me wrong-- you get the ace drawings, just not the atmospherics. He does draw a wicked Black Canary and Zatanna, though. Perhaps their mostly black costumes seem to lend themselves to negative space design work and interesting silhouettes, and the Dude rises to the challenge.
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