Original Overpower art

[Onslaught]

Here is the original art for Iceman's AI special, which a pal of mine won for some sort of contest. The note attached is signed by Ron P., so I'm guessing he is the artist on this one (he also did Iceman's hero card). Dig that Spidey stationary...

[JohnL]

Ashley Wood, an Australian comic book artist, possibly most familiar to some of you as a frequent cover artist for Spawn,  produced some of the most distinctive art for Overpower that fans tended to either love or hate.

Jack already posted 5 Ashley Wood images back on the first page of this thread (the last images - Nick Fury, Moleman, Red Skull etc). Here are some more, the first four from my own collection, the last three from scans posted on the internet.

[Onslaught]

Those are all just way too nice. Mindwipe will always hold a special place in my heart - not only does it have ridiculously amazing art, but it was also in the first IQ pack I ever opened. I remember looking at it and just kind of thinking "ok....what exactly is going on here. Wow...wow!"

I mean, consider the escalation from card art looking like this:


To THIS:


Night and day difference in quality that just really took the feel of the game to another level.

[JohnL]

I may be wrong about this but I suspect that Ashley Wood also colored his own art which also made it more distinctive. The coloring on some of his pieces just seems to have a different style - compare all the Baron Mordo pieces for example (ebay is handy for doing this if you don't have cards to hand!). Also when I bought the art I got some small color prints that I initially assumed he'd done as a guide but if you compare them to the cards these are the versions used.


I suppose it's possible someone at Marvel colored them, sent back a copy which he then printed and sent out with the art but I'm guessing as a cover artist much more used to working with color he did his own coloring.

[Onslaught]

I'd like to believe that too, especially for some of the more swirling/inky colored cards. You don't see that on any other cards really, so it seems likely. Unfortunately a lot of other acceptable or even nice looking line work turned out really bad after the digital coloring process (for example compare the before/after of the face of Jean Grey on her 9 strength posted earlier in this thread).

[JohnL]

I almost forgot these two. More Ashley Wood of course. Not mine.

[Onslaught]

Some odds and ends, headlined by Herrera's Master of Magnetism and a cool looking DC3 teamwork.

[JohnL]

Three for Onslaught. Let me know if anyone has any art requests. I have literally hundreds of scans. Chances are that I won't have a particular card but I can probably find something from a particular set, from a particular artist or featuring a particular character. The resolution on the Carnage scan doesn't really do it justice.
   

[drdeath25]

Those last 3 rock!

i would be very interested in seeing the Neron hero card you described.

By the way, i sent you an e-mail, hopefully i sent it to the right place.

[JohnL]

I'm procrastinating on working. Here's another artist whose work I really like and had never really noticed on the cards. These cards are just so clean and stark in black and white. They are all by Casey Jones - the only artist I know who worked on the three OverPower universes: Marvel, DC and Image.

[Onslaught]

 

[Overtime]

Mr. JohnL thank you for starting this thread.
Since you were a big collector/had a lot of the original op art I was wondering if you could answer a question. Did Michael Turner do any of the Witchblade and Darkness art, I was always curious since her hero card style is so different compared to her specials?

[JohnL]

Mr. JohnL thank you for starting this thread.
Since you were a big collector/had a lot of the original op art I was wondering if you could answer a question. Did Michael Turner do any of the Witchblade and Darkness art, I was always curious since her hero card style is so different compared to her specials?

I don't know. The Image set is a bit of a mystery to me since very little of the art has surfaced - at least when I was more actively collecting. Or to be a bit more precise, quite a lot of art pieces surfaced but all from one person - Mike Miller (eg the two Spawn pieces I posted). I have, or have had, 32 Image pieces. All but two of them from Mike Miller (including Witchblade's NYPD instinct and Protective Drive - both of which I still have if you want them). The two that aren't by Miller are the Casey Jones Future Backlash piece I posted and a Ripclaw piece (Animal Rage) I won at a tournament. It has no signature but it obviously isn't Mike Miller. There's one Image event card in Jack's post on page 1 of this thread from the ComicArtFans gallery by Mark Irwin (plus two more Mike Miller cards that I think I sold) and that's about all I've seen from Image.

I'm not hugely familiar with Michael Turner but I was an admirer of his art - I think Fathom came out around this time. I could believe he did the Witchblade hero card but I could also believe any number of other artists did it and tried to have a bit of fun by imitating Turner! Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[JohnL]

Neron as promised for DrDeath plus two more DC character cards while I'm at it. Black Lightning (DC3 of course) and Green Lantern which I was surprised to find in the folder when I dug out Neron because I have zero recollection of buying it and it isn't on any of my lists. All photographed under natural light so the blacks and whites aren't as crisp as they should be but at least there isn't a blinding glare from the flash. Neron is by Howard Porter and Rich Faber, Black Lightning by Chris Warner and Randy Emberlin, Green Lantern by Darryl Banks and Wade Von Grawbadger

[Onslaught]

I gasped looking at that Neron. Unbelievable!

I have no idea who Black Lightning is, but he looks quite nice too. DC cards all look so unified in their art style...it's nice.