Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Original planned cover for Dragon's Claws #5

Richard Starkings posted this image up, from his own personal collection, in the comments section for my recent Death's Head piece. But I thought it looked so great that I had to put it up on the main page, something Richard was happy with me doing. This is the original Geoff Senior cover proposed for Dragon's Claws #5 - which guest starred Death's Head. This in turn led to the rematch in Death's Head #2.




For those who don't remember it, this was the cover to #5 :





It conveys what you really need to know. Death's Head thumping Dragon in the chops. The text you might not be able to pick out reads as 'Gonna be a big hit, Yes?'. It's a nice cover. No complaints from me.



Richard tells me that the original cover was rejected for being too boring. But I have to say that in many ways I actually prefer this cover.





Sure, it's the Guest Star having handed the collected asses of the Headliners back to them, but there's something about it which stands out more. I also much prefer the green body armour to the later metal plating. It gave DH a much greater feel of being his own private militia - which is surely, what Death's Head should always be.

You can find a larger png of the image here: http://www.comicraft.com/clients/DragonClaws.png

I have to say seeing the artwork really gets me nostalgic for the original DH. And more than a little in want of seeing Dragon's Claws revived.

It's been too long. I think a re-read is in order.
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2 comments:

  1. John Freeman2 February 2008 at 00:17

    Hmm. I think Richard's decision was the right one. The final cover is more dramatic and from a sales point of view, there's never anything wrong with the hero getting a pasting from a 'villain': it has all the things you need to attract a reader...
    a) Dragon's Claws are getting pasted. Why?
    b) Who is giving them a pasting?
    and, for Transformers and Doctor Who readers, Death's Head (reduced in size from Transformers height to human by the Doctor in "Crossroads in Time" in DWM #134 I believe?), well hey, they know it's Death's Head, what he's capable of and just what is he up to now?

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  2. Mark Roberts2 February 2008 at 13:13

    Oh, I can perfectly understand the decision. It makes the statement needed, and it gets a trademark Death's Head line on the cover, too, which is always good.

    I do think, though, that part of me prefers the implication that DH has laid out the whole team, as opposed to just taking down Dragon on his own. Sure, Dragon's the heavy hitter - in some respects he's all you do need to show in order to make the point. But seeing a whole team felled in front of DH makes me think 'Okay, they're clearly screwed. How are they going to get out of this one'.

    Damn. I'm really going to have to get out my old Dragon's Claws issues, now. ;-)

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