Cook-ing Up Something Awesome

I’ve been a fan of Katie Cook for a long time now. My wife actually first saw her art on LiveJournal in a cat community and started reading her journal. She ordered some cat art way back before Smashy Adventures of the Hulk and skyrocketing sketch card popularity. I think it was Smashy…Hulk that really won me over as a fan because it was pretty hilarious. It was so good that a page of it eventually ended up in one of Marvel’s Avenger books.

Katie’s got a unique and very cool style where she “cute-ifies” the subjects that she draws and it seems to have struck a chord because people go ga-ga over her sketch cards. She’s also seen a steady increase in the amount of comic book work that she’s been doing and is also currently tackling writing chores on a project as well. I haven’t even mentioned her great webcomic Gronk yet. There’s just bucket loads of awesome coming from the mind, pen and brush of Katie Cook.

For those who may not remember, the three commissions that I had done for Boston Comic Con were from Stephanie Buscema and Katie Cook. I’ve already posted about the phenomenal Death painting that I got from Stephanie and now it is time to boast about the awesome art that I got from Katie.

First up is a Spider-Ham sketch card that is Spectacular, Amazing, Sensational, and Ultimate. Here’s Peter Porker in all of his glory. I think Katie did an awesome job of capturing him. Everything is there right down to the Spidey eyes on the end of the snout.

My Spider-Ham sketch card collection started back in 2010 when I spotted a Brian Kong sketch card at his table at the terrible Wizard World Boston convention. I figured that would be as good a character as any to get a bunch of sketch cards of. Well, as of right now “a bunch” equal two. I’ve got my eye on eBay, but if there were any Spider-Ham sketch cards in the Rittenhouse Spider-Man Archives set, they’ve found their way to other people’s collections.

The second piece is a custom 6”x6” painting that I commissioned of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. I loved this cartoon as a kid and it still holds up for me today. This was the first superhero cartoon that I remember having a ton of guest stars who were done well. Seven Little Superheroes featured guest appearances from Captain America, Doctor Strange, and Namor while another episode featured a ton of X-Men.

The cartoon was cheesy and it was campy and it was a lot of fun. Spidey has always been my favorite hero, Iceman was always a favorite amongst the X-Men and this version of Firestar seemed to be a lot more fun than the comic book version she would inspire. Infertility and cancer due to her powers? Not enough? May as well make her break off her relationship with Justice as well.

Brian Bendis did some fun stuff with an updated version of this trio in Ultimate Spider-Man and then took it one step further putting together the trio that was originally supposed to star in the 80s cartoon: Spidey, Iceman and the Human Torch. I’m such a Bendis fanboy to being with and this run had me in comic nerd heaven.

There you have it, my 2012 Boston Comic Con commissions. Looking back, I love these three pieces of art so much more than anything else that I could have purchased at the convention. Getting to meet and chat with Katie was a treat as well and I’ll always remember Stephanie Buscema inviting my daughter behind her table to watch her paint. The fact that these two ladies are great people makes it so much easier to support their amazing talents.

Thanks for checking out my non-sport divergence. Other than getting back in track with sports card posts, I want to put together a post highlighting my growing art print collection. Don’t worry, there is some sports related content that will be contained in that post.