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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 2:43am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Correction!  I was looking through my X-MEN Epic Collections and the unused cover for X-MEN #142 was included in the back of Vol. 7, with the note that it had been lost in the mail, so Terry Austin had to do the published cover quick.

I wonder if perhaps the same thing happened with the X-FACTOR #2 cover.

Here's a better view of the original (than originally presented in this thread).



Edited by Eric Jansen on 07 December 2023 at 10:22am
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John Wickett
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 4:39am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

"I wonder if perhaps the same thing happened with the X-FACTOR #2 cover."

I doubt it. Clearly someone at Marvel had John's cover and showed it to Zeck, because the published version is pretty much a reproduction of the unused cover.
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Jason Czeskleba
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 7:21am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

 Dave B. Stewart wrote:
Where in the world is that Ditko quote from?

A letter he wrote to someone in 2013.

This page has a extensive compilation of various comments Ditko wrote about his Marvel work.
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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 10:30am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Back to the Epic Collections, I found some more unused covers.  (I do love the extra features in those!)  Here's another one that was "lost in the mail" and had to be redone.  This time, both versions for DAREDEVIL #35 are done by the same team--Gene Colan and John Tartaglione.



The printed version is probably a bit better.  Daredevil looked a little stocky in the first one and apparently it's also better not to see the villain's back too, if possible.


Edited by Eric Jansen on 07 December 2023 at 10:33am
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John Byrne
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

The X-FACTOR cover could not have been “lost in the mail” since I hand delivered it.

(In the Seventies I did a job that was on an extremely tight deadline. The editor approved me doing very loose breakdowns, and I turned the whole thing around—17 pages—in less than two days. The editor was quite satisfied with what I sent him. However, when Shooter saw the job the Whim of Iron kicked in, and he ordered the pages sent back to me for “finishing”. The editor argued against this, since the book was already so late and, anyway, the inker would provide the necessary “missing” details. However, it seemed Shooter was in punishment mode. I had to be made an example of. So the pages were bundled up and sent back to me. And promptly lost in the mail. We waited a full week—more time lost—until the editor ordered a team of inkers to work on overlays on the xeroxes that had fortunately been made of the pages. The inkers did exactly as expected, filling in the “missing” details and the issue got off to the printers on time. The lost pages never showed up.)

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John Byrne
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

The printed version is probably a bit better.

••

Ah, the days when Marvel did GREY covers! Hard to imagine in this photoshop age, but they really did stand out!

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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

It looks like somebody rather suddenly wanted really obvious big yellow X costumes on X-Factor. Why they couldn't just have somebody touch up rather than entirely redraw the already existing #2 cover I can't imagine... unless...

Our Mr. Byrne was already out the door having had his work 'corrected' on the return of Jean Grey comics preceding X-Factor? Some kind of erasure and excommunication?

There's one they missed; The X-Communicated!

I loved those '60s Marvels with greys, also purples and browns, definitely a different deeper color palette from other publishers... I wondered how much might've been down to Marie Severin? Daredevil #8, Fantastic Four #33, Amazing Spider-Man #33... all instantly appear to mind. :^)
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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Here's one I just found-- of some relevance here.





A better look at the unused version is HERE
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Didn't realise before there were two unused covers for the first issue of X-Factor.



I'd also forgotten that it was Walt Simonson who drew the published cover (in my mind, it was Guice... Ditto that Zeck cover for issue 2).

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Vinny Valenti
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Nobody knew at the time that it was a Simonson cover, because it was Rubenstein'd to hell. But what you may not know is that Walt originally inked the cover himself:



But somebody decided to have it re-inked, and have his signature removed, to boot.
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Vinny Valenti
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply


There was actually ANOTHER X-FACTOR #2 cover by interior artist Jacson Guice:



Which was rejected because it was felt that this newly-launched team book should feature the entire team on the first few covers, which is a point that I can actually understand. 

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Peter Martin
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Posted: 07 December 2023 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Interesting, Vinny. Never knew about the Simonson-inked version. Thanks for the info!
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