Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 27, 2023 | 4 comments

DAKOTA ALEXANDER strikes again!

Like Steve Rogers, Dakota Alexander is a man out of time: He’s a DIY artist who, if this were, say, 40-45 years ago, would have been a star for Marvel and/or DC. I really believe that. Anything he posts on Facebook — much of which we’ve shown off at 13th Dimension — stops me in my tracks. He’s an outstanding, clever artist who is able to channel Bronze Age artists without ripping them off.

He recently completed his 13th faux Bronze Age cover, so in hitting that milestone, he magically unlocked the key to another feature here. So, dig these 13 GREAT BRONZE AGE COMICS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, along with a brief intro and commentary from Dakota:

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Hi, folks! Thanks always for the support of my work as well as the support for 13th Dimension. A quick note on some of the pieces you’ll see. Many of them started out as regular pieces, but I found that they would also work well as covers. Also, they are mostly Marvel. Nothing against DC. Excelsior! — Dakota

This is one of my first attempts at making covers. I really love Halloween and every year I do a few spooky-themed pieces. This was also my first big try at the vintage weathered look.

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This is actually a fairly old piece that I recently made into a cover. Wolverine is one of the few characters who is just as iconic out of costume as he is in costume. I wanted him in his home element and Wendigo just seemed like the perfect foe.

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Another piece that started as a pin-up. It is actually kind of hard to fit the entire FF evenly on a single page, and then to put them in some kind of suspenseful situation to feel compelling — so I went with the metaphorical angle. When I converted it into a cover, the tagline title became pretty obvious.

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John Romita Sr. is huge inspiration for me and directly influences any classic Spidey I draw. I wanted something with Spidey really filling the whole cover and yet still in danger.

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This started out as me just wanting to see Marvel and DC duke it out with their swamp characters. The EC element kind of just came to me after the fact, which became a lot of fun because I then had to research all those gorgeous EC covers. The entire color scheme changed at that point.

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I’d always wanted to do a Shang-Chi piece, and while having him fight Iron Fist is a logical choice, I went with Mantis because I think she’s a fascinating character with a martial arts edge and she’s very dynamic with her look.

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Wolverine vs. a bunch of ninjas — need I say more? Again the idea for the tagline came almost immediately. Incidentally, I am not sure if that blood would be allowed on a cover in that era, but oh well.

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This year’s Halloween piece. It’s actually a redrawing of an older piece. This is a love letter to Ed Hannigan/Marshall Rogers/Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez covers of that era.

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I love the black suit. I just think it works on so many levels and it gives Spider-Man the opportunity for such great visual imagery. Obviously this piece is inspired by Kraven’s Last Hunt.

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This piece came from an idea of having Spidey fight Wolverine, like the ’80s mini series, but back in the ’70s. But I had to think about what Wolvie’s claws should be hitting. Once the Spider-Mobile came to mind, it all fell into place.

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Someone once wanted to commission me to do a piece with Silver Surfer fighting Blastaar on a planet being consumed by Galactus. The commission fell through, but the idea stuck with me.

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On covers, no one is put in danger more than Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. This cover is an homage to Amazing Spider-Man #5.

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This is my most recent piece. I like the idea of the hero taking on multiple bad guys at a time. A.I.M. henchmen are so perfect as the faceless badguys and M.O.D.O.K. is great for the literal Big Boss looking on from the background.

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Wanna see more of Dakota’s stuff? Of course you do. Head to his Drums of the Serpent website. He also takes commissions!

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MORE

— 13 Great MARVEL POSTERS That Should Have Been, by DAKOTA ALEXANDER. Click here.

— GORGEOUS ART: Why MARVEL or DC Should Hire DAKOTA ALEXANDER as a Cover Artist. Click here.