Crossovers

I love a good crossover. The idea of two characters that exist separately suddenly being thrust together by a number of circumstances can be tons of fun. It can also be incredibly frustrating when executed poorly. Naturally, as I began expanding my comic book universe and watching all of my creations come together, I started to think about my comic book characters meeting other comic book characters. Those ideas led to a number of different sketches and concept art. But they also prompted me to write a few crossovers of my own.

On this page you will find a number of crossover stories that I did write to completion, along with a few that I didn’t, as well as numerous concept art for the crossovers I never got around to.

SPIDER-MAN MEETS STEPHEN W.

First sketch featuring Spider-Man and Stephen together.

Anyone that knows me should not be surprised to learn that the first crossover story that I ever wrote featured Spider-Man and my comic book counterpart. In fact, the very first crossover sketch I did was of Stephen and Spider-Man together. At this particular time in my life, I wore my love for Spider-Man on my sleeve. I was actively reading every series at the time, and was a huge fan of the animated series that ran from 1994 to 1998 on Fox Kids.

At some point after drawing the two of them together, I genuinely started to consider a narrative that would bring them together. The animated series inspired me to use the Kingpin as the main Marvel villain since he could be operating on a larger scale. Since he is normally seen hiring goons for his tasks, I figured that he could have ties to one of my villains. So, Jake Storm aka The Oversear (that’s spelled correctly) became that guy and his team of other villains could be hired to take out Spider-Man. After coming up with that baseline plot, I just ran with it.

I want to go ahead and address the contrasting art styles that you will observe throughout. At that time, I knew for a fact my art style was not on par with that of the artists working for Marvel or DC. That absolute fact almost prevented me from writing this story at all. However, since I had numerous Spider-Man comics to reference, I chose to find panels that accurately reflected the action I wanted. From there, I would do my best to draw it within the confines of my own panels. I’ve drastically improved my Spider-Man sketches, so such a technique wouldn’t be warranted today. But I love that I did it since I feel it elevates this comic to another level.

I’m so disappointed that I referred to Peter as a reporter for the Bugle, when I know damn well he’s nothing more than a freelance photographer. But teenage brain, only half paying attention… I guess I can see why I said “reporter.”

It was so surprising reading over this title that it was fairly coherent. There weren’t any giant leaps in logic, even though I will say that the warehouse explosion bit was shoe-horned in to reveal Super “S”, which was a super-powered version of the character I created around this time. For the most part, it’s not a bad story. It could use a bit more in the narrative department. Maybe understanding the deeper ties between Fisk and the Oversear. Maybe the Evil Leader are in town for something else entirely that doesn’t involve Spider-Man. There are possibilities. I just wish I would have explored them just a bit longer.

The fact I even finished this story is something that I am proud of. I know it was not an easy task, at least in regards to the artwork. I know that I had considered remaking this comic at one time, and I’m pretty sure I have some pages from it as well. I’ll post them when I find them.

SPIDER-MAN / SUPER “S”: SYMBIOTE CARNAGE

I’m not sure how long it was before I came up with an idea for a sequel for Spider-Man and Stephen. I know that I wanted to find a way to flip the script in a manner of speaking. Since Stephen was outside of his element in the first story, I thought it could be fun to make Spider-Man the outsider. And since Venom had his own series and operated out of San Francisco, it felt close enough to utilize the character to bring in Spider-Man. Venom was fairly new to comics at this time, as was his more vicious spawn, Carnage. Carnage felt like a perfect villain to utilize since he’s a pretty deadly threat. And since we were playing with symbiotes, what if someone else just happened to get infected with the symbiote? Those were enough ideas to get the ball rolling.

While I refer to the facility as a “lab” and as “government-owned” which it very well could be, I believe the facility was meant to be the Life Foundation, which was an organization introduced in the limited series Venom: Lethal Protector. In that series, the Life Foundation was able to extract some of Eddie Brock’s symbiote and accelerate its growth onto a new host. While I read some of the series, I never had it all. So, I had fragments of information I was working from to concoct this narrative to have more symbiotes. What do you want from me? I didn’t have internet!

As a kid, I had a basic understanding of distance relative to where I existed. Having never been to California at that time, it never would have occurred to me that it was at least a six-hour drive to San Francisco to Los Angeles, and for Spider-Man to make that distance in a relatively short amount of time is damn near impossible. I guess we could assume more than a day had passed. All the more reason I should make these notes in the comic.

Some time before I wrote this story, I did have plans to write and draw Super “S” meets Wolverine. I had even started work on it, drawing about a page and a half, I think. Since I never finished writing it but thought of it before writing this one, I considered it canon in my head, so I could make a reference that they know the same character from another comic. It’s an unnecessary moment, just like Spider-Man and the Ghost Kid saying each other’s name in a conversation. It’s there so I can say it happened.

I wish I had done some extra research on the symbiote stuff in the comics. Granted, at this particular point in time, there was still plenty that was unwritten. I don’t believe their home world had been mentioned yet. But they were creating new unique symbiotes, and each one was an individual in some ways. Venom has maintained his identity while having different hosts. Sure, there might be some design changes for the host. But at the end of the day, the symbiote was still Venom. Having that information could have changed the narrative a bit. I honestly feel like this story has a slightly stronger narrative than the first.

I also really love the art on this one, but hate that I didn’t give it more room to breathe. Every panel feels cinematic but can only be seen in this tiny little box. This title is ripe for a remake.

I did have plans to for a third entry that would have focused on Norman Osborn hiring the services of Evil “S”, an clone of Stephen that went insane. Evil “S” would learn of Spider-Man’s secret identity and risks exposing him to the world. Having Spider-Man face off against the evil version of Stephen sounded like it could add some wrinkles into the narrative from the start. But I never really worked out a proper narrative for it. Might be time to give this story another look.

WOLVERINE MEETS SUPER “S”

Sometime in the late 90s, I came up with this outrageous idea to have my comic book characters face-off against horror movie icons. I didn’t have much of an idea outside of just wanting to see these characters clash. So, I literally kept it simple. Don’t try to explain anything or complicate matters with a deep narrative. Just place the two characters in the area together and let them go at it.

With that as my guidance, I wrote out a list of different horror icons who would be best suited for a fight. I went through the gamut, ensuring I chose solid contenders. Characters like Pinhead from Hellraiser were omitted for obvious reasons. From there, I went through my own characters and chose the one I felt would be a decent match. This was also the one and ONLY series that utilized a new format, that’s more in line with actual comics.

Now if you are not at all familiar with the horror film genre or my characters, not to worry. For the first story, we have Demolition from The Eliminators fighting Pumpkinhead. Head over to the Eliminators page to learn about Demolition. Pumpkinhead is a demon that is resurrected by an old witch with the sole purpose of vengeance. That’s about as simple as I can make it.

I think this entry is my favorite out of the ones I finished, mainly because it felt like a pretty solid tussle. Although if I were to rework the idea just a bit, I probably would add in Leatherface’s brothers and expand the fight just a bit more. Maybe even change Leatherface’s outfit.

CONCEPT ART