Our friend the Watcher may have something of a standard dress code--but many artists have nevertheless managed to render their own distinctive impression of the universe's ultimate observer. Have a look (Ha ha! Get it?) at a small sampling of their work (inkers are also listed).
Herb Trimpe and Tom Sutton:
Jim Craig and Pablo Marcos / John Buscema and Joe Sinnott (respectively):
Jim Cheung:
Gene Colan and Syd Shores:
John Byrne and Terry Austin:
Fred Kida and Dave Simons / Roger Cruz and Victor Olazaba (respectively):
Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott:
(who demonstrate how well Uatu goes with living room furniture)
And last but certainly not least, John Romita:
(We've just gotta take the Watcher's TV away from him.)
The Gene Colan version definitely looks the best - that would make a great poster ! The John Byrne Watcher looks like an over-sized embryo and the John Buscema version looks like he's had too many cakes.
ReplyDeleteColin, I'm in full agreement with you on the Gene Colan version. I've certainly been tempted to posterize it often enough--if I could find wall space for it, I probably would!
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that his garb stays pretty consistent, but the shape of ol' boy's head really seems open to artistic interpretation!
ReplyDeleteDoug
That's a good observation, Doug. Let's hope at some point we don't end up with the Leader!
ReplyDeleteByrne's depiction of the Watcher is a polished version of how Kirby first drew him in FF #13. That's Byrne's modus operandi, to pay homage to the original stylings.
ReplyDeleteThe big-headed, "child-proportion" hearkens back and further back into Golden Age of Science Fiction as the standard depiction of hyper-evolved intelligences.
And that's my favourite by far. A bald powerhouse bulging with muscles never did it for me one teeny bit. Luckily, the original big head look and toga has been more the accepted image over the last decade or two.