Adam Hughes is a God!!!!!

Ok Ok so my title is a little over the top. What do ya expect from a Game playing Comic book loving 44year old geek. :-) But here is my case in point in spite of the exploitive lead in title. While surfing around today I stumbled upon the pic below. It is a promotional poster for a famous comic book store in canada called Silver Snail. Apparently they commissioned Adam Hughes to illustrate this humorous poster in a Sat Evening post style in honor of their 31st year anniversary. I have never heard of the store before, but that is irrelevant. You see Adam Hughes is one of my top 3 favorite comic book illustrators. And this poster embodies all that i love about his work. First of all he tells an amazing story in one picture. Small touches like the Robots for dummies book and the wrench help engage us in a humors way as to the struggle this lady is probably been having getting the Robot to work. The Lollipop adds sass and character saying sweet, innocent, cheesecake, which contrasts with the outfit, her gloves and the head gear which say hard ass mechanic. The bubble wrap is a subtle way of letting us know its new and just delivered. It makes ya want to know more and begin to write your own little humors continuation of the story in your head. Secondly Adam is the master of illustrating hot woman! They are beautiful and attractive and yet always strong and tuff. Yes she is the stereotypical blond but you also get a sense that she could probably use that wrench to take your head off :lol: Thirdly there is the Tech aspect of the piece. Its manga in style, ala Ghost in the Shell but with a decidedly real world sensibility. Its sturdy, hard, futuristic and cool. The juxtaposition of the amazingly supple and sensual mechanic with the totally cool hard edged round Robot below just makes the whole thing sing. Its not easy to combine the too effectively i should know Im yet to make it work as well as this and I have been trying for longer then I care to admit :-) The last reason this new work by AH struck me so hard was because there is a definite influence, maybe conscious maybe not, of my 2nd most favorite comic book artist Travist Charest. The detail and style of the pants and boots just scream out Travis approach. Even the pose over all is reminiscent of Travis's famous cover series for the Wildstorm books back in the mid 90's. Ok so with all that hot air now official released into the atmosphere here is the image for you to see for your self and decide if it is in fact something incredible, or just average or a piece of crap. For as always, art is first and foremost subjective and truly in the eyes of the beholder. :-)

first a few linkys:

Here is where you can order this poster and the Store that it was done for

Here is Adam Hughes web site with lots of great sample of his work. Dont miss the Catwoman covers they are incredible.

Here are a couple of the Travis Charest Wildstorm covers I think, consciously or unconsciously influenced the AH's piece below.
New Horizon Cover
New Horizon Cover #2
New Horizon Cover #3
New Horizon Cover #4


BAT