Wolverine Art Appreciation Covers and Their Inspiration – Part 1

In April 2009, Marvel celebrated the 35th anniversary of Wolverine’s first appearance with over a dozen variant art appreciation covers. These comic books covers were inspired by some of the greatest artists of all time, including John Singer Sargent, Vincent Van Gogh and C.M. Coolidge. Marvel choose an assortment of artists for these covers ranging from virtual unknowns like Fiona Staples to hot top gun artists like Ed McGuinness. I thoroughly enjoyed these covers when they came out. They were like a cool version of Art History 101 class, not like the real class we all slept through.

Presented here is the first installment of the art appreciation covers and the artists who inspired them.

War Machine #5

War Machine 5 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

War Machine’s variant art appreciation cover by Fiona Staples in the style of John Singer Sargent. John Sargent’s Madame X was painted in 1884, and was a scandal in French society because of its sexually suggestive pose. The model, Madame Gautreau was humiliated after the portrait was displayed at the Paris Salon, and Sargent himself soon left Paris for London permanently.

John Singer Sargent - Madame X

Exiles #1

Exiles 1 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Exiles’ variant art appreciation cover by Jason Chan in the style of René Magritte. Painted in 1964, one of Magritte’s most famous paintings is The Son of Man as well as many other art prints. It was featured heavily in the Pierce Brosnan film, The Thomas Crown Affair where his many accomplices dressed in identical suits and bowler-hats.

René Magritte - The Son of Man

Amazing Spider-Man #592

Amazing Spider-man 592 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Amazing Spider-man’s variant art appreciation cover by Paolo Rivera in the style of Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory, painted in 1931 is probably the most famous Salvador Dali painting, and an obvious inspiration of the Spider-man cover which even has the same branch in it. Dali later painted a variation, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, whose influence can also be seen in the Spider-man cover.

Salvador Dalí - The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dalí - The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

Captain Britain and MI13 #12

Captain Britain and MI13 12 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Captain Britain’s variant art appreciation cover by Skottie Young in the style of Edward Gorey. The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Gorey was first published in 1963 and tells the tale of 26 children (one for each letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhymes. 2010 American Idol finalist Siobhan Magnus has a shoulder tattoo featuring art from the book.

Edward Gorey - The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Siobhan Magnus - Edward Gorey Tattoo

Uncanny X-Men #508

Uncanny X-Men 508 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Uncanny X-Men’s variant art appreciation cover by Laura Martin in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh painted many self portraits in his lifetime. It is thought many were painted while looking in a mirror, so that the left ear in the painting was actually his right ear in the mirror. And speaking of ears, following a confrontation with Gauguin in 1888, Van Gogh ran to a brothel & cut off his left ear lobe. He handed the severed ear to a prostitute named Rachel and asked her to, “keep this object carefully.” Eww!

Vincent van Gogh - Self Portrait

Hulk #11

Hulk 11 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Hulk’s variant art appreciation cover by Ed McGuinness in the style of a cave painting. Cave paintings are among the oldest known works of art on the planet. Some of the most famous paintings are found in the Lascaux Cave in France, which has paintings that date to 17,000 BC. The Chauvet Cave, also  in France, has even older cave paintings dating back to 30,000 BC. Perhaps the oldest known art is in the form of Petroglyphs (rock carving) found in caves in India which date to at least 290,000 BC, and may be as old as 700,000 BC.

A horse from the Lascaux caves

Stay tuned true believers for parts 2 & 3, where we cover all 16 of Marvel’s variant Wolverine Art Appreciation covers and the inspiration behind the tribute.

Continue reading, part 2 >>