WHAT IF...WEDNESDAY WITH JOHN SEVERIN

John Severin, legendary golden age comic artist, most well remembered for his long tenure with the now-defunct CRACKED mazagine, passed away on Sunday February 12th, 2012. He was ninety years old. During his career, he worked in almost every genre and style of comics, including his much-loved 'serious' artwork on the EC line, to his humorous 'caricature' style in the aforementioned CRACKED and other funny books.
Prior to his passing, he was amassing a whole new generation of fans for his work with the publisher DARK HORSE. He will be missed by all.
So....
No particular focus for this week's WHAT IF, just three alternate reality stories done by the legendary Mr. Severin.

What if comic heroes faced mandatory retirement?
What if the Silver Surfer weren't so serious?
What if Peter Porker was a journalist in Vietnam?

scans from:
WHAT THE--?! #2, September 1988
WHAT THE--?! #26, Fall 1993
ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR: SPIDER-HAM, March 2007










Next up is one of Severin's inking jobs. You'll notice that even when the pencils aren't his, he still makes the finished project one of his own. I'm not sure why that was, but I know that if you gave him nothing but sketchy stick figures, he'd still come back with some kind of awesome. Must've been nice for the pencillers, since they more often than not receive full credit for how the art looks once it's printed.
If you've ever seen Kevin Smith's film CHASING AMY, then you know that most people assume that inkers "just trace over other peoples drawing". Not true.









Finally, here's a weird alternate reality featuring (of all characters) Peter Porker aka SpiderHam. It's well known that Mr. Severin could draw anything and everything, but it's somewhat of a rarity to see him working in the funny animal genre. Which is one of the reasons I really like this sequence.
Also of note is that this is like a triple parody (it's a spoof of a movie and two different comics simultaneously).






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