UNPUBLISHED SORCERER #1 WRAP-AROUND COVER

Here’s a real blast from the past—the never-published cover to the Sorcerer #1 from 1980—penciled and inked by me.   Check out the Bob Layton. Com archives page to read the unedited entire story.

IRON MAN #254 DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

 Here’s a rare find—one of the few double page spreads that I’ve done in my career, penciled, written and inked by yours truly. Iron Man #254 was the first issue of my stint as writer on the book, after David Michelinie moved on.  The plan was for JR.JR to take over the pencilling after this issue, but shortly after taking the assignment, I got an offer to join the staff of the fledgling start-up company that would become Valiant.

RON MAN #128 UNPUBLISHED COVER

This was my original draft of Iron Man #128 (yep—"Demon in a Bottle"). 

When you look at it, you’ll easily be able to tell why it wasn’t used.  It just didn’t have any “ommph”— if you know what I mean.

(okay—I was still wet behind the ears then, but this drawing has to be a collectors item given the story's place history.)

IRON MAN #219 UNPUBLISHED COVER

It was a real shame that no one ever saw this cover. You see--I never turned it in to Marvel.

Just as I was completing this version, I got an inspiration to do the same scene in a more simplistic fashion.

The printed version of this cover had only the two figures (medium shot) against a totally white field.

IRON MAN

 (POST-ARMOR WARS)

MODEL SHEET

I came across this drawing, which was used as the model for Iron Man’s new look after the events in the epic multi-issue saga of the Armor Wars (issue #231).

There are a few subtle differences in the model sheet’s design and what made it to the printed version. No matter what--it’s a cool blast from the past.

UNPUBLISHED IRON MAN ANNUAL #10 COVER

This cover was a first draft where I tried to get the Sub-Mariner near to the same scale as Iron Man and with greater dynamics to the figure.

Unfortunately, I just wasn’t happy with the final product.

In the published version, the Namor figure is in the background—bursting out of water in a considerably more dramatic pose.

UNPUBLISHED X-FACTOR #1 COVER

This cover is one of several aborted versions that Jackson Guice and I did to appease the arbitrary whims of then-Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter. But, no matter what we did-- Jim hated it. Finally, we got fed up and told him to get someone else to draw the friggin’ thing. This page was the fourth version—done from a thumbnail drawing by Jackson.

UNPUBLISHED X-FACTOR #2 COVER

This piece, penciled by Jackson (Butch) Guice was slated to be the cover to X-Factor #2--which featured a story revolving around the Beast--Hank McCoy facing off against the powerful size-changing mutant known as Tower.  However, it was deemed unsuitable because the editors felt it was too soon for a mere, single character on the cover of a team book.

UNPUBLISHED X-FACTOR #3 COVER

In a moment of impulsiveness, I sat down and drew this cover that would introduce the return of the original look of the Beast.

Needless to say, it was bounced for being way too similar to the seven versions of issue #1 and that the Beast character (as depicted on this cover) didn’t actually appear like that on the inside the book.

JACK KIRBY/ BOB LAYTON IRON MAN  FIGURE

Although I’ve been fortunate enough to have inked Gene Colon and George Tuska (the two most notable Iron Man pencillers),

I never had the opportunity to ink an Iron Man by the character’s designer--Jack Kirby.

I went looking for a pencil illustration of the character and found this drawing.

Here is the only Kirby/Layton Iron Man illo in existence.