{"id":10021,"date":"2013-04-09T22:40:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T02:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=10021"},"modified":"2013-04-09T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T02:40:17","slug":"hulking-out-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/09\/hulking-out-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Hulking out in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Irene and I walked south down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue Saturday, I happened to look to the left at just the right moment to spot the Hulk looking back—because this print by artist Doug Bloodworth<\/a> was hanging in a gallery window.<\/p>\n

\"HulkDougBloodworth\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a clearer version of the piece, with the image not obscured by the glare of the street lights.<\/p>\n

\"DougBloodworthHulk\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here, for comparison, is the original cover<\/a> by Ernie Chan which the artist incorporated into his image.<\/p>\n

\"OriginalIncredibleHulk224\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have no idea how much Chan got paid for his cover back in 1978, but Bloodworth stands to make far more. The print, titled “Cheese & Hulk,” was one of 150, and the asking price, at least of the one I saw, was $1,200—which means that if all sold at that price, the artist would gross $180,000. (Obviously, gallery fees will eat into that. But still.)<\/p>\n

Bloodworth has given other comic book covers a similar treatment, such as this painting which features Neal Adams’ cover to Superman<\/em> #233<\/a> … <\/p>\n

\"BloodworthSuperman\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… and this one, which uses Marie Severin’s cover to Silver Surfer<\/em> #15<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"BloodworthSilverSurfer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As Irene and I stood in front of the gallery looking at Bloodworth’s image in the window, she said what I was thinking: “I’m okay with this.”<\/p>\n

Which is meaningful, because Irene and I have always been sensitive to mainstream artists using comic book imagery, but especially so ever since I took issue in 2011 with Sharon Moody’s appropriations<\/a>. But I was fine with what Bloodworth had done, just as I’d been with Vin Vicini<\/a> and Mr. Brainwash<\/a>. They each (in my opinion) brought more of themselves to the table, and were sufficiently transformative for me to be comfortable with the results.<\/p>\n

And though I’d much rather have any of the original comic book covers used above on my wall rather than Bloodworth’s composition—sorry if that makes me a Philistine—it’s entirely a matter of taste. Ethics doesn’t come into play.<\/p>\n

Which makes me happy. You think I like<\/em> having to point fingers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Irene and I walked south down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue Saturday, I happened to look to the left at just the right moment to spot the Hulk looking back—because this print by artist Doug Bloodworth was hanging in a gallery window. Here’s a clearer version of the piece, with the image not obscured by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,20,126],"class_list":["post-10021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comics","tag-marvel-comics","tag-sharon-moody"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}