Deadpool: Drawing the Merc with a Mouth – Three Decades of Amazing Marvel Comics Art


Written by Matthew K. Manning, art by many and various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78565-428-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Picture Perfect … 9/10

Comics are almost unique in the narrative arts for their capacity to turn throwaway characters into superstars – although modern revisionist novelists are doing a pretty good job these days turning the acquaintances of Sherlock Holmes or Oliver Twist into money-spinners…

Our industry, however, thrives on the fans taking to their hearts – and wallets – the villains, the weirdoes and the deliberately dire and turning them into multimedia attention magnets.

Here’s an ideal case in point…

Deadpool is Wade Wilson (a thinly disguised knockoff of Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke the Terminator: get over it – DC did), a costumed hired killer and survivor of genetics experiments that have left him a grotesque bundle of scabs, scars and physical abnormalities.

The upside – if such it is – of the ordeal is that he is now practically immortal, invulnerable and capable of regenerating from any injury.

Any.
Injury.

He is also a certifiable loon…

As you will find within this monolithic (279 x 356 mm) hardback – courtesy of Matthew K. Manning’s concise career retrospective and interview-filled appreciation – the wisecracking “Merc with a Mouth” was created by Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza. He debuted in New Mutants #98 (February 1991); one more escaped product of the Canadian “Weapon X” project which created Wolverine and so many other mutant/cyborg super-doers.

He got his first shot at solo stardom with a couple of miniseries in 1993 (Deadpool: the Circle Chase & Sins of the Past) but it wasn’t until 1997 that he finally won his own title, which blended 4th-wall-busting, absurdist humour (a la Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoons via Ambush Bug) into the all-action mix; securing the crazy killer’s place in comics history.

Since then he has become one of Marvel’s iconic, nigh-inescapable over-characters, perpetually undergoing radical rethinks, surviving death, identity changes, reboots and more before always, inevitably, reverting to irascible, irreverent, intoxicating type in the end…

This colossal celebration will not teach you how to render the resoundingly robust rascal but instead offers a selection of high-quality art examples – cover, panels, panels and unseen treats – from some the industry’s best and brightest illustrators. Following the scene-setting ‘Introduction’ Deadpool’s eccentric publishing history is divided into terse, picture-packed chapters beginning with ‘Creating a New Mutant’ tracking his trajectory from ‘From Villain to Antihero’ and his first taste of stardom as ‘The Merc with a Mouth’.

A radical departure is fully assessed in the chapter detailing the divergent life of ‘Agent X’ and an unlikely partnership with mutant martinet Cable is covered in ‘The Odd Couple’. The shift to full time metaphysical mischief starts with ‘The Title Character’ and details the intricate madness of ‘Deadpool’s World’ before reaching the only ‘Conclusion’ possible…

His is primarily a celebration of comic art and artists featured here include Liefeld, Greg Capullo, Ian Churchill, Joe Madureira, Aaron Lopresti, Ed McGuiness, Pete Woods, Alvin Lee, Bernard Chang, Dan Norton, Arthur Adams, Jim Calafiore, Cully Hamner, Tim Sale, Rick Leonardi, Darick Robertson, Georges Jeanty, Steve Harris, Alvin Lee & UDON studios, Brian Stelfreeze, Patrick Zircher, Mark Brooks, Skottie Young, Reilly Brown, Ron Lim, Clayton Crain, Carlo Barberi, Jason Pearson, Geof Darrow, Mike Hawthorne, Tony Moore, Kris Anka, Paco Medina, Dave Johnson, Nick Bradshaw, Bong Dazo, David Nakayama, Matthew C. Waite, Kyle Baker, Scott Koblish, Kevin Maguire, Arthur Suydam, Dalibor Talajic, Pascual Ferry, Mike Gustovich, Joe Cooper, Humberto Ramos, Max Fiumara, David Lopez, Ryan Stegman, Tony Moore, Jim Cheung, Mike McKone, Das Pastoras, Greg Land, Jae Lee, Mike Del Mundo, Kaare Andrews, Salva Espin, Jay Shaw, Adam Kubert Walter McDaniel, Esad Ribic, Julian Totino Tedesco, Phil Noto, Katie Cook and many more…

Bold, brash, brilliantly eye-catching and designed to improve your musculature just by lifting it, Deadpool: Drawing the Merc with a Mouth is a wonderful visual treasure trove and even comes with an exclusive Reilly Brown cover print.
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