First 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Concept Art by Charlie Wen

(click to enlarge)

Guardians of the Galaxy concept art above shows (left to right): Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon and Gamora.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige have more details on three upcoming Marvel films at San Diego Comic Con. They also revealed concept art for the superhero team film Guardians of the Galaxy scheduled for release August 1, 2014. It was done by in-house concept artist Charles "Charlie" Wen (Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 2).


The galactic superhero group, which was created in 1969 by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan. It was rebooted in 2008 by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with a new timeline. The team has featured multiple characters over the years, but the lineup for the movie will be: Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon and Gamora.

Here's what the characters look like in the comics.

Drax the Destroyer

Groot, (Moondragon), Star-Lord and Rocket Racoon

Gamora

The most radical design change is Gamora's rather "Vampirella" style costume to a warrior uniform. I'm thinking armor is useful for covering an exposed chest.

Charlie Wen has a bunch of great concept art at his blog charliewen.typepad.com

Image Sources: comicvine.com comicbookresources.com wikipedia.org marvel.com

Image courtesy Marvel Studios @ 2012 Marvel Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.

Via Wired

What do you think of the illustrations? Are you looking forward to the Guardians of the Galaxy? Are you glad they modified Gamora's costume?

The Artists of 'The Avengers' (2012)

Here are some of the artists that worked on the superhero film The Avengers (2012). As always, there are many talented artists involved in the production of a film. These are only some of them according to IMDb.

Official Synopsis:
Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when “Marvel’s The Avengers” assemble in summer 2012. In “Marvel’s The Avengers,” superheroes team up to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security.

Director: Joss Whedon

Cinematography by Seamus McGarvey      http://www.seamusmcgarvey.com/
   
Production Design by James Chinlund    
   
Federico D'Alessandro (animatics supervisor)    thefilmartist.com
   
Illustrators   
Josh Nizzi (senior illustrator)    www.joshnizzi.com
Michael Meyers (concept artist)    http://www.vladsworld.com/
Raj Rihal (concept artist)    www.totalrihal.com
Phil Saunders (concept artist)    www.saunderscreative.com
Steve Jung (concept designer)    www.stevejung.net
Kurtis Richmond (concept designer)   
Cara Brower (concept illustrator)    http://carabrower.com
Rodney Fuentebella (concept illustrator)    rodneyf.blogspot.com
Fabian Lacey (concept illustrator)    http://www.fabianlacey.com
Andy Park (concept illustrator)    www.andyparkart.com
Jackson Sze (concept illustrator)   
Tony Bohorquez (concept model maker)   
Richard K. Buoen (conceptual designer)   
Jeff Frost (conceptual model maker)   
Tani Kunitake (illustrator)   
Christopher S. Ross (illustrator)    http://dezyn.com/
Nathan Schroeder (illustrator)    www.nathanschroeder.net
Rusty Gilligan (sketch artist)    http://rustygilligan.blogspot.com/
Adi Granov    http://www.adigranov.net/
Iain McCaig    http://iainmccaig.blogspot.com/
Paul Ozzimo http://www.paulozzimo.com
   
Storyboard Artists   
Richard Bennett (storyboard artist)    www.richardbennettart.com
Federico D'Alessandro (storyboard artist)    thefilmartist.com
Darrin Denlinger (storyboard artist)   
Jim Mitchell (storyboard artist)    http://jmitchellstudio.blogspot.com/
Ryan Jeremy Woodward (storyboard artist)    http://www.bottom-of-the-ninth.com/
Jane Wu (storyboard artist)   
Bryan Andrews
   
Visual Development   
Jacob Johnston (visual development)   
Ryan Meinerding (visual development supervisor)   
Charlie Wen (visual development supervisor)    charliewen.typepad.com


I'll update this list as I find out more. If you know of any artists that worked on this that are not listed please let me know.

Review: 'Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)' Blu-Ray Review

Captain America: The First Avenger has no concept art gallery. I was going to drop my rating because of it, but then I watched the gorgeous featurettes and stopped complaining.


Product Details

• Actors: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan
• Directors: Joe Johnston
• Writers: Christopher Markus, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Stephen McFeely
• Producers: Alan Fine, Amir Madani, Dan Masciarelli
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English, Spanish
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Paramount Studios
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2011
• Run Time: 124 minutes

Special Features

• Includes Digital Copy
• Deleted Scenes
• Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes
• Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer -- Go deeper inside the Marvel Universe and unveil secret plans to assemble the ultimate superhero team, the Avengers. 
• And more!

Here are some of the featurettes I found interesting along, with some admittedly poor screen caps from the disk. I just couldn't resist putting some of these on the site.

Featurette Review
Designing the Costume
The director and producer talk about the challenge of designing a faithful comic book costume while making out realistic. Some concept art with interviews with lead concept artist Ryan Meinerding and some brief, but beautiful pan and scans of the illustrations.

Heightened Technology 
The producers and actors talk about the desire to bring advanced technology to WWII without looking out-of-place. We get a few shots of concept art on boards during production and some beautiful images of Daniel Simons' vehicle designs. He's the star of the featurette since he talks extensively about his design principles.

The Transformation 
A great explanation of how the creators got Chris Evans to look skinny and why they did it the way they did. There are only two illustrations, but the focus is on the technology.

Behind the Skull 
This feature talks about how they brought the character of the Red Skull to life. Artists Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen take about the challenge of balancing the anatomical effect of a man with his face burned off while maintaining the classic image of the comic book character. Here are some really nice illustrations in this video. The best on the disk really.

Overall, it's a really good set of disks. The concept art for the Marvel films are some of the best in the business and, besides the lack of a gallery, it's still a good disk to own.




Charlie Wen's website is http://charliewen.typepad.com/ and Ryan Meinerding's is http://boyrobot.com/. Both guy's are pretty busy, so Wen's site hasn't been updated since 2010 and Meinerding's blog domain has lapsed. Just go to Marvel.com to see their stuff.

Updated: Is 'Avengers' Hulk Really 'Substationally Different" From Other Movie Hulks?

With Will the Hulk design for the Avengers movie be that much different from the past two movies? Yes, but not the way he says.

Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios and producer of The Avengers (2012)  in an interview with "Hero Complex" said the following:

It will be as different as "The Incredible Hulk" was from Ang Lee's "Hulk" in terms of its look and design, but it is Hulk.

As you can already see in that concept painting, it is — more than any Hulk that's ever been done in live action — a Hulk that let's you see the actor in there. You will be able to see Ruffalo in there. That was a big revelation for us. It's just a concept painting, but in that you can see the [influence of Marvel Comics pioneer and original Hulk artist Jack] Kirby, as people have already pointed out, but also, and equally important in this case, Ruffalo's eyes and his cheek structure. It is him.

So how different will the Avenger's Hulk be? He's implying that other Hulk's haven't really looked like the actor. Is that true?

Hulk (2003) with Eric Bana

Artist: James Carson

This looks quite a bit like Eric Bana. They widened his jaw and shortened his nose a bit. The eyebrow ridge is more pronounced and his jaw is much larger than his real one. The entire face looks like it was blown up like a balloon.

The Incredible Hulk (2008) with Edward Norton

Artist: Unknown (Aaron Sims Company)

This Hulk looks less cartoony than the first one. His face isn't as exaggerated as the first one, but he looks a lot less like the actor Edward Norton. Mainly because Norton's face is much narrower. The face is very hulk-like, but not as Norton-like. Notice they got rid of the crooked nose too.

The Avengers (2011) with Mark Ruffalo

Artist: Charlie Wen (Marvel)

Its hard to tell from this angle, but at first glance it looks like they took the same liberties as they did with the other films. Eyebrow ridge is larger. Nose is shorter. When you look closer though, you do see some changes.

Ruffalo's face is thicker, so it's easier to bulk it out. His jawline, while larger, isn't that much larger. The same with most of his features. He still looks like the traditional Hulk, but his face doesn't change as much.

It's possible that they chose him specifically because his face lends itself to the distortion. I've never done casting or concept design though. So, who knows?

In the end, it is different, but mainly because the actors face is Hulk-like.

Update: In the book Art of Marvel's The Avengers there was a quote from Ryan Meinderding that supports my viewpoint.

Joss really pushed us to take some of the cuses from those early Hulks and combine them with Mark Ruffalo's features. At first, we couldn't see how that would work - but he was dead-on in that direction. Mark's face really lends itself to hulking out, and we affectionally called the design "Hulkalo."

What do you think? Is it really a "different" Hulk?

Via: Herocomplex

UPDATE: What Does Marvel's Avengers SDCC Concept Art Poster Not Show?

UPDATED: Sure enough, the next day they released some more of the concept poster I predicted. Plus, they're lining about how I said they would. I've updated the post with the newly released posters and the updated compilation poster.

UPDATE 2: The final posters have been released and I've updated the post. Hi-Res final poster no doube releasing tommorrow. Overall, it's awesome. Wen and Meinerding have done a great job.

Marvel released a concept art poster at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 for the film The Avengers (2012) and it shows two of the Avengers, but we can guess where the others are if we look closely.

On their website they describe the newly released poster(s).

Fans who attended Comic-Con International 2010 will remember the free “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” posters handed out at the Marvel Booth featuring art by Wen and Meinerding, respectively. This time, to celebrate next year’s release of “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Meinerding and Wen have joined forces to create a series of interlocking posters spotlighting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

More on Marvel.com

Added 7/23

Added 7/23

Added 7/23

Added 7/24
 

So, we know that these are not two separate posters. They're described as a "series" meaning there are more to come.

If we look closely at the edges though, we can see that there are parts that go off the page. Chances are these are two of six interlocking posters. One for each member of the team.

Here's the roster of the superhero team "The Avengers:"

• Captain America (Chris Evans)
• Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)
• Thor (Chris Hemsworth)
• Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)
• Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)
• Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)

So, we know there are four members missing.

We can make a pretty clear guess who's next to the Captain America poster since we can see the Hulk's elbow in the background. If we go by the design of the other two posters the washed-out image of Hulk is probably just a background reference shot.

That doesn't leave a lot of room for the other four members of the team unless they're really far away.

I created a pic to show the Hulk and what looks like the edge of another poster. Too soon to guess what the other poster edge is from.

So be on the look out for four more posters coming soon.

What do you think of the poster? Want to guess where the other four members are?