Classic Black Panther

[The SHOGUN]

Originally Posted by Clayburn Moore

Sorry, you said "the world". I didn't intend to change your statement.

Thanks Clay. You’re the man! Most appreciated brother

[Clayburn Moore]

Originally Posted by PeachFuzz

Hi Clayton, I own a bunch of your sculptures. I was wondering if you were involved in the DS Silver Surfer statue that goes with the Thor statue and why a backdrop wasn't used to connect the Surfer with the Thor base. Looks like they settled on a cosmic tornado base that doesn't at all tie-in to the Thor/Asgard design. Any thoughts?

Lol-It's Clayburn, but I misspelled Alejandro's name, so there's a little karma at work, I think.
I'm glad you like my work and own some as well. I appreciate it! I sculpted both of those pieces. There's a long history there. I did do the full diorama years ago in a co-project with Dynamic Forces. It was never produced (the DF license was not renewed and I had no control over that) and so DST is releasing the two figures from that diorama separately. The Surfer base represents the celestial background from the original Silver Surfer #4 cover by John Buscema. The base deco was actually designed by Jim Rowell who painted the original diorama and if the figure was going to be released in this form, I think the solution was pretty good. Jim also painted the Thor master released some time ago and the master for this Surfer as well. I believe the only two people who have ever painted my figures are Jim Rowell and my brother Paul Moore. I think Jim has his repaint of the first Frazetta Conan statue I did up on E-Bay if you want to see his work. Paul periodically puts up his repaints on E-Bay, so you might want to check on that every so often. Both his work and Jim's are exceptional.
If you want to see the whole SS#4 diorama done, then let DST know. Chuck and I have discussed it a couple of times and I know he'd appreciate collectors' input. I do like the idea that these are easy to display, are more affordable and look good as individual figures, but the full diorama is more representative of the source artwork, which is one of the great Marvel covers of all time.

[qz33]

Thanks for the answer Mr. Clayburn.
Might have some follow up questions when I have time to type them out.

[PeachFuzz]

Originally Posted by Clayburn Moore

Lol-It's Clayburn, but I misspelled Alejandro's name, so there's a little karma at work, I think.
I'm glad you like my work and own some as well. I appreciate it! I sculpted both of those pieces. There's a long history there. I did do the full diorama years ago in a co-project with Dynamic Forces. It was never produced (the DF license was not renewed and I had no control over that) and so DST is releasing the two figures from that diorama separately. The Surfer base represents the celestial background from the original Silver Surfer #4 cover by John Buscema. The base deco was actually designed by Jim Rowell who painted the original diorama and if the figure was going to be released in this form, I think the solution was pretty good. Jim also painted the Thor master released some time ago and the master for this Surfer as well. I believe the only two people who have ever painted my figures are Jim Rowell and my brother Paul Moore. I think Jim has his repaint of the first Frazetta Conan statue I did up on E-Bay if you want to see his work. Paul periodically puts up his repaints on E-Bay, so you might want to check on that every so often. Both his work and Jim's are exceptional.
If you want to see the whole SS#4 diorama done, then let DST know. Chuck and I have discussed it a couple of times and I know he'd appreciate collectors' input. I do like the idea that these are easy to display, are more affordable and look good as individual figures, but the full diorama is more representative of the source artwork, which is one of the great Marvel covers of all time.

Thank you and sorry, I meant Clayburn.

[Clayburn Moore]

At this stage, I am building up the figure. I generally work from the torso out to the extremities, but when I do start to add basic arms and feet, I move the figure around, addressing areas that need the most attention. As I've said before, I usually do hands last because I use the ends of the armature to stabilize the figure as I work. The head is a stand in for size. It really doesn't serve any other purpose as I will typically work on the final head separate from the figure and then add it.

[Clayburn Moore]

Here are the photos of Classic Black Panther complete before molding. While he originated in the pages of Fantastic Four by Stan Lee with the great Jack Kirby pencils, I based this more on other influences of mine like John Buscema (who took over for Kirby on FF when Kirby went to DC), Frank Frazetta and Marc Silvestri, to name 3 of the main ones. Frazetta is more of an influence on women than men, though. I eventually developed my own style and people like Alejandro (Pereira) say they can recognize a piece I have done every time, which I think is a good thing. Any sculptor in this business, like the 2-D comic artists, should have a recognizable style.

I knew the base was going to be complicated and expensive to produce, but I didn't see any other way to do it. More about that when I post the fully painted figure in a few days.

Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for looking!

CSM

[Asgard]

What a great job. I am totally impressed