SF: The way you have captured depth in this piece with the rainbow bridge and the golden city of Asgard is quite brilliant. Was that something that you had to figure out in the planning stages or something you worked through later in the design?
CSM: I don't think I even mocked this piece up. First, it was a matter of sculpting Thor, then the Surfer, and then arranging them full size to see how big the piece could be, versus how big it should be. After setting the figures in relation to one another, it was a matter of fitting the other elements around them.
On the cover by Buscema, Thor isn't quite arranged so that he is facing the Surfer. Buscema did the drawing more quickly than I sculpted the statue, and drew it so that it worked visually in 2D. I needed to adjust for that while still making a statue that closely approximated the cover.
SF: To go with that... This cover is obviously rendered (beautifully so) in 2D. Basically we only see it from the perspective in which Buscema intended. What type of liberties, corrections, or changes must you make in translating this piece to 3D while remaining so faithful in pose and dynamics of this sculpt?
Most obviously people were wondering in how you would handle the Surfer being in mid-flight. These pictures obviously answer that and it looks fantastic, but there had to have still been challenges no?
CSM: Right. Like I said before, Buscema wanted to show Thor from a certain angle so that his face was showing, and the Surfer from an angle that best showed him. The two bodies don't exactly line up if placed in exactly the same position from which John drew them.
Artists doing a 2-D piece of art don't need to figure out all angles for the piece nor should they. It needs to work from one angle. Although I was copying the drawing, there are certain subtle things one can do to make the piece work better in 3-D while still being true to the original art.
Even the size was a key decision. I would have liked to make Thor and SS much bigger, but from a marketing standpoint, the piece had to be large enough to be effective, but small enough to be able to be packaged and shipped properly.
Now Sideshow is doing huge pieces and they arrive in huge boxes. This piece is a good size, though. About one-eighth scale.
SF: Now that the piece is done, will you shop it around to see if you can have it produced at a company with the proper Marvel license or is it at this point a personal piece?
I personally have always hoped that us fans could get in on what is one of the most dynamic and incredible Marvel Comics cover recreations ever sculpted.
CSM: I don't plan on shopping it to any of the US license holders. I'd like to see it produced, of course. Whether it would be produced or not, I wanted to finish it. I wanted to see how it would come together as a finished and painted representation of that incredible cover.
SF: With no obvious deadline in place on this piece Clay, how did you juggle your other many projects and still find time to make sure this one was finished properly?
CSM: I just had to decide that I was going to finish it. It needed about 60 hours work and that's a tough decision when you have other projects and other priorities, all of which are important.
For months all I had to do was to sculpt Asgard in relief and it would be done. I finally did that.
SF: What has been your favorite part of sculpting this piece? Personally I think the characters looked fantastic as individual sculpts but wasn't able to truly appreciate the piece as much as I do now seeing it all assembled.
The Rainbow Bridge actually looks like it is trailing back to the golden city far off in the background. The Surfer actually looks like he is in natural flight. The power and tension of Thor’s pose and anatomy is incredible. The Silver Surfer displays grace despite obviously showing fury and power.
Clay this piece is in a class of it's own and you must be very happy with the result.
CSM: Thanks, again. I think I'm a better sculptor now than even three years ago when I sculpted Thor. I was in a car wreck just after finishing the two figures and broke my right wrist and arm. I had to have a steel plate and some screws put in my right arm. That definitely slowed everything down for months, but I think I'm doing my finest work these days. I like the piece, but I'd do some fine tuning that I didn't think of then. The Surfer works well and I'm still happy with him. I enjoyed making his hands as expressive as I could.
SF: I would agree that you are indeed doing your best work these days Clay. That is a considerable claim in lieu of your extensive and incredible resume.
How was it when you were first trying to sculpt again after the accident?
Obviously you haven't lost your touch, but was there anything that you can pull away from that time that was actually a plus for your sculpting?
CSM: Not exactly regarding sculpting, but I do feel like someone up there likes me. I've been lucky throughout my life. I've had some difficult times, but I've been very, very lucky. I could have had bad nerve damage, but there was only a little lost and it doesn't affect my sculpting. I was impatient and I don't like being inactive.
I used to walk a lot and I did light workouts with ankle weights strapped to my cast to keep the muscles from atrophying too much, especially the shoulder. I think that helped the nerves as a side affect. I also did physical therapy for 3 months and those exercises helped very much.
SF: We’re definitely thankful that you were not too seriously hurt Clay.
A certain amount of this piece owes a bit of success to the assembly and the prototype paint job. How much do you oversee the process on a piece like this (even though you have a 100% quality mold guy in Michael and talented painters like Jim, and Paul)? Specifically I am talking about the bridge on the backdrop retaining it's 3d feel.
CSM: Jim Rowell and I discussed it fully. He naturally wanted to put more into it than it needed. I told him to rein it in as they used very simple inks in the 60's. He then just relaxed and painted it up and it looks great.
The bigger discussion involved the Surfer. In the 60's they made him white with an ink line representing the reflection of his chrome skin. I wanted to show him white and approximate the ink reflection line just as they did then.
I didn't like the way he's been handled by other companies in a standard silver. I like what Jim did in the white, but it only worked well from one angle. We decided to paint the Surfer with two other silver surfaces. One is called Alclad or something like that and the other was Rustoleum.
The Rustoleum was Jim's idea and I was skeptical, but it works. Michael Measles advised on the project and his input was very valuable. He originally suggested the Alclad, although Jim was familiar with it. The more I look at the two silver effects, the more I like them. I thought the anatomy would be lost, but it wasn't. I look forward to reading which look the readers like best.
