HERO Initiative: Ed Hannigan Covered

I feel like I am covering an old story and I am pretty bummed I didn't plug this a bit earlier.

HERO Initiative is doing their best to help out cover artist extraordinaire Ed Hannigan who is suffering from multiple sclerosis.

HERO Initiative is a great organization dedicated to helping people in the comics industry in need. For Hannigan, HERO has both published the above issue Ed Hannigan Covered, a 48 page gallery of his best Marvel covers and some background material. The book is only $4.99 and proceeds go to this great cause.

Here is HERO's link and a part of their blurb.

http://www.heroinitiative.org/NewsDetail.asp?NewsId=220

Ed tried to tailor cover designs to the style of whichever artist was going to do the final art, but he also introduced some trademark features of his own, most famously, "messing with the logo" in some way or another, destroying or distorting it. The sketches became more elaborate and often were fully colored. He continued to draw some stories and even wrote a few (Defenders was his longest run), but cover sketches were his mainstay for the next several years, and that's what he is best known for in the industry.

When the comics business contracted in the early 1990s, Ed was forced to find other employment. He end up doing computer graphics for a publisher in Massachusetts for nine years. In the course of those years, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which at first was a minor annoyance, but soon progressed to a major disability. He now lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two children.

There are plenty of sites on line where you can order the book, but here is the one from HERO site.

http://www.atomiccomicsstore.com/298419.html

While Hannigan may be best known for his work on Marvel, he did plenty of work at DC including a couple of interesting and important Daring New Adventures of Supergirl covers, including one of my favorites all time.


I love the cover of Daring New Adventures #5. There is something mesmerizing about the cover, isn't there? In all seriousness, Supergirl just looks terrified as she falls over this dizzying background. It also really looks as though Supergirl is falling out of control, her arms and legs awkwardly splayed.

There is no doubt that if you were twirling the spinner rack in 1983, this cover would have grabbed your eye. Just fabulous.


Hannigan also got to introduce the world to the new Supergirl costume. The cover of Supergirl #13 (they dropped the 'Daring New Adventures of' part of the title with this issue) was the first look at the 'head band' costume. Ironically, she isn't wearing a head band here! And her cape is so tiny.

Still it is a very nice cover with Supergirl striking a heroic pose in front of the American flag on some alien world (I don't think it's the moon). And as this is the first look at her new costume, Hannigan does have a little place in Supergirl history.

As part of their efforts, the HERO Initiative is showing some of Hannigan's most famous works in the Cartoon Museum of Art in San Francisco. The show is running until June 20th, 2010. Here is a link to the news about the show:
http://www.heroinitiative.org/NewsDetail.asp?NewsId=221

And here is a blog post with some pictures of the gallery showing.

http://heroinitiative.blogspot.com/2010/02/ed-hannigan-covered-now-running-at.html


So if in San Francisco or if you have an extra $4.99 in your pocket, help HERO Initiative help Ed Hannigan.