Michael Carroll - Graphics - 3D

Marvel

The first comics that ever really grabbed my attention were the early UK reprints of Marvel titles. I love their characters and stories just as much now as I did back then, over thirty-five years ago.

Everyone's favourite grumpy orange rock monster... Benjamin J. Grimm is one of my heroes. This is just a work-in-progress - I'll have to get back to it soon.
(And if you're wondering just who it is that he reminds you of - other than The Thing, of course - it's very probably Morph.)

One for attack and one for defence - what more do you need? Apart from a surfboard that can fly through space.

And speaking of surfboards that can fly through space, here's the one and only Norrin Radd, who gave his life to save his homeworld from Galactus.

The Devourer of Worlds looks on as his faithful herald searches for a nice juicy planet, ready to unleash the Power Cosmic* on any being that dares to make jokes about his boss's helmet.

* That's the way things were sometimes named in the early days of Marvel Comics. I miss that. I think we should all take that up again, the old Speech Archaic - it makes everything sound more mysterious and interesting. Lightbulb Electric, for example. Isn't that a much cooler name?

Captain America might not be the most powerful or exciting character in the Marvel universe, but let's face it: he'e still just about as cool as a hero can ever hope to be.

Yay! The Hulk - finished at last! You'd think that the face would be the hardest part of a body to model, but no - it's the hands. It took ages to get the Hulk's fists to look right. They have to look solid and strong, big but not out of proportion to the rest of his body.

Another work-in-progress... This one is not going to be complete for some time: getting all those webs lined up in the texture-map is taking forever! Just imagine how much quicker Spider-Man artists would get their work done if Steve Ditko hadn't decided "Hey, let's cover him in webs!"

Observant viewers will note that I've chosen to mimic the movie version of Spidey's costume: raised (and shiny) webbing, plus an underlying web texture throughout. This is what the same image looks like when the texture adheres more closely to the comic-book version of the costume...

Even though he's a complete nutter, I've always loved Doctor Doom. I mean, who couldn't love a guy who has a steel mask and armour, a hooded cape and his very own country?

Ah, stunning Latveria, its sweeping mountains, gloriously crumbling castles and loyal lederhosen-wearing 19th-century peasants! Only a few hours' drive from that other great imaginary nation, Leiberstan!

Ultron was created by scientist Henry Pym (also known as Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket and probably quite a few more... Hank never has quite settled on his superhero identity). But, as all robots invariably do, Ultron turned on his creator.

When I was a kid I used to have nightmares about Ultron: he was completely unkillable and kept coming back again and again to battle The Avengers. I'd love to see him as the baddie in the upcoming Avengers movie...