Hey gang! It’s time once again for a new Fabulous Find and this week I’m writing about a relatively new fanzine that I have been able to add to my collection. And that is; BAMF, the Dave Cockrum Treasury # 1. I was able to pick this beauty up on eBay at a reasonable price and just received it this week in my mailbox. It was published by Aardwolf Publishing in 2003. It initially sold for $19.95 and contains forty-four (44) pages, including the covers.
My copy is signed and numbered by Dave, on a sticker, attached to the inside of the front cover. My number is 157 of 400. Here is the front cover image:
BAMF, the Dave Cockrum Treasury # 1
The cover sports a nice Nightcrawler (of the X-Men) drawing, as you can see above. But of course, if you’re reading this, I would assume that you know all there is to know about Nightcrawler and the X-Men! But I was taught never to assume, so I went ahead and spelled it out.
The book also features a foreword, or maybe it’s an appreciation, written by Dave’s fellow comic book professional, Chris Claremont. But the rest of the book is made up entirely of Dave Cockrum artwork, with just the back cover revealing Cockrum’s notes regarding each piece. This is really a nice way to showcase the artwork, without having text appear on the individual pages, but by providing Dave’s notes at the back gives us the reader the background information we need to further enjoy the artwork.
I’ll show you a couple of the pages to whet your appetite and make you want to go out and buy your own copy. I had to buy it sight unseen, but I am not disappointed in the least! So here is page three:
BAMF page 03
Per, the note’s Dave writes; “this is a character design I never used (unfortunately). But it would easily be mistaken as John Carter’s Princess of Mars, if you ask me!
Next up is page ten:
BAMF page 10
As you can clearly see, it is the “Creature from the Black Lagoon“, who Dave loved since seeing it with hi dad as a child. There is also another “Creature” drawing in this volume, as well.
And finally, here is page twenty-one:
BAMF page 21
Here is what Dave’s notes said; “This drawing was done for fun and hung in my office. Chris Claremont wandered in one day and started to drool. “I want Her”, He named her Mystique, gave her powers” and soon she appeared within Marvel Comic‘s X-Men comic book!
So here you go people, the very first drawing of Mystique, before she ever appeared in the comics! Glad I could share it with you.
I understand that there was a second Dave Cockrum Treasury published, but unfortunately I do not own a copy, so I will only mentioned it. If any of my readers own a copy, please comment and share what it contains.
That’s it for this Fabulous Find, but I’ll be back next week with a new RETRO REVIEW. Enjoy the summer, now that it’s here.
be seeing you …
