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Dave Cockrum

Comic book artist

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Backstory

A bit of history

In case you don't know him, Dave Cockrum was a pretty big deal in the 1970s and 80s, best known for his work on The Legion of Superheroes and The X-Men. He was a terrific costume designer, and he was involved in major revamps of those titles that helped to save both of them.

Dave worked on staff at Marvel for some years, and for some time as their in-house cover artist. At one time or another, in one context or another, he drew almost every character that's appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and subsequent TV shows).

Though I don't believe he ever did any published work directly in a Guardians book, I can trace his work through their beginnings all the way to GOTGv3. I've organized the following art in more or less chronological order, rather than by any particular importance.

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Dave's first GOTG-related work that I know of was way back in 1972 when he drew the cover to Marvel Team-Up #55, featuring none other than GOTG v3 frenemy Adam Warlock. In 1976 he drew several covers to Nova, who later evolved into GOTG's Nova Corp. Though neither of these characters had any relationship to the Guardians at the time, they both eventually worked their way into the Guardians movies.

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In 1974 he drew Giant Size Avengers #2^* which features this quasi-famous full page illustration of Mantis. How famous? I like to judge by Ben Herman's full-calf tattoo. Mantis didn't join the Guardians until Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy relaunch, which informed the movies more than any of the prior versions of the team.

Though I'm showing the cover art for context, Dave didn't draw that – according to various references, it was drawn by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, John Romita and Danny Crespi.

Featured in that full page, among the other more recognizable Avengers, is Swordsman, who appeared in the Hawkeye TV show, and of course Kang, of Loki and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania fame (or infamy).

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In 1977 Dave's work showed up in an issue of Howard the Duck, who has had several GOTG cameos. (Admittedly this isn't terribly influential, but it's always a pleasant surprise to me to find my dad's work in random places.) In 1978 he drew a cover for Captain Marvel featuring that era's Drax the Destroyer (green and purple!) fighting that era's Captain Marvel.

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None of the characters shown so far were in the OG Guardians. Now, we're jumping back in time slightly (you know, for storytelling purposes). First up, let me say that Dave did not draw either of these two covers.

On the left: these chonks were the very first Guardians, appearing in an issue of Astonishing Tales (cover by Gene Colan). Of these four, only a version of Yondu made it into the A-list of the movies, though versions of the other guys do make cameos in GOTG v2 and GOTG v3.

On the right: the team launches into their own title (cover by Al Milgrom, John Romita and Danny Crespi). Though my dad did not draw this, he did provide the costumes. Because Dave was a hot costume designer, Marvel had him give the team a complete makeover prior to launching them into their own (very short lived) series in 1976. Quite a difference!

With regards to the other guys - the three characters who aren't Yondu - you might recognize these guys as the oh-so-loose basis for Yondu's old partners played by Sly Stallone (Starhawk), Michelle Yeoh (also Starhawk - it's complicated), Ving Rhames (Charlie-27), and Michael Rosenbaum (Martinex) in GOTG2. The robot head played by Miley Cyrus is Mainframe, a future version of Vision (also complicated), a later addition. The weird red guy is Krugarr, also not one of the OG Guardians, but a future successor of Doctor Strange.

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At last, we come to the Starjammers. In 1977 Dave and Chris Claremont brought the Starjammers into the X-Men. They made a few appearances there, and got their own mini-series much later. These guys are practically the template for James Gunn's eventual Guardians movies, right down to the base formula: freelance pirate ship inhabited by swashbuckling Earth guy, his blue-skinned girlfriend, an angry cybernetic guy, an alien strongman + forest critter besties, fighting an empire while coping with dead wife & daddy issues.

The big green guy, arguably Groot's counterpart, is called Ch'od, and he's visually patterned after the Creature From the Black Lagoon. My dad was a big fan of all the Universal movie monsters, but he was the biggest fan of the Creature. He was basically a big kid and I would say that the Creature was probably his Single Favorite Thing. The Ch-plus-apostrophe in Ch'od's name is meant to be a gutteral Hebrew letter. Saying it sounds a bit like choking, or hawking up a loogie. Given that my dad was not Jewish, I assume that he picked that up from hanging around my mom's parents, his Jewish inlaws.

The skunk woman, arguably Gamora's counterpart, is called Mam'selle Hepzibah, and I believe she was inspired by Miz Ma'm'selle Hepzibah from Walt Kelly's Pogo. My dad was a big fan of Pogo. He loved a lot of daily comic strips, I think, and I remember there always being paperback collections around the house of Broom Hilda, B.C. (clams got gams!), Hagar the Horrible, and of course Peanuts.

I'm pretty sure I remember my dad explaining that Hepzibah's DNA also included some strands of the lady pussycat from the Pepé le Pew cartoons, who is always geting a white stripe painted down her back ("la belle femme skunk fatale"). Of course my dad was also a huge cartoon fan as well, and especially fond of Chuck Jones, Pepé's creator.

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As much as I would love to see Marvel do a Starjammers movie, I doubt they ever will because the Guardians have filled that niche so well - but in a sense, James Gunn's Guardians movies are already the best Starjammers movies I could have hoped for - something I got to thank him for, the one time I was able to have an exchange with him online - and I see plenty of my dad's creative DNA in there.

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