Art Attack: Norm Rapmund's Nova

Between the five days of live streaming, live blogging, hanging with wrestlers, hanging with comics folks, interviewing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Joss Whedon, hosting cake baking competitions, finding a CVS open past 10 that sold beer, eating good food, eating bad food, wearing tights (pics to come...maybe) and finding a few seconds to give Kiel a hug, San Diego was a busy Comic-Con for me this year--so busy that I was extremely negligent when it came to getting Nova sketches, Golden Age sketches, Miss Martian sketches or, well, sketches of any kind.

Thank goodness for Norm Rapmund!

I was hanging with my main man Todd "T-Bone" Nauck at his booth before the show began on Preview Night and made the acquaintance of Mr. Rapmund. Todd met Norm back in the 90's when they both worked out of Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios, but the man has been active for a couple decades now at Marvel, DC, Image and all points in between, working on just about every major character there is and inking folks from Dan Jurgens and Howard Porter to Ed McGuinness and Ian Churchill.

I knew I had met a kindred spirit when I inquired about a possible Nova sketch and got an enthusiastic "Nova? I love Nova!" in response. The follow-up "Wait...original costume, right?" sealed the deal for real.

It's always cool for me to see guys known primarily for inking cut loose with pencils, as they're generally skilled draftsmen in their own right and I enjoy seeing them strut their stuff. From this sketch, it's not hard to get why so many people are keen to work with him. He's got a great sense of proportion, a refined sense of anatomy and clearly knows how to work the classic super hero mold with some nice flourishes.

I'm very pleased with the slick, pretty Human Rocket I got from Mr. Rapmund and even more so with the short but extremely pleasant I got to have with this genuinely nice gent. I hope to hear more of the stories I know he's got in the future.

Thanks, Norm!