Who all DID you create Dave?

[PirateKurt]

Ok, We know the Best one. Our boy in Blue, as well as Storm, and Colossus, and black cat, and Mystique. But what other characters were you a creative factor in?

[Dark Bamf]

Thunderbird, Phoenix, Lilandra, Deathbird, the Starjammers, the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, the Brood, Deathknight (Iron Man villain), Deathgrip (Captain Marvel villain). Recostumed Ms. Marvel.

At DC, the Legionnair Wildfire, the Legion villain Tyr, and the aquatic alien Devilfish.

For my own series The Futurians, Avatar, Sunswift, Silver Shadow, Mosquito, Silkie, Blackmane, Terrayne the Earthmover, and Werehawk. And non-affiliated superheroes Hammerhand, Ms. Mercury, and Dr. Zeus. Also the villains The Inheritors and their leaders, Temujin and Dagon.

And for my new series T.H.U.G.S., there are the five boys, Thrasher, Basher, Slasher, Scungili and Bruce, and their boss LuLu Pillage, and the villainous Rude Brood, consisting of Smogg, Burrp, Booger, Noogie and Big Gulp

There may be more that I've forgotten. You do that when you get old.

[Nightcrawler ZERO]

He's also done a lot of fine-tuning to ther artist's character designs, Like Wolverine's mask and Unmasked head, or Cyclops' visor as it appeared from his first issue up until the modern, ultra-thin visor appeared.

I'm pretty sure he also streamlined Magneto's design. The Jack kirby version had an oversized collar and helmet

[Ult_Sm86]

Didn't Paty help out on Mags tho too? Either way Dave has done some wonderful things for X-men and my new mission is to get him on the X-3 DVD. (Muahah!)

[SheCat]

Can you clear this up for me? Did you actually create the character's personality and background or only the physical design and costuming? Either way, it's a great achievement. I love your art.

[Dark Bamf]

Depends on the character. Most X-Men, I mainly contributed name, costume and powers. Nightcrawler, I had more to do with him, though Len Wein made him German and gave him his name of Kurt Wagner. As for the Futurians and T.H.U.G.S., obviously, I've created the whole thing.

[NightPoofer]

Wow, those are quite an selection of characters you have created. Did it take only a few days to work on the X-men characters profiles or months and months of strenuous nights?

[Dark Bamf]

Afew days, for the most part, although Nightcrawler was actually the result of several years of refining the basic idea.

[NightPoofer]

Wow, years on a single character :dead I don't have that kind of patience, but I'm sure glad that you did! Great job Mr. Cockrum!

[Winnowill]

I loved the Brood. They were intelligent, nasty and ruthless. The xmen issues with the Brood were some of my favorites. I had pulled them out to look at them again just this summer.

[Nightcrawler ZERO]

Is Black Tom Cassidy one of you're creations, Dave?

[PirateKurt]

Thanks Dave! There's a large list of my favorite characters in there. Wow. that's awesome!

[BH123]

Originally posted by Dark Bamf
And for my new series T.H.U.G.S., there are the five boys, Thrasher, Basher, Slasher, Scungili and Bruce, and their boss LuLu Pillage, and the villainous Rude Brood, consisting of Smogg, Burrp, Booger, Noogie and Big Gulp

I hope we will see T.H.U.G.S. get published one day soon. From what I have seen, it looks like it would be a fun series. Perhaps Aardwolf would release a one-shot?

[Dark Bamf]

Originally posted by Nightcrawler ZERO
Is Black Tom Cassidy one of you're creations, Dave?

Yeah, he is, or at least co-creation. Chris and I needed a Cassidy cousin for X-Men #101 or 2 or 3, whatever--and we decided it would be fun to use Juggernaut and make these two bad guys really be friends. Ordinarily, Marvel bad guys, while they may work together, usually can't stand each other.

And BH123--there's some possibility that T.H.U.G.S. may see print as part of a possible deal I'm working on. Keep your fingers crossed.

[BH123]

Originally posted by Dark Bamf

And BH123--there's some possibility that T.H.U.G.S. may see print as part of a possible deal I'm working on. Keep your fingers crossed.

Consider them crossed... once I'm finished typing. It's difficult to type with your fingers crossed

In any case, good luck with this possible deal. I hope it works out for you.

[Paty]

:mags
Let's see... he also created Binary, the Acanti, the ersatz X men from Kitty's faerie tale..which introduced Lockheed the dragon...big-sized... and led to the creation of Lockheed the dragon shoulder sized version... as well as the Bamf's...LOL Not to mention a lot of very interesting lizard type people used in the Ms Marvel stotylines just after she got that snazzy new costume that Storm stole years later...LOL He did the difinative costume for the Jack of Hearts character... it had been a mishmosh before he did the definative costume drawing and set people right on the elements of the costume. He did the original Caliban... the gollum lookalike... and yes, he gave Wolvie his face and distinctive haircut... that looks so smashing on Hugh Jackman!LOL
the Brood are wonderful and if I ever get his lifesized Brood plushy toy dug out we shall take pix and post them...LOL... and let the little trollthieves pass those around! then there were all the critturs and such in the first Nightcrawler miniseries, including, but not limited to Shagreen, the shark guy...and the boggies, too!
There's probably others, but they are slipping my mind right now.

Yes, I had a little finger in the Claremont Magneto and when it appeared. Contrary to the lies Byrne tells about Claremont's creation of the complex magneto, Chris had been thinking about and discussing doing something with Mags for quite a while with us. but when he got the chance to really do Mags, he was pardnered with Byrne who hated the character and wanted him to be a ratbastard and drew him as evil as possible, forcing Chris to write around him to make the character more neutral. Chris couldn't do what he wanted with Mags as long as Byrne was gonna fight him at every angle. So he waited until John went off the book and Dave came back on. There were a few issues and suddenly the big one fifty issue was looming. Dave already had a plot for it when the powers upstairs decided it was gonna be a double sized issue...with no time to do the extra pages! Chris had to rewrite a basically one size into a double size and send it to Dave who was finishing up a previous issue. Chris brought the plot into the office for editorial approval, Weezie said OK and, since I was coming in daily and had been bringing pages and scripts to and fro for months, Chris came in to my office and gave it to me to take to Dave. I asked him if he minded if I read it and he said go ahead and tell him what I thought. A while later he stopped back in the office and asked what I had thought of it.
I told him he had thrown away the whole story on the fourth page where Magneto says to Scott that he knows grief...his whole family were destroyed...or something like that...remember it was a synopsis and didn't have the whole dialogue, but the intent was clear. He asked what I ment and I told him that this was a double sized anniversary issue. It shouldn't be just another bang up fight... he had his story right there. Magneto had previously been nothing but a mindless villain... but villains never think of themselves as villainous... they have a reason for what they do. What was Magneto's reasons for what he does? Chris had given us a hint that there was a real person in there under the red spandex and purple cape... WHO was Magneto and why was he doing what he was doing? I told Chris that this should be magneto's issue...we should see what makes him tick and why he has opposed the X men all these years. I knew Chris had been thinking about it...he had dropped clues in discussions before then. He was just so used to stifling himself with Byrne that he didn't recognize his freedom when he had it. I told him that he had been itching to do something with the character...and THIS BOOK...NOW was the time and place.
He looked at me with a weird look..grabbed the typed pages outta myhand and ran outta my office and down the hall. I wasn't sure if I had terminally pissed him off with my honesty or not... honesty is a tricky thing, y'know...
Anyway about an hour and a half later he comes storming into my office,face flushed, with a big grin... and thrusts typed pages at me. He had completely rewritten the synopsis to be the story you see in Uncanny 150! I read it and told him this was more like the writer he COULD be! LOL...A much better story! He agreed and went happily on his way. I took the pages to Dave and he drew Uncanny 150. there was one other glitch. When one of the pages came back from Rubenstein, the inker on that issue..Joe had blacked in half of Magneto's face on what I considered a wonderful portrait of Magneto... the Man...not the supervillain. I asked him why he ruined a perfectly good portrait that Dave had drawn of Mags. He sid he wanted to show his dark side. I yelled at him that this was not his editorialdecision to make ...especially without consulting anyone. It was artsy fartsy... a phrase that Rubenstein never forgave me for...LOL... That we had seen nothing BUT his dark side for a hundred forty nine issues and this was the one time he was gonna be shown to be human...with human needs, motivations and such and this, piece of artsyfartsiness was ruining the whole abmience of the book and was right out! Put it back! He said no...so I went to Dave...who said he didn't care one way or the other....big help HE was...
So, getting no help in that department and determined that Joe's artsy fartsiness would not ruin the mood that Chris wanted to build with this story, ...besides, I wanted that page when Dave got artwork back!...LOL...I determined on a course of action.
Now, because the book was terminally late, Dave was sending in pages as he drew them so production could be done as things progressed... which saved time...So I said, when next they brought in stuff for me to carry home.NO! send it by messenger or mail. No time for that, I was told. Weezie asked me what was the problem...why wouldn't I do carrier duty as I had been doing for so long. I told her...I don't ask for much...but Rubenstein changed that page...ruining the whole ambience of the storyline...and he wouldn'tl change it back when I called him on it. Now weezie looked exasperated at me. Will you carry the stuff and help us if I make him change it back? Sure... I'm easy...like that..LOL... So off she went and about half an hour later Rubenstein marched in and slammed the corrected page down on my drawing board and asked if I was satisfied. I smilee and said yes... and the carriage of materials went on unabated, the ambience of the story wasn't ruined and magneto got a heart and soul...and mind... thanks toChris! LOL and I got the page... and I stillhave it! along with the bedroom secenes from that issue...with Storm...LOL... they are, I believe the only pages of originalDave cockrum art on the X Men we have left...the others having been sold long ago.
some people call me the "Mother of all Magneto Fans" because of that little push I gave Chris. He would have probably gotten around to it eventually... and I had no idea what he was going to do...but was so enamored of the complexities and possibilities he had created with this character, that I began following everything I possibly could find having to do with Mags...as written by Chris. there were factions then... as well as now... that hated the thought of magneto being a sympathetic character...especially after Chris gave him the jewish connection. That seemed to set off the ballistics that resulted over the decades in inter office warfare , hirings, firings, defections... all over Magneto!
Amazing, isn't it? But true... every word of it!
LOL
Paty
:mags

[matlock]

Dave was way too modest in describing his contributions to the Legion. In addition to the characters he outright created, his costume designs lifted the book out of the look established by John Forte and Curt Swan (primarily) by giving the team a more contemporary and adult look which helped revive the title after a long fallow period. (Kind of has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?)

Dave updated the looks for Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Star Boy, Dream Girl, Timber Wolf (who had the "Wolverine hair" before Wolverine did!), Colossal Boy, Shrinking Violet, Element Lad, Karate Kid, Chameleon Boy, Light Lass, Princess Projectra, Shadow Lass as well as refining the designs for Saturn Girl and Duo Damsel which were based on older fan submissions. He also gave the Legion Infectious Lass and the Molecule Master designed the inhabitants of the planet Pasnic, a world with permanent Day time and Night time hemispheres and corresponding orange and purple color schemes. He also gave the entire 30th century a big make over, taking it from Buck Rogers to Star Trek in short order (this was when Star Trek was the most contemporary sci-fi look.)

His Lightning Lad design had a heavy influence on the look that the entire team has sported for nearly the last decade, though I personally miss Phantom Girl's bellbottoms. Dave's starfield design for Star Boy has also become a somewhat common element in a lot of other heroes' costumes over the years, and won an informal poll on the DC message boards a few years ago as favorite all-time Legion costume.

We also came reasonably close to getting Nightcrawler in the Legion book, as is well known around here though I guess he found a better, truer home in the X-Men.

[Dark Bamf]

Originally posted by matlock

He also gave the Legion Infectious Lass and the Molecule Master

Hey, you forgot poor old hugless Porcupine Pete!

[Paty]

:mags
by all the forgotten gods!
How could anyone forget Porcupine Pete!!!???!!!

LOL
Paty
:mags

[Indigo]

Dave created the original look for Marvel's Black Cat!

And as for Dave's Legion contributions, he also designed Otto the Hunter's son, the Hunter.

[matlock]

Poor old Pete! I have to say Dave and Cary Bates did such a good job of portraying him in the spirit of the old Adventure era rejects I misremembered him as a pre-existing character. Whoops!

It must be a tribute to Dave's good character that neither of his rejects ever turned their powers to evil, as so many others did.