Along with the recent interview and his tryout pages Greater Mercury Comics Edge Artist Brian Riedel was kind enough to also send scans of the unpublished covers to issues 9, 12, and 13; as well as scans of the first ten pages of art that was completed for issue 13! Again, I cannot thank Brian enough for his willingness to share his unpublished art with us fans, giving us all a chance to see ‘what might have been’.
I have decided to post the scans of the 10 pages from Issue #13 in high quality, so this page is going to load slowly for some. But trust me, it will be worth it. 🙂
Edge #9
Kris Silver was not happy with the cover Brian produced for Edge #9, and instead ran with a cover by Richard Carter (which you can see [HERE]).
Edge #12
Edge #12 was off to the printers, never to be seen again, except for this cover, which fortunately Brian still had in his portfolio. Once again Edge is taking on his old nemesis Deathborg.
Edge #13
Edge is dressed as Betta on the cover. The storyline saw Edge get amnesia after fighting Betta and Moray. Edge mistakenly believes he is Betta and takes on the role (as Betta decides to change his tune and become Edge). Edge begins his life of crime by helping Moray rob a bank, and unfortunately for them Dark Assassin shows up. –Bill C.
In his interview, Brian tells us how his page rate kept falling and falling, until he decided he could no longer work for the pay being offered. At that moment, Brian had finished the first 10 pages of what would have been Edge #13 (and the cover above). He kindly sent these scans of those 10 pages. Thanks Brian!
You can click on any of these pages for a much larger version. And notice in panel one of page one is Deathborg in custody, having lost his fight with Edge (actually Betta) in what would have been Edge #12.
For more original art from Edge, Dark Assassin, and other Silverwolf and/or Greater Mercury Comics Moby’s! suggests you check out the comicartfans.com collection of long time SW/GMC fan Bill C. Thanks to him for sharing his collection, and again to Brian James Riedel for his understanding and taking the time to scan these and share them.
Brian has pages from several issues still available for purchase, a rare opportunity for SW/GMC collectors to pick up an original page or two.
Excellent work Brian, to have 12 issues published so young [I’m assuming you were late teens early twenties]. It’s a big deal for a seasoned pro to do it, especially these days. I enjoy your work.
Howdy,
Actually, at the time I was 35 and working a full time job elsewhere. Might account as to how I was able to do this in my spare time evenings and weekends and meet deadlines for the most part. “Edge” was my first crack at a regular superhero book. My forte has usually been short humor strips I write myself. After a few years doing the cons and sending out stuff, and meeting with mostly rejection, decided to give it up. Humor, at the time, was not what the market was looking for. I have since done storyboards and character designs, worked on a museum honoring NASA that might still be running in Venezuela, and published a few of my own “mini-books”. So, no regrets.
Thanks for the interest everybody,
Brian James Riedel
Brian, are you still around? This is John from back in the day, LA 1990’s I can’t find my sheep. Been digitizing some cassettes and came across some Hermanos Guzanos and thought of you guys.