If adventure has a name, it's Jim Steranko.
Like many boys who grew up in the 1980s, I was obsessed with Indiana Jones. Practically rabid, I devoured ANYTHING I could get my hands on regarding the whip-cracking adventurer. Unlike a lot of my friends and other kids, what really captured my imagination were concepts mentioned, but never shown onscreen. This was the world partially created by Raiders of the Lost Ark concept artist (and comics legend) Jim Steranko.
Jim Steranko Concept IndySteranko's art perfectly captured the Saturday morning serial/pulp adventure style-- he helped create the language of the Indiana Jones universe. Before any actors had been approached (including Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds!), it was Steranko's square-jawed take that sold the character and, essentially, created "The Look" of "The Man With the Hat."
Concept Indy originally began as a Logan figure from the terrible Wolverine movie that came out years ago. At first I intended it to be my legit Indy figure for the collection, but when I saw how stylized it was, that project sat on the back burner... until I saw it on my bench a few weeks ago and said, "Steranko Indy's been sitting here the whole time..." and immediately got to work. The figure is a borderline LBC; primarily that Logan, with a bunch of Indiana Jones pieces swiped from the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Indy figures. The 40s-style web belt is from a BBI WWII soldier I had in the fodder bin. The head is from a random Duke I found.
LOTS MORE PHOTOS & FULL WRITE-UP:
http://strangelabs.blogspot.com
. The mask was sculpted over Darth Maul's face with plumber's putty, with a few greebles glued on for detail. I slightly adapted the mask's design; amped it up by being a little more alien and ghostly.
