The Silver Surfer was recreated for a generation by Ron Lim and Jim Starlin's work in the early 1990s. No cover captures the drama of Thanos better than the very beginning of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline in Silver Surfer #50. This issue retells the origin of Silver Surfer in a flashback sequence, has a brief battle between Surfer and Thanos and is the 50th comic book of the third volume of Silver Surfer. The artist behind this supreme Silver Surfer storyline is Ron Lim. Ron captured the spectacle of the Thanos saga with many fantastic covers and interiors like Silver Surfer #50 above. He is also a truly down to earth person; one of those comic book artist celebrities that you will genuinely enjoy meeting.
Ron Lim Then
Imagine being such a talented artist you could go into a comic convention and show your work to Marvel personnel and be hired on the spot. Such was Lim's experience at a 1987 comic book convention. Those of you that go to conventions, or have artist friends who have tried to get onboard Marvel during an artist review at a con; know how tremendously hard this is to accomplish. Basically, hundreds show up to divulge their art to Marvel staff and are often given critical feedback on their work, emphasis on critical. For most, it is very uncomfortable, and they endure hypercritical analysis with no reward. Out of this awful environment, Ron Lim was hired by Marvel on the spot. Remember this is well before the age of strong computing power and most folks only had their natural artistic talent to get by on.
Ron was "...hired by Marvel. Lim penciled the Silver Surfer (vol.3) series for almost six years (1988-1994). He also penciled most of the "Infinity" trilogy of large scale crossover limited series which Marvel published in the early 1990s--Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, and Infinity Crusade. He returned to these characters to pencil the Thanos series in 2004" (Wiki).
Ron Lim Now
If you go to any major comic convention on the West Coast, you will possibly see Ron Lim taking on art commissions. I met Ron recently during the Free Comic Book Day event at our local retail outlet. I could barely get a word in edgewise as the crowd was clamoring for his attention while waiting to get to see him. However, I did manage to get some facetime with the true master of the Silver Surfer circa 1990s.
Ron is currently busy working on variant covers for Marvel he mentioned Venom and a few others. I asked him if he did business with any other companies he said: "he was always open to new business relationships but currently was working with Marvel; a company he has worked well with for over twenty plus years." Ron is primarily a penciler. "My interiors are all pencil work over the years," he insisted he did not do interior ink. I asked him about inking, he said that "it was not an easy job, it is an art all in and of itself and that the inkers do a great job enhancing the art." Further, he enjoyed "doing the ink for his covers for Marvel." He currently does "variant covers for Marvel some of which include inking," check out his version of Edge of Venomverse #3 below.
He has not worked movie art, but with masterful work like Edge of Venomverse #3 (Lim Variant), he sure should be. If you are not familiar with this artist check out his link here Ron Lim Art. His artwork is exceptional and I consider him to be one of the top artists to survive the 90s.
With the Thanos storyline headlining for MCU over the last several years Silver Surfer #50 has been very popular with fans. I have seen this book shoot up into the high $80 range going into Endgame, now it is averaging $60 FMV in grade 9.8. Is there any value in this overproduced Modern Age comic book?
Long-Term results:
- Grade 9.8 $60 FMV returns positive +8.4%
- Grade 9.6 $28 FMV returns positive+1.9%
- Grade 8.5 $24 FMV returns positive +33.8%
I had initially assumed (you know what happens then) that the Silver Surfer #50 was a fad; that this comic was popular due to movie hype and not worth my time. However, upon closer examination, I realized I had been as hasty as Drax the Destroyer to kill Thanos. After all, this book has substantial numbers, and it is not very expensive to buy in. You want to buy only 9.8's here as it is just too cheap not to own the best. For some strange reason, even the CGC inventory hardly exists with just 721 books outstanding. Apparently, with low CGC numbers, not many bothered to slab many of these comics, go figure! Another big comic from this era is Silver Surfer #35 this is the first appearance of Thanos in Silver Surfer, nice moderate key book.
Thanks to Ron Lim's early work with Jim Starlin the storyline of Thanos, is now immortal, a part of movie history. Ron has graced us with his art and gentlemanly nature; he comes from a time when computer monitors were boat anchors. But his art is as fresh as ever. Ron Lim helped build the Surfer and more importantly Thanos into what it has become today, a blockbuster experience.
