Meet your Doom

I've been fascinated -- like the way a raccoon is fascinated by a bottlecap -- with this Dale Keown sketch of Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four's ultraheavy nemesis. I've always been a yuge fan of Keown going back to his landmark "Incredible Hulk" work in the early 1990s with Peter David.

Keown exaggerates, and leaves no detail unrevealed. The gold highlights in the armor's joints are a color detail that stands in contrast to the fabricky-realness of the tunic that sheathes the breastplate. Keown's lighting and shading are superb, and his treatment of the chrome surface of Doom's suit is stunning.

Like I said, I've been transfixed -- it's been my wallpaper for the past four days, so I gaze at it when I'm not paying attention to my work ("I can't do my work!"). This is a textbook rendering of any supervillain, but Keown kicks our asses by doing it for Victor Von Doom -- legs splayed, palms outstretched in the power stance of a bad guy. The electricity leaps off the page, like one of those Tesla-coils from a James Whale movie.