Annie Nocenti talks Longshot - Creator Owned Art

Annie Nocenti is a comic book legend whose writing work on Daredevil and Longshot and her time as an editor on Uncanny X-Men, The New Mutants, and the Incredible Hulk have made her one of the most beloved and respected people in the industry. Nocenti also created several characters who still appear in comics today, including Longshot, Mojo, and Typhoid Mary. More recently, Nocenti wrote Giant-Size X-Men #1 (2024). sdsdcsdcsd

I spoke with Nocenti about her favorite piece of art from her collection as part of a new series called “Creator Owned Art.” Check out my previous discussions with Josh Trujillo and Mark Waid. Here’s what she said:

“Arthur Adams gave me this page from the Longshot series we created together for Marvel Comics in 1985. The delight, charm and energy of this page illuminates why fans fell in love with Arthur’s work.

 We were both young and new to the comics game when we created Longshot, and we packed the story with shared interests—we both liked The Little Rascals, which inspired this page’s gang of Hell’s Kitchen street kids. At the time I was Assistant Editor to Louise Jones Simonson (who edited Longshot), working in the X-Men office, and writer Chris Claremont was often in the office. Chris would swoon over the pages as they came in, and so the stage was set for Arthur and Chris’s wonderful future X-Men collaborations. I can even see a touch of the future X-Babies in this page. 

    Arthur loved drawing monsters and sent us dozens of them. One became the little demon on this page who grew to a massive beast by the end of the 6-issue series. Basically, if Arthur sent a monster drawing in, I wanted to put it in the series, which is where Mojo, Major Domo, Spiral, Quark, Gog and Magog all came from—out of Arthur’s wild imagination. Longshot’s glowing eye was inspired by a one-eyed cat that lived in my New York apartment. The cat’s single shining eye would startle me at night. Arthur incorporated this idea into Longshot’s look to indicate Longshot’s luck was kicking in. Arthur also wanted Longshot to have lots of pockets for his gear. This one eye glowing and multiple pockets went on to inspire the look of Shatterstar and Cable, future Marvel creations. He even gave Butch and his gang plenty of gear pockets. 

    Arthur’s gorgeously detailed artwork, inspired in part by the art of Michael Golden, Barry Windsor Smith and Walt Simonson, had a powerful impact on many comic artists of the 1990s, including the launch of Image Comics. His detailed line work gave the pages weight and joy, without ever overpowering the storytelling. It is no surprise that Arthur Adams continues, forty years late, to be an influential fan favorite with his spectacular covers for Marvel and other publishers.”