Great piece, JB.  I'm very impressed with the contrast between the heroes and everything else.  The Champions pop right off the page and are the obvious subject while the villains and background are there in a complimentary way that don't distract the eye or blend everything together into a bunch of lines(Perez).

Who is the female character at the bottom right of the picture(just under the Angel)?

All of this Queen talk reminds me that I've wondered if there is a CD soundtrack available of Highlander.  Anyone out there know?

Thanks again for sharing JB.

Man, I love Ernie Chan on that CHAMPIONS cover. Hercules looks like he's having WAY too much fun in the commission.

The Champions seems to be one of those teams that would work with someone who digs them, now, as opposed to when they were extant in the '70s. The stories weren't that great, and yet I still look at the Champions very fondly. I never even READ a Champions story, growing up, yet I consider them so unique to the 70s and what comics were about at that time. Strange.

I still say a kind of retro-70s Champions series, with art by Sal Buscema or somebody like that, could work today. And Black Goliath really should have been with the Champions. That's a perfect fit. Good call.

Which is kinda too bad --- tho if the Champions had been successful, I might never have found my way to the X-Men.

I was never a big Ghost Rider supporter. Despite his cool appearance, he's almost too oddball within the Champions context. GR's abilities are kind of vague, to me. He needed to be more, well, Wolverine-like in order to provide real contrast to "good" guys like Warren and Bobby. But GR is played more superhero than hellborn, so he's bland here.

Hercules is the resident hot-head and strong-man, so he's more than enough Ben Grimm/Hulk/uncontrollable aspect for the team. Ghost Rider is overkill, maybe?

I know it's probably sacrilege, but here's a What If scenario: Angel is relegated to the background; he's the money, he's the "figurehead", but he isn't involved in every Champions mission.

Ghost Rider is honorary member or whatever, but doesn't appear unless there's a mystical enemy. The group's "Dr. Strange".

Black Widow leads the team. She's the stradegist; and as far as Herc is concerned, she just needs to point him in a direction and set him off.

Hercules, Black Widow, Iceman.

What the team needs, I think, is Tigra and the Whizzer.

Tigra provides another woman for the Widow to link with, plus Tigra's far less "serious" and would provide a nice comedic relief on a team lacking humor. Plus the banter with Hercules would have been priceless.

The Whizzer gives the Champions a speedster, but also age and experience.

He's a tough guy, kind of in the Ted Grant mode. He's the kind of guy who gets in Herc's face when the Olympian is out of hand, snaps at Angel for being a prima donna, dislikes and distrusts the Widow for being a Russian "spy".

It would work, I'm telling you.

Most of the heavy line is done with the brush (B). The rest is M, except for the most distant background details, which are S.