Happy birthday to Trevor von Eeden! Von Eeden’s first professional work was co-creating/designing/penciling Black Lightning. And he was only 16 when he was hired for the job! His first cover—and of a only a few he’s done over his career—was Black Lightning #4 (Sept. 1977), with inks by Vince Coletta.
Shortly after he entering the industry, he joined Continuity Studios and started doing advertising work alongside his comic work. In the ’80s, he concentrated more on storyboarding for various ad agencies.
Original cover art for Batman Annual #8 (1982), with color by Lynn Varley. It was with his interiors for this story that he began to change his art style.
He did some nice work on the 1983 Green Arrow mini-series, though Giordano softened up his new look a bit in the inking.
But the Thriller mini-series, his tour de force (too bad he wasn’t able to finish it himself—though I never mind seeing more Alex Niño), was pure von Eeden.
Surprisingly, he did very little work for Continuity Comics. This cover was inked by Neal Adams.
He did some nice work for the short-lived 1993 Black Canary series, but unfortunately the stories were rather mediocre.
And his most recent work, the biographic story of turn-of-the-century heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson.
Von Eeden did a lot of good stuff. I loved his Green Arrow mini and wish that could have expanded into a regular series (Mike Grell's Longbow Hunters notwithstanding), and I agree that Thriller was a tour de force; what a great series that was!
I would say happy birthday to underground comix legend S. Clay Wilson, but I don’t think I can post a single one of his covers. So instead I'll say happy birthday to @Chuck_Melville!
Von Eeden did a lot of good stuff. I loved his Green Arrow mini and wish that could have expanded into a regular series (Mike Grell's Longbow Hunters notwithstanding), and I agree that Thriller was a tour de force; what a great series that was!
I'm totally with you both on these. Loved his Green Arrow, and Thriller is one of my all-time favourite comic series. He did some truly stunning work in that book!
I would say happy birthday to underground comix legend S. Clay Wilson, but I don’t think I can post a single one of his covers. So instead I'll say happy birthday to @Chuck_Melville!
Shucks, I'm honored. Thanks.
Even the ComicMix website managed to list me in their Birthday List. :)
I would say happy birthday to underground comix legend S. Clay Wilson, but I don’t think I can post a single one of his covers. So instead I'll say happy birthday to @Chuck_Melville!
Shucks, I'm honored. Thanks.
Even the ComicMix website managed to list me in their Birthday List. :)
Today marks the birthday of Ernie Chan (1940-2012), a.k.a. Ernie Chua. The first issue of Batman I bought had a Chan cover. I always liked that cover. He did the interior story too.
I got the next issue as well.
Chan also did the cover for the first Flash comic I bought...
...and my first Batman Family.
Chan was never my favorite of the Filipino artists—he’s not even in my Top 5—but he was a very visible part of the early years of my comic book reading.
Today is also the birthday of Jesse Marsh (1907-66). Though Marsh started out doing animation work for Disney, he soon switched to comics. He worked for Dell/Western his entire comic book career, primarily as an artist for their Tarzan books. In fact, he was the first artist to draw original Tarzan stories for comics—the prior stories were all reprints of the newspaper strips. But his biggest claim to fame was as the co-creator of the “Brothers of the Spear” back-up series in Tarzan.
For all the work he did, he drew very few covers. His style just wasn't well suited for it. His first cover was for Four Color #75 (June 1945), which featured singing cowboy Gene Autry. Marsh would go on to draw a lot of Autry stories, second only to his Tarzan output.
His first Tarzan cover would come a couple of years later with Four Color #134 (Feb. 1947).
Marsh also drew the first seven covers of Tarzan’s solo book.
He didn’t draw another cover until the next Burroughs property came along, John Carter of Mars. Marsh drew the cover for Carter’s second appearance, Four Color #437 (Nov. 1952), and for the three issues of his 1964 solo title.
Today’s birthday boy is Dick Sprang (1915-2000)! Sprang, of course, is best known for not being known. As one of Bob Kane’s main ghost artists in the ’40s, ’50s, and through 1963 when he retired, Sprang never got to sign his name to his most visible work, though he did sign his stories in Real Fact Comics. It was only when he started making convention appearances in the ’70s that fans began to recognize the true face behind the Golden Age and early Silver Age Batman.
Sprang started working professionally as a teenager doing local sign, illustration, and advertising work. In 1936 he moved to New York and started freelancing for the pulp magazines, as well as doing some assistant work on a few King Features newspaper strips. In 1938 he even wrote some Lone Ranger radio scripts.
But from 1941-1963, Sprang primarily drew Batman stories for the comics and the newspaper strip. His Batman work started appearing in print in 1943, with Batman #18, and his first full cover was the following issue Batman #19 (Oct.-Nov. 1943).
Oh, and it’s Charles Paul Wilson III’s birthday today. He draws one of my favorite books, The Stuff of Legend. Check it out if you haven't already done so.
I'm a little late—just got back from spending the weekend surrounded by Lego—but a slightly belated happy birthday to Charlie Adlard. These days everyone knows him from Walking Dead, but he had a long career leading up to that. Some non-WD highlights:
The earliest cover credit I could find, Incomplete Death’s Head #6 (June 1993). Not a bad start, yes?
A creator-owned mini-series from 1998-99, Nobody. Charlie did the coloring as well on this one.
Actually, the only thing I know Adlard from (since I don't read the Walking Dead) is from his work on X-Files back when it was published by Topps. Great stuff, as I recall. (But no covers that I can post, since those were all done by Miriam Lee.)
Actually, the only thing I know Adlard from (since I don't read the Walking Dead) is from his work on X-Files back when it was published by Topps. Great stuff, as I recall. (But no covers that I can post, since those were all done by Miriam Lee.)
Well, being a Brit, he spent much of his early years working for Marvel UK and 2000 AD. And a lot of his US work was done for indie publishers like Oni Press and AiT/Planet Lar, though he has done a decent amount of work for Marvel and DC—mostly mini-series and fill-ins.
That Incomplete Death’s Head cover reminded me of how good that original 1998 10-issue Death’s Head series was. The character was created for Marvel UK’s Transformers comic, but to avoid a copyright dispute with Hasbro, he first appeared in a one-page strip that was published in various Marvel UK comics.
It was a fun series—not at all like the drek that came later with Death’s Head II and all its spin-offs. I need to go back and reread it to see if it holds up, but going by memory, If you can find it—I’ve never seen it at conventions, and the only reason I have it is because I bought it, and the graphic novel, as it came out—I highly recommend it.
Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
Death’s Head had met the Doctor in the Doctor’s title and had come off the worse for it. Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
I came across an L. B. Cole cover last night in my reading. Cole—not to be confused with Jack Cole—is a name most Golden Age fans will recognize, but he doesn’t get nearly the attention he deserves. Throughout most of the ’40s, he not only was a top artist, but he ran his own studio (1942-48). In 1949 he and a lawyer by the name of Gerhard Kramer bought the properties of Novelty Press (which he worked for) and became publishers under the Star Publications banner.
Unfortunately, Star was one of the publishers blasted by the 1954 Senate juvenile delinquency hearings that resulted in the Comics Code, and then in 1955 Kramer died. As a result, Star went under. In the early ’60s, Cole served as art director for Dell before leaving comics to work in the educational film industry.
I think Cole gets overlooked because he never created any lasting character. Star’s biggest property was Blue Bolt, which is best known for having been created by Joe Simon and for the artwork of Jack Kirby—but that was under the Novelty Press banner. Star did have some talented artists besides Cole himself—Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, and Wally Wood did work for them—but without the lasting characters, their output has faded into obscurity.
Interestingly, L. B. Cole drew two feature characters who shared his last name—Dick Cole and Young King Cole. As far as I know he didn't have a hand in creating either character, but both were created for Novelty while Cole was working there, and when he later bought Novelty’s properties, both characters were included and ran in Star’s publications.
Novelty Press’ Criminals on the Run vol. 4, #3 (Oct.-Nov. 1948). Young King Cole is blowing the alpenhorn.
Novelty Press’ 4Most vol. 7, #4 (Jul.-Aug. 1949). That’s Dick Cole lying unconscious in the foreground.
Star Publications’ Dick Cole #10 (Jun.-Jul. 1950).
Comments
Shortly after he entering the industry, he joined Continuity Studios and started doing advertising work alongside his comic work. In the ’80s, he concentrated more on storyboarding for various ad agencies.
Original cover art for Batman Annual #8 (1982), with color by Lynn Varley. It was with his interiors for this story that he began to change his art style.
He did some nice work on the 1983 Green Arrow mini-series, though Giordano softened up his new look a bit in the inking.
But the Thriller mini-series, his tour de force (too bad he wasn’t able to finish it himself—though I never mind seeing more Alex Niño), was pure von Eeden.
Surprisingly, he did very little work for Continuity Comics. This cover was inked by Neal Adams.
He did some nice work for the short-lived 1993 Black Canary series, but unfortunately the stories were rather mediocre.
And his most recent work, the biographic story of turn-of-the-century heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson.
Even the ComicMix website managed to list me in their Birthday List. :)
I got the next issue as well.
Chan also did the cover for the first Flash comic I bought...
...and my first Batman Family.
Chan was never my favorite of the Filipino artists—he’s not even in my Top 5—but he was a very visible part of the early years of my comic book reading.
For all the work he did, he drew very few covers. His style just wasn't well suited for it. His first cover was for Four Color #75 (June 1945), which featured singing cowboy Gene Autry. Marsh would go on to draw a lot of Autry stories, second only to his Tarzan output.
His first Tarzan cover would come a couple of years later with Four Color #134 (Feb. 1947).
Marsh also drew the first seven covers of Tarzan’s solo book.
He didn’t draw another cover until the next Burroughs property came along, John Carter of Mars. Marsh drew the cover for Carter’s second appearance, Four Color #437 (Nov. 1952), and for the three issues of his 1964 solo title.
Sprang started working professionally as a teenager doing local sign, illustration, and advertising work. In 1936 he moved to New York and started freelancing for the pulp magazines, as well as doing some assistant work on a few King Features newspaper strips. In 1938 he even wrote some Lone Ranger radio scripts.
But from 1941-1963, Sprang primarily drew Batman stories for the comics and the newspaper strip. His Batman work started appearing in print in 1943, with Batman #18, and his first full cover was the following issue Batman #19 (Oct.-Nov. 1943).
Inks by Stan Kaye.
But for today, as is usually the case, it was more like this:
Adventure Comics cover by Curt Swan and George Klein. LSH cover by Keith Giffen.
I want that action figure
The earliest cover credit I could find, Incomplete Death’s Head #6 (June 1993). Not a bad start, yes?
A creator-owned mini-series from 1998-99, Nobody. Charlie did the coloring as well on this one.
It was a fun series—not at all like the drek that came later with Death’s Head II and all its spin-offs. I need to go back and reread it to see if it holds up, but going by memory, If you can find it—I’ve never seen it at conventions, and the only reason I have it is because I bought it, and the graphic novel, as it came out—I highly recommend it.
Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
Death’s Head had met the Doctor in the Doctor’s title and had come off the worse for it. Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
Pencils by Bryan Hitch, inks by Mark Farmer.
Unfortunately, Star was one of the publishers blasted by the 1954 Senate juvenile delinquency hearings that resulted in the Comics Code, and then in 1955 Kramer died. As a result, Star went under. In the early ’60s, Cole served as art director for Dell before leaving comics to work in the educational film industry.
I think Cole gets overlooked because he never created any lasting character. Star’s biggest property was Blue Bolt, which is best known for having been created by Joe Simon and for the artwork of Jack Kirby—but that was under the Novelty Press banner. Star did have some talented artists besides Cole himself—Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, and Wally Wood did work for them—but without the lasting characters, their output has faded into obscurity.
Power Comics #4 (Sept. 1944).
Mask Comics #1 (Feb.-Mar. 1945).
Catman Comics #29 (Aug. 1945).
Suspense Comics #11 (June 1946).
Smash Hit Sports Comics vol. 2, #1 (Jan. 1949).
More tomorrow.
Novelty Press’ Criminals on the Run vol. 4, #3 (Oct.-Nov. 1948). Young King Cole is blowing the alpenhorn.
Novelty Press’ 4Most vol. 7, #4 (Jul.-Aug. 1949). That’s Dick Cole lying unconscious in the foreground.
Star Publications’ Dick Cole #10 (Jun.-Jul. 1950).
More tomorrow.