Happy 53rd birthday to David Mazzucchelli! We’ve posted several Mazzucchelli covers in this thread already, but I’ll try to show a few different ones.
His 3rd professional cover, and one of his best: Daredevil #212.
The coloring on this one really helps convey a sense of depth.
I’m betting he used a toothbrush to get the splatter effect in this one. For those who don’t know, it’s a common trick where you dip the bristles in ink, then rub your thumb across them while aiming at the board. The result is a fine mist of ink which gives a light splatter like the one seen here.
This extreme close-up is a pretty bold choice for a cover image. I remember seeing it on the spinner rack, and it really stood out.
Perhaps my favorite single issue of anything Frank Miller has been involved with.
Not as iconic as the other “Year One” covers, but I love the composition in this one.
That ink spatter technique can be quite messy until you get it mastered; I speak from experience. The inker I remember who used it quite often was Sid Greene, who used it quite often while inking Gil Kane's Green Lantern stories during the 60's. It added a bit of textural punch to the art, and it got me interested in experimenting with it. I never did master it, and I eventually got tired of the mess I was making; it takes a deft hand, and mine weren't quite deft enough.
That ink spatter technique can be quite messy until you get it mastered; I speak from experience. The inker I remember who used it quite often was Sid Greene, who used it quite often while inking Gil Kane's Green Lantern stories during the 60's. It added a bit of textural punch to the art, and it got me interested in experimenting with it. I never did master it, and I eventually got tired of the mess I was making; it takes a deft hand, and mine weren't quite deft enough.
Al Williamson, among others, used the technique a lot to create star fields for his sci-fi comics. Of course, there he was dipping the toothbrush in white ink and flicking over black.
A friend of mine who does it says the trick is to not get too much ink on the brush and to cover up as much of what you don’t want splattered as possible. Even so, there will always be some amount of clean-up involved—reinking or whiting out.
Happy birthday to Paul Pope! I became a fan of Paul’s work back around 1995 or so when I first saw THB. He’s one of the few creators whose books I will order sight unseen, not only because I love his super-expressive artwork, but because he seems to enjoy the same things I enjoy. The sci-fi elements he puts into his stories are right up my alley, and I’ve yet to be disappointed by anything he’s done.
This recent book collects a lot of his early work that was serialized in Dark Horse Presents and small stuff from various indie anthologies, plus his unpublished manga work.
His first mainstream work was for this issue of Batman Chronicles back in ’98.
Happy 87th birthday to Russ Heath! Heath got his first professional job in 1942 during the summer vacation between his freshman and sophomore years of high school. But he only did a couple of assignments before being drafted into the Air Force during his senior year, so he didn’t become a full-time artist until 1947 when he took on a staff job at Timely, where he became a regular artist on the “Kid Colt” feature. His first cover was for Kid Colt Outlaw #7 (Nov. 1949).
While he spent most of his early years working on westerns (he drew great horses), in 1951 he switched to mainly working on horror and war books, such as Marvel Tales #104 (Dec. 1951).
The war comics, of course, would become his calling card. He was a stickler for authenticity when it came to weapons, uniforms, etc.
Russ Heath’s first DC work showed up in 1954. He was still getting the bulk of his assignments from Marvel, but over the next three years that would slowly change. His first cover for DC was Star Spangled War Stories #38 (Oct. 1955).
His last cover for Marvel, outside of a couple of jobs in 1959 and 1960, was Marines in Action #9 (Nov. 1956).
I wonder if this Nov. 1959 Gunner and Sarge cover won Heath the Sea Devils job that would come the following year.
During his first few years at DC, Heath didn’t do nearly as many covers as he had done at Marvel, but when he did get a job, he typically put out fantastic stuff like this one:
For my money, Heath’s work on Sea Devils is among the best of his career. Great stuff.
It's taking longer and longer to load this thread, as the forum seems to assign a certain number of posts per page regardless of how deep (tall? full?) the individual posts are.
It would also make responding to particular images a bit easier.
By “we,” I assume you mean me. I hadn't even noticed the set number of posts per page. Sure, I can keep the posts down to one (or maybe two).
You know, it seems like there are only five or six people reading this thread these days. And @Caliban and I are the only ones who have posted images for quite some time. I want to keep the thread going, but it would be great if others would chip in again.
By “we,” I assume you mean me. I hadn't even noticed the set number of posts per page. Sure, I can keep the posts down to one (or maybe two).
You know, it seems like there are only five or six people reading this thread these days. And @Caliban and I are the only ones who have posted images for quite some time. I want to keep the thread going, but it would be great if others would chip in again.
By “we,” I assume you mean me. I hadn't even noticed the set number of posts per page. Sure, I can keep the posts down to one (or maybe two).
You know, it seems like there are only five or six people reading this thread these days. And @Caliban and I are the only ones who have posted images for quite some time. I want to keep the thread going, but it would be great if others would chip in again.
Well, I hope to be able to "we" again soon.
Cool!
The more posters we have, the better the variety we’re likely to have. Spice of life, and all that.
Today marks the birthday of one of the medium’s greatest innovators and creators—Harvey Kurtzman (1924-93)! Kurtzman began his comic book career in 1942 working in the studio of Louis Ferstadt, who among other things packaged comics for Ace, Gilberton, and one or two other publishers. Kurtzman’s first assignment was the Classic Comics adaptation of Moby Dick, but it’s unclear if he did the full job himself, or was one of many hands. It’s more likely that this cover for Super-Mystery Comics vol. 3, #3 (Jan. 1943) is his first full cover.
Comments
His 3rd professional cover, and one of his best: Daredevil #212.
The coloring on this one really helps convey a sense of depth.
I’m betting he used a toothbrush to get the splatter effect in this one. For those who don’t know, it’s a common trick where you dip the bristles in ink, then rub your thumb across them while aiming at the board. The result is a fine mist of ink which gives a light splatter like the one seen here.
This extreme close-up is a pretty bold choice for a cover image. I remember seeing it on the spinner rack, and it really stood out.
Perhaps my favorite single issue of anything Frank Miller has been involved with.
Not as iconic as the other “Year One” covers, but I love the composition in this one.
A friend of mine who does it says the trick is to not get too much ink on the brush and to cover up as much of what you don’t want splattered as possible. Even so, there will always be some amount of clean-up involved—reinking or whiting out.
This recent book collects a lot of his early work that was serialized in Dark Horse Presents and small stuff from various indie anthologies, plus his unpublished manga work.
His first mainstream work was for this issue of Batman Chronicles back in ’98.
His first Vertigo mini-series:
More tomorrow.
Paul did a short run of Catwoman covers following Darwyn Cooke’s run on the title.
Wraparound cover for 100% #3.
An awesome fill-in issue from an awesome series.
I miss Solo.
I like Year 100 much more than Dark Knight Returns. Well worth checking out.
While he spent most of his early years working on westerns (he drew great horses), in 1951 he switched to mainly working on horror and war books, such as Marvel Tales #104 (Dec. 1951).
The war comics, of course, would become his calling card. He was a stickler for authenticity when it came to weapons, uniforms, etc.
Tomorrow: DC!
His last cover for Marvel, outside of a couple of jobs in 1959 and 1960, was Marines in Action #9 (Nov. 1956).
I wonder if this Nov. 1959 Gunner and Sarge cover won Heath the Sea Devils job that would come the following year.
During his first few years at DC, Heath didn’t do nearly as many covers as he had done at Marvel, but when he did get a job, he typically put out fantastic stuff like this one:
For my money, Heath’s work on Sea Devils is among the best of his career. Great stuff.
His Haunted Tank covers are fantastic too.
Could we try keeping one image per post?
It's taking longer and longer to load this thread, as the forum seems to assign a certain number of posts per page regardless of how deep (tall? full?) the individual posts are.
It would also make responding to particular images a bit easier.
You know, it seems like there are only five or six people reading this thread these days. And @Caliban and I are the only ones who have posted images for quite some time. I want to keep the thread going, but it would be great if others would chip in again.
Might even chip in again. If you care to see some European covers as well.
edit: European other than Dredd ;)
Cool!
The more posters we have, the better the variety we’re likely to have. Spice of life, and all that.
from 2011AD here is Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague
Since I haven't posted any covers in a while, let's review the gorgeous David Aja/Matt Holligsworth Hawkguy covers.