The first appearance of E-Man by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton, a very fun book from a usually underwhelming publisher (Charlton), with art by then-newcomer Staton. I'm not sure if Cuti actually contributed to the cover art here, though his name is in the signature box with Staton's.
At the time, as Staton began drawing attention and getting work from the Big Boys at DC and Marvel, the fans I knew had rather mixed reactions to his work. Some disliked him outright, declaring his work too cartoony. (I hate that particular usage of the word, incidentally; makes 'cartoon' sound like an insult or something.) I enjoyed Staton's work, then and now (see his current work in the syndicated Dick Tracy strip!) because of his ease at moving back and forth from straight adventure to outright cartoon humor; I also like the energy in his work, and that lovely, crisp ink line (which we seldom see, since most of his work is inked by others). This early E-Man work was among some of his best.
By this point Carmine wasn't so much designing the covers for Nick to follow. He would give Nick an initial sketch idea, then they'd go back and forth a bit, bouncing ideas off one another. And even before that point, Nick would often deviate from Carmine’s layout.
This is one of Nick's favorite covers actually, and the design is his. We ran it in the Nick Cardy: Behind the Art book he and I did. This is what he said about it: “I enjoyed playing with the menace behind Batman. This background was done in black-and-white, but I asked them to do it in a deep color, and they had it separated to come out as purple.”
Actually, thinking more about it, I got the first paragraph a little mixed up. In the beginning Carmine would just give Nick a layout sketch for the cover, which Nick would often change, sometime dramatically. But that didn't last very long. For the vast majority of the covers, Nick would go to Carmine's office, and they'd discuss ideas for the cover. They’d go back and forth for about 20 minutes, then Carmine would make the sketch based on the idea they'd settled on, and Nick would take it home. Sometimes he'd follow it fairly closely, but more often than not he'd deviate from it to varying degrees.
Here's a story I've heard from both Nick (directly) and Carmine (indirectly): This was not long after Carmine was made editor-in-chief. Nick had been working for DC for several years at the same rate at this point, so he asked for a raise. When Irwin Donenfeld heard this, he said, “It's time we cleared out some of the dead wood around here,” and didn’t give Nick the raise. So Nick decided to do one last spectacular job, then quit. This:
When Nick told Carmine he was quitting, Carmine was able to convince him to stay, and he convinced Donenfeld that it would be a mistake to get rid of him. Before much longer, Donenfeld was out, and Carmine was made president of DC. Nick went on to draw more than 300 covers for DC.
The first appearance of E-Man by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton, a very fun book from a usually underwhelming publisher (Charlton), with art by then-newcomer Staton. I'm not sure if Cuti actually contributed to the cover art here, though his name is in the signature box with Staton's.
At the time, as Staton began drawing attention and getting work from the Big Boys at DC and Marvel, the fans I knew had rather mixed reactions to his work. Some disliked him outright, declaring his work too cartoony. (I hate that particular usage of the word, incidentally; makes 'cartoon' sound like an insult or something.) I enjoyed Staton's work, then and now (see his current work in the syndicated Dick Tracy strip!) because of his ease at moving back and forth from straight adventure to outright cartoon humor; I also like the energy in his work, and that lovely, crisp ink line (which we seldom see, since most of his work is inked by others). This early E-Man work was among some of his best.
I'm not sure if Cuti (pronounced Cutty) penciled the cover or simply gave Joe a layout sketch. Cuti was an artist as well as a writer, and instead of giving Joe written full scripts, he would give him sketched out pages with the text and dialogue written into the panels. Joe was free to adapt those layouts however he saw fit.
Another fun but short lived Warren series.Want to say this replaced The Rook.
Very cool. You don't see the Goblin mags very often, and I tend to forget about that one. There were only those three issues, and they had Nebres interiors too. The first issue had a story drawn by Michael Golden and Nebres.
Another fun but short lived Warren series.Want to say this replaced The Rook.
Very cool. You don't see the Goblin mags very often, and I tend to forget about that one. There were only those three issues, and they had Nebres interiors too. The first issue had a story drawn by Michael Golden and Nebres.
I picked up issue 2 off the newstand when I was younger. Then years later at a con got the other two issues.
The first appearance of E-Man by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton, a very fun book from a usually underwhelming publisher (Charlton), with art by then-newcomer Staton. I'm not sure if Cuti actually contributed to the cover art here, though his name is in the signature box with Staton's.
At the time, as Staton began drawing attention and getting work from the Big Boys at DC and Marvel, the fans I knew had rather mixed reactions to his work. Some disliked him outright, declaring his work too cartoony. (I hate that particular usage of the word, incidentally; makes 'cartoon' sound like an insult or something.) I enjoyed Staton's work, then and now (see his current work in the syndicated Dick Tracy strip!) because of his ease at moving back and forth from straight adventure to outright cartoon humor; I also like the energy in his work, and that lovely, crisp ink line (which we seldom see, since most of his work is inked by others). This early E-Man work was among some of his best.
I'm not sure if Cuti (pronounced Cutty) penciled the cover or simply gave Joe a layout sketch. Cuti was an artist as well as a writer, and instead of giving Joe written full scripts, he would give him sketched out pages with the text and dialogue written into the panels. Joe was free to adapt those layouts however he saw fit.
Sounds about right. I knew Cuti was also an artist because I'd seen samples of his work here and there over the years, and we'd published a Moonie mini-series of his at MU Press, one of the last things we'd done before we closed down.
This was, to my knowledge, the first and only crossover story done by DC during the 60's: a two-part team-up of the Challengers Of The Unknown and the Doom Patrol -- not in Brave & Bold, but began in the Chall's book (above)... and concluded in the DP (below).
Arnold Drake, the writer of both books, was something of an innovator and tried things that most of the rest of DC wouldn't try at that time. This was certainly unusual, as guest appearances of heroes from other books were rare (and usually the Big Guns of the JLA, like Superman & Batman or Flash & Green Lantern), and never, so far as I know, a story that crossed from one title to another. (Collectors can find both issues in The Doom Patrol Archives, volume 3.)
Bill Mantlo, who was writing both of Marvel's team-up books during the 70's, obliged the readers by teaming up the mainstay heroes of each title:
Marvel Team-Up cover by Gil Kane & Joe Sinnott, Marvel Two-In-One cover by Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnot.
Incidentally, it seems to me that there must have been a scheduling goof somewhere along the planning, since the two regular artists (Sal Buscema and Ron Wilson) for these books wound up getting switched for this one story. I think the first part was intended for Marvel Two-In-One, but something must have missed a deadline and the story was switched to Marvel Team-Up instead.
Finally, a more unusual -- though not necessarily so -- crossover: Dr Strange and Dracula!
The covers, like the stories, were drawn by Gene Colan & Tom Palmer. Unlike the other crossovers, this one had two writers: the Tomb Of Dracula chapter was written by Marv Wolfman, and the Doctor Strange conclusion was by Steve Englehart.
1949. Yes, long before he menaced Batman and Robin, Crazy Quilt was a nemesis of the Boy Commandos. Carmine drew this cover while working for the Simon & Kirby studio, and you can see Kirby’s influence.
1950. Here he’s fallen back to his Milt Caniff influence, which dominated his earliest work.
1951. It was around this time that Carmine began studying the work of Frank Lloyd Wright while taking classes at the Art Students League under William C. McNulty, and he became much more interested in design than in figure drawing.
1953. There's perhaps a little too much negative space here, but he had to work around a huge logo. Though Carmine’s work was still evolving during this time, Sy Barry’s heavy inking always brought it back to the DC house style.
For those of you that may be old enough to remember, how popular were the Doom Patrol during their early days? About as popular as now, or moreso? Just curious! I'm a fan, and have slowly been making my way through the older stuff.
For those of you that may be old enough to remember, how popular were the Doom Patrol during their early days? About as popular as now, or moreso? Just curious! I'm a fan, and have slowly been making my way through the older stuff.
Kinda hard to gauge... I know I snapped them up whenever I could find them, but others I knew either got them or they didn't; there didn't seem to be much of a consensus among the crowd I knew. They were DC's version of the X-Men, having been created and developed at about the same time, and had kind of the same vibe to the stories. There was more of a Marvel flavor to the series as well, unlike most of the DC books, with the heroes squabbling with one another and even being outright unpleasant on occasion... and there was the 'freak' angle, which paralleled the 'mutant' angle of the X-Men. But I think it had only a cult following at best, and poor sales eventually did it in. But the series went out with a bang, though, with the DP sacrificing themselves to save the population of a small town. Heroes didn't often did back then, and the story -- what was thought then to be their last story -- was a standout.
For those of you that may be old enough to remember, how popular were the Doom Patrol during their early days? About as popular as now, or moreso? Just curious! I'm a fan, and have slowly been making my way through the older stuff.
Kinda hard to gauge... I know I snapped them up whenever I could find them, but others I knew either got them or they didn't; there didn't seem to be much of a consensus among the crowd I knew. They were DC's version of the X-Men, having been created and developed at about the same time, and had kind of the same vibe to the stories. There was more of a Marvel flavor to the series as well, unlike most of the DC books, with the heroes squabbling with one another and even being outright unpleasant on occasion... and there was the 'freak' angle, which paralleled the 'mutant' angle of the X-Men. But I think it had only a cult following at best, and poor sales eventually did it in. But the series went out with a bang, though, with the DP sacrificing themselves to save the population of a small town. Heroes didn't often die back then, and the story -- what was thought then to be their last story -- was a standout.
Comments
The first appearance of E-Man by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton, a very fun book from a usually underwhelming publisher (Charlton), with art by then-newcomer Staton. I'm not sure if Cuti actually contributed to the cover art here, though his name is in the signature box with Staton's.
At the time, as Staton began drawing attention and getting work from the Big Boys at DC and Marvel, the fans I knew had rather mixed reactions to his work. Some disliked him outright, declaring his work too cartoony. (I hate that particular usage of the word, incidentally; makes 'cartoon' sound like an insult or something.) I enjoyed Staton's work, then and now (see his current work in the syndicated Dick Tracy strip!) because of his ease at moving back and forth from straight adventure to outright cartoon humor; I also like the energy in his work, and that lovely, crisp ink line (which we seldom see, since most of his work is inked by others). This early E-Man work was among some of his best.
This is one of Nick's favorite covers actually, and the design is his. We ran it in the Nick Cardy: Behind the Art book he and I did. This is what he said about it: “I enjoyed playing with the menace behind Batman. This background was done in black-and-white, but I asked them to do it in a deep color, and they had it separated to come out as purple.”
Here's a story I've heard from both Nick (directly) and Carmine (indirectly): This was not long after Carmine was made editor-in-chief. Nick had been working for DC for several years at the same rate at this point, so he asked for a raise. When Irwin Donenfeld heard this, he said, “It's time we cleared out some of the dead wood around here,” and didn’t give Nick the raise. So Nick decided to do one last spectacular job, then quit. This:
When Nick told Carmine he was quitting, Carmine was able to convince him to stay, and he convinced Donenfeld that it would be a mistake to get rid of him. Before much longer, Donenfeld was out, and Carmine was made president of DC. Nick went on to draw more than 300 covers for DC.
Rudy Nebres
Another fun but short lived Warren series.Want to say this replaced The Rook.
Rudy Nebres
Rudy Nebres
This was the first Will Eisner I remember seeing.
Another Eisner cover.
This was, to my knowledge, the first and only crossover story done by DC during the 60's: a two-part team-up of the Challengers Of The Unknown and the Doom Patrol -- not in Brave & Bold, but began in the Chall's book (above)... and concluded in the DP (below).
Arnold Drake, the writer of both books, was something of an innovator and tried things that most of the rest of DC wouldn't try at that time. This was certainly unusual, as guest appearances of heroes from other books were rare (and usually the Big Guns of the JLA, like Superman & Batman or Flash & Green Lantern), and never, so far as I know, a story that crossed from one title to another. (Collectors can find both issues in The Doom Patrol Archives, volume 3.)
Covers by Bob Brown.
Daredevil cover by Gene Colan & Tom Palmer; Ghost Rider cover by Gil Kane & Klaus Janson.
Marvel Team-Up cover by Gil Kane & Joe Sinnott, Marvel Two-In-One cover by Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnot.
Incidentally, it seems to me that there must have been a scheduling goof somewhere along the planning, since the two regular artists (Sal Buscema and Ron Wilson) for these books wound up getting switched for this one story. I think the first part was intended for Marvel Two-In-One, but something must have missed a deadline and the story was switched to Marvel Team-Up instead.
The covers, like the stories, were drawn by Gene Colan & Tom Palmer. Unlike the other crossovers, this one had two writers: the Tomb Of Dracula chapter was written by Marv Wolfman, and the Doctor Strange conclusion was by Steve Englehart.
1949. Yes, long before he menaced Batman and Robin, Crazy Quilt was a nemesis of the Boy Commandos. Carmine drew this cover while working for the Simon & Kirby studio, and you can see Kirby’s influence.
1950. Here he’s fallen back to his Milt Caniff influence, which dominated his earliest work.
1951. It was around this time that Carmine began studying the work of Frank Lloyd Wright while taking classes at the Art Students League under William C. McNulty, and he became much more interested in design than in figure drawing.
1953. There's perhaps a little too much negative space here, but he had to work around a huge logo. Though Carmine’s work was still evolving during this time, Sy Barry’s heavy inking always brought it back to the DC house style.
Jack Abel
Tom F. Sutton
Skywald's short lived Heap revival.
Jack Katz
This is the final issue of Jungle Adventures from Skywald.
Maelo Cintron
Vincente Segrelles
The final issue of Nightmare which was Skywald's answer to Creepy and Eerie.
Sebastia Boada
Heh.
"Pot-head."
Frank Thorne
Only one issue of this series came out from Atlas/Seaboard. It was from what I remember pretty subpar WWII stories.
Franke Thorne