I had this Bob Oksner cover pop up today. I'm not knowledgeable about Oksner, but I've been really enjoying the covers I've been coming across!
Oksner was best known for working on DC's humor books during the 50's and 60's, most notably Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope, but also titles like Sgt Bilko, Angel And The Ape, and The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis. When those titles finally died out in the early 70's, Oksner was shuffled over to the Superman titles, where he often inked Curt Swan, but also pencilled some Supergirl and Lois Lane stories.
Given that DC is currently reviving and revamping the original Captain Marvel yet again, I thought it'd be fun to take a look at some earlier interpretations of the Big Red Cheese over the decades, beginning with...
...the very first issue of his own comic. The cover is by iconic Captain Marvel artist, C C Beck, but the entirety of the issue itself was by the classic team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, their only outing on the character and done while they were finishing up their run on Captain America for Timely Comics.
(And would you look at that? Ten cents for 64 pages! (Sigh) Those were the days...)
The first issue of Cap's DC Comics revival. Unable to use his name on the cover, due to Marvel Comics' trademarking the name for their spaceborn hero, Captain Mar-Vell, the series is now called Shazam! -- likely because Gomer Pyle was too slow to trademark it.
Cover by C C Beck again, but the Superman figure is drawn by Nick Cardy and Murphy Anderson.
Over the next few years, Cap would clash / team-up with the Man Of Steel in a handful of adventures, including this DC Comics Presents Annual by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Kane did a spectacular cover for this particular encounter.
After the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Roy Thomas tried his hand at reimagining the character for a modern audience, and reintroduced the character in a mini-series that takes place just before the Legends event. While it wasn't bad, the selection of Tom Mandrake, an otherwise excellent artist, was rather a poor pick for this series -- he really didn't have the feel for Captain Marvel. (John Byrne did a much healthier take on Cap during the Legends mini-series.) The mini-series didn't really take the world by storm, and Cap kinda fell into the background for a while, not popping up again until War Of The Gods...
In the 90's, following Cap's appearances in War Of The Gods, Jerry Ordway, hot off of his run on The Adventures Of Superman, took the character under his wing and retro-rebooted the series with the Power Of Shazam! graphic novel, and the subsequent ongoing series. The former book was chock full of beautiful Ordway art, while the latter series was done in collaboration with artist Pete Krause and a fine run of painted covers by Ordway. Ordway redefined Cap and Billy, as well as the entire cast of supporting cast and villains, without losing sight of the core sensibilities of either the main character or the series, and did a fine job of integrating them all into the general DCU.
In my opinion, this was the best of the Captain Marvel revivals to date, and set the bar with its high standards.
If you enjoy The Walking Dead or even just zombie fiction this trade is worth tracking down. I found my copy for under $8 with shipping and it is really good. Reprints lots of well done indy zombie comics.
Now I am not a Koontz fan. But found this hardcover for a buck earlier this year. It has great Brett Booth artwork,but the story is just starting to get good when the comic ends. Also the cover price is almost 23 bucks which is way too high for such a short comic.
Over the next few years, Cap would clash / team-up with the Man Of Steel in a handful of adventures, including this DC Comics Presents Annual by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Kane did a spectacular cover for this particular encounter.
Can't recommend this book high enough. Great read. Great art.
Oksner was best known for working on DC's humor books during the 50's and 60's, most notably Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope, but also titles like Sgt Bilko, Angel And The Ape, and The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis. When those titles finally died out in the early 70's, Oksner was shuffled over to the Superman titles, where he often inked Curt Swan, but also pencilled some Supergirl and Lois Lane stories.
@Chuck_Melville Yes, pretty much 100% of my knowledge of Oksner has come from this thread -- thanks! :-)
Here's one that popped up today -- a humor cover with pencils by Marie Severin and inks by Herb Trimpe. I interviewed Marie briefly for an article in Comic Book Artist years ago, and she was SO nice!
I was at the New York Comic-Con this past weekend and just got home this evening only to find out that Marc Swayze passed away on Sunday. Marc was a super-nice guy. I was fortunate enough to speak with him on the phone several times once he became a contributor to Alter Ego. My favorite conversation with him wasn't about comics at all, but about his days as a guitarist and his call to play for Bing Crosby at two USO shows during his Service days. Marc was the first artist on the “Mary Marvel” strip, so here are a couple of his covers for Fawcett:
Comments
Jim McLaughlin
This cover reminds me of the WWII segment in the Heavy Metal film.
Ken Rice
Supposedly this issue is mentioned in Seduction of the Innocent.
Jim McLaughlin
Dredd's smiling!
...the very first issue of his own comic. The cover is by iconic Captain Marvel artist, C C Beck, but the entirety of the issue itself was by the classic team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, their only outing on the character and done while they were finishing up their run on Captain America for Timely Comics.
(And would you look at that? Ten cents for 64 pages! (Sigh) Those were the days...)
This is several years later into his Fawcett Comics run. Cover, again, by C C Beck.
The first issue of Cap's DC Comics revival. Unable to use his name on the cover, due to Marvel Comics' trademarking the name for their spaceborn hero, Captain Mar-Vell, the series is now called Shazam! -- likely because Gomer Pyle was too slow to trademark it.
Cover by C C Beck again, but the Superman figure is drawn by Nick Cardy and Murphy Anderson.
Over the next few years, Cap would clash / team-up with the Man Of Steel in a handful of adventures, including this DC Comics Presents Annual by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Kane did a spectacular cover for this particular encounter.
After the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Roy Thomas tried his hand at reimagining the character for a modern audience, and reintroduced the character in a mini-series that takes place just before the Legends event. While it wasn't bad, the selection of Tom Mandrake, an otherwise excellent artist, was rather a poor pick for this series -- he really didn't have the feel for Captain Marvel. (John Byrne did a much healthier take on Cap during the Legends mini-series.) The mini-series didn't really take the world by storm, and Cap kinda fell into the background for a while, not popping up again until War Of The Gods...
In the 90's, following Cap's appearances in War Of The Gods, Jerry Ordway, hot off of his run on The Adventures Of Superman, took the character under his wing and retro-rebooted the series with the Power Of Shazam! graphic novel, and the subsequent ongoing series. The former book was chock full of beautiful Ordway art, while the latter series was done in collaboration with artist Pete Krause and a fine run of painted covers by Ordway. Ordway redefined Cap and Billy, as well as the entire cast of supporting cast and villains, without losing sight of the core sensibilities of either the main character or the series, and did a fine job of integrating them all into the general DCU.
In my opinion, this was the best of the Captain Marvel revivals to date, and set the bar with its high standards.
And that is the final issue of Beyond. If you are a fan of EC's horror stuff Beyond is worth tracking down.
If you enjoy The Walking Dead or even just zombie fiction this trade is worth tracking down. I found my copy for under $8 with shipping and it is really good. Reprints lots of well done indy zombie comics.
Now I am not a Koontz fan. But found this hardcover for a buck earlier this year. It has great Brett Booth artwork,but the story is just starting to get good when the comic ends. Also the cover price is almost 23 bucks which is way too high for such a short comic.
Great iconic image.
Another great image.
Here's one that popped up today -- a humor cover with pencils by Marie Severin and inks by Herb Trimpe. I interviewed Marie briefly for an article in Comic Book Artist years ago, and she was SO nice!