Another from The Stack: Mr. District Attorney #1, Jan.–Feb. 1948. Unfortunately, this one was not only missing its cover but the first story of the issue (an 8-pager). Mr. District Attorney began as a radio program in 1939. It was also a short-lived TV show in 1952–53. Though the radio show ended in 1952, the comic continued until the early part of 1959.
Love the coloring on both these covers. It's a shame you don't see much of this type of approach anymore. Too often colorists (whether because they're instructed or by their own choice) try to make everything look as realistic as possible, even when it hurts the storytelling. Not sure who colored these—probably Adrienne Roy, though perhaps Tom Ziuko—but props to them.
The treatment on the second cover is interesting. Using a photograph for the background of a cover was nothing new in 1982, and neither was knocking out the black for another color (in this case it appears to be 75% magenta, 50% yellow), but the circular screen on top of the photo is a nice twist. A straight photo background with drawn figures on top can be quite jarring, but with the color knockout and the screen overlay, the background and foreground blend together pretty well here.
Just as a note -- this story reintroduced the original Mad Hatter, the one with the Alice In Wonderland fixation; the one who had plagued Batman since the 50's was a hat collector with an obsession for Batman's cowl, and was duly dispatched in this story.
Until this story was run, I was never aware there'd been an earlier Hatter.
Next up from The Stack, Crime and Punishment #36 (March 1951), with cover art by Charles Biro. Biro is best known as the creator of Airboy and as the writer and artist for “Daredevil” (the guy with the boomerang, not the guy with the horns on his head) in Daredevil Comics. Biro not only drew this cover, but wrote some of the stories inside.
Another interesting thing about this comic is that all the artists were allowed to sign their names in the opening splash panels of their stories—a rarity for sure. There’s a nice Al McWilliams story, and a Fred Guardineer story too. McWilliams is better known for his newspaper strip work than his comic book work, which is often overlooked. Guardineer wasn’t a great artist, and this story didn’t change my opinion. Still, he did a lot of work in comics, including “The Human Bomb” for Quality and “Zatara” for DC.
I used to wake up earlier on Saturday than I did on school days just so I could watch G-Force. This series wasn’t terrible, but I was a little disappointed overall. It was a lot better than this series though:
I used to wake up earlier on Saturday than I did on school days just so I could watch G-Force. This series wasn’t terrible, but I was a little disappointed overall. It was a lot better than this series though:
All the covers I posted yesterday were comics I got last night at Dollar Tree. My local Dollar Tree finally got in some packs of 2 comics and a random trading card. Say a buck on the box but rang up as 50 cents. So far thanks to my arm injury I haven't read any of them. But I figure the Battle of the Planets one will be given to my lil cousin.
Thought I'd take a look at some Marvels, and pick a few covers by the 'definitive' artists for each series.
For all that Spider-Man's had a number of artists on his books, the great and the mediocre, there is, in my mind, no other artist who defines the character so well as his original co-creator, Steve Ditko. He made the character spindly, awkward yet graceful, and kinda creepy looking... and those webs: spooky, but so strong that Spidey could hang from a single thread.
Gene Colan is the artist most associated with Daredevil, but I've always associated DD more with Wally Wood, the first regular ongoing artist on the series. Wood came on after Bill Everett (who did the origin issue) and his EC Comics compatriot Joe Orlando (who did the next couple of issues), redesigned DD's costume to the familiar red togs, and gave the art a solid gravitas it had been previously missing.
The Avengers actually has four artists I tend to consider as being the Avengers artists due to their long and historic associations with the title: Jack Kirby, Don Heck, George Perez, and the man who did the above cover featuring the first appearance of the Vision: John Buscema. A lot of great talent has since passed through those pages, but these four gents were the top of the list.
Deathlok was one of those 'small' strips that Marvel tried out in the 70's, that had a small but faithful following. Good sci-fi concepts and some solid art from an artist usually known for swiping from other artists. Cover by Deathlok's creator, Rich Buckler.
Comments
Gene Colan
Dick Giordano
Got this today for 50 cents.Mainly grabbed it cause of teh Colan artwork on the cover.
Gene Colan
Dick Giordano
Another I got for 50 cents today. And again it is cause of the Colan cover.
Joe Chiodo
Got this today for a buck.
Gene Colan
Dick Giordano
Gene Colan
Dick Giordano
Gene Colan
Dick Giordano
Jim Aparo
The treatment on the second cover is interesting. Using a photograph for the background of a cover was nothing new in 1982, and neither was knocking out the black for another color (in this case it appears to be 75% magenta, 50% yellow), but the circular screen on top of the photo is a nice twist. A straight photo background with drawn figures on top can be quite jarring, but with the color knockout and the screen overlay, the background and foreground blend together pretty well here.
Until this story was run, I was never aware there'd been an earlier Hatter.
D'Israeli
Another interesting thing about this comic is that all the artists were allowed to sign their names in the opening splash panels of their stories—a rarity for sure. There’s a nice Al McWilliams story, and a Fred Guardineer story too. McWilliams is better known for his newspaper strip work than his comic book work, which is often overlooked. Guardineer wasn’t a great artist, and this story didn’t change my opinion. Still, he did a lot of work in comics, including “The Human Bomb” for Quality and “Zatara” for DC.
Michael Atiyeh
Joshua Middleton
Dexter Vines
Got this today for 50 cents.
Steve Epting
Ben Lai
Ray Lai
Wilfredo Quintana
Alex Ross
Andrew Crossley
Fabrizio Fiorentino
Matt Ryan
Thought I'd take a look at some Marvels, and pick a few covers by the 'definitive' artists for each series.
For all that Spider-Man's had a number of artists on his books, the great and the mediocre, there is, in my mind, no other artist who defines the character so well as his original co-creator, Steve Ditko. He made the character spindly, awkward yet graceful, and kinda creepy looking... and those webs: spooky, but so strong that Spidey could hang from a single thread.
Gene Colan is the artist most associated with Daredevil, but I've always associated DD more with Wally Wood, the first regular ongoing artist on the series. Wood came on after Bill Everett (who did the origin issue) and his EC Comics compatriot Joe Orlando (who did the next couple of issues), redesigned DD's costume to the familiar red togs, and gave the art a solid gravitas it had been previously missing.
The Avengers actually has four artists I tend to consider as being the Avengers artists due to their long and historic associations with the title: Jack Kirby, Don Heck, George Perez, and the man who did the above cover featuring the first appearance of the Vision: John Buscema. A lot of great talent has since passed through those pages, but these four gents were the top of the list.
Deathlok was one of those 'small' strips that Marvel tried out in the 70's, that had a small but faithful following. Good sci-fi concepts and some solid art from an artist usually known for swiping from other artists. Cover by Deathlok's creator, Rich Buckler.