One of the things I loved about Romita's early work on ASM was that it wasn't far removed from his romance work. Ditko had a spastic energy in the Spider-man scenes that has rarely been matched, but it was the Romita era that made me fall in love with Pete's civilian life. It was so melodramatic... something I didn't see in other books from that time period.
Romita quickly became one of DC’s go-to artists for their romance books, and he ended up penciling a lot of covers for them in 1960. I chose Girls’ Romances #70 (Sept. 1960) for the uncanny Peter Parker lookalike in the foreground.
This had to be one of my top 10 favorite comics when I was a kid. Loved. It.
Cover by Gil Kane with inks by Frank Giacoia. Interiors were written by Len Wein with art by Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson inks.
Nebulon is working with the Squadron Sinister, and Nighthawk ends up siding with the Defenders...and eventually joins the team.
I think Giacoia was probably Gil Kane’s best inker, even better than Murphy Anderson. Giacoia was able to add texture and depth to Kane’s linework without losing Kane’s chiseled style. The result is much more dynamic looking than what Murphy did over Kane.
I tend to like when other pencillers would ink Kane. Especially Romita Sr. and Cockrum. If you look at Hulk's right leg. Another penciller would have fixed the anatomy or the folds on the pants so that the leg wouldn't "flatten out" the way it does. Giacoia tended to ink what was on the page regardless of whether it worked or not.
This had to be one of my top 10 favorite comics when I was a kid. Loved. It.
Cover by Gil Kane with inks by Frank Giacoia. Interiors were written by Len Wein with art by Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson inks.
Nebulon is working with the Squadron Sinister, and Nighthawk ends up siding with the Defenders...and eventually joins the team.
I think Giacoia was probably Gil Kane’s best inker, even better than Murphy Anderson. Giacoia was able to add texture and depth to Kane’s linework without losing Kane’s chiseled style. The result is much more dynamic looking than what Murphy did over Kane.
I tend to like when other pencillers would ink Kane. Especially Romita Sr. and Cockrum. If you look at Hulk's right leg. Another penciller would have fixed the anatomy or the folds on the pants so that the leg wouldn't "flatten out" the way it does. Giacoia tended to ink what was on the page regardless of whether it worked or not.
Giacoia started out as a penciler. He mostly inked in the ’60s and ’70s, but he knew how to draw—he just didn’t like to put in that much time at the board. He was notorious for watching movies and TV instead of doing his work. He often had to call people like Joe Giella in to help him get a job finished before deadline. But he was really good when he put some effort into it.
This had to be one of my top 10 favorite comics when I was a kid. Loved. It.
Cover by Gil Kane with inks by Frank Giacoia. Interiors were written by Len Wein with art by Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson inks.
Nebulon is working with the Squadron Sinister, and Nighthawk ends up siding with the Defenders...and eventually joins the team.
I think Giacoia was probably Gil Kane’s best inker, even better than Murphy Anderson. Giacoia was able to add texture and depth to Kane’s linework without losing Kane’s chiseled style. The result is much more dynamic looking than what Murphy did over Kane.
I tend to like when other pencillers would ink Kane. Especially Romita Sr. and Cockrum. If you look at Hulk's right leg. Another penciller would have fixed the anatomy or the folds on the pants so that the leg wouldn't "flatten out" the way it does. Giacoia tended to ink what was on the page regardless of whether it worked or not.
Giacoia started out as a penciler. He mostly inked in the ’60s and ’70s, but he knew how to draw—he just didn’t like to put in that much time at the board. He was notorious for watching movies and TV instead of doing his work. He often had to call people like Joe Giella in to help him get a job finished before deadline. But he was really good when he put some effort into it.
I remember Giacoia turning in a rare penciling job on a Panther-centric Avengers story during the 60's that was pretty decent, though today I tend to question how much of the finished work was actually his; I've heard that he was sometimes intimidated by the blank page and called on some other artists to help with layouts and such.
This had to be one of my top 10 favorite comics when I was a kid. Loved. It.
Cover by Gil Kane with inks by Frank Giacoia. Interiors were written by Len Wein with art by Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson inks.
Nebulon is working with the Squadron Sinister, and Nighthawk ends up siding with the Defenders...and eventually joins the team.
I think Giacoia was probably Gil Kane’s best inker, even better than Murphy Anderson. Giacoia was able to add texture and depth to Kane’s linework without losing Kane’s chiseled style. The result is much more dynamic looking than what Murphy did over Kane.
I tend to like when other pencillers would ink Kane. Especially Romita Sr. and Cockrum. If you look at Hulk's right leg. Another penciller would have fixed the anatomy or the folds on the pants so that the leg wouldn't "flatten out" the way it does. Giacoia tended to ink what was on the page regardless of whether it worked or not.
Giacoia started out as a penciler. He mostly inked in the ’60s and ’70s, but he knew how to draw—he just didn’t like to put in that much time at the board. He was notorious for watching movies and TV instead of doing his work. He often had to call people like Joe Giella in to help him get a job finished before deadline. But he was really good when he put some effort into it.
I remember Giacoia turning in a rare penciling job on a Panther-centric Avengers story during the 60's that was pretty decent, though today I tend to question how much of the finished work was actually his; I've heard that he was sometimes intimidated by the blank page and called on some other artists to help with layouts and such.
I haven’t heard that about Giacoia. He did a lot of swiping when he penciled, according to Gil Kane, but I don't know that he had any issues—other than time management—regarding artist’s block.
Maybe I've misheard then... or am confusing him with another artist.
Maybe you're thinking of Mort Meskin. He had the worst case of that I've ever heard of. Joe Simon took to making sure he got to the studio before Meskin, and would put a piece of board on Meskin's drawing table, and make just a couple of light pencil marks on it. This was back when Simon and Kirby were partners. That would usually be enough to get Meskin going in the morning, but if it wasn't there he would struggle to get started.
No, I knew about Meskin -- and I'd read that story about Simon making the marks on his boards to break the spell. I'd just thought I'd heard similar about Giacoia. I'm just going to go with that I was mistaken and leave it at that.
Romita became DC’s main romance cover artist in 1961, penciling around three dozen of them. My favorite is Girls’ Love Stories #77 (Mar. 1961). He may have inked this one himself.
We're up to 1963, and Romita is still the man, with 35 more romance covers. I decided to go with Girls’ Love Stories #92 (Jan. 1963) because he tried to do something different with the composition and angle here to differentiate it from all the other romance covers. I wonder if it sold as well, not having a woman’s face on the cover?
Romita only did 20 romance covers in 1964, though he did a bit more interior work than in the previous couple of years. Here’s Heart Throbs #93 (Dec. 1964-Jan. 1965) with its close-up image. Dig those eyelashes!
In 1965 the DC romance gigs started drying up for Romita—only 9 covers and a handful of interior stories. The editor who had hired him had left DC, and the editor who replaced her (Romita didn’t name Jack Miller, but Miller was editing the romance books during this time) wanted kickbacks and wasn’t giving Romita much work. But he did knock out this bonnie cover for Young Romance #136 (June-July 1965).
But just as Romita’s DC work was in decline, Marvel was in need of artists, and Romita snagged a gig inking Avengers #23 (Dec. 1965), which led to Stan Lee offering Romita Daredevil. His first issue was Daredevil #12 (Jan. 1966). He inked the cover himself, though Vince Colletta was brought in to make some alterations.
But he came very close to staying at DC. Just a week after accepting the Daredevil job, Julie Schwartz asked Romita to take over Metamorpho for the departing Ramona Fradon. DC’s page rates were better, but Romita didn’t want to go back on his word—though he says he would have if DC had offered him a bigger title. What if...?
Romita enjoyed doing Daredevil quite a bit. In fact, he didn’t want to leave to take over Spider-Man, in part because he felt obligated to do it like Ditko would. And he would never feel as comfortable on Spider-Man as he had on DD. But with issue #39 (Aug. 1966), it was his show.
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And yes, I agree wholeheartedly.
But he came very close to staying at DC. Just a week after accepting the Daredevil job, Julie Schwartz asked Romita to take over Metamorpho for the departing Ramona Fradon. DC’s page rates were better, but Romita didn’t want to go back on his word—though he says he would have if DC had offered him a bigger title. What if...?