Today’s cover features Romita’s favorite Spidey character to draw: The Kingpin! (It’s also cover-dated the month I was born.) Here’s Amazing Spider-Man #84 (May 1970).
Romita did a fair amount of romance covers (and some stories as well) for Marvel in 1970 (and DC was busy reprinting stories he’d done for them years earlier). Here’s one of the more intersting ones, Our Love Story #4 (May 1970).
When Kirby left Marvel to move over to DC, Lee gave Romita the unenviable task of trying to replace him on Marvel’s flagship title: Fantastic Four. Romita took over the covers for FF with issue #102, and the interior penciling with issue #103. Surprisingly, sales for FF actually went up during Romita’s run. (Though to be fair, FF had been in something of a rut for several months, mostly because of Kirby’s growing resentment and his unwillingness to create new villains for the company.)
Here’s my favorite of Romita’s FF covers from that year, Fantastic Four Annual #8 (Dec. 1970), with inks by John Verpoorten.
Gil Kane and Tom Palmer actually made this Western reprint look cool to me in 1974...although I think it was technically my younger brother who bought the issue...
When Kirby left Marvel to move over to DC, Lee gave Romita the unenviable task of trying to replace him on Marvel’s flagship title: Fantastic Four. Romita took over the covers for FF with issue #102, and the interior penciling with issue #103. Surprisingly, sales for FF actually went up during Romita’s run. (Though to be fair, FF had been in something of a rut for several months, mostly because of Kirby’s growing resentment and his unwillingness to create new villains for the company.)>
I know this is pretty much sacrilege ... but I was never a fan of Jack Kirby's artwork. Loved the characters. Hated the art.
When Kirby left Marvel to move over to DC, Lee gave Romita the unenviable task of trying to replace him on Marvel’s flagship title: Fantastic Four. Romita took over the covers for FF with issue #102, and the interior penciling with issue #103. Surprisingly, sales for FF actually went up during Romita’s run. (Though to be fair, FF had been in something of a rut for several months, mostly because of Kirby’s growing resentment and his unwillingness to create new villains for the company.)>
I know this is pretty much sacrilege ... but I was never a fan of Jack Kirby's artwork. Loved the characters. Hated the art.
Phew! Felt good to get that off my chest! Taking it even further ... I have to confess I always actually hated Kirby's artwork.
I didn’t like Kirby’s art when I was a young kid. I was reading some of his new stuff (his ’70s runs on Black Panther and Captain America) and some of his old stuff (Cap reprints in Marvel Super-Action). And, of course, I got the treasury-sized Bicentennial Battles when I was 6. So I was seeing his art at various points of its evolution, and inked by a wide variety of inkers. Maybe that inconsistency was part of why I didn’t like his art at first.
But despite the fact I didn’t like the art style, I kept going back to those stories over and over. I mean, I read all of my comics multiple times, but I tended to read the Kirby stories far more than the average comic in my collection (which was actually pretty sizable thanks to getting a huge stack from my babysitter’s kids who were “too old for them”).
I’m not sure how old I was when I figured out why that was—probably around age 12 or 13. I realized that I liked the way he told stories. And I realized that the crazy foreshortening (I didn’t know it was called that then) and all the squiggles and dots just added to the sense of movement in his art. I may not have had the terminology, but I knew a dynamic artist from a stiff artist, and I knew a good storyteller from an average storyteller. And that’s when my dislike turned to love.
I haven't looked through all 127 pages of this thread, but I do find that one artist that doesn't get a lot of "love" is Michael Golden. He has done some iconic work on titles like The 'Nam, Doctor Strange, GI Joe, and Micronauts. Here's one of his startling covers for Savage Sword of Conan #101 (June 1984).
There was a pretty good write up of Golden recently over at BleedingCool
Edit: After posting this, I read back through the thread more carefully and spotted Michael Golden "love" from @nweathington, @dubbat138, and @tonebone. Pardon my oversight!
I haven't looked through all 127 pages of this thread, but I do find that one artist that doesn't get a lot of "love" is Michael Golden. He has done some iconic work on titles like The 'Nam, Doctor Strange, GI Joe, and Micronauts. Here's one of his startling covers for Savage Sword of Conan #101 (June 1984).
There was a pretty good write up of Golden recently over at BleedingCool
Edit: After posting this, I read back through the thread more carefully and spotted Michael Golden "love" from @nweathington, @dubbat138, and @tonebone. Pardon my oversight!
Phew! Felt good to get that off my chest! Taking it even further ... I have to confess I always actually hated Kirby's artwork.
I didn’t like Kirby’s art when I was a young kid. I was reading some of his new stuff (his ’70s runs on Black Panther and Captain America) and some of his old stuff (Cap reprints in Marvel Super-Action). And, of course, I got the treasury-sized Bicentennial Battles when I was 6. So I was seeing his art at various points of its evolution, and inked by a wide variety of inkers. Maybe that inconsistency was part of why I didn’t like his art at first.
But despite the fact I didn’t like the art style, I kept going back to those stories over and over. I mean, I read all of my comics multiple times, but I tended to read the Kirby stories far more than the average comic in my collection (which was actually pretty sizable thanks to getting a huge stack from my babysitter’s kids who were “too old for them”).
I’m not sure how old I was when I figured out why that was—probably around age 12 or 13. I realized that I liked the way he told stories. And I realized that the crazy foreshortening (I didn’t know it was called that then) and all the squiggles and dots just added to the sense of movement in his art. I may not have had the terminology, but I knew a dynamic artist from a stiff artist, and I knew a good storyteller from an average storyteller. And that’s when my dislike turned to love.
Very similar to my Kirby journey. The original first OMAC issue was my breakthrough.
While not an actual "comic" cover per se, I'm tossing out the cover to Marvel Comics Index #3 featuring the Avengers, Defenders, and Captain Marvel. This was a book with a checklist of every issue for all 3 series featuring the cover, a list of who appeared in it, plot summary, as well as creator credits. The cover for it was done by Neal Adams and to this day is one of my favorite bits of comic art ...
Another one I loved...the cover is by Rich Buckler & Joe Sinnott...
Sinnott's inks added so much to Buckler or John Buscema's pencils in my opinion. It took quite a few years for me to figure out that the John Buscema stuff I most loved growing up was almost always inked by Sinnott...
One of the very first comics I ever purchased. Was buying both this and "Super Villain Team-Up" at the same time, so Namor quickly became one of my all-time favorite characters ...
One of the very first comics I ever purchased. Was buying both this and "Super Villain Team-Up" at the same time, so Namor quickly became one of my all-time favorite characters ...
A nice Romita cover. I know most of you will cry out in shock and/or rage and/or confusion, but I prefer Frank Robbins (the penciler for The Invaders, as most of you know) to John Romita. In fact, it’s not even close in my book. It’s a pity that his best work I can’t show on this thread, because it’s his newspaper strip work (though his comics are great too).
And speaking of Romita, his brief run on FF came to an end with issue #106 (Jan. 1971). It wasn’t his last FF cover, but it’s probably my favorite—simple but effective.
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Also, that Wrightson cover is awesome!
[another by the great Nick Cardy]
Here’s my favorite of Romita’s FF covers from that year, Fantastic Four Annual #8 (Dec. 1970), with inks by John Verpoorten.
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But despite the fact I didn’t like the art style, I kept going back to those stories over and over. I mean, I read all of my comics multiple times, but I tended to read the Kirby stories far more than the average comic in my collection (which was actually pretty sizable thanks to getting a huge stack from my babysitter’s kids who were “too old for them”).
I’m not sure how old I was when I figured out why that was—probably around age 12 or 13. I realized that I liked the way he told stories. And I realized that the crazy foreshortening (I didn’t know it was called that then) and all the squiggles and dots just added to the sense of movement in his art. I may not have had the terminology, but I knew a dynamic artist from a stiff artist, and I knew a good storyteller from an average storyteller. And that’s when my dislike turned to love.
There was a pretty good write up of Golden recently over at BleedingCool
Edit: After posting this, I read back through the thread more carefully and spotted Michael Golden "love" from @nweathington, @dubbat138, and @tonebone. Pardon my oversight!
In case anyone is interested, Michael did this cover as a gouache painting.
Although it was the splash page that really broke my young mind.
Sinnott's inks added so much to Buckler or John Buscema's pencils in my opinion. It took quite a few years for me to figure out that the John Buscema stuff I most loved growing up was almost always inked by Sinnott...