Sunday, November 27, 2011

Coloring Samples, Part 2

Continuing from where I left off...

Here's a Herb Trimpe-Don Perlin page from SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #5. This issue was notable for Steve Englehart taking over the book, which had been a chaotic mess up to that point, and looking on it as a challenge to turn it into something worth reading. He did! My challenge here was to do something nice with "underwater" tones.
Here's a page by Frank Robbins & D. Bruce Berry from CAPTAIN AMERICA #191. To some extent, I tend to think Robbins has a "fun" style, though I'm convinced he was totally wrong for doing superheroes.
Another page with Cap (not to mention Giant Man & The Wasp), actually an Iron Man page from TALES OF SUSPENSE #58 by Don Heck & Dick Ayers!
A Jose Gonzalez page from VAMPIRELLA #76!  I guess by now ya'll have got the idea that, like Dick Ayers, I have an aversion to "OVERDONE" color (his term). Photoshop should be a TOOL, not a controlling power. However, I do think airbrush rendering can be done nicely, provided it's kept under control. This page was designed for B&W, so any color added to it by nature should be mostly flat, bordering on pastels.
Something unusual-- an unpublished X-MEN page by Werner Roth & Sam Grainger. I guessed it was intended for issue #58, as that was the month the lead feature was expanded back to full-length and the back-ups were dropped. However, "Citizen X" on his website clued me in that a Beast & Iceman story had been announced for #49, before the decision was made to reunite the group.  More info at his website!


A spectacular Don Heck cover for THE AVENGERS #37 that went unpublished, replaced instead by a dynamic (but UGLY!!) version by Gil Kane.  For the 70's reprint, that in turn was replaced by a new one by Jack Kirby & Dan Adkins (ironic as it was usually the other way around). This had so much detail on it, it proved to be a real challenge to figure out what was what. I'm particularly proud of the result!
An Alan Davis Silver Surfer page from FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END #3. Obviously, this called for more airbrush effects than usual, between the Surfer and the depths of space!
A page from 1993's SILVER SURFER / WARLOCK: RESSURECTION #1 by Jim Starlin.  I've been a fan of his since his CAPTAIN MARVEL run, but I confess, I grabbed this page to color because I wanted to do something with Moondragon in it-- and nobody but Starlin has ever really done her right (for story or art)!
An oldie-but-goodie:  a Matt Baker Tiger Girl page from FIGHT COMICS #50 (June 1947).  This was the sexiest page of his I could find at Heritage Auction.
The Ed Hannigan-Joe Sinnott cover to SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #3 turned out to be a full-fledged "Fantasy" version in addition to a re-coloring job. For more details, see the post devoted to how it was done!
A SUB-MARINER pin-up by Alan Weiss (2004)!
(See Part 3 / Heritage Comics HSQ coloring work)
(See Part 4 for more Coloring Samples of old comics art!)
More as I go!
Artwork (C) Warren Publishing, Red Zone Comics, Marvel Comics, Jack Kirby, DC Comics, Fiction House
Color by Henry R. Kujawa.
      See all my COLORING work:
Rebel 3  (part 1) art by Jeff Toliver
Rebel 3  (part 2) art by Jeff Toliver
American Sentinels pin-ups by various artists
HSQ covers by Jeff Toliver
American Sentinels, Part 2 by Eric Douthitt
American Sentinels, Part 3 by Eric Douthitt
Coloring Samples by various artists
Coloring Samples, Part 2 by various artists
Coloring Samples, Part 3 by various artists (HSQ comics)
Coloring Samples, Part 4 by various artists

     Edgar Allan Poe stories in COLOR:
CAVALEIRO ANDANTE 453 (Sep'60) --
     "THE GOLD BUG" by Fernando Bento
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 1 (1960) --
     "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" by Gedeone Malagola
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 8 (1960) --
     "LADY BERENICE" by Flavio Colin
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 9 (1960) --
     "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH" by Manoel Ferreira
     "THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM" by Gedeone Malagola
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 12 (1961) --
     "I'M ALIVE!" by Gedeone Malagola
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 14 (1961) --
     "THE BLACK CAT" by Luiz Saidenberg
EERIE 12 (Nov'67) --
     "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH" by Tom Sutton
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR ? (1967) --
     "NEVERMORE!" by Luis Meri
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 3 (1967) --
     "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH" by Nico Rosso
     "MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN A BOTTLE" by Osvaldo Talo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 4 (1967) --
     "THE OVAL PORTRAIT" by Osvaldo Talo
     "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" by Osvaldo Talo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 5 (1967) --
     "THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER" by Osvaldo Talo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 6 (1968) --
     "WILLIAM WILSON" by Osvaldo Talo
     "BERENICE" by Edegar & Ignacio Justo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 7 (1968) --
     "THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR" by Edegar & Ignacio Justo
     "THE TELL-TALE HEART" by Nico Rosso
     "A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM" by Edegar & Ignacio Justo

More coming!!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Fourth World, Interiors

Something different this time, I wanted to post some interior pages. These are from NEW GODS #1, all scanned from the original comics.

More as I go!

Art (C) DC Comics Inc.
Scans from my collection
Restorations by Henry Kujawa

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Star-Studded Comics, Pt.2

(Continued from Part 1)

Continuing where the previous post left off, here's the remaining 8 covers from STAR-STUDDED, published by The Texas Trio. These run from Jun'67-Summer'72.  ENJOY!

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 11  /  art by GEORGE METZGER   (June 1967)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 12  / 
art by RICHARD "Grass" GREEN   (October 1967)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 13  /  art by BUDDY SAUNDERS   (June 1968)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 14  /  art by SAM GRAINGER   (December 1968)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 15  / 
art by RICHARD "Grass" GREEN   (March 1969)
STAR-STUDDED 16  /  art by HOWARD KELTNER   (November 1969)
STAR-STUDDED 17  /  art by ??   (Summer 1971)
STAR-STUDDED 18  /  art by STEVE FRITZ   (Summer 1972)
THE BEST OF STAR-STUDDED COMICS   (2005)
published by Bill Schelly's Hamster Press
Art (C) the various artists
Raw scans of #11-15 supplied by Scott Stewart
Raw scans of #16-17 supplied by Lance Boucher
Raw scan of #18 supplied by Dennis Ray
Restorations by Henry Kujawa

Oh, and by the way, here's a recent pic of Buddy Saunders & his wife.  He runs Lone Star Comics, one of my favorite companies for mail-order back-issues! Buddy actually supplied me with a few of the scans I cleaned up-- what a guy!  (photo by Dan Sellers)
And here's a link to a brief interview with him...
And finally, here's the STAR-STUDDED COMICS indexes which I put together for the GCD...
...and here's the index for
THE BEST OF SSC.

Star-Studded Comics

About 5 years back, I went thru a phase where I really got into "fanzines", specifically the "strip-zines" which features original comics characters. I have virtually none of these in my collection, but thanks to a combination of Gary Carlson's BIG BANG COMICS and Bill Schelly's HAMSTER PRESS reprints, I became rather familiar with some of them.  What I found was a freshness, an excitement, and a genuine sense of FUN that has been missing from most comics put out by "the big two" for too many years.  In a better world, many of these creators and their creations would have had much wider success.

I'm gonna kick off a study of these with this page, devoted to one of the best-known and longest-running strip-zines, STAR-STUDDED COMICS.   Considering I don't have a single one of these in my collection, I had to rely on scans found online and, in some cases, those supplied me by OTHER fans who DO have the actual zines!  As usual, these painstaking "restorations" were a labor of love.  ENJOY!

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 1  /  art by HOWARD KELTNER   (September 1963)

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 2  /
art & scan by BUDDY SAUNDERS   (December 1963)

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 3  /  art by HOWARD KELTNER   (March 1964)

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 4  /
art by BUDDY SAUNDERS (as "Don Fowler")   (June 1964)

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 5  /
art by RICHARD "Grass" GREEN   (September 1964)


STAR-STUDDED COMICS 6  /  art by D. BRUCE BERRY   (February 1965)

STAR-STUDDED COMICS 7  /  art by HOWARD KELTNER   (July 1965)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 8  /
art by RICHARD "Grass" GREEN   (March 1966)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 9  /  art by ALAN WEISS   (July 1966)
STAR-STUDDED COMICS 10  /  art by BUDDY SAUNDERS   (February 1967)
(Contnued in Part 2)

Art (C) the various artists

Raw scans of #1, 4, 7 & 8 supplied by Scott Stewart
Raw scan of #2 by Buddy Saunders /  supplied by Dennis Ray
Raw scan of #3 from Bill Schelly's site
Raw scan of #5 from the MyComics Shop site / supplied by Dennis Ray
Raw scan of #6 supplied by Lance Boucher
Raw scan of #9 supplied by Dennis Ray
Raw scan of #10 from the eBay.Canada site

Restorations by Henry Kujawa

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Coloring Samples

Although I've been coloring comic-book art for over a decade by now, it's only recently (with help & advice of Chrissie Harper) that I finally figured out how to do it in Photoshop. MAN! This is MUCH easier than the way I'd been doing in. 
Here's a page by Tom Sutton from VAMPIRELLA #8.  I was inspired to try coloring this because I originall saw it in a Mexican reprint, which had some of the worst coloring I've ever seen in my life. I was very happy with the results here...

I'm not sure what book this is for, or even who the artist is, but that's The Heap, and a brand-new super-hero, coming soon from Red Zone Comics. 
This is the rejected (and unused) cover of FANTASTIC FOUR #64, as inked by Joe Sinnott, and colored, today, by ME!  (11-6-11)
Here's a Gray Morrow page from CAPTAIN AMERICA #144 (which, absurdly, has a John Romita panel pasted down in the lower-right corner-- I wonder what was there originally?).  I wanted to take a stab at this, without bothering to dig out the comic. I know that the early Marvel Masterworks have been justifiably criticized for their lack of faithfulness to the original printings, but in this case, the whole idea was to see what I could come up with WITHOUT referencing the original.  Aside from anything else, I like the subtle "3D" effect of having the crounching figure of Cap in the background of panel 3 fade into the color of the skyline (something I initially picked up from a fellow student at PCA back in 1979). 
Morrow never seemed to find a niche for himself at Marvel, apparently because art director John Romita felt his style was "not dynamic enough". I wonder if, when he said that, Romita even realized that Morrow had worked on what was probably the MOST FAMOUS version of SPIDER-MAN EVER-- the 2nd season of the cartoon show (1968)? 
Here's another Jack Kirby page from CAPTAIN VICTORY AND THE GALACTIC RANGERS #13 (1984).  The last several issues of this book were notorious for some horrendous hand-painted colors. I decided to see what I could do with as simple a style as possible. Since I began coloring my own work back a decade ago, it's been my goal to reproduce the look of 1960's comic-book coloring, but with a computer program that allows more control and accuracy than was possible back then. I think it's a perfect fit for Kirby's work!
This was a bit of a surprise. One of my favorite artists of the 1990's was Tom Grummett.  However, this page from ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #495 (Oct'92) proved to be the most difficult page I've colored so far! I think it's all the tiny little figures; there's no "big" figures anywhere on the page to give it weight or balance. Once again, I did the colors without digging out the actual comic for reference.
 
Here's one by Bob Brown & Wally Wood from GHOSTS #2 (Dec'71), part of the story "Mission Supernatural".  Brown was never a favorite of mine, but he did some solid work on THE AVENGERS and DAREDEVIL in the early 70's, even if most of his work at Marvel got terrible inks. Like many pencillers over the years, he fared better at DC.  I wanted to find something as "different" as possible for variety's sake.
A Don Heck-Sam Grainger page from GHOST RIDER #26 featuring Dr. Druid! This was my introduction to the latter character. The fun parts of the story were offset by the uncalled-for development of the truth about Johhny Blaze's supernatural alter-ego becoming public knowledge, and his abrupt abandonment of his Hollywood career (not to mention his longtime love Roxanne, who had amnesia!-- both of these developments would be left hanging for almost the next 50 issues, thanks to Jim Shooter's "dump them into hell and LEAVE them there" habit of heaping abuse on characters created by other writers).
 Here's another Jack Kirby page. This one's from OMAC #3 (Feb'75)!
Another GHOST RIDER page, this one by longtime penciller Don Perlin & inker Rick Bryant. I first ran across Perlin on MOON KNIGHT (in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT), and always wished HE had done the regular series, as he'd co-created the character. This page gave me a chance to be low-key subtle for mood, given the "old west" genre (not to mention the bad weather).
For more, see Part 2!
Artwork (C) Warren Publishing, Red Zone Comics, Marvel Comics, Jack Kirby, DC Comics
Color by Henry R. Kujawa.
     See all my COLORING work:
Rebel 3  (part 1) art by Jeff Toliver
Rebel 3  (part 2) art by Jeff Toliver
American Sentinels pin-ups by various artists
HSQ covers by Jeff Toliver
American Sentinels, Part 2 by Eric Douthitt
American Sentinels, Part 3 by Eric Douthitt
Coloring Samples by various artists
Coloring Samples, Part 2 by various artists
Coloring Samples, Part 3 by various artists (HSQ comics)
Coloring Samples, Part 4 by various artists

     Edgar Allan Poe stories in COLOR:
CAVALEIRO ANDANTE 453 (Sep'60) --
     "THE GOLD BUG" by Fernando Bento
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 1 (1960) --
     "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" by Gedeone Malagola
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 8 (1960) --
     "LADY BERENICE" by Flavio Colin
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 9 (1960) --
     "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH" by Manoel Ferreira
     "THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM" by Gedeone Malagola
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 12 (1961) --
     "I'M ALIVE!" by Gedeone Malagola
CLASSICOS DE TERROR 14 (1961) --
     "THE BLACK CAT" by Luiz Saidenberg
EERIE 12 (Nov'67) --
     "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH" by Tom Sutton
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR ? (1967) --
     "NEVERMORE!" by Luis Meri
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 3 (1967) --
     "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH" by Nico Rosso
     "MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN A BOTTLE" by Osvaldo Talo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 4 (1967) --
     "THE OVAL PORTRAIT" by Osvaldo Talo
     "THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO" by Osvaldo Talo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 5 (1967) --
     "THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER" by Osvaldo Talo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 6 (1968) --
     "WILLIAM WILSON" by Osvaldo Talo
     "BERENICE" by Edegar & Ignacio Justo
ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR 7 (1968) --
     "THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR" by Edegar & Ignacio Justo
     "THE TELL-TALE HEART" by Nico Rosso
     "A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM" by Edegar & Ignacio Justo

More coming!!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Among the popular fads of the mid-60's were Science-Fiction, Superheroes, and SPIES.  James Bond!  Danger Man! The Avengers! The Man From U.N.C.L.E.! The Wild, Wild West! Get Smart!!!  Well, sooner or later comics were gonna come up with their own, and as usual, Jack Kirby could take just about any idea or genre and do it BETTER.   

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS had been around since May'63, the manic wildman leading that pack of yahoos bearing a rather strong resemblance to Ralph Meeker, who had played a number of "unstable army types" in his career.  Fans asked, "What happened to Sgt. Fury after World War Two?"  With the Dec'63 issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, they got their answer... he'd become a Colonel in the C.I.A.!  Some narrow-minded fans have suggested that "revealing" Nick survived the war somehow destroyed any sense of "suspense" in his series, but I think that's nonsense.  Anyone who tunes in STAR TREK hoping to see Jim Kirk bite the big one is watching for all the wrong reasons.

In the wake of GOLDFINGER (released in December 1964), the spy fad became THE big thing of 1965.  A mere 6 months later, the Aug'65 issue of STRANGE TALES, Marvel debuted their "answer" to THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.  But while Napoleon Solo was TV's answer to Bond (handsome, suave, tuxuedo wearing, a real ladies' man), S.H.I.E.L.D. got Nick Fury (Marvel's answer to The Tazmanian Devil-- heehee).  Oh, sure, he'd CALMED DOWN a bit since The Big One-- he even wore the occasional suit (no doubt when he was ordered to).  But while U.N.C.L.E. fought THRUSH, an international crime cartel (and TV's answer to S.P.E.C.T.R.E.-- what IS it wish all these acronyms?), S.H.I.E.L.D. fought Hydra-- who, despite their elaborate hoods, robes, rituals and sci-fi weaponry, were notably NOT a crime cartel, but instead a barely-disguised NEO-NAZI terrorist organization!!!  These guys were not out for mere profit, or even power, they were out to finish the job Adolph Hitler started!


If there's a down side to the early run of NICK FURY, it's that, apart from 3 episodes (in ST #135, 141 & 142), Jack's art was reduced to only layouts, with pencils supplied by others-- and a rotating roster of others to boot.  The quality varied drastically from fabulous to absolutely dire, but the sheer, aggressive inconsistency of it is no doubt why the run was not as highly thought of as it deserved to be.  After all, what many fans overlooked was the fact that Jack Kirby plotted the entire thing 100% on his own. But further, in my own re-reading of 60's Marvels, I've come to feel that Stan Lee did some of his FINEST dialogue work on the series, along with DR. STRANGE, in the same magazine.  In my mind, the later run by Jim Steranko may have had flashier art, but the earier run had MUCH better storytelling, AND dialogue.

Oh yeah... and it also had some FABULOUS covers.  And here's the initial batch, all lovingly, painstakingly "restored" by yours truly.  You WON'T find most of these at any other site.  ENJOY!


STRANGE TALES 135  /  art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia   (August 1965)
STRANGE TALES 136  /
art by Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito (and Steve Dtko)   (September 1965)
  (Some linework recreated by Henry Kujawa-- 
the coloring was so dark, it made it impossible to see.)


STRANGE TALES 137  /
art by JOHN SEVERIN (and Steve Ditko)   (October 1965)

STRANGE TALES 138  /  art by Jack Kirby & John Severin   (November 1965)


STRANGE TALES 139  /
art by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott (and Marie Severin)   (December 1965)


STRANGE TALES 139  /  fantasy version by Henry Kujawa /
art by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott   (December 1965)


STRANGE TALES 140  /  art by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott   (January 1966)


STRANGE TALES 141  /  art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia   (February 1966)


STRANGE TALES 142  /  art by Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito   (March 1966)



STRANGE TALES 143  /  art by Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito   (April 1966)
STRANGE TALES 144  /  art by Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito   (May 1966)
More as I go!


Now here's a little oddball item for you.  On the left is the image of ST 136 I found at Marvel.com, showing what their current recolored reprint looks like.  On the right is a scan of the actual INKS I found at Comic Art Fans, which I then colored, based on the ORIGINAL printing.  I'm setting them up here side-by-side so you can see just how INACCURATE the "official" reprint version is!  In the early 60's, Stan Goldberg colored virtually every comic Marvel published, and did an INCREDIBLE job on the covers.  I think it's a shame that, to this day, Marvel doesn't seem interested in even trying to accurately reproduce the work he did.

Check out the differences.  No blue haze behind Fury's face, no 2nd skin tone, the green & purple are too light, no 2nd green, no "highlight" on the bird, no 2nd gray, no background on the corner box, no red in the gutter between panels.  Sheesh.  And maybe the blue on that "trap" at the bottom looks better than the original purple, but it's not "accurate".


Oh yeah, and in case anyone's wondering about the Ralph Meeker reference...


Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Scans from my collection
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa