Monday, January 30, 2012

Coloring Samples, Part 3

Here's a couple of pages from a brand-new comic from HERITAGE COMICS HSQ in Baltimore, MD, entitled REBEL 3.  Publisher Andre Campbell says he loves my "old school" coloring style, and hopes to keep me very busy!

Art by JEFF TOLIVER / Color by Henry Kujawa

Just done (10-6-2012)-- from the upcoming AMERICAN SENTINELS #3!
Page 16  /  Art by ERIC DOUTHITT / Color by Henry Kujawa
Page 17  /  Art by ERIC DOUTHITT / Color by Henry Kujawa
Page 18  /  Art by ERIC DOUTHITT / Color by Henry Kujawa
Page 19  /  Art by ERIC DOUTHITT / Color by Henry Kujawa
Page 20  /  Art by ERIC DOUTHITT / Color by Henry Kujawa
Page 21  /  Art by ERIC DOUTHITT / Color by Henry Kujawa  (10-13-12)
(Continued in Part 4)

Artwork (C) Heritage Comics HSQ
Coloring by Henry Kujawa

For more:
See the REBEL 3 page at my Zodiac Comics blog!
See Jeff Toliver's MySpace page
See Eric Douthitt's Facebook page

     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!!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

ASTONISH, Part 5

(Continued from Part 4)

PRINCE NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER was the creation of Bill Everett, and had debuted in 1939. At one point he appeared in 5 books regularly at the same time! Though his series ended in 1952, he returned in 1962, and after  
14 appearances, was finally awarded his own series again.

Up to the end of the run, Namor shared ASTONISH with THE INCREDIBLE HULK.

TALES TO ASTONISH 70  /  art by Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito   (August 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 71  /
art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta   (September 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 72  /
art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta (and Jack Kirby & Mike Esposito)
(October 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 73  /
art by Jack Kirby & Bob Powell (and Gene Colan & Vince Colletta)
(November 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 74  /
art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta
(and Jack Kirby, Bob Powell & Mike Esposito)   (December 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 75  /
art by Jack Kirby & Sol Brodsky (and Gene Colan & Vince Colletta)
(January 1966)
TALES TO ASTONISH 76  /
art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta   (February 1966)
TALES TO ASTONISH 77  /  art by Jack Kirby & John Romita   (March 1966)
TALES TO ASTONISH 78  /  art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta   (April 1966)
TALES TO ASTONISH 79  /  art by Jack Kirby & Bill Everett   (May 1966)
TALES TO ASTONISH 80  /  art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta   (June 1966)
Here's one you may have missed... (no, not really)

TALES TO ASTONISH 80  /  art by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta
Fantasy Version / design by Henry Kujawa
And as another bonus, here the splash page to this story! /
art by Gene Colan & Dick Ayers
No, it's NOT Subby's last adventure. More when they get done!

(Continued in Part 6)

See SUB-MARINER 1968 !

Artwork Copyright (C) Marvel Comics
Raw scans of #70-80 from my collection
Restorations by Henry Kujawa

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The HULK

In the late-50's/early 60's, Marvel's specialties were teen humor books, westerns, and "giant monsters". With the success of THE FANTASTIC FOUR (which can easily be viewed as a combination of superheroes, giant monsters, and teen humor), publisher Martin Goodman was no doubt anxious to try for another hit. Taking the wild concept of The Thing (in F.F.) one step further, Jack Kirby came up with THE INCREDIBLE HULK.  Instead of an angry "monster" being just one member of a team, this time, he's the star. And while test pilot Ben Grimm's volatile personality had its ups and downs, nuclear research scientist Bruce Banner found himself in a "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" situation.  Changing back-and-forth between mild-manner intellect and wild, destructive, almost completely out-of-control unstoppable engine of destruction, it's no wonder it took years before anyone found out they were the same guy!

In addition, Kirby has gone on record as saying he conceived The Hulk as "a handsome Frankenstein". And who didn't watch the early Boris Karloff movies half-wishing the monster would somehow, against all odds, come out on top and be viewed as a hero? Further, elements from several 1950's science-fiction movies found their way into the mix, particularly THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (where a man is caught in the blast of a nuclear explosion, somehow survives, but turns into a monster in the process), and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (check out some of the characters in the film for parallels, especially the military types, the scientist, etc.). And then of course, there's the ever-present Cold War "red scare".

(8-17-2013)  I just dug out the files for these and have done ADDITIONAL clean-ups.  So if you've come here before, these are going to look BETTER than they did before!  (Pass it on...)

THE INCREDIBLE HULK  1  /  art by Jack Kirby & Paul Reinman   (May 1962)
While the first issue remains a powerful, exciting, and FUN read, somehow Kirby & his editor kept playing with the format, as if they weren't sure or weren't satisfied with exactly how to handle the characters and concept. But taken as a whole, it's a wild ride.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK  2  /  art by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko   (July 1962)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK  3  /
art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   (September 1962)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK  4  /  art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   (November 1962)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK  5  /  art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   (January 1963)
After 5 issues, The Hulk became one of the first Marvel characters of the 1960's to cross over with another book, when he guest-starred in FANTASTIC FOUR #12. Things were kept very consistent because the same 3 guys were handling both books at the time-- Jack Kirby, his editor, and Dick Ayers.

FANTASTIC FOUR 12  /  art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   (March 1963)
A difference of opinion on the contents for the 6th issue resulted in Kirby apparently TEARING several pages of pencilled art IN HALF, and quitting the book on the spot.  Perhaps his editor was the one who kept changing his mind on the book's direction, and Kirby had had enough, especially if changes were requested AFTER several pages had already been done?  In his place, Steve Ditko was recruited, who'd already inked the cover and interior of issue #2.  Just 7 months earlier, Ditko had illustrated the debut of Spider-Man in AMAZING FANTASY #15, and the same month he did HULK #6, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 appeared! 4 months later, the 1st installment of Ditko's own creation, Dr. Strange, would debut in STRANGE TALES #110.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK  6  /  art by STEVE DITKO   (March 1963)
With the departure of Kirby, it was decided to cancel THE HULK after 6 issues, in favor of other projects. But he would not be out of the spotlight for long.  Only 6 months later, he'd return, in the 1st issue of what today might be called a "company-wide crossover"-- THE AVENGERS. And, eventually, he got his own series again, the 2nd time in the pages of TALES TO ASTONISH.


Finally, as a extra treat... many comics fans are not aware that artists, even those with "cartoony" styles, often base their creations on REAL people. It's even more hidden when they're followed over the years by an army of other illustrators, who are not aware of the original models, or simply fail to stay "on model", and compounded by decades going by and later generations of fans who simply have no knowledge of the people who served as inspiration, or even of the original creators themselves.

With this in mind, I've been slowly trying to track down the people I believe many of these characters were based on.  In the case of this series,  I've managed to find the following...

BRUCE BANNER  (Burt Lancaster)
GENERAL "THUNDERBOLT" ROSS  (Thorley Walters)
BETTY ROSS  (Donna Reed)
RICK JONES  (Robert Walker Jr.)
MAJOR GLENN TALBOT  (Lee Van Cleef)

I just discovered Betty Ross the other day, after re-reading HULK #2 and flipping again thru HULK #1.  In some panels, she was so similar, it was downright spooky! Imagine my delight when I was able, very quickly, to find a photo where she even had the same HAIR as Jack Kirby had drawn in HULK #1.

Rick Jones I mostly noticed from his appearance in TALES OF SUSPENSE, while Glenn Talbot came from his 1st appearance. Kirby never drew him quite like this, because Talbot was created by Steve Ditko!

I remember, when I was re-reading this story in TALES TO ASTONISH #61 a few years ago, seeing the above panel, and thinking, "Oh my GOD!!  it's LEE VAN CLEEF!!"  Ever since, I can hear his voice in my head when I read Talbot's dialogue.  He never quite looked this recognizable afterwards, and when Jack Kirby returned several issues later Talbot became a more "generic" character.

The last one I added here was actually Bruce Banner.  This suggestion was courtesy of Christian Alexis Olmeda, over at the Jack Kirby Fan Group (before that group went to HELL).  It wasn't one that I might have ever thought of myself, as I tend to see Burt Lancaster in "action" roles, but then I found this photo from 1957, and whatta ya know?  That IS pretty close to what Kirby drew in HULK #1.

(Continued in Tales To Astonish, Part 4)

Artwork (C) Marvel Comics

Raw Scans supplied by Barry Pearl

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

Sunday, January 8, 2012

ASTONISH, Part 4

(Continued from Part 3) 

THE INCREDIBLE HULK's original series ended after 6 issues, but he continued to appear in different series, including the first several issues of THE AVENGERS. Eventually, his series was revived in TALES TO ASTONISH #60 (Oct'64), and has been going non-stop ever since!

The revived HULK series was initially written by Steve Ditko, who had taken over the character when Jack Kirby abruptly departed while working on HULK #6 a year-and-a-half earlier.  Ditko found himself doing 3 series for Marvel at the same time, the others being AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and his own creation, Dr. Strange, which had become the regular back-up feature in STRANGE TALES.

Among Ditko's chief contributions to the HULK series were a non-stop "cliffhanger" format (a revival of a style that had previous been used by Bill Everett on the first 12 episodes of SUB-MARINER all the way back in 1939; this was 5 months before Ditko also began using it in Dr. Strange), and the introduction of long-running supporting character (and nemesis and romantic rival), Major Glenn Talbot, who started out as a dead ringer for actor Lee Van Cleef! HULK creator Jack Kirby continued to do all the covers, and eventually returned to the series after 8 installments by Ditko.

TALES TO ASTONISH 60  /  art by Jack Kirby & Paul Reinman   (October 1964)
TALES TO ASTONISH 61  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone   (November 1964)
TALES TO ASTONISH 62  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone   (December 1964)
TALES TO ASTONISH 63  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone   (January 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 64  / 
art by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta   (February 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 65  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone   (March 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 65  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone
Fantasy Version  /  design by Henry Kujawa
TALES TO ASTONISH 66  / 
art by Bob Powell, Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia   (April 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 67  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone   (May 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 68  / 
art by Bob Powell, Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta   (June 1965)
TALES TO ASTONISH 69  /  art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia   (July 1965)
(Continued in Part 5)

Artwork Copyright (C) Marvel Comics

Raw Scans of #60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68 & 69 supplied by Barry Pearl
Raw scan of #64 from my collection

Restorations by Henry Kujawa

Monday, January 2, 2012

Super-Villain Team-Up, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

Marvel's GIANT-SIZE line was short-lived. AVENGERS, DEFENDERS and SPIDER-MAN (the latter should really have been called GIANT-SIZE MARVEL TEAM-UP) each had 5 issues apiece with new material.  X-MEN and INVADERS had 1 apiece.  SVTU had 2.  Absurdly, when the 3rd issue of SVTU appeared, it was a new #1.  The book also had a terrible turn-over on the creative side. Not only had John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, and Mike Sekowsky & Sam Grainger each only done 1 story apiece, Roy Thomas found himself once more too busy to do his beloved Subby.

Picking up the ball was Len Wein (editor) and Tony Isabella (writer), who managed to make both Namor and Dr. Doom more sympathetic characters than Roy had before him. The art on the new #1 was a hodge-podge of George Tuska (who'd done 3 issues of SUB-MARINER right near the end), Bill Everett (Subby's creator-- who had DIED a couple years earlier-- where DID his 3 "Dr. Doom" pages come from, anyway??), and, EVEN stranger (no, really!), George Evans (perhaps best known for his work on EC war books-- I think). Inks were provided by Fred Kida and Frank Springer. An ecclectic issue, to say the least.

Issues #1-3 comprised a 3-part story which brought back several long-running villains from Subby's previous book-- Attuma (first introduced in FANTASTIC FOUR #33, later adapted as one of the 1967 F.F. cartoons from Hanna-Barbera), Tiger Shark, and Dr. Dorcas (a "Dr. Zarkov" lookalike, only evil). The 2nd issue had art by Sal Buscema (who'd done quite a lot of issues of Subby's book in the late 60's) and Kida again on inks. Abruptly, the final chapter of the 3-parter saw Marv Wolfman take over as editor, Jim Shooter step in as writer (his FIRST work for Marvel, I believe), George Evans (again on pencils) and Jack Abel (on inks). With so many people coming and going, it's amazing this thing ever got past the first few issues before being cancelled.

SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP 1  /
art by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella   (August 1975)
If the above cover looks familiar, it's because the almost-identical image of Doom had been used TWICE before, once on the cover of FANTASTIC FOUR #56 (by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott), and again on an interior page of MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #20 (by Larry Lieber, Frank Giacoia & Vince Colletta).

interiors by George Tuska & Fred Kida
interiors by Bill Everett & Fred Kida
interiors by George Evans & Frank Springer
SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP 2  /
art by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia   (October 1975)
SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP 3  /
art by Ed Hannigan & Joe Sinnott   (December 1975)
"Fantasy" version  /  design & new color by Henry Kujawa
interiors by George Evans & Jack Abel
SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP 4  /
art by Rich Buckler & Joe Sinnott   (February 1976)
interiors by Herb Trimpe & Don Perlin  /  new color by Henry Kujawa
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 27  /  art by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia   (April 1976)
Apart from Gil Kane doing practically every cover Marvel put out around this time, WHY didn't they just get Jim Mooney to do his own cover? As seen below, Mooney captured the look of Namor MUCH better than Gil Kane ever could, and let's face it, if Bill Everett were still around at the time, HE would have redrawn Namor's face on that cover!

interiors by JIM MOONEY

I don't know why Tony Isabella didn't finish the 3-parter he started (unless it had to do with the change in editors, an all-too-common occurance). But Jim Shooter only lasted 1 issue. As strange as the art looked to my eyes at the time, I kinda wish George Evans had managed to stick around longer, as his 1-1/2 issues (between #1 and #3) had a certain ruggedness that seemed to fit the stories being told better than most.

For #4, perrennial fill-in writer Bill Mantlo stepped in, having Doom & Namor slug it out for an entire issue in the wake of Doom having killed an innocent at the end of Shooter's issue (and after all the trouble Isabella went to have the 2 characters actually team up). About the same time, Namor was given a try-out in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT, which Mantlo also wrote. While Herb Trimpe had done SVTU #4 (and would continue on the book, doing 4 issues in a row, a "record" for this chaotic title), the solo story had full art by Jim Mooney, who'd inked MANY issues of SUB-MARINER during Roy's run and also pencilled 2 episodes of "Tales of Atlantis". Oddly, this was Mooney's only Subby story as penciller.

Perhaps the strangest thing about SVTU #4 and SPOTLIGHT #27 was the appearances of Simon Ryker, THE main villain of Rich Buckler's Deathlok The Demolisher series in ASTONISHING TALES, both taking place many years before the events in the Deathlok series occurred.

Unfortunately, neither of these issues had anything about them that really stood out, and it looked like SVTU was really floundering badly. It would take Marvel's then-TOP writer coming in for the next issue to finally turn things around. I may get to those here... one of these days!

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