posted January 12, 2003 05:14 PM            

I love the way Sprang makes figures look like fleas (often in silhouette) dwarfed by their impressive surroundings as they perform some action.

posted January 14, 2003 12:45 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Pig Iron:
G. Kane, Mooney, and Schaffenberger's characters always seemed to glide rather than fly. The legs were always apart in a v shape with the chest slightly upwards.

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Ah, but that's what I loved about them. The were quite graceful. Besides, when your flying, what do your legs have to do but hang straight behind you? Unless you're Wayne Boring's Superman, doing that standing-upright jog I mentioned earlier.

What really impressed me about the first few 1959 Green Lantern adventures was they was that GL flew. His body, arms, and one leg were cutting through the air in a straight line, whule one leg dangled down for no apparent reason.

I guess it took Hal a few months to get the hang of flyinh without a plane.

And while not "quirks," but rather, a purposeful design choice: When the Silver Age GL and Flash debuted, Julius Schwartz had Kane & Infantino draw the heroes with very slender figures. Green Lantern didn't need bulky muscles to use his ring, and although running is physical, the Flash was not depending on muscle to achieve super-speed.

posted January 14, 2003 12:53 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Old Dude:
"...one leg were cutting through the air in a straight line, WHULE..."

"... to get the hang of FLYINH..."

"...the same could be SAUD..."

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Sorry. I really gotta slow down.

And I forgot...Wally Wood: His characters when flying or falling, always seemed frozen in time. The panels were lovely and the action exciting, but I never got the sense of motion.

posted January 14, 2003 01:35 AM               

Don Heck's fingers on the characters when he was doing Teen Titans and on some Batgirl stories are long, pointy, claw-like apendages.
I too, grew to really like Don Heck's and George Tuska's style as I matured.
(Tuska and teeth - subconscious link maybe?)

Kirby's collages. Very large complicated looking machinery in the background.

Curt Swan and John Buscema inked by George Klein - near perfection in comic book art!

George Perez sometimes including as many characters into a panel as humanly possible and yet all are recognizable.

I always loved the Infantino "speed trail" of colors behind The Flash - very distinctive and effective.

posted January 14, 2003 02:19 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Carlo:
Yep, ol' Vince [Colletta] coulda ruined the Mona Lisa!

God, he made everything look so, so..stiff and static!

Best...
Carlo

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While I agree with you that Vince wasn't one of the all time greats...I will say in his defense that I'd put in him in the top three inkers along with Dick Ayers and Joe Sinnott to work on Kirby's pencils. To me anyways, the definitive Thor is the Kirby/Colletta collaboration.

To add to the list...

Joe Staton liked to draw wavy almost gravity defying hair and for some reason he always drew huge knuckles.

For Frank Miller, a recent (and odd) development in his art is HUGE hands and feet on his characters.

For the lettering on his sound effects alone, I can tell Walt Simonsons work from a mile away.

posted January 14, 2003 02:28 AM               

it was MUCH later that I, too, began to appreciate the craft of the ilk of Heck and Ross Andru. Granted I could never draw a straight line with a ruler, but at the time I shuddered when Andru was on the Flash, after years of the "nobility" that Infantino brought to Barry (and also the new look Batman). Growing up on Ditko's Spidey, I likewise was frantic when (ugh) Andru replaced the revolving door of Romita/Mooney/Kane, etc...

But, I agree, as year passed -call it mere nostalgia for all I know- I yearn for the talents of those gentleman. Guys whose efforts assisted in the storytelling - not took away from it! To contrast, the early Todd McFarlane(sp?) work on Infinity Inc always gave me a headache! While I don't dispute his talent, I didn't appreciate how his artsy-farsty panel designs and "clutter" , for lack of a better word, took away from the storytelling. Innovative or intrusive? Hmmm...

Seems he and those "pose" generation artists from the Image/Valiant crew that "defected" from the Big Two in the late80/early90s could've learned a lesson from Eisner and countless others.

Y'know...the ol' story of the words and pictures working together!

But, hell, I've nothing but admiration for any of those guys who have got their names in the "credit" box. More power to 'em!

posted January 14, 2003 02:43 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by India Ink:
...I love the way Sprang makes figures look like fleas (often in silhouette) dwarfed by their impressive surroundings as they perform some action....

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posted January 14, 2003 05:34 AM            

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Originally posted by Wayne1776:
Find a Wayne Boring side-profile of Clark Kent, or any character wearing glasses. What strange looking spectacles they are.

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I always thought that Boring, when drawing Clark Kent (or any others with glasses) in profile seemed to perch the glasses on the end of the nose.

posted January 14, 2003 08:05 PM            

------------------
"My name is Mark....Question Mark..."

posted January 14, 2003 10:48 PM               

When someone was standing full-figure in profile, his head projected forward, his neck went back to his chest, which turned forward again — the abdomen was usually vertical — then the pelvis tilted back, the upper leg slightly forward again to the knee, and finally, the calves and lower leg curving around back again to connect to the feet.

posted January 15, 2003 12:52 AM               

I was spoiled early in my comic book years, as Curt Swan on Superboy, Kurt Scharffenberg on Lois Lane (with a Curt Swan cover) were my introductions to comic books. I, as a child, was jarred when I took home the comic I had bought with the Curt Swan covers and the inside art was John Forte, George Papp, Al Plastino and, particulary, Wayne Boring. But it did not take me long to embrace them although it was years later before I found out their names.
I quickly discovered Justice League of America and that took me to Mike Sekowsky, and to the comics with the JLA's members - Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, (later Atom and Hawkman, too). I found Green Arrow, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter in their back-ups.

I quickly learned to recognize who the artists were OMG - Gil Kane, Carmine Infantio, Anderson, Andru and Esposito (loved the Metal Men, too!), Ramona Fradon, etc. (Bob Kane was a mystery - "his" art was too different in the various books - I couldn't really pin him down. I was a long time before I discoverd that Bob Kane was actually a studio, and that other artists were involved - but it was a mystery for a while.) I discovered Jim Mooney without knowing who he was via Supergirl. All of these folks so distinctive and so true to their craft.

As I mentioned, Ditko and Kirby, you can tell I found Marvel's comics fairly early too. I remember some of the Kirby's monster comics with art in some issues by others like Don Heck, and Ditko. But I bought Fantastic Four # 2 from the local bus station, and it was still FF in the teens before I actually became an "every issue" of Marvel's super-heroes like I was already at DC. Marvel introduced me to the Buscemas - John and Sal, Heck, Tuska, Neal Adams, Warner Roth, Gene Colon, John Romita!!!!!!!

And then there were the "other comics." Herbie, the Fat Fury with quirky Odgen Whitney art. The T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents with Wally Wood, and others. A few of the Gold Key titles. I could go on and on, as I probably bought some of every genre of comic published in the 60s. Btw, Daredevil #7 is still one of my favorite comics ever because of the art. Wood is definitely up there with Swan, Ditko, and Kirby.

I am going on too long here, but needless to say although Swan, Kirby, Wood and Ditko will always be my favorites, I now respect and admire at least the craftmanship of so many more artists I did not initially like the first time I saw their work: Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Alex Toth, Gray Morrow, Jack Sparling, John Rosenberger, Pete Costanza, Frank Robbins, Jack Springer, and literally dozens of others. All those guys are from the 60s and 70s. I won't even venture into the 80s through last week's comics.

posted January 15, 2003 08:48 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Wayne1776:
As I mentioned, Ditko and Kirby, you can tell I found Marvel's comics fairly early too.

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What threw me for a loop as a kid was when Ditko would ink Kirby. I didn't know them by name yet, but of course their styles were recognizable. Then along came this "third guy" whose drawings looked like both of them.

I mean, at 10 years old, who knew there were pencilers and inkers?

I also thought that there were two different people drawing the Flash. They both were drawing in a similar manner, but one used more detail, while the other was more uncluttered. Me, I prefered the detail.

Of course, it was all one artist — penciler, at least — Carmine Infantino being inked alternately by Murphey Anderson and Joe Giella.

And while I'm rambling about my confusion as a child, let me mention Batman. Somehow when I was VERY young, I learned Dick Sprang's name, and it was easy to recognize his dynamic art. I figured that the other, stiffer drawings were done by Bob Kane. Although I preferred Sprang's art, even as a child I found an old-fashioned charm about "Kane's."

Like the rest of us, it wasn't until a very few years ago that I learned that Sheldon Moldoff was actually the other artist. I think the only time Kane put pen to paper was to sign the back of his checks.

posted January 15, 2003 09:50 PM               

howdy, ol' Dude...I'll agree - to this day, I can't tell Sprang from Robinson, from Moldoff(sp?), from the real "Kane" - and they when I too, later discovered the studio/ghosting sense of teamwork on the Bat-works - well, my head is still spinning!

Funny, maybe that is why the Infantino/Giella "batman" is my favorite of sorts - i could readily "recognize" their work as opposed to TeamKane!

posted January 15, 2003 10:24 PM               

However, when I see early reprints in the Archives, I too have only a vague guess as to if I'm looking at Kane, Robinson, Win Mortimer, or even an early Sprang.

Moving on, I had never noticed Wayne Boring's peculiarity with perching eyeglasses on the ends of noses. I looked at a couple old stories this morning, and boy, the spectacles do ride far out there.

Speaking of Mr. Boring, remember his signature laboratory equipment he drew? There was always a device that I never saw anywhere outside of Boring.

The machine defies my powers of description, but I'll try: It's a glass o metal cylinder with a large glass ball on the end. From the ball there is a glass stem that sticks out for a few inches before it narrows down with another very small ball on the end. There is usually a thin metal bracing that arcs from the cylinder to just behind the small glass ball.

Jeez. One picture IS worth a thousand words! Believe me, if you saw it you'd recognize it if you are any kind of a Wayne Boring fan. Whenever the device was used, it shot some kind of ray from it.

In the '80s I saw an issue of Thor in which he's battling Hyperion of the Squadron Sinister. I was skimming through it when I was suddenly stopped short, because there in one panel was the Wayne Boring ray projector!

I started looking closely, and there, underneath some well-cloaking inks was the never-boring pencils of Wayne Boring. I flipped to the credits in the front, and there was his name.

posted January 16, 2003 09:50 PM               

The very first Action comic I ever bought was #226: "The Invulnerable Enemy." In it, the outer-space giant is rampaging through the country, but pauses when he sees a drive-in movie screen showing a typical cheap sci-fi movie of the era. In it, a goateed scientist — with glasses perched on the end of his nose — is making himself "transparent" with one of those devices.

posted January 16, 2003 10:00 PM               

In an outer space beautifully cluttered with planets, stars and clouds of galactic dust, there's always one asteroid hovering near, and overlapping, a second, larger one. And the smaller asteroid is leaving a black, circular shadow on the face of the larger one.

I used to sketch that in the margins of my papers at school all the time when I was a kid.

AND:

Borings robot! Clanky, metallic thing with a little round head, LARGE round body, with relativelt spindly arms and legs, but with over-sized joints.

ALSO:

posted January 16, 2003 11:13 PM               

god, was he...uh...er...unique?>@! Wowza!