NGD... sort of..

D30Man

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There's a guy here in Vegas that owns like FOUR comic stores and he's such a great guy and he's a Comic Con here in Vegas this weekend. I sent him a photo of this guitar. Hope you don't mind. He's gonna love it!! SUCH a cool theme for a guitar!! :encouragement:

Absolutely I don't mind sir. I hope he likes it. I might just have to make another one..
Send me your neglected and unloved squiers and epis and I will turn them into heroes!!!:)
 

D30Man

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I'd do my usual "wedge a stack o' quarters between the vib block and the bottom lip of the vib rout" and call it done. ;) Dig the knobs!

-Dave-

Yes!!!! Never heard of that idea! Dave, I think I have a bigger block laying around somewhere. I guess I was just too lazy to do it..
 

Quantum Strummer

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Yes!!!! Never heard of that idea!

I tried it once out of desperation ("Gotta make this thing stay in tune now!") and found it works well. I wrap the quarters in masking tape. Sometimes I max out the number of springs and set up the thing for downward travel only. Currently have a Fernandes (the Strattiest "Strat" I've ever owned, including various Fenders) outfitted this way. Floating Strat vibratos don't like me…

-Dave-
 

adorshki

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I have gone around for the last 10 years telling people how JK is every bit as responsible as Mr. Lee for the evolution of the graphic page and I completely whiff this one... Sorry Jack!!
Absolutely, maybe even more so.
He did a lot of his own plotting and character creation.
Stan was good at milking the "angst of the anti-hero" thing.
Later on they even had some disagreement about who actually created Spiderman, (I'm going with Kirby for the original concept, now) and you probably know that Kirby drew the cover of AMAZING FANTASY 15 which Ditko actually inked.
amazingspideyslauto.jpg

It's funny, but as a grade-school youngster I preferred the clean well proportioned technique of Romita (Sr). on Spiderman, he always got the webbing and eyes right. Ditko was too often a little lop-sided about the eye-slits.
But years later I realized Ditko was the quintessential Spidey artist because of his quirky style with the knobby knees and elbows and awkward-looking Peter Parker.
Everybody who evolved the Spidey "look" afterward drew off Ditko's original improbable-looking but in fact anatomically accurate contortions:

spidey.jpg

17928c0f2790753589eee448cee7ccf1--spiderman-comic-amazing-spiderman.jpg

But Romita was the artist when Spidey had his first bloom of mass audience appeal with a Saturday morning cartoon show, and even a daily strip, and this iconic image of Spidey still gets revisited today:
4365812-68.jpg

And If you didn't know it, Kingpin was originally a Spidey villain:
4365810-69.jpg

But Kirby's best stuff was in FF and Thor:
He used photo collages to depict scenes in deep space and the Negative zone, the very first one was in FF 51 "IIRC":
FF51-624x929.jpg

Many a psychedelic voyager was convinced these guys (especially Ditko with Dr. Strange as shown previously) had tried out some of the then most notorious and still legal substance themselves....
But Steranko....like you said, in a league all his own.
Steranko did this in Strange Tales #167, a 4-page spread, you had to buy 2 copies of the comic to get the full effect, and of course I did:
Comics-Four-Page-Spread.jpg

The moire figure of Yellow Claw was pretty revolutionary but he also did things in pure press colors, no pencil or ink at all:
capZ1.jpg

But he started at Marvel with SHIELD and left an impact on comic art that persists to this day.
I submit that without Steranko nobody'd give a damn about Nick Fury or SHIELD today, the characters would've died the death of fan indifference like so many other characters.
A nice recap of his surprisingly small output for Marvel, had impact way out of proportion to its volume, and some nice art samples here:
http://13thdimension.com/jim-steranko-three-issues-of-captain-america-and-the-truth/
Interesting life he had. Before Marvel he was a a magician, a contortionist, a martial arts fan (SHIELD agent Jimmy Woo introduced in '67 is suspiciously reminiscent of Bruce Lee), and did motion picture layouts too.
That 4- page spread is suspiciously reminiscent of the assault scene on the missile launch complex in You Only Live Twice; LOL!
So Jim Steranko was acutely aware of pop culture of the day (including psychedelic concert poster stylizations) and drew on it extensively.
I was there for it all and wish I still had all his stuff for Marvel at least, today.
I am a real secondary character kind of fan. DD, Punisher, Fury, Black Widow, etc. make up my Marvel favorites.
Yeah, and a lot of Marvel's secondary characters got their starts as villains:Black Widow originally seduced Hawkeye into teaming up with her against Iron Man in September of 1964 before they saw the light and joined the Avengers; Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were part of Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants before they eventually joined the Avengers, Vision was an amoral android before he got humanized and joined the Avengers....hmmm...are we discerning a pattern here, LOL?!?
But I got mad at Marvel in early '70 when they started bringing substandard artists.
I didn't realize it then but they really had expanded too fast when they gave each character in their
"twin billing" titles their own full magazines and then suffered the loss of Kirby AND Steranko.
Steranko covers on 3rd rate interior work (SHIELD)??
No more Kirby on Fantastic Four or Thor?
Avengers given to Buscema's less-than-fully competent younger brother and Submariner given to another substandard artist, too, so that Buscema could concentrate of Fantastic Four, a total mismatch for his style?
SACRILEGE!!!
So I quit collecting 'em and only occasionally took a look at the comic racks to see what was going on.
Bernie Wrightson was carrying on Steranko's anatomy stylings style with Swamp Thing and I think he was the guy who actually inspired the ultra-ultra- musculature chiaroscuro techniques we started seeing in the '80's and '90's, keeping the Steranko spirit alive when Jim had left the (comics) building..
I got into comics late in life. Early thirties. I dug in though. It sounds like we need to head up a comics forum Al. You can be the Hans Moust of the forum. Clearly you are more than qualified.
Maybe for "Silver Age" Marvel, but that's all.
Here's a great place to spend a few hours:
https://www.comics.org/daily_covers/
 
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D30Man

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Wow! He did indeed. I would say based on things I've read Mr. Kirby was all about content. My assumption is that Stan was all about the broad strokes. He was trying to sell books. I think Stan knew what was going to sell and Jack knew what was going to be considered good. I like to think that anyhow. It is a crying shame that things worked out the way they did for Kirby. I believe they did quite a bit of co-creation. They were very much in a marriage. As we all know things get blurry in a marriage. Unfortunate an ending as it may have been I am eternally grateful that it existed.

I never really got into Thor or FF ( I know!!! The first of the classics!!! ) and certainly never saw Kirby's photo collage work. I will explore. Yeah they were most certainly cooking on a few different herbs and spices to quote my favorite Jewish Cowboy P.I.. Wow. Jewish Cowboy P.I. Three words you sure as hell do not typically use together. Now there is an idea for a Netflix show or a string of books. Kinky takes on the heavies in NY. Maybe I could meet him down in Kerville, TX at the Butt-Holdsworth library and give him the pitch. Maybe remind him it is another way to promote his Kona coffee and midlevel cigars. I digress.

Absolutely agree, Steranko made Fury. Also, I have the cap #111. Easily one of my favorite covers. It could easily be blown up and considered a piece of art. Well I think it is art anyway.. Yes there is a discernible pattern cooking here. Always has been.

I recall first seeing Kingpin as a kid in the spidey books, but was not aware that his first appearance was in Spiderman. I will be seeking out #69 for sure.
Confession: About 8 years ago I sat down with a close compadre and fellow appreciator of the graphic page and discussed an origin story for Kingpin. I got pretty deep into some ideas that would give him real depth. Not that he didn't already have that, but dug deeper. And I'll be damned if Netflix didn't have some of the same ideas. Which only makes sense. I absolutely love what D'onofrio is doing with his character.

You know this just might be my favorite veer sir. And not a damn thing to do with guitars.
 

adorshki

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Wow! He did indeed. I would say based on things I've read Mr. Kirby was all about content. My assumption is that Stan was all about the broad strokes. He was trying to sell books. I think Stan knew what was going to sell and Jack knew what was going to be considered good. I like to think that anyhow. It is a crying shame that things worked out the way they did for Kirby. I believe they did quite a bit of co-creation. They were very much in a marriage. As we all know things get blurry in a marriage. Unfortunate an ending as it may have been I am eternally grateful that it existed.
Absolutely, a marriage.
I think FF was Stan's baby in terms of being commanded to come up with a superhero comic, and Atlas (predecessor of Marvel) at the time was still producing monster/horror tiles when DC had just re-ignited the superhero genre.
FF started it all for Silver Age Marvel.
But by '65 Kirby was at least as involved in plotting and story development of FF as Lee, who basically wrote dialog after Kirby presented him with finished pages.
I never really got into Thor or FF ( I know!!! The first of the classics!!! )
Those 2 titles contained Kirby's best work for Marvel even though he filled in on various other titles early on like the Avengers, X-Men, Captain America, and most of the covers for the "twin billing" titles where the feature characters would change every couple of years, and lots of covers in general, like the first Daredevil:
300

Interesting side note that cover was inked by Submariner creator Bill Everett (who also drew the characters in the lower right panel, note the style mis-match).
Everett was highly regarded by his peers but not sure why he didn't have a bigger role in Marvel's resurgence.
Submariner was an original Timely character from the '40's, and might be the original comic book anti-hero. Fell off the radar in the '50's and then kept popping up in FF and Avengers (he was instrumental in the "re-launch" of Captain America); but Everett only illustrated a few issues when Subby got his own half of Tales to Astonish, then disappeared again for a while until inking the last few Kirby issues of Thor.
Everett turned out to be one of Kirby's best inkers in a few issues of Thor from around '68:
4b9b139bc7bb3710acc1369f5fc35785--jack-kirby-thor.jpg

Other notable early Marvel Kirby inkers were Chic Stone on FF and Thor, followed by Colletta for a l-o-o-ng run on Thor:
867773.jpg

thor126c.jpg

Coletta used insanely fine lines but they brought more facial character to Kirby's work than any other inker.
They gave his era of Thor a feel like no other. (Note Hercules was yet another bad guy later turned Avenger , LOL!!) (as was Black Panther!)
and Joe Sinnott for a l-o-o-ng run on FF:
4938383085_b7bf73c04c_b.jpg

The Kirby/Sinnott Surfer** was always my favorite, Surfer was a Kirby character thru and thru; his first appearance was in a single panel of FF #47; pure Kirby foreshadowing of a full-blown story arc that would carry through the next 5 issues and introduce Galactus to the world and then the Black Panther and Klaw and Vibranium.
Chic Stone did some wonderful 2-tone fade coloring on covers:
$_58.JPG

Oh yes, the Kree were also introduced in FF.
And Ronan the Accuser:
detail-2.jpg

The recent Guardians of the Galaxy movie resonates with me, too. I think it's the best movie treatment of the Marvel spirit of the '60's I've ever seen.
And there's Ronan again.
He's probably about due to become an Avenger, LOL!.

I actually like the Avengers animated series on DXD, especially a season a couple of years ago where they've updated the origin stories of these characters I remember from my youth, but have remained essentially true to the Marvel "ethos".
Yeah they were most certainly cooking on a few different herbs and spices to quote my favorite Jewish Cowboy P.I.. Wow. Jewish Cowboy P.I. Three words you sure as hell do not typically use together. Now there is an idea for a Netflix show or a string of books. Kinky takes on the heavies in NY. Maybe I could meet him down in Kerville, TX at the Butt-Holdsworth library and give him the pitch. Maybe remind him it is another way to promote his Kona coffee and midlevel cigars. I digress.
LOL! It's tough job and I'm happy to let you do it.
BUt I'm sure Kirby was a straight arrow excpey maybe for scotch and his trademark stogie.
IIRC Ditko claimed to be but still, that Dr. Strange stuff, but it could just be the proof of his eccentric genius, like Dali... who needs drugs with a mind like that?:
tilda-swinton-in-talks-to-play-ancient-one-in-new-dr-strange-flick-dr-strange-and-the-an-425312.jpg

This precedes the Vulcan mind meld by a good 3 years, BTW.

But Steranko, bein' under 30 when he came to Marvel and a musician to boot, now there's a likely suspect...

You know this just might be my favorite veer sir. And not a damn thing to do with guitars.
I'm havin' a hard time stoppin', myself.
Steranko's got a page, BTW:
http://www.thedrawingsofsteranko.com/
Note Steranko also spent time in Wally Wood's studio (who also did some work at Marvel from '65-'66, including Daredevil and even inking an issue of FF IIRC) and was adept at copying other artists's little signature graphics tricks of the trade.
Cap'sface on that cover of #111 is lifted straight from Reed Crandall's Blackhawk: (gotta post a link, can't post more than 8 images in a single post)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SnAo3xxCtK8/TXShtrBKH6I/AAAAAAAALGg/-B6t-P43jGU/s400/Blackhawk+1.jpg, and the cover of Agent of Shield #6 is a tribute to Wood himself.
And he did 3 X-men coves at the very, end, too.
Did you know the original series was actually cancelled for a few years before they came screaming back in the '90's?
Man there's another set I wish I still had.

** some folks consider Sinnot to be Kirby's greatest inker, (I agree).
He was FF inker for almost 5 years beginning in November of '65 (#44) with the introduction of the Inhumans just before the Galactus story arc, all the way to the end of Kirby's tenure at FF (#102, Sep. '70, cover actually by Romita), and also did some Captain America and even some Steranko Shield episodes.
Coletta similarly is considered to be the Thor inker by some.
 
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adorshki

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Somebody stop me, please:
IS Submariner the original antihero?
After Frankenstein, I think the case can be made, and for sure in comic books.
Remember the myth is that he came to surface to wreak havoc on surface dwellers for polluting his Kingdom of Atlantis.
In 1940.
224038-19137-116706-1-marvel-mystery-comic.jpg

So he can kick a pilot out of his plane but stops short of murder:
img_0202.jpg

All he wanted was a little respect:
images+(2).jpg

Of course, he knew who the good guys were in WWII:
latest

But after a run as a normal old superhero-against-villains type in the '50's he went back to being his surly old self (maybe 'cause he was cancelled?), messin' with poor Eskimos worshipping a figure frozen in an ice block and inadvertently giving Captain America a chance to be brought back to life:
51.jpg

The second Marvel comic I ever bought was this one because I loved the Dan Adkins cover art (Adkins was another alumnus of the Wally Wood studio):
bed62956e4b617136e3e82cb5b75bee8.jpg

Submariner quickly became one of my favorite characters.
 
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D30Man

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I am not going to stop you Al! I am loving it. When my son Luke was 4 we read the first 10 issues of the Avengers together ( where my strong affection for Kirby first took hold ) and Submariner quickly found a place in my heart as a top anti-hero. Much cooler than Art Currey :) Literally though.. That green speedo had to provide little to no warmth. When he discovers a frozen Cap is one of my favorite SM moments. I love the way Kirby drew his movements probably more so than anyone he has drawn. So acrobatic and physically able and it is captured so well. Hard to do in drawings. Especially given that Kirby had a tendency to run somewhat bulky with his lines. I also enjoyed how the inker ( not sure who - I am sure you know ) had to have had hell keeping those animated brows from spilling out past his face. But his eyebrows had to be raised. For he is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Marvel Universe. Just wants a little respect for his station and realm.

The anti-heroes are always juiciest. The Avengers movies might be a touch of white noise without the Hulk and Black Widow. Not only is she an absolute looker and very sexy in that role, her character has a depth that she more than successfully brings to the surface in those movies. I am upset they have not yet done a black widow flick. To me the women of Marvel and DC are the real heroes and they are kicking A**..

GOTG 2 - Oh man I absolutely loved it. Talk about another well made comic book adaptation. I have a soft spot for Yondu. "I'm Marry Poppins y'all!!!" And Kurt R did a hell of a job.

What did you think of Logan? I thought it was phenomenal. I had read some of the OML books so I had an idea of what to expect. Stewart's finest display of the high end thespianism he is known for. Don't get me wrong I thought there were some silly moments, but all in all I enjoyed it. I thought the metaphor was absolutely beautiful. It doesn't hurt they ended the film with Johnny Cash "When the Man Comes Around"... One of my all time favorite songs. Assuming you have seen it. If not, there is nothing in my paragraph that will ruin anything for you.
 

D30Man

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Oh and yellow DD is the Kirby picture I was looking for when I came across the one for my guitar I thought was his... :)
 

adorshki

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I am not going to stop you Al! I am loving it. When my son Luke was 4 we read the first 10 issues of the Avengers together ( where my strong affection for Kirby first took hold ) and Submariner quickly found a place in my heart as a top anti-hero. Much cooler than Art Currey :) Literally though.. That green speedo had to provide little to no warmth. When he discovers a frozen Cap is one of my favorite SM moments. I love the way Kirby drew his movements probably more so than anyone he has drawn. So acrobatic and physically able and it is captured so well. Hard to do in drawings. Especially given that Kirby had a tendency to run somewhat bulky with his lines. I also enjoyed how the inker ( not sure who - I am sure you know )had to have had hell keeping those animated brows from spilling out past his face.
George Bell, a veteran of the biz at the time but definitely one of my least favorite inkers, actually.
He was primarily a colorist, he just didn't have the chops to do Kirby justice.
I think the real issue was a shortage of manpower to ink all the output Kirby was producing there in '63-'64.
Subby had quite a few FF appearances, too.
As a kid Kirby was also my favorite Subby artist, yep, the eyebrows, without the overly triangular head he had in the '40's.
"s funny, just a couple of nights ago I saw the same eyebrow arc on Bruce Lee in a short shot in The Big Boss:
Cheng.png

Not exactly the shot I was looking for but you can see, he woulda made a great Submariner!

But his eyebrows had to be raised.
Right, 's how Everett invented 'im.
And you can't convince me that Mr. Spock doesn't have some of Namor's DNA in him.

Kirby filled in for a sick Gene Colan in Tales to Astonish # 82, when Subby fights Iron Man:

A-Kirb-Kin-Sub-Iron-1-688x1024.jpg


Inking by Dick Ayers, who handled FF for the first couple of years and was actually a regular penciller too,although not one of my favorites especially compared to Stone, Sinnott, and Colletta, but that's some of Ayers' best work in that story.
More here:
http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kinetics/2011/03/
Chic Stone on FF was my favorite after Sinnott, and I forgot but this is the first Kirby photocollage:

That was also the oldest FF I had, and I had the whole series up to #102. I'd collected back issues but at the time between a buck and 2 bucks a copy they stressed the allowance (LOL!!)
You can see some of his nice two-tone coloring here too:
4032810-ff33nm92m051.jpg


Sometime in the late '80's I saw this on the wall of a comic shop with a $400.00 price tag. It's the one with the first appearance of the Silver Surfer.
One panel, and even that's pencilled so as to leave some mystery about what he actually looks like..
670275.jpg

It took me a while to warm up to Buscema but he proved worthy on Subby, creating one of his iconic images:
latest


Buscema cut his teeth on X-Men and Avengers starting around '67 and ushered in the Age of Ultron in Avengers #57:
avengers57.jpg

Buscema's more fluid and natural organic style was perfect for Subby and Avengers but was too much of a change from Kirby when he had to take over FF and Thor.
He also handled the duties when Silver Surfer got his own comic:
300

To me it was immediately obvious that the FF movie Surfer was based on Buscema's version rather than Kirby's.

Gotta make another post for more images.
 

adorshki

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The anti-heroes are always juiciest. The Avengers movies might be a touch of white noise without the Hulk and Black Widow.
I was hot for Scarlet Witch:
scar0002.jpg

(I liked the beast and Iceman, too)

Not only is she an absolute looker and very sexy in that role, her character has a depth that she more than successfully brings to the surface in those movies. I am upset they have not yet done a black widow flick. To me the women of Marvel and DC are the real heroes and they are kicking A**..
Her first appearance in Tales to Astonish #59 in September '64 would raise cries of outrage for poilitically incorrect sex role stereotyping today:
TOS57+-+Hawkeye+and+the+Black+Widow.jpg


But I love that the romance between Hawkeye and Black Widow is still being played off to this day.
Penciller/inker there's Don Heck by the way, who was also one of their top staff artists at the time, actually co-creator of Iron Man, and handled Avengers and X-Men for a couple of years as well before Buscema came to MArvel.
Had kind of a "scratchy" technique but some of Kirby's dynamic.



GOTG 2 - Oh man I absolutely loved it. Talk about another well made comic book adaptation. I have a soft spot for Yondu. "I'm Marry Poppins y'all!!!" And Kurt R did a hell of a job.
First appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy, January '69:
latest

A oneshot exploration of concept, but nothing came of it for years.
Yondu was one of the original primary cast but there was no Raccoon, no Groot, no Kree, no Ronan..And I suspect Rocket Raccoon would have been too obviously a play on Rocky Raccoon from you-know-where, let alone Rocket J Squirrel, LOL!.
But I love the character!
What did you think of Logan? I thought it was phenomenal.
Haven't seen it yet, but liked "the Wolverine" very much.
Had been long out of contact with current developments in comics when the Wolverine was introduced, initially thought he was a replacement for the Beast character.
This blog has a great recap of the original X-men run and mythology:
http://www.comicsrecommended.com/articles/marvel/x-men-classic.html
X-Men was never one of their bigger sellers and was actually a bi-monthly for the first year or so, probably would have floundered if it wasn't for Kirby art, and he was followed by a string of 2nd-tier artists with only a couple of exceptions, including Steranko:
x-men-uncanny-classic-beast-assaulted.jpg
tumblr_inline_n8nxl8tt6H1sbqej1.png

And even Neal Adams, who'd made a splash at DC by originally "Dark Knighting" Batman
(no slur on Frank Miller):
3975373-58.jpg

Even so, the first few issues suffered from the same problem as the early Avengers, shortage of inkers who could do Kirby justice, like Paul Reinman:
x-men-uncanny-classic-beast-training.jpg


Fortunately Chic Stone came on board pretty quick:
Xmen_09_p16_a.jpg



But for some reason they just stopped showing up at the comic rack one month, and I don't even remember an explanation or even acknowledgement from Marvel, who usually addressed that kind of thing on their "Bullpen Bulletins" page.
So I was kind of pleasantly surprised to see the re-vamped title on the rack in the early '90's, but wasn't buying then.
When I was a kid I actually didn't realize how far back some of those Marvel Silver age guys went.
I knew Kirby basically invented Captain America in the '40's but didn't realize most of Marvel's '60's Bullpen had 10 years and more experience in the biz at the time.
Romita drew some of the '50's Captain Americas, for instance.
One of my favorite Buscema inkers, George Klein, inked Superman over Curt Swan before coming to Marvel in '68.
In the day DC and Marvel were such competitors that I thought that was the reason for the extremely low degree of crossover between 'em.
But guys like Ditko, Gil Kane, Heck and Adams did it.
Even Kirby went to DC which was incomprehensibel to me at the time.
IN retrospect I'm sure it was because they promised him 100% artistic control over his new creations Mr. Miracle, the New Gods, the Forever People, and Kamandi
Mr Miracle was said to be inspired by Steranko's career as an escape artist.
Searching Google images for any of those titles in combination with Jack Kirby brings back tons of great hits, btw.

I had read some of the OML books so I had an idea of what to expect. Stewart's finest display of the high end thespianism he is known for. Don't get me wrong I thought there were some silly moments, but all in all I enjoyed it. I thought the metaphor was absolutely beautiful. It doesn't hurt they ended the film with Johnny Cash "When the Man Comes Around"... One of my all time favorite songs. Assuming you have seen it. If not, there is nothing in my paragraph that will ruin anything for you.
Oughta be on rotation on DirecTV in a coupla years.....
 
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D30Man

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I am going to keep feeding this beast. Yes Scarlet Witch was pretty spicy. No absence of appealing to adolescent hormones in books then and now. Except now the boobs have gotten bigger and waists smaller. I like the more rubinesque style given to the early books. This plays into my preference for women with a touch more meat. I digress.

Yeah Buscema was prone to adding more abs than Kirby. It seems like it was the start of more beefed up characters in the books. You are giving me fodder for my next modge podge 6 string. I am thinking Tele with pure Kirby images on the body and either the headstock or pick guard covered in nothing but Kirby crackle... Thoughts? No one drew action like the man and all of the images I would select would emphasize this. Also larger images as opposed to smaller shots like on the Dare Devil strat. I am thinking New Gods playing a major role in the aesthetic. Some of his coolest looking characters in my opinion. No one drew Sci Fi ( outside of super heroes ) like Kirby. So much décor in his approach.

Now who was first Iceman or The Ice Cube from Pureheart the Powerful???
 

adorshki

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I am going to keep feeding this beast. Yes Scarlet Witch was pretty spicy. No absence of appealing to adolescent hormones in books then and now.
Could this be why guys (at least me) never "got" romance comics?
They appealed to a different set of hormones?
Finally after 50 years I understand.
Yeah Buscema was prone to adding more abs than Kirby. It seems like it was the start of more beefed up characters in the books.
I think there was always a "school" who went after more anatomic realism (ie, more defined lats), all the way back to Burne Hogarth's Tarzan:
hogrth69.gif


and evident even back in the '40's.
Alex Schomburg was THE cover artist of the '40's, even for characters he didn't create:
All-Select-3.jpg


Kubert over at DC was another in "the school"
He was to DC what Buscema was to Marvel and like a lot of '60's "veterans", had roots all the way back to the '40's, but this is late '60's work:
tarzan-Kubert.jpg


Even Bill Everett in '65:
everett-submariner50.jpg

(that's erroneously credited as '72 in Caputo's blog [see next post], it's actually originally from an issue of Tales to Astonish when Everett had just returned to Marvel)
Ever hear of a guy named Frazetta?
Ever wonder what he was doin' oh, around 1952?:
tumblr_nknflx9Ivv1qzr8nao2_1280.jpg


BUT these guys were all setting the bar for guys like Steranko, and within 5 years, Bernie Wrightson:
49c862b4ff568c87a8c68cb0c07c46a3.jpg


His art was the first to grab my eye all the way from the comics rack like Steranko did, after I'd dropped out of collecting in the early '70's.
And I think started the school of "hyper-defined musculature".
I wonder if the resurgence of popularity of muscle-building contests had anything to do with it? (Serious)
It predated Lou Ferrigno's turn as the Hulk on TV so it can't be that.

Oh rats, hit my image limit again, gotta start another post
 
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adorshki

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Anyway, it was about 5 years ago that some younger co-workers brought in some modern era comics and I realized techniques were still evolving, but "hyper-musculature" has remained fashionable:
373620._SX400_QL80_TTD_.jpg

I don't even know who these guys are anymore, though.
But it still gives me a smug thrill when I recognize something that has its roots from Marvel in the Silver Age.
Like that villain looking character behind Lantern is lifted from the Leader:
leader_detail.jpg

:biggrin-new:

No one drew action like the man
I do humbly submit that Frazetta might be Kirby's master but at least certainly his equal when it comes to "action".
I don't think anybody captured a moment like Frazetta:
3812e0330368511b19b538beefcf2ef3.jpg

On the other hand virtually all of his later work was single panel only, and paintings, and limited subject matter.
For sheer variety of concept, character development, story-telling, and output Kirby certainly takes the cake.
and all of the images I would select would emphasize this. Also larger images as opposed to smaller shots like on the Dare Devil strat.
Part of Kirby's trademark technique was exaggerated foreshortening:
Hero-Envy-Jack-Kirby9.jp

When I first heard the bass line intro to "Windy" by the Association, it made me think of Kirby art.
You are giving me fodder for my next modge podge 6 string. I am thinking Tele with pure Kirby images on the body and either the headstock or pick guard covered in nothing but Kirby crackle... Thoughts?
Not sure anybody who wasn't a comic art fan would recognize it out of context.
But if ya gotta have to have it, take it from the source, Fantastic Four:
FantasticFour+-+silversurferDoom.JPG


Yes I never actually saw a lot of his post '70- work until the last few years.
In some ways I think he started to over-stylize his work, but some samples are still "in the zone"
Although he seems to have better recognition today than what I consider to be his prime (Marvel's Silver Age), I'd go toss in examples of his lesser-known work like early Hulk:
hulk.jpg

I am thinking New Gods playing a major role in the aesthetic. Some of his coolest looking characters in my opinion. No one drew Sci Fi ( outside of super heroes ) like Kirby. So much décor in his approach
But I may be assuming a difference between a character(s) tribute and an artist tribute.
I did always think the cover of New Gods #1 was one of his more memorables:
New-Gods-1.jpg

And by golly, there's that photo-collage technique again!

Now who was first Iceman or The Ice Cube from Pureheart the Powerful???
Funny you should ask that because the aforementioned Paul Reinman actually pencilled the cover of "Pureheart" issue #1.
Iceman predates by 3 years, though.
While I'm refreshing my memories about "the Marvel Age" of comics, I keep coming across stuff I never knew about my favorite artists.
Like just how important Chic Stone was when he serendipitously showed up one day at Marvel looking for work:
https://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-chic-stone-age-of-comics.html
And what Bill Everett was doing when he was away from Marvel:
https://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2015/09/bill-everett-at-skywald.html
 
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D30Man

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Well layman and comic newcombers will see it as a Kirby Tele or a comic book tele. However, it may be more of a series tribute rather than a character tribute. Make sense? I don't know that I don't prefer the artwork of the New Gods over his silver age work. I typically am not one for unnecessary detail, but I like the way he does it. When I look at the cover above I wonder what purpose each gadget serves and what Kirby had in mind. Only complaint I have is that it was a little too liberal with the primary colors for my taste. Not every costume needs a rainbow. Although this might have been the colorist no?

Aaaah Swamp Thing... Al he may just be my favorite character in all comic books.. Alan Moore really re-invented him in the 80's and gave him a real edge over a lot of the DC characters of the time - even the Dark Knight IMHO. Swamp Thing is near and dear to me for sure. Constantly agonizing. Well intentioned. Stronger than 30 bulls. FOREVER having to do bidding for an amoral DB ( though another juicy anti-hero ). Finding only happiness in the "Green" which is something that could be described as nature's internet. Very metaphysical. He is a complex character indeed and I love him. I have already been fleshing out what a Swampcaster might look like.

I feel bad. I just give you slightly cohesive text and you send me these awesome covers. You are a whiz with getting images on this forum. My photobucket account is about the slowest thing in the world.
 

D30Man

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Yeah Pureheart was my oldest son's intro to the comic book world. Fun stuff and silly as hell.

I didn't read my full on comic until I was in my 30's.. I read "The Dark Knight Returns" by Mr. Miller. It was so impressive to me I dove in. I liked how imperfect the images were and how edgy it was. Miller really has a way of beating the hell out of the character. After that it was Miller's Daredevil and then on to Alan Moore and so on and so on.. DD and the Swamper are running a tight race with me.
 

adorshki

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Well layman and comic newcombers will see it as a Kirby Tele or a comic book tele. However, it may be more of a series tribute rather than a character tribute. Make sense?
Oh yes, it's what I meant to say instead of a "character(s) tribute", although that effectively dictates the artist as well in this case.


I don't know that I don't prefer the artwork of the New Gods over his silver age work. I typically am not one for unnecessary detail, but I like the way he does it. When I look at the cover above I wonder what purpose each gadget serves and what Kirby had in mind.
I must admit i'm not familiar enough with his post '60's work to really be sure. I just know a lot of the later one-off posters and such that I see when I'm searching images just don't seem as balanced and well proportioned as his Marvel and Fourth world stuff.
Like this one from '83:
gabriele19.jpg

Fourth world might just be his crowning achievement in terms of being absolutely in charge of everything and still at the peak of his powers (I would also still consider it "Silver Age").
I'd collected the first 3 or 4 issues of each title before dropping out, and I do recall Mike Royko's inks because he was new, and he was almostas good as Sinnot or Stone, at capturing Kirby's coarse lines and sense of bulk, but still was a bit too crude in my opinion, almost evoking Reinman's inking again, at least at the time:
ForeverPeople9.jpg

(truth to tell I preferred the Forever People)
(But you can't tell me Darkseid didn't inspire George Lucas' Darth Vader)
Only complaint I have is that it was a little too liberal with the primary colors for my taste. Not every costume needs a rainbow. Although this might have been the colorist no?
I suspect Kirby dictated costume colors of his own creations because they're so integral to a character, but there were limitations to what could be achieved with 4-color process on cheap newsprint with press technology of the era, it's exactly why so many characters' costumes are in primary colors.
Hulk was actually grey in his first issue and it was extremely muddy in the press run. So he turned green.
Covers were always better because they were printed on coated appear which allows sharper definition and broader range of color.
In fact Marvel made a point of announcing an improvement in interior image quality due a switch in printers and paper stocks in about '69 I think it was.
It was almost mandatory when guys like Tom Palmer showed up as an inker for Gene Colan's version of Dr. Strange in '68:
ds174.jpg

Yeah they were actually gettin' those half-tone washes to show up on the pages.

But I'm pretty sure that particular New Gods cover image has been boosted a bit digitally (or it's a "re-mastered" reprint).
Here's a more accurate representation of the original coloring on Wiki, but it's lower res:
220px-New_Gods_1971_1.jpg


Aaaah Swamp Thing... Al he may just be my favorite character in all comic books.. Alan Moore really re-invented him in the 80's and gave him a real edge over a lot of the DC characters of the time - even the Dark Knight IMHO. Swamp Thing is near and dear to me for sure. Constantly agonizing. Well intentioned. Stronger than 30 bulls. FOREVER having to do bidding for an amoral DB ( though another juicy anti-hero ). Finding only happiness in the "Green" which is something that could be described as nature's internet. Very metaphysical. He is a complex character indeed and I love him. I have already been fleshing out what a Swampcaster might look like.
I think Swampy might be to DC what the Hulk was to Marvel:
Edgy concept, grab readers with magnificent art in initial issues, but had trouble gaining traction for a while.
DC had been thoroughly trounced by Marvel's hipper image, better artists and production method resulting in more complex storylines, including the now-commonplace famous "cross-overs" by the end of the '60's, with only a couple of notable exceptions, and they even lost a couple to Marvel (although they also gained a couple, Ditko and Kirby).
They finally started catching up and Swamp Thing was one of their entirely fresh approaches.
What really surprised me was the actual character crossovers between DC and Marvel in what was it, the late '80's?
I suspect now it was due to the crash in sales both were experiencing as the traditional distribution channels collapsed.
I feel bad. I just give you slightly cohesive text and you send me these awesome covers. You are a whiz with getting images on this forum. My photobucket account is about the slowest thing in the world.
Nah, don't feel bad, it's slow in my biz right now.
I figured a bona-fide graphic arts fan would appreciate getting leads on the greats of the past.
And I actually don't use Photobucket, I just search Google images with good delimiters 'cause I know what I'm looking for, and then just use the insert image function for a good ".jpg" file.
Like other members, I noticed Photobucket started gettin' really slow a few months back so I tend to ignore images stored there now.
In the meantime, as mentioned, I wind up stumbling across sites dedicated to comics that have anecdotes and background about my favorites that were never available "back in the day".
I haven't even really touched on guys like Wally Wood and Will Eisner yet, who were in part responsible for EC's sci-fi rep in the '50's
(Wood inking Eisner):
01_thespirit_eisner_wood_1952aug03.jpg


Eisner's legendary "the Spirit":

1e0a7891ec53f54e6de1fcf74b42b42a.jpg


Wally on his own:
woodscience04-big.jpg



And a parting shot of what might have been the first image to inspire the "hyper-musculature" school:
hulkannual1steranko.jpg
 
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tefan

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Great thread guys! And cool guitar D30Man! Combining two important forces in my life (leisure life, anyway) -- comics (when I was young) and guitars (for the last 8 years or so). DD was my favorite super hero. In my book Gene Colan was the definitive DD artist. My best friend preferred Spidey. We'd argue all the time who was cooler. My favorite Spidey artist was Gil Kane. I developed an appreciation for him at DC doing the Atom and Green Lantern.
 
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