Wrapping up our multi-part tribute to The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, in honor of the late summer weather at the California coast.
From time to time, an offbeat Archie mash-up idea burrows its way into my consciousness, and Dan Parent always delivers. In fact, this homage to the original battle scene by the legendary Bill Everett is one of my favorites among the many terrific ones Dan’s produced.
Dan is easily among the top tier of all-time Archie stand-out talents, joining a terrific group of cartoonists that includes Bob Montana, Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucey, to name a few.
Incidentally, we matched the characters by overall appearance (Veronica/Namor, brunette and Betty/Torch, blonde) and, to some extent, personality. After all, Veronica is definitely the worse-tempered of the two, and Betty… does indeed carry a “torch” for Archie.
Our weeklong tribute to The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner continues, in honor of the late summer weather at the California coast.
“Cover-quality” is an overused adjective in the comic art-retailing world.
Typically it appears when a reseller is trying to grab attention on an unpublished commission for sale: “Gee, look, isn’t this as good as a published cover?”
Why do this? The short answer of course is marketing. Hyperbole (theoretically) helps support a higher asking price. Also, it adds the word “cover” to the item description’s metadata, meaning it appears in any on-line search for that word. Clever.
Here, however, “cover-quality” is no exaggeration for this richly detailed Sub-Mariner commission by Mike Deodato — a moody portrait of Prince Namor with the only human he truly pines for, the lovely Sue (Invisible Woman) Storm. Hell, it’s better than many published covers.
Who hasn’t marveled (sorry) at the evolution of Deodato’s artistic style? When he broke in professionally about 25 years ago, Mike’s art approach was much more similar to the “Image Comics” style of the day. Today, his storytelling blends similar dynamism with an often astonishing photo-realism into an accomplished, and enviable, form.
One previous owner of this piece did in fact describe it as an actual published cover, without evidence. But… so many retailer variants and limited exclusive covers have been published the last few years, anything is possible. I’m aware of multiple instances where a piece of art was indeed assigned — and executed — for a cover variant, but then cancelled last minute.
So… if anyone can provide evidence that this art was indeed professionally published. or solicited to be published, somewhere — anywhere — you will have my thanks, and a piece of original art as a finder’s fee.
I found a number of color versions online, adding a bit to more mystery to the provenance of the piece, but they appear to be samples by aspiring colorists.
Continuing our week-long tribute to The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, in honor of the late summer weather at the California coast.
John Byrne’s 5-year run on Fantastic Four is rightfully considered an all-time classic, and it’s certainly on my short list of “desert island” omnibuses. (I have no idea how these books survive the shipwreck with me, but let’s stay on point.)
I always loved the Fantastic Four – and in fact, although I may be in the minority, I definitely enjoyed Hanna Barbera’s short-lived FF animated series from 1967 a bit more than Spider-Man, which aired in the same block. With a few exceptions, the FF cartoon stories felt much more authentic to the comics than Spidey, although he definitely had the better theme song. FF only lasted 20 episodes, and has never been “officially” released in home video. (So much for staying on point.)
The Human Torch, as the youngest member of the FF, was always the most relatable to me, and always a favorite. (He could fly… He could burn stuff… He could fly…)
Byrne. Fantastic Four. Human Torch. Cover scene. Most of the boxes are checked on this great action page, with Byrne on story, pencils and inks. He rebuilt the FF sandbox —and played in it expertly and creatively.
Summer came very late to the Southern California Coast this year, so in honor of the warm weather and cool surf, we’ll stay with The Human Torch and The Sub-Mariner for a few more posts.
This great battle page, penciled by Marie Severin, and inked by Jim Mooney, features Sub-Mariner vs. the contemporary Human Torch, Johnny Storm. This a feud that started in Fantastic Four #4 in 1962 (Torch is the one who discovers an amnesiac Namor living in NYC) and continued intermittently through the silver and bronze ages.
Along for the fun this time is the giant sea-beast Krago, woken from his slumber by Subby’s enemies to wreak havoc among us, and to have Namor blamed. Krago is apparently NOT related to Giganto, another giant sea-beast Namor himself brought along in FF #4. How many species of giant sea creatures are there anyway? And to think I was worried about the occasional shark.
What can you say about the late great Marie Severin, easily one of the most versatile talents to ever work in comics? Penciller, inker, colorist, occasional letterer, caricaturist, production artist, cover designer, satirist… and so on. Hands down, an amazing career, made even more so because she needed to make her bones — more than once — in a thoroughly male-dominated industry.
Marie passed away almost exactly a year ago, and many well-written tributes speak to the scope of her career: Marvel.com, The Comics Journal, and the New York Times all provide good starting points to this remarkable creator.
I had only recently started buying Marvel comics off the spinner racks when Not Brand Echh premiered in the summer 1967. I was immediately attracted to its zaniness. I knew Marvel didn’t take itself too seriously from reading its traditional comics — The “Bullpen Bulletins”, the “no-prize” gimmick, the Merry Marvel Marching Society, et al — but Not Brand Echh (NBE) was a new level of nutty. (A bit later on I discovered it was in the spirit of the original EC Mad comics, but I didn’t know anything about that era yet.)
The actual golden age fight between the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner had just been reprinted a few months ago in Fantasy Masterpieces (# 8), and here was a send-up making fun of the whole thing? The Human Scorch? The Sunk-Mariner? As my friends’ older siblings would say back then, far out.
Bill Everett is typically credited as one of the pencillers on this story — I’d like to believe that — but writer Roy Thomas says he remembers that Everett may have only worked on the title splash at most. Either way, Ross Andru was no stranger to superheroes or satire, and this page is a favorite.
1967 also saw the debut of Topps Wacky Packages and Roy’s earlier comic book satires, Krazy Little Comics, also from Topps. Summer of Love? Sure. But also —- Summer of Satire.
Two Supergirls — one “light”, one “dark.” Lex Luthor in his “war-suit.” Appearances by Superman and the Justice League. Covers by the late Michael Turner. Darkseid. Big splashy fight scenes. And did I mention Luthor in his “war-suit?”
This fun —albeit brief — arc of Supergirl comes to us courtesy of Jeph Loeb, writer, and is rendered dynamically by Ian Churchill, penciller and Norm Rapmund, inker.
Black Kryptonite, making an early comic book appearance here (It was first introduced in the Smallville TV show) is responsible for Kara’s split personality, and her dark side has no problem taking the gloves off, quite literally. Here we see her get the upper hand on Luthor’s — (ahem)— upper hand, as she gleefully destroys the weapon of mass destruction built into his arm. Check out the amazing detail as it shatters into a million pieces. Also noteworthy is Luthor’s face, which expresses a rare combination of pain and shock.
It’s always fun to see Luthor in his super-suit post Crisis on Infinite Earths, and especially entertaining to see Supergirl shred it.
CBR has a fascinating look at the iconic suit’s history here.
The “B” cover of the issue is a Churchill homage to Curt Swan’s cover of Action # 346.
I realized after the fact that nearly all the creators I spent time with — Scott Kolins, Matt Wagner, Howard Chaykin, Gabriel Hardman , Mike Mayhew, Scott Koblish, Dave Bullock and Christian Gossett —- pretty much pencil and ink their own art, which was an odd coincidence. (Koblish inks others as well, but still…) And… they were all exhibiting within a few feet of each other in an otherwise large artists’ alley. Some sort of artistic serendipity I assume.
A great group of creators, enthusiastic fans, creative cosplay — and a good crowd, as opposed to an impossible one — made for a fun day. Kudos to Martha Donato and her team for more than 10 years of successful conventions In Long Beach and elsewhere!
Imagine if the legendary cartoonist Jack Davis suddenly appeared —as a young man— and promptly joined you on a fantastical adventure.
Eric Powell imagined it, and realized it, in a special one-shot issue of the Goon. When Joe Jackson shows up in your story, you call it “Field of Dreams”. When Jack Davis, one of the all-time great EC horror artists (among many) pops in — I say we call it “Field of Screams.” (Even though the correct title is “Goon One For The Road.” Sue me. I couldn’t resist the pun.)
Davis was easily one of America’s most talented 20th-century illustrators, and one of three main influences Eric cites in his artistic career. See here for a personal story of Powell getting a dream fulfilled by getting Jack to do the cover.
And how great is this page?!? The gorilla is wearing a friggin’ Prussian war helmet! A helmet!
Our friends at Hero Initiative are running one of their great “100 projects,” this one featuring 100 different artistic interpretations of Captain America done on blank sketch covers. Lots of great original art at auction on EBay right now, including this astounding Cap cover by the amazing Gabe Hardman.
This round ends Tuesday, 9/3; Bid often — it’s for a great cause.
(Gabe along with his wife, the very talented writer Corinna Bechko, will be attending the terrific Long Beach Comic Con this weekend, 8/31-9/1. Hope to see you there.)
