1983 was a busy year for Star Wars… and Klaus Janson.
Janson pencils, inks, and colors a terrific looking stand-alone Star Wars annual which releases in the summer. At the same time, he’s inking and penciling over Frank Miller’s layouts on Miller’s legendary Daredevil run. (Ultimately penciling and inking four issues on his own.)
On the Lucasfilm front, Return of The Jedi releases in May 1983, concluding the original trilogy — with the gazillion licensed products that follow suit. (The Jedi adaptation from Marvel is released as a separate series, in addition to the monthly Star Wars ongoing comic book.)
The first three pages of this Star Wars annual came up for auction late last year and fortunately, I snagged one.
Daredevil, beaten and bruised, is hauled away by the NYPD in this cool cover by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story.
It’s an apt metaphor for the part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that briefly resided on Netflix.
Daredevil, along with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Punisher anchored an ultra-violent “Marvel Knights” style universe on the steamer for three years. Pretty good television shows, ultimately victims to the battles between the giant entertainment behemoths.
Daredevil was my personal favorite of the group, leaning very much into Frank Miller’s work on the “Man Without Fear” and “Born Again” story arcs. Terrific cast, well-written scripts, and a definitive, stunning performance by Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin.
In about six months, the moratorium on rights reversion ends, so Marvel will be free themselves to use the characters in the MCU. In fact, there is a dedicated group of fans campaigning for the cast, if not the entire show, to return in some form under the Marvel banner.
A long shot of course, but the group has worked tirelessly to make its opinion known. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile this cover is an oddity in that it highlights a scene that took place in the previousissue. Just in case you missed it, I guess.
Doesn’t matter from an art standpoint of course. It is a striking image. Regardless. And as mentioned in a previous post, I’m always happy to see Sprouse and Story on… pretty much anything.
Frank Miller returns to Daredevil and brings an all-star art team with him in the origin story, “Man Without Fear.”
Ok, easy to call “all-star” an oft-overused cliché, but in this case, no exaggeration. The artistic team of John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson is a stunning compliment to Frank’s storytelling.
This is Romita’s best work up until this point in his career, and Al certainly still had his inking chops as well.
I’m guessing (and strictlyguessing) that Miller provided a full script or close to it, because the layouts and storytelling are so “Milleresque.” Either that, or Romita Jr. channeled his inner Miller.
Probably a combination of both.
In this page, young Matt Murdoch discovers his true powers for the first time in a sink or swim training session provided by his tutor, the mysterious “Stick.”
The page layout cleverly and beautifully uses the nine-panel grid to show the development of Matt’s reaction time to Stick’s attack.
A great page from one of the all-time great limited series.
55 years ago, Wallace Wood emphasized the “devil” in Daredevil with a dramatic costume change for the character in issue #7. The series, which had floundered early on, started to gain some traction with Woody’s work just a few issues prior. Issue #7, featuring Daredevil hopelessly outmatched by the Sub-Mariner, is considered a silver-age classic.
Our next three posts celebrate this anniversary with a look at the “modern” man without fear.
I love classic film noir. Dark streets, shady characters, two-faced femme fatales, dimly lit apartments, et al. All great.
At one point, there was not a sign of comic art in my office — just classic noir posters.
So it’s no surprise that that some of my favorite takes on Daredevil are those same noir tropes applied to comics by outstanding storytellers like David Mazzucchelli.
And great pages like this one, featuring Daredevil in every panel, playing the (blind, but super-powered) detective. Mazzucchelli’s use of cinematic camera angles and shadows and light creates a deeply moody page, especially when seen in its original form.
Mazzucchelli keeps nearly all of his original art, and he both penciled and inked this page, so it’s a fantastic rarity as well. Only a handful of Daredevil pages that he is fully responsible for have appeared for sale on the secondary market.
Daredevil #217 features a dramatic cover by the amazing Barry Windsor-Smith.
Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli would collaborate on one of the best loved comic book story arcs of all time: “Born Again.” At IDW, we were fortunate enough to put together an Artist’s Edition of the series with beautiful scans provided from Mazzucchelli himself.
By now, we should be in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but unfortunately, we have a six-month delay. So, for the first time in a dozen years, no Marvel film to launch the summer movie-going season.
But, we won’t let that delay slow us down here — let’s take a look at some of characters from the next three scheduled films this week.
From the trailer(s) for the Black Widow film, now releasing this November, it appears that many elements from Natasha Romanoff’s 55-year comic book backstory will make into the film. (No surprise, as that has been the Marvel M.O. since day one).
Of course, an exception will be her relationship with Daredevil, which lasted a few years in the original comics. Not sure what the entertainment rights status is for Daredevil and the other Netflix Marvel characters (now since cancelled), but I’d fall right out of my seat if any of them showed up in the cinematic universe in the near future.
This very cool Daredevil page from the great Gene Colan comes from early in the relationship between DD and the Widow; in fact they don’t actually have a relationship at this point in the chronology, but they soon will, and ultimately team-up and move to San Francisco together.
In fact, the comic book changes its cover nameplate to Daredevil and The Black Widow for more than a year.
Let’s see: Matt Murdock suddenly ups and moves to Frisco. Daredevil — suddenly — is now fighting in the Bay Area. No one figures the connection out? Really?
Amazing Spider-Man #86 serves as a “#0” recap and revamp issue (before they had those) for Natasha’s short-lived solo series in Amazing Adventures.Words and pictures by Stan Lee and John Romita.
Black Widow’s first solo series, her first appearance in Daredevil, and a recent collection of her earliest appearances — with a recolored cover drawn by the legendary Bill Everett.
John Romita Sr. turned 90(!) the other day, and we would be
remiss if we didn’t celebrate the amazing artist — even belatedly.
This great action page is from the one-shot Kingpin and it represents the final comic book story collaboration between Romita and Stan Lee (with help from Tom Delfaco and inker Dan Green).
What’s great about this story — and this page, specifically — is that it features three important Romita icons in one place:
Daredevil, Romita’s first pencil gig at Marvel after eight years of DC romance comics.
Spider-Man, the character that Romita will always be most associated with, and the one he brought to new heights of popularity.
Kingpin, the all-too-familiar super-villain that John co-created, and who will likely vex DD, Spidey and others for the rest of time.
This page is obviously not from the classic Romita era — in fact, it comes 30 years later, but it’s still a great example of Romita’s superb draftsmanship and storytelling.
And all it’s missing is Mary Jane Watson.
You can’t have everything.
Early key Romita comics: His first Daredevil action page (over Kirby layouts) from DD #12; the first Romita Spider-Man, crossing over with Daredevil in DD #16; and Kingpin’s first splash appearance (Amazing Spider-Man #51) from his multi-part debut.
Romita on his Spidey assignment:
“I was hoping against it, believe it or not. People laugh when I say this, but I did not want to do Spider-Man. I wanted to stay on Daredevil. The only reason I did Spider-Man was because Stan asked me and I felt that I should help out, like a good soldier. I never really felt comfortable on Spider-Man for years. … I felt obliged to [mimic] Ditko because … I was convinced, in my own mind, that he was going to come back in two or three issues. … I couldn’t believe that a guy would walk away from a successful book that was the second-highest seller at Marvel. … After six months, when I realized it wasn’t temporary, I finally stopped trying to [mimic] Ditko. … “
Continuing a two-week series celebrating Halloween with the best in monsters, mystery and mayhem.
The monsters returned to Marvel in 1972.
But this time, the giant behemoths were mostly relegated to reprint titles. Thanks to a loosening of guidelines by the dreaded Comics Code Authority, new comics featured creatures of the night like werewolves, zombies and of course, vampires.
Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula, written by Marv Wolfman (you can’t make that up) and drawn exquisitely by Gene Colan for 70 issues, is a masterpiece of that era. And, it’s not only a legendary horror series, but also one of the great comic book runs, period.
Colan, the “painter with a pencil, “ made his bones at Marvel on classic superheroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and most notably Daredevil. When Marvel expanded into the horror genre, though, no artist could have been more suited to bring life to the undead Dracula.
The stylist who had mastered the art of shadows and light, was now illustrating the character who hid in those very same shadows.
This moody and dynamic action page is typical of the series. Tom Palmer, who inked all but a handful of early issues, is one of the few who could ink Colan without diminishing — or (ahem) burying altogether — Gene’s pencils.
Colan’s unique style can be polarizing. His fans (and I obviously count myself among them) can be passionate to a fault about Gene’s inventive and atmospheric storytelling. Gene’s singular artistic approach made no attempt to mimic the styles of Marvel’s other star artists, and that represented a challenge to some readers, especially on superhero stories.
But to us, it didn’t detract, or distract, from what Kirby, Romita and Buscema brought to the party. Hell, they were the party. Stan Lee understood from the beginning that Gene’s art would stand on its own. And we appreciated that.
It’s like being an obsessive devotee of art impressionism, and also an enthusiast of Picasso’s cubism. It’s not a contradiction to enjoy both — is it?
New York Comic Con takes place this week at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, located right at the southwest end of Hell’s Kitchen.
For non-New Yorkers who only know the neighborhood as grimly depicted in Daredevil (comics or the Netflix TV series) I will break it to you gently. Hell’s Kitchen ain’t what it used to be.
Sure, when I was a kid in the ‘70s, even the ‘80s, it was rough. Just walking the eight grimy blocks from Penn Station to Port Authority on the main avenue was a scary adventure. Among other lovely sights, I once witnessed an entire squad of police, in full tactical gear, clear out a tenement of drug addicts and dealers. It was not a peaceful bust. (Wish we had smartphones in those days.) I definitely received an unintended education in that part of town.
But now? Just like nearby Times Square, the neighborhood has been gentrified and scrubbed over time. That block where I saw the drug building invaded back in the day? You can find a really good hipster cookie shop there now.
And with the completion of a nearby subway extension a few years ago, real estate development is on fire. Hell’s Kitchen is — wait for it — a hot part of town.
This cool photo-realistic Daredevil page — sans Daredevil — from artist Michael Lark, isn’t that old. An artist’s rendition that’s definitely based on historic reputation rather than current reality, and a piece of art that I enjoy without any misguided nostalgia for a once crime-infested community. Maybe Daredevil needs to move to a tougher neighborhood.
Me? I’m going to walk each day to Javits during the convention. And probably stop along the way to grab a cookie.
