Top Ten Comic Book Artist List

The other day, Nigel, my old friend from England, who I have known since the mid-Seventies but lost contact with from 1981 until the end of 2015, asked me to do a top ten list.

Specifically, since we are both comic book geeks, of long standing, he wanted my top ten, of comic book artists.

In my first draft, of the list, there were over thirty names and I knew that it would be very difficult, after so many years and so many artists, to whittle it down to ten but I did it.

In no particular order,

Wally Wood

Alex Toth

Mike Ploog

Paul Grist

Jeff Jones

Walt Simonson

Frank Bellamy

Jack Kirby

Jim Steranko

Steve Ditko

Nigel's first reaction, was surprise!  I had left a couple of perennial favourites off the list, in particular, from his perspective, 

Gil Kane

and

Bernie Wrightson.

As I said to him, compressing the massive list of artists, that I have adored, down through the years (almost fifty at this point in time), into a list of ten names, means that some luminaries will be left out!

The names on my list, all have a deep resonance with me and they have all left a lasting mark upon my artistic sensibilities. 

But so did many others!

It is just that these guys were either there at the beginning of my fascination with comic books, or they contributed something new and different into the medium, that caught my attention.

So!

Who is on your Top Ten List?

Christine Carter : Life and the Pursuit of Happiness

A while ago, I happened across a Blog.

That, in and of it's self, doesn't say very much because I spend a good deal of, "nonproductive time", cruising the Internet, when perhaps I should be applying myself to more important things.

However, this little Blog, which only ran for four years, was written by another transplanted Brit, although she arrived in Canada ten years before I did and sadly, passed away last summer.

Christine Carter, of Sault Ste. Marie, wrote a little Blog called Retired and Loving It.  It only lasted, from her retirement in the summer of 2011, until it suddenly stopped in the winter of 2014 but her love of life and her ability to keep herself busy, come through, loud and clear.

The mystery, to me, is what happened in the missing two and a half years, between November 2014 and her death, in June 2017.

As is usual, with most casual Bloggers, me included, is that the number of posts decrease, year over year, because it takes an effort, to think of things to write about.

Not to mention the time it takes to actually type the posts into the computer!

Christine must have been quite the woman and I am sorry that I will never have the opportunity to meet her.

There isn't anything life changing, to be found on her Blog but there is an affirmation of a life well lived and a retirement well enjoyed, that deserves to be celebrated.

Bits & Pieces of Interest

In the interest of maintaining a reasonably regular contribution to this blog, here is another "general interest" instalment.

When Mike Mignola first came to my attention, it was his spot illustrations and occasional covers, for the old Comic Book Reader fanzine and much in this style:

Looking at this drawing now, which is dated 1982 and appeared in the pages of The Adventuress fanzine, number eleven, it strikes me that there is a feeling of Frank Frazetta as drawn by Vaughn Bode, about it.

Whatever it was and as much as I admired and bought his later Hellboy stories, for me, this is the stuff that he did that still makes my heart sing!

But then, I have been told, many times, that I am odd.

Gene Day was on the cusp of greatness, when he was struck down in the prime of his life and I always wonder, how would his Batman have turned out? 

This page is from his fantastic run on Marvel Comics, 

Master of Kung-Fu and shows the level he had attained.

Robert McGinnis,

who is an extraordinary artist, with a long and illustrious career,

was spot lighted, in 2008, in a DVD documentary entitled

The Last Rose of Summer.

It stands a a rarity, being not only the only documentary about McGinnis, as far as I know but also 

because it is as rare as hen's teeth.

So, I was intrigued to discover that Stuart Ng,

book dealer extraordinary,

has one up for sale, at the moment,

for $250 US!

I feel that it is only fair to say, that having seen the film, it is a little bit lacking.  On the plus side, it is the only one of it's kind but on the flip side, it is long on scenery and short on any real insight into McGinnis' working methods.

Caveat emptor!

One of the few comic book series that I continue to buy, as they are released, is the Resident Alien stories, by Peter Hogan 

and Steve Parkhouse.

I have been a fan of Steve Parkhouse's artwork, since discovering it in the pages of the old British fanzine, Orpheus and probably, arond the same time, in Dez Skinn's reprint zine, Warrior.

(Not to be confused with the later version of Warrior, that spawned the British comic book artist and writer Invasion of the 1980's)

They are well crafted stories and I thoroughly recommend them.

Finally and just because I have always had a soft spot for his artwork and because, like Gene Day, he died way to young and way too soon, the late great Jim Holdaway, drawing Modesty Blaise.

 

Don Lawrence in Illustrators Special #3

Don Lawrence and The Trigan Empire,

I never think of one, without the other.

Don was already a well established professional comic book artist, by the time he began illustrating The Trigan Empire, in the newly launched Ranger weekly comic, in 1965

but

he was all new to me and I was captivated by the art and the story, from that very first issue.

I was an impressionable eight year old and I continued to read the strip for the next couple of years, even following it into the pages of Look and Learn, when the publisher decided to meld Ranger into it.

Somewhere after that, my nomadic existence, with my parents, caused my attention to shift and I never really felt that old draw to the strip.  I am ashamed to say, that when I became a fully fledged convert to the Marvel Comics publications, 

I even found Don's art to be rather stiff and old fashioned!

BUT

I never forgot that early infatuation and when I ran across a copy of the large, hard backed Trigan Empire collection, 

in Victoria, on Vancouver Island in the summer of 1990, 

I snapped it up.

(Borrowed from a seller on Gumtree)

Cathy was a, "girl loses clothes", strip thatran in Mayfair, the Men's Magazine and this collection was published by the relatively short lived Canadian publisher, Aircel.

In an aside, Aircel also launched the career of Dale Keown and several others, in the pages of their comic book lines.

I had never seen or heard of Storm, when this volume turned up on the shelves at the Silver Snail Comic Shop, here in town but it was and is a decent read.

These three books, from The Book Palace, in England, are really special and well worth the money... I only have two of them!

Coming up shortly, is the publication of this beauty

the Illustrators Special, number Three 

and it promises to be well worth the exorbitant $54 Canadian,

that it will cost me.

All of the publications that I have bought, published by the good people at The Book Palace, have been exemplary examples of the craft and I am chomping at the bit, as I wait to read this one.

Don Lawrence left us all, the poorer for his passing, in December 2003, after a distinguished career in illustration.

Jim Starlin : A Life in Words & Pictures

When it was fist published, over a decade ago, I wanted to see a copy of the book, before committing to buy a copy and as a consequence, I never even saw it!

Later on, the prices being asked for a second hand copy, were so extreme that I just accepted that I would never own a copy.

So, when Aftershock announced that they were going to reissue the volume, I was in heaven!

Jim Starlin's career mirrors my time spent as a comic book enthusiast and I remember his work on the Marvel Comics of the Seventies, with a great deal of fondness.

One of the "treasures" of my collecting years, is a copy of his early comic book fanzine, The Eagle.

It is amazing to me to admit that I have watched a whole generation of artists and writers, enter the comic book field and now I get to watch them retire from it...

Thank you, Jim Starlin, for helping to fill my head with dreams and aspirations.

The Marvelous R C Harvey!

Many long years ago, I came across R C Harvey in the pages of 

the Rockets Blast Comic Collector

and I was in awe.

What a cartoonist and I had never heard of him...

of course, as it transpired, talented or not, R C Harvey had to have a day job, to make ends meet because cartooning and comic book making, while a lot of fun, take a lot of effort and a little bit of luck to turn what is usually a passion, into a career.

As the years rolled by, R C Harvey and his cartoons migrated into The Comics Journal

as did his written pieces about the comics medium

and in a fairly short while,

he was a writer who occasionally cartooned, instead of a cartoonist who frequently wrote.

Our loss.

In the early Nineties, 

a book about him and his cartoons, entitled 

Not Just Another Pretty Face,

was published and I snapped one up!

But the main thrust of this piece, is to republish the first article and cartoons that R C did for the old RBCC

and here it is:

I want to take this opportunity to thank Mister Harvey, 

for the hours and hours of fun, that his work has given me and for the inspiration, to keep on trying to be a cartoonist, even if I am the only one who ever sees my drawings.

There will be more to come, including R C's Superhero parody,

Zero Hero and his sexy sidekick, Starbright.

I hope it meets with someones approval, somewhere.

Life Lessons and Other Things

"Growing old is not for sissies".

I first heard those words in a documentary on PBS, many long years ago, when old age seemed a long way away

and while I appreciated the truth in the statement,

the actuality of the situation, here and now, is 

that growing older is learning to cope with pain.

I am not talking about crippling pain.  Instead, age brings us all aching joints, at the very least and if that is all, then we think we are lucky!

When I think about the rather pathetic tolerance to pain, that I had as a child, I am amazed, that as an older adult, I can ignore a level of pain, that once would have had me curled into a fetal position.

So, everything has a benefit and if we look for it, a silver lining.

Contentment is a wonderful thing and while I was never truthfully discontent, age has given me a greater appreciation of what I have and less desire for MORE.

I have too much stuff anyway and I have proved to myself, several times, that even when it comes to my beloved comic books and art books, that my memory is letting me down... I hate to say how many times I have bought the same item again!

The moment is upon me, I think, to make a change in the way that I have conducted my affairs.  For just about half a century, I have bought comic books, art books, fanzines etc., on a weekly excursion, through the book shops of the cities in which I have lived but even that has faltered and recently, it has been more of a monthly trip.

The objects of my affection are no longer the siren call that they once were and I am content (that darned word again) to let them go.

Modern day comic books, do not delight and entertain me, in the way the ones that I began collecting with did.

One of these two issues of the Fantastic Four, was most likely, the first four-colour comic book that I ever bought, way back in Birmingham, England, in 1970.