Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Grooviest Covers of All Time: Gil Kane and Bill Everett

When Roy Thomas became Marvel's Editor-In-Chief (and even a bit before, when he was actually Stan's de facto EIC), he paired two of his all-time favorite artists, Gil Kane and Bill Everett, on a few covers that would become true classics. Everett must've enjoyed inking Kane since he was inspired to create that cool GK/BE signature! How much magnificence can a mere mortal's eyes behold, Groove-ophiles?


About that much? Pax, baby!

6 comments:

  1. Oh yes indeed, sir, to everything you just said. What an amazing team; how awesome would it have been if they'd collaborated even more?

    Mind you, these comics happened to come along at the very moment when my devotion to Marvel was at its absolute peak -- that's probably true for many folks who read this blog, I should think -- so it's impossible for me to appreciate the artistic virtues of these covers in any sort of objective way. Just looking at that Avengers cover brings back all the excitement I felt the first time I saw it, you know? But even so…the fact it stands up to and even exceeds my memory of how great it looked then, that says something too!

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  2. Holy Moley!
    Man ,I remember the day I read in Stan or Roy's soap box of Bill Everett's passing. I was heart broken. As well as Marie Severin's beautiful tribute pin up in Sub-Mariner#65 or #66. I loved his beautiful art & inks. From his awesome Sub-Mariner, inks on Kirby's last issues of Thor before he left Marvel for DC in early 1971!

    That was a shock enough for me. The KING leaving his kingdom! As a kid it confused me a little but I understood the business aspect of it. Man it's a shame Bill didn't live longer. I would have loved to see him do alot more with Kirby & Gil Kane. Imagine if he had been Kirby's inker over at DC & on his return to Marvel in 75!

    I wish Gil Kane had done the Power of Warlock together & a Beast series as well with Bill. My personal favorites of Bill's inks is from Tales To Astonish#79. The classic Hulk VS Hercules story. Too bad the story was only 10 pages long & only like 5 or 7 of them feature the Hulk & Hercules. Atleast we have these beauties to still enjoy. As well as his Sub-Mariner work & issues of Thor with the King! Thanks for yet another groovy post! Impres Rex!

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  3. everett was one of the few who could fill out kane's pencils without overdoing it, which was easy to since Gil left a lot for the inker to interpret. I would have found inking Kane a daunting task. My nostalgia filter loves the Beast cover, but my artist eye thinks that the Rawhide Kid cover is the best piece of art of the 5 shown here.

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  4. Never ever tire of Gil Kane covers. I think I had all of these at time. Not sure about Sub Mariner # 58 but definitely had #48. I think the inks on that one was by Bill Everette. Great stuff.

    Bill @ The Uranium Cafe

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  5. i love that line on the sub mariner cover, "come in the dyings fine!"

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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