Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Y'know, I was under the impression that writer John Albano co-created Tiger-Man with artist Ernie Colon, but I've been re-reading and researching Atlas/Seaboard's semi-Wolverine and now I'm not so sure. Albano wrote the Tiger-Man "prequel" found in Thrilling Adventure Stories #1, but Gabe Levy actually wrote the origin story (also illustrated by definite co-creator Colon) in today's Tiger-Man #1 (January 1975). To further muddy the waters, according to his interview in Comic Book Artist #16, editor Jeff Rovin mentions in passing that "Tiger-Man came about because (DC editor) Joe Orlando had sent Ernie Colon up to see us, and Ernie and I hit it off right away, just started playing around with ideas, and..." So, Ol' Groove's scratchin' his hoary head. Mebbe Messrs. Rovin or Colon will read this post and set us straight on the creation of one of "Vengeance, Inc.'s" best characters. Until then, here's the story of how Dr. Lancaster Hill became the deadly Tiger-Man!
Thanks to Fett for the sweet scans!
New template! :)
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was somehow blind to the faults of all the Atlas comics as a kid, I'd love to say Tiger-Man #1 is a lost classic but it really is a masterclass in how not to do a super-hero comic. Wooden characters, wooden dialogue, wooden poses, terrible costume - and as for the lettering...
Can't say as I dig your new format, Groove. Hard to read in spots.
ReplyDeleteWow,
ReplyDeletei had to cross check the site twice to know that am on the same blog as that of the Groovies.
Refreshing new template.
Yeah, maybe not Ernie Colon's best work...but interesting in a kind of Klaus Janson-esque way nonetheless...thanks for posting, though!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Steve Does Comics. That lettering looks like someone bought a knock-off version of Charlton's "A Machine" at a yard sale.
ReplyDeleteEven as a kid I sensed that Atlas comics were low-rent compared to the big two, but oh man...
ReplyDeleteForgot about the underlining in place of italics or bold print.
I remember not knowing what "mother" was short for in "I'll get those mothers."
Definitely proof that very groovy doesn't mean very good, but still a worthy post.
I love that cover dialogue from the killer thug: "Yeah, Tiger-man, we killed your sister... so WHAT?"
ReplyDeleteMAN is that cold. I mean geez, all they did was kill his sister, why should he be upset?
I guess it's fair to call the Seaboard-Atlas line as a whole "low rent". But virtually everyone doing work for them was also doing work for Marvel, DC and Warren at the same time.
And as I recall, Atlas was paying page rates that were triple that currently paid by Marvel and DC. One of those competing companies had a flat policy that if creators did work for Atlas, these creators wouldn't be able to get work with them too (I think Warren). And as I recall, Atlas only survived for about 11 months before folding.
Certainly in the art department, Seaboard-Atlas wasn't second rate (Buckler, Colon, Thorne, Goodwin/Simonson, Adams, Broderick, Ploog, Chaykin, Amendola, Marcos, Ditko, etc.) As far as writing, there were some bright spots there too. PHOENIX I think had the best writing, but DEMON HUNTER, DESTRUCTOR, GRIM GHOST, IRONJAW, SCORPION, TIGER-MAN, WEIRD SUSPENSE, WULF, THRILLING ADVENTURE STORIES, DEVILINA, and WEIRD TALES OF THE MACABRE, all had some good stories. But diminished by the shortness of the runs, and their inability to develop into something more.
The main fault was a constant lurch in new directions from issue to issue, and a constant shift of writers and artists, who in the latter half left because of either editorial creative differences, or because these creators weren't getting paid.
I count 67 total comics and comics magazines published by Seaboard-Atlas.
Or 72, if you include their text-article magazines GOTHIC ROMANCES 1, and MOVIE MONSTERS 1-4.
As you described, Groove, Colon's efforts were on display in TIGER-MAN 1, and another 10-page Tiger-man shorter story in the THRILLING ADVENTURE STORIES 1 anthology.
And other Colon stories in THE GRIM GHOST 1-3.
And "Speed Demon"in the WEIRD TALES OF THE MACABRE anthology 1.
All nice art and well-told stories.
I loved the first TIGERMAN issue by Colon. and enjoyed TIGER-MAN 2 and 3 by Ditko (Ditko also did THE DESTRUCTOR 1-4 for Atlas). But I would have liked to see the series develop more with Colon art. We got one solid Colon issue, anyway. And the others I listed.
Aside from that, I also think soome of Colon's best work was in ARAK 1-12 with Roy Thomas (Thomas' vaguely Conan-esque character for DC), and also the 16-paage Arak preview in WARLORD 48.
I further loved Ernie Colon's work elsewhere in HOT STUF' issues 6-8, published by Sal Quartuccio in 1977-1978, a "Manimal" series about a man who is a corporate employed scientist, who it turns out is working for former Nazis (of a still existing large Nazi underground in the U.S.), and he is Jewish, the son of two Jews subjected to human experiments in a Nazi concentration camp, the effects of which turned him into a werewolf. Among the best art I've ever seen from Colon, very clean and detailed.
And I like that the character's transformation into a werewolf can be seen as a literal metaphor for his visceral rage at his Nazi opponents for what they've done to him, to his parents, and to millions of Jews as a whole in the Holocaust. Told in three parts, 8 pages each, 24 pages total, a nice complete story.
Renegade Press collected the three stories in a single-issue MANIMAL reprint one-shot in 1986, but I prefer it in its original form.
That's one definitely Groove-worthy of a blog post here.
As are the Colon ARAK stories in WARLORD 48, and ARAK 1.