Thursday, June 10, 2010

Stunned by Steranko: Sensational Special Effects


Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Been a while since we got down with some sweet Steranko art, so today, let's take a look at some pages and panels that really blow me away--betcha they'll blow you away, too! Steranko's use of light and shadow, color, zip-a-tone, and sound effects set a new standard for comicbook art that many have tried to emulate but relatively few have approached. Check out these examples from excellence from Strange Tales #'s 154-168 (December 1966-February 1968)! Nick Fury and his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. never looked more far-out!

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Thanks for posting these, Groove!

    We may over-use the word "awesome" on this 'ere internet, but in Steranko's case it's no overstatement. He was so OF his time but simultaneously AHEAD of his time: the mark of a true genius.

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  2. Can you imagine what Dr. Strange would have been with Steranko behind the wheel?

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  3. Groovy: I can't help but have mixed feelings about Steranko. I love his drawing, on the one hand, and his individual pages are often impressive. But on the other hand, his works seems the beginning of the end. Today, there is a lack of effective, sequential comic book storytelling with artists trying to hit a home run on every single panel. Nothing moves the eye along - every panel jars and crashes. Steranko (who could tell a story) was the herald for this unfortunate trend.

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  4. Thank you!
    All hail the mighty Steranko!

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  5. Kirby & Steranko ... you just cant beat em!

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  6. Mykal makes a good point but I don't think it's the fault of a Steranko. He didn't lose touch with moving a story along as MB points out. The generations that followed did and their art became more of an eyesore and showboating exercise while writing suffered. During the advent of the graphic novel,how many times were you overwhelmed by the visuals and disappointed by the story presented? Groove on!

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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!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


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