Everyone in Groove City knows that Stainless Steve Englehart was one of the most original and unique voices of the Groovy Age. His writing on
Captain America, Avengers, and
Batman is considered one of (if not "the") high-water marks of each of those characters' comicbook careers. Strangely enough, Steve started out his comics career as an artist, apprenticing under Neal Adams, with nary an intention to become a writer. He drew, he inked, he even colored--but it was as a writer, a position he pretty much fell into, that Englehart set the comix world on fire. The "truth" behind the 1950s
Captain America. The
Secret Empire. The
Celestial Madonna. "The
Avengers/Defenders War". Silver St. Cloud. "The Laughing Fish". Though he hadn't planned on being a writer, Steve became one of the very best of the best.
Makes one wonder what might have happened had Steve kept on working as an artist. The kid wasn't bad! Here's Englehart's third black and white art job, found in Skywald's
Psycho #7 (April 1972), "The Feastings of Prince Yamm". This tale featuring a
Vampirella rip-off named
Demona was written by Golden Age great Gardner Fox and features ink assists (mainly on the female figures according to Englehart
on his website) by Vince Colletta.
Pretty cool, huh? Still and all, Ol' Groove's glad we got all'a those cool Englehart-written tales!
Yeah, it's always a trip realizing that Englehart started out as an artist - and a pretty good one at that. Kind of odd that he never became one of those writer/artists like Miller, Simonson or Byrne...
ReplyDeleteWow. All of a sudden, after seeing these super sexy pictures of Demona, I have an urge to dig up all of my old Vince Colletta comics. Why hasn't anybody else figured out how to draw females as well as Vince did?
ReplyDelete