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| Cover art by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott |
Monday, December 14, 2015
Marvelous Mondays: "Iron Man: D.O.A." by Englehart, Sutton, and Ploog
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! As most of you know, during the Groovy Age, Hank McCoy, aka the Beast, spent most of his time as an Avenger after having spent the Silver Age as an X-Man. Hank, who was Professor Xavier's first graduate, went on to try to "cure" his mutant powers, which resulted in the fab, furry Beast we love (though he was gray before he turned blue...you'll see in future posts). How all of that went down was told in Amazing Adventures #11 (December 1971) courtesy Gerry Conway, Tom Sutton, and Syd Shores, which you can read here. When you come back, we're going to dig on scripter Steve Englehart's Beast-ly debut (which was also his solo super-hero writing debut) as he joined penciler Sutton (who was, for this ish, joined by Mike Ploog) on telling the Bludgeoning One's super-saga! As the title, "Iron Man, D.O.A." implies, the Beast tries to--and succeeds in (you'll have to read it, that's all I'm sayin') killing Iron Man! Whaddya say we travel back to February 1972 and Amazing Adventures #12, when this glorious Gil Kane/Joe Sinnott cover literally ripped two dimes out of Young Groove's pocket--and Steve, Tom, and Mike's story made me wanna keep coming back for more! (Oh, yeah, there's an X-Men cameo, too! Wowzers!)
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Really digging the art here...
ReplyDeleteMy appeal to this esteemed gathering, since I'm only a reader of these comics... On Friday's "Diversions of the Groovy Kind" we saw Gil Kane's are on the first three covers (AA #11, Creatures on the Loose, and Marvel Team Up #1), as well as above. My question is why does GK's art, on MTU #1, look so different than the other 3 covers? Is it just due to the inker involved? I mean,, if you were to show me Amazing Advent #11, or #12, I would instantly recognize Gil Kane. If you show me MTU#1 I might guess Ross Andru. To me, the only "clue" on MTU #1 that it is GK is the Torch's "right leg" bent inwards / pigeon toed so to speak. HELP?! Thanks all.
ReplyDeleteFrank Giacoia's inks are pretty different from Kane's (Sinnott's or Everett's for that matter), so it does give Kane a very different look. The The Spidey figure on MTU #1 looks very "Kane" to me; the legs/feet/knees/calves, the waistline, ribs, and chest; The Torch's legs are definitely Kane's style, too. Sandman is the least "Kane-like", imo. I wonder how tight Kane's pencils were...I'd love to see the original pencils!
DeleteMy "amateur" opinion is that in the other 3 GK covers, it looks like the inker is just inking exactly what is drawn by GK whereas with MTU #1, great liberty was taken by the inker with heavier lines and such... Also, just curious what you mean by "tight?" Thanks Groove - you are my "go to" guy besides Jim Brozman, who works the local Graham Cracker Comic Store here in Downers Grove, IL,and drew Dick Tracy around 2010.
DeleteGroover - how does one pronounce Giacoia? After 50 years, I figured I should figure it out... LOL.
DeleteToo, keep in mind that Gil was cranking out an awful lot of covers for Marvel, in a short amount of time, so some may be layouts and others may be complete pencils. And as Groove points out, some inkers might overwhelm those layouts or just add to the pencils.
DeleteBy "tight" I meant how detailed the pencils were. "Loose" pencils are just indicators, barely more than stick-men/outlines, so the "tighter" the pencils the more finished they are. Usually, tighter pencils are more likely to retain the original artist's style.
ReplyDeleteAs for the pronuciation of Giacoia? The world may never know! ;D Seriously, I've read of many attempts, but "gia-coia" (is the "g" hard or not?) is the one I've seen most frequently.
Giacoia = Gee-ah-koy-ah, with the accents on first (light) and third (heavy) syllables.
DeleteDude - you rock! Finally I can look at a comic and READ THAT NAME!!!
ReplyDelete