Friday, October 5, 2012

Sci Fi Week! Making a Splash: Walt Simonson's Battlestar Galactica

Yeah, we're talking the original Marvel comic based on the original ABC-TV show...the stupendous art of Walter Simonson...and, oh, yeah, the incredible inks of Klaus Janson (on most of these splashes, at least). Feast your peepers on these samples of splash page superiority from Battlestar Galactica #'s 4-5 (March-April 1979), 11-13 (October-December 1979), and 15-17 (February-April, 1980).







at

4 comments:

  1. Edo BosnarOctober 5, 2012 at 5:49 AM

    Yeah, this is the stuff; personally, I liked Marvel's BSG better than the much longer-lasting Star Wars comic. And it seemed liked Simonson was just getting warmed up when the series was cancelled.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ComicsOctober 5, 2012 at 11:09 AM

    enjoyed the stuff. thanks for the posts dear. nice blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 5, 2012 at 8:07 PM

    i was never a fan of the BSG TV series - and i never bought this comic series first run - but a snapped up almost the entire Simonson run a few years later at a farmers market for a nickle a piece and i loved the book - yes - i was much better than the longer running Star Wars series.

    does anyone know why Walt did this series instead of a mainstream Marvel Universe series?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChadOctober 7, 2012 at 10:39 PM

    Thanks very much for posting these, Agent Groovy. I really enjoyed the two Simonson-drawn BSG issues you posted in their entirety and would be delighted to see more full stories from his run, if you have them--particularly the later issues where he started scripting.

    Speaking of Star Wars, I've read some of the old Marvel series via the Dark Horse omnibus reprints lately, and Simonson's run in the 50s/60s is definitely among the highlights. Really, along with that famous Golden issue and the Goodwin/Williamson Empire Strikes Back adaptation, I'd say it's pretty much the only stuff from the whole run that's genuinely good comics. That said, I just can't get into Tom Palmer's inks. So while there are some great Simonson layouts, and some of the covers he inks himself are downright gorgeous, for the most part the interior artwork is merely functional, not pretty. I much prefer the collaboration with Janson on BSG.

    Anon., I know Simonson was really into SF in the 70s and read a lot of novels in the genre, so working on BSG, and SW, was probably a way for him to get paying work in a genre he loved.

    ReplyDelete