Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! See you in 2017!
Friday, December 30, 2016
Making a Splash: Frank Robbins' Invaders
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! For our final post of 2016, why don't we plant our peepers on some spectacular splashes from one of Ol' Groove's fave Marvel mags: the Invaders! Roy Thomas' pet project that took us back to WW II and gave us the "real" adventures of Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch! And while artist Frank Robbins' may have not been everyone's cup o'java on mags like Captain America or Batman, his classic comic strip style was, in yerz trooleyz eyes, a perfect match for America's Greatest Heroes of WW II, especially when inked by Frank Springer. Robbins penciled most of the first 28 issues of Invaders (minus issues 5, 16, 22, and 24, but plus Giant-Size Invaders #1 and Invaders Annual #1), and some of these splashes are truly mind-blowing, baby!
Yeah, this is the cover to G.S. Invaders #1, but it was originally drawn as the splash page to that mag. Writer/Editor Roy Thomas dug it so much, he got John Romita to ink it and had Robbins draw the flip-side of the cover image for the new splash!
Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! See you in 2017!
Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! See you in 2017!
Like you, I didn't really care for Robbins drawing many other series (he was okay with Batman in Detective Comics), but I loved him with the Invaders. That was my favorite series for a while. I missed a lot of it, though, because of distribution issues in my neck of the woods. Would like to catch up with it sometime.
ReplyDeleteI've spent more than a few minutes on the internet defending the artistry of Frank Robbins, but this gallery showcases what I adore about his work, the kinetic energy of his pages is wild. When Frank Springer joined him as inker it was a real match. Glad to see the great Robbins get some love.
ReplyDeleteRip Off
Give us some Robbins in black & white!
ReplyDeleteHow's this? http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/12/12-days-of-christmas-2010-black-and.html
DeleteWhat can I say? Thank you!
DeleteLove Frank Robbin's work even with Colletta's inking him- and that's saying something!
ReplyDeleteHi all. Not being expert in comic production it is a real lesson to see the difference in Colleta's and Springer's inks! I did enjoy Robbin's art here and the Shadow in that, at that young age, I felt it created a nostalgic vibe and also reminded me of the WW2 comic covers I first discovered in Steranko's magisterial "History of Comics."
ReplyDeleteLove Robbins ! Thank you. Happy New Year.
ReplyDeleteHiya,
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm in the minority in this exchange as I much prefer Coletta's inks over Robbins pencils. I don't subscribe to the argument that the inker is obligated to slavishly reproduce what he is given. Robbin's style was in radical opposition to Marvel's house style at the time but Coletta was able to bridge the gap.
Whenever Coletta is brought up in these conversations, usually to his detriment, I'm reminded of something that was a frequent refrain of his critics. It went something like this; "We we're able to get Coletta off the book, sales went down and the book was eventually canceled, but we got Coletta off the book."
Seeya,
pfgavigan
What's not to love? It's like Milt Caniff superheroes!
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