Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Decent Comics: "Be It Ever So Deadly..." by Levitz, Staton, and Geilla
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Paul Levitz and Joe Staton are back with another Justice Society epic for All Star Comics #73 (April 1978)! Huntress vs. Huntress! Wildcat's life on the line! And a mystery deepens for Dr. Fate and Hawkman, which will lead to the next ish! The only downside for Teen Groove was that inker Bob Layton was gone and his replacement was Joe Geilla. Geilla's a master, to be sure, but his inks didn't compliment Staton's pencils (again, imo) and took the mag from looking modern and cutting edge (for the late 70s) back to looking like a Silver Age mag (no offense to the Silver Age meant...).
Total agreement on the Giella inks. I was not a fan back in the day, but I have grown fond of his work on Dick Dillin over the years. His skills are evident but he was mismatched with certain pencil artists and Staton was one of those.
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To me Giella was one of the worst inkers of all time, along with Colletta, Trapani, Springer, Esposito and Giacoia. He managed to mangle any penciller unfortunate enough to fall under his brush. Poor Joe Staton. After soaring the heights with Bob Layton, he fell to earth with a titanic thud under Joe Giella.
ReplyDeleteGiella was really good on Dick Dillin on JLA, and was serviceable at worst and occasionally good on Carmine Infantino on THE FLASH. His other assignments, though, were usually of the type where you'd say, "Gosh, I wish Murphy Anderson was inking this instead." Of course, just about anybody paled in comparison to Anderson.
ReplyDeleteLook at Giordano's run on JLA following Giella, where Dillin received really good inking, and then tell me Giella did a good job on Dick Dillin.
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