Friday, February 2, 2018
The Grooviest Covers of All Time: Al Milgrom Keeps It Cosmic
Check it out, Groove-ophiles! In the mid-1970s, Al Milgrom had graduated from Jim Starlin's inker on Captain Marvel to the penciler of our Kree Captain's marvelous mag. During that time, Al also drew most of the Captain Marvel covers (issues 36-53). If that wasn't enough to hand Al (at least temporarily) Marvel's Cosmic Crown, the Amiable One was also handed the penciling (and most of the cover art) reins of the Guardians of the Galaxy feature in Marvel Presents (issues 3-12). A lot of the time, Al inked himself, but sometimes inkers like Bernie Wrightson, Alan Weiss, Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Steve Leialoha, and others lent their brushes. Are you ready to get cosmic?
While there are those of us from the Groovy Age who tend to think of him as Awful Al Milgrom this is a a good selection of covers. After all these years the cover copy from # 46 where the protagonist threatens to mash CM to slime still tickles me.
ReplyDeleteAl Milgrom is a puzzle to me. Sometimes his work is dynamic and loose (like the samples you've shown), but then sometimes it can be stiff, too (like his work on West Coast Avengers). It might be the inking, but his work on the Kitty Pryde & Wolverine miniseries says otherwise. The first four issues were dynamic, but starting at issue 5, the artwork became a bit stiff then stiffer on the final issue. He inked everything himself.
ReplyDeleteI have grown to like Al Milgrom. I hated Kitty and Wolverine. But my friend Donnie introduced me to the Guardians and his Firestorm and I think he’s great! Now I have to read these Captain Marvels.
ReplyDeleteGuardians and Firestorm look good due to the great inks of McCleod and Wiacek. As you read the CMs notice how much Janson improves Milgrom in 37 - 39. I wish he had stayed longer (Plus the Englehart storyline of the Watchers was superb). After that a series of inferior inkers follows until Terry Austin comes on board and rights the listing ship of CM. So with Al Milgrom it really depends on who he is paired with. His Starlin-lite layouts badly need someone to correct the flaws in his pencilling.
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