Stan Lee gets the markers out

[benday-dot]

A couple days back I was browsing the GCD and came across Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 starring Spider-Man. Because I have an inexplicable attraction to the character of Morbius the Living Vampire (yes, I dig that run run he had in (Adventure into) Fear) I clicked on the thumbnail and was rather surprised to have learned that none other than Stan Lee did the colours for the cover.

The GCD shows a Stan Lee credit for anything other than writer to be not unknown but at the same time to be exceedingly rare, at not more than a handful of citations (for an early ink job on Captain America, questionable pencils on a Journey into Mystery and a couple other earlier colour jobs.) This was 1974 and Lee was pretty much out of the hands on creativity aspect of comic book production, and I thought it unusual that he would be compelled to do the colours for this pretty unremarkable issue.

I don't own a copy of this book so I if an explanation was offered from within I don't have access to it. Does anyone know if there is a story behind Lee's colouring of this book's cover? I don't believe he has any special attraction to Morbius or Man-Wolf, but I could be wrong. Perhaps he simply pitched in during a deadline emergency.

Hell, maybe there is no story at all; maybe he just wanted to get the markers out

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2173/400/2173_4_1.jpg

[Rob Allen]

That's a database error; send it to gcd-errors. They recently discovered (and fixed) a bunch of credits that listed Otto Binder as a colorist. This is probably another example of the same kind of error.

[Kirk G]

That's a database error; send it to gcd-errors. They recently discovered (and fixed) a bunch of credits that listed Otto Binder as a colorist. This is probably another example of the same kind of error.

Who's Otto Binder? That famous hollywood director?:D

[Question_Authority]

Otto Binder was a golden and silver aged writer who, at Fawcett Comics, co-created the original Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Black Adam, Mr. Mind, King Kull, Sabbac, The Monster Society of Evil, the concept of the Marvel Family and Sivanna family, Uncle Dudley, and Tawky Tawney. For DC he created Supergirl, the Legion of Super Heroes, the Phantom Zone, Krypto, Streaky the super cat, Beppo the super monkey, Bizzaro, Titano, Brainiac, Kandor the bottle city, Jimmy Olsen's watch, Lucy Lane, Elastic Lad, Insect Queen, and Red, Blue and White Kryptonite. He was quiet an innovator for his time. he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert and Joe Simons.

[Cei-U!]

Otto Binder was a golden and silver aged writer who, at Fawcett Comics, co-created the original Captain Marvel.

You're right about Binder's other credits but Cap was co-created by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck.

Cei-U!
I summon the correction!

[InfoBroker]

...and with his brother Earl wrote a lot of Science Fiction, one of his best, the robot, Adam Link which was one of two major influences (along with Henry Kuttner's Gallagher series) on Isaac Asimov's positronic robot Robbie, the forerunner of his wonderful robot series.

- jb the (R.Giscard was my favorite) ib -

[benday-dot]

That's a database error; send it to gcd-errors. They recently discovered (and fixed) a bunch of credits that listed Otto Binder as a colorist. This is probably another example of the same kind of error.

Well, sometimes the simplest answer is the best. Thanks Rob. I'm certainly aware that the GCD isn't error free, having submitted several corrections myself, but I must admit that here it was not despite, but rather because of the unusual Stan Lee credit that the idea that the whole thing was simply a mistake hadn't occurred to me. The bold and unusual entering of Stan Lee into the colouring field on this book's cover I just assumed could only have been accompanied but utter confidence and not a shred of doubt. Just seemed a bit too audacious an error. I should have known better. Thanks again.

Obviously it stands for correcting. I feel sheepish about doing so, not owning the issue, and not knowing who ought be submitted in Stan Lee's place. Anyone have any clues?

[Cei-U!]

Anyone have any clues?

Given the era of the cover in question, the odds favor George Roussos or Marie Severin. That's a guess, though. Don't hold me to it.

Cei-U!
I hedge my bet!

[InfoBroker]

... or Glynis Wien or Linda Lessman or...

And to lightened the 75R blushing tones on BDs cheeks, here's are precedents to mention.

Writer-Colorists at Marvel dept: Jim Steranko and Steve Englehart quickly come to mind. I'm sure there are some others.

Publisher-Colorists Dept: Joe Quesada's earliest professional work was coloring for Valiant Comics.

- jb the (back when comical book colorists were drenched in Dr. Martin's Synchromatic Watercolor Dyes) ib -

[benday-dot]

Ah JB... looks like we are due for a thread of Famous Comic Book Multi-Taskers. Might I first nominate Neal Adams... who not only penciled, inked and dabbled in colours, but penned not a few scripts over the years. Jim Aparo certainly worked at a four-colour fevered pace... though sans the actually colouring (unless MW Gallaher can correct me here) he sweated hard on pencils, inks and lettering. Jack Kirby of course could and did do the whole gamut of chores... including in the earliest years (Blue Bolt) some colouring. There are many others. The already mentioned Marie Severin comes to mind. Pete Morisi too.

[Cei-U!]

... or Glynis Wien or Linda Lessman or...


Wasn't there a point, though, where Roussos colored all (or most) of the covers? I seem to recall reading something along those lines.

Cei-U!
I summon the dim memory!

[MWGallaher]

Jim Aparo certainly worked at a four-colour fevered pace... though sans the actually colouring (unless MW Gallaher can correct me here) he sweated hard on pencils, inks and lettering.

Jim had at least one coloring credit, b-d: one of the covers of The Outsiders was done in colored pencils! He also had one published story that he wrote: a short Batman Christmas story that was inked by Kevin Nowlan (also published was a two-page spread in Tips from the Top Cartoonists which Jim wrote, pencilled, inked and lettered; among the unpublished writing are several newspaper strip pitches he did, including the sci-fi Zip Tyro and the African-American detective strip Condor).

[dan bailey]

Jim Aparo certainly worked at a four-colour fevered pace... though sans the actually colouring (unless MW Gallaher can correct me here) he sweated hard on pencils, inks and lettering. Jack Kirby of course could and did do the whole gamut of chores... including in the earliest years (Blue Bolt) some colouring. There are many others. The already mentioned Marie Severin comes to mind. Pete Morisi too.

Add Pat Boyette to the pencils-inks-lettering triple-threat roster. Seems to me he was known to write as well.

[benday-dot]

Wasn't there a point, though, where Roussos colored all (or most) of the covers? I seem to recall reading something along those lines.

Cei-U!
I summon the dim memory!

I think you are right. After Stan Lee took George "Inky" Roussos off of regular inker chores on many of the big Marvel books he began to use him in other areas. Since Roussos was known as one of those multi-taskers under discussion here-- penciler (going back to ghosting chores under Bob Kane), inker, letterer, colourist, correction artist-- he eventually got hired as staff under the Roy Thomas editorship years. I read in Kirby Collector it was Production Manager John Verpoorten who basically designated Roussos as Marvel's cover artist of record, having moved Marie Severin over to artwork. This would have been in the early to mid 70's.

Jim had at least one coloring credit, b-d: one of the covers of The Outsiders was done in colored pencils!

Was that the Christmas Carol issue? Very good. I'm a late comer to the Aparo admiration camp, but now that I'm in and have gathered a decent selection of some of his vast oeuvre (most of all love those early Charlton Phantoms, the Spectre stuff, Phantom Stranger and certainly his moodiest Batman work) I shouldn't have doubted that he could do it all.

B-D
Ringing the "Bell" for Geo Roussos, and sharpening the pencils for Jim Aparo

[scratchie]

Writer-Colorists at Marvel dept: Jim Steranko and Steve Englehart quickly come to mind. I'm sure there are some others. Starlin colored several of his Warlock issues. On the early issues, he was doing basically everything -- script, pencils, inks & colors -- but eventually relinquished the inks and colors.

[Rob Allen]

This issue is now being discussed on the GCD mailing list. Greg Theakston mentioned that Stan told him that he (Stan) had done some coloring in a pinch in the 1950s. Despite this, the consensus is that this credit is one of the many examples of credits "going walkabout", as one person put it, in the GCD database. Editor, inker, and letterer credits seem to be the most affected, because of the way the files were formatted when they moved from flat files to a database.

[benday-dot]

This issue is now being discussed on the GCD mailing list. Greg Theakston mentioned that Stan told him that he (Stan) had done some coloring in a pinch in the 1950s. Despite this, the consensus is that this credit is one of the many examples of credits "going walkabout", as one person put it, in the GCD database. Editor, inker, and letterer credits seem to be the most affected, because of the way the files were formatted when they moved from flat files to a database.

Thanks again Rob. As you advised I sent them a note. Likely the real colourist is George "Bell" Roussos as Cei-U suggested, however, without certainty here perhaps the GCD solution will be our ubiquitous friend "?".