Hey, who else remembers...

[Greg Hatcher]

...Tony DeZuniga?

I am still wallowing in my rediscovery of the 70's Marvel black-and-white books -- God bless eBay, I have dropped about $50 or so on these things the last few weeks and I am just swimming in lots of reader-copy B/W greatness. Specifically DOC SAVAGE and SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, and boy, DeZuniga was the go-to guy for those books. I had forgotten how much I really liked him inking John Buscema's stuff, especially.

I had a sad moment when I realized how many of the guys that worked on those books are gone now -- Gil Kane, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala -- and I thought, geez, if DeZuniga's passed on, too, that would be really depressing. So I Googled him and found this page, (http://www.komikero.com/museum/dezuniga.html) which was reassuring.

He did amazing work on the short-lived DOC SAVAGE magazine Marvel put out around the time of the George Pal movie. That's what I really remember him from. But he did a lot of SAVAGE SWORD work too. When he inked over John Buscema, he had a great sort of scratchy, dark style going on that really looked like a sort of Kubert-Caniff-Hogarth hybrid.... you, know, tough, sweaty, macho-adventure comics.

I wish the San Diego con would get him down there for one of those Mark Evanier spotlight panels. I'd love to hear more about how he hooked up with Marvel from the Phillipines. I think he was one of the first of that wave of artists.

[Cash Lone]

I have Marvels Kull Graphic Novel from the 80's w/ his artwork.

I feel your pain about artist who are no longer w/ us. I really miss Gil Kane, his work always dropped my jaw.

[Aaron Kashtan]

He was one of the major Filipino artists. But according to what I've heard, he also financially exploited a lot of the other Filipinos, although they unfortunately aren't willing to talk about this on the record.

[hondobrode]

I remember his work fondly. I think I esp liked his Punisher work from early on. Too bad he hasn't done any comic work that I know of in the last 25 years or so.

[Hombre]

When he inked over John Buscema, he had a great sort of scratchy, dark style going on that really looked like a sort of Kubert-Caniff-Hogarth hybrid.... you, know, tough, sweaty, macho-adventure comics.



I often mention the Wein-Simonson-DeZuniga run of Thor as some of the finest comics ever... their chemistry was on a par with that of Byrne/Austin or Perez/Marcos, but DeZuniga added a special depth and melancholy that perfectly captured the noble spirits and tragic souls in those magnificient stories.

[Roquefort Raider]

Your enthusiasm for old B&W magazines has spurred me to dig into my SSoC longboxes for the past week, Greg! Thanks!

I really liked DeZuniga when I first saw his art (in SSoC 32). He gave Conan an older look (which was fine, as the Cimmerian was in his thirties in that story) and his highly contrasted black and white work gave an impressive realistic look to Buscema's pencils. Like Alcala, another great Filipino artist, when Dezuniga drew a rocky mountainside, he really made it look like rock. (That may sound like a funny comment, but how many artists can truly render the feel of rock, its hardness, angular structure and the way light plays on it)?

Tony was a big overused at one point, though, and his art could feel rushed at times. I also think that he was a much better inker than penciller. I enjoyed his B&W work in SSoC far more than his colored output in DC's Arak, son of Thunder.

[Slam_Bradley]

I'm also a pretty big fan of DeZuniga (though not nearly as big a fan as I am of Alcala). My one problem with him is that his inks could be very overwhelming. Taking RR's example of Arak, I much preferred Alcala, Rodin Rodriquez or Bob Smith inking Colon, because they didn't overwhelm his pencils the way DeZuniga did. I actually liked the issues that DeZuniga did full art on (though the stories had gotten very weak by then).

I'll have to see if I can find some of those old SSoC's.

[Lone Ranger]

As Aaron was too polite to plug a mag he worked on, I had better step up to the plate.

Greg, you may want to check out Comic Book Artist #4 from last year. It spotlights Fillipino artists breaking into American comics in the early 70s, as there is a length interview with DeZuniga (IIRC).

Aaron, I have heard that kind of stuff had happened - but didn't know the actual players.

[Greg Hatcher]

Your enthusiasm for old B&W magazines has spurred me to dig into my SSoC longboxes for the past week, Greg! Thanks!

Well, these things come in phases. I'm one of those 'burst' collectors. It started with replacing my old Conan paperbacks, then kind of spread to eBaying SAVAGE SWORD and CONAN SAGAs, and then I thought of the other old B/W's I used to collect and I went prowling for DOC SAVAGE and DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU... a bunch of DOC's arrived yesterday, which is what made me think of DeZuniga again. Turns out Julie has never seen the Doc movie with Ron Ely, which was on my shopping list anyway, and so now there's a DVD of that coming as well.

The other big B/W's I used to get were PLANET OF THE APES and MARVEL PREVIEW, but those are going for too much money. So far I am managing to stick to my rule of 3.00 max per issue, and confine myself to buying lots only. Even at that, this is getting really addictive.

I am having a lot of fun, though, and really quite awestruck at some of the art that's in these books. SAVAGE TALES #3,4, and 5 arrived yesterday (for 2.00 each and they're gorgeous, really in great shape -- guy must not have had any idea what he was holding) and I'm just amazed at this stuff. Smith, Adams, Starlin, Buscema, Roy Krenkel and Al Williamson doing spot illos, pinups by Craig Russell... and of course, Tony deZuniga and all the rest of the Filipino crowd. Nestor Redondo did a lot of pinups and things back then too. I feel like I'm 14 again.

Still, I think I've pretty well spent my allowance on this stuff. There's a dozen CONAN SAGA reprint books coming from Canada sometime this week and I think that's it for a while.

Unless I see a bargain on DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU...

[Bakema NL]

Say Tony DeZuniga and I think Conan. Great stuff. And those b/w Savage sword of Conan and Conan saga were great, I still have a pretty big stack of those.

[Simon Garth]

I remember those B&W Marvels with great fondness- I discovered them at a time when they were the only US Marvel product that ever arrived where I lived in England.

I grabbed every issue I could get my hands on, even stuff like Vampire Tales etc that I wasn't terribly interested in (and which was mostly pretty awful, from memory).

However, SSoConan and Savage Tales had some pretty good stuff in it, and I definitely liked DeZuniga's work at the time.

His website is pretty weird though - "first Filopino artist to work on X-Men"?? I can understand "first Filopino artist at Marvel" or something, but first to work on a particular book strikes me as a strange thing to be boasting about - especially as the artwook on that issue was horrible.

[berk]

I'm another fan of those old B & W Marvel magazines. I still have a lot of them - SSoC, Kull & the Barbarians (beautiful art from Vicente Alcazar in #3), Marvel Preview,... I'd like to fill a couple holes in the first 10 issues of SSoC, and I'd love to get my hands on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and some Savage Tales.

Some company should revive this format. Good B & W art has a charm all its own, and can be used to create very different moods and atmosphere from the colour stuff; plus, it would be a great way to escape from the same tired characters we see all the time. There probably wouldn't be any point in Marvel doing it at this stage, though; I don't think the company is interested in taking those kinds of chances right now.

[hondobrode]

I often mention the Wein-Simonson-DeZuniga run of Thor as some of the finest comics ever... their chemistry was on a par with that of Byrne/Austin or Perez/Marcos, but DeZuniga added a special depth and melancholy that perfectly captured the noble spirits and tragic souls in those magnificient stories.

You are SO right ! I love those issues to this day ! This divine inks over Simonson's first run, and that to me, is THE finest Thor. I'm amazed it's largely overlooked by fandom.

[MWGallaher]

I always *kind of* liked Tony's work...I was starting to read comics right about when he started working for DC, with his Phantom Stranger fill-in that followed his first story, a Dr. Thirteen backup in the same series a few months earlier. I recall not being able to make much sense at all out of the story itself, but I *did* come back for the following issues (which, I was delighted to discover, were drawn by Jim Aparo, who'd instantly become my favorite artist a few months before that!).
My favorite deZuniga work was definitely Jonah Hex; I was not by any means a western fan, but those early issues he drew sold me on that series.
What always comes to my mind, though, when I think of Tony, is his much later work as inker of Todd McFarlane on Infinity, Inc. Not only did that seem a terribly inappropriate teaming, but for some reason--I don't know who should take the blame for this--Todd's pencils were often very visible under Tony's inks! You could clearly see roughly-pencilled stars offset from neatly-inked ones all over the Star Spangled Kid's outfit, for example.

[Jankenstein]

Roy Krenkel and Al Williamson doing spot illos, pinups by Craig Russell...


Well that definitely tells me that I need to get ALL of these! :D

[Bill Angus]

As far as I know, deZuniga is still with us. He drew a couple of issues of the current Jonah Hex series.

I was never a fan of his work as a kid, but I really fell in love with it while reading the Hex Showcase book.

[devildinosaur]

I always loved Buscema and DeZuniga's black and white work on Conan. Man, does that ever bring back memories.