CBR: Permanent Damage - Dec 9, 2009

[CBR News]

This week: the western art of Gil Kane, and why I'll never be publisher at Marvel; plus Gov. Ahnuld hell-bent for leather, Captain Action, the undisputed kings of copyright infringement, the weirdest Comics Cover Challenge of all and more.


Full article here.

[Not Brand Echh!]

Well, you get my vote to be publisher! I'd love the coffee-table book of Gil Kane covers. (But I'm still wondering why DC hasn't done the same with all those great Neal Adams covers, like from their non-Batman books. Seems an obvious seller.) Maybe if you were Marvel's publisher we wouldn't have to live through these drag-ass five year storylines like Civil War and Dark Reign.

Also, I do believe you nailed it with the cover of All-Star Western 109. Heath inks over Kane pencils. You can definitely see Kane's work in those cowboys' hands, and in the face of the baddie in the green shirt. That's Kane, all right. And nobody was inking as smooth as Heath back then -- look at the hanging lamp, especially, and the frame around the mirror (and the reflections in the mirror!) Looks like Heath to me!

[Lt. Clutch]

My first taste of Gil's work was JLA # 200's Green Lantern versus Atom segment. I always enjoyed Gil's inks over his own pencils. He did several pin-up style covers for books such as Wonder Woman and Green Lantern around then, but they pale by comparison to those great Marvel 70's western covers you gathered here. Too bad that the interiors were mostly reprints by this time.

[Thad]

Now a budding political satirist in California, impressed that Californian voters are so keen to protect traditional marriage, is circulating a petition for a state ballot initiative to ban divorce!

Let's have traditional marriage just like in the Bible. Where you work for your uncle for seven years for the right to marry your cousin, but then he pulls the ol' switcheroo and tricks you into sleeping with the wrong cousin, so you work ANOTHER seven years so you can marry her sister too, and then the two of them compete to see who can produce more sons, and get their slaves in on the action too.

...yeah, guess what comic I've been reading.

[Reaper_WA]

Gil Kane: my favorite comic artist of all time.

I began reading comics in '76 and there were so many great Marvel covers by Kane in those days. I was always disappointed by how rarely he drew the interiors too, and so very pleased when he did.

The dynamic nature of his artwork is beautiful to behold.

I miss your work Gil!

[Steven Grant]

Also, I do believe you nailed it with the cover of All-Star Western 109. Heath inks over Kane pencils. You can definitely see Kane's work in those cowboys' hands, and in the face of the baddie in the green shirt. That's Kane, all right. And nobody was inking as smooth as Heath back then -- look at the hanging lamp, especially, and the frame around the mirror (and the reflections in the mirror!) Looks like Heath to me!

The hands look like they were inked by Gil, but the other cowboy's face was definitely inked by Russ. Gil & Russ had a short-lived partnership around that time, mostly to produce comics for Dell, but Russ officially inked an ASW cover an issue or two before. I believe the info that Gil is the inker of record on that cover comes from Julie Schwartz's payout notes - he was the guy who kept those records - so Russ may have come in unofficially on that cover to help out. But, yeah, it's at least partly Russ. I think they were a great team, but the tone of Russ' line was completely different from the tone of Gil's.

- Grant

[Not Brand Echh!]

The gang who rush into my local comic book store Wednesday mornings have been referred to as "comic book crackheads". And it's true. We're addicts.

And do you know who I blame for my addiction? Gil Kane.

Because the first comic that hooked me into buying was Kane's Green Lantern 56 calling to me from the spinner rack. A week later I came back to the store for another taste of Green Lantern, but there weren't any more Green Lanterns for sale. So I searched the rack for something else, and the second comic that hooked me was Atom 34 -- another Kane. Then a week later I bought my third comic, Atom 35.

So, although I didn't know it at the time, the first three comics I ever bought were drawn by Gil Kane. Next I discovered Marvel and began mainlining Buscema, Colan and Kirby. Now, 43 years and about $100,000 later, I'm still addicted, thanks to Old Gil, the pusher, the candy-man.

[dancj]

I don't mind Gil Kane's work too much these days, but he was the first artist who's work I actively hated. I couldn't stand his work on the Superman titles when I was about 15. IIRC my main problem with the thick black lines that were used to ink his work. And for some reason he made Superman look Asian.

[kcekada]

I wasn't always a fan of Gil's work -- particularly his interior work.

His cover work, however, was a substantial boon to Marvel in the 70s. I haven't seen many of his western covers, but they look just as strong as his super-hero work.

And I've wanted a coffee table book of his Marvel covers for some time. Here's hoping!

On a related note, a similar book of Nick Cardy's covers for DC would also be welcome!

[Imaginos666]

Thinking back, Gil Kane might have been the first comic artist whose name I knew. I think it was a fairly universal moment for all kids who read comics: the realization that these books are made by actual people, and not pulled out of a mythic ether.

In retrospect, I had seen a lot of Kane's work up to that point, but it was the first part of Marvel's "Blackmark" reprint (in Marvel Premiere, maybe?) that led me to connect a name to an artist.

[Iangould]

Steven if you're going to get bent out of shape over the term "denier", I wonder if you'd care to share your thguhts on the latest from Chris Monckton who called people who believe global warming is real and caused by human activity "Nazis" who've "killed more people than Hitler".

I've followed this issue for years and the slander and invective coming from the so-called skeptics dwarfs anything directed at them.

For example, I've never seen them accused of wanted establish a global communist dictatorship or plotting to exterminate 90% of the human race.

But yes it's totally unfair to compare "skeptics" to holocaust deniers - except for the ones who are, of course.