CBR: CCI: Steranko Still Fighting

[CBR News]

Legendary artist Jim Steranko teases the reissue of "Red Tide" from Dark Horse Comics and stands firm on his claim that he invented the graphic novel.


Full article here.

[Ed Love]

Gil Kane's Blackmark predates both Eisner's and Steranko's graphic novels.

[lexid523]

And Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller, and Matt Baker's "It Rhymes With Lust" pre-dates all of them.

[Charles LePage]

Kind of sad to see someone as talented as Steranko cling to the claim that he created the first graphic novel.

[edhopper]

I bought Chandler off the stands. It was the third graphic novel published by Byron Preiss under the Fiction Illustrated banner.
It followed one by Tom Sutton and one by Steve Fabian. So the best Steranko can claim is 3rd place.
That said I can't wait for this. I saw some of his new pages at the NYCC and they were amazing.

[dan bailey]

Kind of sad to see someone as talented as Steranko cling to the claim that he created the first graphic novel.

In fairness, given how ... ummm ... not-that-great he's always been with deadlines, it's possible he started on Red Tide back before It Rhymes with Lust came out in 1950.

Sure, he would've been in maybe sixth grade at most, but still.

[Ziza9]

I always thought that distinction went to Sabre. I guess it's open to interpretation.

[fan4fan]

Lynn Ward's works (the first of which is God's Man) would seem to have a better claim than Mr. Streranko's.

[The Left Hand of Doom]

Not to diminish any of Steranko's accomplishments, but I frankly don't care who created the first graphic novel. His work, current and past, is enough to distinguish him as one of the most innovative artists in comics history. I hope he, and others, realize this.

And he's a hell of an entertaining storyteller, both on the page and in person.

[Scud]

I frankly don't care who created the first graphic novel. His work, current and past, is enough to distinguish him as one of the most innovative artists in comics history. I hope he, and others, realize this.

This.

10chars

[Tony Robertson]

Didn't he showcase any of the Surreal Batman covers he has drawn recently that have yet to be published?

[kozmo]

I see someone else already pointed out that Chandler was the third (and last in the regular sequence) published in the Fiction Illustrated series. The first was published in January, with Chandler in August according to GCD. So even with his 6 months locked in his room, the first issue would have been published more than 6 months before.

I remember buying the first two issues of Fiction Illustrated - they were okay, with the absolutely horrible paper and reproduction working against them. Plus, they were digest sized and pretty clearly intended for regular comic page size when drawn. I waited patiently for Steranko's issue and never, ever did see it on a newsstand. I didn't get that book until it's first re-issue years later.

I can believe that Steranko had something to do with getting this series commissioned, as he was doing the Shadow covers for Pyramid at the time, but my understanding is that it was the late Byron Preiss who really got the ball rolling. Given that Preiss was involved in getting comics published at a lot of different publishers for the rest of his life, I'd guess it was a combination of Steranko and Preiss.

and what I really want to know is if there's ever going to be any more volumes of Steranko's History of Comics published. He has to have the interviews sitting somewhere that he did - I'd hate to have history lose all of those personal recollections...

[emb021]

I see someone else already pointed out that Chandler was the third (and last in the regular sequence) published in the Fiction Illustrated series. The first was published in January, with Chandler in August according to GCD. So even with his 6 months locked in his room, the first issue would have been published more than 6 months before.

I remember buying the first two issues of Fiction Illustrated - they were okay, with the absolutely horrible paper and reproduction working against them. Plus, they were digest sized and pretty clearly intended for regular comic page size when drawn. I waited patiently for Steranko's issue and never, ever did see it on a newsstand. I didn't get that book until it's first re-issue years later.

I can believe that Steranko had something to do with getting this series commissioned, as he was doing the Shadow covers for Pyramid at the time, but my understanding is that it was the late Byron Preiss who really got the ball rolling. Given that Preiss was involved in getting comics published at a lot of different publishers for the rest of his life, I'd guess it was a combination of Steranko and Preiss.

and what I really want to know is if there's ever going to be any more volumes of Steranko's History of Comics published. He has to have the interviews sitting somewhere that he did - I'd hate to have history lose all of those personal recollections...

Not mentioning Byron Preiss in relation to Red Tide is pretty bad.

Preiss had formed "Byron Preiss Visual Productions in the 70s.

Their first major production was the "Weird Heroes" series in the early 70s, published thru Pyramid. A sort of modern pulp magazine, it was an illustrated series of short story collections and novels (NOT graphic novels, just spot illustrations). Steranko was involved from the beginning, doing the first couple of covers and doing other graphic work.

Shortly after WH started, they started "Fiction Illustrated" that ran 4 issues, initially digest sized. These were graphic novel works. You had Schlomo Raven, Starfan, then Chandler (which I think was done in BOTH digest and large size format), and then Son of Sherlock Holmes (ONLY in large size format).

This all ended in 1977. With other publishers they did a few followup works (makes me think they were intended as further volumes in WH & FI, like "Dragonworld", "Guts" and "I, Alien") like "Stars My Destination", "Empire", "Illustrated Roger Zelanzy, etc.

Preiss later formed iBooks, that even reprinted Dragonworld and the first WH volume. Then Preiss got killed in a car accident, and BPVD and iBooks shutdown.