[matchlessman]

This topic was started by the Australian Panther in May and since it is over 60 days old i thought
i would like to revive it as a new topic, with his permission.

Above all, i loved the artwork in comics.  Storyline was  important but artwork  was more
interesting, at least to me.

I found  australian Panther's likes similar to mine.   I too could at a young age differentiate the
artwork of carl banks from others though i did not know his name then.  I also found that his
art was seen mostly in early dell comics and i loved his artwork especially of  gyro gearloose
and his fascinating helper with the bulb head.


In Marvel i loved steve ditko's spiderman and Dr. Strange but ditko's women were unattractive.
Jack Kirby's early art may look a bit weird but by the mid 60s, he had a distinct style - the stubby
fingers, thick calves, etc. were vintage Kirby.   His Galactus was his masterpiece.
John Buscema was another great artist.
 
In gold key, i loved Russ Manning. His women were among the most beautiful in comicdom - like Leeja,
Jane or Dale Evans.   Only Jim Mooney's Supergirl was more beautiful.
The women in Mighty Samson were , lets admit it, sexy.

King syndicate's Flash Gordon and Dale were another couple who looked great.

the costumes worn by the Legion of Super Heroes were the best and, as a boy, I couldnt decide
whom i wanted to be - sun boy or lightning lad.

The best silver age superhero costume - Adam Strange, perhaps.

I dont know who drew the early 50s Lone Ranger but  the artwork was great. There are so many
unknown artists who  made my boyhood a happy time and still give me pleasure.  My respects to them.

joga

[The Australian Panther]

Hey,

Happy to see you respond to the post.

You will find Mooney, Kirby, Ditko, Manning, Murphy (who did Adam Strange) and many more on the site. Not sure if there is any Carl Barks here but hey, there is Walt Kelly!

[SuperScrounge]

Is the Calgary Eye-Opener public domain? That's the only thing I can think of that Barks did that wasn't for some licensed property at Western.

[narfstar]

I was always story over art. I liked the good guys being able to whip the bad guys. I liked the idea of having super powers or being able to kick butt without them

[matchlessman]

I was always story over art. I liked the good guys being able to whip the bad guys. I liked the idea of having super powers or being able to kick butt without them

There were times when both the storyline and artwork were equally good and complimented each other.
One eg  FF issues 49 to 51 - the coming of Galactus.  kirby outdid himself.  Another great story was
Thor issue 125, 126 Thor vs Hercules.   Dr Strange stories were always interesting and and  so was
ditko's artwork of magic realms. 
Some JLA and LSH stories appeared convoluted  but I never put the comic down till i finished.
Anyway, as the  letters to the editor  page showed there were always varying viewpoints.

I had boyhood friends with distinct likes - one chap liked Mandrake, another Stumbo, another Thunder Agents
and  unbelievably one chap liked Sad Sack !!

[paw broon]

Being a superhero nut, their presence in a comic usually does it for me.  And I include not just the blokes and belles with real legitimate superpowers and supersuits but also all the masked mystery men and women, togged up, with and without gadgets.  Growing up in a country where there weren't any American comics - pre. 1959 that is, I was accustomed to Ace Hart, Marvelman etc.
(see narfstar's comment re. super powers)
And the art, or pictures as I used to think of it, was very important.  Despite being a bit colour ignorant - not fully colour blind, just not sure what a lot of them are and continually mixing up red and green and having given up on figuring out orange, purple and some others, seeing colour throughout American comics was a revelation and I couldn't get enough of them.  I only ever saw Ace Hart's costume in colour on the cover.  Superman was depicted in colour right through the comic.
I'd agree with matchlessman about Manning in Dell and GK titles.  The pictures looked so good.
Same with the power of those Ditko  illustrated Spiderman stories. How could you not like them.

[matchlessman]

Hey,

Happy to see you respond to the post.

You will find Mooney, Kirby, Ditko, Manning, Murphy (who did Adam Strange) and many more on the site. Not sure if there is any Carl Barks here but hey, there is Walt Kelly!

I didnt find any carl banks here. For die hard Barks fans  i wd suggest this site:  http://www.cbarks.dk

[The Australian Panther]

Great Site. Very Thorough. There is a lot to learn here.

Thanks heaps

[MetalRaiden]

Great unique and detailed art, character development, strong story line, good amount of speech and action, and a variety of characters.

[The Australian Panther]

I believe you mean, 'Good balance of speech and action'. When it comes to speech balloons, less is definitely more. I like the 'Marvel' method of creation as supposedly used by Lee and Kirby. Come up with a basic idea, let the artist visualize it and draw it and then back to the writer to add the words. Today, with Super hero comics we tend to get a lot of writer created comics where a full script is handed to the artist. There are exceptions fortunately.

Re Galactus, mentioned previously. I could never work out why Galactus and the Silver Surfer were the last major characters he created for Marvel before leaving. The previous few months saw Black Panther and the Inhumans and was a prolific time for him. He did another nearly 50 issues of FF, all excellent, but no memorable new characters. And he had in his head all the characters that went to DC. I found out years later that Lee and Kirby fell out over the Silver Surfer which was Jacks idea and was taken in a different direction by Lee. So Jack worked on but gave Marvel nothing much new after Galactus till he returned from DC.
Looking at Kirby's work on this site (and there is a lot, some of it in surprising places and its worth looking for) and thinking about this topic,I realize that Kirby changed my expectations of comics . He set the benchmark for energy expressed on a page and dynamism. 

[matchlessman]

so that is why Buscema took over the Silver surfer. His artwork is excellent. Take his rendering of the Stranger,
for instance, and his meeting with the Surfer. He improved on the created characters in
his own inimitable way. However, it is always first impressions that  linger on and turn into
nostalgia.  The first romance  etc ha ha.
The first Galactus (with the G on his chest), the Inhumans, Hercules,  the Watcher (was he ditko's creation?)
  Ditko's spiderman,  Infinity etc. are first time creations and made a resounding impact when they first appeared. 
So, even though Manning's Tarzan was great, i still pine for the Dell Tarzans
So also, Ray Moore's Phantom is remembered with fondness for the simplicity of the artwork
even though Sy Barry's Phantom is really great.

[misappear]

When  I started "collecting" comics, it was in the form of reading, then clipping and saving newspaper strips.  There were no super-heroes in the Chicago Tribune, or the Sun-Times, so I was reading adventure strips.  My most favorite was Dick Tracy, which at the time, was running the Moon Maid sequence. 

This routine established a a preference in my mind for story first, then art.  It also kept me out of the super-hero realm. That's carried through to today, as I'm probably picking up ten to fifteen titles per week, and the only thing resembling super-hero is Black Hammer.  The local comic guy has recommended Action and Mister Miracle right now, so I'm checking them out on his recommendation.  At least for now. 

Thank the stars for Cinebook. They, and companies like them, have excelled at presenting long-form stories focused on story content with beautiful art.  I so wish this is what the medium had developed into in the United States.  Ultimately, tho, American comics biggest single defining moment came when the comics industry, cowering in fear from Wertham, did so little to fight back.  Economics over artistic freedom.  Art lost.

I've just discovered Schuiten and Peeters' Obscure Cities (check into Samaris) which is very surreal with knock-you-out artwork.  And there is Motter's Mister X, which is artistically gorgeous with a incredibly creative narrative.  I would recommend the trade paperback Mister X The Modern Age to anyone who loves to savor great work.

I have a great appreciation for Kirby, Kubert, The EC stable, and others for their comic book work, but I do not look back on Prez, Brother Power the Geek, or Pureheart the Powerful with nostalgia.  Matter of fact, I blame the accumulated effect of titles like those for holding back the medium's potential and adding to the non-comic reading public perception of comics as disposable, if not deplorable junk. 

I've scanned some contemporary super-hero comics, and I must admit there are some well-crafted stories with very nice visuals.  But I will not stand for the cheap, childish gimmicks the big two employ on a continual basis to grab market share  The constant re-numbering, alternate covers, and cross-over "events" are insulting and seem to degrade or nullify any real artistic advances they could be making. 

And don't even get me started on people who "invest" in supposedly rare variants of titles. 

In the final analysis, I have to state that, in my opinion, some of the best material that I've ever read in the comics medium is being done right now.  It isn't always the most obvious stuff, but boy, it's out there.