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[The Australian Panther]

Legrand, in this version, seems modelled on actor Warren William!

Well spotted!

[profh0011]

Legrand, in this version, seems modelled on actor Warren William!

Well spotted!

I'm glad you appreciated that!

My picking that particular photo (with the skull-designed abacus) only emphasized the point.  (I've seen that movie, but I forget which one it was.)

I've had this growing suspicion there's a lot more of that that goes on in comics than most fans are aware of.  I probably first noticed it with Paul Gulacy, then later Steve Rude... but in the last 15-20 years, I've seen it in more "cartoony" stylists like Kirby, Ditko, Heck, where it's not as noticable.

Here's another one, where the 1954 "Gold Bug" by Henry Sharp looks to have based Legrand on actor Victor Jory... 2 years BEFORE Jory played Legrand in the very loose adaptation of "Gold Bug" called "MANFISH".  Those eyes!!

[profh0011]

Thern there's Italian artist Gino Dauro, whose simple style reminds me of Dick Ayers.  His 1968 "RUE MORGUE" was very close to the original story, only with a sequence at the beginning that made it feel like a "movie" adaptation.  And by the time I finished cleaning it up, it struck me he may have modelled some characters on actors...

C. Auguste Dupin / William Powell


The Narrator / David Frankham


The Policeman / Dick Miller


The Prefect / Albert Finney


Dauro's is my favorite of all the versions of "RUE MORGUE" I've found to date!

The thing that most impressed me about Dauro's version was how he was able to have so much expression in the poses, facial expressions and HAND gestures, to make DOZENS of consecutive pages of 2 people just standing around TALKING visually interesting.  (I've tried that sort of thing myself over the years, which is probably why I noticed and appreciated it so much.)

[The Australian Panther]

I've had this growing suspicion there's a lot more of that that goes on in comics than most fans are aware of.   

Oh, most definitely1
Back in the -I think early 80's - The Comics Journal - doing what comes naturally to many journalists, creating controversy - made a thing about exposing artists who were 'swiping' - they particularly went after Keith Giffen, who in the early part of his career gave us a very good Jack Kirby imitation.
Journalists, not being artists, don't get it that that isn't laziness, its flattery. Artists look to the work of other artists for inspiration and many of the best also work from models.
Alex Ross has posted pictures of people he has used for models. His model for [the Fawcett] Captain Marvel is Fred MacMurray ,an excellent choice.

In 1939, artist C. C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for the superhero character who became Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_MacMurray
Personally I love looking at drawings and thinking, 'where have I seen that face before?' and working it out.
Sometimes, to amuse themselves, the artists draw a familiar face on a minor character in the background. 
Recently, [I can't remember where] i saw a comic character who was clearly based on Robert Mitchum.
And by the way, drawing a recognizable face is harder than you would think. Try it and see.
Lots of Kirby's work referenced the movies, particularly Gangster and Cowboy movies.
Oh Yeah! In writing this post and trying to remember Keith Giffen's name, I made a momentous discovery.
There really is an insect known as 'Ambush Bug!'
But if you are from the US, you may know that!
Also known as 'Assassin Bug'. Now there is a comic character if I ever heard of one. Be my guest.

Ambush Bugs
Phymata spp. and others in subfamily Phymatinae (ambush bugs)
https://education.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/ambush-bugs

cheers!

[SuperScrounge]

Artists using actors for models could probably be it's own thread. There's so many examples.

There really is an insect known as 'Ambush Bug!'
Also known as 'Assassin Bug'.

Ambush Bug actually started off as a Superman villain who was an assassin, basically he was supposed to be Superman's equivalent of the Joker. After one or two appearances someone realized that Joker-like villains don't work very well with Superman and they started treating him more like a joke and turned him into the fourth wall breaking character who makes fun of comic tropes that most people think of him as.

[profh0011]

I recall during hs run on CATWOMAN, Paul Gulacy made Slam Bradley look like Robert Mitchum.  Gulacy was having a problem around that time, as there'd been a big stink about certain artists using too-recognizable likenesses of celebrities without authorization / licensing / FEES... so he was trying to do likenesses (as he always did) WITHOUT them being too recognizable.  It got awkward at times.

Early in my time at the Classic Comics Forum, the FIRST guy I had to block there kept arguing with every single thing I would post, including when I'd bring up likenesses, insisting LOUDLY "No, YOU'RE WRONG, it's not based on THIS person, it's based on THIS person!!!" It was about Tony Stark.  I would hope by now everyone realizes Kirby based the character of Stark on Howard Hughes, who was a rich industrialist with a secret medical problem.  But the lead artist who took over after Kirby wrote the first 3 episodes, Don Heck, CLOSELY modelled Stark's face on Errol Flynn. It was painfully obvious, yet this one clown insisted it wasn't Flynn. (This is what happens when people have been brainwashed by decades of S*** L** BS.)

Usuaully, with corporate characters, you have to go back to the original artist who created the characters, and then find real people from that era-- OR, BEFORE.  As with Errol Flynn, Steve Ditko would base characters both on then-current peole, but also from decades before.  While Dr. Strange initially looked like Vincent Price (this was NOT obvious to me at all until someone else pointed it out), later on he slowly evolved to look more like Ronald Colman.  This was interesting, as several other characters in the series all were modelled on actors who'd been in the movie "LOST HORIZON"-- Sam Jaffee (The Ancient One), H.B. Warner (The Ancient One's business manager), and Jane Wyatt (Clea!).

What a laugh when I realized Dr. Strange debuted almost exactly 3 months after the release of Roger Corman's "THE RAVEN".  That can't be a coincidence.

It really cracked me up when I realized the sleazy private eye who became The Scorpion was based on Ralph Meeker, who'd played a sleazy private eye in the nasty, viscious film "KISS ME DEADLY".  And then there was the day I was watching the 1946 "THE BIG SLEEP" for about the dozenth time... and suddenly, looking at Lauren Bacall, I yelled at the TV-- "Oh my God-- it's GWEN STACY!"  (Ditko's Gwen, NOT Romita's.)

[crashryan]

Using likenesses of movie stars in comics is a long-standing tradition. It's always fun to run across a "guest appearance" by this or that actor. Usually it's a tribute by the artist to an actor they especially like. Alex Toth put Errol Flynn into I don't know how many strips, not to mention making him the star of Bravo for Adventure. The quality of the likeness varies. Not all artists who draw well are also good at capturing a likeness. It's more difficult yet if the artist has to draw the character from an angle not covered by his reference photos. You see this in movie adaptation comics, where a character's likeness drifts in and out depending on how much reference the artist had. It's much easier now that you can capture frames directly from a movie.

I'm not especially good at likenesses, as my stint on Dallas demonstrated. That job was particularly difficult because I was given only a handful of publicity stills of the principals, all of them frontal shots with the actors wearing broad smiles. Nearly useless for storytelling purposes. Occasionally I've put movie actors into my stories. I pencilled an Infinity, Inc. story for Roy Thomas in which some 1930s gangsters are transported into the present. For the hoods I used Victor Jory, Mike Mazurki, and William Bendix, three guys with great "character faces." The end results varied (Dick Giordano inked), with Bendix coming out best. In the Captain Comet story for Secret Origins was a scene where CC busts through a police roadblock. For the head cop I used Broderick Crawford, a favorite since childhood when I watched him in Highway Patrol. I pencilled a great Crawford and Bruce Patterson absolutely nailed it on the inks. Best panel in the story.

Franco Caprioli, a Golden Age Italian artist, often cast Hollywood actors in his stories. He even gave some continuing supporting roles. He must have been a big Noah Beery fan. Beery was the hero's sidekick in several Caprioli series.

Licensing is a whole different kettle of fish. We all know about the debacle with the cover of His Name is Savage, where the cover painter reproduced a still of Lee Marvin. Living stars have always had a say in the use of their likeness. Alex Toth told me that Dell instructed him not to draw John Wayne in their Wings of Eagles adaptation because Wayne had refused permission. So he drew someone who looked almost exactly unlike John Wayne. But sneaked tributes and "guest shots" in unrelated comics stories never seemed to make waves. Nowadays though, given the IP feeding frenzy, I can imagine some lawyer frothing over a comic artist casting a real person even if  only in a throwaway scene. To me the very notion that someone who wasn't even born when an actor became a public figure can claim the right to control the actor's likeness (so they can profit from it) is preposterous. But that's part of my copyright rant. I'll spare everyone from listening to that again.

[SuperScrounge]

Gil Kane used Paul Newman for Hal Jordan and Ray Palmer was based on an actor who's name I forget, it was actually mentioned in a text article in Showcase that was reprinted in the Showcase Presents The Atom collection.

The funniest likeness was a villain in an issue of The Atom I had as a kid. Growing up I would read that story and think the guy was too ugly to be a real person. Decades later I saw a photograph of Gil Kane. Oh my! He was using a mirror to draw that villain. 

[crashryan]

Yeah, Kane put a lot of famous faces into his art. On one memorable occasion the villain was drawn to be Lyndon Johnson! From this i infer that Kane was a Republican.

Edit to add: Come to think of it, it was during the Vietnam War period, and LBJ was unpopular with a lot of Democrats, who were unhappy with the War. Maybe that's what Kane had in mind when he cast the guy. Politics hadn't yet devolved into the "with us or agin' us" blood sport it is today...though people were working on it.

[The Australian Panther]

during hs run on CATWOMAN, Paul Gulacy made Slam Bradley look like Robert Mitchum 

That's the one. I was a few days ago looking at that Catwoman run.
Incidentally, I never understood why Marvel didn't give S.H.I.E.L.D. to Paul Gulacy.   

[profh0011]

There's at least 3 instances I can think of where Steve Ditko-- a VERY "cartoony" stylist-- clearly based characters on known celebrities, but only bothered do draw them RECOGNIZABLY as such, maybe once apiece.  After that, he was just doing his "impressions" of them, not really bothering with recognizable likenesses.  But those single likenesses he did were eye-opening, when it came to his inspirations for those characters.

Gwen Stacy -- Lauren Bacall
Mac Gargan / The Scorpion -- Ralph Meeker
Major Glenn Talbot -- Lee Van Cleef

The entire character of Talbot suddenly made perfect sense to me once I saw that panel (in his first appearance) and made the connection.  And Van Cleef had played an almost-identical military character in the Corman film "IT CONQUERED THE WORLD!"




I've repeatedly heard about Gil Kane basing Hal Jordan on Paul Newman.  the thing is, between his art, a variety of inkers, and the stories, I've never really been able to see any resemblence in either the face or the personalities.

Well, with maybe ONE exception.  Reggie the burnt-out divorced hockey coach in "SLAP SHOT" (my favorite Newman film) does kinda remind me of the burnt-out Jordan of the 70s and 80s, after dozen of DC writers & editors SCREWED over his life and career repeatedly.

(Honesty, Jordan ALWAYS seemed to get far more respect in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA than in his own book.)

I probably need to see more more of Newman's early films.  There's might be something in those I'm missing.

[SuperScrounge]

I've repeatedly heard about Gil Kane basing Hal Jordan on Paul Newman.  the thing is, between his art, a variety of inkers, and the stories, I've never really been able to see any resemblence in either the face or the personalities.

I could see it, but looking back at some Newman photos from the 1956-1958 time period I was surprised to see the wrinkles I associate with the older Newman. Also interesting to see that Newman had different hairstyles in those older TV shows/movies. The Long Hot Summer seems to have a Hal Jordan type hairstyle.

[profh0011]

That's the thing about comic-book characters.  So many members of the Silver Age / Earth-1 JLA debuted in the late 50s.  You gotta go back at least as far as characters' debuts, or earlier, to look for real influences.   

[profh0011]

This one's really "different"...

from HORROR #5:
(Gino Sansoni Editore / Italy / April 1970)

"IL FARO"  ("THE LIGHTHOUSE")

Story by Edgar Allan Poe & Robert Bloch
Art by GINO BATTAGLIA

AND, from FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #53
(Warren Publications / January 1969)

Photo-illustrations supplied by Forrest J. Ackerman

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2022/06/poe-1970-pt-2.html


And while I'm at it... here's the "Gallery Of Illustrations"
by various artists from 1953-2022

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2022/06/poe-1970-pt-3.html

[paw broon]

Aw, great.  Thank you for the excellent Battaglia art.

[profh0011]

Sometimes you gotta put up an incomplete blog page.  If any more from that feature turns up, I can always update it!

[profh0011]

This one's entirely thanks to the help of Canadian fan Richard Gagnon...

from PROMETHEAN ENTERPRISES #2:
(Promethean Enterprises / May 1970)

"THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH"

Art by ROBERT INWOOD

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2022/06/poe-1970-pt-4.html

[Captain Audio]

Masque of the Red Death is one of the very best stories for an illustrator to try his hand at. The visualization provoked by the prose and the details of each of the rooms is almost an instruction book for film set designers.

People have always been fascinated by skulls. The skull is about the only truly easy to recognize of skeletal remains as of definite human origin. Any other bone is just a bone, but one look at a skull and you know someone once lived there. The illusion of past life carries over to decrepit buildings, which are often depicted with a skull like visage of empty windows as eye sockets and doorways like gaping maws

[profh0011]

I know you'll get a kick out of this.  At last count-- 46 comics versions of "RED DEATH".

46 !!!   

I only have 12 up so far at the blog!

And you know what?  My favorite is still TOM SUTTON's.  It was the first one where I was inspired to add COLOR to a B&W version.  I'd say my whole method of coloring these was figured out on this one story.  "Flats" and "pastels", minimal airbrush or blends.  Nothing to get in the way of the LINEWORK.  And 3 tones of the SAME color for clothing-- helps "organize" the visuals while subtly adding detail.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/12/poe-1967-pt-2.html

[SuperScrounge]

Getting back to Hal Jordan based on Paul Newman I'm just watching a TopTenz video The Real People That Your Favorite Superheroes Are Based On and #9 is Green Lantern (both the original and Hal) interesting tidbit of info on why Kane chose Newman. 

[The Australian Panther]

Fascinating stuff, but until recently, it simply had never occurred to me that most superheroes were based on or inspired by real people. Have to say though, that the references, in Superman, to Jewish traditions and vocabulary were always too obvious to be ignored.
I think you can trace a lot of Kirby's 'forth world' concepts, and obviously, Mr Miracle, to the same source material. 
And the video does forget Captain Marvel and Fred MacMurray. And apparently Mary Marvel was based on Judy Garland.
Here is a list.
Marvel Family Inspiration
http://marvelfamily.com/faq/mfinspiration.aspx 
Kurt Busiek used Fred MacMurray again in Astro City for his character, 'The Gentleman' 
Mandrake was based on a real magician. Anybody know if Flash Gordon was based on a real person?
Also, how many mystery anthology hosts are based, conceptually, on Rod Serling?
Fascinating!

[profh0011]

Mystery hosts go back a HELL of a long way before Rod Serling!

I wonder how many anthology radio shows there were?  My introduction to the format, of course, was THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATRE, created by Himan Brown, hosted by E.G. Marshall.  As I learned recently, Brown had previously done INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES, while the "host" was similar to THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER and THE WHISTLER.

And then of course there's EL MONJE LOCO (The Mad Monk) in Mexico, who started on radio around 1940, before branching out into comic-books and a movie or two.  El Monje Loco dressed identical to EC's The Vault Keeper -- who did not debut until a DECADE later!

I haven't seen it yet, but I just got my hands on THEATRE MACABRE, a 1971-72 TV series from Poland (!!), hosted, oddly enough, by Christopher Lee, apparently picking up where Boris Karloff left off with THRILLER, which itself was spun off into BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY at Gold Key Comics.  (I had no idea when I read those as a kid that the series began life as a licensed TV series comic-book.)

[profh0011]

I probably first became fascinated with comics characters based on real people via the art of Paul Gulacy, who did very photo-realistic depictions of people, and once said he based characters on real people as a "tribute" to them.

In high school at the time, I took that a step further, and would "cast" real people as characters, taking not only their faces (which made it easier for me to draw different , distinguishable faces), but also their personalities and speech patterns (which, again, made it easy to have people NOT all talking alike-- if you can "channel" someone, the dialogue practically writes itself).

Decades later, I bcame more and more interested in who many characters might have been modelled after, as most comics artists had more cartoony styles where it wasn't always OBVIOUS. And then of course, many times, you'll have someone who's a composite of one person's personality witrh another person's face.  An obvious example of this is Tony Stark, who was based on Howard Hughes, but who Don Heck made a dead ringer for ERROL FLYNN.

Another Kirby character was Darkseid, who while being a representative of every evil boss in creation, was mostly based on Richard Nixon-- with Jack Palance's face.

MOST fans-- and comics creators-- who come along later, seem to have NO CLUE about most of this, which is why the likenesses and connections get totally lost.

There's been some fans I know online who've been really helpful with this, pointing out examples to me that I was completely unaware of, or just never noticed.

And then of course, I've run into some people-- like this one really arrogant A-HOLE at the "Classic Comics Forum" (yeah, I'm NEVER gonna let go of this one) who made it a point to ARGUE and CONTRADICT every single thing I would say at that board... as soon as he found out my opinion of Marvel's 1960s "editor".  (I think "lying thieving scumbag" is being polite.)

[The Australian Panther]

Given your opinion of the man, you would probably have fond memories of Kirby's 4th World character, 'Glorious Godfrey' who was pretty obviously Jack's payback .
Corrected post. see my next post for explanation. 

[SuperScrounge]

Funky Flashman in Mister Miracle was also based on Stan Lee and apparently a one-shot villain called The Gasser (Dingbats of Danger Street?). So how many Kirby villains were based on Lee? 

Are there any Stan Lee-esque villains in Steve Ditko's post-Marvel catalog?