A little something from each of the older eras this week. The Silver, Bronze and Copper are from my eBay pile so I hope they are first-time views for most people.
Big John Buscema never disappoints, check out this great fight sequence with Tiger Shark and Sub-Mariner, from Sub-Mariner #6, October 1968.
Arvell Jones and Bruce Patterson present nice perspective in the splash from Super Villain Team UP #17, June 1980.
One of the greatest splash page artists ever has to be the great Bob Fujitani. I should do a whole week devoted just to Bob! From Catman #26, September 1944.
Rich Buckler is one of those artists that didn’t get the credit he deserved, always delivered solid quality work, check out all the motion in this splash from Astonishing Tales #27, December 1974.
Jack Kirby draws great covers but his real magic happens between the covers, if there was ever a poster child for not encapsulating your comics it’s Jack Kirby. A beautiful rendering from Jimmy Olsen #133, October 1970.
Hear, hear! Great splashes and I want to read all of these.
Is there an encyclopedic/alphabetical index of all the comic characters ever created? I’ve not heard of some of these and just wondering if every name has been used when creators try to come up with new characters.
That Kirby makes me think of Dick Sprang’s Batman and a very common theme of his, stories with giant objects. I just bought a Detective #232 like that. As late as 1956 ol’ Sprang was still delivering great work. But you are right about Kirby, what a genious. What imagination!
I’ll collect just about any Golden Age comic with Fuji, the guy was wonderful. His MLJ Hangman issues are to die for, but here you are right, something new for most of us. Another forgotten GA hero, a mere backup to Catman and Kitten, yet a great piece of work.
Later on Fuji got more formal in his style, sadly, and became kind of a watered-down Johnny Craig. Competent, but nothing special.
Here’s a mini-bio from GCD – Bob Fujitani was an American artist of Japanese and Irish descent. Begining in the early 1940s he did work for American comic book publishers such as Ace, Avon, Dell, Harvey, Lev Gleason, and Quality. Also in the 1940s, under the name Bob Wells, he worked on the daily “Judge Wright” newspaper strip. In the 1960s and 1970s he inked the daily “Flash Gordon” daily strip (mostly uncredited). In the 1990s, he worked on the “Rip Kirby” daily strip.
Bob Wells? Wow, then he went on to be giant in country music….ok, just kidding.
I had to double check, but my memory was correct -from Wikipedia – “He had a notable run drawing six issues of Dell’s Prince Valiant comic (appearing intermittently in the Four Color series between 1954 and 1957 — #567, #650, #699, #719, #788, #899), beginning with an adaptation of the 1954 film starring Robert Wagner and Janet Leigh.” Frazetta did it WAY better with his run on The Shining Knight in Adventure Comics, over at DC. Just a couple years earlier.
Yes, Walter, I liked your other choices too. Hard to believe Rich Buckler dates back 40 years now. Used to be one of that new generatuon like Berni and Kaluta, who came on board in the seventies. Solid work but, yeah, never a fan favorite to my knowledge.
Thanks for the back stories Bud, my obliterated, rat chewed copy of Hangman #3 is one of my favorite comics in my collection.
I agree great splashes…with Buscema and Buckler taking the prize for dynamism!