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Steve Coates
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Posted: 17 June 2020 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I thought Billy Graham's 1974 run on the Black Panther stories in Jungle Action was excellent. His work caught my attention enough to make Jungle Action a regular purchase.
One image which comes to mind is from issue # 19.


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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 17 June 2020 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

It's funny (sad?) that I still think of people like Alan Davis, Alex Ross, Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch, etc. as the "new guys"!

When I first starting reading reading super-hero comics in the mid 70's, people like Curt Swan, Neal Adams, Paul Gulacy, Jim Starlin, Dick Dillin, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, John Byrne, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, etc. were all working.  I had no reference that Byrne, Gulacy, and Starlin were "new," while Swan, Dillin, and John Buscema were "old."

Now, I can put things in better perspective, but I'm still surprised finding out things like Irv Novick (who I found so lively on THE FLASH) had been working since the early 40's.  I had the impression that Ric Estrada was a new kid when I read KARATE KID in the late 70's and I JUST found out that he had been a pro for decades at that point!  I met Elliot S. Maggin not that long ago and I was shocked that he seemed hardly older than me, even though I first enjoyed his work when I was 9.  If you didn't know him, looking at Neal Adams' latest work (vibrant, dynamic, explosive, though perhaps influenced too much by the Image era), you'd think he was the hot new find.


Edited by Eric Jansen on 17 June 2020 at 6:39pm
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 9:18am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

That Black Panther cover is by Gil Kane.
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 9:21am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Billy Graham did some LUKE CAGE issues, as well. I liked his stuff.
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Steve Coates
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 10:34am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Gil Kane did many covers for Marvel around 1974 and probably attracted the attention of many comic book readers and introduced them to differnt artist and writers.

I know Klaus Janson was around before, but the earliest work which I remember taking a keen interest in is:
His work with GIl Kane is reminiscent of Neal Adams' and Tom Palmer's work on the Avengers. And there was some nice portrait/facial expression work in the issue.


A strong, one and done, story by Len Wein and some very moody colours by Glynis Wein and so many pages made it a simple purchase.
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 11:20am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Gil Kane seemed to be around forever, as I think he was Marvel's cover king prior to Mr. Byrne. He was quite good, and his inkers made him quite better. (I wasn't so fond of his later work, where it seemed his art wasn't as sharp as his early work. I compare his early Green Lantern to his 80s Superman, and I enjoy the early, tight pencils better.)
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 11:50am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

And to think, when I was a legal teenager, I didn't care for Gil Kane's
work. Wotta maroon
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Brian - we forgive you, brother. It takes a while for a lot of us to become accustomed (and then rapt) with some artists' work.
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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Gil Kane was an early favorite of mine - to a degree that it's a little difficult to tell if I loved his 80's era Green Lantern comics because he drew them or vice-versa.  His work seemed so clean and elegant - particularly when he inked himself - which was in contrast with much of the other art of the era.  

And he was distinctive, on top of that.  As a kid, I very much gravitated to the distinctive artists of the day, so Byrne, Simonson, Gibbons, von Eeden, etc. were real standouts for me.  It was only as I matured that I started to appreciate artists for their storytelling skills (and of course, Kane, Byrne, Simonson, Gibbons, and von Eeden were masters of that as well), so I could really appreciate artists like Trimpe or (Sal) Buscema with less noticeably distinct personal styles.
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I love seeing Klaus inking him, but my favorite is the few times Neal has
inked him. That's some special stuff, right there.
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Wallace Sellars
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Posted: 18 June 2020 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply


 QUOTE:
It takes a while for a lot of us to become accustomed (and then
rapt) with some artists' work.


It wasn’t until well into adulthood that I realized just how beautiful Joe
Kubert’s work is.
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 19 June 2020 at 7:39am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Dave K. regarding Gil Kane's unique style - well, you'd never mistake him for Curt Swan or Jack Kirby or Mike Sekowsky, that's for sure. That was one very nice aspect of a lot of silver age art - so much of it was uniquely styled and really sharp and clean.
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