I Never Liked Gene Colan: Fixed because I'm a Dope

[Johnny Sorrow]

Let me get this out of the way first. Gene Colan was an amazing artist and one of the most important artists in comic book history.

But I never liked his stuff when I was a kid. I was born in 1970. I grew up in the age of the greats of the 70's and 80's  while collecting old books from the 40's on, and there were certain artists whose styles didn't grab me. Colan was one, Gil Kane and his up nose shots annoyed me, and Don Heck left me cold. I'd never say they weren't fantastic and legends, because they were and are.

Who do you all just not dig, even though you know how great they are? And the cut off is 1985. I don't want a bunch of "Rob Liefield" answers.Im old.

[Ace]

*Colan. 

I'm with you on Gil Kane. I'll also add Howard Chaykin to the list.

 

[odessasteps]

I agree on Don Heck. Also, as a kid, didn’t like Joe Staton. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

Can someone say they don't like "John Burn" so I don't totally feel like a dummy for the original thread title?

Oh and which Buscema do you prefer? I used to say John but now I think it's Sal.

[odessasteps]

I think I've always preferred John to Sal. 

Like a lot of 80s kids, I was confused and initially put off by Sinkiewicz on New Mutants. Now, that and his DD work is brilliant. 

[The Unholy Dragon]

Hated Kirby as a kid, love him now. 

Never really got big on Chaykin and a lot of the Peter Bagge crop of indie dudes never really did anything for me either.

[Cliff Hanger]

1 hour ago, The Unholy Dragon said:

Hated Kirby as a kid, love him now. 

Never really got big on Chaykin and a lot of the Peter Bagge crop of indie dudes never really did anything for me either.

I'm pretty sure that if I had discovered Bagge at any point other than my early 20s circa 2000, I'd never have given him the time of day.

[Kang]

I don't think I ever hated any artist from 1938 to 85. But writers..that's a different case.

[OSJ]

I remember as a kid not liking Joe Kubert,  now I think he was a genius. The turning point came when my much-older cousin gave me some early issues of The Brave and the Bold with his "Viking Prince", then I went back through my early Hawkman and Enemy Ace and became a fan for life. 

Ditko's Spider-man never did much for me but his Dr. Strange stuff psychedelicized my soul. 

Now one opinion that hasn't changed, Don Heck was always just sort of there. Not bad enough to dislike, not good enough to praise, the very definition of average; and I say that as an Iron Man guy, who probably has more Don Heck work than any sane person ought to. The guy managed to keep his job for years by being as dependable as a Rolex, despite being totally undistinguished. 

The Buscema Bros were an interesting pair, John's action scenes and backgrounds were superior, but he never could draw people accurately (too fond of putting muscles were no one, not even mutant Atlantean's have them). Sal's people looked like people but his action scenes weren't anywhere near as good as John's. If you could fuse the two of them you'd really have something. 

How about Marie and John Severin?  I maintain that Marie was wasted drawing superhero stuff, she should have been art director for MAD or Cracked,  a remarkably gifted cartoonist and a very funny lady with a wicked sense of humor that she didn't really get to display much of at Marvel.

One name that hasn't been mentioned is Carmine Infantino, I was never really a Barry Allen fan (give me Jay Garrick, or give me death!), but I bought The Flash (and Batman) just for his artwork. 

And Murphy Anderson, whether doing pencils or inks, we all thought he was #2 behind Kirby when we were kids. I don't know that I'd rate him that highly today, but he was pretty awesome. Loved his work on The Spectre in Showcase.

As for Gene Colan, just show people his Dr. Strange run, particularly his team-up with the Black Knight against Tiboro. One of the best-drawn single issues of anything, ever. When you have a story with a 3rd-rate villain and it turns out to be the best issue of the year, you're doing something very right.

Now I need to see if there are trades of the Spider-Woman/Porcupine stuff, I admit that I've never read a single issue of Spider-Woman in any of her incarnations,  so I'm quite intrigued...

[Johnny Sorrow]

I'm the same with Joe Kubert. As a kid I didn't care for his stuff but now I see how great he was.   

When Marvel put out those awesome digest books in the 70's was my first exposure to Ditko Spidey. It took me a minute, but I grew to love it. But to be honest, it's the Jazzy John Romita Spidey that I love the most.

[odessasteps]

As a kid, I really didnt like Infantino on the 80s Flash stuff, but did like the Silver Age stuff on Flash and other DC books. 

[The Unholy Dragon]

In general, growing up in the post-Image 90s superhero scene it was real hard for me to get into a lot of older comics art. 

 

Oh man, here's one. William Moulton Marston. I can't deny the value of his work but I also still can't get into any of his Golden Age Wonder Woman stuff because the art BOTHERS me.

 

It's not just the Golden Age adjustment either. I've read plenty of other comics from the period. Something about his I just can't do.

[OSJ]

3 hours ago, odessasteps said:

As a kid, I really didnt like Infantino on the 80s Flash stuff, but did like the Silver Age stuff on Flash and other DC books. 

Infantino as an old guy was not good, lots of guys stay great or their flaws can be covered by a good inker, Infantino's fall from greatness was sad to watch and he had too much power at DC for anyone to tell him it was time to throw in the towel. I've often wondered if it was vision or maybe arthritis, but his decline was profound. As JS mentioned, Romita was THE Spidey artist everyone else is measured against.

[OSJ]

49 minutes ago, The Unholy Dragon said:

In general, growing up in the post-Image 90s superhero scene it was real hard for me to get into a lot of older comics art. 

 

Oh man, here's one. William Moulton Marston. I can't deny the value of his work but I also still can't get into any of his Golden Age Wonder Woman stuff because the art BOTHERS me.

 

It's not just the Golden Age adjustment either. I've read plenty of other comics from the period. Something about his I just can't do.

How about this concept, he simply wasn't very good except at spanking scenes, which he seemed to be unusually fond of.

[OSJ]

Here's another one... Irwin Hasen, revered for his newspaper work on Dondi; was the creator of Wildcat, and I thought (and still think) he was bloody awful. 

Lots of GA work has held up very nicely, the MLJ stuff from Paul Reinman and Al Camy is still great for an example of two guys that are pretty much forgotten today. However, there's a lot of stuff that nostalgia has raised on to a pedestal that really wasn't all that and a bag of chips.

[Cliff Hanger]

16 minutes ago, OSJ said:

Infantino as an old guy was not good, lots of guys stay great or their flaws can be covered by a good inker, Infantino's fall from greatness was sad to watch and he had too much power at DC for anyone to tell him it was time to throw in the towel. I've often wondered if it was vision or maybe arthritis, but his decline was profound. As JS mentioned, Romita was THE Spidey artist everyone else is measured against.

This was my experience with Colan.  I didn't read any of his prime-era stuff until after I'd read his 90s Daredevil with Joe Kelly.  This would've been right after Cary Nord, who at the time was my favorite penciler at the Big 2, left the book and I didn't really understand the history coming back to roost or just how old and ill Colan really was at that point.  I just knew that they'd replaced my guy with a 70s guy who "clearly had no business drawing real, modern comics in 1997".  It took reading Howard the Duck to really understand what he'd had to offer.

 

I remember hating Bogdanove on X-Factor, Power Pack and Superman back in the day. It's been a long time since I re-read any of those but the way other people talk about him I feel like I should really revisit at least his Marvel stuff.

[OSJ]

1 minute ago, Cliff Hanger said:

This was my experience with Colan.  I didn't read any of his prime-era stuff until after I'd read his 90s Daredevil with Joe Kelly.  This would've been right after Cary Nord, who at the time was my favorite penciler at the Big 2, left the book and I didn't really understand the history coming back to roost or just how old and ill Colan really was at that point.  I just knew that they'd replaced my guy with a 70s guy who "clearly had no business drawing real, modern comics in 1997".  It took reading Howard the Duck to really understand what he'd had to offer.

 

I remember hating Bogdanove on X-Factor, Power Pack and Superman back in the day. It's been a long time since I re-read any of those but the way other people talk about him I feel like I should really revisit at least his Marvel stuff.

Ah, Howard the Duck... God, I loved that comic. I think that might even be tied with MOKF as my favorite of all time. MOKF sort of went to shit the last year or so, but the Moench/Gulacy run was a thing of beauty.  Starman, Sandman Mystery Theater, Swamp Thing and Kaluta's Shadow are all right there, but MOKF was something on another level. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

See, I really like late Infantino, but only on Flash. I really liked those books that led up to Barry killing Thawne. I totally see why someone wouldn't, but I dug it.  

Hell, I remember when Frank Miller was the new hot thing on Daredevil. I had that first issue of his run and sold it at a Creation Con to fund me buying silver age Adventure Comics and Golden Age Captain Marvel comics. But at the time I thought he sucked and that Klaus Jansen stunk  as well. I didn't like the style. It changed with Dark Knight Returns, for me. But that initial acclaimed run did nothing for me. I was more of a Byrne/ Austin guy.

[Brian Fowler]

I'm not big on Colan's DD, but I love everything about his Dracula.

[Execproducer]

5 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

I'm not big on Colan's DD, but I love everything about his Dracula.

Yeah, kind of surprised it took this long for someone to bring up Dracula. I'll throw out Mike Sekowsky. It's like I love those early JLA books in spite of the art.

I will also admit that Jack Kirby was not love at first sight. It took Golden- Age Cap to make me see the error of my ways.

 

 

[OSJ]

The Marvel horror comics came out at a time when I wasn't really buying, so I sort of missed the whole thing. I picked up the Werewolf By Night when Moon Knight debuted (when I foolishly decided that I was going to collect every MK appearance), but I passed on Dracula completely, which I'm given to understand was a mistake... I have it line after Spider-woman & Porcupine. I'm puzzled as Porky without his helmet looks like Alexander Gentry, whom I thought was dead... Guess I'll find out when the package from InStock Trades shows up.

[J.H.]

As far as Colan goes, I always dug him from the moment I first  saw his stuff on Batman/Tec back in the 80s. He drew the only Btman story that scared me.

Saying Leifeld is just o easy a target. Jim Lee however is an artist I've come to really be annoyed with over the last 20 years. I think lacks anysense of variety in his work as everything always looks the same. From the faces he drws, to the body types... Jim Lee might be the dullest modern comic book artist.

I used to love John Romita Jr. back in the 80s but man if I see he's drawing a book it makes 65% less likely to buy it these days (his first X-Men and Spidey runs remain fantastic)

On the flip side of Joe Kubert... the Kubert brothers do nothing for me

James

[Trebor]

My favorite Spider-man artist is Ross Andru.  

 Romita's art seemed super square coming on the heels of Ditko.

It took the Thor Treasury Edition to win me over to the greatness of Kirby. Prior to that his stuff seemed crude & blocky.

the comic artist I hate the most is Al Milgrom. I bought every issue of Avengers/WCA whether or not he drew it, but didn't feel good about the ones he did.

Oh, and  Don Perlin was crap

[Tromatagon]

As a HEEEEEEEEEEEYUUUUUUUUUUGE Tomb of Dracula fan this very thread is fucking blasphemy to me.  It's my favorite comic book series of all time. Jesus Christ.

I didn't like Jack Kirby as a kid, but I didn't appreciate the classics much back then, I guess.  He is one of my favorites now.

Ditko was weird for me.  I didn't like his Spider-Man art and am still kind of MEH about it but I was actively reading WWF Battlemania at the same time and liking that art as far as licensed comic art went.  I had no idea it was the same guy.  I went back and read Dr. Strange and fell in love, and goddamn his 60s horror stuff he did for Creepy and Eerie and so forth absolutely blow his Dr. Strange work out of the water at times.  I can't recommend that enough.

John Romita Jr. is just the guy I don't "get" now.  I used to think it was because he drew lips weird and seemed to be trying to ape the worst parts of 80s Miller but even when that stuff changes, I still don't like it.  So of course, he gets to illustrate a bunch of huge crossovers from both companies (his art actively killed World War Hulk for me and I was FUCKING HYPED going into it).  I love his dad's work so much.

[Bustronaut]

For shame, nerds.  Harry Peter (quiet) was the original (and best!) GA Wonder Woman artist 

 

I didn't like Alex Tooth as a kid, and now want to go back and strangle myself for being utterly wrong.