Sunday, March 3, 2013

Marvel's Space-Born Artist!


Gene "The Dean" Colan at the height of his powers was a compelling comic book artist, able to blend mundane reality with the utterly fantastic in a way which made you believe. His layouts were sometimes arcane, but his ability to draw real people was nearly unmatched. Here we have sundry examples of his work on Marvel's Space-Born Superhero, Captain Marvel. Vince Colletta, often derided and dismissed, really brings out the the best in Colan in these samples and adds a necessary snap to the pages.













 Mar-vell-ous stuff indeed!

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3 comments:

  1. You say "arcane" to describe his layouts? Has anyone before or since worked primarily with a 4 panel page? I've always found it to be very unique, but not mysterious/arcane.

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    1. To be honest when I think of Colan's storytelling, I think first of his work on Doc Strange which had all sorts of offbeat page breakdowns which lost me, if not others. On Daredevil too, he seemed to tell stories sometimes to minimize his need to draw more. The most infamous scene is the full page spread of DD opening a door.

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    2. Gotta read more of his stuff I guess. :)

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