George Tuska is a pro's pro, one of those rock-solid talents who inform the field in a way which makes waves well beyond their time. As it turns out Tuska's time was pretty large, as he had a career which sprawled from the Golden Age well into the late Bronze Age and well beyond on the comic strip derived from the Justice League and Superman comics. And always his stuff was there, just like it had been before. I first encountered Tuska on Iron Man and he remains to my eye the best artist the title ever had. I know there many Bob Layton lovers among us and I pay proper heed to how Layton was able to redefine the look and bring a shiny gloss, but no single artist in my opinion ever drew armor which looked heavier or more like metal. It wasn't shiny, but it had an angularity and heft which didn't communicate fabric, but something else. Tuska drew great thugs, baddies who carried "heaters" and hung out with "dames". If I had to choose one artist to draw my adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, I'd get Tuska.
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Pete Morisi once stated that he asked Tuska if it was okay to appropriate his style. I tend to like PAM more in some ways, but Tuska was a real omnipresence in comics for decades.I liked him on Challengers and Thunder Agents. As far as Iron Man goes, that was a great run with some sharp writing by Archie Goodwin, but my fave IM artist would have to be Gene Colan.
ReplyDeleteGoodwin with Tuska -- two rock solid pros making rock solid comics! Expect something on Morisi coming up.
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You said: "but no single artist in my opinion ever drew armor which looked heavier or more like metal. It wasn't shiny, but it had an angularity and heft which didn't communicate fabric, but something else."
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more. That is exactly what I think when I think of Tuska.
He did it without fanfare, in fact with some criticism. He's the guy who showed up and bailed everyone out when those deadlines loomed.
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Tuska always drew is characters as if they had teeth twice the size of a normal set. Not a fan.
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