Dick Ayers is one of those artists who seemed to be around forever. It seemed no matter when you looked he was somewhere kicking out artwork. He is remembered as the creator of the original western Ghost Rider. Most famously he was the go-to embelisher for much of the early Lee-Kirby stuff which launched the Marvel Age. Later he became recognized for his own pencil work on the war comics mostly at Marvel such as Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, Captain Savage and the Leatherneck Raiders, but sometimes elsewhere such as a short stint on Captain Marvel when he and Don Heck switched jobs. After Marvel, Ayers went to DC to draw westerns like Scalphunter and war and other things, and during the 90's he was a respected venerable master working for Indy companies most notably runs of Femforce and the short-lived and utterly wacky Dr. Wonder. He produced comics right up until his passing, to his final day a comic book artist.
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I wish I'd been able to talk to him when I met him at a convention in 2004. But he wasn't chatty and I didn't want to badger the guy so he just signed my book and that was about it. Just one of life's regrets.
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way mostly. I have a hard time talking to these folks when I go up to them, the rare instance when I choked it down and did it was when I met Herb Trimpe. I never met Dick Ayer, but sometimes they are just not feeling the mood. I met Russ Heath once and he was like that.
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He also did a bit of lurid grindhouse style material at Skywald and Myron Fass' Eerie Pubs. Oddly appealing in an unsavory/transgressive way.
ReplyDeleteThat Ayers would work for damn near anyone is one of the reasons I liked him so much. He was finding ways to make comics right until he passed away, and while the work ain't always prime, it's pure.
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