Thursday, March 14, 2019

Favorite Comic Artist Countdown #20 - Herb Trimpe!


Herb Trimpe has always been on my favorites list. I fell in love with his distinctive rendition of The Incredible Hulk from the very beginning and followed along as Trimpe became for quite some time the definitive Hulk artist. Trimpe's work always was a bit odd, but it was full of verve and his storytelling was immaculate. Trimpe, a grand inker in his own right, was greatly affected by his inkers and he had some strong ones during his run on the Hulk -- Dan Adkins, John Severin, and Sam Grainger among others. Trimpe's The Phantom Eagle in Marvel Super-Heroes was one of my earliest comics and I've told the story a few times here of meeting Trimpe at a convention and getting him and Gary Friedrich to sign my copy and have Trimpe draw a figure of the Phantom Eagle which I still treasure. Trimpe had a knack for westerns too and drew a bunch of inviting energetic covers for the western reprints of the early 70's. His delightful take on Ant-Man from Marvel Feature lingers in the memory even if it didn't find a market.  He was tapped to draw Godzilla when the Toho monster made landfall for the first time on U.S. soil -- long before the most recent movies. He drew early issues of G.I. Joe, a book which was a stunning sales success. There were the Shogun Warriors, not as successful, but maybe to me a bit more fun. Trimpe was a loyal employee of Marvel for many years but was confronted with having to change up his style in the 90's to reflect the Image comics that dominated the market. I even enjoyed that version of Trimpe, but it was not enough and Marvel let him go.


He was a minister too and used that craft to pursue when like so many ended up on the streets of NYC after the towers fell and doing truly important work for those attempting to recover. Trimpe was a guy who seemed to appreciate his life and its challenges and strove his best meet them. His passing a few years back was truly felt by me, he was not just another comic artist, he was one of my very favorites, one of the guys who spoke to my heart, a talent who I admire not only as an artist but as a man.






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3 comments:

  1. Herb Trimpe was also the first artist to draw Captain Britain. The weekly was launched in October 1976 and Trimpe (inked by Fred Kida) stayed until #23 (the comic was cancelled after 39 issues).

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    1. Yes he was and I was remiss not to mention that. The Captain Britain stories were unknown here for the most part but I remember finding a bound collection of some of the early issues and soaking it up.

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    2. Captain Britain was actually reprinted in Marvel Tales (I think) in the '70s, though they tales were abridged and shuffled about a bit. I don't know how long they ran for in the US, but F.O.O.M. readers at least knew who the character was, so he had a bit of a profile.

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