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Action Comics 144 - Silliness Ensues

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1065802307015_P1010038.jpg

 

I know he did the interior on this,...the cover is by Kaluta....he did interior work on Batman #219,236,301,303....and Detective 416, (an early Manbat story which I remember hating as a kid cause it looked to scratchy to me,..now I think it's awesome), 421,431,434-436.

 

 

J.D.

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Searching a little through the internet, I found out he died in '94 after having left the country disillusioned because of the public's cold reception to his work..tough..

I've yet to find a Bats' comic page drawn by him to revive my memory banks (checked Chuck's site-nada), yet those two covers you posted JD actually aren't all that bad...

I also was reminded again of Ernie Chua's artwork....and all I have to say about that is....4_5_7.gif

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a similar artist from the 40s 50s whose super-hero work wasnt accepted readily in the 60s and 70s was Grandinetti. I seem to remember he did a lot of horror and took over Spectre after Adams: a real hard act to follow!.

 

Both guys I believe were accomplished comic strip artists, not spandex guys per se.

 

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Although Boring may have good line work and be very capable of drawing inanimate objects I found his ability to draw fluid action in a living creature to be very lacking and is the main reason why I dislike his style.

In my eyes he may be a good draftsman that would be better suited to architecture design.

 

I agree. His people were similar to Ditko's... pretty much the same poses and faces over again. But both had their own forte's (sp?) that made the faults in the rest of their panels forgivable.

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This is the splash page from Detective #416,...now one of my favorite Detective stories...... 13robbinsbatman.gif

 

J.D.

 

 

Aaaaaakkk....the guy must have used his weekly alotment of black ink on that page alone... tongue.gif

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Searching a little through the internet, I found out he died in '94 after having left the country disillusioned because of the public's cold reception to his work..tough..

I've yet to find a Bats' comic page drawn by him to revive my memory banks (checked Chuck's site-nada), yet those two covers you posted JD actually aren't all that bad...

I also was reminded again of Ernie Chua's artwork....and all I have to say about that is....4_5_7.gif

 

Okay, I'm sorry Robbins died in that fashion... but dammit, his stuff really did suck, in almost every case.

- Those Shadow covers are far and away the best stuff Robbins ever did. I knew someone would post one of those... try staring at some his work on The Invaders - or any of his Golden Age efforts. You'll go legally blind in under a minute.

 

- As for that Invaders #1 cover, it's not bad - but there's no way that's Robbins alone. Looks like one of the Buscema boys did a LOT of inking in an effort to mend the broken limbs Robbins normally bestows on his subjects...

 

- Someone please post a page of Robbins work from *inside* that issue of Invaders - or any issue, really... and you'll see that literally all of Robbins' characters were positioned in ways that weren't simply anatomically impossible...they're positions that would have the subject screaming in agony... similar to the pain inflicted on the readers of the book...

 

As for Ernie Chua/Chan, I don't consider his stuff that bad... somewhat basic and simple, perhaps, but not offensive to the eyes... And anyone who can just change his last name in mid-stride without batting an eye has at least *some* depth to them!

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This is the splash page from Detective #416,...now one of my favorite Detective stories...... 13robbinsbatman.gif

 

J.D.

 

 

Aaaaaakkk....the guy must have used his weekly alotment of black ink on that page alone... tongue.gif

 

See, the amount of ink is one thing... but check out Batman's left leg... this is tame stuff compared to some of the torture Robbins inflicted on his characters (and readers) ! Why, WHY would you draw a leg that way? Okay, if the character has just been punched in the stomach by The Thing, maybe...but Batman's just standin' there..!!

 

It burns...it BURNS...!! Ahhhhhhhhh

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I used to hate grandenetti, but i have grown to love him in a picasso sort of way. Very primitive & full of impact. Of course he started out as a Eisner clone in the 50's, and worked well in that vein, so he isn't a primitive. Robbins though.....i am trying. I have been foe 20 years...but no go yet. I still want to throw up when i see his work. ESPECIALLY the spacing he puts between people's eyes. You could roll a bowling ball down the center of his charecter's face without touching either eye!

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Aparo has a nice style but has none of the ooomph that Adams had. I dont know how you can compare the two? Adams is one of the best draughtsman an dmost innovative conics artists ever...while Jim Aparo is a more than competant artist. Aparo did a lot of good work, but he's only a 7.5 to Adams' 9.4...

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Like I said he gave him a run for his money..even Adams was a fan of Jim Aparo...

But as you mentioned, there's no way that you can compare the two, because Adams wins hands down...However, when I think Batman artists, I think Adams and then Aparo...

I think my appreciation of Aparo's art stems from a story arc he did in Detective where Bats is set up to look like he killed Talia and becomes Public Enemy No. 1... Aparo is at his best in that one. His Brave and Bold work is great as well..

Now later on, the stuff he did in Batman (Death in the Family, Ten Nights of the Beast) wasn't his best. It was drab, bland and boring. And I don't exactly know why when comparing it to his earlier works (different inker perhaps?)

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I liked much of Aparos work...Didnt the take over Aquaman in the issues in the 50s when Deadman had the backup strip...... or did he do the Deadman's??? As for Batman artists after Adams, I enjoyed the Gene Colan years in the 80s, MarshallRogers is an easy choice...but I really cant think of too many more that stand out. Batman rarely had killer art, almost like DC knew it would sell anyway.

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...apparently he didn't do any cover work on Detective , but did do covers for Batman #301 and 303,..but here is a bibliography of his interior work Detective

Batman

 

f8_1.JPG

 

J.D.

 

 

 

Hmmm... that cover's not by Frank Robbins.... looks like Jim Aparo to me. Part of all this confusion is that Robbins first started working for DC as a writer not an artist. He did the Flash, Superboy, then Batman beginning right before the O'Neil/Adams "New Old Look" arrived in 1970. In fact, Robbins wrote all the original Man-Bat stories, the first 3 of which were illustrated by Neal Adams. It was the 4th Man-Bat story, whose splash is posted above, that was the first time Robbins did artwork for DC. He drew a half-dozen Batman stories in Detective, the post-Kaluta Shadow, and a handful of horror/mystery tales before moving to Marvel to draw Invaders, Cap, etc.

 

Oh, and aman, Neal Adams did draw the 3 Deadman stories in Aquaman. Aparo had been drawing Aquaman since #40, taking over from Nick Cardy.

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...apparently he didn't do any cover work on Detective , but did do covers for Batman #301 and 303,..but here is a bibliography of his interior work Detective

Batman

 

f8_1.JPG

 

J.D.

 

 

 

Hmmm... that covers not by Frank Robbins.... looks like Jim Aparo to me.

 

I have to agree with you Zonk,...It doesn't look Robbins to me either,...I was just going by the Frank Robbins Bibliography, and it has those two Batman covers (301and 303) as his art work,......pic is too small for me to see, but the GCD has the pencils listed as Jim Aparo for sure, with a Question mark for the inker,..

 

J.D.

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