A Centaur a day...Funny Picture Stories 2/5 upgrade 4 4

[G.A.tor]

and for anyone interested, here is the rest of the aman 7 first Everett story...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[comicjack]

[damonwad]

Love the thread and the interiors are much appreciated.

[DarthBane]

I was very lucky as a kid to read the AM books from my uncle's collection.

 

 

Any idea what happened to your uncle's comic book collection?

 

Hopefully, you was or will be the lucky recipient of them.

 

 

(( Yes I spoke a little about it in CG. He was the greatest hoarder I ever knew. For over three decades well before they started ripping off comic book covers he had a business in conjunction with dozens of local stores, shops, etc. Perfect place and idea as he would just pick up/take all the unwanted/unsold comics off their hands from the racks and newsstands. Not to mention he was a comic/sports collector/completist as well and bought hand over fist. He recently passed last year and it was a big mess in terms of how it all played out. I will PM you cause I don't want to derail the thread. ))

 

[rjpb]

Book 7

Another classic that likely needs no introduction.

 

Amazing man 6

 

 

Interesting how many people love this cover, to me it's the least appealing of the run, but then I'm not a Centaur aficionado by any means. I find the enthusiasm others have for the publisher more compelling than the books themselves for the most part.

[G.A.tor]

Little teaser

 

[comicjack]

Tease

[Dark Knight]

I can think of a much better tease

[Primetime]

and for anyone interested, here is the rest of the aman 7 first Everett story...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wow interior shots of a raw book from Rick! You must really like these Centaurs

[RedFury]

PSA: Anyone interested in reading the stories can find all of Bill Everett's Centaur work from Amazing Man and Amazing Mystery Funnies in the Bill Everett Archives Vol 1 & 2.

 

 

 

[G.A.tor]

PSA: Anyone interested in reading the stories can find all of Bill Everett's Centaur work from Amazing Man and Amazing Mystery Funnies in the Bill Everett Archives Vol 1 & 2.

 

 

i think I have a set somewhere

[Scrooge]

G.A.Tor, thanks for the thread

 

Might as well post this here.

 

Centaur, an early publisher links us to the pre-War era. It has a '30's focus more so than the Timely War books we see elsewhere. Not surprisingly then, this means that some Centaur covers and certainly stories harks back to the common experience of the writers and artists who worked in the books. Being an industry centered in New York City, you see a lot of that city's landscape seep into the pages; in particular, the Roaries Twenties with its peak of construction show up. Witness these covers for example -

 

 

Centaurs scream '20's and '30's NYC. Thanks to the ShutOutTheNoise project from USC, we can experience the sounds of the City from that time period -

 

http://vectorsdev.usc.edu/NYCsound/777b.html

 

Spend the time and explore the footage.

 

Think about Kirby when you watch the neighborhood noise of street vendors and sidewalk shoppers on the Lower East Side.

 

Hear the noise of the street on which The Shadow's adventures took place when you listed to a steam-powered pile driver sinks a shaft for the foundation of a new building.

 

See the blasting crew sets off a charge of dynamite as they excavate the earth for a subway extension.

 

You can also navigate via a Map rather than the timeline link I posted above.

 

Back to you Rick

[pmpknface]

PSA: Anyone interested in reading the stories can find all of Bill Everett's Centaur work from Amazing Man and Amazing Mystery Funnies in the Bill Everett Archives Vol 1 & 2.

 

 

i think I have a set somewhere

[sacentaur]

Centaurs can also be viewed as pre-Timelys in some regard - some of the best talent started at Centaur before lateraling over to Timely.

[G.A.tor]

Amazing Man 8

 

[G.A.tor]

Amazing man 9

 

[comicjack]

Both classic early war covers

[sfcityduck]

Centaurs can also be viewed as pre-Timelys in some regard - some of the best talent started at Centaur before lateraling over to Timely.

 

I don't think they should be regarded as "pre-Timely." They were two entirely different publishers.

 

Yes, Jacquet was employed by Centaur before he founded First Funnies/Funnies, Inc. Yes, he took some of the key artists from Centaur to Funnies, Inc. BUT, for me, that just tells you something about certain artists' job history, it really does not support some sort of linkage between Centaur and Timely.

 

The reality is that Centaur and Timely were two entirely different ventures, and Timely probably owes its success to aspects of its venture that simply were not present at Centaur. One of these aspects is that the artists who worked at both Centaur and Timely became better artists over time. Others include:

 

* The key Timely characters - Submariner, Human Torch, Captain America, Young Allies - (which never appeared in a Timely book) were better developed and more compelling, than the Centaur characters;

 

* The key Timely cover artist and the "busy" cover style he developed for Timely, which for many of us is the distinctive hallmark of a Timely comic, were not a feature of Centaur; and,

 

* The S&K in your face style of action drawing was not a feature of Centaur.

 

This is not dis of Centaur. Centaur produced some great work and was an important stop in the development of the careers of Everett, Burgos, etc.,

 

But, Centaur and Timely are two entirely different publishers, with entirely different characters, with key differences in the creative line-ups, key differences in the content they embraced, key differences in their embrace of "house style" and "shared universe,' and are best viewed as two entirely different publishers.

 

After all, no one would claim that Charlton SA comics are "pre-D.C." just because when Giordano went over to edit D.C. in 1968 he took a stable of Charlton talent with him (O'Neill, Aparo, etc.).

 

Sorry to react so strongly to your comment, but I've seen several OTHER posters overclaim the linkage between Centaur and Timely, basically claim that Centaurs were Marvel comics despite the fact that Goodwin had no involvement with Centaur, and that sort of offends my obsession historical accuracy.

 

Edited January 9, 2017 by sfcityduck

[sacentaur]

Sorry to react so strongly to your comment, but I've seen several OTHER posters overclaim the linkage between Centaur and Timely

 

No worries, I enjoyed reading your perspective.

 

The artists did improve over at Timely, but they were already improving at Centaur - trace Burgos' early work on the Arrow and he gets better with every issue (looks to me like Gustavson gave him an assist). A natural evolution of the early medium.

 

It's an interesting question where would Timely heroes like Sub-Mariner or the Human Torch or the Angel or Miss Fury be without their artists also working at Centaur?

 

The publishers do have a different feel (Timelys for example are generally more dynamic than Centaurs), but I believe the transition is pretty clear.

[sacentaur]

Amazing man 9

 

 

Tough book that I'm having trouble finding the right copy on.