Steranko: The Greatest Comic Book Artist of the Late Silver Age?

[ft88]

What did Wrightson do for Cult of Batman. It was a collaboration with Starlin but didn't he do the covers?

[rjpb]

He also did a punisher mini-series about 15 years ago ( Punisher POV).

Nick Fury appears in issue #2 - so that might give an idea of how Wrightson would have handled him.

[Moondog]

I was going to point this out too, Sal. It's definitely a homage to Wood.

[Moondog]

Donut (and I'm sure many others) over estimate the amount of work that Steranko did in the Silver Age. I believe his total output is less than 40 stories.

 

And that's the key to Steranko's ultimate contribution to comic art. Such a small body of work influenced so many to such an extent.

 

And Crumb's genius shouldn't be compared to Wrightson, Adams, Steranko or Buscema.

 

They work in different fields.

 

What I mean is that Crumb works on his own creations while the others work for hire on corporate characters.

 

The GA/SA artist that probably comes closest to Crumb is Eisner.

[tth2]

Buscema's middle of the road style

 

Sorry I just can't get over your description of Buscema as just above average, journeyman and now middle of the road? How do you consider his style middle of the road when he was considered to be the best at a time when Marvel was at its absolute peak and many of his peers looked in awe at his work and ability? Even to this day he has drawn a number of characters that many if not most would agree that Buscema was best able to capture the essense of how we envision Thor, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, etc to be. How can a guy be middle of the road and have so many cover works considered to be some of the best of that era if not all-time? I think you are in a severe minority on this one.

SS, you're misinterpreting my use of "middle of the road". It was not a comment on the quality of his work, rather the lack of edginess, the fact that it didn't break new ground, lack of uniqueness, etc. You're taking my comments in general way too negatively. I have a lot of respect for Buscema, and think he's a fine artist and produced fine work. I just don't think his work rose to the level of genius that some others had. Again, this is not a slight. I liked a lot of the songs that George Harrison wrote while he was with the Beatles. But I don't think it rose to the level of genius of Lennon & McCartney's works.

[mcd-migration]

What did Wrightson do for Cult of Batman. It was a collaboration with Starlin but didn't he do the covers?

 

Starlin wrote it & Wrightson did the art...which wasn't very impressive. I think Wrightson burned out on that Frankenstein book because I really can't point to any book he drew in the last 25 years that I really liked. His early horror stuff at DC & Warren was just beautiful & that Frankenstein book was a masterpiece, but since then?

 

I guess you could say that about all of the "Studio" artists. Wrightson, Kaluta, B. Smith & J. Jones all produced what I considered their "classic" periods when the worked together in the same studio. That must have been some serious energy running through that place, with each artist feeding off the other.

 

Side note on the Buscema/Steranko discussion. Buscema's first Marvel work was in Strange Tales 150 & Steranko took over with his first work in the next issue, Strange Tales 151. With talent like that being introduced on a monthly basis, no wonder it was the Marvel Age of Comics.

[*paull*]

Marie Severin or John Romita Jr. (or Senior, for that matter) over Jim Steranko? Let's call the look on my face "shocked disbelief".

 

Steranko was the greatest comic book artist of the 1960s, and an argument could be made that he was the best ever. Not the most prolific, the fastest worker, or having the most longevity, but he might have been the most talented.

 

I agree with Wrightson having "one note". I never liked his non-horror work. And the quality of his work dropped significantly since his peak in the mid-70s. I've read that since the Frankenstein portfolio, his motivation to do highly detailed work suffered. I don't know if that's the truth, but it certainly seems like it.

 

BTW, Steranko did not do drugs.

[BillyBatson4360]

Buscema had two stories appear in the same month:

 

Hulk in Tales to Astonish # 85 & SHIELD in Strange Tales # 160 (Both Novembr, 1966 cover dates).

 

Which assignment he completed first is tough to say. I seem to remember reading the it was the Hulk assignment first. Either way, Buscema admits he ignored the layouts Kirby provided and turned in two jobs that are pretty bad. He then studied Kirby's way of story-telling pretty intently and the quality of his work improved greatly.

[Norrin_Radd]

Marie Severin or John Romita Jr. (or Senior, for that matter) over Jim Steranko? Let's call the look on my face "shocked disbelief".

 

Something like this....

 

[Dr_Neff]

Jack Kirby died for our sins....

[jimm94]

Amen, brother. Testify!

 

I don't know who the greatest artist of the late Marvel silver age is, as it depends on the criteria and context of said "greatness". Regardless, it really just comes down to personal taste. No answer is right or wrong.

 

There's no denying that Steranko was an innovative artist that brought a fresh new sensibility to the medium. This is particularly evident in his Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD covers. By this point in time, however, Jack Kirby was still in the midst of his legendary FF run. His work was very bold and creative (though already well established on this title), and his technical drawing skills, aided by Joe Sinnott's inks, are perhaps at their peak. Although his anatomy may have been more accurate in years past, the quality and uniqueness of his output is unmistakeable.

 

John Buscema and Romita Sr. were doing fine work during this era. In fact, work of the highest quality! However, IMO, their art does not exhibit the level of artistic creativity that was being acheived by Steranko and Kirby. Buscema and Romita should not be overlooked, as I consider them to be the individuals most responsible for the general look of Marvel's characters for the following two decades. Marvel's "house style" if you will.

 

I also very much enjoy the work of Gene Colan and the Severin siblings, John and Marie. There's really no artist at this particular point in Marvel's history that I DON'T like, it's just a matter of picking personal favorites.

[Silver Surfer]

 

Who's the geek on the right.

[*paull*]

One thing that Steranko had going for him that many of the other artists of the time period couldn't claim is that he could produce exceptional work in any genre: super-hero, horror, romance, western, science fiction, etc.

 

And did any of the other Silver Age artists produce work that looked like this? =>

 

 

 

[ComicBookGuy]

That's some great stuff, Paull! Thanks for posting those for us. I've never seen these, though Steranko's love of the pulps is well known. You make a great point about Steranko's ability to create great art regardless of genre. Romita did some decent paintings himself (Spectacular Spider-man Magazine #2 comes to mind and is posted below for comparison), but nothing quite as good as these. Wrightson could not draw superheroes well at all (Batman was an exception), and I believe it was the DC mini-series about the Justice League called The Weird which really drove this point home. Don't get me wrong: Wrightson is one of my all-time favorite artists, but I can only imagine how a Wrightson love story would look.

Joe

 

[*paull*]

I love Wrightson, but I never really liked any of his non-horror work. His Batman and Punisher work was not up to his standards, and I didn't care for the lighter work that I saw of his in the "A Look Back" and "Reaper of Love" books. His horror work, though, was touched by only a few... some of the EC guys, Wolverton and maybe a couple others. He quite possibly was the greatest horror artist ever.

 

Steranko's horror work was amazing as well, even if he did so little of it. I love his work on Tower of Shadows #1, SHIELD #3, as well as the great Comic Crusader horror cover, and some others that are slipping my mind. I would have loved to have seen a complete horror themed graphic novel in the style of the work he did in Tower of Shadows.

[Luxxcorp-migration]

http://boards.collectors-society.com/attachments//849975-mrsluxx.JPG

[BillyBatson4360]

Steranko also did at least one cover (maybe more) for Jim Warren's b&w horror magazines. I believe it was a cover for "Eerie."

 

Anybody else know which issue I'm talking about?

[*paull*]

I believe it was Eerie #25. The original painting was up for auction by Heritage a couple months ago.

 

Here's the image.... a terrible scan, but you get the idea....

 

[Luxxcorp-migration]

The above would be right at home on a Dark Mansions of Forbidden Love comic. (#1-5)

(Which holds the All-Time Comic Record for LONGEST TITLE? The above would be right at home on a Dark Mansions of Forbidden Love comic. (#1-5)

 

OWN ALL OF JEFF JONES

POST FRAZETTA

HOWARD RUN

OF PAPERBACK COVERS!

Except I carefully removed the books so I could frame them.

(Used to own THE FRAZETTA RUN OF HOWARD)

 

In my life, so far I've bought and sold three diff. collections.

 

Currently collecting "green art glass", "drip-glaze pottery & crystal perfume bottles

(Finished a huge Hot Wheels et al collection.)

[bronze johnny]

-From what I understand, Steranko is a collector of pulp art work. Steranko's interest in the pulps has been known for some time. The beautiful artwork that was posted by Paull (thanks Paull!) provides us with some idea as to what extent the pulps may have had on Steranko.

 

- Steranko was truly one of the great innovators of our time and his artwork might arguably be the most significant and most remembered of the Late Silver Age. The artwork of the Silver Surfer series proved Buscema's greatness. But I can't say that it set new grounds for other artists to leap from.

 

- The thing about Steranko that I find amazing is the influence he has had on the comic book medium despite having such a short career as a comic book artist. There is something to be said about this when looking at Steranko's legacy.

 

- Will we someday discover a treasure chest of the "lost" comic book works of Steranko?

 

BronzeJohnny