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

[bronze johnny]

Welcome to the boards!

 

Steranko and Hendrix- Great analogy. Both hit their mediums in an astonishing way and really changed their art form in ways like no one else.

 

Kudos!

 

bronzejohnny

[bumpjay]

 

Thanx... I have been lurking these boards for a long time....spend hours reading this and the grading board.... finally got around to posting something, I figured it should be something "near and dear" to my heart ..... Steranko...a genius in this medium (and others) if ever there was one...! I am a fellow "Readingite", and have actually met him.... back in the eighties, when I was selling some of my stuff ( my first wife took off, I had an apartment, had to come up with some cash) guess who shows up at the apartment.....no less than Steranko himself ... Of course, I was floored just by meeting him, I was already an incredible fan !! Absolutely the truth......

But yes, IMHO, the best of the silver age , and I have used that analogy when explaining his work to other people, and it helps them to grasp the magnitude of his contribution to the field.....

[bronze johnny]

Wow! That is an amazing story. Did you get him to sign anything?

 

I have yet to meet him but look forward to it. I'm hoping he surfaces to do some new work. How about Steranko doing an Ultimate's title for Marvel?

 

bronzejohnny

[ashrael]

Wow, rejected Steranko cover from Captain America #113 (May 1969):

 

[bronze johnny]

Great cover!

 

You can see why Steranko was ahead of everyone else in the late 1960s.

 

Question:

 

Do you think Marvel would ever consider coming out with a comic book cataloging artwork that Stan and company rejected in the 60s and 70s?

 

bronzejohnny

[bumpjay]

The story gets even more amazing.....

As I was selling my books, I was thinking ..."Is this even worth the cost of the ad in the newspaper?" I had about 15 people come through, but I guess all they wanted was "valuable" (?) stuff, as nobody was really buying anything, and I was selling for 25 cents a book. There were some cherry pickers there, as I sold some serious stuff (Ironman/Submariner #1, Iron Fist #14 for example), and yes for a quarter a piece

Of course, I kept my personal favorites aside,i.e., all my Starlin, Miller, Neal Adams, Steranko,Barry Smith, 60's Kirby.etc aside....

After about three hours, some guy walks in, asks me where my showcase #4 is.

I shrugged him off, and explained to him that if I did have one of them, it would not be for sale. I explained I had some silver age, but not hi grade, and I really would not sell it anyway. I began to explain that I did not want to sell at all, but I had to come up with some cash, as my wife had just left.

As I was explaining this, I was straitening up some of the piles, and I came across a copy of Juggs magazine I had... ... I mentioned something about women being all alike......I heard a mumble about other women out there, but was not sure where it came from.

This gentlemen stated to me that, he had just sold a bunch of his golden age stuff, and he wasn't worried about it, cause, "You can always buy it back again later if you really want to"....

So I shrugged him off again. Thinking this is just some bull er...

He then asked me if I had any old magazines. And, eager as I was to sell something, I told him I had a bunch of boxing magazines. ( As, in my youth, I wanted to box myself, I had collected and studied boxing magazines, and studied hundreds of bouts on VHS tapes.)

He asked to take a look at them. I said sure....I then told him I have a copy of Superboxers (by John Byrne and Ron Wilson), and I told him I have a copy of the Superman vs. Muhamed Ali comic book by an incredible artist, a guy named named Neal Adams ( it was a comic book sale, after all) which I did not want to sell, but I thought he might like to see.

Soooo as I go to the closet to find the boxing mags, this guy mentions something about just having "talked to Neal Adams last week".

Yeah right, I thought.

Finally, as I was digging through the closet, "Oh yeah,? What is your name, anyway?"

He says, "My name is Jim Steranko".

I heard him say it, as I was literally walking out of the closet with a stack of boxing mags. and I stopped and said...."WHAT?!?"

He said "My name is Jim Steranko."

I said "NO way. You are Jim Steranko.?"

He said "Yes".

I said "No you're not"

He said "Ok, then I'm not"

I fell out. Completely.

I then began to tell him how he was my HERO!!!!

He hung out for abour an hour and a half, we talked about comics, music, and art, and even my own art which I showed him. I ended up giving him my boxing mags.

I did ask him to sign a book for me, but he promised me instead a signed copy of (when published) a project he was working on, with which he was using the boxing mags as reference material...!!! ( I was dumbfounded, to think that , in even the most simple, basic, unsubstantial, even less than microscopic kind of way, I could have a connection to a Jim Steranko project!!! When he told me this, that is when I said..."Take the mags!!! They are yours!!!)

About that time, a brother of mine stopped by, and Steranko very cordially gave me a handshake, and told me to keep in touch.

When he walked out the door, my brother( who is a musician) ,clearly seeing that I was in some kind of weird mood, asked me "Who was that?"

I said, "Danny, If you had just meet Jimi Hendrix, it would mean the same as what I just went through.".......

Again, I swear this story to be the absolute truth..... I can tell this story (which I have) to anybody within my circle of freinds, and it means nothing!!!

I have been jonesing to tell this story to somebody who would give 2 cents for 16 years!!!!!

Thanx for listening!!!!

[Zonker]

GREAT story!

 

And Welcome to the Boards!

[bumpjay]

Thanx Zonker....

It feels good to be welcomed...

[chrisco37]

That's a great story!!!

[bumpjay]

Thanx chrisco..again..it does feel good 2 b welcomed....I think I m getting hooked on these boards...., the story even gets better.........or worse, depending on the point of view...

I hope my participation, and / or my contribution to this thread is not off topic,

(again, I do think that Steranko is the the ultimate late silver age artist, personally, I put his run on marvel comics in general as one of the greatist of ALL TIME, and am I wrong in thinking that a great thread could be on the subject of "greatest runs" ,siver age, bronze, or whatever...? ..or has it already been done, and I missed it ?.)

As it all ended up, one of, if not THE SINGLE prize position of my own personal comicbook memorabalia is a hand typed, signed card from the man himself to me..!!!!!

( I was a starstruck pup than, and I still am !!)

Bump

[-cryptkeeper-]

Welcome bumpjay, great story, ...and yes Jim Steranko is the Best

[Aman619]

Thanx chrisco..again..it does feel good 2 b welcomed....I think I m getting hooked on these boards...., the story even gets better.........or worse, depending on the point of view...

I hope my participation, and / or my contribution to this thread is not off topic,

(again, I do think that Steranko is the the ultimate late silver age artist, personally, I put his run on marvel comics in general as one of the greatist of ALL TIME, and am I wrong in thinking that a great thread could be on the subject of "greatest runs" ,siver age, bronze, or whatever...? ..or has it already been done, and I missed it ?.)

As it all ended up, one of, if not THE SINGLE prize position of my own personal comicbook memorabalia is a hand typed, signed card from the man himself to me..!!!!!

( I was a starstruck pup than, and I still am !!)

Bump

 

I hadnt been keeping up with this long thread - - but I did today amd boy howdy am I glad I did! Great Story!! And I too love the Hendrix analogy.

 

and just to go negative for a mo--- when I keep hearing the accolades for Buscema here , I keep hearing a that great movie line: "Tattaglia was piimp! Santino coulda outfought him anytime" You can substitute the correct names yourselves!

 

 

Buscema was a great artist, nut no innovator. He had talent, but no gfreat urge to be flashy or impress. Steranko was a young man on a mission - - -and he succeeded at it. No guts, no glory.

[jimm94]

IMO, Steranko was the heir apparent to King Kirby. Although he was heavily influenced by him, he had already developed a style of his own at a young age. There were a number of other good and great artists during this era, but Steranko was greater than great.

[Marc Spector-migration]

 

I have to go with John Buscema. Steranko seems ok, but not as special as people make him out to be.

 

If you look at Buscema's art, you find great treasures from all periods of his life. From the classic 1950's stories like Hercules and Sinbad, to his powerful work on Avengers, Silver Surfer, and Sub-Mariner...the stride he hit in the 70's with Conan, Thor, and Tarzan...check out the issues he inked himself on Kazar and Conan.

 

Then his later work where his art develops and becomes looser, like on Wolverine and Punisher...still with Buscema's great strength, but now with a lighter, cartoonier look. Also his 80's run on the Avengers is praised by many fans.

 

If you look, you'll find many masterpieces in Buscema's ouvre. You'll also find consistently strong work, even on comics where he was not inspired by the writing or characters. You'll also find a busload of poor (or inappropriate) inkers who can't keep up to his top level of talent.

 

I don't think you can find a better figure artist in comics, and it would have been great if Big John could have inked more of his own pencils.

[Aman619]

no one can win this kind of discussion. As proficient, talented and busy as Buscema was , and no matter how much he may or may not have retooled his workstyles, Steranko's best covers and best pages just make the comparison like a Caddilac to a Ferrari. Caddies are great, and as much car as most people aspire to..... but they are not the top of the line. Page for page, Buscema's "average" level of work was better than Steranko, because after all, Steranko's anatomy was, well, kinda "personal" and quirky. But the best Steranko work, again far outshines the best Buscema work.

 

IMO this is just Ditko v. Romita all over again. Two artists. Two styles. Totally different fans. But in each case, theres one TRUE artiste that stood out... and one very prolific and talented professional.

[mar-vell]

Jim Steranko is absolutely incredible and some of his covers are true masterpieces(Nick Fury #1 was always my favorite!)

Adams was a tighter penciler and overall I think the Adams X-men at the twilight of the silver age are superior works! Steranko was very artsy and used colors and presentation extremely well! He really shows that there is far more to comic art than just tight pencils and occasionally when he took his time he showed the ability to draw some very tight,sharp pages as well!

 

Overall

Adams #1

Steranko #2

[bronze johnny]

I was hoping that we would get to compare Steranko and Adams. Steranko was never really afforded the opportunity to get "into" the X-men the way Adams did. I respectfully disagree that Adams' work was superior to Steranko. Most of what Steranko did in the Silver Age is Classic. The only criticism that one could have with the Steranko legacy is that he was not around long enough to leave a large corpus of comic book work. But despite this, Steranko has arguably had a greater effect on comic book art than Adams. By the way, some of my all time favorite covers include Detective #400 and Superman #233. Sorry Adams fans.

[Timulty]

Alex Toth. Enough Said.

[Aman619]

Alex Toth is God. But certainly not for everybody. But his deceptive simplicity, and masterful use of blacks is practically unique in comics history.

 

As for Steranko and Adams? Both were a sight for sore eyes when they appeeared on th escene. Each panel of Adams work was savored with each new issue ghe worked on. His covers compelled us to buy titles we had no intention of reading (Tomahawk).. Adams realistic finesse stood out above ALL other artists. He just was teh Michael Jordan of comics from 1968 until he disappeared.

 

Steranko was I dunno, Grant Hill? Penny Hardaway?? A sporadic impressive cool tall drink of water. He flitted into mainstream comics for awhile, shook it up, experimented with nearly every assignment, pushed the boundaries... Then was gone.

 

I giv ethe nod to Adams. He was the King. He was the straw that stirred the drink.

[blowout]

IMO this is just Ditko v. Romita all over again. Two artists. Two styles. Totally different fans. But in each case, theres one TRUE artiste that stood out... and one very prolific and talented professional.

 

Which is which?