Who was "The Greatest Golden Age Artist" in comics?

[Forbush-Man]

That last cover is . Whoever sold you that must have been an

 

I liked them all.....a total "drool-fest".

[Weird Paper]

That last cover is . Whoever sold you that must have been an

 

Call me crazy, but I kinda like the 6 better. I mean, whoever sold that one to him must have been out of his mind.

[jbcomicbox]

If you have a copy of Wonderworld 10 (or go to my gallery)....who but Lou Fine would spend time draping the Flame's cloak over his arm so it would not get wet....

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece...at=0&UCat=0

 

I like those three Kane covers, iconic images....and what others?

 

I think the Everett Heroic covers are greatly underapprecitated....like the #4

 

hey that is what comics are all about --- a genre, an artist for everyone's particular tastes

 

 

[adamstrange]

That last cover is . Whoever sold you that must have been an

 

Call me crazy, but I kinda like the 6 better. I mean, whoever sold that one to him must have been out of his mind.

 

Bill has a host of s looking out for him.

[ciorac]

That last cover is . Whoever sold you that must have been an

 

He certainly was! (is!)

[Koko]

No criteria has been set, so this thing is all over the boards.

 

We could have quite a thread just on this topic

 

I think you offer up an excellent set of criteria and I can see why you end up with Kirby, though I'm thinking he did far too little inking of his own work for my taste. I know you a Kirby expert so I'm wondering if you have any idea how much of his work he inked. 20% 40% 60%?

 

Also, I'm curious as to why you removed Everett from the list. He created a major character in the Sub-Mariner and was handling considerable variety of material over the 38-55 time period.

 

Kirby's inks vary from period to period. He inked all of his syndicated work in the '30s. Most of the comics before he met Simon, spotty inks at Timely, ditto National, more at Harvey, and tons of stuff at Crestwood.

Everett was a tough cut. Yes, Subby is an icon, and Bill worked all over, but lack of numerous covers and high profile assignments cost him points.

Regards,

Greg Theakston

[Koko]

Jon,

GREAT Fine gallery. Though I believe the Ray v. Rat splash is Kotzky.

Regards,

GT

[AtlasT]

Subby is an icon, and Bill worked all over, but lack of numerous covers

 

What does "lack of numerous covers" mean? Do you mean to say that Everett didn't do many covers?

 

Bill Everett??

[adamstrange]

No criteria has been set, so this thing is all over the boards.

 

We could have quite a thread just on this topic

 

I think you offer up an excellent set of criteria and I can see why you end up with Kirby, though I'm thinking he did far too little inking of his own work for my taste. I know you a Kirby expert so I'm wondering if you have any idea how much of his work he inked. 20% 40% 60%?

 

Also, I'm curious as to why you removed Everett from the list. He created a major character in the Sub-Mariner and was handling considerable variety of material over the 38-55 time period.

 

Kirby's inks vary from period to period. He inked all of his syndicated work in the '30s. Most of the comics before he met Simon, spotty inks at Timely, ditto National, more at Harvey, and tons of stuff at Crestwood.

Everett was a tough cut. Yes, Subby is an icon, and Bill worked all over, but lack of numerous covers and high profile assignments cost him points.

Regards,

Greg Theakston

 

Thanks for the reply -- it matched my general impression of when he was doing his own inking.

[adamstrange]

Subby is an icon, and Bill worked all over, but lack of numerous covers

 

What does "lack of numerous covers" mean? Do you mean to say that Everett didn't do many covers?

 

Bill Everett??

 

If GA includes 38 - 55 then Everett would have done a couple hundred covers. Do you have any idea of how many?

[AtlasT]

I don't have a count, but I'd guess that 200 is a ballpark figure. I wonder if he's counting only super-hero covers?

[innocuous]

If you have a copy of Wonderworld 10 (or go to my gallery)....who but Lou Fine would spend time draping the Flame's cloak over his arm so it would not get wet....

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece...at=0&UCat=0

 

I like those three Kane covers, iconic images....and what others?

 

I think the Everett Heroic covers are greatly underapprecitated....like the #4

 

hey that is what comics are all about --- a genre, an artist for everyone's particular tastes

 

 

Thanks for the link. For me, GA art is mostly about the cover art. Primarily because I'm new at collecting GA and the only basis I have for evaluating the art are the covers I see online and in my Gerber guides.

 

So, without giving any preference, seeing the shots of interior and orginal art really broaden my view of GA art.

[adamstrange]

I don't have a count, but I'd guess that 200 is a ballpark figure. I wonder if he's counting only super-hero covers?

 

Everett did not do many super-hero covers for Timely as those pretty much went to Schomburg. But he was doing super-hero for Victory, Heroic, Target in addition a number of non-super hero covers for Centaur.

[rjpb]

IMHO Everett really didn't reach his stride until the 1950s.

His earlier stuff, while fairly good, doesn't really impress me the way his pre-code work does, horror and otherwise.

 

Did he ink his own material then - I would guess yes, as when he inked others in the 1960s, the art had an unmistakably Everett look to it.

[AtlasT]

Before I miss my cue...

 

 

[AtlasT]

IMHO Everett really didn't reach his stride until the 1950s.

 

I think you are dead-on with your appraisal. While I enjoy almost all of Everett's work, his Atlas horror work, especially his covers, show him at the top of his form.

 

[Weird Paper]

Before I miss my cue...

 

 

Look, Bill... a high-grade 5... a high-grade 5...

 

(there should be a devil-on-the-shoulder graemlin for this instance)

[adamstrange]

IMHO Everett really didn't reach his stride until the 1950s.

His earlier stuff, while fairly good, doesn't really impress me the way his pre-code work does, horror and otherwise.

 

Did he ink his own material then - I would guess yes, as when he inked others in the 1960s, the art had an unmistakably Everett look to it.

 

The only material that I've heard he might not have inked is some of his Timely pages -- but I know that some of his earliest Timely is 100% pure Everett as is his post WWII stuff. Regarding reaching his peak in the 50s, I'm not so sure about that. His Centaur work is different but equally beautiful -- check out the Amazing Mystery Funnies covers. The duo-tone work for on the first couple Sub-mariner stories is dreamy and entirely unique in style for that time.

[adamstrange]

IMHO Everett really didn't reach his stride until the 1950s.

 

I think you are dead-on with your appraisal. While I enjoy almost all of Everett's work, his Atlas horror work, especially his covers, show him at the top of his form.

 

I might have chosen a different Astonishing but even with that would point out how beautiful the work is on the two vehicles on the "lesser" Herioc 5 cover. Those vehicles are not faked or hacked out quickly, and, even if they are swiped from photo-reference, they are beautifully rendered.

 

[Theagenes]

While you extoling the virtues of Mr. Kane for this cover, open the book and compare his gorilla rendering to Lou Fine's cover to Wonder 2. Must have had good tracing paper back then. While out of comics by 1942, ask people like Murphy Anderson and, in the past, Gil Kane what artist influenced them.

 

In fairness though, as several people pointed out in the "Gorilla Thread" it is likely that Fine was swiping one of Foster's apes for the Wonder 2 cover. I haven't been able to find the exact source ape, but if you compare the Wonder 2 and Tec 31 gorillas with some of Foster's apes and gorillas, it does look like Foster was probable the original source for both.

 

Kane gorilla:

 

 

 

Fine gorilla:

 

 

 

Some random Foster gorillas in profile:

 

 

Not that there's any shame in swiping Foster - everybody swiped Foster. Even Frazetta swiped Foster. But it does make you wonder - if everybody swiped Foster, then who did Foster swipe?

 

Okay, I guess I let slip who my favorite GA artist is.......jon

 

I guess I just did too.