Gene Colan’s (1926-2011) career in comics started back in 1944 when he began working for the US publisher Fiction House before moving onto Dell, Charlton, Quality and others. Three years later in 1947, he was hired by Stan Lee at Timely (now Marvel of course) before heading over to DC. Fast forward to the 1960’s and Gene was once again contacted by Stan Lee to work for his new Marvel comics company on the Sub Mariner and Iron Man titles. However, as Colan was concerned about the longevity of this new company he also continued to work for DC and signed his name on his early Marvel work as Adam Austin, a rather futile action as his style is so distinctive that anyone at DC would have known it was Gene Colan. Of course Marvel was a success and Gene started to sign his full name when he began working on Doctor Strange and Captain America. In 1966 he began a 7 year stint on Daredevil and the rest is the stuff of comic book history.
I first became aware of Gene Colan’s art when I saw the above advert in a Marvel comic for various artists profile protflios in 1970. Later that year I picked up Captain America issue 121, “The coming of the Man Brute!” (dated January 1970) my first Captain America and Gene Colan comic (which I will bore you all about later). I have been a fan of his work ever since. Below are some of my favourite Gene Colan pages:
Stan Lee considered Gene Colan's style to be so distintive that he was the only artists that Stan did not ask to draw in the Jack Kirby style. Of course that would have been silly Jack's art was all about shapes and power and Gene's art was about shadows and cinematic expression which can be seen in the above stunning splash pages from Daredevil (issues 90 and 93).
Captain America issue 116.
The Avengers issue 59.
Marvel Spotlight isssue 19
Doctor Strange (Vol 1) issue 38
Tomb of Dracula issue 30 - below Howard the Duck (magazine) issue 2
Although Colan was best known for his long run on Daredevil, his most critically acclaimed work came in the 1970's when he was assigned the Tomb of Dracula title (where he co-created Blade, the vampire slayer with Marv Wolfman). Later in 1976 he started work on Howard the Duck taking over from the excellent Frank Brunner with issue 4. Initially Colan was reported as saying that he felt he had been demoted to working on a “funny animal" comic, but he soon began to understand this was a different type of comic and relished and excelled at humour.
Monsters Unleashed issue 1
In 1981, feeling unable to work under Jim Shooter Gene moved to DC where he was assigned some of their top characters including Batman (see splash page from Detective Comics issue 517 at heading) Wonder Woman, Superman, the Spectre and various mini series and one off titles (Legion of Super Heroes Vol 2 isssue 311 above). Sadly at this time I wasn't reading or buying many US DC or Marvel comics so I missed a lot of Colan's work at DC only picking a few of these titles in the last few years.
Finally, one of my favourite US humour pages from “ Not Brand Echh” issue 4 showing Gene's humour take on the Avengers.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
Gene Colan looms large in my memory. No one drew like him, and few even tried. His worldview was distinctive. I sometimes forget how much of the Marvel Universe he drew, but your post made me remember. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteUnlike some artists Colans style never aged it always looked fresh and modern to me.
ReplyDeleteGene Colan was the only artist on the entire run of Tomb Of Dracula and I can't imagine anybody else drawing that book. I was mostly a Marvel fan but around 1982/83 I got interested in DC and I had a couple of issues of Wonder Woman drawn by Colan.
ReplyDeleteTomb of Dracula is still my favourite horror comic of all time, totally because of Colans art. There were a few artists that drew Dracula in the US monthly Dracula lives that did good jobs like Neal Adams and Frank Robbins but Marvels Dracula (and Daredevil)will always be Colans ( and Marv Wolfman) version for me. Colan did a good horror comic at DC called Night Force you might enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI always loved Gene Colan’s work back in the 70s. His name was synonymous with Daredevil, and I sought out as many of Colan's back issues as I could find. I yearned for the day when he might try his hand at Batman once it became clear that Neal Adams was not going to return to comics at DC.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Colan’s work on the UK weekly Tomb of Dracula, and also his B&W work published in Marvel’s Unknown worlds of Science Fiction, drawing the framing stories inspired by Bob Shaw’s “slow glass” concept.
Of course, this week's passing of longtime Colan inker Tom Palmer has made me search out a few examples of his work on Gene’s pencils. Colan and Palmer went together like Adams and Giordano.
Very sad news about Tom Palmer, certainly one of the best inkers ever. His work on Colan's DD and Dracula in particular was amazing ( and on Neal Adams Avengers of course). We were lucky enough to see Colan's work from the start in the UK Marvel weeklies and watch it develop although he was pretty excellent from the start. As I noted I missed most of Genes work at DC especially Batman but I have picked up a few issue recently ( the last 5 years) and they are as expected top class. I did but his Night Force comic at the time and thought that was one of the best mainstream co.if series at the time.
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