Favourite comics: Dr Strange #178 - Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Roy Thomas

I first read the above Dr Strange tale in the UK Avengers weekly comic (issues 74-76) and was blown away by Colan and Palmers artwork which at the time was going from strength to strength. So when I saw an original US copy for sale at around 9 US dollars (£8 UK) during a recent holiday, I had to pick it up. The strip in colour is even better than the UK black and white version.

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The Groovy 1970's Christmas countdown: Amazing Adventures #5 - Black Widow by Colan, Everett and Thomas

As we begin the countdown to the big day, I thought I would look out some of my favourite 1970's comics which contained a Christmas story, or at least a tale that occurred in winter (basically anything with snow!). First up is "...And to all a Good Night" from Amazing Adventures #5 (1970) by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and Bill Everett. I didn't actually pick this comic up until around 1976 a year in which the UK experienced an unusually hot summer, so the winter theme of this tale may have been lost on me, but the stunning art and the Black Widow made up for that.

In 1970 when Marvel decided to launch a couple of anthology titles the Black Widow was chosen to get her own series. John Romita who was initially going to draw the feature, designed her new costume (gone were the spectacles and frumpy clothes etc) bringing her into the 1970's. As it turned out John Buscema drew the first few issues before Gene Colan took over the art chores.

In 1976 my knowledge of the Black Widow was limited to her occasional appearances in the pages of the Avengers (UK weekly) and in the Iron Man tales that were reprinted in "Spider-Man Comics Weekly". Most of these tales were drawn by Don Heck so it came as a pleasant surprise to 16-year-old me to see Gene Colan's wonderfully sexy art on Natasha showing her in the shower naked (although covered up by a strategically placed towel).

In this story a young man is about to kill himself when Ivan, the Black Widows chauffeur saves his life. It turns out the young man is mixed up with a dangerous gang led by the Astrologer who want him dead. Ivan gives the teen the Black Widows card telling him that she can help him. In the end the young man sacrifices himself to save Natasha. A rather dark tale for 1970.

To wrap up a wonderful issue was the lead "Inhumans" strip in Amazing Adventure illustrated by the great Neal Adams. Below is the cover to this excellent comic.

Next up, Spider-Man at Christmas, but not the Spidey of the comic books!

Page Turners: Gene “The Dean” Colan

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.

My Famous Firsts: Daredevil issue 87

A recent thread on the highly entertaining “Crivens” blog brought up the issue of what was the first Marvel comic that you purchased. Although I couldn’t be 100% certain on what that comic was (it may have been Sgt. Fury Annual issue 5) the question did make me ponder on the subject of what was the first issue of specific comic book titles that I purchased back in the day. The comic that immediately came to my mind as a “famous first” for me was the above issue of Daredevil (issue 87) which was released in February 1972. I still have a mental picture of seeing this comic neatly stacked along with some other titles in my local newsagents at time, around August that year. I had of course been aware of Daredevil before this day having read his adventures reprinted in various UK Alan Class comics and in the “Mighty World of Marvel” weekly comic where the characters stories appeared from February 1973 (issue 20) when he took over the pages made vacant when Spider-Man graduated to his own weekly title.

This was a great issue to be my first U.S. Daredevil comic. Not only was it the start of a new chapter for Daredevil and the Black Widow who were both relocating to a new city, but the internal art by the legendary Gene Colan was taken to new hights by the addition of Tom Palmers amazing inks (his first inks on Gene’s DD art for several issue). And of course the exciting cover by John Buscema and Frank Giacoia was a bonus.

An interesting storyline in this issue was the fact that not only had Matt and Natasha moved from New York to San Francisco they had also moved in together as a couple without actually being married. From memory this may have been the first time in a comic book that this had happened with two characters, although as noted in the page above Natasha makes it very clear that they will not (for the time being at least) be sharing a room or indeed will not even be living on the same floor of their new house.

In this story titled “From Stage Left, Enter: Electro.” after relocating to San Francisco Daredevil and the Black Widow battle Electro who himself has come to the city to make his name as a super villain on the West coast. Gaining the upper hand in the fight DD battles Electro forcing him to retreat from the fight. At the same time as the battle is in progress a man named Danny French arrives at their new house to ask for Natasha. This causes her some concern when Ivan, their driver/assistant informs her of his visit. The story of Danny French unravels over the next 4 issues where it is revealed that he and Natasha had undertaken a mission to obtain a powerful globe called Project 4.

I wouldn’t pick up another US edition of Daredevil (now titled “Daredevil and the Black Widow” ) until issue 106 around 1974 but I contented myself with reading their adventures in the weekly “Mighty World Of Marvel” comic.