Saturday Leftover Day.
When Stan Lee was forced to disband the Timely bullpen in the late forties, Gene Colan worked for a number of companies. I have shown some of his work for Quality here, as well as som eof his later work for Quality in 1955. Some posters have said that they thought his 1955 work looked to clean to have been from that period and wondered if it could not have been leftover material from the early fifties. The war stories I am showing here from St. John's Fightin' Marines shows that Colan's early solo work was even dirtier than his later work. Although it was inked by other artists (and quite badly, in some cases) it shows how much shading he was using in his work even then. He seems to have done the Leatherneck feature for all of this run of Fightin' Marines. will have a look how far that run goes and report back here. Also from #6 is a text story, that is signed in an oddly familiar name. A gag by the editor...?
6 comments:
I don't get it. Why would this be a gag by the editor? Gene Coon was a cool writer of TV scripts, like Star Trek, etc.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0177731/
But... but... with the added L it's almost an anagram for Gene Colan! You are right of course, this is an incredible find for Star Trek lovers. Honestly, did 'we' know he wrote for comics?
You are right of course, too. 'We' did not know he wrote for comics. And the idea of an anagram escaped me. 'Live colan and prosper'.
Ouch!
So many writers in the fifties were unknown. It is great to have a new name. Although this is six years before his offical first tv credit and he signs it as a sergeant - which means it could have been a special piece not by a comics writer which he did while he was in the army.
Dunno or understand the wrong name in post heading but that's not why I write.
Ger, you mention Colan's early dirtiness. Decades ago, Marvel reprinted a story from the late 40s, maaayybe the first story where Colan inked himself. Talk about dirty: he either had no idea how the drawn art would look when reduced and printed or he simply didn't care. What showed in print was an awful, dark, well, dirty, mess. You could see the talent but you had to look hard. I'd also note, albeit from feeble recollection, that almost from the get-go, Colan was establishing a style. Compare that to a Gil Kane, an Infantino, a Kubert, who took years, if not decades to establish clear styles. (OTOH, Buscema had his style almost immediately, hardly changed, just refined it to the end.)
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