Writing about Jorge Longaron and the glamourous styles of the seventies, I had a reason to look at Alex Kotzky's Apartment 3G again. Althoug I am a big fan of Kotzky's work, I never really waremed to his glamourous soap opera strip. I have shown a lot of Sunday pages, because they are beautifully drawn. Here are the first few weeks of the daily version. Aain, you can see how very well drawn it is. The story is very well done as well. If a book wa done, I might actually be able to get into this strip.
What I notice is how well designed the strip is. Even though KOtzky was a contemporary of Alex Toth, his style seems to absolute opposite to Toths in the sixties, who seems to have go simpler and simpler. Kotzky's stri is far from that, but it read just as well. This probably is due to his superb draftmanship as a character artist. Often seen as a photorealist, I wonder if he is. Lifelike as the movement of his characters are, there is a destinct design element to them as well.
4 comments:
How glorious Kotzky's art was! Especially in stark contrast to the mess A3G is now! The art has really taken a turn for the worse in the past year. Frank Bolle is 90 or so, and the syndicate apparently won't supply him with any assistants or ghosts. The scripts by Margaret Shulock (one of the "Six Chix") aren't much better, with the dailies consisting of only two panels much of the time.
Has A3G ever been collected? I bought a Sunday in the early nineties - gorgeous stuff. Left me wanting more. (Since when I got hold of a tryout strip).
As far as I know, there was never a collection and it may be too late now. So I am filling the void.
By the way, Tim. Is that a try-out strip for 3G? Would you care to share that with the world?
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