When I first ran across Apartment 3G I didn't much care for it. But now that I have come to know the work and the career of alex Kotzky, I can appreciate his expertise as a storyteller and his lifelike figures. I still do not particulary like the storylines and all the pretty people and I don't really care for that sixties trend of the ilustratative artists towards a fashion illustration slickness (which resulted in the seventies boom of Spanish and Porto Rican artsts, who took fashion art slickness to a whole new and to me unappealing level). The figurees, the posing and the camera work place Alex Kotzky among the greats of the genre.
3 comments:
This is another artist who like Stan Drake used a camera for the character poses and street scenes. Ever since the Polaroid gave instant pictures, lots of artists starting using them.
By the way, who are the Porto-Rican artists you're talking about? There's only one I know, and that's Angelo Torres, who as far as I know, didn't do any strips. And the only Spanish artist who drew an Amnerican syndicated strip was Jordi Longaron (Salinas, the other hispanic artist, was from Argentina).
I think you're confusing the American daily strips with the British ones that, indeed, had many Spanish artists, but are totally unknown in America.
The boom of Spanish artsists was in the American horror magazines, and they were followed by the Filippino artists afterwards, who also did superhero comics unlike the Spaniards..
You are right, I meant Filippino artists, who cold draw very well but were often working in a style to was to fussy for me. The worst example for me is the Spanish artist Estaban Maroto. Again, a very good artsit, but the style itself exemplifies everything I didn't like about realistic artists in the sixties and seventies. Rudy Nebres is another one. Very good, but not for me. it got even worse when Neal Adams started using Nebres as an inker and took that over as his own style. I like my soap opera artists solid, like Lou Fine on Adam Ames.
Kotzky's work is heart-breakingly beautiful.
I find the last strip to be fascinating for another reason. Is that what men did in the '60s--invite young women over to listen to a "new record" by Mozart?
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