Month: August 2019

Hot Streak: Nick Cardy’s Aquaman

gasp6513 Comments

« Who’s Aquaman? I never heard of him! »
« He’s one of the super-beings from the place called Earth! He lives at the bottom of the ocean! » —  Steev & Jimm, rubberneckin’ in Aquaman no. 51

Some may have wondered at the deep, abiding affection held, by a certain savvy contingent of comics aficionados, for sea king Aquaman. After all, he’s a bit of a second-stringer, and he’s had a pretty spotty record for decades. Well, I’d say one has to have encountered the erstwhile Arthur Curry at his peak, in the hands of the Stephen Skeates, (writer) Jim Aparo (penciller-inker-letterer), Dick Giordano (editor-poacher), Nick Cardy (cover artist), Carmine Infantino (editor-in-chief/art director), Jack Adler (colourist) and Gaspar Saladino (cover letterer) set.

Fond as I am of Nick Cardy and Ramona Fradon‘s work, the series’ Skeates-Aparo period is more my speed. I can’t quite put my finger on it. There’s a whiff of the end of the world, something ominous and immediate about it, despite the fanciful settings. I guess it was « relevance », but with a lighter touch and without the cringe-inducing bathos of the concurrent Green Lantern-Green Arrow series. Because of Aquaman’s aquatic nature, environmental doom seldom seems far. The Skeates-Aparo rampage lasted from issue 40 (June 1968) to number 56 (April 1971). Aparo returned to the character just a few years down the road (Adventure Comics no. 441, Sept. 1975), but by then, he’d already begun his long, painful artistic deterioration.

WhoThereLogotype

But back to the covers: this represents, in my view, Cardy’s second hot streak on this title. From the beginning of his career (in 1940 with the Iger/Eisner shop!) Cardy had always been a reliably competent artist, but rarely a very exciting one. That all changed in the mid-Sixties when newly minted art director/editor-in-chief Carmine Infantino made him his right-hand man and co-designer of DC’s covers. This greater latitude gave Cardy wings. Cardy’s first Aquaman hot streak opens on issue 37 (Jan.-Feb. 1968) and closes with issue 45 (May-June 1969). Issues 46 to 48 are nice enough, but short of transcendence… beyond that bump in the road, we’re set for a smooth run of splendid covers.

CardyAquaman49A
This is Aquaman no. 49 (Jan.-Feb. 1970). Cover pencils and inks by Cardy, colours by Jack Adler, Aquaman logo by Ira Schnapp, title lettering by his worthy successor, Gaspar Saladino. Edited by Dick Giordano, directed (and likely laid out) by Infantino.
CardyAquaman50A
This is Aquaman no. 50 (Mar.-Apr. 1970), sporting a Cardy cover that couldn’t have been more evidently designed by Carmine Infantino, with more Saladino magic on the titles and Deadman logo. Gestalt: it’s what great collaboration is all about! It seems fair to assume that the title is a nod to the Harlan Ellison-scripted 1967 Star Trek episode, The City on the Edge of Forever.
CardyAquaman51A
This is Aquaman no. 51 (May.-June 1970). I don’t usually pilfer Tentacle Tuesday material… but I’m inclined to make an exception for a (sea) worthy cause. Design-wise, Infantino and Cardy took full advantage of the aquatic action settings. Up, down, sideways — anything goes!
CardyAquaman52A
This is Aquaman no. 52 (July-Aug. 1970). A wistful, disorienting experiment in colour and design economy. You’d never see such a *hushed* cover chez Marvel.
CardyAquaman53A
This is Aquaman no. 53 (Sept.-Oct. 1970). A fine instance of the notorious “Infantino tilt”. Michael Kaluta on Infantino’s cover design input: « My approach to a cover, when I got to do my own ideas, was to show the picture straight on, staged, unless it was a dramatic perspective view. Almost every time I’d bring one of these sketches in to Carmine he’d turn the paper about 30 degrees to the right and demand that that made the composition 100% stronger, more “grabby”… and I’d have to agree about 50% of the time… »
CardyAquaman54A
This is Aquaman no. 54 (Nov.-Dec. 1970). Did I mention that DC’s books of the early ’70s had a general predilection for the macabre and the moody? Fine by me, then and now.
CardyAquaman55A
This is Aquaman no. 55 (Jan.-Feb. 1971). The fact that this complex idea works so well on the page is evidence of some first-rate design work, with some heady colouring mojo sealing the deal.
CardyAquaman56A
This is Aquaman no. 56 (Mar.-Apr. 1971). Would you believe that this story was continued over three years later in Marvel’s Sub-Mariner no. 72 (Sept. 1974). Seems sneaky Steve Skeates slipped something past sleepy editor Roy Thomas. In an interesting bit of coincidence, it was each of the competing oceanic monarchs’ final issue. On another note, I presume that the title is a takeoff on Norman Greenbaum‘s 1967 song The Eggplant That Ate Chicago (popularized by Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band), itself likely an homage to Arch Oboler‘s infamous 1937 Lights Out radio episode, The Chicken Heart (That Ate the World). Phew!

Under normal circumstances, this run of covers would have turned out quite differently for, as Steve Skeates told me a few years ago, « The only reason Jim [Aparo] didn’t do the covers was that he lived out of town, couldn’t come in for cover conferences! »

-RG

Tentacle Tuesday: Dark Horse, Pt. 1

redscraper4 Comments

Today’s Tentacle Tuesday is dedicated to Dark Horse Comics, one of the largest independent comic companies (the third largest, period, after Marvel and DC – at least according to their website). That being said, I’m not a huge dusky stallion fan – one of my gripes is that this publisher tends to reprint older comics (like the Harvey Comics Treasuries) on inappropriately glossy paper, as well as ramp up the contrast on the art until the background is so dazzlingly white you could probably blind yourself with it. On the other hand, a lot of mangas translated to English are published by their imprint, Dark Horse Manga – I am profoundly grateful for What’s Michael?, for instance (even though it’s not the first thing that comes to mind, manga-wise).

Throughout DH’s run (it was formed in 1986), it has housed the work of quite a few influential artists and writers, as well as published many long-running and award-winning series. Overall, this publishing house is a force to be reckoned with… and a lot of their pet series (like Hellboy) have tentacles galore. Shall we take a look-see?

Ragemoor#2-JanStrnad-RichardCorben
Ragemoor no. 3 (May 2012), cover by Richard Corben.

I’ll get around to reading Dept. H one of these days, but in the meantime, some tentacles from this suspenseful (or so say the reviews!) deep-sea who-dunnit:

DarkHorseDept.+H+hardcover+v1
Dept. H no.1 (April 2016), cover by Matt Kindt.
DeptH7
Dept. H no. 7 (October 2016), cover by Matt Kindt, colours by Sharlene Kindt.
DarkHorseBlack Hammer Justice League#1
Black Hammer / Justice League no. 1 (July 2019), a variant cover by Yuko Shimizu.

I mentioned Hellboy earlier – speaking of that, unsurprisingly, a large chunk of today’s post features covers from this ever popular series. But am I going to show you regular covers? Naah, too obvious.

«Dark Horse Comics printed a precious few blank covers on the landmark Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1952 #1, and the Hero Initiative commissioned 100+ top artists to do an original drawing on each cover. Presented here is the gallery of ALL 109 original covers!» (See them here.)

I picked a few that I liked, but make sure you click on that link because about three quarters of those commissioned covers are awash in tentacles. Now that’s what I call good, nay, great commission art!

HellboyandtheBPRD1952-ChrisIvy
Cover by Chris Ivy. Chosen because despite the abundance of all manner of creatures, the eye is automatically drawn to the Cthulhian horror that’s politely waiting its turn for devouring and whatnot.
HellboyandtheBPRD1952_lanagan_walter
Cover by Walter Flanagan. They’re somewhat, shall we say, timid tentacles, but that’s what I like about ’em.
HellboyandtheBPRD1952_glendenning_ben
Cover by Ben Glendenning. Chosen because of the WTF factor of a creature with a dozen scaly, plant-like tentacle-arms.
HellboyandtheBPRD1952__crain_clayton
Cover by Clayton Crain. Probably the most gruesome cover of today’s post, included for the blood and entrails and disquieting albino-ness of it all.
HellboyandtheBPRD1952__allison_grace
Cover by Allison Grace. I hope that cigarette isn’t implying anything… untoward has happened.

And a last cover, just to leave you on a quiet, peaceful note…

AliensDefiance-no6- October2016
Aliens: Defiance no. 6 (October 2016).

This is, by no means, an exhaustive list – stay tuned for a Part 2, coming to your computer and cellphone screens sometime soon (when you least expect it!)

~ ds