Written by Gil Kane, Roy Thomas, Various
Art by Gil Kane, P. Craig Russell, Various
Introduction by Jon B. Cooke
Edited by Dr. Michael Dean
Published by Fantagraphics Books
Gil Kane was an early favorite comic book artist for me back in 1966, with his ultra-smooth and stylish work month after month on The Atom and Green Lantern for DC. In fact, the very first letter I ever wrote to a comic book was to Green Lantern praising both the art and the writing. I had to dictate it to my mom, who wrote it on a postcard and mailed it for me. It wasn’t published.
It wasn’t long after that when Kane turned up, also, at Marvel Comics, drawing both the Incredible Hulk and Captain America. These strips were also smooth and stylish but seemed somehow different that his beloved DC work.
Many years later, I learned that for Marvel he was instructed to draw more like Jack Kirby, because everyone knew that Kirby (and Steve Ditko) had led to the triumphant rebirth of Martin Goodman’s aging comic book department.
Somebody must not have cared for Kane at Marvel though because he was soon back at DC doing strips like Teen Titans and Robin, the Teen Wonder. As much as it seems to me now like this was a long tenure, in reality, Marvel invited him back in whereupon he began penciling the company’s number one title—Amazing Spider-Man.
Apparently a fast artist, Kane’s work began to turn up in various other titles, too, but mainly he became THE cover artist for Marvel Comics in the 1970s. That’s not to say that he drew all the company’s covers but I’d be surprised if there were many titles where he didn’t get at least one in.
Fantagraphics, continuing its “Lost Marvels” series, now brings us Volume 4, entitled Gil Kane Rarities Vol. 1 Jungle Book, Ka-Zar, Gullivar and Other Rediscovered Work. So Volume 4, Volume 1. Got it.
I also have to question a book highlighting as much Ka-Zar as this book does coming literally on the heels of Fantagraphics’ recent Barry Windsor-Smith collection, which highlighted HIS early Ka-Zar work. I mean, no offense to Lord Plunder, but was the Tarzan variant Ka-Zar ever really all that popular?
I should point out here that Kane’s work for the self-proclaimed House of Ideas this time around lost its smoothness. As the artist became more and more of a stickler of anatomy, both human and non-human, his pencils became more detailed, scratchier, and, I’m told, at one point he began using markers instead of brushes or pens just to increase his speed.
To me, then, his best Marvel work that time around depended on who inked his pencils. Some inkers were extremely good, making Kane’s always-superior compositions jump out. (I know Gil was also using others to rough out covers for him sometimes, again to save time).
This volume opens with a lengthy, well-written excerpt from an as yet unpublished biography of the artist by Jon B. Cooke (who, in the interest of full disclosure, is my editor at Comic Book Creator).
There follows the introductory episodes of Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars (another Burroughs knock-off, this time of ERB’s John Carter), as well as later covers for that short-lived series in Creatures on the Loose. The two stories are inked by, respectively, Bill Everett and Sam Grainger. Both serve to smooth his new style out a bit, while maintaining his dynamism.
Then 36 pages of Mowgli, the Wolf-Boy of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories (and the classic Disney cartoon) follow. Adapted by Roy Thomas, these originally appeared back in the early ‘80s in the pages of Marvel Fanfare. The great P. Craig Russell is on inks here, giving Kane’s work an entirely new, modern-looking feel. It doesn’t always work but the many animals in the strip look fantastic.
While we’re still in the jungle, we get 55 straight pages of Ka-Zar—covers and stories—from the previous decade. Veteran inker Frank Giacoia keeps it all on target for one but the unpredictable (he should have been a bigger comics star!) Tom Sutton seems to have trouble with Gil’s sometimes messy-looking faces, with all their lines and creases and shadows. Kane and Sutton manage to work well together on hair, giving Ka-Zar and a female character almost Wallace Wood-style hair.
The best part of the book is next and that’s nearly 80 pages of Gil Kane covers for Marvel! There are a few from Sub-Mariner and Tomb of Dracula but in keeping with the “lost” theme, many of these are for lesser known issues of westerns or monster reprint titles like Where Monsters Dwell. As before, the compositions are always interesting, but it’s Gil’s inkers who make or break him in my opinion. For the covers, those include some fantastic choices like Tom Palmer (who could make anyone look better!), John Romita, Klaus Janson, Dan Adkins, John Severin, and even Kane himself. The book doesn’t name the inkers but to longtime comics fans, some of these are obvious (but I double-checked GCD anyway).
I saw Gil Kane in person once at a convention in 1988. He was tall, lanky, and looked just like he had been drawn by Gil Kane. I may not have been the biggest fan of his later Marvel work but man, those covers sure were fun to peruse, and it all does deserve to be in print.
Booksteve recommends.
