Gene Colan
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Gene Colan (born September 1, 1926, the Bronx, New York City, New York) is an American comic book artist who sometimes worked under the name Adam Austin. Best known as one of the signature artists of the Marvel Comics superhero Daredevil, its cult-hit series Howard the Duck, and Marvel's Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series, he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2005.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
Gene Colan attended George Washington High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, and went on to study at the Art Students League of New York. His major art influences are Syd Shores, Coulton Waugh, and Milton Caniff.
Colan served in the Army Air Corps Special Services division in the Philippines during World War II, rising to the rank of corporal and drawing for the Manila Times. After his return in 1944, he began working in comics, illustrating Fiction House's science-fiction adventure series Wings Comics.
In 1946, he went to work for Marvel Comics 1940s precursor, (Timely. Editor-in-chief Stan Lee "hired me as a staff penciler," Colan recalled in 2005. "...Stan was able to see something that needed to be nurtured, so he took a chance on me. I started out at about US$60 a week. ... Syd Shores was the art director[1]
After virtually all the Timely staff was let go two years later during an industry downturn, Colan began freelancing for National Comics, the future DC Comics. A stickler for accuracy, he meticulously researched his countless war stories for DC's All-American Men at War, Captain Storm, and Our Army at War, as well as for Marvel's 1950s forerunner Atlas Comics, on the series Battle, Battle Action Battle Ground, Battlefront, G.I. Tales, Marines in Battle, Navy Combat and Navy Tales. He would rent 16 mm movies of Hopalong Cassidy Westerns in order to trace likenesses for the DC licensed series, which he drew from 1954 to 1957.
[edit] Silver Age
While freelancing for DC romance comics in the 1960s, Colan did his first superhero work for Marvel under the pseudonym Adam Austin. Taking to the form immediately, he introduced the "Sub-Mariner" feature in Tales to Astonish, and succeeded Don Heck on "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense.
Shortly afterward, under his own name, Colan became one of the premier Silver Age Marvel artists, illustrating a host of such major characters as the Avengers, Captain America, Dr. Strange (both in the late-'60s and the mid-'70s series), and his signature character, Daredevil. Colan's long run on the series Daredevil encompassed all but three issues in an otherwise unbroken, 81-issue string from #20-100 (Sept. 1966 - June 1973), plus the initial Daredevil Annual (1967). He returned to draw ten issues sprinkled from 1974-79, and, as an established legend, an eight-issue run in 1997.
Colan also garnered praise in the 1970s for illustrating the complete, 70-issue run of the acclaimed horror title Tomb of Dracula, as well as most issues of writer Steve Gerber's cult-hit, Howard the Duck.
[edit] Dracula and Batman
Back at DC in the 1980s, following a professional falling out[citation needed] with Marvel's then editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, Colan brought his shadowy, moody textures to Batman, serving as the Dark Knight's primary artist from 1982-1986, penciling Detective Comics #528-538, 540-546 and 555-567, and Batman #340, 343-345, 348-351 and others. He was also the artist of Wonder Woman from #288-305 (Feb. 1982 - July 1983). Helping to create new characters as well, Colan collaborated in the '80s with Tomb of Dracula writer Marv Wolfman on the 14-issue run of Night Force; with Cary Bates on the 12-issue run of Silverblade; and with Greg Potter on the 12-issue run of Jemm, Son of Saturn. As well, he drew the first six issues of Doug Moench's 1987 revival of The Spectre.
Colan's style, characterized by fluid figure drawing and extensive use of shadow, was unusual among Silver Age comic artists and became more so as his career progressed. He usually worked as a penciller, with Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer as his most frequent inkers. Colan broke from the mass-market comic book penciller/inker/colorist assembly-line system by creating finished drawings in graphite and watercolor. Notable examples include the DC Comics miniseries Nathaniel Dusk (1984) and Nathaniel Dusk II (1985-86), and the feature "Ragamuffins" in the Eclipse Comics umbrella series Eclipse #3, 5, & 8 (1981-83). All these were written by frequent collaborator Don McGregor.
Independent-comics work includes the miniseries Predator: Hell & Hot Water for Dark Horse Comics; and the Eclipse graphic novel Detectives Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams (1985), written by McGregor and reprinted in sepia tone as an Eclipse miniseries in 1987. He contributed to Archie Comics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, drawing and occasionally writing a number of stories. His work there included penciling the lighthearted science-fiction series Jughead's Time Police #1-6 (July 1990 - May 1991), and the 1990 one-shot To Riverdale and Back Again, an adaptation of the NBC TV movie about the Archie characters 20 years later, airing May 6, 1990; Stan Goldberg and Mike Esposito drew the parts featuring the characters in flashback as teens, while Colan drew adult characters, in a less cartoony style. In the 2000s, Colan returned to vampires by drawing a pair of stories for Dark Horse Comics' Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.
[edit] Later life and career
Colan and second-wife[2] Adrienne moved from New York City to Vermont late in life. At various points he has taught at Manhattan's School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology, and had showings at the Bess Cutler Gallery in New York City and at the Elm Street Arts Gallery in Manchester, Vermont.
[edit] Awards
In addition to his 2005 induction into the comics industry's Will Eisner Hall of Fame, Colan was nominated for the Shazam Award for Best Penciller (Dramatic Division) in 1974.
[edit] Critical assessment
Comics historians and critics have written that the shadowy depth of Colan's art makes it particularly well-suited for black-and-white reproduction, as in his stories for the Warren Publishing magazines Eerie and Blazing Combat in the 1960s and Marvel's Dracula Lives!, Hulk, The Savage Sword of Conan, and Savage Tales magazines in the 1970s. This is also evident in the black-and-white, trade paperback collections of his acclaimed '70s horror series Tomb of Dracula.
[edit] Audio
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Gene Colan official site
- Field, Tom, Secrets in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005) ISBN 1-893905-45-4
- Comic Book Artist #13 (May 2001): Gene Colan interview
- Interview with Gene Colan at SlayerLit
- The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
- Atlas Tales
- The Grand Comic-Book Database
