Syd Shores

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Syd Shores (born 1913, died June 3, 1973) was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and career 1.2 Golden Age of comics 1.3 Post-war career 1.4 Silver Age of comics 2 Quotes 3 Shores Golden Age reprints 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Shores was educated at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, where he met his wife-to-be, Selma. After working seven years at his uncle's whiskey bottling plant until it closed down in 1940, he became an assistant at the quirkily named Harry "A" Chesler's studio, under comics artists Mac Raboy and Phil Sturm. "For months I was just a joe-boy, watching and learning and helping wherever I could. I studied Mac Raboy for hours on end — he was slow and meticulous about everything, doing maybe only a single panel of artwork a day, but it was truly beautiful work. After four months I tried my own hand at work, doing a seven-page piece called 'The Terror'. I was proud of it then, of course, but in looking back it really was a terror!"^[1]

"The Terror" still held enough promise that it saw print in Mystic Comics #5 (March 1941) from Timely Comics, the 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics, and went on to make other appearances. Timely editor Joe Simon hired Shores as the fledgling company's third employee.

[edit] Golden Age of comics

Shores initially worked as an inker, embellishing some of the earliest pencil work of industry legend Jack Kirby, including the covers of the Simon & Kirby-created Captain America Comics #2, 5-7 in 1941.^[2] Decades later, Shores would return to ink Kirby when the character once more received a full-length title, Captain America — starting with the premiere issue (#100, April 1968, continuing the numbering from Tales of Suspense, a split book shared with Iron Man) and continuing through seven of the first 10.

Shores also inked two of Kirby's Golden Age Vision stories, in Marvel Mystery Comics #21-22 (July-Aug. 1941); all three Cap stories in Captain America Comics # 7 (Oct. 1941); and the cover and splash page of Young Allies #1 (July 1941).

After the Simon & Kirby team moved on following Captain America Comics #10 (Jan. 1942), Shores and Al Avison became regular pencilers of the hit title, with one generally inking over the other. Shores took over as regular penciller, inked by Vince Alascia, while Avison did his World War II military service. Shores also penciled stories of the Vision and the Patriot in Marvel Mystery Comics, Major Liberty in USA Comics, and the Captain America portions of the All-Winners Squad stories in the (unhyphenated) All Winners Comics #19 and 21 (Fall and Winter 1946; there was no issue #20).

Shores was inducted into the U.S. Army in early 1944, seeing action as part of General Patton's Third Army in France and Germany, and receiving a Purple Heart for being wounded in France on 16 December 1944. After four months at a convalescent hospital in Warwick, England, he was reassigned to an engineering outfit and became part of the occupation forces in Germany.

[edit] Post-war career

After his military discharge in Jan. 1946, Shores returned to Timely as art director. Future Comic Book Hall of Famer Gene Colan, a Marvel mainstay from 1946 on, described Shores during this time as "a very quiet man. He would come in with a kind of very slow walk, with a cup of morning coffee in one of these spiral cups and a cigarette in the other. Big smoker. He would say hello to everybody very quietly, and sit down. He'd been in the war in Germany, and sometimes I'd try to feel him out about it. He never wanted to talk about it. Very quiet fellow, but a sweet, sweet guy, and very helpful; very unassuming".^[3]

At post-war Timely and at the company's 1950s successor, Atlas Comics, Shores was among the artists on the company's superhero stars the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, the Western titles The Black Rider and Kid Colt, Outlaw, the jungle series Jann of the Jungle and Jungle Action, the war comics Battle Action and Battle Brady, and many others including Blonde Phantom.

Going freelance in 1948, when virtually all of Timely's staff positions were eliminated, Shores drew for Atlas, Avon Publishing, and Orbit Publications. With Mort Lawrence, who succeeded Bill Everett on The Sub-Mariner, and Norman Steinberg, another Atlas artist, Shores co-founded a comic-art studio in 1952, first in Hempstead, Long Island, and later in nearby Freeport. But with Steinberg's death in the mid-1950s and Lawrence's decision to leave the field, Shores returned to individual freelancing, adding magazine illustration to his repertoire.

[edit] Silver Age of comics

In the 1960s, Shores found a new audience at Marvel Comics, where he inked many issues of Kirby's Captain America; Gene Colan's Daredevil and Colan's backup feature "The Watcher" in Silver Surfer #1 & #6 (Aug. 1968 & June 1969); Dick Ayers' and Don Heck's Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders / Capt. Savage and His Battlefield Raiders, and a variety of other titles.

In a rare return to penciling at Marvel, Shores drew and self-inked the anthological horror stories "The Face of Fear" in Chamber of Darkness #2 (Dec. 1969), "Time Out" in Tower of Shadows #5 (May 1970), "Master and Slave" in Creatures on the Loose #12 (July 1971), "In the Shadow of Tragg — He Who Walks Beneath the Earth" in Monsters on the Prowl #13 (Oct. 1971), and "Terror of the Pterodactyl" in #15 (Feb. 1972), as well as Gerry Conway's adaptation of Harlan Ellison's "Delusions for a Dragon Slayer" in Chamber of Chills #1 (Nov. 1972). Additionally, Shores penciled and occasionally self-inked several Western stories, including the premiere of the feature "Tales of Fort Rango" in Western Gunfighters #1 (Aug. 1970); The Gunhawks #1-2 & 4-5 (Oct.-Dec. 1972, April-June 1973); and the Native American hero Red Wolf in Marvel Spotlight #1 (Nov. 1971) and Red Wolf #1-8 (May 1972 - July 1973). Shores also penciled the Skywald Publications Western The Bravados #1 (Aug. 1971).

He likewise penciled a handful of black-and-white horror-comics magazine stories, such as "Blood Thirst!" in Major Publications' Web Of Horror #1 (Dec. 1969) and "Strangers!" in #3 (April 1970); and for Warren Publishing, "Army of the Walking Dead" in Creepy #35 (Sept. 1970) and "King Keller" in #37 (Jan. 1971).

Despite this seeming steady stream of work, fellow Golden Age and Silver Age artist Joe Giella recalled that, "Syd later became a taxi cab driver; that was so sad. I happened to see him while I was on jury duty back in the early ' 70s, and he told me he was driving a cab because he counldn't find work".^[4]

Some of Shores' last work was inking Tom Sutton and Jim Mooney on, respectively Marvel's Ghost Rider #1-2 (Sept.-Oct. 1973). A trouper to the end, he finished penciling two-thirds of the eight-page story "Voodoo War" for Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazine Tales of the Zombie #5 (May 1974) before dying of a heart seizure. Dick Ayers penciled the remainder of writer Tony Isabella's anthological horror tale.

[edit] Quotes

Gene Colan: "My first real professional start in the comic-book business began in the summer of 1946, and that is when I met Syd Shores. He was the head man in the Art Department of Marvel Comics. ... I was flying by the seat of my pants...hoping that everything would turn out. I didn't want the seams to show but that was all part of the learning process and Syd helped me wade through. ... His realistic style, for some time, became an obsession with me. His characters looked like the real thing. Whatever he had them doing was as real to life as you could get".^[5]

Syd Shores: "Jack Kirby influenced my sense of dramatics. Jack Kirby influences everybody in comics, though: Before I got really started in the field it was Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, they were my gods back then, but Kirby was the most immediate influence".^[1]

Atlas Comics' [retailer] 20 Greatest Inkers of American Comic Books: #11 Syd Shores "evidenced a unique and singular inking style, one perhaps only vaguely approximated by the great Bill Everett. Both had bold but rough-hewn lines and illustrative, photorealistic brushwork which gave the pages a beautiful, organic look...."^[6]

[edit] Shores Golden Age reprints

Marvel Comics reprints of 1940s Timely Comics stories, listed chronologically from date of earliest original publication:

• Captain America: The Classic Years (1998) ISBN 0-7851-0660-X

Covers, Captain America Comics #2, 5-7 (April, Aug.-Oct. 1941)

• Captain America: The Classic Years, Vol. 2 (2000) ISBN 0-7851-0743-6

Captain America Comics #7 (Oct. 1941)

"Captain America and the Red Skull"

"Death Loads the Bases"

"Horror Plays the Scales"

• The Golden Age of Marvel Comics (1997) ISBN 0-7851-0564-6

Captain America Comics #22 (Jan. 1943): "The Cobra Ring of Death"

• Fantasy Masterpieces #10 (Aug. 1967) and Timely Presents: All-Winners (hyphen sic) #1 (Dec. 1999)

All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946)

• Marvel Super-Heroes #17-18 (Nov. 1968 - Jan. 1969)

All Winners Comics #21 (Winter 1946)

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Lambiek Comiclopedia: Syd Shores
• The Syd Shores Checklist
• The Jack Kirby Museum
• The Syd Shores Timely Gallery
• Fantastic Fanzine #10: Jan. 1970 interview with Syd Shores
• "A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman"
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• The Terror
• The "Star-Spangled Avenger" by Steve Stiles
• Simon, Joe, with Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers. (Crestwood/II, 1990) ISBN 1-887591-35-4

[edit] External links

• Live ForEverett: "A Tribute to Syd Shores' by Gene Colan, 3 August 1999