Showing posts with label 100th Anniversary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 100th Anniversary. Show all posts

Sunday, November 11, 2018

100 Years Ago Today...

...the "War to End All Wars" (we hoped) came to a conclusion.
In those pre-Internet (even pre-radio) days, print media played a vital role!
When France presented the United States with the great Statue of Liberty, which stands at our gates, she little thought how powerful that symbol of her friendship would some day prove!
By its shining light we now march to her aid!
...a book of the New York Herald newspaper's editorial cartoons, entitled America's Black & White Book: One Hundred Pictured Reasons WHY WE ARE AT WAR, hit bookstores like a bombshell!
Editorial illustrator's W.A. Rogers' visceral renderings, previously seen only by NYC readers, reached a national audience already enraged by atrocities like the sinking of the Lusitania and ready to kick the Central Powers' collective ass!
The illustration above is the final piece in the book.
You can read (and/or download) the entire book from the Smithsonian's website HERE!

Monday, August 28, 2017

Happy 100th, Jack Kirby!

To celebrate his centennial, here's a Kirby piece that's never been reprinted in color!

Appearing in the September, 1966 issue of Esquire magazine...this art was later reused, in pieces, as clip art for various projects including MarvelMania publications.
The Spider-Man was retouched by John Romita to keep him "on-model".
The art (probably photostats) was hand-colored with Dr Martins dyes used for decades by comics colorists for their color guides.
Inking on this spread looks like Joe Sinnott. (The Thing is a dead-giveaway. Nobody inked him like Sinnott!)

These two pages were b/w in the original publication, though the art was probably provided in color.
(In b/w publishing, blues and greens print as light gray, reds and oranges print as dark gray.)
Note the unusual, never-seen-again leg-webbing above on Spider-Man!
The inking on these two pages looks, to my eye, like Frank Giacoia.

Wonder who has the originals?
Are they in the Esquire art archives, or were they returned to Marvel?
On a side note: the best way to appreciate Jack Kirby the creative person is to read/hear his own words.
For those who want to understand Kirby the man, a fairly-complete list of interviews with The King thanks to the Kirby Museum...HERE!
LONG LIVE THE KING!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Glory at Gallipoli!

Most Americans are unfamiliar with the WWI story of Gallipoli...
...which serves as the back story for the new Russell Crowe movie The Water Diviner.
Luckily, our "brother" RetroBlog, War: Past, Present & Future, is running a graphic story retelling of the sordid saga!
Part 1 is HERE.
Part 2 is HERE.

Saturday, June 28, 2014