Back in December of 2014 I did a post about a couple of my favorite comic book artists from the 80's and early 90's. To be specific it was Marc Silvestri, Dan Green, and Mark Texeira (< link), all of whom were featured artists on Marvel's X Men and/or or Wolverine.
Well I decided it's time to snap some nice HD pics of some of my favorite DC books from the 70's and post them here so I can talk about them a bit. These are all from Batman titles - there were several of them being published including Detective Comics which is where most of these came from. Detective Comics was a big digest where Marvel used to print up lots of old stories form the Golden Age - many of them starring Batman but occasionally they'd throw in other main characters such as the Elongated Man (A takeoff of Plastic Man but not as comedic, and a precursor to Mister Stretch Reed Richards) or something. These were thick books - there were usually 6 or 7 of the old stories plus there would always be a new one at the beginning to kick things off. And for these they used some of my favorite artists of the time.
This was before I was paying attention to the names of the artists - I didn't know who was drawing them at the time and it was only later when I looked back with nostalgia at this period that I became interested in that. This first one, Night of the Stalker, was plotted and pencilled by Vin and Sal Amendola - I'm not sure if Vin wrote it and Sal penciled it or if they collaborated on both chores. It was inked by Dick Giordano. This was at a time when Neal Adams had come along and significantly changed the way comics could be drawn. Adams had introduced a whole new look - the heroes were now exceptionally tall, sleek and handsome and had a sort of elegant look to them. Reader reaction to this change was overwhelmingly positive, so Marvel and DC both found a bunch of guys who could draw like Adams and put them to work on different titles, including many in the Batman line.
This was also at a time when Batman was fighting against the stigma created by the 60's TV show starring Adam West. Because of that show, Batman was largely seen as a joke, as something ridiculous and not to be taken seriously, and in fact the sales for the books were dropping off rapidly.
That is, until the new, darker and grittier Batman stepped out of the shadows. From the beginning Batman was the most interesting of DC's characters anyway - he was really the only one who had any character flaws. He was haunted by a tragic past that had scarred him and made him vow to fight criminals like the ones who had killed his parents - to protect Gotham from them so other kids don't have to go through what he did. The rest of DC's stable - Superman, Wonder Woman, the Green Lantern and the Flash etc, were all good to the core - too good to be true in fact. Sterling heroes with perfect character who were so good they just decided to use their powers to help people. Like saints with superpowers. And saints are the most boring people on earth. But I believe Batman was influenced by The Shadow, and thats why he wears a costume designed to frighten the bejeebus out of bad guys and why he haunts the shadows of the night. Ok, enough introduction - let's move on the the actual comics, shall we?
All of these factors I mentioned above - Batman being darker and more interesting, trying to throw off the satirical feel of the TV show, and the influence of Neal Adams' art style, combined to make the Batman of the seventies some of the most awesome books I've seen. They really wanted to make it stand out, so Batman became more and more like some kind of semi-human creature. He was also incredibly acrobatic - I used to love seeing him vaulting off roofs and spinning around flagpoles on the sides of buildings. That's a Batman we still have never seen in any of the movies - I suppose the directors are afraid it would look goofy to see him jumping around all the time, so they instead present him as a frightening night stalker who blends into the shadows. But I sure would love to see him done like this!
But there was even more going on in the art than that. It was atmospheric. In fact, as I was shooting the pics today, I noticed that some of these artists could have easily drawn for the black and white horror comics like Creepy or Eerie. Or here's an interesting idea - how about Batman and Vampirella? Hmmm - no, I guess that's a weird mix really, but interesting all the same.
In these stories the environments are as important as the characters, if not more so. It's literally like Batman is a specter stalking a moody horror landscape. This creates a situation where shadows and darkness become very important, and that creates mystery as well as setting up a nice dynamic balance of black and white areas for good design. I mean I know - not white really since these are in color, but often the color is pretty muted and a very limited palette is used.
Another thing I appreciate about comics from this period - especially these in particular - is the relative simplicity of the art compared to what would come later. In terms of both line work and color, the 80's ushered in an age of dizzying complexity that often got on my nerves and destroyed the kind of subtle simplicity I had learned to love in the 70's, when less was more and good design sense and subtlety took precedence over spectacle and noise. With the simple flat coloring here, what stands out is the skill of the artists - the expressive ink work. Often those tiny little landscapes are masterpieces of calligraphic excellence.
Ok, I think I've said most of what I wanted to say now - I'll just introduce each story and then let the art speak for itself.
Bat-Murderer is drawn entirely by Jim Aparo - pencils and inks. Many of my favorite artists ink their own work - it preserves their original vision better than letting someone else do it.
When I was snapping the pics for this one something struck me. That splash page above reminds me of the art that would be done in the following decade by John Byrne and Terry Austin for the infamous X-Men story arc called Days of Future Past, which has been turned into a movie of the same name. And I mean it's almost exactly the same - a nighttime scene in the city, spotlights aimed at dark brick walls with graffiti. Even the way Batman's name is X'ed out - in Days of Future Past there were wanted posters of the X Men and the ones who were already dead had been X'ed out. Very interesting. I never realized how influential these stories and this art were, but I suppose it laid the ground work for what was to come. Including Byrne and Austin, who became the first team of artists I would know by name and search for when I hit the spinner racks in the grocery stores.
The above splash page was drawn by Jim Aparo, but the art in the story itself was done by Howard Chaykin. Look at those trees, the fence - the grass - the way's it's drawn. Even the thin pen strokes in the sky representing the wind. So simple and spare - so effective. Just like the art I used to love so much in the horror comics drawn by the Spanish artists for Warren.
Here again we have spotlights on brick walls and graffiti. I'm actually sad to have to downgrade the originality of John Byrne for that amazing cover. But it doesn't reduce the awesomeness of his pencil work though. He remains one of my favorites, especially when Terry Austin was inking him.
Those interiors - this is a freaking haunted house! Not something you usually see in superhero comics.
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