TOP TEN COMIC BOOK SUPERHEROES

[Hepcat]

I know he's very popular with many comic fans but myself I just don't like the comic art of Alex Ross.

[jimm]

I lean towards the more unorthodox...Kirby, Ditko, Mignola, Corben, Ingels, Cole, etc. for the most part

[Wich2]

Well, what Ross does is not really "comic art."

I love many of the folks you list jimm; and Barks, Aparo, Kubert, Infantino, etc.

But Ross is not generally competing with them in the pulp paper/2-D panel format. He's working in classical painting, showing these characters in a "What If?" they existed in the real world way.

-Craig

[Hepcat]

I lean towards the more unorthodox...Kirby, Ditko, Mignola, Corben, Ingels, Cole, etc. for the most part

I love many of the folks you list jimm; and Barks, Aparo, Kubert, Infantino, etc.

Favourites of mine would include fellows such as these:

Neal Adams
Joe Kubert
Jack Davis
Howard Post
Jim Aparo
Murphy Anderson
Curt Swan
Russ Heath
John Byrne
Lee Elias
Carl Barks
Dan DeCarlo
Richard Corben
John Severin
Joe Maneely
Johnny Romita
Dick Dillin
Irv Novick
Jack Kirby
George Perez

[jimm]

How could I forget Jack Davis and Bernie Wrightson...

[Dr.Cyclops]

I was never a fan of Kirby's 70's style.

[Hepcat]

I agree. By the seventies Kirby's style was so exaggerated it had become wooden.

[jimm]

I thought the Demon had fantastic art...

[Wich2]

Agreed that Jack, late in his career, could tend toward looking like an imitation of himself (think of Elvis and many others!)

But with jimm, I LOVE The Demon - and also his short, semi-autobiographical run on The Losers, which is simply some of the best War Comics EVER.

-Craig

[Dr.Cyclops]

I think one of my all time fav artists would have to be John Buscema,particularly his Savage Sword work.

[Hepcat]

Here are scans of a cool one-shot Warren magazine from 1966:





Notice the strange inclusion of Captain Marvel. The thing is the typical ten to thirteen year old in 1966 would never have heard of Captain Marvel. I very clearly remember "not getting" the occasional isolated reference to "Shazam" in 1964 and I was completely befuddled in 1966 when the Green Hornet was resurrected for TV as if he was some kind of iconic character in popular culture.

[Wich2]

Hep, for one thing I believe that mag was largely reprint, and Warren just scrounged up all the comix stuff they had to cash in on Batmania.

And as far as The Big Red Cheese and Britt Reid:

Cap's comic had run until '53, and the Hornet's radio show until '52, so kid's dads and older brothers spoke of them. Also, The Hornet was running on 100 radio stations in syndication, starting in 1964. It's sorta like how some kids today might know of Gilligan and Mayberry.

-Craig

[Hepcat]

Also, The Hornet was running on 100 radio stations in syndication, starting in 1964. It's sorta like how some kids today might know of Gilligan and Mayberry.

Interesting detail. I didn't know the radio show had been resurrected in syndication. I thought TV had completely killed syndicated radio shows by 1960.

Cap's comic had run until '53, and the Hornet's radio show until '52, so kid's dads and older brothers spoke of them.

Depends upon your father's background I guess. That would have been unthinkable for my father.

[Wich2]

A radio guy named Charlie Michelson was smart...

When the Nets murdered radio to fund tv, he realized that some stations would still want drama. He bought the reruns cheap, and so the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, the Shadow, Jack Benny, etc., got new (if smaller) audiences:

http://lobitoscreekranch.semkhor.com/page.asp?content_id=8549

[Hepcat]

Here are scans from my own 1966 Topps Comic Book Foldees collection: