CRIVENS! COMICS & STUFF!: SON OF ORIGINS...

Sunday, 26 August 2012

SON OF ORIGINS...

In 1975, FIRESIDE (Simon & Schuster) released the second of their MARVEL ORIGINS volumes, entitled SON Of ORIGINS Of MARVEL COMICS. Sporting a fantastic cover by JOHN ROMITA Sr., the book was a major disappointment compared to its predecessor from the year before. STAN LEE's text was as witty and sparkling as ever, but the book was let down by some of the worst reproduction of classic comics that it was possible to see.

I can only assume that some strips were sourced from foreign reprints, then had the original English lettering from published comics dropped in. Significant areas of the art were obscured by over-sized, irregular balloon shapes, suggesting they'd been enlarged at some stage to accommodate more verbose dialogue, which is usually a feature when English-language comics are translated into another idiom. (In a few instances, some speech balloons were left totally blank.)

DAREDEVIL #1 (below) seems to have utilised the proofs for its U.K. reprinting in The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #s 20 & 21, with cropped panels and the overuse of Letratone in quite a few places. Other issues affected were X-MEN #1, AVENGERS #1, and SILVER SURFER #1, which were utterly appalling in their reproduction, rendering the intended 'archival' aspect of the book redundant.

Thankfully, not all stories were ruined in this way: TALES Of SUSPENSE #s 39 & 97, DAREDEVIL #47, STRANGE TALES #135, and "The WONDER Of The WATCHER!" back-up tale from SILVER SURFER #1 were more or less perfect, though IRON MAN's origin was taken from the reprint in MARVEL TALES #1 and featured a different final caption running along the bottom of the last page.

John Romita's cover is the book's main redeeming feature, and is arguably even better than the previous volume's. One thing I do know is this - whenever I cast my gaze upon it, I'm instantly transported 37 years into the past - when teenage hope was still aborning and dreams were not yet the stuff of nightmare.

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About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artist on various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artist and spot illustrator on pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

For MARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as a restoration artist for MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

Have also made TV appearances as a collector of memorabilia.

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Just some of the titles I worked on are:

2000 A.D. * JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE * DICEMAN * SONIC The COMIC * JUDGE DREDD, LAWMAN Of The FUTURE * CRISIS * REVOLVER * EAGLE * TIGER * BATTLE ACTION-FORCE * BUSTER * WHIZZER & CHIPS * WHOOPEE * NIPPER * SCHOOL FUN * ACE VENTURA, PET DETECTIVE * The REAL GHOSTBUSTERS * DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE * COUNT DUCKULA * RUGRATS * The TRANSFORMERS * DEATH'S HEAD * THUNDERCATS * GALAXY RANGERS * DRAGON'S CLAWS * SINDY * MARVEL MASTERWORKS * The TROLLS * LOADED * INFERNO * WARHAMMER * ROSE BLACK.

Copyright Notice:

Images remain the property of their respective copyright owners and are used here only for the purpose of review, promotion, and nostalgia.

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In the case of images culled from my own collection where copyright of an item isn't mine, I impose no copying restrictions on fellow bloggers.

(Although, if you don't allow copying on your own site, then you really shouldn't be copying from others, should you?)

And while you can credit this blog if you like, it's not mandatory. Who has time to make notes of every casually visited site during an idle browse of the Internet?

In the case of anyone copying images of my own artwork and calligraphy, I affirm my right to be identified as the creator, and any such copying should not be for the purpose of monetary or material gain. (Unless it's mine.)

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Please also note that this blog is not sponsored by, affiliated with, or connected to, any organisation, business, or group, and is wholly independent.