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| Image copyright MARVEL COMICS |
The first time The THING fought The HULK, but certainly not the last. Note that Hulkie has only four fingers (including his thumb) and three toes on each hand and foot, something that JACK KIRBY wasn't always consistent with. (Didn't he have four toes sometimes?) The fact that the Green Goliath was grey in his first appearance was ignored for well-over 20 years before being retroactively adopted into his continuity, so I wonder if the same thing will eventually happen as regards the number of digits on each extremity?
Only time will tell I suppose. (Or has it told already?)
I always loved the Dick Ayers inking on Kirby, it gave a three dimensional look and a softness too. Call me crazy, most people think Sinnot was the best inker.
ReplyDeleteSinnott's inking probably suited Kirby's style at that time, LG, whereas Ayers' inking suited Jack's earlier style. There had been a change as JK's art became more abstract in the 'cosmic' FF adventures. I liked Ayers too (whose style in places could be reminiscent of Wood's), but I'd say Wally was the best inker Jack ever had.
ReplyDeleteYeah when he went abstract gonzo surreal Sinnot was better, but for people and huge scary monsters Ayers fit best. As or Wood, holy smoke yes. Look at Sky Masters, wowsers, or the Challengers.
ReplyDeleteThe Challengers stuff that Wood inked is amazing. There are some examples of it on the blog.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking for the Sky Masters reprint book forever. They're going for $200 on eBay. So please someone reprint them.
DeleteSo true. That combo to me is the absolute best of comic art, the # 1 and #2 all time greatest comics artists. Show s my age too, LOL.
ReplyDeleteHey Kid how's the weather across the pond? It will be 91 F today in sunny Florida.
FWIW, I remember the Hulk having fewer than five toes on each foot in Avengers #2, but five on each on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3. I don't know if they ever attempted an explanation, or if they just ignored it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't know if they ever explained the dialog change, from talking like Humphrey Bogart in a gangster to movie to talking like Johnny Weissmuller in a Tarzan movie. The X-Men's Beast went the opposite route, from colloquial American English to sounding like William F. Buckley. In both cases, it was really to keep the characters from being too much like Ben Grimm, but I don't recall any explanation in the stories themselves. Maybe some fan won a No-Prize for coming up with an explanation.
In Banner's case, I suppose they could claim that the effect of the radiation either got progressively worse or partly wore off over time.
One reason that I was more of a DC fan than Marvel fan in the Silver Age was that DC usually flatly admitted mistakes, like calling a character by the wrong name, or costumes being the wrong color, or whatever. While Marvel took an attitude of "We never make mistakes," and would invite fans to figure out solutions.
I couldn't give you numbers regarding the weather, LG, but it's warm and sunny. You've made me want to go and look at my Challengers Archive Editions now.
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I think Marvel readily (and humorously) admitted their mistakes, TC, but they thought it was fun to give readers a chance to try and explain them away (hence the 'No-Prize'). It was a good idea to inspire reader participation. Banner's initial variation in attitude and speech was explained (to some degree) in Hulk #s 3 & 4 (which showed the causes of it), but it sort of changed again when Ditko's Hulk started appearing in Tales To Astonish.
I think with some of the early 60s Marvel titles they were put into production before being fully worked out and they kind of made stuff up as they went along, sticking with what seemed to work for those characters and ditching what didn't. As for the various continuity glitches I think Jack turned out so much art that he forget what he'd drawn last time every now and then. So many of his great monsters from the anthology days had varying numbers of digits and he treated the Hulk as one more giant monster. That's my take on it anyway. Agree with the inking comments too. Wally Wood (or Wallace as he preferred) seemed to elevate any of the art that he inked, ditto Tom Palmer. Really appreciated in the various reprints where the art is given better printing than its initial appearance on lesser quality paper and with the printing presses back then.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt they'll be reprinted at some stage, Phil. Keep your eyes peeled 'though, 'cos you might see a more reasonably priced one on eBay.
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I believe that's why so many photoststs of Jack's pencil art exist, PC, because Stan had pages copied to send to Jack so that he'd remember what he'd drawn in previous issues regarding characters' costumes, etc. I seem to remember reading that Jack eventually started copying pages himself, but I'm not 100% sure.