Gene Colan passed on June 23, having been in the hospital for various, long-term health issues. He was 84.
When I started reading my first batch of comics, Gene's work was amongst the pile of books my older brother Albert had given me. Included in that collection (dating from about 1968-70) were several titles drawn by Gene Colan, including DAREDEVIL, CAPTAIN AMERICA and IRON MAN.
I love that two-fisted punch Daredevil's throwing on Dr. Doom!
This issue stood out to me for the fight scene. Daredevil returns to his home, and there's a robot waiting for him in the closet. Daredevil approaches the closet door and the robot bursts out and demolishes DD. I mean he just wails into him and pounds him to a pulp! The robot takes his mask and shirt back to the villian's hideout as proof that he's destroyed Daredevil. The cover for this issue was a really clever way to preview the fight scene.
By 1975, I was buying my own comic books off the shelves at 7-11, King Cole Market, McCoy's Market and anywhere else I could find them. For 25¢ a copy, it was a pretty sweet deal for a kid with a buck or two from mom!
Besides all the superhero titles I was buying from Marvel (SPIDER-MAN, FANTASTIC FOUR, HULK, CAPTAIN AMERICA) I picked up, with much curiosity, HOWARD THE DUCK, written by Steve Gerber and illustrated masterfully by Gene Colan.
Howard fights the Kidney Lady on a bus bound for Cleveland!! How's that for a teaser of a cover...?
As a kid, some of Gerber's writing may have been above my head, but Gene Colan's artwork had my eyes glued to the page. At the time I'm sure I didn't appreciate the fact that he could draw spandex-clad superheroes as easily as he could a talking duck. But as I grew older I realized just how talented Colan was to be able to so deftly imbue Howard with as many personal attributes as he did. Just look at that image of Howard waddling down the aisle, angry determination on his face.
One of my favorite covers of all time is this one:
Again, look at that angry indignation on Howard's face. He get's drafted to run for President of the USA by the All Night Party, and it looks like he's mad as hell and isn't going to take it any longer! Colan's great skill in displaying so much real emotion on a cartoon animal, combined with his naturalistic drawing abilities, gave HOWARD so much humanity. And of course with writer/creator Steve Gerber using Howard as a great sounding board for his own outsider sensibilities, it made for such a memorable book.
During the same time Colan was chronicling the adventures of the Duck, he was doing perhaps his most atmospheric work ever (certainly my favorite of his entire career):
Working with writer Marv Wolfman, (himself achieving a high watermark on this series), Colan imbued the lead character, a cunning monster in human form, with all the dignity, malevolence and high drama he could. Dracula's series took the immortal character to entirely new levels, sometimes even clashing with such Marvel heroes as Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer.
Colan's Dracula was all swirling capes and smokey mists. Like a ghost trying to live amongst humans. The scripts called upon Colan to conjure up haunted houses, nighttime cityscapes, demonic horrors and a grand design for Dracula, the proud Prince of Darkness, former king and corrupter of souls. All of which Colan handled with masterly skills. Credit must be given also to Tom Palmer, who inked Colan's painterly pencils with such precise attention.
Gene Colan's career spanned about 7 decades. Almost 70 years drawing comic books. His strengths to me were his unmistakeable style of drawing, his flair for dramatic camera angles, his sense of movement in his figures, and that overriding sense he gave to all his characters of being alive, whether they were aliens, robots, undead monsters or talking ducks from Cleveland.
Growing up with comics, taking them to heart as much as I did, makes me sad to hear of the man's passing. I never had the privilege of meeting Gene Colan, but feel so fortunate to have known so much of his work. His dedication to his craft, and his joy at doing what he loved, will always provide me with warm memories. And of course, I have so much of my favorite works of his at hand. Thank you, Gene Colan.
You can read a quick obituary about Gene Colan over at writer Mark Evanier's site.
Gene's close friend, Clifford Meth, who has been handling Gene's affairs since Gene's wife Adrienne passed away a year ago, has a very lovely final interview with Gene done just a few weeks ago, at his hospice bedside.
It was reported this week that comic book artist Gene Colan, whose career spans from the late '40s to today, has been reported as being in a serious medical condition. Liver failure and related complications, according to his wife. For the past week the comics community has been reporting on the story, and the call has gone out for assistance for the Colans. Apparantly, they don't have medical insurance (or adequate), and the mounting medical bills are pretty daunting.
Gene has done so much work for the various comics companies over the decades, but I think it's fair to say that his most memorable work includes work on DAREDEVIL, CAPTAIN AMERICA, DR. STRANGE and IRON MAN at Marvel in the 1960s and TOMB OF DRACULA and HOWARD THE DUCK in the 70s. He's worked on BATMAN, SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN at DC and also for various publishers such as Dark Horse and Eclipse in the 80s and 90s. He's even done occasional stories for Marvel on DAREDEVIL in the last several years.
When I was started reading comics in the 70s, my older brother gave me a box of his books he had bought in the late 60s/1970. Among those were several books by Colan; DAREDEVIL and CAPTAIN AMERICA, among others. His style stood out (and he was competing with Kirby, John Romita, John Buscema among others!) to my puny little eyeballs even then. His figures would often looks like swooshes of limbs propelling across the panels, the compositions featuring dynamic and innovative angles and perspectives. And when stationary, his characters had a life to them, their body language and facial expressions telling us all we needed to know.
HOWARD THE DUCK was one of my favorite books as a kid, probably because it was so different. A freakin' talking duck in the Marvel Universe! And at the same time Gene was drawing his waddling, cigar-smoking curmudgeon of a duck, he was also drawing the most ungodly horror book of the day, Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA! Dracula was all flowing cape and billowing smoke, his persona a combination of unrelenting evil and power. Simultaneously drawing a duck and the Lord of the Undead...month after month! And no matter what he drew, Gene made each character believable. Humor, superhero or horror. When Gene drew those characters, they really lived on the page. Beyond it, actually. Unbelievable.....
A couple of things we can do to help: To make a donation to the Colans for help with medical expenses, you can Paypal some funds to Gene Colan's Paypal account at:
genecolan@optonline.net (I sent a small donation myself the other day)
And/or you can send a card to Gene at:
2 Sea Cliff Avenue, Sea Cliff, NY 11579
A few words of support or appreciation could provide a nice comfort.
Obviously, we all hope that Mr. Colan recovers from his ailment. It was reported yesterday at writer Clifford Meth's blog that Marvel is making arrangements with Colan's wife Adrienne "to provide some immediate and long-term relief". That was wonderful news. Gene has always been there for Marvel, year-after-year, book by book. I applaud Marvel for helping out one of their legendary artists. Gene, in my own opinion, has to rank up there with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and John Buscema as one of the pillars of Marvel classic artists.
Gene 'The Dean' Colan (as Stan Lee used to call him).... We're rooting for you man!
