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Post by beyonder1984 on Sept 3, 2021 10:11:09 GMT -5
So with Comic Book Historians' Alex Grand interviewing Jerry Ordway recently, it got me thinking.
Because of Jerry's style and his association with so many veterans, as young lad I thought he was already a distinguished veteran in the 1980s. In fact his first published DC work was in 1980. My first exposure was All-Star Squadron. And when he did 1994's Power of Shazam! I was surprised such "an old guy" was still in his prime. I had no idea he "only" a 14 year vet. He always seemed to me like a 70s, if not 60s guy. I guess it's because of his retro style. Of course, I was simply ignorant because I didn't follow fanzines.
Another example, since I missed Jim Starlin's 1970s Warlock stuff, when he brought back Thanos in 1990, as a young teenager I thought Jim was way younger.
I was wondering if anyone else thought a creator was much older or younger or it's just me.
(On a related train of thought, I was tricked when Herb Trimpe drew Fantastic Four Unlimited Image style. I said to myself, that can't be THE Herb Trimpe. I thought it was a "different" Herb Trimp!)
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,707
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Post by shaxper on Sept 3, 2021 10:13:59 GMT -5
Since I primarily associate Neal Adams with very fresh/modern looking art in the 1970s, it took a while for me to accept the idea that he came in at the tail end of the Silver Age.
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 3, 2021 20:08:20 GMT -5
Siegel and Shuster were kids when they started on Superman and that seemed to be the template for so many creators going forward - Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, Stan Lee, Simon and Kirby, etc, etc. I suppose the fact that Wonder Woman's creator was a psychiatrist should have prepared me for the fact that her team would be from a later generation, but the fact that Harry Peter was 61 when he started penciling Wonder Woman means that at least one of the forefathers of this fresh, vibrant, pop looking medium also had experience producing art which feels positively Victorian.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 4, 2021 3:47:13 GMT -5
I only learned recently, like about a decade ago, that Irv Novick had been working continuously in comics since the late 1930s; before that, I'd always thought he was one of the 'younger' generation that got its start in the 1960s. Another creator I was surprised to learn was actually older than I am is Lee Weeks. Even though he got his start in the late 1980s, I only became familiar with his work after my long hiatus from comics, so sometime in mid- to late '00s, so I thought he was one of the newer generation of creators.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 4, 2021 8:11:16 GMT -5
When I first saw the name "Joe Jusko" on a cover, I was amazed by the man's talent and figured he must be a seasoned veteran. Little did I know that it was his first cover and that he was just 17 at the time!
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Post by MDG on Sept 4, 2021 9:55:09 GMT -5
I was a little surprised when I recently read that Wally Wood was only 54 when he died. I guess it seemed he was "always there" as I got into comics and had several phases in his career.
I remember being surprised when I picked up an early-50s comic and finding a Gene Colan story in it. I thought he'd come into the business later than that.
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 4, 2021 21:55:51 GMT -5
When I was ten, I saw the first issue of The Tick sitting on a rack in a comic shop. I'd see the character next in Parody Press' Death of Stupidman comic which came out a few years later when I was 13, but didn't get into the fellow until the animated series started up when I was 15. Five years is a long time if you're counting from being an elementary student of ten then to 13 then to being a high school teenager of 15 - that The Tick had his own comic and was popular or at least beloved enough to be lampooned and then be on TV every Saturday morning during those five years of my life didn't really prepare me for later learning that his creator Ben Edlund is only about a decade older than me. 1989 seems so long ago to me, but this mysterious Edlund guy whose creation kept popping up at these changing points in my life is almost of my generation.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 4, 2021 23:15:59 GMT -5
I've never really had that moment, though I had not realized, at the time, how young Colleen Doran was, when she started A Distant Soil, until I read the section about her in The Comic Book Rebels. She spoke of being underaged and getting hit on at conventions and fending off editors and such. There was one story of finding out she was booked into an editor or publisher's hotel room, at a convention and she slept in the hotel lobby, instead. Pissed me off just reading it.
Age of professionals doesn't usually surprise me. I was 17 when I started the Navy ROTC program, because my birthday is in November and my freshman year in college started in August. My parents actually had to sign a waiver to grant permission for me to enter the program. I was 21, when I received my commission and didn't turn 22, until I was halfway through the program, at Supply Corps School, following my college graduation. I was a very young ensign; in maturity, as well as years. Did a lot of growing up in those 4 years, to where I was a very old 25, when I started working for Barnes & Noble. I did have a relationship with a co-worker that did surprise the pair of us, when we discovered what our actual age difference was. I was 30 and she was 46; but, she thought I was several years older and I thought she was several years younger, which just shows that chronology has less to do with things than experiences.
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Post by Duragizer on Sept 4, 2021 23:19:48 GMT -5
It was a shock to me when I learned Liefeld was just 19 when he started in comics. Though it helped explain a few things.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 5, 2021 12:44:45 GMT -5
It was a shock to me when I learned Liefeld was just 19 when he started in comics. Though it helped explain a few things. He did an interview with Comics Scene magazine, before Youngblood came out. It explains a lot! He actually wanted to drop out of high school to try to break into comics, but his parents forced him to finish school first. That wasn't the revealing part to me; it was a section where he is talking about some of the characters and he mentions his "big guy", Brama, was based on an idea he had, inspired by a set of triplets he knew. He said he asked how that happened and was told that it was one ovum that split into 3 (which is far rarer than more than one ova being fertilized or even two ova, with one splitting into two, but the other not). He continued, "So, my warped mind said, what would happen if the egg didn't split? Would there be a giant baby?" I read that passage 3 times, dumbfounded. Obviously, he either skipped biology or was too busy doodling in class. I mentally retorted, "Normal birth!". He actually thought triplets came from a giant egg that splits into three and/or that a physically large person was the result of the size of the egg/zygote, not the DNA. That pretty much told me all I needed to know about him and the level of thought that went into his comics. Still didn't prepare me for his concept of WW2, with German soldiers wearing silver helmets! (In one of those Youngblood comics, in a flashback). In the years since, I have read things on-line from people that make him sound like Einstein, by comparison; so, I cut him more slack, these days.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 6, 2021 4:24:58 GMT -5
I was a little surprised when I recently read that Wally Wood was only 54 when he died. I guess it seemed he was "always there" as I got into comics and had several phases in his career. I remember being surprised when I picked up an early-50s comic and finding a Gene Colan story in it. I thought he'd come into the business later than that. Colan's first story ("Hosmer Hounddawg," a funny animal strip for Better/Nedor/Standard's Giggle Comic) was published in 1945, just before the 18-year-old went into the military.
Cei-U! I summon the early start!
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 6, 2021 6:34:13 GMT -5
It was a shock to me when I learned Liefeld was just 19 when he started in comics. Though it helped explain a few things. He had a passion for comics at an early age but he also needed the money to help his family financially because his father was in and out of hospitals with brain tumors. The father was actually in a 8 months long coma. There are human beings behind these comic books.
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 6, 2021 8:24:22 GMT -5
Mike Zeck is 72, which puts him at the same age as Jim Starlin, Mike Kaluta and Barry Smith, even though he came into comics much later.
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Post by Rob Allen on Sept 6, 2021 14:20:33 GMT -5
Zeck's earliest credits are only two years after Starlin's, but Mike spent a few years working mostly at Charlton. If you lived in an area that didn't get many Charlton books, it would have looked like Zeck was much younger.
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 6, 2021 14:24:49 GMT -5
To me Zeck was the definitive MOKF artist.
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