Welcome to the 13th edition of Comic Book Coffee. I previously posted these daily in the Comic Book Historians group on Facebook. The challenge was to see how many different pencilers I could find artwork by featuring coffee.
(I has nasal surgery a couple of days ago, so if any typos creep into this I apologize. My head is pretty stuffed up right now!)
61) Gene Colan & Tom Palmer
Daredevil #90, penciled by Gene Colan, inked by Tom Palmer, written by Gerry Conway and lettered by Sam Rosen, published by Marvel Comics with an August 1972 cover date.
It’s not all that surprising that during his career Daredevil has encountered four different criminals who assumed the costumed identity of Mister Fear. What would be more natural that for the self-proclaimed “Man Without Fear” to cross swords with a villain whose modus operandi was the creation of fear?
Here we see Daredevil, hit by Mister Fear’s powers, has crashed through the window of an office building, and is now cowering in terror at the little old lady who cleans the building. The next panel finds DD a guest of the local precinct, with the cops offering the still-unsteady crimefighter a cup of coffee.
Gene Colan had a style that was generally not an especially good fit for superheroes, yet he is regarded as one of the all-time great Daredevil artists. Perhaps that is because DD is a non-powered acrobatic character, as well as the fact that, no matter how weird and jokey the series sometimes got, it usually still had one foot planted in gritty noir. Both these elements made Daredevil an ideal fit for Colan’s unconventional layouts and shadowy penciling.
Colan was reportedly a somewhat-challenging artist to ink. Tom Palmer is usually classed as one of the best inkers of Colan’s pencils. They definitely worked extremely well together on Daredevil, Doctor Strange and Tomb of Dracula.
62) John Rosenberger
“What’s Ambition, Anyway?” drawn by John Rosenberger, written by Richard Hughes, and lettered by Ed Hamilton, from Confessions of the Lovelorn #81, published by ACG in May 1957.
Beautiful, talented Jill Sanders dreams of becoming an actress. She auditions with famed producer-director Carl Rogers, who agrees to see how she works out in rehearsals for his upcoming musical. While having coffee with Rogers and the rest of the cast, Jill thinks to herself “He’s a real professional — and a swell guy!” Unfortunately for Jill, her high school rival Marion Major has also joined the cast, and pretty soon the ambitious, arrogant blonde is sinking her claws into Rogers himself. Due to budget cuts Jill is squeezed out of the chorus and finds herself back waiting tables, and the despairing young woman believes she has lost out on both show business and Carl Rogers. However, when Carl’s investors back out on him, Jill convinces her restaurateur boss to help finance the show. It’s a success, and Carl has fallen in love with Jill.
Artist John Rosenberger’s career stretched over 30 years, from 1946 to 1975. He worked for several different companies, drawing stories in various genres. His style was definitely well-suited for romance, as he had an aptitude for rendering beautiful, fashionable women. Towards the end of his career he penciled Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane for DC Comics, where once again his knack for drawing lovely ladies was a definite asset. Rosenberger became the regular artist on Wonder Woman in 1975, but sadly only completed two issues before taking ill. He passed away in January 1977 at the age of 58.
The entire story “What’s Ambition, Anyway?” can be read on the Comic Book Plus website.
63) Ron Lim & Chris Ivy
Sovereign Seven #36, penciled by Ron Lim, inked by Chris Ivy, and written by Chris Claremont, published by DC Comics with a July 1998 cover date.
As the final issue of Chris Claremont’s Sovereign Seven comes to a close, the Sovereigns, after a long, hard-fought conflict, have finally emerged triumphant against the insidious Rapture.
And then we see that, apparently, the entire story of S7 has been nothing more than a comic book series created by Casey and Morgan, two young women who are customers at the Crossroads Coffee Bar that appeared so often throughout the series.
Sovereign Seven was a creator-owned series that nevertheless took place in the DC universe, with appearances by Darkseid, Superman, Power Girl and other mainstays. Presumably this ending was conceived by Claremont to allow the series to end with a clean break, so that in the future he could have his characters return in an entirely different venue. It’s certainly a metatextual scene, with Casey and Morgan standing in for Claremont himself to reflect on the series’ cancellation.
Of course, as Alan Moore once famously observed, “This is an Imaginary Story… Aren’t they all?” And so I like to think that in some corner or another of the multiverse the events of Sovereign Seven “really” did happen. Ah, well, real or not, it was a fun series.
Ron Lim was the second regular penciler on S7. I have been a fan of Lim since he drew Captain America way back in the early 1990s. I definitely regard him as underrated. On most of his S7 issues Lim was inked by Chris Ivy. They made a great art team, wonderfully illustrating Claremont’s stories.
So, anyone know where I can snag one of those big S7 coffee cups?
64) Frank Bolle
Golden and Silver Age artist Frank Bolle passed away on May 12th at the age of 95. “Outlaw Gold” was penciled & inked by Bolle. It appeared in Tim Holt #29, published by Magazine Enterprises with an April-May 1952 cover date.
Tim Holt was a Western movie star during the 1940s and early 50s. The comic book Tim Holt featured a fictionalized version of the actor who assumes the guise of the costumed vigilante Red Mask in the post-Civil War “Old West.” Tim Holt ran for 54 issues, being re-titled Red Mask with issue #42. Frank Bolle’s artwork appeared in every single issue of Tim Holt / Red Mask. Bolle really excelled at drawing Westerns, and his work on this series was definitely impressive.
“Outlaw Gold” sees beautiful dancehall girl Della Martin enlisting the help of Red Mask to locate a treasure which she says her father hid out in the desert, west of Bald Rock. Pursuing Della are members of Butch Cassidy’s “Wild Bunch” gang, who are all too ready to murder the lovely singer so that they may claim the buried fortune.
On this page, en route to Bald Rock, Red Mask and Della are pursued by a trio of Wild Bunch thugs. Red Mask makes short work of them, knocking all three out. He and Della then bunk down for the night, brewing up some hot coffee to keep warm.
Bolle does nice work on this page. The action flows well. I like how Bolle has Red Mask’s fist swinging out of that third panel, really highlighting the punch. Della is beautifully drawn. And since this is a Western, of course we have horses. I guess this is another crossover with Jim Thompson’s 1000 Horses series!
The entire issue can be read on the Comic Book Plus website.
65) Jerry Ordway & George Perez
Here is a double dose of Da Ordster! First up is Adventures of Superman #428, penciled & inked by Jerry Ordway, written by Marv Wolfman, lettered by John Costanza, and colored by Tom Ziuko, published by DC Comics in May 1987.
Here we see Clark Kent and Cat Grant at the offices of the Daily Planet, discussing Perry White’s ongoing investigation of organized crime in Metropolis. Clark is having his morning coffee, and as we can see from his choice of mug he’s a fan of The Far Side.
This page is a good example of both Ordway’s storytelling and inking. He does a good job laying out the conversation between Clark and Cat, presenting it from different angles, making it interesting. I like how Ordway inks Cat on this page. Panel four is especially beautiful.
I know that it’s undoubtedly a function of my having gotten into DC Comics in the late 1980s, but I definitely regard Ordway as one of the definitive Superman artists.
Jumping forward a dozen years we have Avengers volume 3 #18, written & penciled by Jerry Ordway, inked by George Perez, lettered by Richard Starkings, and colored by Tom Smith, published by Marvel Comics in July 1999.
Ordway wrote & drew a really fun three issue story arc on Avengers to give Kurt Busiek & George Perez a chance to catch their breaths. This is the final page of Ordway’s last issue.
Hank Pym is in his lab late at night, studying the technology of the cyborg Doomsday Man, one of the threats the Avengers faced during Ordway’s storyline. Hank has obviously been working for a while, because he disgustedly thinks to himself “*GAH* Coffee’s bitter! ‘Course that pot’s only been on all night…”
Before Hank has a chance to brew some fresh java he is interrupted by the violent arrival of several leering metal monstrosities, servants of his mechanical “son” Ultron. And so Ordway segues back into Busiek & Perez’s own ongoing storylines, with Perez himself inking this last page as part of the transition. Ordway must have been working closely with Busiek, Perez and editor Tom Brevoort to get everything to line up so smoothly.
Jerry Ordway is one of my favorite comic book creators, and I enjoyed his short stint on Avengers. As much as I liked Busiek & Perez, I really wish Ordway could have done more work on this title. He latter penciled the Domination Factor: Avengers and Maximum Security miniseries, on both of these once again doing excellent jobs depicting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
I don’t think Ordway’s had any ongoing assignments in the last two decades, instead bouncing around between various short guest runs, fill-ins, miniseries and specials. That’s a shame, because he’s a very talented artist.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 