Happy birthday to Alex Saviuk

Wishing a very happy birthday to comic book artist Alex Saviuk, who turns 70 years old today.

Saviuk’s career in comic books began in late 1977 when he started working DC Comics. Among his early assignments were Green Lantern / Green Arrow, The Flash, Superman Family and back-up stories in Action Comics and DC Comics Presents.

The first time I recall seeing Saviuk’s work was in Action Comics #571, which came out in early June 1985, shortly before my ninth birthday. Behind a shocking, attention-grabbing cover by Brian Bolland was “Mission to Earth,” a rather offbeat, humorous story written by Bronze Age Superman scribe Elliot S! Maggin, penciled by Saviuk, inked by Dave Hunt, lettered by David Weiss and colored by Gene D’Angelo.

“Mission to Earth” sees the alien robot Thresher222 teleport to Earth in search of a cure for the nova radiation that is destroying his fellow living machines. Thresher222 materializes in the Arctic near Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Unfortunately the journey leaves the robot with amnesia. Before Superman can solve the robot visitor’s identity problem, he has another emergency to tackle: In his other identity of Clark Kent, he’s supposed to interview Superman on television. For whatever reason Batman isn’t available to do one of the impersonations he usually does when Superman and Clark need to appear together, so the Man of Steel asks Thresher222 to don a rubber mask and assume Clark’s identity on live television.

Unfortunately the guest that “Clark” has to interview before Superman is Metropolis Councilman Gregg, who is running for Mayor. Gregg proceeds to spew a torrent of political nonsense, overwhelming the already-unbalanced robot, resulting in his head exploding on live television. Saviuk does an amazing job of depicting the left- side of “Clark’s” head going kablooey, an image superbly complemented by Maggin’s sardonic narration. Even now, almost four decades later, I still look at that page and start giggling uncontrollably.

In 1986 Saviuk made the move over to Marvel Comics. After working on a number of fill-ins for Marvel, including three issues of Amazing Spider-Man, at the end of 1987 Saviuk became the regular penciler on Web of Spider-Man beginning with issue #35. Editor Jim Salicrup also brought onboard writer Gerry Conway and inker Keith Williams with that issue.

Other than very short runs by Greg LaRocque and Marc Silvestri, Web of Spider-Man really didn’t have a regular artist for its first three years, and was frequently plagued by fill-in issues. This changed with Saviuk’s arrival. He remained on Web of Spider-Man thru issue #116 in 1994, and during his nearly seven year long run only missed a handful of issues. For most of his run Saviuk was inked by Williams, with later issues embellished by Sam de la Rosa, Don Hudson and Stephen Baskerville.

I’ve previously commented that I felt that Saviuk was overshadowed by Todd McFarlane high-profile runs on first Amazing Spider-Man and then the adjectiveless Spider-Man series. That’s unfortunate, because Saviuk was doing quality work month after month on Web of Spider-Man. Saviuk’s association with the web-slinger would extend well beyond Web.

In 1989 Saviuk penciled the graphic novel Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives, in which writer Gerry Conway explored the complicated intertwined histories of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Accompanying Conway and Saviuk were inker Andy Mushynsky, letterer Rick Parker and colorist Bob Sharen.

Parallel Lives allowed Saviuk the opportunity to do his own interpretation of many classic Spider-Man moments, among them the iconic “Face it, tiger… you just hit the jackpot!” scene originally depicted by John Romita in Amazing Spider-Man #42.

From 1994 to 1997 Saviuk penciled Spider-Man Adventures / Adventures of Spider-Man, which was based on the animated series that was airing at the time. After that, from 1997 to 2019 Saviuk was the penciler on the Sunday edition of The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip.

So, yeah, Saviuk drew Spider-Man continuously for over 30 years. I definitely consider him to be among the all-time great artists to have worked on the character.

In addition to his DC and Marvel work, Saviuk has drawn for several other publishers. In the late 1990s he penciled several issues of the comic book adaptation of The X-Files published by Topps Comics. In the 21st Century he’s drawn a number of stories for Fantomet, the Swedish edition of Lee Falk’s costumed hero The Phantom published by Egmont, as well working on a few issues of The Phantom comic books published in the United States by Moonstone and Hermes Press. Saviuk also drew several covers for Big City Comics in 2006.

I met Saviuk a couple of times at comic cons, and he came across to me as a good person. He did a really nice Spider-Man sketch for me. I also got several issues of Web of Spider-Man autographed by him, among them the infamous “Spider-Hulk” story from issue #70 plotted by Gerry Conway and scripted by David Michelinie.

Having been exposed to gamma radiation leeched out of the Incredible Hulk in the previous issue, Spider-Man himself became big, green & angry. Of course by the end of the issue Spider-Man was restored to normal. Nowadays if Marvel did this they’d probably give Spider-Hulk his own series, or team him up with all of the other Hulk knock-offs, or something. In any case, Saviuk pulled of the task of rendering “Spider-Hulk” without the character looking too ridiculous.

More recently Saviuk has drawn several variant covers for Marvel, among them on the five issue miniseries Symbiote Spider-Man, continuing his lengthy association with the web-slinger. He is also a frequent guest at comic book conventions, where he draws amazing sketches & commissions, many of which can be viewed on his Instagram account.

Happy birthday, Alex Saviuk. Thank you for all the amazing artwork throughout the years. I hope there’s many more to come.

The Daily Comic Book Coffee, Part Nine

Welcome to the ninth Comic Book Coffee collection. I’ve been posting 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.

41) Ramona Fradon & Mike Royer

We have selected panels from Plastic Man #14, penciled by Ramona Fradon, inked by Mike Royer, and written by Elliot S! Maggin, published by DC Comics with an Aug-Sept 1976 cover date.

It’s a late night at the headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Chief tells his secretary Sundae to put on some coffee while he briefs his agents about a dangerous new threat to national security.  The Chief details to Plastic Man, Woozy Winks and Gully Foyle the gruesome origins of the oozing menace known as “Meat By-Product… The Dump That Walks!”  By the time the Chief is finished describing this monstrosity in excruciating detail, Plas and Co are so completely grossed out that when Sundae attempts to serve them coffee, donuts and cream-filled Danishes, they’re ready to toss their cookies.

I love Ramona Fradon’s artwork.  She has such a distinctive, unconventional, cartoony style.  She brought a very offbeat, fun, comedic sensibility to Metamorpho the Element Man, the character she co-created with writer Bob Haney and editor George Kashdan in 1965.  That definitely made her very well-suited to draw Plastic Man a decade later.  Fradon stated in interviews that he was one of her favorite characters to have worked on.

Fradon is inked here by Mike Royer.  Fradon loved Royer’s inking of her pencils on this story, and has said she wishes they’d had other opportunities to work together.  It’s certainly a great collaboration.

42) June Brigman & Roy Richardson

Here is a trio of coffee-related installments of the Mary Worth newspaper comic strip, penciled by June Brigman, inked by Roy Richardson, and written by Karen Moy.

In the November 10, 2017 strip, Iris is having late night coffee with her boyfriend Zak.  Iris and Zak had previously dated, but she wasn’t certain if they should be together, since she was several years older than Zak.  However, following her break-up with Wilbur she decided to give her relationship with Zak another shot.

Paralleling this, in the December 5, 2017 strip, Wilbur has returned home from his travels abroad. Over morning coffee (complete with a Hello Kitty coffee mug) he is catching up with his daughter Dawn.  Wilbur had a disastrous time in Bogota, where a woman attempted to scam him out of his money.  This has left him wondering if he should try to get back together with Iris, not knowing she is now involved with Zak.

Jumping forward a year to the November 26, 2018 strip, Mary agrees to foster Libby, a one-eyed tabby cat.  Libby is definitely a mischievous kitty, and when Mary tries to have her morning coffee the tabby knocks over her milk.  Mary ultimately cannot keep Libby, because her boyfriend Jeff is allergic to cats.  Fortunately Mary’s neighbor Estelle agrees to adopt Libby.

I liked the Libby storyline.  Libby reminds me of Champ, one of my girlfriend Michele’s old cats.  Champ was a one-eyed cat as well, the runt of the litter.  She was a sweet & affectionate kitty, and we were sad when she passed away from old age.

I’ve been a fan of June Brigman’s work ever since she co-created Power Pack with Louise Simonson at Marvel Comics in 1984.  Brigman has often worked with her husband Roy Richardson, an accomplished inker.  June and Roy have been drawing Mary Worth since 2016.  They both love cats, so I’m sure they enjoyed introducing Libby to the strip.  Please check out their awesome cat-centric sci-fi series Captain Ginger written by Stuart Moore from Ahoy Comics.

43) Mark Bright & Bob Layton

Iron Man #228, layouts by Mark Bright, finishes & co-plot by Bob Layton, script & co-plot by David Michelinie, letters by Janice Chiang, and colors by Bob Sharen, published by Marvel Comics in March 1988.

One of the qualities of David Michelinie & Bob Layton’s runs on Iron Man that I have always appreciated has been their ability to write Tony Stark as a flawed, sometimes unsympathetic person while keeping his actions completely in character and believable.  Unlike some of the writers who followed them, they never had Stark acting in a wildly implausible manner simply to advance the plot.

Witness the now-classic storyline “Armor Wars” which saw Stark desperately attempting to destroy the technology he developed that was now in the hands of others.  As the story progressed, Stark became more and more obsessed, manipulative and ruthless, but the execution of this made it feel this progression was genuine.

Iron Man #228 sees Stark planning to attack the Vault, the federal penitentiary for incarcerating super-powered criminals, in order to destroy the Guardsmen armor that was developed from his technology.  While planning their assault, Stark and his close friend Jim Rhodes stop at a nearby greasy spoon for some coffee.  This scene by Layton, Michelinie and Mark Bright allows for a momentary pause in the action, enabling us to see the friendship and rapport that exists between Stark and Rhodes.

There’s very nice lettering by Janice Chiang on display here.  I love her work, and can usually spot it in an instant.

I’m not quite sure what to make of Stark’s anecdote, though…

“Took me three weeks to get rid of the blueberry stain. Had to tell the guys at the gym it was a tattoo.”

Sounds like it could be the punchline to a dirty story.  Whatever the set-up might have been, I doubt the Comics Code Authority would have approved!

44) Bob Oksner & Vince Colletta

This page is from the Lois Lane story “A Deadly Day in the Life” penciled by Bob Oksner, inked by Vince Colletta, written by Paul Levitz, lettered by John Costanza, and colored by Jerry Serpe.  It appeared in Superman Family #212, published by DC Comics with a November 1981 cover date.

The relationship between Lois Lane and Superman in the Bronze Age was certainly somewhat of an improvement from how it was handled in the 1950s and 60s.  Lois was at least somewhat less catty and scheming and manipulative than she had been previously depicted, and Superman appeared to genuinely care for her.

At the same time, looking at in from a 21st Century perspective, it becomes much more obvious that Lois is in a relationship with a man who is actively hiding a major part of his personal life from her, and who regularly gaslights her whenever she comes close to uncovering the truth.

Nevertheless, given that the Bronze Age writers were required to maintain the Lois Lane-Clark Kent-Superman love triangle, they did fairly good work.  Paul Levitz writes Lois and Superman as two people who are comfortable with each other.  Bob Oksner’s background drawing romance and humor stories made him well-suited to penciling scenes like this.  Likewise, Vince Colletta’s own work in the romance genre results in an effective inking job.

Plus, I love the novelty of Superman using his heat vision to brew a cup of coffee for Lois.  Jim Thompson sent this page my way.  Yes, this IS from the same story he spotlighted where someone hurls a grenade into Lois’ bathroom while she’s taking a shower, and she tosses it back out the window before it explodes.  Good thing she had that cup of coffee beforehand!

45) Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr

As a follow-up to our last entry, these pages are from Adventures of Superman #525, penciled by Stuart Immonen, inked by Jose Marzan Jr, written by Karl Kesel, lettered by Albert DeGuzman, and colored by Glenn Whitmore, published by DC Comics in July 1995.

Prior issues of the Superman titles had introduced to Clark Kent’s old high school rival Kenny Braverman, who gained superpowers and joined a covert government agency… you know, like pretty much everyone else in comic books eventually does.  Braverman, who adopted the identity Conduit, learned that Clark was Superman and attempted to murder all of Clark’s friends and family.  In a final battle with Superman, the hate-filled Conduit’s powers consumed his body, killing him.

In this issue Clark is reunited with Lois Lane, who he believed had been killed by Conduit.  Clark explains to Lois that he is seriously considering giving up his secret identity to be Superman full-time, to prevent anyone else from being in danger due to their association with him.

Lois tells Clark she wants to go get a cup of coffee in the nearby town, but with one proviso: Clark needs to do it a Superman.  Changing into the Man of Steel, he goes to a nearby diner to order a cup of coffee, only to discover that everyone is ill-at-ease around him.  Some people are expecting a super-villain to attack any minute; others simply don’t know how to act around him.

Meeting up with Superman outside of town, Lois explains to him:

“You NEED a secret identity. It’s what protects you from people… and it’s what connects you to people. Under that costume you’re Clark Kent — you’ll always be Clark Kent. You can’t live without him… and neither can I!”

I feel that the post-Crisis continuity improved Lois Lane’s character a great deal. As I explained before, I was never overly fond of Lois.  I couldn’t understand why Clark / Superman wanted to be with her.  Even the efforts to make her less of a caricature in the 1970s were hampered by the need to maintain the Lois Lane-Superman-Clark Kent love triangle.  I think a clean break was needed for Lois, and Crisis provided John Byrne with that opportunity.

Of course, having subsequently read some of the original Siegel & Shuster stories, I now realize Byrne was actually returning Lois to her original conception, the intelligent, assertive, tough-as-nails investigative reporter of the early Golden Age, and away from the catty, scheming version that existed in the 1950s.

I also like that Byrne had Clark wanting to win Lois as himself, not as Superman, because Clark Kent was his real self, and “Superman” was the secret identity.

Byrne’s work with Lois and Clark definitely set the stage for Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens and others to write the characters in an interesting, adult relationship, and for Lois to finally learn that Clark was Superman.

In this issue Karl Kesel does really good work with the couple.  The artwork by Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr expertly tells the story.  And, wow, that coloring by Glenn Whitmore on page 19, with the sun setting in a dusky star-filled sky, is beautiful.

I know there are fans that are older than me who grew up on the Silver Age or Bronze Age comic books and did not like the changes made to these characters.  I can understand that.  I can only say that I read these stories when I was a teenager.  So for me this will always be MY version of Lois and Clark.