Numerical data on comic book sales is available on ComicChron. Between 1964 and 1965, what was the top-selling Marvel comic? Was it Spider-Man? The Fantastic Four? Neither title even appears in the list, and I suspect this is an error of omission.
From 1965 to 1966, Spidey and the FF suddenly loomed large, and the relative rankings of Superman and Batman made a big swap. That was THE time when comic books and fandom exploded, bringing me along with it, thanks to the Batman TV show.
Having nothing at the moment for Mother’s Day, I’ll use this instead. Borrowed from J.J. Sedelmaier on Facebook, a superb unpublished Jack Davis illustration. It was intended for MAD #26, 1955, the third issue after the switch from comic book to magazine format.
What a draftsman Davis was. He had such a confident mastery over his brushwork. He layered in so much detail and shading, and yet everything is perfectly clear and distinct.
Joe Sinnott holding a splash page from Sabrina the Teenage Witch #15, October 1973
Joe Sinnott produced a huge volume of art in addition to his massive output for Marvel. Joe worked, without credit, on many pages of Archie Comics, helping his good friend Jon D’Agostino with inking jobs, as explained in an interview excerpt you’ll find here.
Working from Joe’s own logbook, my best buddy Denro took it upon himself to identify all of Joe’s work for Archie. The catch? Joe was able to write down only the names of the stories he worked on. Not even the titles of the books, let alone the issue numbers could be noted. Why? Because the publisher took the stories into inventory and didn’t necessarily know where they would end up appearing. Denro provides more information.
Jon D’Agostino lettered the stories and inked the faces, to maintain his “look” and to keep the characters on model. Then Joe would ink the rest of the figures, in most cases, and ink all of the backgrounds. So, the page was mostly done by Joe, but the characters would have Jon’s look – and of course the look of the penciller. This was the 1969 to 1973 era, when Archie was putting out a ton of books. Jon D’Agostino took on a ton of work and called on Joe when he had too many pages to do.
Joe just recorded the name of the story and how many pages he did. That’s the list I worked from to find the stories in the various Archie titles. It would have been a lot easier today, as most Archies have been indexed in the Grand Comic Database. But back then, when I did it, there was not much info. They actually used my info in the database, as they took it from Joe’s [now deleted] website, which was my info. Technically, they are incorrect in the database, as they credit the inks solely to Joe. It should be Joe AND Jon D’Agostino. But there’s so many issues to correct.
This story was penciled by Stan Goldberg, who was more commonly known as Stan G.
I was tempted to start this post with, “An Irishman, an Italian, and a Jew walk into a bar,” referring to Joe, Jon, and Stan respectively. But I thought better of it. 😉
Only an hour after my last post, there came the stunning news that Neal Adams has died at age 80.
Jack Kirby was the most influential comic book artist of the 1960’s, and Neal Adams was certainly the most influential of the ’70’s.
After Gil Kane left DC to work for Marvel full-time, Adams took over drawing Green Lantern in a series reboot with Green Arrow.
Neal Adams, pencil and inkGreen Lantern #76, April 1970
About five years ago I was at a convention in Rhode Island with Joe Sinnott, his family, and a group of our friends. By then Joe needed a wheelchair to cover longer distances, and I enjoyed wheeling him around. (I was doing the same thing for my father in Arizona.)
Joe was scheduled to appear on a panel, and as we were heading to the end of the hall, Joe and Neal spotted each other. Joe wanted me to take him over to see Neal at his table, and once those two old pros got started talking, there was just no stopping them.
As reluctant as I was to break up their mutual admiration society, after I-don’t-know-how-long, I started to pull back on Joe’s chair to hint that we needed to go. Joe gave me the okay, he and Neal said their good-byes, and we were on our way to a late arrival at the panel discussion. As we entered the room everybody applauded and Joe waved to his fans. This is probably my all-time favorite fanboy memory.
Thor #180, September 1970
Adams… was honored in the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2019.
I was thrilled when Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” hit Musicradio 77 WABC in July 1966. “Superman or Green Lantern ain’t got a-nothin’ on me.”
Superman’s main artist at that time was Curt Swan.
Curt Swan pencil drawing inked by George KleinSuperman #188, July 1966
Gil Kane was Green Lantern’s artist.
Gil Kane, pencil and inkPinup from Green Lantern #46, July 1966
Curt Swan and Gil Kane were my two favorite DC comic book artists. What I didn’t know was that Curt Swan was a member of the Silvermine Golf Club. Our backyard literally bordered the golf course. My school bus stop in the 7th and 8th grade was in front of the clubhouse. Gil Kane lived along the route of my 2-mile bike ride to a shopping center where I bought most of my comic books.
What if I had known about this when my family was preparing to move to Massachusetts, soon after my 13th birthday? Hoo boy, there would have been trouble!
