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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 733
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 11:22am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I have a long history of comicbook reading, with many older comicbooks being passed around from cousin to cousin and friend to friend. I have many siblings, who had some different interests, so I was exposed to romance, westerns, horror and war. Mom and Dad frowned on some genres and were more accepting of the material published by Dell, Gold Key, Harvey, Archie and Charlton comics. It was the superhero comics which drew my attention the most.

There are many artists/creators who were always there and I could not say when I first noticed them. People like Jack Kirby, Curt Swan, Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, Nick Cardy, Kurt Schaffenberger, Stan Lee and many more, (so many more), predate my awareness of the artists/creators. I think I was fairly young when I wanted to put a name to the artists/creators of the comicbooks I was reading and probably caused my older siblings distress when they could not answer a simple question. 

I am not sure when I would have associated Marie Severin with the cover image (July 1967) below, but I do recall being bewildered by a man named Marie and thought he was a brother to John. I liked the interior art and wanted more like it. 

Who are your Bright New Stars? And when did you first see them?


Edited by Steve Coates on 18 September 2019 at 11:22am
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Andrew Cate
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 25 February 2019
Location: United States
Posts: 158
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 11:41am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Are you asking when did you start seeking out comics based on the artist? Or are you asking when did you discover an artist early on in their career and jump on their bandwagon before their popularity increased?



Edited by Andrew Cate on 18 September 2019 at 11:42am
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132129
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Since there were little in the way of credits when I was a kid, I tracked most artists by style alone. Dick Sprang, Wayne Boring, Ross Andru, Ramona Fradon. I knew their styles, but it was decades before I knew their names.
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Andrew Cate
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 25 February 2019
Location: United States
Posts: 158
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

First real comic investment was a Ramona Fradon cover. Circa 1988 I was a 12 year old kid. This was really the only silver age first appearance I could afford. Still one of my favorite covers. 

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John Popa
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 20 March 2008
Posts: 4360
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

I started reading in the 80's. Art Adams was the first artist I followed for his name/art. Between Longshot and the New Mutants/X-Men crossover he did, I wanted anything he touched.
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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 733
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

It should be: When did you start seeking out comics based on liking the creator's work, whether it was the penciler, inker or writer or any other contributor.

It really shouldn't be about popularity or bandwagon, but more a personal enjoyment of the comic book and associating the enjoyment with the creators. 

My early comicbook reading years were very chaotic. With very few issues in series and completely out of order. I took to reading the indices to determine the series' titles of the comicbooks with partial or missing covers. Some of the comicbooks I was reading were 10 to 15 years old, dating from the 1950's. And as JB commented, it was the artists' style which was the strongest association between comicbooks. Because, it was expected by everyone in the circulation chain to pass along the read comicbooks, rare was the opportunity to do side by side comparisions.
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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 733
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I just finished reading "The Art of Ramona Fradon"  (Interview by Howard Chaykin). Her work on Aquaman and later Metamorpho really call to early childhood memories.  
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Andrew Cate
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 25 February 2019
Location: United States
Posts: 158
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Not to turn this into a Ramona Fradon thread.......but how amazing is it that she is still creating wonderful sketches for her fans at 92!?

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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15726
Posted: 18 September 2019 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

The Marvel UK reprints of Secret Wars made me go bananas about Marvel. The names Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck were burned into my mind. And when Bob Layton filled in on a couple of issues, I was awful sore. It made me realise how much I Ioved Zeck's pencils. I found the non-Zeck art totally inferior.

A few issues in, a backup story started to appear in those reprints of Secret Wars. It was called Alpha Flight. The art seemed a little 'dark', but I began to dig those stories. I began to recognise the distinctive furrow in the brows of the characters. I logged the name of the artist in my brain. John Byrne. And then as the years rolled on (not many by our middle-aged reckoning, but it seemed a stretch back then... It was maybe 6 months), I realised he was the guy drawing the covers to OHOTMU and did some of the best art in the entries within.

By the time I discovered FF 259 -- my first FF back issue by JB -- I knew this was the creme de la creme. 


Edited by Peter Martin on 18 September 2019 at 8:25pm
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Brian Hague
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 14 November 2006
Posts: 8515
Posted: 19 September 2019 at 2:12am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

One artist who seemed to come out of nowhere to knock me for a loop was Brian Bolland. I was in awe of his cover for Green Lantern #127. ALL of those Green Lanterns... Hokey Smokes... :-)

He also did the cover for GL #130 with Sonar and Carol Ferris and the covers for the Tales of GL Corps Mini-Series. I snapped them all up quick as I could. When he did the JLA #190 on spec, prompting DC to build a story around that image, I soaked those issues up with eager fascination as well. 

I've followed Bolland pretty closely ever since, staying way too long into the bicycle shorts era of Wonder Woman, for example, just to buy those covers. 

(Researching this, I find that I somehow missed Bolland's cover to GL #131! How did that happen??) 

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Neil Lindholm
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 12 January 2005
Location: China
Posts: 4939
Posted: 19 September 2019 at 3:41am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Have to say, it is our esteemed host. First noticed him with X-Men 129 and was immediately enthralled. Before that, I was buying comics based on shows and books that I liked, such as Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and John Carter. I was after the story, not the artists. Once I discovered JB, I started appreciating the artist more, with my favourites at the time being Frank Miller on Daredevil, Romita-Layton on Iron Man, Zeck and Day on Master of Kung-Fu, and Perez on the Avengers. A good time to be introduced to comics.
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Steve Coates
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 November 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 733
Posted: 19 September 2019 at 6:16am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Most certainly it was my older brother who introduced Neal Adams to me in 1967 by bringing home Strange Adventures 207. Neal Adams' realistic  yet very dynamic renderings were attractive and very compelling. His name or cover art would entice me to buy a book, although I did learn to value the story contents more than the cover.

Below is the cover to the earliest memory of Neal Adams work.
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