Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Scintillating Selfies From Seasons Past!


While there are a number of self-portraits of comics artists, it seems a lost art when the artist would surround his image with those comics characters he or she was best known for. The first time I became aware of such portraits was when Marvelmania--Marvel's licensing arm in California which absorbed the old M.M.M.S. and sold fans a variety of memorabilia in the early '70s--grouped together a number of such portraits and advertised them for sale in books published circa 1971:




In those early days of my Marvel Comics acclimation, I was thrilled to see portfolios of those artists whose work I was just getting to know. (Jack Kirby, of course, had departed Marvel by that time, but I was starting to devour reprint titles featuring his art.) I remember being a little disappointed by John Buscema's offering, which featured only a sampling of his work from a single title, Silver Surfer:



Yet there later appeared an offering from him that showed what might have been in a more comprehensive rendering, while other outlets have adapted his pose to create their own portrait of the artist and the many characters which benefited from his style.



Buscema's brother, Sal, who also has a rich portfolio of work at Marvel, was a little more difficult to track down in this respect, but one such drawing turned up:



Though given the sheer number of characters Buscema has brought his style to, the artist himself might have been a bit lost in the crowd if they had been included.  What we see here is quite satisfactory--and Buscema's positioning of himself is an interesting choice in comparison with other such portraits.

I would have expected a similar throng of characters in a George Perez portrait, but the drawings which turned up were surprisingly reserved.



There are no Daredevil images in Wally Wood's selfie, but perhaps a takeaway panel from one of his stories explains why (though the breadth of Wood's work with other subject matter would be more extensive than the pigeon-hole he establishes for himself here).



Several of Gil Kane's offerings focused on his work at DC, though at least one of them included some of his renderings of Marvel characters:



Finally, the portraits of John Romita and Herb Trimpe round out this assortment nicely.


(If you can identify the character posed in front of the Glob in Trimpe's portrait, there's a free Trimpe-rendered Incredible Hulk comic in it for you! (Well, more like my sincere thanks, instead!)


I was surprised at the dearth of such character-based portraits for Rich Buckler, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Barry Smith, Bill Everett, George Tuska, Don Heck, and other notables, all of whom had a hand in building Marvel into the brand it became. If you're curious to see other self-portraits not featured here, do check out the PPC's prior posts on the subject, where you'll find those of Jack Kirby, Marie Severin, et al.

BONUS!
Renditions of the ideal Marvel Bullpen, as conceived by Marie Severin and Bob Camp.



11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its not quite what the post is about Comicsfan, but fwiw Marvel sometimes used artist cameos to "host" stories in their short-lived horror anthologies at the dawn of the 70s, and at least Barry Smith and Don Heck turned up there (in Tower of Shadows #5 and Chamber of Darkness #2 respectively).

-sean

Anonymous said...

PS https://swami227.tumblr.com/post/76636933389/barry-windsor-smith-intro-to-story-from-tower-of

Comicsfan said...

Those were cool intros, weren't they, sean? The few I've laid eyes on, I really got a kick out of. (Though in your example, it's fair to wonder if Roy Thomas served as Mr. Smith's *ahem* ghostwriter!)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the artwork isn't exactly Bashful Barry's best, and looks nothing like any photo of him I've ever seen Comics fan, but I thought it was an interesting curio anyway.
And the alternative was a link to the one with Don Heck!

-sean

Unknown said...

So who was the guy in front of the glob?

dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...

I updated to hate Frank Robbins' work with a passion until I saw his self portrait. Now I'm full of admiration for someone who managed to make a career out of art while living in body that was all bent out of proportion like that.

Big Murr said...

At the very top of your column (article? essay? "blog post" is just too frivolous for the research and writing you do ), I stopped for a nostalgic wallow looking at the first image. I recall that advert well. I spent a long moment ruminating on how my young self didn't think much of John Buscema's thin offering.

And then I resumed reading and saw that disappointment was one of the corner stones of the post! Groovy!

I wonder why there isn't more of these portraits floating around. Maybe the comic book companies have no interest in commissioning them, but there is still plenty of ego and self-marketing in the modern world. I'd think artists would have them pre-made to sell/offer at the many conventions they attend. A bargain alternative for fans who cannot afford the custom art pieces.

Comicsfan said...

Murray, that is a great idea on artists at conventions offering their self-portraits for sale to interested fans who don't have the cash for a commission. (Even perhaps throwing it in on a commission sale as an incentive?) Perhaps the reason more of them don't is that they likely get a lot of commission requests for self-portraits on the spot which feature the characters they've drawn.

Anonymous said...

Good ol' Wally. Even his selfies were chain smoking.
I think that's what got him.

M.P.

Steve W. said...

Isn't the mystery figure in front of the Glob the alien commander who worked for the Galaxy Master?

Comicsfan said...

I think that's a reasonable guess, Steve, but I don't recall seeing zig-zag markings on any of the aliens' uniforms. (Though maybe for the portrait one was pulled from the closet?)