The Pencil and Brush of "Fearless" Frank Giacoia

A fixture at Marvel Comics during its Silver Age period and into its Bronze was artist Frank Giacoia, whose inking credit (along with those of Syd Shores, Dick Ayers, and Dan Adkins) graced many a splash page across Marvel's entire line of books. I was always surprised to see his embellishment work on a story, as it seemed he "floated" between assignments; in those instances, he was generally filling in until the book's regular inker either returned or could be lined up. Much of his work could be found on issue covers, as well, but it was always his story work that I was pleased to see, as his style was always reliable and complimented the pencils rather than suppressed them to any degree. There were surely those pencillers who appreciated what a strong inker brought to their table; but I have no doubt that many were happy to have old pros like Giacoia and Shores assigned to their books, knowing that the work would be handled on time and consistently professional.

Giacoia's work in comics dates back to 1940, when he and Carmine Infantino were assigned what would become their first published work--an insert for the new Timely Comics title, U.S.A. Comics. It was Infantino who inked Giacoia's pencils on a story featuring the Golden Age character, Jack Frost (no relation of course to the Iron Man villain who would go on to become Blizzard):

In his first appearance, Jack becomes quite the crimebuster, in a virtual sea of crimebusting mags that apparently flew off the shelf during this period. Though at his story's end, it looks like he may not stay on the side of the law for long!

When Timely morphed into Marvel Comics, it was a rare day when you would see pencilling work from Giacoia. One job that comes to mind is a Sons of the Serpent arc in The Avengers, with Giacoia handling pencils on Part 1 of a two-part story. Along with inker Sam Grainger, he turns in quite a nice collection of pages.

An "unsung" but no less distinguished inker for most of his time at Marvel (a category which I'd also apply to Shores), Giacoia would receive a thoughtful dedication in the 1989 graphic novel, The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives, one year after his death at the young age of 63.

I made every effort to find a mention of Giacoia's passing in the (very abridged) Bullpen Bulletins page of Marvel's books around the time of his death, which was then using most of its limited space to promote profiles of various Marvel editors, but I came up empty. If anyone can track it down (assuming such a mention exists), I'd appreciate any info on it because I'd certainly like to include it. In its absence, hopefully our tip of the hat to the man here at the PPC will serve to give a well-deserved acknowlegement of Giacoia's contribution to the medium.

Frank Giacoia, circa 1970 (inking FF #97)

(with thanks to Alan Kupperberg via Sean Kleefeld)

Giacoia, along with Josef Rubinstein, was added to the Inkwell Award's 2016 class of the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.

BONUS!

Have a look at a few selected PPC posts which feature Mr. Giacoia's work.

Fantastic Four #93

Amazing Adventures #13

Daredevil #16 and #17

Captain America #106

The Defenders #1

Amazing Spider-Man #102

Fantastic Four #114

Amazing Spider-Man #s 106 and #107

Tides Of Death!

The wedding day of the Sub-Mariner was filled with reflection, celebration, pomp, and, it probably goes without saying, the din of battle. But when it came time for the main event, and the joining between Namor and the lady Dorma was complete, it also included one hell of a showstopper.

Yes, Llyra, Namor's vengeful enemy from when she ruled Lemuria with an iron fist, had returned to seize total power--and more, as we can see. And before her revenge had run its course, Namor would be forced to make an impossible choice--and, perhaps, a fatal one.

"...And One Must Die!" blares this issue's cover. You're going to want to take that seriously.

Where Were YOU On the Wedding Day of the Sub-Mariner?

As Roy Thomas closed in on the end of his notable three-year run on Sub-Mariner, he set the stage for his successor(s) with two issues that were pivotal in changing Namor's course for the foreseeable future, in terms of not only his status as Prince of undersea Atlantis but also as the betrothed of the lady Dorma, a mainstay character who virtually symbolized Namor's ties to his heritage. Their wedding day, the events of which the first of these issues dedicates itself to, would be a time of celebration and, in the end, overwhelming tragedy. But it's the celebratory, festive atmosphere of the day we're meant to initially take part in--for it represents a rebirth of sorts for the people of Atlantis, who sense with this joining a turning point for themselves as well as their proud city which at long last represents the end of their wanderings and a new and rich history as one of the undersea kingdoms of the world.

Indeed, we find that even the story's splash page gives no indication of the strife its cover warns is to come.

Mr. Fantastic When It Counted

Father's Day has come and gone--but, from a comics perspective, we shouldn't forget to give a nod to Reed Richards, now blessed with two children and hopefully imparting to them a little wisdom from past mistakes. One of my favorite such moments comes from a story from 2002, where Reed has hired a PR firm to revitalize the FF's image--a decision which strikes his three partners as a bit out of character for someone who previously has shown little to no interest in the group's celebrity status.

By week's end, Mr. Shertzer has come up with a viable advertising campaign, including how to handle their comic book. But as he shares his thoughts with the book's creative people, he's unaware that there's an eavesdropper present--and it leads to one of my most memorable Reed moments ever.

Happy belated Father's Day, all.

Not to dampen the sentiment of this scene, but Reed's rationale doesn't really add up on a few points. Can you spot them?

The Rampaging TV Sensation

(With a tip of the hat to Steve Does Comics for this post's inspiration!)


Like a number of Marvel's line of B&W magazines from the '70s, I passed on the original run of The Rampaging Hulk magazine from 1977-78, though I remember taking a quick look at a couple of issues when browsing the magazine rack. The book's time period preceded that of the present-day Hulk, going back to the days just after his first series when he had a little more on the ball in the brain department, a facet of his personality which writer Doug Moench took further so that the Hulk's manner and speech resembled that of the character we saw during his brief stint in The Avengers. That alone wouldn't have been a problem for me; in fact, I liked the Hulk when he was almost always in a bad mood and had a hair-trigger temper, when you could never tell what was going to push him over the edge. But the mag also made an alien race called the Krylorians the Hulk's perpetual foes throughout the run of the initial series, and they just didn't appeal to me--mostly because Moench wrote them as if they'd modeled their speech and cognitive patterns after street-savvy Americans, something I couldn't reconcile with alien invaders. Boiled down, they seemed to be really snarky versions of the Toad Men, though frankly I enjoyed the Toad Men.

Also of note is that Marvel's magazines tended to be churned out depending on the trend of the year, whether it was martial arts or monsters or a popular film. In this case, when The Rampaging Hulk was retooled to a color magazine in 1978 with more contemporary stories, it hitched its wagon to the 1978 television series The Incredible Hulk, appealing to the show's fan base with interviews and behind-the-scenes segments. Naturally, the Incredible Hulk comic followed suit with prominent "Marvel's TV Sensation" captions appearing on its covers, though I can hardly fault them for striking while the iron is hot.  At the time, however, I wasn't a regular view of the show--so the large-format Hulk magazine just didn't reach me on any level.

But having recently taken a look at a good number of the magazine issues from each of its runs, I found that there were many things to appreciate about them, creatively speaking. I can't say I didn't have a few problems with Moench's at times meandering style (for instance, an interminable amount of time is spent having Rick Jones, in hot pursuit of the Hulk, trying to determine from the air which direction Queens would be)--but some of the stories were engaging (many of the action sequences more so), and, in all fairness to Moench, each was packed with a whopping 60+ pages of material. In addition, there is some truly spectacular artwork to be found in the series, which will be the primary focus of today's post.

It's only fair to start at the beginning--that is, the Hulk's beginning, following Bruce Banner's exposure to the radiation emitted from the explosion of his gamma bomb. Without the aid of a colorist, the scene is all the more chilling, thanks to artists Walt Simonson and Alfredo Alcala.

Look Not Homeward

By the time of the Fantastic Four's struggle against the cosmically-powered Dr. Doom, we'd already seen a good deal of Johnny Storm's steadfast new friend, Wyatt Wingfoot, who had met the youngest member of the FF when the two were enrolled at Metro College and would subsequently become involved in a few of the FF's Silver Age adventures. Before the team was forced to confront Doom's threat, Wyatt and Johnny were already involved in an adventure of their own--attempting to coax the Inhumans' dimension-travelling dog, Lockjaw, into bringing them within the impenetrable barrier surrounding the Great Refuge, where Johnny's new love, Crystal, remained trapped with the rest of her family.

In hindsight, how clever of writer Stan Lee to have Lockjaw roaming the Himalayan valleys on his own when Johnny and Wyatt encounter him, thus avoiding the question of why it never occurred to Black Bolt, Crystal, or the others to simply make use of Lockjaw themselves to escape. Consequently, it fell to Johnny and Wyatt to pursue that approach (though in reverse). Yet when the Inhumans' leader, Black Bolt, manages to destroy the barrier and win their freedom, and Lockjaw has rejoined the Royal Family following their departure from the Refuge, only now does it occur to Crystal that she can reach Johnny in an instant with Lockjaw's help.

But speaking of Johnny, let's backtrack a bit to where we left things with himself and Wyatt once the conflict with Doom had escalated. With Reed working feverishly in his lab to develop a counter to Doom's power, it turns out that Johnny had his own priorities--and Doom simply couldn't stay at the top of his list.

It isn't long before Doom's activities worldwide force Johnny's hand--leaving Wyatt behind to deliver the alarming news to the rest of the FF.

Yet though Johnny fails against the overwhelming power of Doom, the FF's final battle with Doom is epic, and the madman's threat is brought to an end.

As for Wyatt, he and Johnny return to college, where, at some point, the Torch gets news that the FF are under attack by the Sandman and blazes off to join them--thereby missing an entrance that the students of Metro will be talking about for weeks to come.

Take your last look at Wyatt Wingfoot, folks--he's about to be replaced!

The Silver Age Adventures of Wyatt Wingfoot!

With Johnny Storm spending a good deal of his time either lining up dates or battling super-villains as one-quarter of the Fantastic Four, we didn't see many instances where he could take the opportunity to develop any close friendships with other guys once he left behind his high school pals from his Strange Tales days. His time at college turned out to be brief; and other than his buddies down at the garage or his partner in the FF, Ben Grimm, Johnny didn't seem to gravitate toward any "pals" that he could just shoot hoops with or confide in about his problems or whatever else was on his mind--or even just to hang with to kill time on a Saturday afternoon.

But in the FF's 50th issue, his luck in that regard was looking up--and in this case, we do mean up.

Yes, Johnny meets what would become his friend for life (or at least for the duration of the book)--6′6″ Wyatt Wingfoot, an affable if mysterious fellow freshman at Metro College. Though the "mystery" aspect to him turned out to be a bit overblown, boiled down to an apparent reluctance to follow in the footsteps of his famous father, Olympian decathlon star Will Wingfoot--combined with an unspoken wish to keep a low profile. Perhaps it was all a way for writer Stan Lee to slowly unwrap a character who would become another classic fixture in the lives of the Fantastic Four, and make him stand out more (though artist Jack Kirby made sure of that from the start); yet it might have been nice for Johnny to make a new friend without the character needing an undercurrent of a furtive background.

Of course, a by-product of that approach was a priceless scene that featured conceited college jock Whitey Mullins dropping his jaw (along with everyone else) when Johnny's big buddy steps in to settle a dispute.

Sorry, Wyatt, you've got it wrong--there's a lot more to be said about you!

Johnny Storm: The Bane of Muggers

OR: "I'm Comin' For YOU, Doom!"


In the Better Late Than Never category, there came a time when Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, admitted to himself that without his flame power, he was fair game for practically anyone who wanted to use him as a hostage--or, for his more brutal foes who had some time to kill, as a punching bag.

Granted, there's not much that even the Rock could do against an armored menace like Dr. Doom--even a robot version of Doom, as was the case here. But, while normally it wouldn't be possible for someone battered to near-death by armored fists to still carry on a normal conversation with himself in his head, Johnny came to the conclusion that his uniform was the key to staying alive, and saving the day.

Come to think of it, it might even be Doom (the real Doom) we have to thank for giving Johnny a wake-up call as to his liability to the FF when his power is on the fritz. Doom probably isn't thrilled to sully his hands with any of the FF in hand-to-hand combat, but, were it not for his mask, we'd probably see no small amount of annoyance in his features when onrushing teenagers have the presumption of thinking they're capable of taking him on. You're dismissed, kid.

Finally, Doom would drive the message home to Johnny in a later encounter, where even the Torch wouldn't have stood a chance against Doom. So when Johnny's power is easily nullified, you can imagine how Doom regards the helpless specimen he's left with.

It's also possible that in the back of his mind, Johnny was also thinking about similar encounters--for instance, with beautiful women:

...or even college jocks, who only need a beverage to humiliate him.

So perhaps with the words of Doom and Whitey Mullins ringing in his ears, Johnny would eventually get serious about his gym time--and while he's no Wyatt Wingfoot, he's at least ready to handle an ambush in the Negative Zone. (Though maybe not the ambush he was hoping for, if you catch my drift.)

No problem falling short of Iron Fist, Johnny--just ask your sister for some pointers.

It looks like muggers in any dimension had better run for the hills from now on.  Though even three years earlier than Johnny's Negative Zone scuffle or his beat-down from Doom, artist John Byrne had him trying out--judo, I guess?--by taking on an obnoxious bar patron with designs on Dazzler.

So maybe the days of the Thing bailing Johnny out of a fight are behind him? Because maybe even back in the day...

...Johnny Storm coulda been a contendah.

The Avengers! Kang! Spider-Man! Wowee!

While there was no shortage of guest stars in Fantastic Four and, to an extent, X-Men in their early years, guest appearances in The Avengers were few and far between--that is, unless you're counting characters such as the Sub-Mariner, the Black Widow, or their former member, the Hulk, all of whom were question marks in terms of their standing as heroes or villains. Other characters, such as the Black Knight and Hercules, along with the Widow and Namor, eventually became part of the team, an option that neither of the other teams could indulge in. Yet one prominent character made the rounds in all of them--the amazing Spider-Man, whose popularity of course only increased for the duration of the Silver Age and well into the Bronze, and probably gave more of a boost to those he appeared with than vice versa.

It's a fair assumption that the original Avengers, despite their star power, were struggling to gain a foothold with comics readers and could use the web-slinger's assistance. With only five issues to go until these particular Avengers would exit to make way for a new infusion of characters for the book, a guest appearance by Spider-Man couldn't have been more well-timed--particularly since Iron Man, though pictured on the issue's cover, is M.I.A.

Jeez, Rick, what an eager beaver! Take off, man--the Teen Brigade meeting is over in Queens!

Later Avengers stories would have the team considering Spider-Man for membership; but in this case, the only person considering a team-up with Spider-Man is Kang the Conqueror, who's still fuming from his first defeat at the hands of the Avengers and now turns his attention to a surrogate for engaging them again. To that end, he settles on the most suitable subject to model a robot likeness after, a costumed adventurer he's apparently been intrigued by for some time.

Kang's reasoning for choosing Spider-Man doesn't quite add up, since his plan depends on the Avengers trusting the wall-crawler; but that doesn't seem likely if, as Kang admits, no one, including the Avengers, really knows anything about him. It's a detail that apparently doesn't concern Kang, however, since he forges ahead with creating the robot that will be a precise duplicate of Spider-Man--and soon enough, Spider-Robot is born! (Not his actual name, since even Kang couldn't be that ridiculous.)

And with the flick of a switch, the robot is hurled into the past, where a fateful meeting in comics history will soon take place!

(And if you're feeling a little gypped that this isn't the real Spider-Man, hold that thought!)

Armpits Of Death!

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??