Manning's Star Wars

When Star Wars was young, the need for Star Wars was as strong as it is today.

Fans cried out for more and a man named Russ Manning helped do that.

Known for his work on the Tarzan and son of Tarzan comics from Dell and newspaper strips, Russ Manning was a master. His Magnus Robot Fighter placed him well into the genre of sci-fi as well.

Manning Mondays

What can I say, but that I like me some Russ manning art.

Deceptively simple in design and line. Yet complex in composition and detail.

Luana.

He did it all with an economy of style. What he didn't draw is the secret of masters.

 

DeZuniga Art!

Tony DeZuniga, a gentleman artist.


Star Wars!

DeZuniga mastered the art of pen and ink. Sure, we in comics call it "inking"...

...and here he is over the great John Buscema, yet his skill with a pencil needed no inking.

Wild Days: Follow Me Down - prose novel

WILD DAYS: Follow Me Down Chapter 1 draft PREVIEW

"If only I could forget the days gone by", Van said to himself.

A dry, stuttered laugh sounded behind him. Manny Croker, outlaw and rustler, tied stomach-down and cross-ways over his Appaloosa, was too weak to lift his head. Cinch straps bound his wrists against one side of his horse's belly, connected to his ankles on the other side by a two-foot rope. "You do, eh? You never will, Devil Whip."

Ignoring Croker, Van stared into the darkness towards the distant Fort Red Clay. Sound traveled far across the desolate, Arizonan plains northwest of the cavalry post. Taps, the final bugle call of the day, played an hour ago. Anguished cries replaced the faint notes of the bugle, rising as if from hell. Van sat heavy in the saddle, they were close now and his black mustang knew the way.

'Chero was a well mannered, mountain stallion, caught wild by Van. Never quite tamed, 'Chero was nonetheless a dependable companion on journeys crisscrossing the Southwest collecting bounties. Dependable unless a jackrabbit happened by.

At fifty paces from the fort the guards called out their night challenge, "Halt! Who comes there?"

"Mr. BRAN, with prisoner!"

The guards quickly called back, "Advance, and give the counter sign!"

"Ellisen!" Van said.

The first guard, a lean man, walked forward and swung open the rather unimpressive gate; the second waved Van forward. Chero trotted ahead without prompting. Van glanced over his shoulder at Croker but his ride took its lead from Van's mustang.

Led to the parade grounds by the first guard, Van dismounted by the flag pole, gathering up the lariat by which he guided the second horse. Walking beside Croker's mare, Van slapped the horse's flank. "You take care now."

The Appaloosa neighed in protest, but bolted forward and bounded along the cavalry road kicking up dust. The bewildered guard quickly following behind.

Van watched until they were out of sight, rounding the block houses. "Good riddance."

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The Wild Days novel is well underway. Please consider showing your support, on Patreon. Every bit helps.

Toth

His economy of line, placement of blacks, his sense of design. These are things easily discernible with the eye. Toth's art is bold and for some, "too simple". That's the deceptively obvious misconception of his work. It is not simple. Only through much thought given to composition and layout (and experience), did Toth arrive at pages of such clarity. He COULD have added more line-work - hatching, stippling (which he often did) and the like - but why, when he could define more with one line than three or four.

Many a master illustrator - Toth's peers in time period and creative mastery - advocated the same approach. Every line must have a meaning. Even if simply decorative, they were placed with PURPOSE. As an accent to another line or shape, or to define the same. Question: when does a line become a shape? Toth knew. The shapes created by his placements of black unified a picture's compositional balance, while strengthening its impact.

Often, there was no delicacy of line - he'd ink with a marker and wasn't really bothered with technique in that regard. For each job, consideration of line and rendering of what textures he choose to include, always came back to his rule - Keep It Simple.

This simplicity led Toth to the animation industry, crafting countless model sheets and storyboards - most well known being Space Ghost and the various Super Friends cartoons.

It was his exposure to these working methods that further evolved his art. His brief forays back to comics in the 1970s and 80s were very different from earlier work. This is to be expected, as the majority of artists always strive to improve their art and by nature of experience and time, the art changes.
A funny note, something to look for among some artists: with age and girth of illustrators, figures tend to increase in size. Stockier, thicker figure drawings become common. While this is true of many artists, it doesn't appear in the work of Gil Kane - the figures of his final two decades remained the same proportion (and so did he). Yet look at Kane's style evolution from the 1960s through 1970s (that's surely a post to come).

Toth's most hidden work to many today, are his many stories told at Dell. Dell Four Color and a title or two like Disney's Zorro. Besides some fabulous work for DC on House of Mystery and romance comics, his far more detailed work was found in warren's Creepy/Eerie - some of his final 'full' comic work.

And come to think of it, you don't really read much about Toth's women---

Toth could draw some hot ladies!

Toth Tuesdays

The Shadow knows...

Manning Mondays

...at 139...

Manning Mondays

Star Wars...
Russ Mannings' Star Wars newspaper strips were collected, reformatted and colored by Dark Horse Comics...

Manning Mondays

Star Wars...

Russ Manning illustrated the first Star Wars strip and comics were better for it.

Mark of Kane - pt2

It was Kane's ingenious use of perspective that marked Kane as a true designer. His roughs and layouts for StarHawks clearly show his working methods. Figure placement and background elements, as well as his figure construction. They show quite clearly how he structured the head and face, and why his particular cheeks looked the way they do.

The StarHawks collection is a wonderful source of some of Kane's best work. Humorous and dramatic stories are expertly depicted by Kane.

Another source can be found in Sword of the Atom, as well as his adaptation of the Ring of the Nibelung . In the Ring, he inks all of his work in a constant line weight - a method he often employed. Many young artists today do the same, often coming to use brushes later in their careers. Kane never felt the need to do so.

For a long period, Kane did work here and there for DC, but worked in the animation industry through the 1980s. In the 1990s Kane worked at Topps, and finally at Malibu, for its Bravura line of creator-owned projects.

His animation work was in design and concepts, and one key example stands out.

Looking at the three Centurions, one begins to notice something eerie - you see three of the comics masters that worked on the cartoon. Gil Kane, Doug Wildey, and Jack Kirby. Sea, Air, and Land. And, what was the name of the lady in Sky Vault?