Jim Mooney, R.I.P.

Mark Evanier has posted that comic book artist Jim Mooney passed away yesterday.

Here's an interview from COMIC BOOK ARTIST #7 from a few years ago, focusing on his Marvel years but touching on the other stuff as well, with some nice artwork.

The first place I'd have seen Mooney's art is probably when he was one of the main artists on various Spider-Man titles in the early 1980s, usually as the inker or finisher over a variety of artists, bringing a consistency to the line. Later on I became familiar with his earlier stuff through some back issues and reprints, including his long run as the artist on Supergirl's solo feature in the 1960s and other work on features like Tommy Tomorrow and Robin and Dial H For Hero. By the time 1990 rolled around, I normally wouldn't have been interested in a comic based on the Superboy TV show of the era, but the fact that it was drawn by Mooney and Ty Templeton was enough. Later on in his retirement years I enjoyed his run inking Claypool's SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY over various artists, especially his work with Dave Cockrum.

More recently I've been picking up some of the recent reprints of his work, like the SHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERGIRL volume and some Marvel books of the 1970s like OMEGA THE UNKNOWN and enjoying them immensely. I'm glad he lived long enough to see a fair amount of his work reprinted and enjoy some conventions and meeting his fans.

A selection of Jim Mooney illustrated pages spanning over a half-century:

Wildfire, some early Mooney work for Quality Comics from SMASH COMICS #28, 1941 (scan from here)

BATMAN #56, 1950 (inks by Ray Burnley, original art scan from here)

Tommy Tomorrow from WORLD'S FINEST #113, 1960

Supergirl from ACTION #263, 1960

Dial H For Hero from HOUSE OF MYSTERY #166, 1967

OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #1, 1976

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #51, 1981 (over Marie Severin)

SUPERBOY THE COMIC BOOK #1, 1990 (Ty Templeton inks)

UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN '97 ANNUAL, 1997

SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY #28, 1997 (over Dave Cockrum)

Arthur C. Clarke, R.I.P.

From the beginning of one of my favourite science fiction novels:

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On June 30, 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometers - a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe. On February 12, 1947, another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than four hundred kilometers from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivaling that of the newly invented uranium bomb.

In those days there was nothing that men could do to protect themselves against the last random shots in the cosmic bombardment that had once scarred the face of the Moon. The meteorites of 1908 and 1947 had struck uninhabited wilderness; but by the end of the twenty-first century there was no region left on Earth that could be safely used for celestial target practice. The human race had spread from pole to pole. And so, inevitably...

At 0946 GMT on the morning of September 11 in the exceptionally beautiful summer of the year 2077, most of the inhabitants of Europe saw a dazzling fireball appear in the eastern sky. Within seconds it was brighter than the Sun, and as it moved across the heavens—at first in utter silence—it left behind it a churning column of dust and smoke.

Somewhere above Austria it began to disintegrate, producing a series of concussions so violent that more than a million people had their hearing permanently damaged. They were the lucky ones.

Moving at fifty kilometers a second, a thousand tons of rock and metal impacted on the plains of northern Italy, destroying in a few flaming moments the labor of centuries. The cities of Padua and Verona were wiped from the face of the Earth; and the last glories of Venice sank forever beneath the sea as the waters of the Adriatic came thundering landward after the hammer blow from space.

Six hundred thousand people died, and the total damage was more than a trillion dollars. But the loss to art, to history, to science—to the whole human race, for the rest of time—was beyond all computation. It was as if a great war had been fought and lost in a single morning; and few could draw much pleasure from the fact that, as the dust of destruction slowly settled, for months the whole world witnessed the most splendid dawns and sunsets since Krakatoa.

After the initial shock, mankind reacted with a determination and a unity that no earlier age could have shown. Such a disaster, it was realized, might not occur again for a thousand years—but it might occur tomorrow. And the next time, the consequences could be even worse.

Very well; there would be no next time.

A hundred years earlier, a much poorer world, with far feebler resources, had squandered its wealth attempting to destroy weapons launched, suicidally, by mankind against itself. The effort had never been successful, but the skills acquired then had not been forgotten. Now they could be used for a far nobler purpose, and on an infinitely vaster stage. No meteorite large enough to cause catastrophe would ever again be allowed to breach the defenses of Earth.

So began Project SPACEGUARD. Fifty years later—and in a way that none of its designers could ever have anticipated—it justified its existence.

Jerry Serpe, R.I.P.

I kind of hate that the last three major posts on this weblog are marking deaths...



Mark Evanier posts that Jerry Serpe, who coloured comics for DC from the 1940s to the 1980s, passed away.

Above is a late 1970s bio of Serpe, unfortunately from the nadir of comic book printing. A shame, but most of Serpe's credited work is from that era.

Go read Evanier's post for some interesting info, including an anecdote about how Serpe got picked to colour the last few issues of BLACKHAWK. I remember when I picked up that run of BLACKHAWK as back issues thinking that it was a shame it ended just as it was looking its best, though I didn't really notice the change in colouring credits that I guess was part of it. One time I did notice Serpe's name was when I was reading a bunch of 1970s DC comics with Steve Ditko artwork and thinking that a few of them were really nice, among the best I'd ever seen Ditko coloured, and noting Serpe's name on the more impressive ones. Around the same time I was also picking up a lot of DC war comics from the 1980s, where his name would pop up frequently.

A few more images below from some stuff I pulled out. The first is from the Dan Spiegle drawn SGT. ROCK ANNUAL that Evanier mentions (which is excellent, by the way, well worth tracking down). Next is a cool image from BLACKHAWK, also by Spiegle. Then something colourful from Ditko's SHADE. And finally a nicely expressive bit of colouring over an early 1980s Bissette/Veitch drawn short.

(it's kind of hard to decide how much to play with the scans on poorly printed comics when you want to show off the colouring. Usually I'm more concerned with making sure the linework and lettering pop out clearly)

Dave Stevens, R.I.P.

Dave Stevens passed away at age 52. Mark Evanier has some personal and professional details of his life. Other than his entertaining feature "The Rocketeer" he was best known as a cover/pin-up artist, specializing in the sexy glamour stuff, as you can see in many of the covers above, but as you can see from some of the others he had a good range, including a few nice JONNY QUEST covers and a few nice pieces inking Jack Kirby, like the VIKING HEROES cover up there.

He was quite a talent, and it's a shame that there's so little comic book work by him. For those interested in his work, COMIC BOOK ARTIST #15 is highly recommended. The interview from that issue can be seen here, but there's a lot of great art in the actual magazine.

Here are a few examples of his interior artwork:







The first from QUACK #1, 1976, story by Mark Evanier, layouts and character designs by Scott Shaw and pencils and inks by Stevens.

Quite different from what he was doing soon, like that page from ALIEN WORLDS #2 (published in 1983, but drawn in 1977), scripted by Bruce Jones.

And of course the Rocketeer from PACIFIC PRESENTS #2, featuring Peevy (based on Doug Wildey).

Fat little nothing

Nuff said