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In Memoriam: Gene Colan

Gene Colan, beloved and respected Silver and Bronze age comic artist, died today. He was 84 years old. Colan was born September 1, 1926 in the Bronx in New York City, where he spent most of his life. He won an Eisner Award, a Shazam Award, and the Eagle Award (twice) for his phenomenal pencils. In 2005 he was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame. He died of complications from liver disease and injury suffered from a recent fall.

Colan is perhaps best remembered and respected for his work on Marvel’s premier horror book of the 1970s, Tomb of Dracula. The series, done in collaboration with writer Marv Wolfman and inker Tom Palmer, was created in 1972 during a “monster boom” subsequent to the Comic Code Authority loosening its guidelines concerning horror comics, including a near lockdown on those fanged undead menaces, vampires. Colan lobbied hard to get the job, even though Stan Lee informed him that he had already promised the book to Bill Everett. Colan has said, “…[R]ight then and there I auditioned for it. Stan didn’t know what I was up to, but I spent a day at home and worked up a sample, using Jack Palance as my inspiration and sent it to Stan. I got a call that very day: It’s yours.” Colan (along with Wolfman and Palmer) worked, unbroken, on all 70 issues of Tomb of Dracula.

That book alone would make for an unforgettable career, but there is so much more when discussing this phenomenal artist.

Colan’s ability to draw the monstrous and terrifying was nearly unsurpassed, but just as amazing and impressive to me is the man’s artistic versatility. For fans of my generation (the mostly-atrocious early 1990s) he’s “the Dracula guy”, but in nearly every corner of comics that you might look, you’ll find Gene Colan’s name pop up again and again.

Beautiful women? Check. Colan had very memorable runs on Wonder Woman and Black Widow. (Well, that Black Widow is really one issue, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) Dark, mysterious heroes? Check. Colan left indelible marks on Batman, Daredevil, and Dr. Strange. Bright and ideal heroes? Captain America (where he cocreated the Falcon, Marvel’s first African-American superhero) and the Avengers. Humor? Howard the Duck. Science Fiction? Jemm, Son of Saturn.

Really, there was nothing that Gene Colan could not draw, and draw incredibly well. There’s really no wrong place to start with Colan, when looking for something to pick up. The Tomb of Dracula stuff, in particular, has been collected in two omnibuses by Marvel. Here are a few of my favorite Gene Colan works:

1. Wonder Woman #300
I can still remember picking this book up at the San Diego Comic Con, back in 1997. I was 17 years old, and I’m pretty sure I picked this issue up because Wizard told me that, as it featured the first appearance of Daniel, future Sandman, this book was going to be “hot.” (Let he without a teenage speculator bone cast the first stone!) The story’s pretty good; it’s an anniversary issue, so there’s a bunch of different artists handling different chapters and we get some various alternate realities.

The Colan art really stood out in this. Thinking back on it, I think this was probably the first time I’d seen his sequential work. As a teenager, I was really struck by the adultness (for lack of a better word) of the whole thing. His Diana was beautiful and sensual, but womanly, in contrast to the pin-up objectification of many Image comics that I would’ve been reading at the time. Check out the effortless body language of Colan’s WW; she’s relaxed but confident, beautiful and thoughtful.

2. Detective Comics #541
This Batman issue is, poignantly, a book that I had just bought this past Sunday. I’d been wanting some Colan art, and Batman in particular. It’s a great issue featuring the Penguin. It really showcases the versatility of Gene Colan’s art, as the story transitions seamlessly from Gotham to Antarctica, with penguins, batplanes, and lots of action. There’s a Chuck Jones quote about great animation being that which you can still watch without any sound. To steal that, great comic artists are those whom you can “read”without the words. This page does that. It’s so graceful and the action seems to almost happen naturally, like the art had no choice but to be drawn that way. It’s also a great example of Colan’s frequent use of nongrid comic layouts.

3. Amazing Adventures #5
Remember how earlier I mentioned a Black Widow story? Well, this one’s it. It takes a very, very strong artist to draw a story which holds up well next to a Neal Adams/ Tom Palmer story (cofeatured in this book) but Colan (along with Bill Everett on inks) does just that.

The story is a decent Roy Thomas effort, but the work by Colan is exemplary, maybe my favorite of his dark superhero stuff, combining gangsters, moody and oppressive cityscapes and, of course, beautiful women. There’s nothing like it. Like the man himself.

Gene Colan will be missed by many, but his legion of fans can look back, grateful for the indelible memories and phenomenal art he left us. The two Tomb of Dracula Omnibuses (Marvel; hardcover) are available on Amazon, though they seem to be at the moment only available through secondary, and more expensive, markets. (There are less expensive trades and Essential editions of the material available as well). I’d also recommend the phenomenal book, Secrets in the Shadows: The Art & Life of Gene Colan (Twomorrows; $US 44.95, hardcover), for further reading.