Gene Colan

Eugene Jules Colan (; September 1, 1926 – June 23, 2011)Eugene Colan
at the Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on February 22, 2013. was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series '' Daredevil'', the cult-hit satiric series ''Howard the Duck'', and ''The Tomb of Dracula'', considered one of comics' classic horror series. He co-created the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics; Carol Danvers, who would become Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel; and the non-costumed, supernatural vampire hunter Blade.

Colan was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2005.

Early life

Eugene Jules Colan was born September 1, 1926 to Harold Colan, an insurance salesman, and Winifred Levy Colan, an antique dealer, in The Bronx, New York City. His parents ran an antiques business on the Upper East Side. His family was Jewish, and the family's surname had originally been " Cohen". Colan began drawing at age three. "The first thing I ever drew was a lion. I must've absolutely copied it or something. But that's what my folks tell me. And from then on, I just drew everything in sight. My grandfather was my favorite subject". Among his earliest influences, he said in 2001, were the Coulton Waugh adventure comic strip ''Dickie Dare'' "in ''The New York Sun''. I was influenced by the style, or the story. Mostly the story. I took it very seriously." He moved with his family "at about age 4" to Long Beach, New York, on Long Island. Later, he would try to copy artist Norman Rockwell's covers to ''The Saturday Evening Post''. Other major art influences were comics artists Syd Shores and Milton Caniff. Colan attended George Washington High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, and went on to study at the Art Students League of New York.

Career

Early career

Colan began working in comics in 1944, doing illustrations for publisher Fiction House's aviation-adventure series ''Wings Comics''. " st a summertime job before I went into the service", it gave Colan his first published work, the one-page "Wing Tips" non-fiction filler "P-51B Mustang" (issue #52, Dec. 1944). His first comics story was a seven-page "Clipper Kirk" feature in the following month's issue.

After attempting to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II but being pulled out by his father "because I was underage", Colan at "18 or 19" enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Originally scheduled for gunnery school in Boulder, Colorado, plans changed with the war's sudden end. "I was going to be an aerial gunner. A bomber. But it never materialized", he recalled in 2001. After training at an Army camp near Biloxi, Mississippi, he joined the U.S. forces in the Philippines. There Colan rose to the rank of corporal, drew for the ''Manila Times'', and won an art contest.

Upon his return to civilian life in 1946, Colan went to work for Marvel Comics' 1940s precursor, Timely Comics. He recalled in 2000,

Comics historian Michael J. Vassallo identifies that first story as "Adam and Eve — Crime Incorporated" in ''Lawbreakers Always Lose'' #1 (cover date Spring 1948), on which is written the internal job number 2401. He notes another story, "The Cop They Couldn't Stop" in ''All-True Crime'' #27 (April 1948), job number 2505, may have been published first, citing the differing cover-date nomenclature ("Spring" v. "April") for the uncertainty.

Hired as "a staff penciler", Colan "started out at about $60 a week. ... Syd Shores was the art director". Due to Colan's work going uncredited, in the manner of the times, comprehensive credits for this era are difficult if not impossible to ascertain. In 2010, he recalled his first cover art being for an issue of ''Captain America Comics''; Colan drew the 12-page lead story in issue #72, the cover-artist of which is undetermined. He definitively drew the cover of the final issue, the horror comic ''Captain America's Weird Tales'' #75 (Feb. 1950), which did not include the titular superhero on either the cover or inside.

After virtually all the Timely staff was let go in 1948 during an industry downturn, Colan began freelancing for National Comics, the future DC Comics. A stickler for accuracy, he meticulously researched his countless war stories for DC's '' All-American Men at War'', ''Captain Storm'', and ''Our Army at War'', as well as for Marvel's 1950s forerunner Atlas Comics, on the series ''Battle'', ''Battle Action'', ''Battle Ground'', ''Battlefront'', ''G.I. Tales'', ''Marines in Battle'', ''Navy Combat'' and ''Navy Tales''. Colan's earliest confirmed credit during this time is penciling and inking the six-page crime fiction story "Dream Of Doom", by an uncredited writer, in Atlas' ''Lawbreakers Always Lose'' #6 (Feb. 1949).

By the early 1950s, he was living in New Rochelle, New York.Colan interview, ''The Comics Journal'', p
2
. Around this time he did his first work for DC Comics, then the industry leader, on the licensed series ''Hopalong Cassidy'', based on the film and TV Western hero, drawing it from 1954 to 1957. In the 1960s, he lived in New Jersey, where his and Adrienne's children, Erik and Nanci, were raised.

Silver Age

While freelancing for DC romance comics in the 1960s, Colan did his first superhero work for Marvel under the pseudonym Adam Austin. Taking to the form immediately, he introduced the " Sub-Mariner" feature in ''Tales to Astonish'', and succeeded Don Heck on "Iron Man" in ''Tales of Suspense''.

Sometime after Colan began this pseudonymous stint, Marvel editor Stan Lee made overtures to lure him from DC. Colan recalled,

Under his own name, Colan became one of the premier Silver Age Marvel artists, illustrating a host of such major characters as Captain America, Doctor Strange (both in the late-1960s and the mid-1970s series), and his signature character, Daredevil. Operating, like other company artists, on the " Marvel Method" — in which editor-in-chief and primary writer Stan Lee "would just speak to me for a few minutes on the phone, tell me the beginning, the middle and the end f a storyand not much else, maybe four or five paragraphs, and then he'd tell me to make 20-pagestory out of it," providing artwork to which Lee would then script dialogue and captions — Colan forged his own style, different from that of artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, whom Lee would point to as examples of the Marvel style:

Lee and Colan introduced the Emissaries of Evil in ''Daredevil Annual'' #1 (1967) and the Jester in ''Daredevil'' #42 (July 1968). Colan's long run on the ''Daredevil'' series encompassed all but three issues in an otherwise unbroken, 81-issue string from #20-100 (Sept. 1966 - June 1973), plus the initial ''Daredevil Annual'' (1967). He returned to draw ten issues sprinkled from 1974 to 1979, and an eight-issue run in 1997. Colan admitted relying upon amphetamines in order to make deadlines for illustrating the series ''Doctor Strange'', for which he would personally visit the character's real-life Manhattan neighborhood, Greenwich Village, and shoot Polaroid photographs to use as location reference.Colan interview, ''The Comics Journal'', p
3
. Captain Marvel, a character created to secure the trademark on the name, debuted in '' Marvel Super-Heroes'' #12 (Dec. 1967) by Lee and Colan. The original Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in ''Marvel Super-Heroes'' #18 (Jan. 1969) by writer Arnold Drake and Colan.

In ''Captain America'' #117 (Sept. 1969), Colan and writer-editor Stan Lee created the Falcon,''Captain America'' #117
at the Grand Comics Database the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books. The character came about, Colan recalled in 2008,

Concurrent with his move to Marvel, Colan also contributed several stories to Warren Publishing's line of black-and-white horror comics magazines, beginning with the six-page tale "To Pay the Piper", by writer Larry Ivie, in ''Eerie'' #2 (March 1966). There and in subsequent stories for that magazine and its sister publication, ''Creepy'', Colan would ink his own pencil work. His final original Warren story, "First Blood", appeared in ''Eerie'' #11 (Sept. 1967). The vast majority of these were written by Warren editor Archie Goodwin, with whom Colan would later collaborate on Marvel's Iron Man.

Dracula and Batman

Colan in the 1970s illustrated the complete 70-issue run of the acclaimed horror title ''The Tomb of Dracula'' as well as most issues of writer Steve Gerber's cult hit ''Howard the Duck''.

Colan, already one of Marvel's most well-established and prominent artists, said he had lobbied for the ''Tomb of Dracula'' assignment:

Colan and Marv Wolfman created several supporting characters for the ''Dracula'' series. They introduced Blade in ''The Tomb of Dracula'' #10 (July 1973) and Lilith in ''Giant-Size Chillers'' #1 (June 1974). Colan became the artist of ''Doctor Strange'' volume 2 with issue #6 (Feb. 1975) which introduced the Gaea character. A crossover between the two Colan-drawn series occurred in May 1976. In 2010, ''Comics Bulletin'' ranked Colan's run on ''The Tomb of Dracula'' fifth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels". His work on ''Doctor Strange'' was ranked ninth on the same list. Colan's collaboration with Steve Gerber on the ''Howard the Duck'' series saw the title character nominated by the ''All-Night Party'', a fictional political party, as their nominee in the Presidential campaign of 1976, and led to Howard the Duck receiving thousands of write-in votes in the actual election. The Gerber-Colan team created Doctor Bong in ''Howard the Duck'' #15 (Aug. 1977). Gerber later said to Colan: "There really was almost a telepathic connection there. I would see something in my mind, and that is what you would draw! I've never had that experience with another artist before or since."

Colan returned to DC in 1981, following a professional falling out with Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Colan recalled two decades later that Shooter

He brought his shadowy, moody textures to Batman, serving as the character's primary artist from 1981 to 1986, penciling most issues of ''Detective Comics'' and ''Batman'' during this time. His debut issue of the character's eponymous series was #340 (Oct. 1981). With writer Gerry Conway, Colan revived the Golden Age supervillains Doctor Death in ''Batman'' #345 (March 1982) and the Monk in ''Batman'' #350 (Aug. 1982) and introduced Killer Croc in ''Detective Comics'' #523 (Feb. 1983). Killer Croc appears in the 2016 live-action movie ''Suicide Squad'', portrayed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Another new character, Nightslayer, was created by Colan and Doug Moench in ''Detective Comics'' #529 (Aug. 1983).

In the insert preview in ''DC Comics Presents'' #41 (Jan. 1982), writer Roy Thomas and Colan provided Wonder Woman with a stylized "WW" emblem on her bodice, replacing the traditional eagle. The "WW" emblem, unlike the eagle, could be protected as a trademark and therefore had greater merchandising potential. ''Wonder Woman'' #288 (February 1982) premiered the new costume and an altered cover banner incorporating the "WW" emblem. Colan was one of several artists on ''Wonder Woman'' #300 (Feb. 1983) and stayed on the series until issue #305 wherein he and writer Dan Mishkin reintroduced the character Circe to the rogues gallery of Wonder Woman's adversaries. Steve Gerber and Colan reunited at DC to produce ''The Phantom Zone'' limited series. Helping to create new characters as well, Colan collaborated in the 1980s with ''The Tomb of Dracula'' writer Marv Wolfman on the 14-issue run of '' Night Force'' featuring characters introduced in an insert preview in ''The New Teen Titans'' #21 (July 1982). He was one of the contributors to the ''DC Challenge'' limited series in 1985. Additionally, Colan worked with Cary Bates on the 12-issue run of '' Silverblade''; with Greg Potter on the 12-issue run of ''Jemm, Son of Saturn''; and drew the first six issues of Doug Moench's 1987 revival of ''The Spectre''.

Colan's style, characterized by fluid figure drawing and extensive use of shadow, was unusual among Silver Age comic artists, and became more pronounced as his career progressed. He usually worked as a penciller, with Frank Giacoia and Tom Palmer as his most frequent inkers. Colan broke from the mass-market comic book penciller/inker/colorist assembly-line system by creating finished drawings in graphite and watercolor on such projects as the DC Comics miniseries '' Nathaniel Dusk'' (1984) and ''Nathaniel Dusk II'' (1985–86), and the feature "Ragamuffins" in the Eclipse Comics umbrella series ''Eclipse'' #3, 5, and 8 (1981–83), with frequent collaborator Don McGregor.

Independent-comics work includes the Eclipse graphic novel '' Detectives Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams'' (1985), written by McGregor and reprinted in sepia tone as an Eclipse miniseries in 1987, and the miniseries ''Predator: Hell & Hot Water'' for Dark Horse Comics. He contributed to Archie Comics

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