Friday, 24 June 2011

Eugene "Gene" Colan - September 1, 1926 – June 23, 2011

One of my most favourite artists passed away yesterday. Of course I didn't know him  or have any deep personal feelings for him, and he hasn't been producing comic book art the way he did back in the 70's and 80's for a long time,but the fact that he has now gone kind of reminds me how fagile we all are and that our time here on this planet is but the blink of an eye. I myself have been thinking I was bullet proof for a long time and lived as if nothing would affect or kill me, but I have recently realised that that is not the case.
Jack Kirby may have been the one that made me pick up a pencil in the first place , but it was Gene Colan who made me sit up and take notice of what was achievable with a pencil long before I discovered Frazetta.
I was , and always will be drawn to Colan's dark atmospheric tones. Even the daylight seemed to have a darkness to it in some of the stories he drew.  His work is cinematic. In fact I used to get lost in his artwork when reading a story he had illustrated in the same way I would watching a movie. I think it must have been down his figure drawing which seemed kind of classical, that, mixed with the fantastical, it was like getting like watching a crazy sci fi/horror  movie.  I was always a fan of Daredevil as a kid and Colan cemented my loyalty to the character when he took on drawing duties. When Tomb Of Dracula came out I bought and read it purely because Colan had drawn it, and loved every page. Colan was a great at  horror comics.  I casually drifted in and out of Doctor Strange untill Colan  pencilled the title.
Tom Palmer was my fave inker for Colans Work. I think he understood Colan's work the best, as does Scott Williams with Jim Lee's work.
I  don't feel  I am qualified to say any more about the man. Instead, here are some links to blogs  that are more personal.
http://www.genecolan.blogspot.com/
http://thecliffordmethod.blogspot.com/2011/05/gene-colan-hope-springs.html
and of course, wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Colan
If  any of you reading this are thinking toyourselves, "Who the hell is Gene Colan?", below are some work that to me cements him as one the the best artists of silver age comics, heck, even a now , there are many pro's who don't come near.




























I think Gene should have the last word.










R.I.P. Gene Colan

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