Comic Book Character by David A. Zimmerman

It came down from on high - Jim Galton, who was the CEO of Marvel at the time. Did it exist before you the editor? Were you the only editor? Were you the art director? What was Marvel Books?ĭAK: Uh, me. TF: I’ve always wondered about Marvel Books. Continuing the excerpts of our 2019 phone interview: Read Part One here or skip to Part Three. Kraft recalled editing 1983’s The Spy Eye, and while I didn’t confirm his involvement with the 1984 illustrated storybook Operation: Disappearance and the 1983 reprint of three issues of the regular comic book, The Trojan Gambit, it’s a distinct possibility. This was an imprint that started up in 1982 as a way for Marvel to publish storybooks and coloring books and get them into outlets like Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us. One was that he was the original editor of Marvel Books. On the topic of Mushynsky, let’s take a look at this page-as-inked next time here at A Real American Book! But I sure wish Marie Severin, Mirthful Mistress of color and inks and cover designs, had penciled more issues.īesides being a Marvel Comics editor, a freelance Marvel Comics writer, and publisher of Comics Interview magazine that occasionally covered Real American Hero, David Anthony Kraft also had two important other connections to G.I. Severin was that talented.Ĭertainly Andy Mushynsky’s inks have something to do with this consistency - he inked most of Springer and stayed when Rod Whigham showed up shortly after. Joe.Īnd no shade on anyone else, but it actually looks better than some other issues. Sure, it’s in the middle of Frank Springer’s short run, but stylistically, it does not stick out. But for many years I’ve glossed over Real American Hero #28 even being a fill-in. That might be more indicative of the fact that Marvel had a house style in the 1970s and ’80s - the post Romita/Buscema/Kane/Adams mix you get in a John Byrne, Herb Trimpe, or Ron Wilson. Severin was a great artist, and I’m struck by how well she fit into the style of the monthly G.I. Seeing uninked work like this is a real transformation, or un-transformation, as it were, a sideways kind of time machine. (She didn’t invent this, Trimpe did it as early as issue #1 - this was a standard practice.) Of course this is “Marvel style,” so Severin here is working from a Larry Hama plot, and writing in clarifications and any small changes in the margins. Here’s a photocopy of Severin’s pencils for story page 18 (that’s not counting the ads). In it, he said: “She was not the first lady in comics, but she is unquestionably the first lady of comics.”īut the reason you’re here today is because Marie Severin penciled one issue of G.I.

Comic Book Character by David A. Zimmerman