Redartz: Good day, everyone! For any reader of comics during the Bronze age, especially Marvel comics, the name Gil Kane is very familiar. As are his covers. It seemed no character, no genre, no title could be named that didn't have an example or two of Gil's work gracing the cover. And I must be honest here: at the time, I really wasn't a fan. Which was sometimes frustrating, as frequently as Kane's images were found standing out among the spinner racks.
However, as years went by, my opinion changed. Now I love Gil's work, and find it dramatic, energetic and unique. Granted, the choice of inker always makes a big difference on the final effect of the art. Therefore, as we pore over the following gallery of Kane Kovers, note that only the inker is listed beneath the images. Of course this is due to Gil being the penciller in all examples (and it saved your humble host a lot of typing).
Let's start out with a few DC works. Kane worked for DC prominently during the Silver Age, and later returned there during the 80's. During which time, incidentally, I greatly enjoyed his work on Action Comics with Marv Wolfman scripting.
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| Gil Kane inks |
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| Gil Kane inks |
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| Murphy Anderson inks |
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| Gil Kane inks |
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| Gil Kane inks |
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| Murphy Anderson inks |
Next, we have a generous selection of Kane's Marvel cover work. Again, note that every type of comic you can think of has some of his touch upon it (with the exception, perhaps, of teen humor; anyone know if Gil ever did a cover for Millie the Model?),
A couple personal preference notes: on everyone's favorite web-slinger, the combination of Gil Kane pencils and John Romita inks is just about as good as it gets. Their work goes together like, say, chocolate and peanut butter (for all you fellow Reeses Peanut Butter Cup addicts).
Another observation: Vince Colletta was never one of my favorite inkers, but he seemed to be a good fit for Gil Kane. The two Conan covers they did below are phenomenal.
Indeed, Kane really seemed to shine on his covers for Conan the Barbarian. He really had a knack for those monsters and 'damsels in distress'. On that title, if the cover art wasn't by Barry Smith or big John Buscema, you could almost be guaranteed a Gil Kane cover. And he didn't disappoint...
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| Frank Giacoia inks |
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| Bill Everett inks |
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| Pablo Marcos inks |
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| Bill Everett inks |
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| Dan Adkins inks |
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| John Romita, Joe Sinnott inks |
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| Klaus Janson inks |
Frank Giacoia inks 
John Romita Sr inks
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| John Romita Sr. inks |
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| Vince Colletta inks |
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| Frank Brunner inks |
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| Frank Giacoia inks |
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| Dave Cockrum inks |
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| Mike Esposito inks |
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| Joe Sinnott inks |
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| Mike Esposito inks |
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| Gil Kane inks |
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| Tom Palmer inks |
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| Klaus Janson inks |
Finally, here's a few examples of Gil's cover work as seen in the original art. You can never ogle enough original comic artwork, in my opinion. Especially when it is this pleasing to the eye...
Kane pencils, Frank Giacoia inks
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| Kane pencils, Klaus Janson inks |
Kane pencils, John Romita Sr. inks
Now that you have had your fill of Kane Kandy, let's have your thoughts. What Kane work did you like; or didn't? What other covers grabbed your notice? Which inkers worked best with him, and which were....less successful? The table is wide open, have at it!
34 comments:
Just for myself, when I think of Gil Kane, I'll always remember John Carter: Warlord of Mars, inked by Dave Cockrum.
I always liked Kane's Spider-Man stuff in the 70s; I was less impressed by his Green Lantern work, but maybe that's just because I'm not a big fan of the character. His covers were great, especially for DC in the 70s/80s.
Hiya,
I'll have more to say later, but I know for a fact that Gil Kane didn't like anybody inking his work other than Gil Kane. Dan Adkins and Frank Giacoa were acceptable but not preferred. However, Kane realized that if he completed his art he would make less than if he did straight pencils or layouts.
I can understand the attitude, but, and this is only my opinion, I found Kane's inking style to be good in small doses, as in the daily strip 'Star Hawks', but tedious the more I saw it.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
My favourite Gil Kane cover is Conan The Barbarian #62, inked by John Romita, which has the cover blurb "Death In The Land Of Dagon" and shows Conan on the back of a warthog while the obligatory cowering female watches helplessly as usual (she's black on this occasion for a change) and a skull floats menacingly in the air looking down on proceedings. This issue of Conan The Barbarian was dated May 1976 but I bought it in July of that year and it was one of my first ever imported American Marvel comics (along with nine others which I bought on the same day). I was already a devoted reader of Marvel's UK weeklies but here was the real deal!
Red - a real feast for the eyes! Thank you much sir!
My first and most powerful recall of Gil was a few of the earliest Spidey's I bought off the rack: ASM 100. 101, and 102.
An excellent story line and a truly memorable issue #100!
Also, this was my first view of the inner workings of a vampire's nostrils... lol.
Personally, I liked Kane's art from the get-go, i.e., I never had to "learn to appreciate" it. Also, Kane is one of those artists whose work just kept improving over time - I like his work from the early '70s onward the best.
As for covers, you've indeed posted some beauties. A sentimental favorite of mine is Amazing Spider-man Annual #10. That was the first annual I ever had, and also the first comic book I had with his art in it.
It was Gil Kane's cover art that caught my eye and got me to purchase my first Marvel Comics. My all-time favorite cover remains the first one I picked up ... Avengers #127. It featured my favorite, The Thing, alongside Thor and a bunch of characters I didn't know very much about. Over the years, I've come to realize just how many of my favorite covers were done by Gil Kane. I'd have to put him in my top 5 comics artists.
Selenarch- good call; those John Carter issues were pretty easy on the eyes.
Mike W- Yes, Kane and Spidey were a perfect match. Kane's acrobatics and exaggerated poses really made for some effective action scenes. As for his DC covers: what do you think of his early work; those old Atom covers are quite memorable...
PFG- many thanks for your comments; didn't know Gil's opinions on his many inkers' contributions. It makes sense; for instance John Buscema's thoughts about inkers other than himself (and his brother Sal) are well known. Coincidentally I'm currently reading "John Romita, and All That Jazz" (a Christmas gift), and just last night read Romita's praise for Kane's work on Spider-Man. It seems the Jazzy One liked inking Kane's work immensely.
Colin J- ah yes, that Conan cover is another classic (and another example of how effective the Kane/Romita combo was).
Charlie- those ASM issues from about 90-110 have a lot of fine art indeed. Particularly like the Savage Land story; Kane aced those dinosaurs.
Edo- quite right, Kane did get better and better. And that ASM Annual was surely a winner; I have fond memories of it as well (reading it while sitting outside our school one summer morning in 1976, while attending summer Driver's Ed classes).
Disneymarvel- you named a terrific book. Avengers 127 was so great in so many ways: great cover, great story, great interior art, great characters. And it was a first for me too: the first Avengers issue I ever read.
Yeah Red, the composition of some of those Atom covers was pretty cool; #8 comes to mind (where Atom is inside the light bulb) and #3 (where he's on the watch face like Mickey Mouse). There's another one where he's tied to a thrown grenade that was pretty good too, but I can't remember which issue it was.
In my first few years of collecting, Kane covers were so ubiquitous that I kinda took them for granted. Some were better than others, but they were generally quite good in terms of grabbing one’s attention, which is really the number one priority of what any cover should do.
You picked a lot of great ones for your gallery here, Red, quite a few that I would have chosen myself. I especially like the one for AMAZING SPIDEY 131. Other Kane / Giacoia Spidey favorites : MARVEL TALES 40 and MARVEL TEAM-UP 6 (which happens to be my very first Spidey comic, so nostalgia certainly plays a part, but I do think it’s a genuinely dynamic cover).
I love the Gullivar Jones cover you chose, I think it’s the best of Kane’s covers for that short-lived series, and also one of his best covers in the Barbarian / Sword Guy genre, period.
Seemed like the majority of his covers were inked by Giacoia, Romita or Adkins (all of whom were a good fit with Kane’s style), and a fair amount inked by Sinnott, Janson and Milgrom, but every now and then there’d be an interesting “outside-the-box” inker to break up the monotony. I’m thinking of guys like Frank Brunner (CONAN 17), Ralph Reese (CONAN 25), AMAZING ADVENTURES 29 (P. Craig Russell) and Jack Abel (MARVEL PREMIERE 18 — this one is so good, it makes me wish he did more).
My favorite “least-known” pairing is Kane inked by John Buscema on CONAN 46. GCD says Big John did both pencils and inks, but they’re wrong. Look closely at all three figures, those are unmistakably Kane poses. Plus, compare the anatomy of the Jewel-Monster on the cover to the one Buscema drew inside the comic — it’s a completely different dude. I’m pretty sure I’ve even seen a stat of Kane’s pencils on-line. I have to say it’s not actually a GREAT cover — I think the composition is pretty basic, and Buscema’s inks don’t especially mesh very well with Kane’s pencils. It’s just such a rare team-up of two Bronze Age titans that it stands out in my memory.
Also, I do love the handful of Kane / Cockrum covers. That Avengers one is probably my favorite.
Ernie Chan, of course, inked dozens of Kane’s Conan covers. I’m generally not a huge Chan fan, but I think the cover of CONAN 34 is very nice.
Tom Palmer did a great job inking Kane on dozens of covers, mostly in the “Horror / Monster” genre. His velvety brushwork and dynamic lighting added a ton of atmosphere to Kane’s more action-oriented approach. Some of my faves : TOMB OF DRACULA 17 and 26, FEAR 26 (a super-iconic Morbius piece), CHAMBER OF CHILLS 2 and CRYPT OF SHADOWS 1.
- b.t.
Hiya,
First, I do apologize if I came off a bit negative in my initial comments regarding Mr. Kane. I do regard him as one of the finest artists in American comics and have enjoyed many of his covers, including most of those presented in this article.
As for why he did so many covers, as I understand it, there were quite a few reasons.
First of all, he was really good at them. His style attracts attention. He had an innate sense for drama and his characters seemed to project themselves off the page.
By the by, this is how I understand how I understand covers were produced at Marvel. Working with Marie Severin and other house artists the editor would develop the idea for the cover. Marie and Alan Kupperberg and others would do a series of roughs and develop further the ones that were selected. Mr Kupperberg mentioned that many of his pages were sent to Jack Kirby for final rendering. I think Kirby got these covers due to his ability and to help him fulfill his contractual obligations to Marvel.
Now Kane, I postulate, was a go to artist for covers because of his talent, his knowledge of the Marvel characters and his proximity. He worked locally and his ability to actually hand his artwork in was a definite plus.
Actual conversation from this period in Marvel history;
Rich Buckler, cover artist. "Do you want it fast or do you want it good?"
John Verpoorten, Marvel Production Chief. "I want it now."
And Gil Kane could do all three of those.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
Yes, Gil 'sugar' Kane was ubiquitous in terms of his cover output back then. His dynamic covers nearly always caught the reader's attention.
My first encounter with Kane's artwork was his Silver Age Green Lantern, then later on his legendary run on Spider. Personally, I was never to fussy about who inked his layouts, even though the finished art differed drastically according to the inner.
His early Conan work was great too. I read that he was a sword and sorcery fan, and was partially instrumental on bringing Conan to Marvel. If that's true then Conan fans can thank him for that. I also liked some of his Johh Carter art later on.
Mike 'working on my upnose shots' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Kane designed lots of his covers when Roy Thomas was editor.
No one seems to have mentioned Kane's brilliant western covers. Gil's own favourite reportedly was Mighty Marvel Western #44, while my own personal favourite is Kid Colt # 194, inked by Gil himself.
Spirit of '64
I loved Gil Kane's artwork, right from the start. It had that great combination of dynamism and elegance.
I'd say my favourite work by him was his stuff on the early Adam Warlock tales. His style was always best suited to sci-fi and fantasy.
My favourite cover by him was probably Tomb of Dracula #16, with Drac squaring up to a living skeleton in a graveyard.
Hiya,
Hey Spirit of '64
Just Googled your suggestions and they are wonderful. Looking at those and other Western covers that he did left me considering the possibility that he really enjoyed working in that venue more than the superhero.
My favorite Kane cover is Red Wolf #5.
thanks for the suggestion
pfg
Ahhhhh, he had me at Hawk & Dove #5 ("You shot Hawk!--" etc). Not a complicated cover, but PACKED with Dove's tension and fury and pain. The extensive text is honestly just about superfluous. . . !
SO MANY of the covers posted here-- I did NOT know they were Gil Kane! He may be my favorite cover artist ever, and I was totally unaware. I also wonder if there were any major Marvel titles that he did not contribute a cover to at some point? It seems like he stepped just about everywhere-- I know he did at least a couple of Hulk jobs after Trimpe left the title. Well--- and he did do at least a couple of the Tales to Astonish covers waaaaay back when he was the Hulk penciler for a brief stint. . . He may have been the first artist to draw The Abomination, IIRC...
My two favorite inker pairings from the examples selected?
1) Bill Everett! That is. . . just such a neat, clean look to my eye.
2) Klaus Janson. Who I was liking on just about everyone during that period.
[TOUGH afternoon & evening in the DC area, I must report. Lots of pals who live in Arlington and Alexandria are very concerned about their local hotels being full of 'WAY overly-agitated extremist types. Not a restful night ahead. . . ]
HB
B.t.- very nice list you added to the mix! You refer to Kane's work on the horror genre. He was tops at depicting those BEM's. Served him well in the sword and sorcery books too.
PFG- many thanks for the behind-the-scenes info. Always fascinating to hear such detail.
Spirit of 64- like PFG, I looked up those Westerns you noted. Beautiful! I'd agree with you on that Kid Colt cover...
HB- yes, Klaus Janson is like Terry Austin- he enhances everything he touches.
Incidentally, glad to hear from you. Pretty dark day in your environs. Actually, a pretty dark day for the country. Won't dwell on it here, except to say that I hope for better days here soon. I hope...
Love a bit of sinewy, claw handed up the notrils action so really like Gil Kane's work, but thought he was at his best with an inker who added a bit of weight and texture.
Like Klaus Janson. Always appreciated that cover to Captain Marvel #37 - you can really see how Janson enhanced what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward pic of Mar-Vell in space. (They did a great issue of Jungle Action/Black Panther together, which I think was some of Janson's earliest work for Marvel)
Got to agree with the first comment about Kane's work on John Carter, although for me it was Rudy Nebres who made it so memorable.
What an absolutely phenomenal inker that guy was (and probably still is). The John Carter comics they did together were - like the Buscema/Alcala Conan - a perfect match of penciler, inker and subject, as can be seen on the covers of #s 6-9 and 15 (a quick comparison with the ones Kane did with other inkers for the first 5 issues will easily show what Nebres bought to the table).
And somewhat surprisingly, Tom Sutton did some great inks - you wouldn't expect that to work as Kane is such a precise artist, but those Giant-Size Conans and Warlocks they did together looked really good.
I'm not aware of Sutton inking any of Kane's covers though, so if anyone knows better feel free to point me in the right direction.
-sean
PS Nothing to do with covers particularly, I just wanted to add that Sword of the Atom mini-series is well worth tracking down.
Best to you in 2021 Redartz, and everyone else here (sorry if thats a bit late). Something of a ropey start to the year so far maybe... but the only way now is up, right? Hopefully.
-sean
Sean:
Yeah, I LOVE the Kane / Sutton combo too. When I was a kid, a guy in my neighborhood had a pile of comics he didn’t want anymore and just gave ‘em to me — without a trade or anything — and in that pile were two Kane comics, MTU 6 and WARLOCK 4. In a side-by-side comparison, I could easily see that Sutton’s inks enhanced Kane’s pencils with a richness and depth that was almost completely lacking in Mike Esposito’s inks. It was an early lesson in the relative value of pencillers and inkers, about what each did or didn’t bring to the table, from an artistic standpoint. (In that same trove of comics were various Kirby comics inked by Colletta and Royer, an FF reprint inked by Sinnott, and a Simon and Kirby Newsboy Legion reprint from the 40s, so you can just imagine how it got the Artistic Analysis wheels spinning in my 12-year-old mind!)
And no, I don’t think Sutton ever inked any of Kane’s many, many covers. Which is a shame, really. But in addition to the WARLOCKS, KA-ZARS, G-S CONANS and that one WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, there IS one more job by the Kane /Sutton team that no one seems to know about: a 7 page story from 1974 called “The Curse” in WEIRD MYSTERY 10. GCD credits Kane for both pencils and inks, and the story itself is signed by Kane’s stacked “GK” sigil, without any inker credited — but the inks don’t look anything like his. The inks may not look as rich and elaborate as on some of their other combo jobs, but they do look very similar to what Sutton was doing on his own loosey-goosey pencil and inked stories at Charlton around the same time. So I’m pretty sure it’s him, that he banged it out in a hurry, and his credit was left off the story by accident, because of haste.
Oh — and someone asked about Kane doing any “humorous” comics. The only one I can think of is the first issue of DC’s PLASTIC MAN from 1966. He pencilled and inked both the cover and the interior story. I think I may have a copy of it in my collection, but God only knows where it is at the moment.
b.t.
Hiya,
Hey everybody. Apparently Kane produced a really weird story for House of Mystery.
Gotta link for an article about it that has some of the artwork and a bit of background detail.
It's definitely worth taking a look, especially because it features another comics great, Wally Woods (and probably his studio) on inks.
https://www.cbr.com/artist-hired-draw-comic-mock-himself/
seeya
pfg
The complete original story from House of Mystery #180 is posted at:
https://forgottenawesome.blogspot.com/2017/10/his-name-is-kane.html
If you're interested pfg, 'His Name Is Kane' was referenced in Gil Kane's last full comic book Judgment Day: Aftermath #1, in which he also drew himself as a character in a nice tribute written by Alan Moore.
Its also posted on the same blog (the framing sequence - the first two and last couple of pages - are the bit you want):
https://forgottenawesome.blogspot.com/2017/10/weekly-reading-judgment-day-aftermath.html
-sean
Like HB I didn't realise some of those covers were by Gil Kane such as Spidey in the flooded sewer and even the Giant Size X-Men! And I wasn't really sure about the Conan #62 cover I mentioned earlier. I thought it might have been an exclusively John Romita cover because the positioning and posture of the figures didn't seem particularly Gil Kaneian to me.
Some more Gil Kane covers which haven't been mentioned are the "Marvel Classics Comics" series featuring titles such as The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The War Of The Worlds and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde etc
B.t.- Plastic Man! How cool is that? Thank you for that little tidbit. Now if only someone shows up with a Gil Kane convention sketch of Jughead Jones...
Re: Kane's take on Jughead Jones-- Now THAT would be an up-the-nose POV for the ages!! Zowie!
I'd sort of forgotten about that excellent Sword of the Atom mini-series + 1 special! It was one of those unexpected gems that I acquired from a grad student giving away two large contractor bags of comics back in, like, '87 I think. I really might go pull those out for a long overdue re-read. . . !
And now that I'm thinking of it, a couple of Gil Kane covers that have stuck with me over the years: Supernatural Thrillers #3 "Valley of the Worm" (I think he may have done the interior pencils as well?); Giant-Size Hulk #1 (One and only; re-printing Annual #1)
HB
Oh, how many comics did I buy off the rack solely because of a Kane cover!?
I recently read thru the SUB-MARINER, his covers were ridiculous! A couple inked by Everett #47 and 48 with Dr. Doom stand out.
Always interesting how he drew some flying characters, almost looked like they were free falling to me.
p.s. looked up my first bought Kane cover, Captain America #185. But ended up getting many more back issues, two that stand out DEFENDERS #16 and DAREDEVIL #120
Red, feel free to move this to a new thread if it's too "off topic", but I just thought I'd mention that Steve Lightle has died of a heart attack at 61: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/iconic-legion-of-super-heroes-artist-steve-lightle-dies-at-age-61/
Too bad ... I always loved his work on Legion.
Lots of Kane love out there, nice!
As a kid, I wasn't the biggest fan of Gil Kane, the whole nose thing was certainly a big factor, I remember my friend and I thought that his photo in the Marvel Con program looked like one of his drawings.
As I got a little older I began to appreciate and even seek out his artwork, some of my favorite covers are Amazing Adventures #12, Avengers #131, Cap #183 and Spidey #148 but I think the Hour of the Dragon stands out for me.
Not a big fan of Mike Esposito's inking over him, but my least favorite has to be Marvel Team up #4, not a good inking job by Steve Mitchell
Sorry to hear about Steve Lightle, I liked his covers
Sad indeed to hear about Steve Lightle. Like Mike, I loved his Legion work. Rest well, Steve.
Flamekeeper- seems that at least a few of us grew to appreciate Gil's work after initially, well, not appreciating it. You mentioned some sharp covers, ASM 148 is top notch.
Here’s a few Kane covers from very late in his career:
GREEN LANTERN SECRET FILES 1 from 1998, featuring Hal, Alan Scott and Kyle Rayner, inked by Kevin Nowlan.
LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE 28 from 2000, featuring GL and the Atom, painted by Alex Ross.
b.t.
Pretty sure that Uncanny Tales #1 cover was penciled by Ross Andru - otherwise, nice post
-M
Mic- many thanks! The cover credits were obtained from the Grand Comics Database. But the figure being pulled into the closet does have an Andru vibe, doesn't it?
The credits at GCD aren’t infallible. I’ve pointed out several instances of mis-attribution myself in this very thread (or at least art I THINK is mis-attributed). But even without verifying the credits at GCD, I’ve always thought the UNCANNY TALES 1 cover was pencilled by Kane.
Then again, it’s entirely possible that the pencils could be by Andru. It can be especially tricky to indentify pencillers beneath Tom Palmer’s inks. Palmer is one of those inkers — like Wally Wood or Klaus Janson or Alfredo Alcala — who inks with a fairly heavy hand, adding textures, shadows and elaborate lighting, not just inking exactly what’s there.
In fact, the Kane/ Palmer TOMB OF DRACULA 16 cover that Steve pointed out for special praise above — again, even though the GCD says it’s pencilled by Gil Kane, I think it might actually be John Romita laying down the lead. The relatively straight-forward poses, the composition and spatial relationships of the figures looks more like Romita to me. Even the lower legs of the living dead guy looks Romita-ish. But who knows? (And in any case, I agree that it’s a spooky and effective cover).
b.t.
b.t., That Tomb of Dracula cover doesn't immediately leap out at you as a Kane, but I think thats down to the absence of his distinctive superheroic figures, and the Tom Palmer effect.
Under the inks, the female figure is very Gil imho.
(You could easily see up her nose if the image was larger)
-sean
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