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Lunch with Colan
2007-03-29 14:42:04

CAPTAIN AMERICA pencils

Secret plans were hatched around the Marvel offices yesterday to take me out for a special birthday lunch--but I snafued them completely and inadvertently by having previously made arrangements to have lunch with some visiting dignitaries: Gene Colan and Tom Palmer.

If you looked "class" up in the Marvel handbook, you'd find a portrait of Tom Palmer. As is his wont, Tom took a crew of us, including myself, Gene, Molly Lazer and Ralph Macchio, for a fine Italian meal that he insisted on paying for. Lunches with Tom have become semi-regular affairs over the years--we do a couple of them every year. With the closing of our long-time regular haunt Casa Mia a few months ago, we needed to find a replacement--which Tom located shortly thereafter. And during the meal, Tom was as cordial and insightful and elegant as ever. He's one of the good ones.

It had been something like ten years since the last time Gene Colan had set foot in the Marvel offices, the occasion being warranted by gene bringing in some penciled pages from the CAPTAIN AMERICA annual he's working on with writer Ed Brubaker. Everyone gathered around to ooh and aah at the penciled pages, produced by a veteran comic book illustrator. How much of a veteran is Gene? Well, yesterday, when I posted all of the books that were on sale the month when I was born, the DAREDEVIL issue had been drawn by Gene--and he wasn't a newcomer to the business even then! But time and problems with his vision have done nothing to dim Gene's prowess with a pencil. I've attached a scan of one of the penciled pages here, so you can get a sense of the subtlety of the pencilwork that Gene is producing even now.

Gene, as it turns out, is a remarkably spritely guy for a man his age. His eyes positively twinkled as he talked about the people he worked with at Timely/Marvel in the 40s, the old-time radio shows he's been listening to while he works, and the movies of Jack Palance. And he confirmed the oft-told stories of Stan Lee jumping up atop his desk to act out portions of a story during plot conferences.

More later.

Tom B

next time you guys want to have a fine italian meal, you can come to my house! It's just outside Florence, and in exchange for a chat with Maestro Colan I'll cook you the juiciest Fiorentina (it's a steak 5cm thick!).

Anyway, Bru + Colan = :)

Posted by jack.frost on 2007-01-19 09:55:03

I want to understand why Gene Colan leaves so much gutter space on his pages these days. You can see it on that page, I first noticed it on his Buffy pages. Is it something to do with his eyesight, or a stylistic choice? Personally, I find it annoying, and I'd like to understand why he does it.

Posted by Fetsur on 2007-01-19 13:42:33

It's stylistic; he's always left white space on the page.

I had the joy of meeting Colan last year at NYCC, and he was a class act. He's a real legend.

Posted by wishlish on 2007-01-20 05:30:33

Colan a Marvel Visionary Too
Marvel should publish a Marvel Visionaries volume of Colan's work. I'd buy it in a heart beat. One of my first comics was Avenger's 64, part of Gene's brief run on that title. Among my favorite mini-series in the 80s were Don McGregor's and Gene's Nathaniel Dusk which was uninked pencilwork. Absolutely gorgeous.

Posted by dds1981 on 2007-01-20 21:00:28

Geez, the Dean is still schooling everyone... wow.

Posted by ButchMapa on 2007-01-21 12:26:00

Veteran Marvel Artists
I'm heartened that you brought back Gene Colan. I hope Marvel will re-estabish long-term relationships with older writers and artists that have contributed to the Marvel tradition.

Posted by Beta Ray Benny on 2007-01-25 11:54:16

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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