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blacktyphoid
Playing to the Camera
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 137
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 Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:12 am Post subject: Daredevil # 105 Cover |
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The latest Daredevil cover reminds me very much of one of my all time favourites - Gene Colan's "The Living Prison!" from Vol 1, # 38 (See below)
I can't help but think that Djurdjevic was paying homage to it. Even if he wasn't, it's nonetheless a reminder that when it comes to Daredevil, Gene (The Dean) Colan did it all well before many of the current creators were perhaps even born.
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blacktyphoid
Playing to the Camera
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject: Re: Daredevil # 105 Cover |
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Why this Colan cover is important (to me):
It demonstrates my version of the definitive Daredevil. Why? It has to do with that unnerving, ironic, "devil-may-care" smile that Colan conciously drew on the character. I believe it added great dimension to the character's physical appearance and to his personality.
Other artists since and after Colan drew anger or sadness or other emotions on the character that conveyed the character's feelings to the reader in a very obvious way. When DD was angry, he was drawn to look it, and so on. Colan didn't. Instead, that devil-may-care smile was permanently grafted onto DD's face. It gave DD enormous character depth - it constantly made me wonder what the heck made the guy tick? There was an element of mystery behind that smile. After all, Daredevil was a guy who constantly smiled in the face of danger, proving to me that this Murdock guy really had to have been a "Man Without Fear."
In those days, DD was a swashbluckler - and his smile was the perfect facial feature to convey his enthusiasm for the action while adding great visual depth to his personality.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, that smile said more about DD's personality than any script Stan Lee wrote. You see, Colan got it right. If you create a mask that shows a portion of the face then do something with the face to make it interesting and his personality complex. That smile made Daredevil unique among all his contemporary Marvel heroes.
Unfortunately, that crazy smile left the character when Colan retired as the resident artist. Too bad. Ever since, DD hasn't been the same to me.
I miss that smile.
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Dave Wallace
Paradiso
Joined: 29 Jul 2004
Posts: 1074
Location: Birmingham, UK
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| Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:30 am Post subject: Re: Daredevil # 105 Cover |
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| blacktyphoid wrote: | Why this Colan cover is important (to me):
It demonstrates my version of the definitive Daredevil. Why? It has to do with that unnerving, ironic, "devil-may-care" smile that Colan conciously drew on the character. I believe it added great dimension to the character's physical appearance and to his personality.
Other artists since and after Colan drew anger or sadness or other emotions on the character that conveyed the character's feelings to the reader in a very obvious way. When DD was angry, he was drawn to look it, and so on. Colan didn't. Instead, that devil-may-care smile was permanently grafted onto DD's face. It gave DD enormous character depth - it constantly made me wonder what the heck made the guy tick? There was an element of mystery behind that smile. After all, Daredevil was a guy who constantly smiled in the face of danger, proving to me that this Murdock guy really had to have been a "Man Without Fear."
In those days, DD was a swashbluckler - and his smile was the perfect facial feature to convey his enthusiasm for the action while adding great visual depth to his personality.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, that smile said more about DD's personality than any script Stan Lee wrote. You see, Colan got it right. If you create a mask that shows a portion of the face then do something with the face to make it interesting and his personality complex. That smile made Daredevil unique among all his contemporary Marvel heroes.
Unfortunately, that crazy smile left the character when Colan retired as the resident artist. Too bad. Ever since, DD hasn't been the same to me.
I miss that smile.
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blacktyphoid |
What a great post!
I really need to go back and read more of Colan's work. |
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blacktyphoid
Playing to the Camera
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:44 pm Post subject: Re: Daredevil # 105 Cover |
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| Dave Wallace wrote: |
What a great post!
I really need to go back and read more of Colan's work. |
Thanks for your kind comment, Dave.
Getting back to that distinct devil-may-care smile...
Check out this cover. Even as DD's getting the living tar knocked out of him by the Jester, he still displays an inkling of that nutty smile. Makes you wonder - who's crazier, the certifiably nutty Jester or the beaten, yet smiling, Daredevil?
If I'm DD's adversary, I thinking to myself: "What the heck do I have to do to this guy to eliminate that mocking smile?" I guess it's no coincidence that the title is "Nobody Laughs At The Jester!" - especially, it seems, Daredevil!
Btw, check out the fluid motion to the drawing. The feeling of live action movement is timeless. Guys like Maleev and Lark - whose characters sometimes look like statues in a live action drawing -could learn a thing or two from Gene The Dean.
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Gloria
Redemption
Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Posts: 711
Location: Suburbia around Barcelona
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| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:35 pm Post subject: Re: Daredevil # 105 Cover |
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| blacktyphoid wrote: | | I miss that smile. |
Me too. Dammit! Even the fun-loving Mr. Nelson has been looking like the proverbial melancholy guy for quite a while.
Maybe it is why I enjoy whenever I see a smile back in DD's face: be it Cary Nord's grin back in the Kesel run, or Michael Lark's malicious smile when he asks both Tombstone and the Matador to come for him.
I hope Brubaker has made Matt been through hardships in order to have him back to full strenghth... and with a smile.
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Gloria
Devuélveme el rosario de mi madre y quédate con todo lo demás
"Para la cuesta arriba quiero mi burro, que la cuesta abajo yo me la subo" |
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blacktyphoid
Playing to the Camera
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:02 pm Post subject: Re: Daredevil # 105 Cover |
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| Gloria wrote: | | blacktyphoid wrote: | | I miss that smile. |
Me too. Dammit!
Maybe it is why I enjoy whenever I see a smile back in DD's face: be it Cary Nord's grin back in the Kesel run, or Michael Lark's malicious smile when he asks both Tombstone and the Matador to come for him.
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Good point, Gloria. I generally shrug-off the Kesel/Nord period. Personally, it wasn't one of my favourite periods. Nonetheless you're right: The smile did return.
The smile could be seen one other time, albeit temporarily, before Cary Nord joined the book. It was provided by David Mazzucchelli. Prior to his collaboration with Frank Miller, I thought his Daredevil had a very distinct Colanesque feel to it -as if he was purposely paying homage to The Dean. Colan's trademakes were there: the muscular, yet lithe, physical interpretation, the flashy swasbuckling movement and, yes, that devil-may-care smile, were all on display. Even the way Colan often drew the eye openings on the mask (see the cover to DD # 38 in the first post of this thread to understand what I mean) could be seen in Mazz's work.
At a Gene Colan comic book signing in 2001, I told him about the Mazzucchelli work and what I thought to be his influence on the young artist. Colan was mildly amused and said he'd have to check it out.
Then, when Miller entered the scene, Mazz's art seemed to have gone through a transformation - becoming more Milleresque in look, tone and mood, as if Miller had drawn the layouts.
I would have liked to have seen a Miller-Colan collaboration. Colan can do noir, dark stories on par with the best of 'em, as evidenced by his Tomb of Dracula and Nathaniel Dusk work. I think they would have done a great job together on Daredevil or even on a Spirit remake.
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Francesco
Underboss
Joined: 08 Jun 2006
Posts: 1307
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| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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Guys, I agree on the fact that back in the day DD was more a swashbuckler and that he used to smile a lot even in the dangerous situations he was finding himself regularly in. I miss a bit that atmosphere (realistically unrepeatable in the modern comics anymore), too.
But I don't think he's really smiling in those covers. It's just a facial expression that looks like a smile. |
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blacktyphoid
Playing to the Camera
Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Francesco wrote: | Guys, I agree on the fact that back in the day DD was more a swashbuckler and that he used to smile a lot even in the dangerous situations he was finding himself regularly in. I miss a bit that atmosphere (realistically unrepeatable in the modern comics anymore), too.
But I don't think he's really smiling in those covers. It's just a facial expression that looks like a smile. |
Okay...Well, whatever you want to call it - ironic smile, devil-may-care-smile, Jokeresque smile, or even a smerk (I'm open to other ideas that seem more appropriate...) - it's certainly a unique facial expression that seems to belie the dangerous situation he's in. That's the point I'm trying to convey - it may not be a smile (in its traditional meaning to convey happiness), but it's also not a look of obvious distress either. It's something more complex than that. And, to me at least, that what make's it cool.
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