SUMMER TURNS ME UPSIDE DOWN
June 21, 2013
ekko1
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #122
In addition to Gwen’s funeral, we get a Luke Cage team up in which Power Man references Batman….
DAREDEVIL #159: Frank Miller’s second issue
I wish I knew how much of the above was Miller and how much was writer Roger McKenzie. This is the first time we “see” Daredevil using his senses, by which I mean the focus is not on the drawing of someone that Daredevil is hearing/smelling–the focus is on Daredevil lifting his head, like an animal smelling and searching for prey, and the sepia panels behind DD’s head show how he forms the picture in his mind.
Brilliant.
DAREDEVIL #158: The First Frank Miller Issue
Frank Miller started working on Daredevil in the middle of an arc about Black Widow and crazy animal-men and Heather Glenn. He was brought in because things were getting chilly with Gene Colan (and many other longtime Marvel creators) as the company was sold and Jim Shooter became unapologetically corporate.
On the splash page, it says: “From time to time a truly great new artist will explode upon the Marvel scene like a bombshell! … [The creative team] confidently predict newcomer–Lanky Frank Miller is just such an artist!”
After the splash, the first few panels (above) immediately show how different Miller is from his predecessors: Look at the focus on motion. When the villain jerks her hair, you can see her head moving–even though there’s no motion lines in the panel. Look at the way her thigh curves in and tucks her shin, in the top panel, to provide support for her kick. Even Natasha’s clothes seem to move.
DAREDEVIL #155-157
McKenzie’s arc suffers from fill-in/bad artists, but in #156 Gene Colan comes on board, with Klaus Janson inking, and really you can’t ask for anything better than that.
