Gene Colan: A Legendary Comic Book Artist
My Favorite Gene Colan Covers
Gene Colan is considered a living legend in the comic book world and is, in my opinion, a true artist in every sense of the word. Gene continues to be active in the comic book industry and Gene regularly makes personal appearances at comic book conventions across the country.
Gene began his prolific career in 1944 at Fiction House before being hired by Stan Lee to work for Marvel Comics. Gene is known for his excellent work on several Marvel comic book titles, titles such as Journey Into Mystery, Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Daredevil, Tomb Of Dracula & Dr. Strange. Gene has worked on a bevy a lesser known titles at Marvel, titles like Menace, Mystic, Howard The Duck & Night Force.
Colan's artwork has also graced the pages of DC Comics, Gene worked on Sea Devils, Hopalong Cassidy and Nathaniel Dusk. Gene has recently done work for Dark Horse comics on The Curse Of Dracula mini-series.
Gene's artwork with it's deep, gloomy shadows, dramatic and sweeping form, expressive characterization and eye-catching layouts is instantly recognizable. Colan's work has touched every genre in comics, Romance, War, Crime, Sci-Fi, Horror, Humor and the most famous genre, the Superheroes.
As many of my family and friends know, I have been a comic book collector since my childhood and I continue to collect comics and attend conventions every year.
I have several Gene Colan comics and among them is Captain America #117 in which Cap's sidekick, the Falcon, made his 1st appearance. Colan helped to create the Falcon, the Falcon was the first African-American comic book hero to appear in mainstream comics.
I'm going to mention several other iconic Gene Colan covers which I have seen online and are also recognized in the comic industry as some of the best comic covers of all time.
Iron Man #1 marked a new beginning for the Iron Man title and the last for Colan, Gene worked on the legendary Tales Of Suspense title which featured Iron Man in a long run of very popular issues.
After drawing the Sub-Mariner in Tales To Astonish, Colan drew Iron Man And Sub Mariner #1, and then moved on to the Sub-Mariner solo title.
One of Gene's best known title runs is his 78 issue run with Daredevil, which included issue #100 and the recent #500. I have several of these issues as well, great stuff and highly recommended!
Colan's legendary work is probably most well known for the Tomb Of Dracula run in the early 70's. Gene's excellent shadowy art style fit the Dracula title perfectly, Gene penciled all 70 issues, including #10 in which the famous Blade comic and movie character made his 1st appearance.
Gene also drew the debut of Marvel's very own version of the legendary Captain Marvel character.
Any serious collector of comics should own a few Colan issues and if you're a collector you seriously need to pick up a Gene Colan drawn comic book, you will not be disappointed if you do.
