Comic Book Art

The funny thing about comic book art is that it used to be just a means to an end. And it was a relatively unimportant means at that.

In the beginning, the comic book, and before that the comic strip, was the thing. The original artwork used in the process was put aside, stored or even worse. Now the surviving artwork is collected.

Some experts point out that the love for comic book art is one that simply evolved from those smitten by comic books in the first place. It connects, in a way, even more closely to the subject than the comic book itself.

Then, too, there might be thousands upon thousands of copies of a particular comic book issued. But the artwork was drawn only once. Moreover as Jerry Weist points out in the book, Original Comic Art, "only a small percentage of that original artwork has managed to survive."

Often it was discarded after storage became too expensive or corporate thoughts turned to another product. Now everyone feels differently, both in and out of the comic image business.

"What was at one time regarded as a throwaway culture has now become highly sought after and desirable,"noted Weist.

Generally what was not discarded or did not deteriorate over time ended up in one of three categories.

One, it was preserved and now is the property of various museums and universities. Two, it remains in the carefully guarded estate of the original artist governed by designated heirs. Three, it was given to fan who had made a written request or a friend who indicated and interest when it was published.

Research into comic book art often turns up many entertaining stories of admiring followers who wrote to an artist pleading for a copy of the artist's original work.

In fact, some wrote to scores and scores of artists over the years hoping to get lucky. Just how many times they were successful is unrecorded.

Most sources today credit the newspaper comic strip with eventually being the basis for the comic book. However, historians vary on exactly how and when comic strips appeared in America's newspapers.

Most credit the late 19th century, when, as explained in One Hundred Years of American Newspaper Comics, "the American daily newspapers, competing for readership among themselves, brought forth the Sunday supplement, which made increasingly generous use of illustration and color."

Conditions were ripe, according to that book's author Maurice Horn, "for the bursting forth of a new form of communication. neither merely literature nor merely graphic art, but borrowing freely from both."

Actually, most of the comic strips appearing as late as the 1920s were in black and white. Gradually, multiple colors filled the Sunday editions. At that point, there was also a wide variety of humor.

By the late 1930s, amidst the hard times of the Great Depression, newspapers had turned to the so-called adventure strips. Characters like Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, and eventually a fellow called Superman began to emerge.

King features joined the adventure flight with its own Jungle Jim and Flash Gordon. The Flash was penned by Alexander Raymond, a person who had lost his job in the Wall Street crash of 1929. An adventure hungry public was soon able to hear the likes of Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim on radio programs. Superman and a few others were also soon dishing out adventure in the form of comic books.

The idea of putting previously successful comic strip figures into the above mentioned comic book form occurred as early as 1934 with Skippy's Own Book of Crimes.

This early reprint of comic strips appeared in "bright colors" with 48 pages and over 1,000 illustrations.

By 1938, Superman himself had made it into an issue called Action Comics. Starting in the early 1940s, a character known as Donald Duck was drawn by an unknown comic artist named Carl Barks.

Even though Barks went unheralded for decades, today he is a comic book artist legend. Credited with inventing many Donald characters including Uncle Scrooge, his original work is highly treasured.

From Superman to Donald Duck, a mighty transformation was under way by the 1940s from adult to youngster and from comic strip to comic book.

"What happened was the sociology of comics reading was transformed," according to Roger Sabin, the author of Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels. "No longer were comics supposed to be for workers to read during breaks or on trains during half holidays.

"Now, they were being bought by kids with their own pocket money, without adult supervision, and were being read as part of children's leisure time: their own to swap, discard, or keep as they wished. The sense of ownership, so empowering for a child, was total."

Be it Barks or someone else, the job of the comic book artist was usually to give vision to a prepared story script. Initially, pencil sketches would be used, only to be followed with a final application of ink to make the lines permanent. The text in the form of hand-lettered work bubbles was then added.

It was a laborious job with the average comic books requiring about 100 panels, and no two of the artist renders could be alike.

"Each must be a different perspective pose, a different angle, a different perspective, with different facial expressions and an endless variety of layouts, as well as all the subtle permutations of light and shading,"once observed Stan Lee, a pretty well known comic book artist himself.

And all that detailed comic book or comic strip art could end up in strange places. A veteran paper collector tells the story of a small, but enterprising, chain of newspapers back in the 1970s.

They used their influence with firms marketing newspaper comic strips to obtain numerous original art drawings from then well known artists.

These were artists whose work was appearing then in newspapers around the country. The newspaper group used the art to extensively decorate editorial offices. A decade later, the publisher decided to change the decor of the rooms. As a result, all of the original artist-signed art was ordered removed from the walls.

Our collector friend stepped up at that point and obtained the entire collection - custom framed - for a very modest amount.

Early in the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Service put together some 100 original drawings of American cartoon and comic art. It was gathered from numerous public and private collections.

One of the sponsors was King Features, a major syndicate of comic strips around the world.

Of the exhibit, King Features president Joseph D'Angelo concluded, "In recent years, the comic's have been increasingly recognized as a legitimate art form, an art form indigenous to America. It is our hope people across the country will be able to see and appreciate the wealth of creative expression found in comics."

Source: Farm and Dairy, August 6, 2009