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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 20, 2020 1:14:30 GMT -5
Very talented artist, but I haven't felt motivated to read any of his stuff so far. New Frontier's subject matter, DC's superheroes, doesn't attract me much and I don't think his style suits superheroes anyway: the backgrounds and settings look fantastic but not the characters themselves. And while I think the subject matter of of the Stark books is spot on for Cooke's aesthetic, I'd rather read the novels themselves first. But I'm sure there's something of Cooke's out there that I'll want to try, because I do like his style, or at least certain aspects of it. I think there's a book he did in collaboration with Gilbert Hernandez, I should have a look for that one. Well, I get the superheroes not working for you; but, man, you can't beat Chuck Yeager talking to a pint sized Hal Jordan, at Pancho Barnes' Happy Bottom Riding Club bar... There is so much more going on than just a superhero romp. The opening action, on Dinosaur Island, with the Losers, looks like something Wally Wood would do, and then, later, we see Hal in Korea, in a scene that would do Jerry Grandenetti proud... and this bit, after Hal is forced to kill a North Korean soldier to save his own life and has been picked up by a chopper, ferrying Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen... The back cover features a dedication to Robert Kanigher, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth and Harvey Kurtzman. I think his work in this issue fits right in with those guys.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2020 1:19:27 GMT -5
There is so much more going on than just a superhero romp. The opening action, on Dinosaur Island, with the Losers, looks like something Wally Wood would do, and then, later, we see Hal in Korea, in a scene that would do Jerry Grandenetti proud... The page (and sequence) reminds me a lot of Kurtzman/Toth's F-86 Sabre Jet from Two-Fisted Tales... -M
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Post by berkley on Nov 20, 2020 2:42:36 GMT -5
Great stuff, I agree - but you'll notice that most of those samples are of landscapes, interiors, airplanes, etc - IOW, not so much the human figure and face.
Not that he couldn't do that too - the Chuck Yeager sequence looks great - but it didn't carry over for me in New Frontier, where many of the superhero characters came across as pudgy and unathletic. It was also weird how some of the female characters like Catwoman had disproportionately large heads on tiny bodies, while the males were relatively in proportion - you can see it in some of the samples in the first post of the thread.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2020 14:59:57 GMT -5
If anyone has the interest and the means, some of Darwyn's original art is up for sale today at Heritage Auctions per BC-M
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Post by tarkintino on Nov 20, 2020 15:19:32 GMT -5
I don't think his style suits superheroes anyway: the backgrounds and settings look fantastic but not the characters themselves. I think his style--is the middle ground between the way do-it-yourself superheroes would look if they were real, and their comic book roots. In other words, his superheroes were not going to look entirely like film or TV adaptations, and similarly, not like full-on comic book renderings. It was more like advanced conceptual illustrations of how superheroes should physically appear, and I think it worked so incredibly well.
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Post by tartanphantom on Nov 20, 2020 15:31:51 GMT -5
I love his work not only on New Frontier, but also the DC Spirit series.
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 20, 2020 16:00:02 GMT -5
Cooke's style reminds me a bit of those opening animated designs from the old Bewitched show... I used to wish there were comics based on the show in that kind of style. I Dream Of Jeannie's opening had more of a 'Derek' (of Tiki fandom cartoons) style. I read in his bio how he didn't do comics much in fifteen years after one published in DC's New Talent Showcase... because it wouldn't pay enough at the rate of $35 per week, which is how long a full page took him to produce. Another example of the short term monthly frequency being a killer and many things being for sale only a single month or six weeks. Later he was able to benefit from a system not so hung-up on production speed and frequency. There are probably all sorts of might've been artists we'll never even know about, but here's one that didn't get away after all!
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Post by tarkintino on Nov 20, 2020 18:01:37 GMT -5
Cooke's style reminds me a bit of those opening animated designs from the old Bewitched show... I used to wish there were comics based on the show in that kind of style. I Dream Of Jeannie's opening had more of a 'Derek' (of Tiki fandom cartoons) style. Those animated openings were so of the period, appearing like so many TV cartoons of the 60, and that's no coincidence, since I Dream of Jeannie's main title was produced by the legendary Friz Freling, while Bewitched's was created by Hanna-Barbera (and as you probably know, Stone Age versions of Darrin & Samantha Stevens appeared on The Flintstones from 1965).
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Post by berkley on Nov 20, 2020 20:07:41 GMT -5
I don't think his style suits superheroes anyway: the backgrounds and settings look fantastic but not the characters themselves. I think his style--is the middle ground between the way do-it-yourself superheroes would look if they were real, and their comic book roots. In other words, his superheroes were not going to look entirely like film or TV adaptations, and similarly, not like full-on comic book renderings. It was more like advanced conceptual illustrations of how superheroes should physically appear, and I think it worked so incredibly well. Yeah, it's more of a personal taste thing for me, not a judgement on Cooke's abiity.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2020 3:07:57 GMT -5
I really enjoyed the 2001 Detective Comics backup stories he and Brubaker did that led into their Catwoman series.
Those issues really cemented me into a Cooke fan for life and I've picked up most everything he had a hand in since. Even the Before Watchmen stuff.
As I work on trying to figure out my reading goals for the rest of the year and 2021, I think I may have to revisit the Catwoman series.
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 21, 2020 12:46:56 GMT -5
Cooke's style reminds me a bit of those opening animated designs from the old Bewitched show... I used to wish there were comics based on the show in that kind of style. I Dream Of Jeannie's opening had more of a 'Derek' (of Tiki fandom cartoons) style. Those animated openings were so of the period, appearing like so many TV cartoons of the 60, and that's no coincidence, since I Dream of Jeannie's main title was produced by the legendary Friz Freling, while Bewitched's was created by Hanna-Barbera (and as you probably know, Stone Age versions of Darrin & Samantha Stevens appeared on The Flintstones from 1965). No, I didn't know that, I must've missed those Flintstones all this time! I remember a stone-age Shindig or Hullabaloo type show episode with the Beau Brummelstones though. Will have to investigate Cooke Catwoman too... I just found this great blog post about it... www.heroicgirls.com/looking-back-darwyn-cookes-catwoman/
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 21, 2020 14:53:06 GMT -5
So glad you began this thread, @mrp . Cooke's death was such a loss to comics. In New Frontier, he was able to balance his obvious love for the characters, the ethos, and the flavor of the Silver Age with a realistic take on the notion of superheroes. Rarely have any of the retrospectives on that period been as nimble at weaving together so many of the characters and tropes without pandering to some kind of darker sub-text that cheapens rather than enhances either. He took a scalpel to those comics and that era instead of a sledgehammer, revealing a sub-text that made splendid sense without sacrificing the uniqueness of the time, and every one of the characters and the readers were the better for it. codystarbuck is so right about the care and affection Cooke lavished on the "sets," which tell as much of the story in their own way as the action and the plot. Like Toth and Caniff, Cooke took the "less is more" approach. The economy of line, the perfect spotting of blacks and his ability to capture a subtle facial expression or but of body language so well with such ease made this and other books he wrote and illustrated true masterpieces.
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