Saturday, April 29, 2006
Comic Art
Some villains are classics. Some despite iconic status are unappealing. The Red Skull was certainly unappealing to me in my youth. But over the years he has grown on me.In the '60's when I started with comics he was a WWII leftover, much like his arch-enemy Captain America, but unlike Cap, he was still fighting WWII. Every time the Skull showed up he had some new devious scheme to bring about the "Fourth Reich!"
Of, course, the return of Nazism was a common theme of adventure literature of the day, and remains a them in some cases to this date. But as a youth, born well after the war, I didn't get it. It has only been as I have matured a little that I have come to understand what incredible evil the Skull represented, and therefore, what a completely awesome bad guy he really was.
You see this issue of "Tales Of Suspense?" I used to own it, in fact I used to own a whole serioes of TOS's with Cap and Iron Man. I read them over and over and over again when I was a kid. Then I sold them at a garage sale - the lot, some 50 books for 5 dollars, dear Lord I was a fool. Those books would be worth quite a bit in this day and age.This book is the master - Jack Kirby. Kirby's rendering of the Skull may have been the weakest thing he drew. He made the skull look odd somehow, mishapen, but not really skull-like, it used to bother me. I have actually grown to appreociate other artists rendering of the Skull far more than Kirby's which is rare.
The original Skull is dead now, replaced by some new guy that I really don't care for. The reason behind this change should be obvious. WWII is out of vogue. They had to change the character somehow from someone that was just trying to raise Hitler from the dead into a more modern menace. In other words, your run-of-the-mill meglomaniac with a little moral ambiguity thrown in.Much as Cap no longer represents apple pie and the American way, his nemesis had to change too. I really miss that, particularly in this post 9-11 age. At a time when patriotism peaked, Cap has become a cynic. That that change is reflected in his nemesis is not surprizing, that it robs the whole story of some sort of "purity" did catch me by surprize and has saddened me.
Here's a Kirby drawn panel. A little art quirk here. One of th reason I had trouble with Kirby and the Skull was that Kirby seemed only to get him right in full perpendicular profile like this. At angles like the cover above, he just looked odd, and in direct face, his features looked very flat. What can I say, for once the master failed.The Skull is one of the iconic villains of all time. One time is was the near personification of evil. Now, with his Nazi past obliterated, he is not so exciting. Maybe that is another idea, a special line of Cap books set in WWII. I'd subscribe.
Related Tags: comcis, comic books, comic art, villains, The Red Skull, Captain America, superheroes
