Iron Man in forced perspective action! Daredevil in sequenced acrobatics! That was the 70's and these were some of the indelible images Gene Colan gave me during my childhood. His style was very distinct.
Many years later, I remember flipping through a Daredevil comic published in 1997 and immediately recognizing Mr. Colan's work. By then I was already out of college, so the first thing I remember thinking was "Wow! Gene Colan is drawing the latest issue of Daredevil! Wait a minute, how old is Gene Colan anyway?" It amazed me that he was still drawing comics even if his eyesight was giving him trouble.
I recall listening to an interview with Mr. Colan in 2003 where he spoke about his art and the impact of his craft on his personal life. He said "My feeling about what I'm doing, the love that I have for it, how dramatic and how believable I want to make it for the readers gets right into the artwork. It's an unconscious thing. And that's how a style, I believe, is developed too. It's an unconscious thing. When you develop a style it's recognizable as your handwriting. Same thing. But to be successful in art or any other field, you have to really love it. You need to be totally devoted to it. Unfortunately, especially in my business, a family life is missed. It's a sad thing, but you're not really with your family that much. You're married to your art. And I have some regrets about that. There's nothing I can do about it. I did the best that I could, but my art seemed to come ahead of everything. Maybe that's what makes for the artist."
I could feel for Mr. Colan. In my own experience, I have learned that making good comics is not an easy craft, and so I can imagine that making great comics is probably very painful to produce. Looking at some of Gene Colan's pencils, one can appreciate how hard he worked, and how painstaking it must have been to produce each one of his pages.
What I have with me now are only tattered reprints of Mr. Colan's Daredevil and Iron Man issues. Most certainly they are poor reproductions of the artist's original work. Yet the quality of his work was potent enough to set my boyhood imagination soaring beyond the poorly printed pages that limited the presentation of this master's skills. But by gosh, these were really great comics!
Visiting them again over the years, I have found that Gene Colan's work is truly fine art. It seem to get better and better with age.
Thanks, Mr. Colan. May our good Lord bless you and keep you.
