The Invincible Gene Colan edited by Clifford Meth (artbook review).
I heard of this book, ‘The Invincible Gene Colan’, last month, never having heard of it before, and wondered why I hadn’t seen it before, as it came out in 2011. The problem then was, could I get a copy? I got lucky from the start of the hunt.
Picking out great American comic book artists can be tricky, a lot depending on personal taste. Jack Kirby and Neal Adams are easily cited. Gene Colan (1926–2011) is another example of his versatility, going from comedy to romance to superheroes and horror and back to comedy again. Seeing Colan’s early comic book work shows he can and did it all. Quite why he isn’t as revered today feels odd. It isn’t as though he hadn’t worked on significant characters like Daredevil, Iron Man, Howard the Duck and Dracula at Marvel Comics.
His work from Timely and Marvel shows how effective he was. The number of covers he did focuses on how good a designer he was and how instantly recognisable he was. Like Adams, he enjoyed doing jagged panels in double-page spreads.
Were there anything I think should have been included but wasn’t? One was the splash page from Daredevil #26, where DD is going a forward somersault with Colan capturing the entire motion in stop frame. The other is from Doctor Strange #180, with Clea discovering snow for the first time, showing how he can convey emotions. Oddly, a frame showing Tony Stark wearing Iron Man’s earpieces before putting on his helmet from Tales Of Suspense #89 is printed without comment.
You do get to see a lot of Colan’s original pencil art here, showing how much he depends on texture to bring his designs to life. Interestingly, a commissioned picture of Hela on page 61 stands out as the best piece of new art.
The final section of the book is an interview with Gene Colan by Clifford Meth from 1995, going over his history and which comic book artists he learnt from. Oddly, thinking about it, you rarely hear many modern artists say they were influenced by Colan’s work. I think the real problem is his work is instantly recognisable and hard to copy, and that’s pretty rare in this field.
If there’s anything missing, considering this is a Marvel book, it is not acknowledging how many characters he designed for them, let alone re-designed. When the Melter returned to ‘Iron Man’, his redesigned costume compared to his old togs made him an instantly serious character to be reckoned with and was proven when the Melter device was incorporated into his headwear and melted Iron Man’s metal glove later on.
Have I gushed enough? There are copies of this book out there, and they are worth adding to your collection if you can get one.
GF Willmetts
April 2025
(pub: Marvel, 2011. 131 page illustrated hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-0-97976-026-6).
check out website: www.marvel.com
