Comic Book Farewells

It has been a sad week or so as we’ve lost some important people who contributed so much to the legacy of comic books. 

Artist Marie Severin died after suffering a stroke. She was 89 years old.

Marie got her start in comics back in the 1950s when her brother John Severin, an artist for EC Comics, asked Marie to color his stories. She did such a great job for John that she was brought on as an in-house colorist for EC Comics.  

A little background on EC. EC produced titles that specialized in gritty crime stories and gruesomely horrific supernatural tales. EC was also home to a lot of great artists like John Severin, Johnny Craig, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Russ Heath, artists who brought a great deal of skill and passion to their work. It’s not an exaggeration to say that EC Comics produced the best drawn comic books in the industry.  Then along comes Marie Severin who made it all look even better.   

Marie employed a rich palate of colors that added a level of depth and emotional power to the art of EC’s illustrative masters. She was also known to employ single colors at times. Some have said this was due to Marie having issues with the sometimes over the top scenes of gore so employing a single color was to mute or dull the impact of that gore.

Actually, Marie once said in an interview that the use of single color was to actually highlight the horror; using a range of colors could make a gruesome scene look muddled; by spotlighting a scene in all blue or all yellow, the details of the artist’s work could be seen more clearly.   

Unfortunately, the gruesome details of EC’s crime and horror comics were too much to take in the 1950s. With the restrictive Comics Code Authority in place, there was no place in the world for EC Comics so they shut down their comics and focused on MAD Magazine which was in black and white. So what’s a poor colorist to do?  

She found work at Marvel, doing production stuff like paste ups and art corrections as well as coloring, eventually going on to do her own pencil and ink work on Doctor Strange, The Hulk, Thor and a lot of other features.  She also developed a knack as a very talented caricaturist which was frequently on display in humor comics like Not Brand Echh and Crazy.

Even if you’ve never seen a comic book drawn by Marie Severin, you may have still seen her work. She did a lot of merchandise art for Marvel. The Hulk on a lunchbox could've been Marie Severin's Hulk.

She worked at Marvel until 1998 when she lost her job due to the cutbacks at the company. But Marie Severin, penciller, inker, colorist, caricaturist, was still in demand as she continued to do freelance work across the industry until her health failed.

Here is a series of Incredible Hulk covers penciled by Marie Severin

Marie Severin was groundbreaking as a woman in a very decidedly male dominated profession. She didn't just break through the gender barriers of the comic book industry, she made herself at home like she belonged there as much as the men. And she did!

I think too often, the few women writers and artists in comics in those days were given the “girl” jobs, the romance comics, the comics geared to the littlest kids, that sort of thing.

Marie Severin drew the friggin’ Hulk! She drew Thor! She drew the X-Men! Marie Severin was on the same playing field as John Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Jack Kirby and other legendary Marvel artists. That's why Marie Severin was so cool! 

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On the same day Marie Severin died, we also lost Gary Friedrich at the age of 75.

As a teenager, Gary Friedrich became friends with Roy Thomas, bonding over their mutual love of comics.  

Later, Roy moved to New York and became an assistant editor for Marvel. It was in that position that Roy brought Gary Friedrich to Marvel Comics where Gary wrote issues of Hulk, X-Men, Captain Marvel, Daredevil and Captain America.   

Gary’s longest run as a writer was on Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Marvel’s main war comic. Separate from the rest of the Marvel super hero line, Gary Friedrich was free to experiment with storytelling such as his standalone issues that explored complex themes about war and patriotism.  

Gary’s most famous creation while at Marvel was Ghost Rider, the motorcycle-riding, flaming skull head agent of Hell, the Most Supernatural Super Hero Of All! 

Ghost Rider would get two movies starring Nicholas Cage which is perfect for a Nic Cage movie: when Ghost Rider is around, there’s a lot of shouting and a lot of stuff gets set on fire.

Gary also launched Marvel’s Son of Satan comic.

Yes, there was a comic book published by Marvel called Son of Satan. It was the 1970s, man. Shit was weird.  

Life was not easy for Gary Friedrich. He had problems with drinking and drugs that cut short his career at Marvel. He was increasingly deaf in both ears and then the Parkinson’s hit. 

There was a messy legal battle between Gary and Marvel about the creation of Ghost Rider which was eventually settled but not for what Gary was hoping for. 

There was a bit of a high point for Gary Friedrich later in life when he was honored with the Will Eisner Comic Industry Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Writing in 2010. 

By all accounts, Gary Friedrich was a very talented writer but life kept getting in the way of what could’ve been a much better career. 

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The week before the deaths of Marie Severin and Gary Friedrich, Russ Heath passed away. 

art by Russ Heath with colors by Jack Adler 

My first encounter with the art of Russ Heath was back when I was a kid. It was an issue of Action Comics in DC’s 100 Page Super Spectacular  format; the issue contained a reprint of a Sea Devils story. 

The Sea Devils were a team of underwater adventurers who had adventures underwater.   

You’re thinking maybe like Aquaman? They could breathe underwater, swim superfast and maybe talk to fish, right? 

Nope, just regular guys (and a girl) with color coordinated purple* wetsuits and scuba gear. They fought underwater mad scientists, underwater invading aliens, underwater rampaging monsters, underwater destructive robots, underwater secret criminal organizations bent on world domination and other sundry threats… underwater.  

*Interior art, the suits were purple. On covers, the wetsuits drifted towards red or pink. 
    

The 1960s, man. What can I say?  Shit was weird.  

Anyway, I was impressed by the art in this Sea Devils story. Also, Russ Heath could draw a rather attractive woman in a purple wetsuit.   

Sadly, I was not exposed to a lot of Russ Heath’s art as he spent most of his time at DC drawing for its line of war comics including the Haunted Tank.

The Haunted Tank was a tank. That was haunted. (I really shouldn’t have to explain these things to you.)   

I didn’t follow the adventures of the Haunted Tank as it was, to the best of my knowledge, devoid of any attractive women in purple wetsuits.  

Heath's drawings of fighter jets in DC Comics' All-American Men of War #89 (Feb. 1962) served as the basis for pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's best-known oil paintings. Which really didn’t sit well with Russ Heath (or any of the other artists that Lichtenstein ripped off….which I think might be a good topic for a future blog post.)    

In addition to Sea Devils, war comics and occasional horror stories for DC and for Warren’s magazine line, he also a lot of the artwork on Little Annie Fanny, the comic strip that Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder did for Playboy.

I am NOT going to explain Little Annie Fanny to you.

Anyway, we bid farewell to Russ Heath whose wonderfully delineated work was a link back to the Golden Age of comics.