Marshall Rogers – 1950 - 2007

A celebration of the master artist and his work.

Marshall Rogers

It was on a very sad note that I heard via the Internet that the legendary American comic artist Marshall Rogers had passed away earlier this week.

I was never lucky enough to meet the man himself, but his work will live on and thus like all the true, great artists he will become immortalised through it.

Below is my tribute to him to commemorate this marvellous comic artist and his wonderful work.

Marshall studied architecture for two years before realising he wanted to work in comics. He left college to seek his fortune in the comic industry.

He began working in comics following work in a hardware store, where he honed his storytelling and illustrative skills at nights and weekends and produced occasional illustrations for various magazines.

Marshall Rogers worked on a great many comic characters for many different comics companies and is most famous for his run on Batman in Detective Comics, but I want to take a look at his work on Mister Miracle, following on from where Jack Kirby had left the character some years earlier.
When Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Series ended the fans were left with a great many unanswered questions. Now in Jack Kirby’s own words his stories tended to ask more questions than finding answers. In the case of the Fourth World stories, however, these questions remained unanswered due to the early cancellation of the titles.

In the late seventies DC comics decided to re-launch The New Gods and Mister Miracle, picking up the numbering from the issues they had been cancelled on, rather than starting afresh from number ones.

The New Gods had Don Newton on the art chores, following a test to reader reaction to a potential re-launch in a First Issue Special (a series of issues of number ones, including some earlier Jack Kirby comics), which was drawn by Mike Vosburg, and Mister Miracle had newcomer Marshall Rogers, fresh from his work on Batman in Detective Comics.

The New Gods had lots of changes to the look of the costumes and characters, but the Mister Miracle had all the old sensibilities and yet it was new and it was different.

Marshall’s run on the book was only four issues from issue 19 to issue 22, inclusively – although he did actually continue to produce the cover for issues 23 and 24.

Despite his short run on the title Marshall’s impact and his ability to capture the absolute essence of what made a Kirby comic work made the four issues immortalised in the eyes of the fans. He had given the fans Kirbyesque work as far as capturing the absolute of the characters and stories, but with his unique vision. This made for no jarring changes and made it a truly smooth transition from the earlier Jack Kirby issues. No mean feat following on from the King of comics and his own creations.

There will, I hope, be many such Blogs regarding this tremendous artist, covering the many other comics and characters touched by this great artist.

Please check out Charles Yoakum’s Blog (ink destroyed my brush) for his tribute.

There is a link to this Blog in my Favourite Fellow Bloggers (Friends of Mine) section at the left hand side of this Blog, under my About Me details.

And please check out Marshall Roger’s comic work for yourselves.

You will be missing something truly unique and beautiful if you don’t.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
March 27th 2007

300 – The New Frank Miller Epic Movie Review.

Or, don’t mess with those Spartans.

Well I just got in from watching Frank Millers latest theatre release and if you liked the graphic novel then you’ll just love the movie.

There is a very limited pallet of colours used once more, similar to Sin City.

There are some great cinematic SFX, like battle scenes, which slip from normal to slow motion and back again to great effect.

There is a fair amount of blood and limb loss throughout, but it’s similar to looking at a John Woo movie, which have always been regarded as ballet with guns.

There isn’t much room for masses of characterisation, but this is an action movie.

There are some fantastic cinematic angles used to great effect, which also add to the comic bookesque look of the movie as a whole.

My advice, go out and check it out for yourself.

On a sad note I have just heard via the Internet that the legendary American comic artist Marshall Rogers has passed away.

This is yet another sad day in comics.

Here is a link to the latest news item regarding this sad event:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=106531

I will be running a tribute to him this week to commemorate this marvellous comic artist and his wonderful work.

In the meantime here’s a cover drawn by the great man himself:

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins...
March 27th 2007

Positive Feelings!

Or come on guys what is wrong with you?

Well in the news still is the fact that Captain America is still dead or at least for the time being, anyhow.

All over the web folks have been arguing about comics from the seventies, saying that nothing great came out of the era…

Whoa, hang on folks…here’s a few to mull over, and these are only a sampling from the USA – I haven’t included any UK comics here:

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World series, consisting of:

• Forever People
• The New Adventures of Jimmy Olsen and the News Boy Legion
• New Gods
• Mister Miracle

Again by Jack Kirby for marvel and DC respectively:

• The Demon
• Kamandi
• OMAC
• Manhunter
• Atlas
• Spirit World
• In The Days Of The Mob
  
• The Eternals
• Machine Man
  
  
• Swamp Thing
• Rima
• Kong
• The Shadow
• Tales from the Bible
  
  
• Conan the Barbarian
• Savage Tales
• Savage Sword of Conan
• King Kull
• Captain Marvel
• Warlock
• Killraven
• Deathlok
• Tomb of Dracula
• Howard the Duck
• Manthing
• Master of Kung Fu

To name, but a few titles…and guys…these titles have been and are continuing to be milked all these years on by the big two, because they have stood the test of time and are great comic books!!!

I remember hearing these kinds of sweeping statements back in the early eighties…

Remember…there wouldn’t be a comic industry if this stuff hadn’t come along.

I wasn’t around to collect comics in the fifties, but I still think the work of the EC guys is first class. I wonder how many of the folks be-crying the industry of the 70’s have passed similar comments about this work or seen any of these or indeed have, more importantly, read any of these wonderful tales.

Comics are a timeless commodity and it’s always great to look at how all sorts of creative folks have worked in the past.

I really do feel strongly that the trouble with folks reading comics nowadays is that if it isn’t current and hot then it isn’t worth a look.

Well sorry guys you’re missing out on a lot of brilliant stories and artwork!

Just before I sign off for the day with this little missive, Comics International is out under the new management of Mike Conroy, following the sale of the magazine by Dez Skinn a few months ago.

Go check it out, if you get a chance, and see what’s going on in the world of comics from a UK perspective.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
March 23rd 2007

Congratulations Joanne and Toby! Happy Birthday Margaret!

Or time out for the family…

"Well following a brilliant evening on Saturday at my Daughter, Joanne and her fiancé, Toby’s engagement party it’s time for another celebration this evening as Margaret celebrates her birthday, so today’s Blog is going to be quite a concise one, which may please some folks. ;)

There are a few things coming out over the next few months that are worth checking out:

• Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Volume 1 Hard Cover – a second volume is due out towards August.

• Mike Wieringo’s Tellos Colossal Hard Cover – also available as a signed and numbered limited edition.

• 
• Stan Lee and John Romita Senior’s Spider-Man Newspaper StripsVolume 1 Hard Cover.

Keep an eye out for these fantastic books.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins...
March 20th 2007

Graphic Novels versus Comics!

Is the pamphlet format dying and being replaced by a bookshelf upstart?

Well this has been a topic on many folk’s agendas lately and so I thought I would add my two-penneth.

Personally I think it is, but the publishers are doing this to themselves.

Firstly the comics are expensive in comparison and the story is broken up, understandably so, by advertisements. If this weren’t the case then the cost would obviously rise once again and astronomically too! The shelf life of comics is extremely limiting, whereas the graphic novel’s shelf life is as long as folks want to continue buying copies of it.

As I see it the multi-versions of a character out per month make collecting any of the other comics by a particular company hard and this is down to the expense, let alone the ability to afford any other company’s fare. Also the time span between a comic story arc being published and then released as a trade paperback is getting less and less and writers are even beginning to write comic books in chapter form so they fit the graphic novel (or rather trade paperback) format.

As a result of all these traits the comic collector is becoming less and less likely to buy the comic version and instead wait for the book length collected version, which often has extra pages of story or a sketch book section and a cover gallery included, much like many DVD’s with their extras sections.

This is especially the case if a comic collector misses an early issue of a story arc or mini series.

The way I see things working in the not too distant future, unless the publishers wish to bury comics completely is this:

Put out a maximum of two comics by any of the popular character(s) per month.

Don’t reprint them – at least not any time soon.

Print them on cheaper paper, much like they used to be and make them affordable and street-cred for the kids to read them.

Also make them a throw away product…let’s see the kids rolling them up again in their back pockets, instead of buying copies, hording them in acid free Mylar bags with backing boards, hidden away in boxes, in airtight containers away from the light…

GUYS THEY ARE MEANT TO BE READ AND LOOKED AT!!!

Get the comics back out into the mainstream market place as well as in the direct sales market place.

Originate new work as graphic novels, not trade paperback reprints.

Yes, this will have repercussions on the cost of originating these, but what the ecch…if the market is to survive, things have to change.

This way the graphic novel doesn’t have to replace the comic book – no instead it is a progression from the comics for the kids.

All the doom and gloom of the comic industry over the past ten to fifteen years has to stop, for goodness sake!!! We were being told the industry was dead in the mid-nineties, following the comics crash of 1994…well that was wrong, now let’s prove them wrong again!!!

Go out folks and buy ONLY the comics you like and follow this up with buying the collections you maybe missed first time around, or no longer have them in your collections and look at the new “originated” graphic novels.

There is room for all of the formats…

But the old way of selling them needs to be re-found…or at least reinvented!

Let’s get them back out as annuals too…

Like I said a few posts back…

“The times they are a changin’” and like Jack said again it’s going to happen…”in the world that’s coming!”

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
March 15th 2007

Faster than a Speeding Bullet!

Or that was the Week that was!

Well last week flew by so fast I hardly had a moment to spare, hence the lack of Blogs last week. No sooner had I put up the Monday Blog regarding the new Ghost Rider film, than suddenly it was Sunday again and a week had gone by.

One thing that hit the news in the states and had the Internet covered with hits and exchanges in the forums, was Marvel comics decision to have Captain America assassinated by a sniper.

There has been huge speculation regarding the good Captain’s replacement, but it does seem strange to kill off a character (created in the years of world war II, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby) when America needs it national heroes more than ever.

This occupied most of the forums and news reporting for the week regarding anything to do with comics.

For any of you folks reading this little missive that may not be aware of the new films due out this year with a comic bias, here are a few titles to look out for:

• Spiderman 3
• Fantastic Four 2 – The Rise of the Silver Surfer
• 300
• Transformers (live action) The Movie

So there’s a lot to see this year with a connection to the comic book industry.

Something else you should check out is David (V for Vendetta) Lloyd’s new graphic novel – KICKBACK. It’s a great Crime Noir story. Nicely told and beautifully illustrated, by one of the nicest guys in comics. Go out and buy a copy…I promise you’ll not regret it!!!

I spent a very pleasant Saturday morning this week, reading it over breakfast – several brews and a slice or two of toast…very pleasant indeed…Thanks David.

I spent Friday afternoon of this last week in a junior school giving a talk and demonstration on comics – something struck me whilst there and it wasn’t anything the kids had thrown at me…honest!

No it was a rare thing, actually. The kids there actually read comics and books and were quite up to date with what’s out there. The nice thing was they read a variety of stuff between them…so maybe the Naysayers are wrong…

Let’s hope so…at least.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…
March 12th 2007

Convention Appearance - May 2007.

I am going to be appearing as a guest at this year’s Bristol Expo.I have just confirmed that I am attending the Bristol Expo this coming May.

This will be my first major Comics Convention as a Guest since the late nineties.

There isn’t going to be a Wizards Keep stand this time around, as all of the exhibitor’s places had been taken at the time of speaking to Expo organiser, Mike Allwood, but plans are underway to have a major presence at the event in 2008.

I am being accompanied by my Wife Margaret and we will both be attending on both Saturday 12th May until Sunday 13th May. Although we will be arriving in Bristol on the Friday afternoon.

There will be a opportunities to speak to me about Wizards Keep and all its product ranges and also my new “Worlds End” Graphic Novel, which I will be showing throughout the convention.

I will be taking along as many of the pages from "Worlds End" as I can get finished prior to the convention.

I also intend on having some other things to show for the first time with a bit of luck.

I'm really looking forward to seeing all the creative folks I haven't seen in a while.

I am also looking forward to speaking to folks about the new work I am producing at the moment.

Until next time have fun!

Tim Perkins…

March 11th 2007