Zzutak, that post was profoundly entertaining, and I’m excited to see the rest
of your examples. Nice work.
I agree that Leialoha is a fantastic and tremendously underrated Inker. I think
I first recognized his work as a kid on top of Starlin. He is also to my mind
the only inker who ever made Sal Buscema look good, in a few issues of MTU back
in the day. (I am pretty sure Sal B. is my least favorite of the entire classic
Marvel Bullpen.)
Mark Nevins
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 3, 2021, at 22:42, zzutak <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gene in January, Day Three:
Howard The Duck #5, page 8 by Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha
https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1692243
Gene Colan was initially worried that being assigned the Howard The Duck
comic was a demotion to drawing funny animal stories for children... until he
read Steve Gerber's scripts. “I enjoyed it, because Howard was the easiest
thing to do, and it was such a chance to make things funny and lighten up a
little bit,” Colan said. “I enjoyed humor, and Steve was so funny. I’d just
sit there and laugh my head off just reading the script, and I’d call him and
say so.”
I think it's time to talk about Steve Leialoha. Brothers and Sisters, can I
testify to the glory of Steve Leialoha, and praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness? When the great artist
pairings of comics history are duly reverenced, Brothers and Sisters, where
are the trumpets, lutes and harps for Colan/Leialoha? Heed my words, and
teach the children of Newsprint that they cannot apply themselves too
diligently to the praises of Colan/Leialoha!
It's mystifying why Steve's name isn't mentioned more often in discussions of
the greatest inkers in comics. Looking at my first Colan/Leialoha HTD page
when I received it many years ago, my first reaction: "GOTTA GET MORE
LEIALOHA INKED PAGES!!" I like Janson's inks on the later stories, too, but
man... this is exceptional inkwork. Steve Leialoha brought a sensitivity and
finesse that was perfect for this book, and for about a year we had a dream
team of Gerber/Colan/Leialoha working sympatico to bring us some quirky and
wonderful stories. Here's to comics that fly under the radar of editors!
I might be misremembering... and there's not much tread left on the ol'
cognitive tires, if you catch my frisbee... but I think that Steve Leialoha
departed Howard The Duck to ink the initial Star Wars adaptation comics in
1977. I'm not saying this was a bad idea. I'm not saying that Leialoha didn't
help those comics look great, too. I won't deny that the initial Star Wars
comics were reprinted dozens and dozens of times, allowing Steve Leialoha to
bask in opulent luxury hitherto unknown to comics artist trench workers,
while Marvel waited almost 25 years to reprint Howard the Duck in an
Essential TPB that went out of print a few weeks later. What I am saying is
that Leialoha's departure from HTD still saddens me, and I take it as a
personal affront.
