December 14, 2004
Forgive me, Frank, Wherever You Are! Pt.I

   Last week I'd asked you bloginistas out there to hit me with some questions, to serve as future subject matter. Several of you responded with some excellent ones. Oddly enough, a fellow professional was the first one to toss some my way (and the questions weren't "Do you know who's hiring?"). Thanks much, gang, you've helped me through the next two months with your inquiries.

   Q: Whose work within the comic medium have you grown to appreciate and respect most, after some initial disinterest or dislike?

   This took me a few hours to mull over, and then it hit me as I passed my spinner rack full of old '70's comics:

   A: The late Frank Robbins.

   As a wee lad, I was first introduced to Frank Robbins when he took over Captain America from Sal Buscema (Cap #182, "Inferno!"). My cousin Sean & I HATED his art immediately because
   1) He WASN'T Sal Buscema. Sal had drawn Cap for years and change is scary!
   2) Robbins, trying to adapt to the Marvel exaggerated action style, drew oddly contorting figures and maniacal faces that were anathema to:
   3) Our fanboy tastes, which were accustomed to Marvel's then-in-house style of the time: The Buscema brothers, Romita, Sinnott, Gil Kane, superior craftsman all.

   Rambling Sidebar: Kane's hyperkinetic covers were the best marketing tool of ANY era- I bought a lot of crappy comics because Kane's dynanicism seemed to promise that similar excitement awaited inside. Best example: Avengers #133, where Libra's taking off his mask as the other Avengers, in spring-loaded poses, gaped in awe! Inside the pages was this long confusing history lesson involving the Kree killing their plant-form neighbors which was tied to the origin of Mantis (who started out cool, then got less interesting the more we learned of her). I have NEVER found the Kree fascinating as a race. Their motives are always so vague or overreaching to the point of, well, pointlessness. Bear in mind, when this story, dubbed "The Celestial Madonna" was released in trade paperback a few years ago, I was the first one ready with my wallet! Nostalgia's a forgiving mistress.

   See, Robbins wasn't a superhero artist, he was a cartoonist! When he came to Marvel, the gold standard was, of all people, Rich Buckler, doing his wholesale Neal Adams and Kirby swipes.

   Apparently Sean and I weren't alone in our vocal disapproval of Robbins. Back then, letters pages were downright nasty! Jack Kirby believed the letters pages of his books were unfairly loaded with knocks against him. Jack was just one of many creators criticized at the time! Need a taste? Strap yourselves in, True dis-Believers!

   "Dear Marvel,
Whohhh, what a jolt! I'm talking about what CA #182 did to me. Boy, the Bullpen's really falling apart. I'm talking about the new crew that worked on "Inferno!" That Frank Robbins just doesn't make it on my list as Bullpen potential. Send him back to his Johnny Hazard strip, and let him back in Marveldom when he's up to par. Look at page two, frame four. Cap looks like some scared kid. Page 3, frame 2, the Cobras' legs look to be all mangled. Dave Cox looks like a jerk. All through the story, the Cobra looked like bawl baby and the Viper looked super-crazy, especially on page 15, frame 5. The dots in Cap's eyes made him look dumb. Roscoe and the Falcon looked like a couple of looney-tooners. The Red Skull doesn't look anything like he should. The people just don't look true to life.
Get the point!!!"

   I'm withholding the letter-writer's name, as this was thirty years ago, and the statute of limitations is probably over on such a carpet-bombing of insults. Here's a sample from another letter:

   "Dear Anybody,
HELP!
It is hard to say how bad CA&F #182 was. The only good picture was the trademark. Captain America is my favorite comic, but the art in this issue looks like it was drawn by a six-year-old riding a rough train during 1938..."

   And there were worse ones, believe me! I just choose not to post them here.

   During his year-long run on Cap (with constantly-changing inkers giving Robbins' art an unsteady and unsatisfying look), he launched with Roy Thomas...The Invaders!

   I was hooked from the first issue because it featured Cap's exploits during WWII. Plus, lo and behold-a kid sidekick named Bucky? Two Human Torches, neither of whom were Johnny Storm? That obnoxious Sub-Mariner guy who's always annoying the FF? By the way, Giant-sized Invaders #1 was released the same month as Giant-sized X-men #1, and they have always held an equally special place in my heart.

   At the beginning of GS Invaders #1, there was a credit box which read: "With Special Thanks To John Romita". Skimming though the issue now, I easily can see the Romita touches on the faces and figures, to probably make them more 'on model'. Also, inks by the legendary love-him-or-hate-him Vinnie Colletta, also served to tone down Robbins' bold style to something more, I dunno, industry standard, I suppose. I'm not questioning Romita's judgement, as he helped define Marvel's look in the 1970's, and probably made the first Invaders issues more palatable to we Robbins-bashers, and it worked, IMHO. Check out the page 18 of # 3, shown here. I apologize for the poor quality of the art, but it's a photocopy of a color comic on aging newsprint, but if you click on it, it'll make it a tad larger and clearer.
   Throughout the first year (Invaders was a bi-monthly) both Romita and Colletta appeared to doing a good job at "Marvel-ising" Robbins' work, softening eyebrows so prominent you could open bottle tops with them, resculpting muscles and contorted figures (Is that a Romita redraw of Subby that I spy with my little eye on panel 3?). It looked okay to me, but the Invaders still wasn't quite the home run I'd hoped it would be.

    What turned me around? The Baron Blood storyline, # 7 - 9.
   Starting with # 8, Frank Springer assumed the inking chores and understood Robbins' cartoonish language, told in bold, dramatic strokes! Check out the aesthetic improvement below.
   At first the thought of a Nazi vampire was corny to me, but Robbins really sold it with his most inspired Marvel work to date. In return, it inspired Roy Thomas to write a great script.

   I quickly became a big fan of Bucky, because when I was a kid, I thought it would be the coolest to hang out with Cap! Cap would do the hard work and thinking, like your dad would, and once in a while, you'd get in a good shot clocking a goose-stepper on the noggin with the butt of a rifle. Good times...
   I still wasn't Robbins' biggest fan, but I was getting there. More about that next week!
To be continued...
 
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