GENE COLAN
The night began with a wonderful CAPS dinner at the Porter Ranch Country Club. I was sitting alongside my fellow speakers, Mark Evanier and Gerry Conway. My wife, Noel and Gerry's wife Karen were there as well. Also at our table was Sergio Aragones, arguably one of the nicest people in comics, as well as CAPS President, Pat McGreal and his wife.
Former CAPS president and head honcho over at Bongo Studios, Bill Morrison, introduced the evening as Master of Ceremonies. Bill, dressed in a bright red jacket, with slicked back hair, was the epitome of a 1950s TV MC. Beyond being Editor-In-Chief at Bongo, Bill's a dynamite artist and writer as well as all an around great guy. Bill's also directly responsible for Gene and my last job together, a TOD-inspired Simpson's Treehouse of Horror story a year or three back.
Gerry spoke first and he talked about his early exposure to Gene's work as well as his work with him. Mark continued talking about the only fan ever who didn't like Gene's art. The guy was a die-hard Marvel zombie, and though he absolutely loved the work of Adam Austin, Gene's pseudonym on his early Marvel work, as soon as he learned Gene also worked for DC, he decided Gene could not be any good at all. In fact, the guy gave up comics once he realized someone could work for Marvel and DC. I then talked about Gene's influence on my writing and craft.
Photo taken by and (c) 2009 by Jim McPherson
Because of health issues, Gene and his wife Adrienne could not fly to LA for the ceremony, which could have proven to be awkward except for the miracle of modern technology. Through the power of Skype, Gene and Adrienne were seen live all the way from New York, could hear everything we said and talk back to us. The best part was when in LA, Pat McGreal held up the beautiful Sergio award Gene was to be given to the computer for him to see and then, as a complete surprise, Adrienne handed him his real award live on camera. Needless to say, Gene was stunned.
Gene followed up with a lovely speech he had written. As you listened to him talk you realized even after 60+ years, Gene still loved drawing comics. That little boy quality was very evident in his words and his broad smile.
It was a great evening and I thank CAPS for inviting me to speak, but more importantly, for honoring Gene Colan, a great artist as well as a wonderful man. You deserve it, Gene.
Labels: Gene Colan
posted by Marv @ 11:40 AM
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1 Comments:
Great speech Marv! Very heartfelt and also informative. Thanks for talking to me.
I've wanted to talk to you about the court transcript on the Blade character printed in the Comics Journal. I probably shouldn't even bring it up but in some ways it taught me about how low even two successful people can sink. Much of what has been written about business dealings in comics has helped me although I haven't often been successful in fighting the fight.
I just wanted to say that I actually think you have been persecuted at times because some comics professionals know that they could never produce anything as brilliant as Tomb of Dracula. I think that there is tremendous professional jealousy over your achievement, and that is why you and Gene ended up at DC.
On a lighter note you talked about getting the backgrounds restored on the "fishing village" early issue of Tomb of Dracula. Couldn't you have gotten the heads and hands and all the figures fixed at that time? Sheesh!
Thanks Marv,
Jim McPherson
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