A press release of interest:
Original Iron Man & Avengers artist Don Heck gets his due in new TwoMorrows hardcover
In 2010, TwoMorrows Publishing produced a biography of Vince Colletta, the controversial, much-maligned, but highly prolific inker of comics in the 1960s and 1970s. While many readers were initially skeptical of the idea of giving Colletta his own book, The Thin Black Line: Vince Colletta garnered rave reviews for finally documenting the compelling life and career of a pivotal comics artist, about whom little was known publicly.
TwoMorrows is at it again with their new biography, Don Heck: A Work of Art, which is officially shipping this week. Like with Colletta, fans have had a love/hate relationship with Don Heck (1929-1995), the original artist of Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and key early Avengers issues. In this full-color hardcover, Heck finally gets his due, thanks to author John Coates, who tirelessly researched the artist's background and career. It documents how he joined Atlas/Marvel Comics in 1954, and along with industry giants Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Maneely, and Dick Ayers, became an integral player in “The Marvel Age of Comics”, drawing The X-Men, Spider-Man, Nick Fury—Agent of SHIELD, Daredevil, The Defenders, Ghost Rider, and most of Marvel's other major characters. Also covered is how he became regular artist on top-tier 1970s DC Comics titles such as Teen Titans, The Flash, Justice League of America, Wonder Woman, as well as putting in time at Dell, Gold Key, and as “ghost” artist on Lee Falk’s The Phantom newspaper strip.
In addition to personal recollections from Don’s surviving family, long-time friends, and comics industry legends, the narrative of the book is formed from two lengthy interviews with Heck himself (one rarely-seen, and another unpublished until now), which have been melded into a seamless conversation with Don. There's a wealth of examples of his artwork (all in full-color), and a special chapter where the author debunks the longstanding myth that putting Don as artist on a comic meant the sales would drop—complete with actual sales figures to prove the point. Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee provides the Foreword, and Beau Smith pens the Afterword.
TwoMorrows publisher John Morrow championed this project for several years—perhaps as a form of penance for his youthful ignorance. He shared, "As a kid, I was one of the fans who jumped on the popular bandwagon of considering Don Heck to be one of the worst artists in comics. Thankfully, I've matured since then, and have come to realize how wrong I was. So I challenge readers to give this book a try—you can't help but come away a new appreciation for this underrated artist. And wait'll you marvel at his amazing storytelling ability, especially when he was allowed to ink his own work."
This full-color hardcover is 192 pages long, and retails for $39.95. It is available now in both print and digital editions, through TwoMorrows website (www.twomorrows.com), comic and bookstores through Diamond Comic/Book Distributors, on Amazon.com, and through the company's app on the Apple and Android platform.
DON HECK: A Work of Art
192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER - by John Coates
$39.95 cover price
Diamond Comic Distributors Order Code: JUN141474
ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-058-8
ISBN-10: 1-60549-058-X
Read a FREE preview and order at this link:
http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1171
Replies
I have a number of TwoMorrow's books .... however, with all due respect, I am no Don Heck fan, so I'll be passing on this.
I don't have any, so how are those TwoMorrows books?
One's perception of art changes as one ages. I read a local reprint of three of Heck's Captain Marvel issues when very young. I didn't have a problem with the art, and liked the comic OK. In the 60s/70s much of the comics audience was younger than today. That could explain why his presence didn't necessarily have a negative impact on sales.
At an older age I thought his early Silver Age stories second-rate. These days I have some liking for them. I think I like the way he puts the characters into a mundanely real environment, and the non-generic look of some of his characters, like Happy; and I no longer feel that a story is bad if the action isn't as exciting as Kirby's. His later art kills stories for me. His visuals don't appeal to my imagination, I don't care for his later handling of action or his figures, and his characters often have vacuous expressions.
He was one of the first artists to work Marvel-style. His ability to work that way might be a reason he was one of Lee's early Silver Age mainstays. I was very interested in John's positive take on his Silver Age Thor stories in his Re-Reading Thor thread, and, while I no longer have the stories to reread, it made sense to me: they mixed soap-opera, action and supervillains together in a way the series hadn't before the Lava-Man issue. That means he was one of the first artists who drew stories using what I think of as the Marvel approach.