Friday, April 25, 2014

Making a Splash: Al Milgrom's Captain Marvel

Wazzup, Groove-ophiles! Ya know, between Jim Starlin's legendary run and the grossly underrated Pat Broderick era, artist Al Milgrom kept things cosmic for our favorite Kree Captain, Mar-Vell! With writers Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, and Scott Edelman, Al had Mar-Vell and Rick Jones battle the Watcher, take on the Kree Homeworld and the Supreme Intelligence, return to earth, kick Adaptoid and 3-D Man butt, and help the Inhumans against even more Kree. Inked by a veritable who's who of inkers (the best of which were Klaus Janson and Terry Austin, imho), Marv and Rick were loo-keeng goo-hood for Captain Marvel issues 37-53 (December 1974-August 1977)! Check out these superior splashes, baby!!















4 comments:

  1. Just read the first bunch of these (up to issue no. 46) not long ago in Essential Captain Marvel vol. 2. Nice to see the splash pages in color. I have to say, I'm not much of a fan of Milgrom's art most of the time, but - like in the Guardians of the Galaxy stories he drew in Marvel Presents - he did a pretty good job on these issues. However, as you sort of suggest, it helped that he often had top-notch inkers like Jansen and Austin.
    By the way, I totally agree with you about the Broderick era: criminally underrated...

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  2. Ditto on Milgrom, his Avengers and WCA work was so very dismal and bland, but totally agreeing with Edo that Jansen and Austin made it much improved..

    Y'know, MarVell's a interesting case study about 'when a writer/artist leaves' category.. This looks like very competent artistry (I have ish 50..) but sorry, it just wasn't the same after Starlin..

    Much like Howard the Duck without Gerber.., the character is so engrained and identified with a particular writer/artist that when a change occurs, the characters just fail to register, you know 'the voice' is gone. I totally agree it's unfair, very unfair to who ever comes on board, but it's a sad truth.

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  3. I thought that the Milgrom era of Mar-Vell was a good one after Starlin left. He did a great job transitioning away from Starlin - he didn't try to copy Starlin but provided solid if not spectacular pencils.

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  4. Finally some love for Al Milgrom! While not mentioned in the same stratospheric heights of comics legends like John Buscema, Al always turned in some respectable work. Yes, he was aided by great inkers like Terry Austin and Klaus Janson, but we have to give kudos where it's due - Milgrom was a workmanlike artist, never truly great but you could count on him to deliver the goods when it mattered.

    - Mike 'Milgrom lover' from Trinidad & Tobago.

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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