Gene Colan passed away today, he was 84 years old.
I remember when I first saw Gene's artwork, it was in a Daredevil comic and I must have been around ten years old. I thought the drawings were going to jump off the page, Daredevil will do his famous double back flip right into my chest. I have always been fascinated with movement, how things shift and twist when in motion, what part of the body drops while the other pushes forward.
I never met Gene Colan, never had the chance to thank him for helping me understand movement and rhythm, and all the other complex wonderful things that the body does, while at the same time never letting me forget storytelling.
When I heard he passed away, I went into that old closet full of comics, stuck my hand in a grabbed a bunch of books, and sure enough in that pile there was a Daredevil, the same one I scanned and used for this blog. Just look at that cover and feel it. It's amazing.
Gene passed away at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx.
I know that hospital very well, my father was there twice before he passed away, its a very tough place to walk into and even tougher to walk out.
Thank you Gene Colan and may you rest in peace. That fluid pencil of yours gave many young fans dreams.
Steve Weiner made a comment on Scott McCloud site about Gene Colans work: "His comics seemed to me the way I imagined people moved in dreams." That sums it up for me perfectly. http://bit.ly/mLXnU1
ReplyDeleteI am truly sorry to hear of your loss.
Thank you so much for your thoughts, Mike.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great quote.
I read my first Marvel comic before being six years old. You know Frank, it's a funny story. I wanted it because I saw the red costume, just like the Phantom's. What's funny is that the Phantom is red in Italy while it's originally purple, so an old print mistake brought me to convince my mother to buy that Daredevil for me. That book was like an imprinting on me and probably I would never became a translator and publisher of comics like Rocketo without that book. It was a Gene Colan Daredevil. 'nuff said.
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