People trash Robbins a lot, but his work on Marvel's Invaders was great for a book where the action took place in the 1940s. Yeah, it was kind of crazy looking at times, but it was fun--and what's more important than that?
You're spot on about Eisner; you don't have Eisner femme fatales without Caniff femme fatales. I believe the blue was an indicator for the engravers to use screen tones. Caniff's heavy brushline style was more or less invented by his studio mate Noel Sickles, who drew Scorchy Smith and designed the logos for Terry and Steve Canyon. The difference is that Caniff created great characters and masterful stories. There's nothing better than sitting down with a volume of Terry after about 1937; it's like watching an epic old Warner Brothers film. The babe who keeps showing her skin is Miss Lace from the wartime strip Male Call that Caniff drew for the armed force papers as a "morale booster". They're beautifully drawn and Lace's sexuality is about as subtle as a howitzer.
I love Caniff´s art, specially his inking style. I can look any of his panels for hours, every line and blacks he puts are a master lesson. Incredible compositions and masterful in every way. He is one of the greatest and deeply influential.
Great vid! Basically any up and coming artist that didn't have that special ability to draw incredibly beautiful figures like Raymond or incredible realistic environments like Foster, was drawn to the Caniff Style. Kubert, even Toth started copying Caniff. Eisner is the purest of the copycats and kept Caniff in his style his whole career. You can see Joe Kubert's change away from Caniff during Brave and Bold's Viking Prince to another more realistic artist he emulated. Can't remember his name but his work almost looks like Kubert drew it. Also, notoriously, Raymond went through a period on Rip Kirby where he was aping Caniff in order to draw faster (see Dave Sim's The Strange Death of.Alex Raymond for more on this). It didn't last but Caniff was angry about it.
The light blue is not for color. Must be for grays. In a high contrast photostat, the light blue comes out as white. He used actresses as inspirations for his female characters. Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, among others. He influenced a lot of other artists. The one I prefer: Frank Robbins.
Rich, I have a question about your inking. Did you ever come across penciled pages where you didn't know what was going on? How do you handle that? Do you have to talk to the penciler and ask them how they want it inked? I've seen pages in comics that look really busy and confusing and I'm just wondering how inkers handle that stuff? Thanks!
I can't think of too many situations where the pencils totally threw me off/ If you are confused by something I'd for sure recommend talking to the penciler though. They'd probably appreciate that you cared enough to ask!
Also.Terry and the Pirates, despite being the more popular of this 2 strips, was his earlier work. His style was cemented on Steve Canyon where married his simpler figures with his newer ability to render detailed realistic environments (Foster without needing to be as good as Hal) with just a brush (no fine detail). Any cartoonist could see the allure at the time as a time saver alone
Love Miltons style so much! It looks effortless and beautifull! 5:07 Millers Dark Knight Returns Villan! Nice Quote Frank! Gotta get myself som MiltonCanif!!!
Hello Rich , Do you know Valentin Sécher From Méta Baron? A french amazing penciler !!! He' s also draw KAAL and Recently Conan...you should check is work!
Oh yeah. I saw his work a long time back. He's really good. I feel like I did a video on him once but it was a few years ago. Not sure I ever posted it. Sometimes I scrap videos if I feel I'm too off!
Thanks for the video--I had to comment because I received an Inkpot the same year as you lol (2018). As anyone familiar with my own work knows, Caniff was my initial inspiration for my own work/series, so I'm very familiar with his art and biography (the late cartoonist R.C. Harvey wrote a massive definitive biography, called "Meanwhile...A Biography of Milton Caniff"), though I eventually developed my own style. But I've tried to emulate the same adventure tradition. Just a few comments--the blue ink was for the engravers, where they would put in the ben day dot tone patterns. And, yes, Toth was a total student of Caniff, as well as Sickles, who Caniff always credited for coming up with that style. They shared a studio for many years (Sickles worked on his own adventure strip, Scorchy Smith, which really started that style, before moving on to magazine and commercial illustration by the '40s). Roy Crane was probably a natural predecessor to Caniff as well. Those rather risque drawings of women were primarily done for military newspapers during WWII, where those kinds of racy drawings were more okay (he actually did an exclusive wartime strip for Stars and Stripes called Male Call.) Finally, about that Sunday with the character with the freaky eyes-that character was a villain in Terry and the Pirates, named Sanjak, and was a woman who usually disguised/dressed herself in men's clothing. What really elevated Caniff's work was the writing and characterization-sexuality and sexual politics were a big part of the strip (in code and beneath the surface of course) and it's fairly clear that Sanjak was a lesbian. At one point, she kidnaps a female companion of Terry's, intending to mentor (and presumably seduce) her into a life of crime.
I liked the Steve Canyon stuff when I was a kid, but it was all great. Not sure the Dragon Lady would go over well now with all the woke crap out there, but he did have a great eye for fashion. And a real command of using brush strokes. That leather jacket looked like leather, and the silk dresses looked like silk!
I say Frank Roberts early in the video. Frank ROBBINS is what I meant.
People trash Robbins a lot, but his work on Marvel's Invaders was great for a book where the action took place in the 1940s. Yeah, it was kind of crazy looking at times, but it was fun--and what's more important than that?
You're spot on about Eisner; you don't have Eisner femme fatales without Caniff femme fatales.
I believe the blue was an indicator for the engravers to use screen tones.
Caniff's heavy brushline style was more or less invented by his studio mate Noel Sickles, who drew Scorchy Smith and designed the logos for Terry and Steve Canyon. The difference is that Caniff created great characters and masterful stories. There's nothing better than sitting down with a volume of Terry after about 1937; it's like watching an epic old Warner Brothers film.
The babe who keeps showing her skin is Miss Lace from the wartime strip Male Call that Caniff drew for the armed force papers as a "morale booster". They're beautifully drawn and Lace's sexuality is about as subtle as a howitzer.
I love Caniff´s art, specially his inking style. I can look any of his panels for hours, every line and blacks he puts are a master lesson. Incredible compositions and masterful in every way. He is one of the greatest and deeply influential.
Toth claimed he was more influenced by Noel Sickles than Caniff. If you go down that rabbit hole, check out his Scorchy Smith strips.
Great vid! Basically any up and coming artist that didn't have that special ability to draw incredibly beautiful figures like Raymond or incredible realistic environments like Foster, was drawn to the Caniff Style. Kubert, even Toth started copying Caniff. Eisner is the purest of the copycats and kept Caniff in his style his whole career. You can see Joe Kubert's change away from Caniff during Brave and Bold's Viking Prince to another more realistic artist he emulated. Can't remember his name but his work almost looks like Kubert drew it. Also, notoriously, Raymond went through a period on Rip Kirby where he was aping Caniff in order to draw faster (see Dave Sim's The Strange Death of.Alex Raymond for more on this). It didn't last but Caniff was angry about it.
Roy crane would be a good followup on the evolution of caniff...his crafting stuff leveled up on the striking black and white on Terry
The light blue is not for color. Must be for grays. In a high contrast photostat, the light blue comes out as white. He used actresses as inspirations for his female characters. Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, among others. He influenced a lot of other artists. The one I prefer: Frank Robbins.
Pls Richard make one about Rowena morrill. Nobody talk about her work. Underrated artist for sure. Thanks again for all those videos have a nice week.
I will check it out for sure. and thank you!
Rich, I have a question about your inking. Did you ever come across penciled pages where you didn't know what was going on? How do you handle that? Do you have to talk to the penciler and ask them how they want it inked? I've seen pages in comics that look really busy and confusing and I'm just wondering how inkers handle that stuff? Thanks!
I can't think of too many situations where the pencils totally threw me off/ If you are confused by something I'd for sure recommend talking to the penciler though. They'd probably appreciate that you cared enough to ask!
Also.Terry and the Pirates, despite being the more popular of this 2 strips, was his earlier work. His style was cemented on Steve Canyon where married his simpler figures with his newer ability to render detailed realistic environments (Foster without needing to be as good as Hal) with just a brush (no fine detail). Any cartoonist could see the allure at the time as a time saver alone
Love Miltons style so much! It looks effortless and beautifull!
5:07 Millers Dark Knight Returns Villan! Nice Quote Frank!
Gotta get myself som MiltonCanif!!!
I could see a link between eisner and caniff, particularly 1945 and on, on the spirit
yeah seems to be there!
Caniff had a comic only available to military personnel called "male call"...it was very similar to Terry but more risque
nice!
I guess the one pupil-less-fair-eyed guy has a blind eye. It looks like that some times, a pupil-less blue eye, whatever is the ultimate cause.
Berry Windsor Smith started as a Kirby Clone back in the day
he'll be a good one to pop in for sure!
i havent seen much of his work before its really great, i love the watercolour pieces. chris samnee has a little of this vibe to
Al Alison may be interesting, he did captain America after kirby
2:30 one might say... A Caniff-tion fit?
Hello Rich , Do you know Valentin Sécher From Méta Baron? A french amazing penciler !!! He' s also draw KAAL and Recently Conan...you should check is work!
Oh yeah. I saw his work a long time back. He's really good. I feel like I did a video on him once but it was a few years ago. Not sure I ever posted it. Sometimes I scrap videos if I feel I'm too off!
@@RichardFriendartist I ve got a art book from him..Amazing..(Conan , l heure du dragon) ..Pencil in indian encre, coloris by photoshop..Beautiful
Thanks for the video--I had to comment because I received an Inkpot the same year as you lol (2018). As anyone familiar with my own work knows, Caniff was my initial inspiration for my own work/series, so I'm very familiar with his art and biography (the late cartoonist R.C. Harvey wrote a massive definitive biography, called "Meanwhile...A Biography of Milton Caniff"), though I eventually developed my own style. But I've tried to emulate the same adventure tradition.
Just a few comments--the blue ink was for the engravers, where they would put in the ben day dot tone patterns. And, yes, Toth was a total student of Caniff, as well as Sickles, who Caniff always credited for coming up with that style. They shared a studio for many years (Sickles worked on his own adventure strip, Scorchy Smith, which really started that style, before moving on to magazine and commercial illustration by the '40s). Roy Crane was probably a natural predecessor to Caniff as well. Those rather risque drawings of women were primarily done for military newspapers during WWII, where those kinds of racy drawings were more okay (he actually did an exclusive wartime strip for Stars and Stripes called Male Call.)
Finally, about that Sunday with the character with the freaky eyes-that character was a villain in Terry and the Pirates, named Sanjak, and was a woman who usually disguised/dressed herself in men's clothing. What really elevated Caniff's work was the writing and characterization-sexuality and sexual politics were a big part of the strip (in code and beneath the surface of course) and it's fairly clear that Sanjak was a lesbian. At one point, she kidnaps a female companion of Terry's, intending to mentor (and presumably seduce) her into a life of crime.
I liked the Steve Canyon stuff when I was a kid, but it was all great. Not sure the Dragon Lady would go over well now with all the woke crap out there, but he did have a great eye for fashion. And a real command of using brush strokes. That leather jacket looked like leather, and the silk dresses looked like silk!
6:41
that Chester Gould profile head in the middle shows up in the Famous Artist Course booklets. That would be a fun 'open that book, Rich'.
I love Milton caniff work , especially his Dragon lady
I’m with you 100% with self portrait with all the characters pretty cool idea
Cool video mate !
UPDATE : cool Chanel! 🔥
What are some realistic or realism comic📙books? 🧡📙