My good friend, and oftimes collaborator on the site,
Loren Freid was mentioning to me the other day that William Johnson really
doesn't get the credit he deserves for his work on the book. I reeled off
a few more I felt the same about, and Loren decided to put together a top
ten list of these poor un- or underrecognized souls. If you have a top ten
list you think is worthy to add into our library of lists here, by all means,
send it in!! And, without any further ado, I present Loren's choices for
the top ten folks that deserve a bigger hand than they got:
10) Tie: Joe Rosen and Bob Brown
Rosen was the letterer for about 200 issues, thereby giving the comic
a consistent, professional look.
Bob Brown was no Gene Colan, but he did manage to sustain a high standard.
His action scenes were excellent and his DD cast was strong and character
driven. Brown was terminally ill when he took over the book.
9) Denny O'Neil
A solid editor who discovered and nurtured Miller. He was the writer
in-between the two Miller periods. Brought back a classy, sophisticated
Black Widow and maintained a vengeful Bullseye. Created Glorianna O'Breen
and her lovely Irish accent. Some really interesting stuff as well, such as
the DD team-up with Two-Gun Kid.
8) Tom Palmer
The twizzel stick who stirred Colan's drink.
7) Wally Wood
Created the red costume. 'Nuff said.
6) Marv Wolfman
Created Bullseye and formally ended the BW/DD relationship. He reworked the
comic, usually taking it out of the realm of the fantastic mistakenly placed
there by Steve Gerber.
5) Roger Mackenzie
Created Ben Urich and set the table for Miller.
4) Ralph Macchio
Daredevil's editor for over seven years! Macchio's period begins prior to
the time of "Born Again" and continues past "Last Rites." A period of
extraordinary creativity, continuity and stability. The product during
Macchio's watch was consistently top-notch.
3) Gerry Conway
Brought Black Widow into Matt's life. Because of Conway, Daredevil lead a
sexual revolution in comics. He moved the couple to San Francisco and had
them living together in a precedent setting sexually charged relationship.
The BW/DD relationship he created with Gene Colan beats the Elektra/DD
relationship created by Miller in both intensity and complexity.
2) William Johnson
Fantastic talent. After taking a few issues to get adjusted, his art on DD
stands out as some of the best. You never hear his name, most likely due to
the unfortunate fate of following Miller and preceding Mazzuccelli.
And THE number one most underrecognized person who's worked on Daredevil:
1) Gene Colan
The Rodney Dangerfield of Daredevil - i.e. He get's no respect. For the first
157 issues of Daredevil, he defined the look and standard of the character.
For instance, one of Colan's signature moves was to consciously draw
Daredevil wearing an unnerving, ironic smile. (Check out the cover to
Daredevil #38 to see what I mean.) Other artists drew anger or sadness on
the character that would immediately and obviously convey the character's
one dimensional feelings to the reader. Colan didn't. Instead, that
Jokeresque smile gave DD enormous character depth and constantly made me
wonder what the heck made the guy tick? That unnerving smile in the face of
dire circumstances constantly proved to me that this guy really was a "Man
Without Fear." Colan has drawn more Daredevil comics than any other human
being. Colan was to Daredevil what John Romita, Sr. was to Spider-Man, John
Buscema was to the Avengers and Jack Kirby was to the Fantastic Four.
He is one of Marvel's greatest and most diversified artists. His 80-odd
issue run was one of the single greatest feats at Marvel, and his work, in
particular, between issues #81 to 92 is perhaps one of the single greatest
artistic feats in comics. Yet, since Miller Time, Colan has been relegated
to the "back of the bus." At best, Colan is a Daredevil footnote; at worst,
he is completely overlooked by fans and peers alike. Joe and Jim didn't even
bother "inviting" him to Karen Page's funeral.
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