| Gil Kane | |
 Gil Kane at the 1976 San Diego Comic Convention. Photo: Alan Light |
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| Birth name | Eli Katz |
| Born | April 6, 1926 Riga, Latvia |
| Died | January 31, 2000 (aged 73) Florida, United States |
| Nationality | Naturalized American (immigrated Latvian) |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker, Writer |
| Pseudonym(s) | Scott Edwards |
| Notable works | Green Lantern |
| Awards | National Cartoonists Society Awards
Shazam Award
|
Eli[1] Katz (born April 6, 1926, Riga, Latvia; died January 31, 2000, Florida, United States), who worked under the name Gil Kane and in a few instances Scott Edwards[2], was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato in the Battle of Thapsus Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Riga (Rīga riːga) the Capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato in the Battle of Thapsus Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Riga (Rīga riːga) the Capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Events 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon. 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A comic book (often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a comic paper or comic magazine) is a Magazine or Book of narrative The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of Activities to do with creating Art, practicing the Arts and/or demonstrating
Kane co-created the modern-day Green Lantern and Atom for DC Comics. The Atom is a Fictional character, a DC Comics superhero introduced during the Silver Age of comic books in Showcase DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company He was involved in such major storylines as a groundbreaking arc in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (May–July 1971) that, at the behest of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, bucked the then-prevalent Comics Code Authority to depict drug abuse and ultimately update the Code. The Amazing Spider-Man is the name of several media Presentations which feature the Marvel Comics Superhero Spider-Man, The Comics Code Authority ( CCA) is part of the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA and was created to regulate the content of comic books in the United Kane additionally pioneered an early graphic novel prototype, His Name is...Savage, in 1968, and a seminal graphic novel, Blackmark, in 1971. A His Name is Savage is a 40-page magazine-format Comics novel released in 1968 as a precursor to the modern Graphic novel. Blackmark is a Bantam Books paperback (Bantam S5871 published January 1971 that is one of the first American Graphic novels, predating
In 1997, he was inducted into both the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the Harvey Award Jack Kirby Hall of Fame. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award is a prize given for creative achievement in American Comic books It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993 and coordinated by the publisher Fantagraphics are given for achievement in Comic books
Contents |
Biography
Early life and career
Kane was born to a Jewish family that emigrated to the U. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ S. in 1929, settling in Brooklyn, New York City. Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. The City of New York When he was in junior high school, he collaborated on writing projects with Norman Podhoretz, later a prominent writer and editor. Norman B Podhoretz (b January 16, 1930) is an American neoconservative theorist and writer for Commentary. At the age of 16, while attending the School of Industrial Art (later named the High School of Art and Design), he began working in the comics studio system as an assistant, doing basic tasks such as drawing panel borders. The High School of Art and Design is a Career and Technical Education high school located at 1075 Second Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets in Manhattan
During his 1942 summer vacation, Kane obtained a job at MLJ, working there for three weeks before being fired. Archie Comics is an American Comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenage Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper [3] As Kane recalled, "Within a couple of days I got a job with Jack Binder's agency. Jack Binder is an American film and Television producer and Second unit director active since 1985 Jack Binder had a loft on Fifth Avenue and it just looked like an internment camp. There must have been 50 or 60 guys up there, all at drawing tables. You had to account for the paper that you took". [3] Kane began pencilling professionally there, but, "They weren't terribly happy with what I was doing. A penciller (or penciler) is one of a number of types of Artists working within the Comic book industry But when I was rehired by MLJ three weeks later, not only did they put me back into the production department and give me an increase, they gave me my first job, which was 'Inspector Bentley of Scotland Yard' in Pep Comics, and then they gave me a whole issue of The Shield and Dusty, one of their leading books". The Shield is the name of several fictional Patriotic Superheroes created by MLJ (now known as Archie Comics) [3] Kane soon dropped out of school to work full-time.
Silver Age
During the next several years, Kane drew for about a dozen studios and publishers including Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics, and learned from such prominent artists as Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of Literature or Information &ndash the activity of making information available for public view Timely Comics is the 1940s Comic book Publishing company that would evolve into first Atlas Comics, and then Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book company owned by Marvel Publishing Inc Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg, August 28, 1917 &ndash February 6, 1994) was an American Comic book Joseph H Simon (born October 11, 1913) is a Jewish-American Comic book Writer, Artist, editor, and publisher He interrupted his career briefly to enlist in the Army during World War II, where he served in the Pacific theater. An army (from Latin Armata "act of arming" via Old French armée) in the broadest sense is the land-based Armed forces World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Pacific Ocean theater was one of four major naval theatres of war of the Second World War that pitted forces of the Japan against those of the United In the post-war years, on his return to comics, he used pseudonyms including Pen Star and Gil Stack before settling on Gil Kane. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias)
In the late 1950s, Kane freelanced for DC Comics. DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company There he contributed to seminal works in what fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, when he illustrated a number of revitalized superhero titles (loosely based on 1940s characters) — most notably Green Lantern, for which he pencilled most of the first 75 issues, and also the Atom. The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books predominantly those featuring the Superhero A superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a Fictional character "of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do The Atom is a Fictional character, a DC Comics superhero introduced during the Silver Age of comic books in Showcase Kane also drew the youthful superhero team The Teen Titans, and in the late 1960s tackled such short-lived but quirky and fondly remembered titles such Hawk and Dove and the licensed-character comic Captain Action, based on the action figure. For the animated TV series based on this comic see Teen Titans (TV series. Hawk and Dove are the names used by a number of DC Comics Superheroes who fight crime together as duos despite their sharply differing methods and attitudes about Captain Action was an Action figure, from 1966 equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man An action figure is a posable character Figurine, made of Plastic or other materials and often based upon a movie, Comic book, Video game He briefly freelanced some Hulk stories in Marvel Comics' Tales to Astonish, under the pseudonym Scott Edwards. Marvel Comics is an American comic book company owned by Marvel Publishing Inc Tales to Astonish is the name of two American Comic book series and a one-shot comic published by Marvel Comics.
Eschewing that pseudonym, Kane freelanced in the 1960s for Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, a superhero/espionage title. Tower Comics was an American Comic book publishing company best known for The T THUNDER Agents is a team of Comic book Superheroes originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s Kane then found a home at Marvel, eventually becoming the regular penciller for The Amazing Spider-Man, succeeding John Romita, in the early 1970s, and becoming the company's preeminent cover artist through that decade. The Amazing Spider-Man is the name of several media Presentations which feature the Marvel Comics Superhero Spider-Man, John Romita may refer to John Romita Sr, a comic book artist best known for his art on The Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel Comics in the 1960s
During that run, working with editor/writer Stan Lee, they produced in 1971 a landmark three-issue story arc ("The Amazing Spider-Man" #96-98) that marked the first challenge to the industry self-regulating Comics Code Authority, since its inception in 1954. Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber; December 28, 1922) is an American Writer, editor, creator of comic book characters The Amazing Spider-Man is the name of several media Presentations which feature the Marvel Comics Superhero Spider-Man, The Comics Code Authority ( CCA) is part of the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA and was created to regulate the content of comic books in the United The Code forbade any mention of drugs, even in a negative context. However, Lee and Kane worked on a storyline that was originally conceived at the request of a government backed drug-prevention program, and when the storyline wasn't given Code Authority approval, Lee went ahead and published the issues anyway, without the regular Code Stamp at the top of the covers. The comics met with such critical acclaim and high sales that the industry's self-censorship was undercut, the Code revamped. Another landmark in Kane's Spider-Man run was "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" tale in issues #121-122 (June-July 1973), in which Spider-Man's fiancée Gwen Stacy, as well as the long-time villain Green Goblin were killed, an unusual occurrence at the time. "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" is a Story arc of the Marvel Comics Comic book series Spider-Man is a Fictional character appearing in Comic books published by Marvel Comics. Gwendolyn "Gwen" Stacy Initially with Aunt May in the hospital Peter is troubled and ignores her advances and in return she feels insulted by his aloofness The Green Goblin is a name shared by several fictional Supervillains that appear in Comic books published by Marvel Comics.
With writer Roy Thomas, Kane helped revise the Marvel Comics version of Captain Marvel, as well as Adam Warlock. Roy Thomas (born November 22 1940, Missouri, United States) is a Comic book Writer and editor, and Adam Warlock, originally known as Him, is a Fictional character that appears in Comic books published by Marvel Comics. He also worked on the character Iron Fist and helped create Morbius the Living Vampire. Iron Fist ( Daniel Rand) is a Fictional character, a Comic book Superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a practitioner Morbius the Living Vampire is a Fictional character appearing in Comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Pioneering new formats
Kane's side projects include two long works that he conceived, plotted and illustrated, with scripting by Archie Goodwin: His Name is... Savage (Adventure House Press, 1968), a self-published, 40-page, magazine-format comics novel; and Blackmark (1971), a science fiction/sword-and-sorcery paperback published by Bantam Books. Archie Goodwin ( September 8, 1937 &ndash March 1, 1998) was an American Comic book writer editor and artist His Name is Savage is a 40-page magazine-format Comics novel released in 1968 as a precursor to the modern Graphic novel. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally Blackmark is a Bantam Books paperback (Bantam S5871 published January 1971 that is one of the first American Graphic novels, predating Sword and sorcery ( S&S) is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts Bantam Books is a major US publishing house owned by Random House and is part of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group Some historians consider the latter, sold in bookstores and related outlets rather than newsstands, as arguably the first American graphic novel, a term not in general use at the time; the back-cover blurb of the 30th-anniversary edition (ISBN 1-56097-456-7) calls it, retroactively, "the very first American graphic novel. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A " Whether or not this is so, Blackmark is, objectively, a 119-page story of comic-book art, with captions and word balloons, published in a traditional book format. Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in Comic books strips It is also the first with an original heroic-adventure character, conceived expressly for this form.
Later career
During the 1970s and '80s, Kane did character designs for various Ruby-Spears Enterprises and Hanna-Barbera animated TV series. The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U In 1977, he created the newspaper comic strip Star Hawks with writer Ron Goulart. A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist Star Hawks is a Comic strip written first by Ron Goulart and later by Archie Goodwin, with artwork by Gil Kane. Ron Goulart (born January 13, 1933) is an American Pop-culture historian and mystery, Fantasy, and Science fiction The daily strip was known for its experimental use of a two-tier format during the first years. A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist The strip ended in 1981. In 1989 Mr. Kane illustrated a comic book version of Richard Wagner's nineteenth century mythological opera epic The Ring of the Nibelung. Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung) is a cycle of four epic Music dramas by the German composer He remained active as an artist right up until his death.
He died of complications from cancer. Cancer (medical term Malignant Neoplasm) is a class of Diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled Kane is survived by his second wife, Elaine, and children Scott, Eric and Beverly and two granddaughters. He is buried in Aventura, Florida.
Awards
He received numerous awards over the years, including the 1971, 1972, and 1975 National Cartoonists Society Awards for Best Story Comic Book, and their Story Comic Strip Award for 1977 for Star Hawks. The National Cartoonists Society is the world's largest organization of professional Cartoonists It presents the Reuben Awards. He also received the Shazam Award for Special Recognition in 1971 "for Blackmark, his paperback comics novel". Blackmark is a Bantam Books paperback (Bantam S5871 published January 1971 that is one of the first American Graphic novels, predating To honor his more than five decades of achievement, Kane was named to both the Eisner Award Hall of Fame and the Harvey Award Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award is a prize given for creative achievement in American Comic books It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993 and coordinated by the publisher Fantagraphics are given for achievement in Comic books
Homages
An homage to Kane and to writer John Broome appears in In Darkest Night, a novelization spinoff of the Justice League animated series. John Broome, (1913 - 1999 who was frequently credited as John Osgood and Edgar Ray Meritt, was an American writer-contributor to DC Comics Justice League is an American Animated television series about a team of Superheroes which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Cartoon Network The book refers to the Kane/Broome Institute for Space Studies in Coast City. Coast City is a Fictional city created by John Broome and Gil Kane that appears in stories published by DC Comics.
Footnotes
- ^ form of Eliahu and other names
- ^ Notably when, while working for DC, Kane (and other artists) began to moonlight at Marvel, and needed to conceal their identities. See: Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution, p. 92 (Bloomsbury, 2004)
- ^ a b c Online excerpt from The Comics Journal #186 (April 1996): "Interview with Gil Kane, Part I"
References
- Afterword, Blackmark 30th Anniversary Edition (Fantagraphics Books, 2002) ISBN 1-56097-456-7
- Lambiek Comiclopedia: Gil Kane
- Comic Art Grafix Gallery: Gil Kane
- Space.com, Feb. 1, 2000: "Gil Kane, Space-Age Comic Book Artist, Dies"
- Entry, Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, 2001
- Secret Identities
External links
| Preceded by John Romita, Sr. |
Amazing Spider-Man artist 1970–1972 |
Succeeded by John Romita, Sr. |
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