Post by MacNimon on May 31, 2012 20:44:29 GMT
I've just learned of the passing earlier this month of two of the big names of comic book art - particularly in the 1970s - namely, Ernie Chan and Tony DeZuniga. A sad month indeed, with the loss of two such legends a week apart.
Both were talented artists in their own right, but personally many of my favourite efforts from both men came when they inked over John Buscema's pencils on numerous Conan strips. While Big John was arguably the greatest Conan artist of them all, both these guys gave his work a different style while with the finished product still being easily recognisable as Buscema's.
First up, DeZuniga...I've read elsewhere that he was born in 1941, making him 71 years old but I suppose that's nitpicking when it comes to things like this...
robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/jonah-hex-co-creator-tony-dezuniga-passes-away-at-age-79/
Legendary comic artist Tony DeZuniga, co-creator of Jonah Hex and Black Orchid, passed away early Wednesday at Las Piñas Doctors Hospital in the Philippines after suffering from a stroke, heart failure and brain damage, GMA News reports. The 79-year-old artist was surrounded by wife Tina, his daughter Sheryl and his sisters-in-law.
“Tony is very smart, clever, and funny,” Tina DeZuniga told the website. “He is my knight in shining armor.”
DeZuniga was admitted to the intensive care unit in mid-April following a stroke, leading friends and fans to rally to help cover his medical expenses. On Free Comic Book Day, Filipino artists came together to sell sketches and T-shirts to raise money for the fund.
Born in Manila, DeZuniga began his comics career at the age of 16 as a letterer for a weekly magazine then moved to the United States in 1962 to study graphic design. He returned to the Philippines to work in advertising before heading back to New York City, where he was hired by DC Comics editor Joe Orlando, making DeZuniga the first Filipino artist to work for a major American comics publisher.
He used the opportunity to open the door for other Filipino creators, convincing Orlando and DC Editor-in-Chief Carmine Infantino to visit the Philippines in 1971 to recruit such artists as Alex Niño, Alfredo Alcala, Nestor Redondo, Fred Carrillo, Vicatan and Gerry Talaoc.
That same year DeZuniga collaborated with writer John Albano to create Jonah Hex, the disfigured Western antihero with whom the artist is so closely associated. “[John] asked me to draw the concept for the character, and one day I was at the doctor’s office and I saw this chart with a man, showing him half muscle and half skeleton,” DeZuniga recalled in a 2010 interview with Comic Book Resources. “I thought to myself, ‘This is neat,’ and I got the concept. When John Albano saw it, he was very happy.”
Although perhaps best remembered for his work on DC’s Jonah Hex, Arak, Son of Thunder, The Phantom Stranger and Weird Western Tales, he also drew Dracula Lives, The Savage Sword of Conan and Thor for Marvel.
“He was, and still is a huge inspiration,” cartoonist Gerry Alanguilan wrote on his website. “I’m not exactly a very young man anymore, but whenever I think of Mang Tony, who was still active and still pushing his artistic boundaries well into his 70′s, it was terribly, terribly inspiring. I wish I could be as active and creative when I reach his age. Now that he’s gone, I have no doubt that he will continue to inspire us. And while our conventions may seem empty now without him, as if something would always be missing, his memory will help keep us going, and keep us making comics.”
DeZuniga returned to Jonah Hex in 2010 with No Way Back, a 136-page graphic novel written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, and released to coincide with the character’s big-screen debut.
“I really enjoyed doing Jonah Hex again,” he told CBR at the time, before expressing his distaste for the way the character has been depicted in more recent years. “I have seen the new comics, and I am not too happy with some of the artists making him [more like] Clint Eastwood; exaggerating the scars; wrong hats,” he said. “See, small things are important in a character. That’s always a part of making it whole.”
And Ernie Chan...
robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/conan-artist-ernie-chan-passes-away-at-age-71/
Both were talented artists in their own right, but personally many of my favourite efforts from both men came when they inked over John Buscema's pencils on numerous Conan strips. While Big John was arguably the greatest Conan artist of them all, both these guys gave his work a different style while with the finished product still being easily recognisable as Buscema's.
First up, DeZuniga...I've read elsewhere that he was born in 1941, making him 71 years old but I suppose that's nitpicking when it comes to things like this...
robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/jonah-hex-co-creator-tony-dezuniga-passes-away-at-age-79/
Legendary comic artist Tony DeZuniga, co-creator of Jonah Hex and Black Orchid, passed away early Wednesday at Las Piñas Doctors Hospital in the Philippines after suffering from a stroke, heart failure and brain damage, GMA News reports. The 79-year-old artist was surrounded by wife Tina, his daughter Sheryl and his sisters-in-law.
“Tony is very smart, clever, and funny,” Tina DeZuniga told the website. “He is my knight in shining armor.”
DeZuniga was admitted to the intensive care unit in mid-April following a stroke, leading friends and fans to rally to help cover his medical expenses. On Free Comic Book Day, Filipino artists came together to sell sketches and T-shirts to raise money for the fund.
Born in Manila, DeZuniga began his comics career at the age of 16 as a letterer for a weekly magazine then moved to the United States in 1962 to study graphic design. He returned to the Philippines to work in advertising before heading back to New York City, where he was hired by DC Comics editor Joe Orlando, making DeZuniga the first Filipino artist to work for a major American comics publisher.
He used the opportunity to open the door for other Filipino creators, convincing Orlando and DC Editor-in-Chief Carmine Infantino to visit the Philippines in 1971 to recruit such artists as Alex Niño, Alfredo Alcala, Nestor Redondo, Fred Carrillo, Vicatan and Gerry Talaoc.
That same year DeZuniga collaborated with writer John Albano to create Jonah Hex, the disfigured Western antihero with whom the artist is so closely associated. “[John] asked me to draw the concept for the character, and one day I was at the doctor’s office and I saw this chart with a man, showing him half muscle and half skeleton,” DeZuniga recalled in a 2010 interview with Comic Book Resources. “I thought to myself, ‘This is neat,’ and I got the concept. When John Albano saw it, he was very happy.”
Although perhaps best remembered for his work on DC’s Jonah Hex, Arak, Son of Thunder, The Phantom Stranger and Weird Western Tales, he also drew Dracula Lives, The Savage Sword of Conan and Thor for Marvel.
“He was, and still is a huge inspiration,” cartoonist Gerry Alanguilan wrote on his website. “I’m not exactly a very young man anymore, but whenever I think of Mang Tony, who was still active and still pushing his artistic boundaries well into his 70′s, it was terribly, terribly inspiring. I wish I could be as active and creative when I reach his age. Now that he’s gone, I have no doubt that he will continue to inspire us. And while our conventions may seem empty now without him, as if something would always be missing, his memory will help keep us going, and keep us making comics.”
DeZuniga returned to Jonah Hex in 2010 with No Way Back, a 136-page graphic novel written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, and released to coincide with the character’s big-screen debut.
“I really enjoyed doing Jonah Hex again,” he told CBR at the time, before expressing his distaste for the way the character has been depicted in more recent years. “I have seen the new comics, and I am not too happy with some of the artists making him [more like] Clint Eastwood; exaggerating the scars; wrong hats,” he said. “See, small things are important in a character. That’s always a part of making it whole.”
And Ernie Chan...
robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/conan-artist-ernie-chan-passes-away-at-age-71/
Veteran artist Ernie Chan, perhaps best remembered for his work in the 1970s on Batman and Conan the Barbarian, passed away Wednesday at age 71. According to cartoonist Gerry Alanguilan, Chan recently had been diagnosed with cancer. His death follows that of fellow Filipino artist Tony DeZuniga last week.
“It’s sad to lose one, but it’s truly crushing to lose so many in such a short amount of time,” Alanguilan wrote on his website. “But Mang Ernie lived a full life. He had accomplished a lot. There was a point in time that he was one of the hottest artists working comics. DC wouldn’t give you the honor of drawing so many cover on their mainstream titles if you weren’t so well regarded. He deserves to be remembered and recognized as someone who contributed positively to the image of Filipinos and their talents worldwide.”
Born July 27, 1940, as Ernesto Chua in the Philippines, he legally changed his last name to Chan after becoming a U.S. citizen in 1976. Chan broke into American comics in the early 1970s drawing short stories for DC Comics’ Ghosts mystery/suspense series before beginning a nearly two-year stint on Batman in 1975 while also penciling Claw the Unconquered and Detective Comics. Under the name Chua, he also served as the publisher’s primary cover artist from about 1975 to 1976.
Moving to Marvel in the late ’70s, he illustrated such titles as Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Destroyer, Power Man and Iron Fist, and inked Sal Buscema’s pencils on The Incredible Hulk.
Chan shifted into animation and the 1990s before retiring in 2002. Funeral services will be held Monday in Oakland, California.
“It’s sad to lose one, but it’s truly crushing to lose so many in such a short amount of time,” Alanguilan wrote on his website. “But Mang Ernie lived a full life. He had accomplished a lot. There was a point in time that he was one of the hottest artists working comics. DC wouldn’t give you the honor of drawing so many cover on their mainstream titles if you weren’t so well regarded. He deserves to be remembered and recognized as someone who contributed positively to the image of Filipinos and their talents worldwide.”
Born July 27, 1940, as Ernesto Chua in the Philippines, he legally changed his last name to Chan after becoming a U.S. citizen in 1976. Chan broke into American comics in the early 1970s drawing short stories for DC Comics’ Ghosts mystery/suspense series before beginning a nearly two-year stint on Batman in 1975 while also penciling Claw the Unconquered and Detective Comics. Under the name Chua, he also served as the publisher’s primary cover artist from about 1975 to 1976.
Moving to Marvel in the late ’70s, he illustrated such titles as Conan the Barbarian, Kull the Destroyer, Power Man and Iron Fist, and inked Sal Buscema’s pencils on The Incredible Hulk.
Chan shifted into animation and the 1990s before retiring in 2002. Funeral services will be held Monday in Oakland, California.
