RIP Gene Colan

Updated on June 24, 2011 By Ken Begg 9 Comments

Gene Colan was one of the comics’ great artists, a man with a truly distinctive and highly atmospheric style best known for his work on Daredevil, Howard the Duck and (particularly) Tomb of Dracula, a book for which he astoundingly drew all 70 issues, one of the great runs in comics history.

Sadly, I don’t think he ever drew a comic starring or guest starring my favorite character, the original Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider. He would have been a natural for such a character.
Mr. Colan was 84 at the time of his passing.

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  • Reed

    I’ve been meaning to buy Essential Tomb of Dracula for a while now; that would be a fitting tribute, I think.

  • Reed — Yes, it’s also available in color in omnibus editions, which are expensive but for which you get a ton of issues for the price. Even more so for the Essentials, however, and Colan’s pencils for the book arguably look even better in black and white.

  • David Fullam

    Farewell Gene.

  • BeckoningChasm

    He also did outstanding work for Iron Man, making the metal suit look much less stiff and clanky than either Kirby or Heck.

  • alex

    DC has a collection of his Batman work to be published in July.

  • Is it just me or where the 1970’s artists the greatest comic book artists ever? Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, and Mike Grell just oozed style, and it never seemed like those guys tried too hard. Recent artists are trying to catch the same magic, but most of the time it’s just oversized splash pages and an overreliance on photoreferencing. The 70’s comic art looked great, was legitimately action packed, and perfect for a more condensed storytelling style.

  • sandra

    Did you know that there is a Tomb of Dracula animated film ? I saw it on tv one Hallowe’en,

  • alex

    I agree with El Santo about 70s comic art. I would add Jim Aparo, my favorite of that great era.

  • Rock Baker

    I’d have to sight the 40s/50s as having what I felt was the best comic book artists, mostly due to Frank Bolle and Matt Baker (no relation). But I get what you’re saying.