THE LOOK OF HORROR
Checking Out Charlton's Eeriest Artists
by: Thomas A. Tuna
When you consider picking up a horror comic, what's the first thing that
comes to your feverish little mind (after the title character, of course).
Probably who wrote it. Does the writer have a good track record of spine-chilling,
blood-curdling tales of menace and mayhem? If so, you're more likely to
give it a read then if the author is a total unknown or he has turned
out some clunkers in his time.
That's all well and good. I'd be the last to say the author and his track
record isn't important; I started out writing horror comics for Charlton
some 30 years ago, and here I am basically doing the same thing now (I
gotta get a real job someday).
But let's be honest-comics is a VISUAL medium and the quality of the
artwork can ruin a good script or make a star out of a pedestrian writer.
Especially in the horror genre, where strong emotions-fear, hate, mood-setting-must
be portrayed on the four-color page.
With that in mind, I'd like to give you an unofficial list of my favorite
Charlton horror comic artists, since that's the stable I'm most familiar
with. Forgive my bias if the top two artists in the group happened to
draw a few of my scripts. Just a coincidence.
1. Actually Nos. 1a and
1b, but I'll go out on a limb and say Tom Sutton was the top Charlton
horror artist. Best known as a stellar inker, Sutton's other-worldly elongated
pencils suited the horror genre perfectly. The man was born to draw the
creepiest people and backgrounds.
2. Steve Ditko is a close second.
Everyone knows Ditko as the magic behind Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, but
his horror stuff was almost on that level. Check out early Dr. Strange
stories in Strange Tales and you can see how Ditko could create his own
distinctive, eerie universe with a stroke of his pencil.
3. The name Sanho Kim might take
you aback, but this artist's very unique style brought its own elegance
to horror scripts. Once you saw his work, you'd recognize it anywhere.
4. Mike Zeck is perhaps best known
for his smooth storytelling on Marvel's Master of Kung Fu, but he cut
his eyeteeth on some dynamite Charlton horror anthologies. The man could
flat out draw a werewolf, believe me.
5. Don Newton is another artist
more closely identified with super-hero books with both DC and Marvel
(he could draw a mean Aquaman), but teamed with inker Dan Adkins, Newton
contributed some of Charlton's best horror covers and inside artwork of
the group's too-short existence.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two standout
artists who got their big breaks at Charlton, but not necessarily on horror
comics: John Byrne and Joe Staton. You may have heard of these gentlemen.
So that's my "Rogue's Gallery" of horror artists. Trust me,
these were men who never met a monster they didn't like.
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