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To Be Continued #17  Gil Kane 1926-2000 No funny ad at the top of the page this week, we've just lost a giant. Gil Kane drew comics for Quality, Prize, MLJ, Marvel, DC and himself. Much of this was before my time. I remember him best on The Atom, Spider-Man, John Carter of Mars, his paperback graphic novel Blackmark and what was arguably the first graphic novel, His Name is Savage. And yes, of course I remember his Green Lantern (my personal pick for the coolest super-hero costume, ever). He was a capital "G" Gentleman who was always impeccably dressed. "Sharp as a tack" was the way my grandmother put it, high praise indeed. He was an eclectic and voracious reader. He was both erudite and relentlessly curious. He was perhaps the only man on Earth allowed to call me, as he called everyone, "M'Boy."  Gil Kane was the first comic book artist I could identify by his style, although it would be years before I learned his name, Still, even without knowing exactly who was responsible for it, I knew what I liked. I automatically bought every comic I could find with his work on the cover. As I looked through my collection for art to go with this column, I discovered that apparently I liked to trace his covers, too. I couldn't find any that I bought before the age of 12 or so that weren't well-grooved by my firm but shaky pencil point. I had, I must say, remarkably good taste for a child. Gil Kane's style is notable for its seemingly impossible combination of angularity and grace. He drew lean men, with a stripped-down musculature, almost as if their skin had been removed. His women exuded beauty, competence and strength. His figures are alive, giving the illusion of movement within a static panel. His unorthodox layouts were a perfect forum for the dynamism of his figures, containers that moved your eye through the panels and across the page exactly as he wished. His rarely-equaled skill with gesture created characters who expressed emotion without the aid of dialogue. How many artists are there who can draw a picture of someone who is weary, or nervous, or determined, or tentative? Okay, how many are there who can convey through a drawing that a character is being facetious. How many can draw someone telling a lie?  More than just a master of the form, Gil Kane was an innovator. His influence is visible in the work of scores of today's pencillers, even in those whose work bears little superficial resemblance to Gil's unmistakable style: This is the posture of a resolute hero. This is how a flying man moves. If you're an artist and you think you haven't swiped him, don't be so smug. You've definitely swiped somebody who swiped him. No need to explain why you did the deed. And don't worry, no court would convict you. Often there's just no better shot possible. There's an enormous amount to enjoy about his work, there's just as much we can learn from it.  The last time I worked with Gil was when he drew an issue of Static for Milestone. I wanted him to incorporate an element from one of his rejected cover sketches into the design he and editor Matt Wayne had already agreed upon. As I tried to convince him to make the change, it gradually occurred to me that I might not know what I was talking about. I told him to go ahead and do it the way he wanted, "after all, you've probably drawn hundreds of covers." Gil corrected me. He had already, at that point, drawn over two thousand covers. The first time I worked with Gil was nearly ten years ago, a blip in his career, nearly the entire length of mine. I was hard at work on a script for Monster in my Pocket (a Harvey Comics title about the epic struggle between armies of two-inch high monsters), when my editor, Sid Jacobson, called me up with some news: The regular artist wouldn't be able to continue working on the book. "I asked Gil Kane to draw it, okay?" "Gee, I don't know, Sid. He's only one of my idols. Let me think about it and I'll get back to you." Actually, I said nothing of the sort, as I both fear Sid, yet desperately crave his approval. Anyway, I was too thrilled to be sarcastic, even if I'd had the inclination. Needless to say, Gil did a great job on the story. A few months later, while I was in San Diego for the annual comic convention, Sid dragged me away from the dealer's floor and introduced me to Gil Kane. After chatting a bit and discovering to our mutual surprise that we were both reading the same book, I was sufficiently emboldened to ask him what he thought of my script. "M'Boy," he said, "You wrote some lovely dialog scenes but this is comics, the little monsters should always be doing something." I'm still working on it, Gil.
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