Saturday, June 16, 2012

Bronze Age Sub-Mariner Splash Page Saturdays # 67



With creator Bill Everett's energy gone from the title, sales were apparently limping along. The powers that be decided to reinvent the wheel by giving Subby his black and yellow costume with the underarm wings. Love the idea or hate it, Romita's cover was cool! The corresponding interior shot, however, by Don Heck as inked by Frank Bolle--a good penciller but a bland artist overall--was badly presented and anti-climactic.

As splashes go during this period, though, this one isn't the best drawn but is nicely laid out. Our hero is front and center with some menacing sharks and the inset panel--not overpowering--reveals the villain. I like the title lettering quite a bit, also.

3 comments:

  1. Generally I really liked the way Don Heck drew Namor. He really gave the character a sleek modern handsome coolness. Choosing him to revive the series after the sad death of Everett was a good idea, but alas it just didn't work.

    I like the armored suit by the way. It's got real panache!

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  2. I thought the suit was a stupid move at the time and was surprised Namor didn't rail against it more. Over the years, however, it's grown on me and in some of the revivals where he's worn it, it's been downright impressive looking.

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  3. i loved the cover. i didn't care for the splash page, don heck's art nor did i care for the story itself and namor's reason for having to wear the new suit (fleeing from a foe???). i do like the costume. recently they revived the costume without the arm-pit fins/wings and i liked it even more, but sadly they added a pimp collar which isn't aqua-dynamic.

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