Have no fear: I will explain Daredevil Color Guide Art
Hello, blog and comic art fans! Tonight’s blog is gonna be about fear, but don’t worry. It’s a good kind of fear! It’s about Daredevil, the Man Without Fear! As DD’s fans know, Daredevil TMWOF started his crime fighting superhero career back in 1964, in his silver age Marvel Comics Group issue 1 debut. DD is of course the blind New York City (and once San Francisco California) attorney, named Matt Murdock. Not only did Matthew Murdock have his hands full dealing with NYC criminals by day as a lawyer, but he also dealt with crime during his nightly rounds as the Man Without Fear.
I remember as a kid reading “Giant-Size Daredevil” issue 1 (which was a reprint of an old DD annual issue), and trying like hell to make my own Daredevil billy club, as shown on one of the pages of that Giant Size comic book. Drove me and my family nuts. Hell, I was always doing something comic related, like using a car’s emergency brake cable pretending I was that Ironman villain “Whiplash”, and whipping my plastic Marx Toy Company Marvel statue set (yes, I admit it). And when I was five, I foolishly cut my Mom’s floor wax can (yes, made of METAL), and tried to squeeze into it so I could be Iron Man. It cut the living s*it out of me. And then there was the time I tried to use those Tic Tacs plastic candy dispensers to make homemade Spider-man web-shooters that I filled with Elmer’s Glue. Oh by the way, this is just scratching the surface. There was also the time I thought I was Iron Fist and tried for fight a kid named David outside on my lawn. The only thing was, David *was* actually into Martial Arts unlike myself, so I got my Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu (and my ass) handed to me damn quick. I remember crying when the Mad Hatter (David Wayne) dropped liquid cement on Batman (Adam West) at the end of a 2 part cliffhanger episode of the 1966 tv show. I was 3 at the time, and I thought they really killed my hero! I was literally tormented for 7 days until the next episode. I wouldn’t even eat bacon when I was little, til my Mother tricked me by calling it “Batman Bacon”. I swear to GOD! So to say super-heroes made a huge impact on my life would be a massive understatement. If not for reading comics at around age 4, I’d probably be illiterate today. School taught me nothing. All I ever needed to know I learned from Marvel Comics! YEAH! Stan Lee is still the Man!
Back to Daredevil. My favorite issues of Daredevil were his 1st appearance back in the 1960′s by Wally Wood (yes, of EC Comics fame), by John Romita Sr in the 60′s, by Sal Buscema in the 1970′s, by Frank Miller in the 1980′s, but most especially by Gene Colan. There was just something about the way “Gene the Dean” drew Daredevil that I liked better than all the other talented artists that worked on the character.
Color guide for Daredevil issue 356, page 31 (Sal Buscema). DD gets decimated by arch super-villain the EEL!
Speaking of Gene Colan and Sal Buscema, here’s a couple cool screen shots of some original Marvel Comics color guide pages we currently have available in our eBay Store. Just click on the photos to see more information about them, as well as check to see if they’re still for sale. As you might know, color guide artwork is also known as colorist’s art. It’s the real deal (they were hand painted by Marvel colorists) , they’re one of a kind, and they don’t make color guides anymore because comics are now colored on computers. Color guides are basically copies of the black & white original artwork, that are shrunk down and given to actual Marvel employees to hand color and draw those funny “color codes” on, so the printer knew exactly which shade of blue (for example) to make Spider-man’s costume. You get the idea. And what’s best about color guides is, there is almost always just one of each page ever made. Yep, when you own one of them, you own the ONLY one of them. Cool, huh?
The one of a kind color guide art for Daredevil issue 363, splash page 16 (Gene Colan)
Are these pages not gorgeous? Believe me, they look even more vivid in person, as color guide art pages usually do. They’re normally very bright in person, compared to the actual published comic book. See, back then, Marvel Comics (or DC Comics, for that matter), could not have published the actual comic books without color guides to show the people at the printing plant exactly which shades of colors Marvel wanted for each superheroe’s costume, for the backgrounds, etc. As of this writing, we still have a limited supply of older Marvel Colorist’s pages, like the Invincible Iron Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, and of course the Amazing Spiderman, among others.
Come take a look at some of these collectible rare pieces of comic book history. Collecting color guide art can be just as fascinating but MUCH less expensive as collecting comic book original art.
Thanks for reading this week’s blog!
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