Thursday, August 16, 2012

Rescue the Beautiful Princess Lur-Na

Another greatly fun sub or side genre of science fiction is the comic book adventurous lug cut in the mold of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, always rescuing a true love from Bird Men, Bat Men, Butterfly Men, Mole Men, Rock Men, TattleTale Men, Leave the Cap Off Toothpaste Men, and (shudderrr) Sales Men.

To be one of these guys, he's gotta have a jetpack, a ray gun, a cool helmet, and a code of conduct that would satisfy any girl's father. He also has to be bold enough to say stupid things and nobody minds cuz he's so darn rugged and cute and humble.

The girl has to of the beauteous persuasion, some form of royalty, past present or future, and capable of having the vapors, so as to sideline the guy in the darndest situations where he has to pick her up and carry like a sack of meat, without violating any of the conduct codes that her father has approved of in a private meeting — the father being a gentleman and only giving a tiny glimpse into the room where he keeps his weapons collection from 42 worlds of assassins guilds.

Murphy Anderson was a great inker of the silver Age of Comics, teaming perfectly with several topflight pencilers, but he was mighty good inking his own pencils as well, also having had a great stint with Buck Rogers hisself. And Anderson, well, he fulfilled most all those requirements outlined above in one swell drawing.

©1971 Murphy Anderson

5 comments:

Mr. Door Tree said...

Thomas,

What a terrific illustration! Murphy is one of my all time favorite artists and along with Joe Kubert, Murphy is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet and talk art with!

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Mr. Door Tree, I've never had the pleasure of meeting Murphy Anderson, but I certainly do know how Joe Kubert was approachable, affable and a true gentleman. Really, so many of the old guard were just great people.

Even though Murphy Anderson predated the silver age, I still think of him as MISTER Silver Age.

Kid said...

Talent-wise, I think of Murphy Anderson as DC's equivalent of Marvel's Joe Sinnott. Truly, one of the absolute best.

Bob said...

What technique! Look at how he handles the swooning woman, or the curve of our hero as he reaches back. The man can draw!

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

The great results that came from Anderson inking various other artists notwithstanding, as a kid I especially liked seeing the results of Anderson also having done the underlying pencils.

I'd not thought to parallel Anderson with Sinnott, as did Kid above, but the comparison is apt on many levels despite the stylistic differences. Amongst other things, as first-rate inkers across different artists, these two helped to provide a sense of continuity within the respective fictional universes.