Gil Kane Flash Gordon cover

A classic Kane cover from 1966 from King Comics' Flash Gordon #2. A shame that Gil didn't do interiors for this book.

He was doing plenty of work elsewhere for Marvel and Tower Comics at the time.

The above is an excerpt from a Gil Kane interview, published in Alter Ego #10, first run.
It's an interesting interview, Gil is outspoken about art and comics writing, and I urge you all to get hold of this issue if you can. I can only post this page in good conscience and within the bounds of fair use.

Noman by Kane/Wood

At right: a typical '60's page pencilled by Gil Kane, inked by Wally Wood. From the Noman story in Thunder Agents #5, June 1966. A pretty solid page even though the Kane pencils are somewhat obscured by Wood's inks.

From way back in 1957, the cover to Strange Adventures #83.
Kane was adept at drawing science fiction stories and Julie Schwartz didn't hesitate to use him. Here's a rather droll cover with George Washington and Honest Abe Lincoln enjoying some tunes. (Well, not really, but I don't know what Gil intended in giving them
earphones!)

Gil Kane and Wally Wood on the Teen Titans

A great original art page from Teen Titans #19, pencilled by Gil Kane, inked by Wally Wood.

If you're a fan of superheroes, it doesn't get much better than this.

The size of this image probably doesn't do Gil Kane justice, but here it is anyway. This is a very fine Tarzan page from the newspaper comic strip, published sometime in 1980. Kane was a super artist and his art didn't suffer by comparison with such Tarzan artists as Hal Foster, Burne Hogarth, Russ Manning, or Gray Morrow. Also all great artists in their own right.

Although I was never a huge fan of the Atom, I bought it because it contained Gil Kane artwork. Even art mitigated by an inker like Sid Greene, another aspect of the book I wasn't all that fond of, was better than some other alternative. This page is from The Atom #30. Kane's art on this character would really shine much later on when The Atom became a sword and sorcery hero in The Sword of the Atom. Can't recall if Kane inked that one or someone else, but the art reflected more of Kane's artistic vision and was a great looking and great reading book. Sword of the Atom was written by Jan Strnad.

From 1957, here's the cover to The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #35. 'Ol Rex was DC's answer to Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Gil Kane was versatile and made this a fun book visually.
Alex Toth and Carmine Infantino also drew stories during the run of this title.

This is an excellent page from the June 1966 issue of Undersea Agent, number 3, from Tower Comics. Here Kane shows just a hint of his great sense of design in the drawing of machinery on the last bottom panel. He also drew some Noman stories for Tower.

A very nice page from a Gil Kane western story from 1970.

Although some have criticized Kane's inking of himself, this is a great page, full of life and action. From All Star Western v.2#3. Kane drew a lot of western stories in the fifties for DC, this was a welcome return to the genre for him.

That Creepy Gil Kane

Gil Kane certainly didn't limit himself to Marvel or DC during any part of his career.

Here's the inside front cover of Creepy #16 from Warren Publishing. As always, copyright and

TM Warren Publishing or the respective copyright holder.

While at times it's hard to ID early Gil Kane art when it's inked by a DC staff inker, there are telltale signs that it's Gil Kane. He had a certain way of drawing water splashing, and the "feathering" on the rocks looks like it was drawn by him. From All Star Western #82. I think this was inked by Joe Giella, a fine artist in his own right.

And, in the final blog entry of the night, the cover to Mystery in Space #46. Kane was versatile and able to draw just about anything, and draw it well. He had a good design sense that was very close to that of Jack Kirby in the sense of being able to design machinery and backgrounds. Editor Julius Schwartz used Kane's talents on many a science fiction cover or story as well as on The Atom and Green Lantern. Mystery in Space TM DC Comics Inc. With all the DC Comics Gil had a hand in, hope I don't get sued by them for using so many of their images!

Beware My Power, Green Lantern's Light...

A Gil Kane Green Lantern cover. As the Marvel Age progressed, and was gaining popularity, perhaps the DC editors loosened up a bit and allowed Kane to show more of his talents by having him both pencil and ink covers and interiors.

This particular cover wouldn't be unusual on an issue of the Hulk, for example. Kane did his share of work for Marvel, and this cover just seems to me to be reminiscent of Marvel. Although lore has it that the DC editors thought that the key to Marvel's popularity was ugly art. In any case, with a new Green Lantern movie on the near horizon, Gil Kane merits recognition for making the character popular in the comics, although he always had reservations about the quality of the writing he was given to illustrate. Green Lantern copyright and TM DC Comics Inc.

Gil Kane was a one of a kind artist

Gil Kane, along with some of the other DC artists, was often diluted or covered up by the homogenous inkers that DC would assign to ink his stories. For all that, Kane's talent always showed through, from his earliest stories to Rex the Wonder Dog to his science fiction stories to his western storiesto Green Lantern, to his own self produced projects like His Name is Savage and Blackmark, and finally to such classy projects like The Ring of the Nibelung he did with Roy Thomas while at DC. This blog will from time to time seek to comment upon, admire, and examine such work, as well as the man who produced it. Long live Gil Kane.