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Thursday, April 25, 2019

The Black-and-White Work of Val Mayerik



What's your experience with Val Mayerik? Mine comes largely from the B&W "Frankenstein 1974" series, when Marvel decided it would be a good idea to bring the Monster into then-present continuity. Of course, that would give us a Marvel Team-Up with the Amazing Spider-Man, but also create a generally odd situation. But I digress...

Mayerik also made his presence felt in Savage Sword of Conan, and had a history with Howard the Duck. How's that for variety?

Anyway, enjoy these samples of his work - and thanks to all those spaces around the World Wide Web who host the images I've provided here today.















12 comments:

  1. I've known Mayerik's work primarily from his early art on Man-thing; have never seen the Frankenstein pages. Which, by the way, look great. Presumably Val both pencilled and inked those?

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    1. Good morning, Redartz!

      I don't have my Frankenstein tpb handy, but a very quick search of some databases showed that sometimes Mayerik inked himself, sometimes there was a different artist in collaboration. I can't speak directly to the samples provided without my resource.

      Sorry!

      Doug

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  2. I remember Val Mayerik from his art on THE LIVING MUMMY which appeared in Marvel UK'S DRACULA LIVES weekly.

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  3. My experience with Mayerik mainly consists of Man Thing, Howard the Duck and the Living Mummy stories from Supernatural Thrillers. I did not, however, read any of these when they originally came out in color comics, but rather in the Essentials volumes. So I'm mainly familiar with his work in the b&w format.

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    1. That's an interesting perspective, Edo (and Colin, too) - seeing color work but only in a B&W format. I wonder if you then saw the color version if it would look strange to you?

      Doug

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  4. Val's style is unmistakable. Very fluid, very expressive. The Marvel Graphic Novel Void Indigo is one of the best examples of his technique (fully painted art, not b/w).

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  5. I have to admit my only exposure to Mr Mayerik's art is in the pages of Harvey Pekar's "American Splendor" comic....and fine work it is too.

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    1. Perhaps I should be ashamed to admit, but I've never read American Splendor...

      Doug

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  6. Doug, I first read the classic PANTHER'S RAGE in b&w (in Marvel UK) but I recently saw a review of the series in the original colour on the blog PEERLESS POWER OF COMICS. It did indeed look strange and I made a comment about it (in my opinion Panther's Rage had looked better in b&w).

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    1. Colin -

      I've remarked before that I have grown to really love these black-and-white magazines. However, I've also stated that I can have a distaste for bad reproductions of color art in B&W (see my review of The Hulk #16 and check out the samples; contrast that with my review of MTIO #7). For whatever reason, and maybe like you, my mind's eye tends to think a book looks "right" in whichever format I first laid eyes on it.

      Panther's Rage is a storyline I need to revisit. I've read it once, and found it underwhelming given the hype. The art and lay-out was spectacular, however. Maybe I'll get to it this summer.

      Doug

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  7. Yeah, Man-Thing originally for me, and Noir is right, Void Indigo is great.
    I always like the way Val's character look like melted wax or candle figures ( That, by the way, is a compliment!)

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    1. Understood and agreed, Pete - and I think some of the art samples from Frankenstein 1974 certainly bear that out.

      Doug

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