Saturday, September 05, 2009

TWO STALWARTS (HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HULK part 5)

Another artist who did a lengthy stint on the Hulk was Herb Trimpe.

For many who were reading the comic in the early '70s, he is the definitive Hulk artist. I was never taken to that extent with Trimpe (as I mentioned before it's Sal Buscema for me). But he did give the Hulk a real character and drew a lot of memorable stories - a Tyrannus one featuring Mogol the robot, and a couple of encounters with the Glob come to mind.

My favourite of his work though was a tale which had the Hulk having one of his "Why doesn't everyone just leave me alone" sulks, only to have his own shadow attack him:


















Poor Hulk. That scene is so tragic and melodramatic that it's funny. It must surely go down as a classic Hulk moment.

Another name associated with the Hulk for a long time was Peter David. He wrote the comic for over ten years. I'd read some David before, and had noticed if he wrote a story, there was usually a bit more to it than in other super-hero comics. I recall a Spider-Man story about a serial killer (the Sin-Eater, I think), and another nice one examining J. Jonah Jameson's reasoning behind his hatred of Spider-Man - a story whose mood was much aided by being inked by Kyle Baker.

Quick history lesson: When Marvel Comics printed Hulk #1, the character was grey. But he was coloured green from the first page in #2, and stayed that way for the next 25 years, no-one ever mentioning it in the story, and subsequent reprints of Hulk #1 recolouring him to green. Knowing he had been grey at first was a fact only die-hard fans knew, and there was no suggestion that the skin colour change had actually "happened". However in 1985, the idea that the Hulk was originally grey was written into continuity. The Hulk was separated from his Banner persona and emerged as the grey Hulk again.

One real standout Hulk issue by David was drawn by John Ridgway in 1987. It featured this grey Hulk:


















I think Adam Kubert drew a good Hulk. This effective little sequence is from a story that jumped ahead ten years to have the Hulk's sidekick Rick Jones tell the story of the decade. In it, Banner undergoes his metamorphosis without displaying any stress:












Nice storytelling there too, with the Hulk's exit suggested, but not shown.

David finished his run in 1998, but would return to the Hulk a few years later, and has also written one-off specials.

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