This is a crossover that I would have loved to have seen back in the day. Jim Aparo was making a name for himself with his amazing depiction of The Phantom for Charlton Comics when he moved over to DC Comics to take on Aquaman. Those comics hold up just as well today as they did decades ago, due in no small part to Aparo's incredible artistry.
I've just been reading Showcase: The Brave and the Bold 3 with Aparo's amazing work on the Batman team-ups. He was an incredible artist! Thanks for the education - I had no idea he did The Ghost Who Walks!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Aparo's art. Back in the day, Brave and the Bold was the only title I subscribed to. His Batman is my favorite, Adams and Lee are in there as well. A bucket list item for me is to own an Aparo piece from BatB.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Are there Charleton anthologies/reprints available?
Yup! https://www.comixology.com/The-Phantom-The-Complete-Series-Vol-1-The-Charlton-Years/digital-comic/31840
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that you're approaching #1300, and I'm sure you have some thing special planned for that one.
ReplyDeleteBut soon after is #1313, and I think something special for a double-thirteen would be fitting. Gen13 vs Freddy Krueger, perhaps?
One member of Gen13 will be appearing as part of my next Team cover at least...
ReplyDeleteA Phantom/Batman team-up with Jim Aparo art was a story I dreamed about
ReplyDeleteas a young man.
Another artist who worked on the Phantom at Charlton and moved to DC and worked on both Aquaman and Batman was Don Newton. In my opinion, he was he was a highly underrated Bat-artist.
A great team-up! Love both these guys (and Devil!). And who doesn't love Aparo? Great stuff. Bigjeffoh
ReplyDeleteActually, I could see this type of team-up occurring for real! That is; a genuine intercompany crossover. The premise: Black Manta as the head of a new Seng Pirate Brotherhood.
ReplyDeleteAparo was such an excellent craftsman, it's just a pity there weren't more moody titles for him to draw. He did really well with noir-ish stuff, which is one reason everyone loves his B&B run (the other is that you got to see his take on darn near every character on Earth-B).
ReplyDeleteReally great, and yes you nailed it - this time period of Aparo in particular was dynamite. I think he really hit his sweet period with his Phantom Stranger run, and that continued into early B&B and Aquaman.
ReplyDeleteBTW great site, love it and look at it intermittently. Have you done any Aparo Phantom Stranger stuff? That whole 70s DC mystery title era has been under appreciated by the masses...when Morrison did 7 Soldiers to try to revamp a bunch of those characters it was like music to my eyeballs.
There are six Phantom Stranger covers on here so foar, 2 with Aparo art.... and he will return!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great cover you did! A contact of mine showed me it, because I am a great Phantom fan. I'm doing Lego pictures about the character, and I did it with your cover : https://www.facebook.com/1422116121426346/photos/a.1422118918092733.1073741828.1422116121426346/1483026792001945/?l=ae4438ba5a
ReplyDeleteOf course, I gave the link for your blog.
Great work !
Very Cool!
ReplyDelete@AirDave: how do you like the recent revelation that Jason of Showcase is actually Wonder Woman's brother? Personally, I like to think that the sister he was searching for in the Silver Age story arc called "Jason's Quest" was...Lilith!
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