I know I promised you all bunches of hilarious Marie Severin comic work...and while intentions never seem to match the actual outcome, I think it's about time to post some more Marie! So here you go!
First just look at the cover to SPOOF # 3...with a January cover date, this cover must have gone to press right after the presidential elections of 1972. It makes me wonder if Marie Severin had another version standing by that featured George McGovern as Prez had he won...the funny thing about the cover is that within months, Spiro Agnew would leave office in disgrace from bribery charges, and of course the Watergate story would also break, and we all know what happened to Richard Nixon.
Also on the cover are the rock 'n' roll leaders of that particular time-frame...let's look at them, shall we? From left to right, there's the Jackson Five, the Osmond brothers, John Lennon is swearing in new president David Cassidy (who was just huuuge at that point) on a copy of Rolling Stone magazine, behind them watching are Yoko Ono and the rest of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones (w/Ron Wood), Elvis Presley, and I do believe that the gent in the fancy jacket is american rocker Tommy James. Another amazing caricature cover that no one else could even attempt to pull off with the apparent ease that Marie Severin had done.
Inside this issue is where we find our story, which is a satire of the horror movie 'FROGS'. Now for those of us who actually saw this fairly awful film, you will notice that the characters don't receive the usual Marie Severin caricature treatment...in fact, none of the stars of the film (Ray Milland, Sam Elliot, etc.) are featured. This is probably due to the fact that Stu Schwartzberg who wrote it also did lay-outs for Marie, and in fact she may not have even seen the film. In any case, it's a very funny look at a drearily boring film. Inked by Herb Trimpe, who had worked with Marie early on with 'The Incredible Hulk'.
Enjoy! ...and I promise more Marie Severin comics to come!
Besides the incredible Severin art~ Roy Thomas tickled my funny bone with this one. Loved the sequence where the snakes, frogs, and moss conspire as football players to take down the rotten Grandson. And of course, the cameo by Albert the Alligator~! All with Herb Trimpe inks !! (Marie probably colored this one too)
ReplyDeleteApocolyte: Boy, could that woman draw. For me, she, along with Harvey Kurtzman, defined how satire cartooning was supposed to look. I remember her as a kid so well from Not Brand Echh. Also, whe was a great Hulk artist (but you already knew that).
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Anytime you want to highlight this wonderful artist's work, it's fine by me. -- Mykal
Thanks for the comments, friends!
ReplyDeleteLysdexicuss - I think it's actually Schwartzberg who wrote this, but I like it too! And Mykal, if you liked Marie Severin's Hulk, stick around! coming soon to a blog at the end of time near you...
Marie Severin is one of my favorite cartoonist/comic book artist.Her brother John,obviously was one of the greats as well.Should I dare call them the Donny and Marie of their craft?I mean this in a nice way though,I love both their work.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm amazed that you could pull a "lost EC" out of the '70s!! Herb Trimpe's inks look surprisingly like Jack Davis! Trimpe was forced into a mold that crippled his style...later in his career, he showed that he could imitate a variety of styles--I even saw him pull off an "Image"-style! And he did it well, very well! It's a shame he never got a chance to do an entire book in his natural style (which looked so utterly unlike his "Hulk"-style that there was absolutely no comparison). I got a brief chance to see him write and draw his own project when he did an 8-pager for Savage Tales or something like that. It was a continued tale about a group of amateur flyers caught with the only working planes around, after WW3. Or some such. It was marvelous. Gad, I'll have to dig that out. What the heck was that weird thing? Anybody know anything?
ReplyDelete