Jim Steranko (Born November 5th 1938)
Jim Steranko is a legend in the comic book industry, and as a noir artist he is unparalleled. Born James F. Steranko in Reading, Pennsylvania on November 5th, 1938, his parents were Ukrainian immigrants that worked coal mines and tin. Jim began to draw while very young, opening and flattening envelopes for sketch paper. His ambition to become an architect garnered family support, who eventually began to provide the boy with comics and other media to work from.
In the Silver Age of Comics, he made several innovations in sequential art that have left a deep and lingering impression upon the comic genre. His most famous and memorable work being with Nick Fury, Agent of Shield, he nevertheless showed his noir prowess with the “Visual Novel” (precursor of the graphic novel) Chandler: Red Tide. Although it enjoyed a very limited printing, it still serves as one of the most wonderful collections of noir inspired images in the genre. A bulk of the captures you see here are from that single book.
“Fans seem to think that the more lines that go into a drawing the better it is. Actually, the opposite is generally true. The fewer lines you can put into a drawing the quicker it reads, and the simpler it is.”
The influence Jim Steranko has upon modern noir comic artists is obvious. When you look at the panels above, it’s so easy to see the ripples that spawned Sean Phillips, Frank Miller, and many others. Bless you for your contribution Jim, bless you.
(Thanks to the following sources:)
http://memoriastoica.tumblr.com/
http://mepresta.tumblr.com/
http://yeswecancan.tumblr.com/
http://melvillain.tumblr.com/
http://arrastao.tumblr.com/
http://lostpanels.tumblr.com/
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