Superman Through the Ages! Forum

R.i.P.

One of the major Batman artists.  Closely associated with Aquaman.  And the artist of some memorable Superman-related stories.

Critical career retrospective:


http://www.quarterbin.net/talentpo/tp25.html

Book on Aparo:

http://www.twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=52&products_id=337

Terrible news.  In many ways, Aparo was to Batman what Swan was to Superman; a long-standing, dependably top-drawer artist who helped define the look of a character and his world, but somehow never got the glory he deserved.  To this day, there are those who put him down as a poor man's Neal Adams, but in my book he brought more to Batman than Neal did, and on balance he was probably a better artist.

I'd been planning an Aparo tribute at my Bat-Fan site, but haven't finished it.  Sadly now it'll have to be a "remembrance."  Same with Irv Novick...if I don't get some of these pages written soon, they'll all be ending with R.I.P. :(

In the meantime, I do at least have one of his stories up.  If you get a chance in the next few days, stop by and see Aparo at the top of his game:

http://batfan.superman.nu/bizarre/rock/page_01.htm

It's a difficult thing, to define what a man you never met meant to you (especially during your formative years). If I had to list the favourite comics of my childhood, you're going to see much Aparo: Batman, of course, and some Brave and the Bold, and Aquaman ("Is California Sinking?" springs to mind as classic Aparo).

Thank you for your art, your storytelling, and your professionalism, Jim.

One of my favorites was the multi-part "Bat-Murderer" series in Detective Comics.  And of course B&B and Aquaman.  

I have to say, though, some of Jim's coolest stuff was on The Phantom books for Charlton.  Anyone talented enough to make me buy a Charlton comic was pretty special! (Especially a book about a guy who wears a purple bodysuit...apparently wool, to boot...in the freaking jungle!  Sorry, Aussies, but the Phantom can be pretty silly looking.  Thanks to Aparo and Don Newton, though, I soon found myself among the loyal ranks of the Jungle Patrol).

Another top talent lost.

Oh, Nightwing, you philistine!

I'm a very big fan and avid reader of The Phantom (as written by Lee Falk and drawn by Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy, and early Sy Barry) going way back to childhood. (I'm sure I've talked about The Ghost Who Walks here on this forum.)

Where did you hear his suit was made of wool, of all things??

I have always had the impression, from reading the comics, that The Phantom's suit was grey. Even now when I read Phantom comics, I see the outfit as grey. (I have the Australian comic books which present the comics in their proper black and white and sometimes grey.)

Anyway, maybe you would like to read Bryan Shedden's article A Purple Phantom? (http://www.deepwoods.org/purple.html) on The Deep Woods.

And let's be honest here.... How much do Batman and/or Superman owe to The Phantom when it comes to stylish threads? Skintight bodysuit, anyone? Undershorts over the tights, anyone? An emblem in a triangular border, anyone? A cowl, and no eyes visible through the slits in the mask, anyone? Calf-length boots, anyone? Hmmm?  :wink:

He was a real talent. I post about his death in that Batman version of this site that everyone begged Rao to keep then forgot about and never posted there, you know, that one.

It is always a shame that fine historical talent is no more...

I feel sad about the other site too, I look it over but there's not much action there...seems to me a good place to visit too...

Not to hijack this thread away from Jim Aparo (poor guy's getting eclipsed in his own obit!), but on the subject of the Phantom:

- Nobody ever actually said his outfit was wool, but Jim and Don always drew him with those ribbed cuffs at the end of his sleeves, making it look like George Reeve's super-suit (or, more on topic, Tom Tyler's outfit in the Phantom serial).  It always seemed to me superheroes were drawn in "longjohn"-like fabrics until the Silver Age, when they started looking more like spandex.

- I think I read somewhere the Phantom was supposed to have a gray suit -- and it was in the dailies -- but somehow it turned purple in the color Sundays, at least in the States.  Why I don't know.  Those things happened in the old days...in Italy, Batman's outfit was red!

- I agree the Phantom is a great character, and a cool concept.  I've gotten some of the recent reprints of the early Falk/Moore stuff and it's really well done.  Makes me wish I'd been around in the days newspaper strips were worth reading.

And you're right of course, the Phantom beat all superheroes to the punch.  But I never held up Superman or Batman as particularly original creations; they're each sort of a mish-mash of earlier stuff, it's just that in their case they got the mix just right.

Back to Aparo, I remember one thing I loved about his Phantom was that he looked "old school," but he had all kinds of modern technology.  There was a Phantom jet that sticks out in my mind, for example, and a motorcycle.  All in all, pretty good practice for an artist destined to do Batman.

Wow...imagine a Phantom-Batman crossover drawn by Aparo.  How cool would THAT have been?

Definitely in the Mad parodies and in Goodman Beaver, Superman looked like he was in a sweatsuit/longjohn affair. :D

I don't know this version of The Phantom you're talking about, but I wouldn't agree at all with The Phantom having a Phantom-jet and Phantom-motorcycle and other specialist equipment a la Batman. If you have some of the old Ray Moore comics, you will have a feel for what The Phantom is really like.

The Phantom, the man, is not as cerebral as Batman; he is more like the two-fisted old-school adventurers, with a healthy dose of the "intuitive improvisation" you wrote about in your 007 article. The rare times The Phantom ponders over something, it is usually about his relationship with Diana. Like Batman, The Phantom is backed by a huge fortune (ie. the contents of the Treasure Room), but he doesn't spend it on gadgets and personal ownership. When he travels, he dresses in civilian clothes and uses public transport as a passenger on ships, planes, and trains. This always added a genuine element of excitement to his adventures. Here was the Ghost Who Walks getting around just as we might. He was never weighed down by gadgets or the accoutrements of wealth.

He never lost that appeal of travelling light and travelling quickly, often on horseback, with just his suit, guns, and civilian clothes, and the companionship of Devil. For me, it gave him a special kind of freedom and self-reliance.

Any chance someone can post some pictures of the Phantom as drawn by Jim Aparo? I'd be very interested to see them.

Aldous:

I certainly agree the Aparo-era Phantom gadgets (and I only read a couple stories, so I can't say with certainty they were a big part of the continuity in the 70s) are at odds with the early Moore-era Phantom.  But seeing as how this was my introduction to the Ghost-Who-Walks, I didn't mind.

Interesting tid-bit; did you ever read the first Phantom story?  It's set in New York and some heavy hints are dropped that the Phantom's secret ID is Diana Palmer's fiance....whose name I can't remember at the moment.  And in fact that was the original plan.  But then Falk brought in Kit Walker and switched the heart of the mythos to the jungle.  Another example of the comic strip as an organic, evolving entity...it's fascinating to watch the early strips experiment and play around until they get the formula right.

But reading that story, it's an obvious "cheat."  Darn it, what was that guy's name?  He figured in the movie, I remember...played as a hopeless twit.

Yes, I am pretty sure I have read it. I don't know the film, but I think the name you're looking for is Jimmy Wells.

I think I have the story in one of the early, slightly abbreviated, Frew editions.

Yes, it's so interesting how Lee Falk's ideas were evolving even as the strip was being published. How amazing that we almost had what would have been a seminal wealthy playboy/costumed hero for the comics. A few years later, in the Forties, we had a plethora of wealthy playboy/costumed heroes, all owing something to the great Batman, more or less.

However, I wouldn't change a thing regarding The Phantom. He is in a special category all his own.

Archived on this website is a post or two about this subject by India Ink. Superman from the 30s to the 50s. (http://superman.nu/dcmb/30sTo50s/) "Gladiator" rates a mention as well.

I like the Phantom drawing by Jim Aparo.