Todd Klein's Blog, page 52

GASPAR SALADINO in SAVAGE & SKULL

All images © Marvel. From SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #1, Aug 1974

This post combines Gaspar Saladino work from three sword and sorcery titles. The first, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, I think was the longest-running of Marvel’s magazine-size black and white comics. Gaspar lettered two stories for it, this is the first. I think he designed the Red Sonja character logo as well as lettering this story, which was reprinted in color in MARVEL FEATURE #1.

From SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #34, Oct 1978

On this longer story from a few years later, Gaspar may have been requested by his friend, penciler Carmine Infantino. I love the ICE treatment in the title.

From SAVAGE TALES #2, Oct 1973

SAVAGE TALES came first, but did not last very long. For the second issue, the main story was the brilliant “Red Nails” with art by Barry Windsor-Smith. He also did some of the lettering including the title page, but pages 2-9 and 15-21 were lettered by Saladino. This is page two.

From SAVAGE TALES #10, May 1975

Gaspar also lettered just the first page of this Shanna the She-Devil story. Great title and sound effects. There were no printed lettering credits on these black and white books.

From SKULL THE SLAYER #2, Nov 1975

Writer Marv Wolfman and artist Steve Gan created their own barbarian hero for this book, which lasted just eight issues. Gaspar lettered this one cover. He does a good job of fitting the top blurb into the tight space available.

From SKULL THE SLAYER #4, March 1976

Saladino also lettered the first page only of five stories for the book, this is the first. His balloon lettering is a little smaller than usual here, so I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I believe it’s by him, and the rest of the story lettered by Irv Watanabe looks different.

From SKULL THE SLAYER #5, May 1976

The title on this page is classic Gaspar work, great contrast between the three styles. Gaspar was often hired by Marvel to do these because of his talent and the energy in the work.

From SKULL THE SLAYER #6, July 1976

The large title on this story reminds me a bit of Gaspar’s SWAMP THING logo, though it’s mostly different, but the inner texture is similar.

From SKULL THE SLAYER #7, Sept 1976

The bottom line of this story title is done like a logo, but perhaps the telescoping is too deep. IN THE is press-down type.

From SKULL THE SLAYER #8, Nov 1976

I like this title better, great use of lower case letters.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on one cover: SKULL THE SLAYER #2. Below are the details of his story lettering.

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #1: 10pp

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #34: 25pp

SAVAGE TALES #2: 15pp

SAVAGE TALES #10: page 1 only

SKULL THE SLAYER, page one only on these issues: 4-8.

That’s a total of 56 pages. More articles in this series and others you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in SAVAGE & SKULL appeared first on Todd's Blog.

And Then I Read: REAPER MAN by Terry Pratchett

Having finished reading all the City Watch novels of Discworld, I’m moving on to those featuring Death. Like his friend Neil Gaiman, Pratchett created his own unique version of the iconic concept, visually similar to other versions, but with a personality that’s both charming and at times funny. Death speaks IN ALL CAPS, making his voice unique as well, and in previous appearances he was all-powerful and truly godlike. Here things take a different turn, as an entity greater than Death takes away his power, granting him a short time of actual life on Discworld. Death takes full advantage of it, finding out many things about life he only knew before from observation and hearsay. Included among them are the effects of friendship, emotion, and even love. Then his replacement shows up. Meanwhile, with Death on holiday, things are unable to die, and Discworld is filling up with rogue life force that’s emerging in many troublesome ways. One example is the very elderly wizard Windle Poons, who was perfectly happy to die, but instead finds himself one of the undead, with great strength and sudden clarity of mind that he’d really rather have skipped.

Great read, as always, and often funny. Recommended.

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

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GASPAR SALADINO in SGT. FURY

All images © Marvel. From SGT. FURY #106, Jan 1973

This was Marvel’s long-running war title that reached 167 issues from 1963 to 1981. I’ve already written about some 1960s lettering by Gaspar Saladino for the book in THIS article, here I’ll cover what he did in the 1970s, mostly covers and a few first story pages. On the cover above, which also features his logo, Gaspar’s wide, angular balloon lettering is easy to see, and his blurb at lower left features his version of German letters in RHINE.

From SGT. FURY #107, Feb 1973.

Though the subtitle AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS was always present, it wasn’t part of the title in the indicia for a long time, so I’m sticking with the short version. Gaspar liked working with his friend Gil Kane, as on this cover. His style is harder to see here, but look at the E’s in the regular balloon lettering and notice how the horizontal strokes are slightly arched. On the bottom blurb, there may have been a double outline that Marvel filled in black.

From SGT. FURY #108, March 1973

This cover had two letterers, the lower blurb is clearly by Saladino, the balloons are by someone else, I don’t know who. This seemed to happen a lot more at Marvel than at DC, perhaps editor Stan Lee was adding new things at the last minute.

From SGT. FURY #111, June 1973

Another reason that happened was, when Marvel reprinted a cover with original lettering, they often added more lettering. That happened here, Sam Rosen did the original caption at right, Gaspar did the new one at left.

From SGT. ROCK #112, July 1973

The series was often a mix of reprints and new material. This issue was new, and Gaspar lettered just the first page of the story with Shelly Leferman doing the rest. Marvel thought Saladino’s skill and energy would help sell comics to browsers, and his work was often impressive, as on this story title.

From SGT. FURY #116, Nov 1973

This is all hand-lettered by Gaspar except in the burst balloon at the bottom where everything but BALL is press-down or headline type, something he was doing at the time. I think it looks quite bad here.

From SGT. FURY #116, Nov 1973

The second and final page one lettering by Saladino with another great title. It’s interesting to note that everyone in the credits except maybe Gary Friedrich would be working for DC Comics in a few years, or perhaps was already.

From SGT. FURY #117, Jan 1974

Gaspar’s style is not obvious on this cover, but I’m sure he did the lettering due to the sharp corners and angular approach.

From SGT. FURY #118, March 1974

There’s more Saladino style points on this cover, like the angular display lettering for DOOMED and SAVE in the balloons. That was a two-step process, the letters were drawn with a thick round pen point, then the corners were pointed with a small one. It took more time, but added drama.

From SGT. FURY #119, May 1974

I think the balloons should have been larger on this cover, and there was room. Cover lettering was usually done on separate art paper and often reduced photocopies were made, cut out, and pasted on the cover art.

From SGT. FURY #120, July 1974

This is the final new cover with Gaspar lettering, many issues after this were reprints with reprinted covers.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 106-108, 111, 116-120, that’s nine in all. He also lettered the first story page on these two issues: 112, 116. More articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER TITLES N to R

All images © Marvel. From NIGHT NURSE #3, March 1973

In addition to all his work at DC Comics, Gaspar Saladino was also busy lettering covers and stories for Marvel, though his DC work was far larger in volume. Nearly every Marvel title in the 1970s had some Saladino work, this article collects smaller amounts of it for a variety of titles. NIGHT NURSE ran just four issues in 1972-73. Gaspar lettered the cover above and one more. Note the very angular NO in the second balloon and the angular open lettering in the bottom blurb, typical for him.

From NIGHT NURSE #4, May 1973

The bottom blurb on this cover reminds me of ones he did for DC titles like SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE.

From NIGHT RIDER #6, Aug 1975

The original Ghost Rider at Marvel was a western supernatural character. Marvel wanted to reprint some of those stories, but was now using the name for a different character riding a motorcycle, so they went with this name. Saladino lettered just this cover, paired with his friend Gil Kane.

From OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #1, March 1976

Gaspar lettered the first cover for this superhero series that ran ten issues in 1976-77, and some first story pages.

From OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #2, May 1976

Gaspar was often hired to letter the first page of stories otherwise done by others. I think Marvel believed his skills might help sell comics to buyers. He always added the name of the person lettering the rest of the story if he knew it, as here, and their work was often quite different.

From OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #4, Sept 1976

This title has a rare circular shape, not sure why, but it’s cleverly done and grabs attention.

From OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #9, July 1977

This story title reminds me of Sam Rosen’s work, one of Marvel’s mainstays in the 1960s, but he stopped lettering in 1972.

From OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #10, Oct 1977

The title of this story doesn’t work well for me, it’s in a Las Vegas marquee style, but that clashes with the funeral scene in the art. They can’t all be equally good, after all.

From PLANET OF THE APES #1, Aug 1974

In the mid 1970s Marvel was trying a line of magazine-sized comics with black and white interiors, similar to Warren’s VAMPIRELLA. This one, based on the films, was quite successful, running 29 issues from 1974-77. Saladino lettered the main story in this first issue, though no lettering credit was given.

From PLANET OF THE APES #2, Oct 1974

He also lettered the second story in this issue, though the story title doesn’t look like his work and may have been done by artist Mike Ploog.

From THE RAMPAGING HULK #8, April 1978

Another black and white magazine-sized book, Gaspar’s only work for it was this five page gallery where he lettered the title and character names.

From RAVAGE 2099 #1, Dec 1992

I didn’t read any of the expansive 2099 line at Marvel, so I don’t know this character, but Gaspar lettered this entire issue about him.

From RED SONJA #3, May 1977

This Conan character had a successful seven-issue run in MARVEL FEATURE, then went immediately to her own title that ran 15 more issues from 1977 to 1979. Saladino lettered several covers, this is the first. His angular, uneven display lettering in the caption is a clear style signal.

From RED SONJA #5, Sept 1977

The lower case lettering in the small words in both these blurbs are typical for Saladino, and not something other Marvel cover letterers like Danny Crespi were doing.

From RED SONJA #6, Nov 1977

There are also some in this bottom caption along with artfully creative display lettering.

From RED SONJA #14, March 1979

I love the style of this scary balloon full of Gaspar’s familiar work.

From RED SONJA #14, March 1979

Original series artist Frank Thorne also lettered his stories, but had moved on by this issue. Saladino provided the lettering for the first story page. The decorative initial T in the first caption is great, but it gets lost in the poor printing and dark coloring.

From RED WOLF #5, Jan 1973

Red Wolf, a Native American character, starred in his own series for nine issues in 1972-73. Saladino again joined Gil Kane on this cover.

From RED WOLF #8, July 1973

Gaspar’s only other work on the book was this cover with an impressive flaming word balloon/story title.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers:

NIGHT NURSE 3-4

NIGHT RIDER 6

OMEGA THE UNKNOWN 1

RED SONJA 3, 5-6, 14

RED WOLF 5, 8

That’s ten in all. Below are the details of his story lettering.

OMEGA THE UNKNOWN #2, 4, 9-10: page 1 only

PLANET OF THE APES #1: 25pp

PLANET OF THE APES #2: 13pp

RAMPAGING HULK #8: 5pp

RAVAGE 2099 #1: 23pp

RED SONJA #14: page 1 only

That’s a total of 71 pages. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER TITLES N to R appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in POWER MAN

All images © Marvel. From POWER MAN #17, Feb 1974

This book and character had a long run of 125 issues under three titles. It began as HERO FOR HIRE, which I’ve already covered, then became POWER MAN with issue #17 above, and later POWER MAN AND IRON FIST. I’ll cover the last two versions in this article. Gaspar Saladino lettered a few covers and many first story pages for the series, I’ll go through them all in date order this time. Some clues to Gaspar’s lettering on this cover are the circular blurb with multiple ring border (some blacked in by Marvel’s production department, the thin outlines on the open letters in the burst, and the shape of that burst. Danny Crespi was also lettering many covers at this time, and his work can be similar but tended to use more rounded shapes and thicker outlines.

From POWER MAN #20, Aug 1974

Gaspar’s balloon and caption lettering was wide and angular, and his story titles were often large and dramatic. Not much room for the title here, so it’s not very big. Marvel hired Saladino for these first pages I think because they felt his energy and talent might help sell comics to browsers. It also helped give the Marvel line a more cohesive look. Gaspar always put in the name of the letterer of the remaining pages if he knew it, as here, their style was often quite different.

From POWER MAN #21, Oct 1974

The styles in the top and bottom blurbs are very much in Gaspar’s wheelhouse. The thick black outline on the first balloon isn’t. I think someone added that. There seems to have been a lot more messing with the cover lettering at Marvel than at DC.

From POWER MAN #22, Dec 1974

Sometimes a caption had to tilt off at the edge to fit, as with the left one here. Gaspar did a good job of keeping it readable. STILETTO and DISCUS show his talent for creative display lettering.

From POWER MAN #24, April 1975

Artie Simek often used almost rectangular balloon shapes like this, but the work inside them is very different from his. BLACK GOLIATH again shows Saladino’s creative flair.

From POWER MAN #25, June 1975

Notice how wide and angular the regular balloon lettering is here, and the horizontal strokes of each E tend to be slightly arched.

From POWER MAN #25, June 1975

Somehow Saladino rarely seemed to letter both the cover and the first page of an issue, probably because they were on different deadline schedules, but he did on this issue.

From POWER MAN #31, May 1976

It took me a while to decide this first page was lettered by Saladino. Others like John Costanza and Jim Novak did them too occasionally. The title letters don’t seem like Gaspar’s style, but he may have simply inked what was in the pencils. The rest of the lettering does look like his work.

From POWER MAN #32, June 1976

On the other hand, no one did flaming letters like Gaspar, or as well, and they’re a clear sign of his work here.

From POWER MAN ANNUAL #1, 1976

Gaspar had lots of title styles to draw on, this one suggests cracked rocks.

From POWER MAN #34, Aug 1976

Saladino knew what to emphasize in his titles, DEATH usually got the most, as here. The sound effect is also very Gaspar.

From POWER MAN #35, Sept 1976

This title uses four familiar Saladino styles that all work well together.

From POWER MAN #37, Nov 1976

CHEMISTRO again shows Saladino’s talent for dramatic and unusual display lettering, I like the lower case E in it.

From POWER MAN #40, Feb 1977

Gaspar was always thinking about how he could make titles more interesting. The speedlines here do that, and the treatment of LIMBO is spooky and intriguing.

From POWER MAN #44, June 1977

This title is another with emphasis in the right places.

From POWER MAN #45, July 1977

With fewer names in the credit block, Gaspar gives them some Art Deco style. I like the extended C in CHICAGO too.

From POWER MAN #46, Aug 1977

Two long C words in this title, emphasis given to the second through rough shapes and a heavy outline.

From POWER MAN #47, Oct 1977

Less room for this title, but Saladino adds drama with flaming letters.

From POWER MAN #49, Feb 1978

Rounded and lower case letters in this title for variety.

From POWER MAN #51, June 1978

Now officially teamed with Iron Fist, Power Man entered its most popular era. The title is fairly sedate, but the sound effect is dynamic.

From POWER MAN #53, Oct 1978

This title in perspective effectively adds depth.

From POWER MAN #54, Dec 1978

This story cleverly brings back the original book title, and it never looked so good.

From POWER MAN #55, Feb 1979

This busy cover is the last one I see Saladino lettering on. The lower case script for AT THE are typical for him.

From POWER MAN #55, Feb 1979

So much energy in this story title. It looks like the first line of the credits was removed after it was lettered, wonder what was there?

From POWER MAN #58, Aug 1979

Gaspar’s final page one has beautiful script on the first half, while the second is made equally appealing through bounce and joined letters.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 17, 21-22, 24-25, 55, six in all. The following issues had page one lettering: 20, 25, 31-32, 34-35, 37, 40, 44-47, 49, 51, 53-55, 58 and Annual 1. That’s a total of 19. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in POWER MAN appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO in NOVA

All images © Marvel. From NOVA #1, Sept 1976

NOVA was a superhero series that ran 25 issues from 1976 to 1979. Gaspar Saladino did a number of page one lettering jobs for it as well as two full issues and a few covers. For the first issue, oddly, he did not letter page one but did three later chapter heading pages, the first is above. Joe Rosen did the title page and the rest, perhaps he was ready to start and Gaspar wasn’t available, but then somehow turned up in time to do the chapter pages. Many of these decisions on when and where to use him are puzzling. I have room, so I’ll show the other chapter pages below.

From NOVA #1, Sept 1976

Gaspar’s work is dynamic and full of energy, as usual, with great chapter titles and sound effects. I didn’t see this issue when it came out, I know I would have been puzzled by the very different lettering styles.

From NOVA #3, NOV 1976

A story title in a burst balloon can be tricky, Saladino makes it work here.

From NOVA #4, Dec 1976

Often Gaspar redid character logos in his titles, here existing logos are used, perhaps by request. It makes a poor story title I think.

From NOVA #10, June 1977

This story title is more like it. I also like the NOVA balloon.

From NOVA #11, July 1977

Saladino lettered the entire issue here, so gets his name in the book for the first time. He uses just his first name in script, as he liked to do. Gaspar was not yet getting printed credit on his DC Comics work regularly, but would soon.

From NOVA #12, Aug 1977

More mis-matched character logos here, but the story title is fine.

From NOVA #14, Oct 1977

Another story title in a burst balloon, which looks good, but perhaps it should have been a bit smaller to avoid the character’s hand.

From NOVA #15, Nov 1977

The brush lettering on the black words in this story title adds interest and variety.

From NOVA #20, July 1978

This story title is creative and appealing, perhaps from a layout in the pencils by Carmine Infantino, Gaspar’s friend and former boss at DC.

From NOVA #22, Nov 1978

Here’s the other full story lettered by Saladino. I again suspect Infantino laid out the story title with THE COMET somewhat in the style of a DC hero. The sound effect is also cool.

From NOVA #24, March 1979

The last few issues are actually titled THE MAN CALLED NOVA in the indicia. Gaspar lettered the final two covers, again working with Infantino.

From NOVA #25, May 1979

The final issue has a revised type top line, changing HE’S HERE to HE’S GONE, evidence of Marv Wolfman’s humor I’d say. Gaspar’s burst balloon is strong.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers: 24-25, two in all. Below are the details of his story lettering.

#1 Sept 1976: 3 pp (chapters)

#3 Nov 1976: page 1 only

#4 Dec 1976: page 1 only

#10 June 1977: page 1 only

#11 July 1977: 17pp

#12 Aug 1977: page 1 only

#14 Oct 1977: page 1 only

#15 Nov 1977: page 1 only

#20 July 1977: page 1 only

#22 Nov 1978: 17pp

That’s a total 44 pages. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER M TITLES

All images © Marvel. From MACHINE MAN #10, Aug 1979

I believe the letter M begins the largest number of Marvel Comics titles. This article collects those that don’t begin with MARVEL for which Gaspar Saladino did a small amount of lettering work. MACHINE MAN ran 19 issues from 1978 to 1981, and Saladino lettered two of the covers. I suspect Jim Novak designed this logo, and he might have also done the cover lettering here, but it looks more like Gaspar’s work to me.

From MACHINE MAN #16, Aug 1980

I’m more sure about this one, the blurbs are definitely in Gaspar’s styles.

From MICRONAUTS #8, Aug 1979

This toy tie-in series was very popular, outlasting the toy line. It ran 59 issues from 1979 to 1984. For this issue, Saladino lettered just the first page of the story, something he was often hired to do by Marvel. Gaspar’s long experience lettering war comics at DC was good training for this page.

From MICRONAUTS #10, Oct 1979

Another page one with great Art Deco credits. Gaspar always put in the name of the letterer of the remaining pages, but their style was often quite different.

From MICRONAUTS ANNUAL #2, Oct 1980

There isn’t much lettering on this busy cover, just the blurb at upper left, but it’s by Saladino.

From THE MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #28, Nov 1973

Marvel (then Atlas) produced lots of western comics in the 1950s, and this title reprinted many of them. Gaspar lettered some of the covers beginning with this one. Here his almost rectangular balloon at right reminds me of Artie Simek, but the letters inside are wider and more angular than Artie’s.

From THE MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #30, March 1974

Saladino’s dynamic style added drama.

From THE MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #31, May 1974

The CRACK on this cover is surprisingly rounded for Gaspar, perhaps he was just inking what artist Gil Kane put there. The rest of the lettering including the sign is by him.

From THE MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #35, Oct 1974

It’s hard to keep these western gunfighters straight, there were many of them. My guess is readers didn’t care so much which one was featured.

From THE MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #36, Dec 1974

This all looks like Saladino lettering to me.

From THE MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #40, Aug 1975

The best clues to Saladino on this cover are the lower case THE in the burst and the style of the 3 in the lower caption.

From MONSTERS ON THE PROWL #21, Feb 1973

This book continued from CHAMBER OF DARKNESS, Saladino lettered only one cover. The angular letters and thin outlines on the open ones points to his work.

From MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1, June 1973

This magazine-sized comic with black and white interiors ran 11 issues. Gaspar lettered one story in the first issue. These black and white books did not include lettering credits, but Gaspar’s style in the title is clear, especially the dry-brush work on WEREWOLF.

From MOON KNIGHT #12, Oct 1981

A late single cover for Saladino on this title, but the style of MORPHEUS is unmistakeable. The line above it is type.

From MOONSHADOW #8, June 1986

Like BLOOD: A TALE, this prestige project with painted art was created and written by J.M. DeMatteis. Most issues were lettered by Kevin Nowlan, but Gaspar filled in for him on issue #8. Since Kevin’s lettering was similar and inspired by Saladino, it was a good match. Also like BLOOD, this series was reprinted by DC Comics ten years later, where many readers thought it originated.

From MY LOVE #21, Jan 1973

Gaspar’s work here is very much like what he was doing on DC’s romance comics. He only lettered this one cover.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on these covers:

MACHINE MAN 10, 16

MICRONAUTS ANNUAL 2

MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN 28, 30-31, 35-36, 40

MONSTERS ON THE PROWL 21

MY LOVE 21

That’s eleven in all. Below are the details of his story lettering.

MICRONAUTS #8: page 1 only

MICRONAUTS #10: page 1 only

MONSTERS UNLEASHED 1: 10pp

MOONSHADOW 8: 31pp

That’s 43 pages total. More articles in this series are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO in OTHER M TITLES appeared first on Todd's Blog.

And Then I Read: THE FIFTH SEASON by N.K. Jemisin

I used to keep up with science fiction publishing news by reading LOCUS, but I stopped doing that some years ago. Recently I was astonished to learn that author N.K. Jemisin had won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel not once, but three years in a row for the three books in her Broken Earth trilogy. I thought I should try it, and this is the first one. I will say up front that, if the others are as good as this, I have a new favorite SF author!

The book focuses on several women and one powerful man. It’s a world with one large continent called The Stillness ironically, because it’s anything but. Several tectonic plates form it, and the earth beneath them is very unstable. Earthquakes and volcanoes are common, and every few hundred years or so, a major seismic event throws everything into chaos. These events are called a Fifth Season, because the usual four seasons are completely disrupted. Cities and civilizations die, ash fall blankets the land, and the people of The Stillness perish in great numbers. But some of them, the orogenes, have developed a natural evolutionary response to these threats. They are born with extra sensory organs that can manipulate and control seismic disturbances. Some do it instinctively from birth, but the best are trained in the capital city of Yumenes to perform this work with delicate precision, keeping the worst effects from areas they live in. In that way, an empire of sorts has been able to survive the Fifth Seasons long enough to establish sway over most of the large continent. A specialized type of orogene has also been developed to control the others, the Guardians. Orogenes who have trained in equatorial Yumenes at The Fulcrum are sent on missions by the government, using their powers for specific tasks. Others who are less skilled are used in other ways, cruelly. Orogenes in the outlands, among the “stills,” as the non-powered are called by them, live in fear of their lives: if their powers are detected, they will be killed.

Against this backdrop, the novel follows several women. Essun, a middle-aged woman, is living in a small southern community far from the cities, keeping her orogene powers a secret, but her two children also have them. Her young son’s power is discovered by the boy’s father, who kills him and runs away with the daughter. Then there’s Damaya, a girl in a small northern community, whose orogene powers have suddenly become known to her family. She is taken by a Guardian to be trained at The Fulcrum in Yumenes, torn from everything she knows, and thrust into a world she doesn’t understand. Finally, there’s Syenite, a trained orogene at The Fulcrum, who is assigned to a mission with the most powerful orogene of all, Alabaster. The two don’t like each other, but must learn to work together, especially after their mission is threatened. All three women are connected in ways that only gradually become known to the reader, and Alabaster, long tortured by his role in this world, finally unleashes a cataclysm that begins the next horrible Fifth Season.

Great read, thrilling and exciting, full of fascinating ideas and characters, and a plot that kept me guessing. Highly recommended. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin

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GASPAR SALADINO in MS. MARVEL

All images © Marvel. From MS. MARVEL #3, March 1977

The first continuing series for Ms. Marvel ran 23 issues from 1977 to 1979. Gaspar Saladino lettered none of the covers, but a good number of first story pages beginning with the one above. Marvel seemed to think his talent and skills improved the look of their comics to potential buyers, and often hired him for such work, probably paying extra for it. Gaspar always put the name of the person lettering the rest of the story in his credits, and their work was often quite different. Not so in this case, John Costanza’s lettering was almost as strong and accomplished as Gaspar’s, but perhaps he hadn’t received this story yet and Gaspar was available, so they gave him the first page. His title has a strong combination of styles with the L in LADY’S similar to what he often did for the word Love and KILLING having a dramatic rough treatment.

From MS. MARVEL #5, May 1977

On this title, BRIDGE has rivets and NO RETURN has organic energy and rough outlines. It certainly seems like Gaspar was getting these regularly even though Costanza was the assigned letterer with strong title skills of his own.

From MS. MARVEL #6, June 1977

Perhaps Costanza was fine with that, as the title page was usually more work than the rest. Here Saladino not only did a fine title but created lettering for a magazine cover too.

From MS. MARVEL #8, Aug 1977

This title was easier, block letters, but Gaspar always added creative touches like the tucked A in LAST.

From MS. MARVEL #9, Sept 1977

Here the story title is in a large word balloon, not easy to do, and the other special style balloons for the character add interest and energy, as does the burst from Ms. Marvel.

From MS. MARVEL #13, Jan 1978

A short title could be larger if there was room, as here. Gaspar was trying to make it even larger by running the exclamation point under the panel border.

From MS. MARVEL #16, April 1978

Here Gaspar makes the first line of the title rough and the second line smooth, just mixing things up for variety.

From MS. MARVEL #20, Oct 1978

For a change there’s no story title on this first page. I’m not sure who designed the new character logo, it could have been Saladino.

From MS. MARVEL #23, April 1979

The final issue has a story title that plays off a 1976 science fiction film title (using WOMAN instead of Man), but this is a quiet start for a superhero comic.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering on the first page of these issues: 3, 5-6, 8-9, 13, 16, 20, 23, nine in all. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO in MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ

All images © 1975 by Marvel, DC Comics and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I’ve decided to give this one tabloid-size comic its own article because it’s a favorite, and an interesting outlier to the Marvel work of Gaspar Saladino in some ways. Marvel had already begun producing oversized tabloid comics in 1974, all superhero reprints, when this project by writer/editor Roy Thomas was begun. Roy worked out a deal with MGM to use the likenesses of the film characters as well as to adapt their film, but DC Comics somehow already had rights to publish a comic book version. When the companies found that out they decided to co-publish for the first time, with Marvel producing the material and DC doing the marketing and distributing I think. Gaspar Saladino had been chosen to letter the book, and it was a long one, 72 pages. And remember the art pages were considerably larger than standard comics ones. Gaspar was already a veteran of working large for many years at DC before the page sizes were reduced, and also on Sunday newspaper strips, so it was no problem for him, and I think he liked having the extra space to be creative. In the credits for this page he’s listed himself as Lisa Petergreg, another pen name combining the names of his three children, but on the first page of the book all the creator credits are also listed in type, and there his actual name was used. I’m sure any DC staffers who looked at Marvel comics already knew he was working for them as well, but now the cat was definitely out of the bag! The title across these two pages is beautiful.

From MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ, 1975

Some pages are full of lettering, but perhaps because of the larger size, it never seems crowded. Penciller John Buscema did a fine job of capturing the visual style of the film, though his likenesses are not very close to the actors in many places. If anything, he made them prettier or more handsome.

From MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ, 1975

Gaspar had chances to use well-designed special lettering styles and sound effects that also, I think, capture the sounds of the film quite well.

From MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ, 1975

Of course the first encounter with the Wizard needed an imposing and frightening special balloon style, and Gaspar did not disappoint!

From MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ, 1975

More great sound effects and signs which, if anything, are better than the ones in the film in my opinion. I imagine everyone involved had videotape versions to watch while creating the art and lettering, assuming that was available at the time.

From MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ, 1975

I don’t know about you, but I can hear the film soundtrack in these sound effects!

From MGM’S MARVELOUS WIZARD OF OZ, 1975

The scenes at the beginning and end of the film were in a sepia tone as I recall, while Marvel chose to do them with a limited palate of subdued colors that works pretty well. I love the film best, but I think this was a good adaptation. Marvel put out a second tabloid in 1975: MARVEL TREASURY OF OZ FEATURING THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ which did not work as well. Character likenesses from the film were mixed with other character likenesses from the book illustrations by John R. Neill. It must not have sold, and there were no more. That book was lettered by Joe Rosen. Gaspar’s work on this one was excellent, as always, and probably led to him also lettering the next DC/Marvel co-publication: SUPERMAN VS. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN released in 1976, possibly his best single issue lettering job ever. I’ve already covered that in my DC Comics articles HERE. His star was on the rise, and he became the go-to letterer for high profile projects at both Marvel and DC for a while.

To sum up, this book has 72 story pages of Saladino lettering. Other articles in this series and more you might like are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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