"The Coward" by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo

From Charlton's Gunfighters #52, October, 1967, comes one of Jim's early comics jobs. The Steve Skeates script hints just enough at the supernatural to give the conclusion an eerie vibe, and Jim demonstrates the strong artistic skill that saw him quickly graduating out of Charlton's minor league publications up to DC. Fortunately for us, Charlton allowed Jim to do his own lettering, sparing us the work of "A. Machine" on this 9-pager.

Career Girl Romances

Originally posted February 2009:

Here's an Aparo job so rare that it's not in my collection...yet! Career Girl Romances #40 has an Aparo cover and an 8-page story illustrated by Jim.

Our cover girl here strikes me as very reminiscent of the girls that John Romita used to draw when he was one of DC's primary romance artists...and, for that matter, when he was drawing groovy chicks like Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson on Spider-Man! The jazzy backing musicians, though, are a bit more in the Aparo style.

This one's from 1967, during Jim's first year in the comic book business, toiling away at Charlton. At this stage, Aparo's line work is delicate, which was generally expected of artists on romance comics. The inking is, in fact, barely recognizable as Jim's, but he was doing what was expected as he started to make his way in the business.

Note that he's drawn a left-handed guitarist here...I wonder if he was working from some photo reference of a lefty, or whether he just opted for a figure that better suited the cover composition? Whatever the case, I've got to give him credit for drawing a more convincing guitarist than many comics artists of the era that attempted to depict musicians. The microphone position is a little off, and the drum kit is sparse, but over all, it's a good stab at drawing a combo with a sexy girl singer, don't you think?

UPDATE:
Now that I've got a copy of the actual issue, here's Jim's splash page from the interior story:

It looks like Dick Giordano did the cover, based on Jim's interior work. Dick altered the girl's face and adjusted her pose, but the guitarist and drummer adhere to Aparo's work. 

One Wreck of a Cover!

Here's a look at one of the few comics missing from my own Jim Aparo collection, the cover to Charlton's Grand Prix #31, from 1970. Nearing the end of his stint at Charlton, Jim supplied this smashing piece of art. To the best of my knowledge, it was Jim's only contribution to the racing comics genre (Charlton, I believe, was the only publisher of American color comics still exploiting the subject by the 1970's). That's Jim's distinctive lettering on the "Last Chance" title, by the way. Charlton was often quite happy to let Jim letter his covers (not the logo, of course), unlike DC, which was far pickier about its cover text. I've usually found that comics artists struggled--often unsuccessfully--when they tried to convey the speed and excitement of racing. Depicting a crack-up like this obviously makes the job a lot easier, with the wheels spinning off the axle and comics-style impact explosion, but I especially love the way Aparo incorporated his trademark landscape tilt to add dynamicism to an already-energetic design. I'll bet the Charlton editors wished they'd assigned Jim a few more of these kinds of jobs after seeing what he turned in here.

Jim would revisit the race tracks a time or two in his career at DC, although not in comics devoted specifically to the genre. Typical of the comics vets of his generation, he could and would draw anything he was assigned to draw, any setting, any time, any genre. And as evidenced by this terrific piece, he usually drew it very, very well.

A New Aparo Cover on the Stands!

Jim Aparo fans will want to rush to their local comics shops this week and pick up a copy of Alter Ego #84, Roy Thomas's fine comics fanzine. The cover features what is purported to be Jim's final drawing of some of his signature characters, Aquaman, Mera and Aqualad, fronting a terrific interview with Jim's frequent collaborator in the 60's and 70's, Steve Skeates. The article includes several scans of Aparo's work with Skeates, including pages from Charlton mystery stories (including a particular favorite of mine, "The Mist"), Thane of Bagarth, and Aquaman.

If your comics shop doesn't carry this magazine (it should!), you can order it directly from publisher TwoMorrows via the link above. And while you're at their website, you might as well read this interview with Jim Aparo, from an earlier issue of Comic Book Artist, another great magazine that the company used to publish.

The Last Monkees!

After only three 2-page stories in their pop music magazine Teen Tunes, Charlton apparently lost the license for official Monkees comics to Dell, who were about to begin a short run of four-color Monkees comic books with art by, I believe, Jose Delbo. Charlton saved the best for last, though, as Jim Aparo was teamed with Steve Skeates, writer, to produce this mini-masterpiece. In Skeates' only job as Monkees scripter, he challenged himself to use as many titles of Monkees songs in the script as he could fit. How many can you spot?

I especially like Jim's sound effects lettering in this little tale!

Texas Rangers

And another not yet now in my collection: Jim's cover for Charlton's Texas Rangers #72. Jim didn't contribute any interior art for this one. What's interesting here is that Charlton's now letting Jim do the lettering on the cover. He didn't have that latitude at DC, but Charlton let him do quite a lot of cover blurbs. Jim was an ace letterer, and the effect usually worked quite well when he was allowed to fill in the text.

Teen Tunes #4: More Monkees!

As promised, here's the Monkees story from the very rare Teen Tunes #4. These are from Jim Aparo's personal collection, which he shared with me to make copies from back in 1992. Steve Skeates was the writer for this two-pager which appeared in a black and white music magazine from Charlton back in 1967. More great caricature work from Jim in his humor mode! The writer for this installment is unknown, but the upcoming, final episode is a special treat from Steve Skeates. Until then, enjoy this one!

Click to enlarge:

Robby Reed Looks at Aparo's Phantom Comics

Jim Aparo's Phantom covered on the sensational, but now-defunct www.dialbforblog. This has been a favorite blog for a long time, with nearly 500 installments for you to enjoy, but this one, a focus on Jim's work on Charlton's The Phantom comic, is of particular interest. I'll be sharing some of my thoughts on this series one of these days, but for now, check out what Robby thinks!

Finally, Teen Tunes #3: The Monkees!

Yes, in Teen Tunes #3, Miss Bikini Luv was replaced by The Monkees in the 2-page black & white comics section of Charlton's pop music magazine! While this is obviously an officially-licensed appearance, Charlton didn't hold on to the rights for long. After three 2-page stories in this and the following couple of issues, The Monkees moved on to a new comic book from a different publisher: Dell Comics published 17 issues starring the Pre-Fab Four starting in 1967. No offense to Dell artist Jose Delbo, but I think very few fans would disagree that Charlton's writer (unknown) and artist Jim Aparo did the better job at translating Davy, Mickie, Peter, and Mike onto the comic book page. Dig Jim's terrific caricatures and manic cartoonery! Could Jim handle humor comics? Judging from this, I can only say "I'm A Believer"!

More Bikini Luv from Teen Tunes!

And here's the story from the second issue of Teen Tunes. Miss Bikini Luv returns for her final spotlight in the pop music magazine, before being replaced by a surprise feature, coming soon to this blog! But for now, enjoy Jim Aparo at his cartoony best (click to view each page!):

Miss Bikini Luv from Teen Tunes #1

In 1992, Jim Aparo surprised me by loaning me (by mail) his personal file copies of Teen Tunes issues 1-5. This was a pop music magazine published by Charlton. It featured the typical profiles of popular musical groups, with pinups, lyrics, etc. It also featured, in each of the five issues, a 2-page comics section, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Jim Aparo. In the first two installments, the star was Miss Bikini Luv, which was Jim's very first assignment at Charlton, in the Go-Go comic book (actually, that job in Go-Go was his first professional comic book assignment, period)!

Although his work on Go-Go is relatively well-known (at least it's documented in the Overstreet Price Guide!), Teen Tunes is long forgotten, and nearly unknown. Here's your chance to see that first story, from that extremely rare and hard-to-find magazine. And just wait 'til you see what feature took over the slot as of issue 3! The rest of Jim's contributions to this magazine are coming soon to this blog!

Click on the thumbnails to read 'em!

Charlie Droople!

seductionoftheindifferent.blogspot.com directs us to Fred Hembeck's posting of the Charlton classic "The Best of All Possible Worlds" on Fred Hembeck's site. This remarkable metatextual story made its first unlikely appearance in an issue of Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves, and was written by Aparo's frequent late-60's collaborator Steve Skeates. There's never been anything like this printed in mainstream comics, and many who read it immediately declare it an all-time favorite. I will resist saying anything to spoil it. Just read it, now.