Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Today in Comics History, July 13: Happy birthday, Tom Palmer!

(One of) Today's birthday boy(s): Tom Palmer, comics artist and especially inker! He's done long runs on lots of books including The Avengers, Star Wars, Tomb of Dracula, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, X-Men, Thor, Captain Britain, House of Mystery, Star Trek: The Next Generation and many more! And Marvel just loves to celebrate Palmer's birthday, it seems!:


from Mighty Marvel Calendar, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980 (Marvel, 1975-1979),
Marvel Age #31, 55, and 91 (Marvel, October 1985, October 1987, and August 1990; text by Jim Salicrup (#31), Mike Carlin (#55) and Chris Eliopoulis and Barry Dutter (#91); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Andy Yanchus (#31), Paul Becton (#55) and Renee Witterstaetter (#90)




Read more about Tom Palmer! You don't even have to go to your local library to do so. (However, please go to your local library!)


from FOOM #22 (Marvel, Sepetmber 1978)



from Marvel/New Universe Comics cover-dated September 1988



from Marvel Age Special: Avengers Anniversary Magazine (Marvel, November 1993)

Did Tom ever draw himself into a story? I'm glad you asked.


from "Pickman's Model" in Tower of Shadows #9 (Marvel, January 1971), script by Roy Thomas (also pictured), pencils and inks (and colors?) by Tom Palmer, letters by Sam Rosen

But rest asured, the Tom Palmer who became infamous historical highwayman Dick Turpin in the DC Universe was not "our" Tom Palmer! I think.




from "The Highwayman and the Mighty Mite!" in The Atom (1962 series) #6 (DC, May 1963), script by Gardner Fox, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Murphy Anderson, letters by Gaspar Saladino

Real-life Tom Palmer (and some other Marvel guys...I dunno, s'posed to be good for ya...) in beautiful black-and-white!


from Marvel Fumetti Book #1 one-shot (Marvel, April 1984), script by Mike Carlin, photographs by Vince Colletta, letters by Joe Rosen, special effects by Bill Sienkiewicz

Happy birthday, Tom!


from (L) Fantastic Four Annual #7 (Marvel, November 1969),
(R) 1975 Mighty Marvel Convention Program Book (Marvel, 1975)

2 comments:

Blam said...

Even when takes photos, Vince Colletta's backgrounds are blank.

Yatz said...

lol re Valiant Vince dig...
Palmer was the polar opposite of Colletta - his focus was always on enhancing the pencils, and he did it better than anyone. His work on the X-Men gave us - aside from the fantastic Neal Adams issues - the one time a Don Heck book was actually great. His work on John Buscema's pencils for The Avengers produced some classics (even the later run, when the great one was petty much phoning it in). But check out his work with Gene Colan (especially Doctor Strange); Colan's style was rather unique, with the anatomy and expressions a bit out there, but Palmer's inks turned it into visual poetry, without compromising the artist's style.