Today in Comics History, July 24: Happy birthday, Trevor Von Eeden!

Born on this day: Trevor Von Eeden! (The extra "E" is for "Eeden!") You'll find his distinct artwork on Black Lightning, Batman, World's Finest Comics, Black Canary, the 1983 Green Arrow miniseries, Power Man and Iron Fist, Spider-Woman, and much more! i first discoevred his work when he did a couple fill-in issues on Batman and the Outsiders and I fell in love with his style immediately. What I didn't know then was thet he was only 25 at that time! In fact, he was only 16 when he started at DC (great shades of Jim Shooter!) and 17 when he co-created Black Lightning with Tony Isabella! (Tony isabella has a little quibble with this billing: he prefers to be billed as "creator" and Trevor as "co-creator." Hmmm, who drew the character, without which he wouldn't be a comic book hero?) Von Eeden also created DC's Thriller with Robert Loren Fleming, and Von Eeden created the excellent Original Johnson graphic novel series.


from the letters column of Black Lightning (1977 series) #2 (DC, May 1977), by Mike Gold



How early was Trevor drawing comics? Well, that article above tells us he was always drawing, and here's some early proof: an orginal character design (at right) sent into FOOM, the Marvel fan and info mag, four or five years previously.


from FOOM #2 (Marvel, May 1973)
In comparsion, here's a page of Black Lightning just a few years later:


from Black Lightning (1977 series) #1 (DC, April 1977), script by Tony Isabella, pencils by Trevor Von Eeden, inks by Frank Springer, colors by Elizabeth Safian, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Here's Von Eeden "not quite" appearing in one of Al Milgrom's "Editori-Al" pages:


from Marvel Fanfare (1982 series) #2 (Marvel, May 1982); script, pencils, and inks by Al Milgrom; letters by Janice Chiang (?)
But he was more visible at the Superman/Ali fight! Visible, that is, only if you can locate him! Search and find 'im!

cover of All-New Collectors' Edition #C-56 (DC, March 1978), layout by Joe Kubert, pencils by Neal Adams, inks by Neal Adams (?) and/or Cory Adams (?), logo design by John Workman
(Click top picture to GOAT-size)
Von Eeden has rightfully a few beefs with the Big Two over treatment of him and his work, and I'm sorry we're not seeing work from him on the comics shelves more often. But he's a unique talent that blazed his path with his own specific style in the field, and he oughta be lauded a whole lot more.


"DC Profiles" #10 from DC Comics cover-dated July 1977, by Mike Gold
Happy birthday, Trevor!