American cartoonist
Russell George Manning
(January 5, 1929
[2]
? December 1, 1981)
[3]
was an American
comic book
artist
who created the series
Magnus, Robot Fighter
and illustrated such
newspaper
comic strips
as
Tarzan
and
Star Wars
. He was inducted into the
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame
in 2006.
Biography
[
edit
]
Manning studied at the
Los Angeles County
Art Institute, and later, during his
US Army
service in
Japan
, drew
cartoons
for his military base newspaper.
In 1953 he went to work for
Western Publishing
and illustrated stories for the wide variety of comics published by Western for
Dell Comics
, and later for Western's own
Gold Key Comics
line. His first notable work was on
Brothers of the Spear
, a backup feature, created by
Gaylord Du Bois
, in the
Tarzan
comic book. He also drew a few Tarzan stories. He created Gold Key's
Magnus, Robot Fighter
and
The Aliens
(which ran in the back of the former) in 1963 and drew the first 21 issues, through 1968.
From 1965 to 1969, Manning drew Gold Key's
Tarzan
series. During this time, he adapted ten of the first eleven Tarzan novels written by
Edgar Rice Burroughs
, from scripts written by
Gaylord Du Bois
. (The adaptation of the sixth,
Jungle Tales of Tarzan
, also scripted by Du Bois, was drawn by
Alberto Giolitti
rather than Manning). In 1999 the first seven of these were reprinted in three graphic novels by
Dark Horse Comics
as
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes
(
Tarzan of the Apes
,
Return
,
Beasts
, and
Son of Tarzan
),
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan ? The Jewels of Opar
, and
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan The Untamed
(
Tarzan the Untamed
and
Tarzan the Terrible
). These were later reprinted by Dark Horse in one hardcover archive volume. Manning's remaining adaptations, not reprinted by Dark Horse, were
Tarzan and the Golden Lion
,
Tarzan and the Ant Men
and
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
. They did plan another hardcover archive album. He did not do the finished art on the latter, but provided lay-outs for parts of the story.
Manning also drew the Korak stories in the first 11 issues of Gold Key's
Korak
comic (also written by Du Bois). These were reprinted by Dark Horse Comics in 2 hardcover archive collections.
From 1967 to 1972 he drew the
Tarzan
daily
newspaper comic strip
and stayed on the Sunday page until 1979. He also created four original Tarzan graphic novels for European publication. Two of them were reprinted by Dark Horse Comics in a single
trade paperback
collection (
Tarzan in The Land That Time Forgot
and
The Pool of Time
) (
ISBN
1-56971-151-8
). During that same period he used assistants, among them
William Stout
,
Rick Hoberg
,
Mike Royer
, and
Dave Stevens
.
Magnus
, his and Gold Key's best-known heroic-adventure series, was set in the year 4000, which Manning depicted as clean, airy city scapes populated by shiny
robots
, handsome men, and beautiful women. In an era when many
science fiction
illustrations still showed interstellar spaceships with fins reminiscent of
World War II
V-2 rockets
, Manning offered more exotic craft. His
Magnus
work was later collected by Dark Horse Comics in three hardcover "archive" editions using a different color palette. Dark Horse then reprinted them in three trade paperbacks.
His final major work was writing and drawing the
Star Wars
newspaper strip in 1979-80. These were collected by Dark Horse Comics as
Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures
(
ISBN
1-56971-178-X
), which omitted the fact that Manning only drew some of the episodes that were written by
Steve Gerber
and
Archie Goodwin
.
Russ Manning died of cancer on December 1, 1981, while still living in California where he was born. He was 52.
The
Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award
, which is presented annually at
Comic-Con International
during the
Eisner Awards
, is named after him.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Hillman, Bill & Sue-On.
"Russ Manning Tribute I," Erbzine (vol. 830).
Accessed November 8, 2008.
- ^
a
b
"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VMMT-NZN
: accessed 28 Aug 2014), Russell Manning, Dec 1981; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ^
Manning biography at Lambiek.net's Comiclopedia.
Accessed November 8, 2008.
Further reading
[
edit
]
Comics Feature
#26, December 1983
External links
[
edit
]
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