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| Original Sketch-a-Graph |
Going through boxes in the basement the other day I came across my old Sketch-a-Graph - a coathanger-sized device that enabled one with modest artistic skills to reproduce a drawing by the use of a felt-tipped pen (or biro or pencil) and a drawing pin (thumb tack). Said reproduction would either be larger or smaller depending upon the placement of the pen and the tracing stylus.
I’m pretty sure that everyone in my class of 12-year olds at school were required to have one for Geography homework. Very handy for tracing the Isle of Wight or South America without breaching Ordinance Survey copyright no doubt. But also very handy for converting favourite comic panels into larger posters, or simply making swipes that could be used in fanzines (like our original SuperStuff issues).
Not many of my original swipes survive. I did a couple from Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 which I inked in black India ink which ended up in an issue of Alan Austin’s Comics Unlimited sometime around 1975, and earlier in April 1974 I swiped four panels from Jack Kirby’s “New Gods #6”, one of which is included below. (The others are back at home and unaccessible from my sun-bed). My knowledge of copyright at age 15 was a bit hazy, so the “Thanks to Jack Kirby” tag line should more accurately have read “Swiped from Jack Kirby”.
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| Orion © DC. |
In those days when photocopying was expensive and photo-copy paper was shiny I either relied on the Sketch-a-Graph or on projecting photographed slide transparencies of my comic covers onto the reverse side of large piece of unused wallpaper to create custom poster artwork for my bedroom.
My pal Geoff Cousins had (and still has) a far better aptitude than me for original artwork and graphic design, but I felt pretty pleased with my efforts back in the Bronze Age.
Today I went back and took a look at the source comic - New Gods #6 “The Glory Boat” - and the entire comic really is an awesome example of Kirby at the peak of his abilities. Such power in the imagery. This was the early days of Mike Royer inking Kirby, when his brush work seemed closer to that of Vince Colletta than it subsequently became.
But what a cover! What a splash page! And Kirby was great at drawing ugly faces contorted in horror.
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| © DC Comics. One of the comic panels I swiped |
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| © DC Comics. New Gods #6 |
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| Original Kirby panel. © DC. One of the other images I swiped. |
I believe I only ever did swipes of Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Shadow and Orion which probably reflects my tastes in artists - Adams, Kaluta and Kirby - as much as anything.
What did you do, SuperStuff readers? Still have that Sketch-a-Graph?
