Any appreciation for Aparo? 3 3

[Black_Adam]

Being basically born in the Bronze Age, twenty cent covers (especially the ones with that big DC logo) always catch my eye and fire up spinner-rack memories. And one artist in particular always stands out for me - Jim Aparo. I think he did a slew of great covers , but I never hear his name mentioned much. Is it because he was overexposed in the Seventies or just overshadowed by the Adams, Wrightsons, et al?

In any case, I thought I'd take this chance to post one of my favorite (I have many) Aparo covers:

 

[JTLarsen]

Definite keeper. And, yes, overshadowed by Adams, especially. One of the definitive Batman artists.

[Brock]

I loved Aparo, especially his Brave and Bold work. He was THE Batman artist of my childhood, as I was slightly Post-Adams. Guys like him and Dillon on Justice League just cranked out solid stories month after month.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Brock

[namisgr]

His style seemed a derivative of Adams and he worked on some of the same characters, so the comparison was inevitable.  He did some fine work: this cover is flat-out awesome.

Edited August 4, 2017 by namisgr

[Black_Adam]

4 hours ago, namisgr said:

His style seemed a derivative of Adams and he worked on some of the same characters, so the comparison was inevitable.  He did some fine work: this cover is flat-out awesome.

 

 

As a kid growing up in the seventies Aparo was 'the Batman artist' (I was a big Brave and the Bold fan) but I think some of his best cover works were on the less popular stuff like the aforementioned Spectre Run in Adventure Comics and Phantom Stranger.

[piper]

I love his Phantom Stranger covers to the point I have a piece of Aparo PHantom Stranger OA that I purchased several years ago. I'm not an OA guy but just had to have it.

I second the awesomeness of the Adventure Spectre run!

[namisgr]

Aparo's Spectre was one scary superhero.

Edited August 4, 2017 by namisgr

[Readcomix]

Love this guy! Aparo, Dillon, Garcia-Lopez et al were to DC bronze what the Romita/Buscema/Trimpe crew were to Marvel -- the solid sometimes spectacular workhorses who gave the titles of the era a cohesive "house look" to some degree. 

[Black_Adam]

I could post his Phantom Stranger covers all day long, but figured I'd toss in a couple self-portraits:

[BFA1971]

My Favorite Aparo cover!

 

[Ken Aldred]

11 hours ago, piper said:

I second the awesomeness of the Adventure Spectre run!

Yup.

Exactly what The Spectre should be.

Full-on, dark, no compromise, Old Testament justice.

[Ken Aldred]

22 hours ago, namisgr said:

His style seemed a derivative of Adams and he worked on some of the same characters, so the comparison was inevitable.  

For years I thought this was drawn by Aparo, but I eventually discovered it was Adams...  

To me, the opposite effect - Adams mimicking Aparo.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[JTLarsen]

2 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

For years I thought this was drawn by Aparo, but I eventually discovered it was Adams...  

To me, the opposite effect - Adams mimicking Aparo.

Except that Adams got there first. Unless you're saying you see some specific stylistic quirk in this drawing that Adams was mimicking from Aparo? Otherwise, the overall dynamic is pretty clearly that Adams got there first with this style and then Aparo, Novick, and others charted their own way within Adams' penumbra.

[Black_Adam]

3 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

For years I thought this was drawn by Aparo, but I eventually discovered it was Adams...  

To me, the opposite effect - Adams mimicking Aparo.

I also would have guessed Aparo over Adams from a distance, but up close the crooks' faces are a giveaway. Great comic! 

[Ken Aldred]

34 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

I also would have guessed Aparo over Adams from a distance, but up close the crooks' faces are a giveaway. Great comic! 

I never really looked closely at the foreground figures as, overall, it's a nicely-composed cover. At a distance, to me, the faces and figurework still look quite Aparo-like.   Decades of conditioning, seeing it that way.

[Ken Aldred]

I started reading comics during the early / mid 70s DC 100 page program, just missing out on the Adams-era Batmans, apart from issue 255.  I picked up all of Aparo's really enjoyable Brave and Bold issues and, being from this formative period for me, hardly surprising that I see him as one of the best and most significant artists ever to work on the Dark Knight's stories.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[Brian48]

Loved Aparo.  Second best Batman artist of the era. The only thing I thought he couldn't do that I thought Adams did significantly better was drawing the ladies.  Adams's gals looked like they leaped out of the pages of Playboy whereas Aparo's looked like trannies (bad ones).  

[JTLarsen]

1 hour ago, Brian48 said:

Loved Aparo.  Second best Batman artist of the era. The only thing I thought he couldn't do that I thought Adams did significantly better was drawing the ladies.  Adams's gals looked like they leaped out of the pages of Playboy whereas Aparo's looked like trannies (bad ones).  

Rethink this, please. It's 2017 and they're having a tough enough time as it is without remarks like these belittling them.

[Martin Sinescu]

It's funny, I wouldn't have thought that 'Tec cover was Adams and probably would've guessed Aparo since he was doing most of them at that time. Compositionally, the foreground/background relationship seems a lot flatter than Neal's usual stuff -- it's just a straight front-to-back view. It's a bit uncreative for Adams, but I guess they can't all be gold. All those covers that Aparo did through the 'Tec 100 page run are awesome, though.

I agree that, in terms of Batman artists, Aparo belongs near the top of the Hall of Fame. I never really noticed how he drew women, but, weirdly enough, I really latched onto his Bruce Wayne as being the definitive version.

[BFA1971]

On 8/4/2017 at 0:10 AM, Black_Adam said:

 

As a kid growing up in the seventies Aparo was 'the Batman artist' (I was a big Brave and the Bold fan) but I think some of his best cover works were on the less popular stuff like the aforementioned Spectre Run in Adventure Comics and Phantom Stranger.

Am originally from the UK and we had comics like Janus Stark in an inverse way kind of like PS ish.... I grew up reading reprints or left overs from my elder brothers in the late seventies early eighties...good times and good stuff!