Your Views: D*ck Dillin 1 1

[Rick2you2]

I notice that there seems to be a "D*ck Dillin" dump which is hitting the market, and I'm curious what others think of his artwork.

Personally, I never cared for it, but some people do. So I was curious why? lt always looked flat to me and it used to turn up in the junk bins. But then, it apparently became popular..Is it purely nostalgia based? Not that the work was bad, it just didn't seem exciting. It just sat there.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Rick2you2

[Panelfan1]

where are you seeing it show up?

I love his work. it has that cartoony feel - so nostalgia is probably correct.   For my part - I picked up one page a couple years back and have been on the lookout ever since.

the art is HERE

[stinkininkin]

My overly harsh memory of Dillon was that he was the guy who did the Batman issues between the Neal Adams issues I cherished.  I never forgave him for not being Neal Adams.  

[zhamlau]

1. Its fun work

2. It's Cheap when compared to contemporaries

3. He worked for years on Flagship titles from the 60's to early 80's non stop.

4. There was barely a month the man didn't have 2-3 books coming out. If you read/liked Bronze age and silver age DC, you knew Dillin well.

 

You add that up, it strikes me as someone whose material probably should sell decently well and might have been undervalued for years. He was a good artist who turned on quality work at high volumes. Im not his biggest fan, but I totally get it.

[Rick2you2]

1 hour ago, Panelfan1 said:

where are you seeing it show up?

I love his work. it has that cartoony feel - so nostalgia is probably correct.   For my part - I picked up one page a couple years back and have been on the lookout ever since.

the art is HERE

Try Comic Art Tracker. There is a lot of it, including upcoming auctions.

[Rick2you2]

40 minutes ago, zhamlau said:

1. Its fun work

2. It's Cheap when compared to contemporaries

3. He worked for years on Flagship titles from the 60's to early 80's non stop.

4. There was barely a month the man didn't have 2-3 books coming out. If you read/liked Bronze age and silver age DC, you knew Dillin well.

 

You add that up, it strikes me as someone whose material probably should sell decently well and might have been undervalued for years. He was a good artist who turned on quality work at high volumes. Im not his biggest fan, but I totally get it.

He was definitely a workhorse. I'm not sure I would call it fun. I don't think it did much to further the story so much as illustrate the panels.

In that vein, I preferred Schaffenburger. 

[ATKokmen]

I'm a fan of Dillin's work--particularly his later JLA stuff--and have a few of his pieces in my collection. He may not be my all time favorite artist, but one I definitely appreciate. 

For me, part of it is admittedly the nostalgia factor--he was the artist of some of my favorite JLA stories of all time. If we all look at some work with rose-colored glasses, Dillin is definitely one of those for me.

Another part is that I genuinely appreciate how he organized his panels and pages. Team books are a huge challenge that way--lots of characters to include, make identifiable, and make interesting--and I do think Dillin--especially his later work--managed those aspects well. He could crowd a dozen characters into a page or a panel and generally managed to make 'em interesting comics reading. Maybe not ground-breaking, but generally interesting. (I like Schaffenburger, too, but I think he has a different energy than Dillin did...) I understand why he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I do appreciate the skills he did bring to bear.

I also remember reading in the JLA lettercolumn when I was a kid that he had died unexpectedly. It was a very specific moment in my young comics-reading where I became really, truly aware that there were actual people writing and drawing and creating these superhero fantasy stories, and that surely has something to do with my lasting admiration of his work.

Not sure that I've noticed more Dillin pages coming to market, but I have noticed prices (asking prices, at least) creeping up on Dillin pages, so it seems more collectors are coming to his work of late...

[Greenlake]

I didn't read any of his books so I only care about the OA if it catches my eye, but I like the pages I've seen that are similar to Panelfan1's. Pretty much everything about that style and the inking works great as OA. I was watching the '77-'78 JLA panel pages that came up recently and hoping there'd be a bargain, but at current prices I'll wait for something extraordinary. 

[mister_not_so_nice]

I've been too focused on Dillon art to buy any Dillin art 

[Compson]

5 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

My overly harsh memory of Dillon was that he was the guy who did the Batman issues between the Neal Adams issues I cherished.  I never forgave him for not being Neal Adams.  

Are you thinking of Irv Novick in Batman or Bob Brown in Detective?  I don’t think Dillin did any of those stories. Maybe you’ve hated the wrong guy for 45 years.

[stinkininkin]

1 hour ago, Compson said:

Are you thinking of Irv Novick in Batman or Bob Brown in Detective?  I don’t think Dillin did any of those stories. Maybe you’ve hated the wrong guy for 45 years.

You are absolutely right!!!  My mistake for sure.  Novick and Dillin are sort of blurred together in my mind since I was primarily a Marvel fan, and I thought both those guys were sort of the solid journeymen type of artist's that didn't garner much of my attention.  I think if you were a DC fan back then there's a lot of nostalgia for this level of artist in much the same way that  Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe and Bob Brown appeals to some old hard core Marvel fans.  

Thanks for the correction!

Edited November 16, 2018 by stinkininkin

[Will_K]

5 hours ago, ATKokmen said:

Another part is that I genuinely appreciate how he organized his panels and pages. Team books are a huge challenge that way--lots of characters to include, make identifiable, and make interesting--and I do think Dillin--especially his later work--managed those aspects well. He could crowd a dozen characters into a page or a panel and generally managed to make 'em interesting comics reading. Maybe not ground-breaking, but generally interesting. (I like Schaffenburger, too, but I think he has a different energy than Dillin did...) I understand why he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I do appreciate the skills he did bring to bear.

I think that pretty much summarizes Dillin's appeal from an artistic standpoint.  Dillin basically had 2 looks/phases, when he was inked by Sid Greene or when he was inked by D i ck Giordano and/or Frank McLaughlin. 

One more thing... the annual JLA / JSA crossovers.  More precisely, Justice League of America was pretty much DC's only team book for the better part of 20 years.  Yes, there was the Legion of Super-Heroes.  But except for Superboy, it did not have any of DC's mainline characters (e.g. Batman), no character had it's own title.  Teen Titans was cancelled a couple times.  Freedom Fighters wasn't a major factor.  Challengers of the Unknown, not really.  Blackhawks, also cancelled a couple times.  With a rotation of writers, Dillin was pretty much the only constant in the JLA title.

With certain DC artists getting pricey, the market has worked its way to Dillin.  If you were to weigh Dillin's appeal by artistry vs nostalgia, I think it's mainly nostalgia.

Wasn't it Mike Burkey @romitamanwho bought all of the art from Dillin's family after he passed??  I think it was in CBG or something where MB said that his offer was the best by a wide margin (maybe I overheard him say it).  Maybe MB can fill in some backstory about that.  I bought a few pages back in the day, I wish I got more.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Will_K

[Unca Ben]

4 minutes ago, Will_K said:

I think that pretty much summarizes Dillin's appeal from an artistic standpoint.  Dillin basically had 2 looks/phases, when he was inked by Sid Greene or when he was inked by D i ck Giordano and/or Frank McLaughlin. 

I really like the Dillin/Greene combo.  

[rrichards]

Dillin reminds me of Mike Sekowsky. At the time,when drawing JLA, both received a lot of criticism but later ,partially  due to nostalgia,became more popular. Both were definite pros 

[Rick2you2]

20 minutes ago, rrichards said:

Dillin reminds me of Mike Sekowsky. At the time,when drawing JLA, both received a lot of criticism but later ,partially  due to nostalgia,became more popular. Both were definite pros 

I get that. If you look at some of Sekowsky's art, the position of body parts or location of characters in the scene defy the rules of physics or anatomy. But that seems delibertately stylized. I don't recall it much with Dillion.

That JLA page which was posted by Panelfan is a hoot. I'd be tempted to buy it for the dialog.What's Black Canary doing? Using a soldering iron on a desk terminal?

 

[Rick2you2]

13 hours ago, zhamlau said:

1. Its fun work

2. It's Cheap when compared to contemporaries

3. He worked for years on Flagship titles from the 60's to early 80's non stop.

4. There was barely a month the man didn't have 2-3 books coming out. If you read/liked Bronze age and silver age DC, you knew Dillin well.

 

You add that up, it strikes me as someone whose material probably should sell decently well and might have been undervalued for years. He was a good artist who turned on quality work at high volumes. Im not his biggest fan, but I totally get it.

There are better. In that category, I like Bill Draut's work. Not so much as fun or quantty, but the quality of it. 

[zhamlau]

10 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

You are absolutely right!!!  My mistake for sure.  Novick and Dillin are sort of blurred together in my mind since I was primarily a Marvel fan, and I thought both those guys were sort of the solid journeymen type of artist's that didn't garner much of my attention.  I think if you were a DC fan back then there's a lot of nostalgia for this level of artist in much the same way that  Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe and Bob Brown appeals to some old hard core Marvel fans.  

Thanks for the correction!

Again to be fair, Sal Buscema was one of the most talented artists working at Marvel and a top 5 comic artist of all time. Its not overly fair IMO to put him with brown, Trimpe, Dillin, and Novick. You dont make it 40+ years of constant quality driven work in comics by being a journeyman.

[vodou]

8 minutes ago, zhamlau said:

Again to be fair, Sal Buscema was one of the most talented artists working at Marvel and a top 5 comic artist of all time. Its not overly fair IMO to put him with brown, Trimpe, Dillin, and Novick. You dont make it 40+ years of constant quality driven work in comics by being a journeyman.

Workmanlike? As in they turned in the work assigned, on time, every time. That's how I'd describe all of the above and it's not a compliment if it's coming from anybody other than the guy that approves payroll.

[zhamlau]

4 minutes ago, vodou said:

Workmanlike? As in they turned in the work assigned, on time, every time. That's how I'd describe all of the above and it's not a compliment if it's coming from anybody other than the guy that approves payroll.

If you are saying Sal B is no more then Bob Brown, and had the same impact on the industry, I would strongly disagree. Kirby "turned in the work assigned, on time, every time" too. Being efficient and being mundane are not the same thing.

[vodou]

30 minutes ago, zhamlau said:

If you are saying Sal B is no more then Bob Brown, and had the same impact on the industry, I would strongly disagree. Kirby "turned in the work assigned, on time, every time" too. Being efficient and being mundane are not the same thing.

Mundane...that's the word I was looking for. Thanks!

In all seriousness, I've seen you make the case for Sal being transcendent before, and it's fine, I just don't agree. The was a point when he started inking himself (I'm thinking 1990s PPSSM period iirc but maybe a different book?) where he clearly broke with his 1980s and earlier style, but...I'm thinking it's only better (less shtty/muddy) than Byrne inking himself on Namor, NextMen, et al than anything else of worthy of note. I'll give him that, moving with the 90s look in the 90s I guess. But...? Again...just me, not sold on the conclusion, but I understand the premises that bring you there.