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His Name Is... Savage
His Name Is... Savage is a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel released in 1968 as a precursor to the modern graphic novel. Created by the veteran American comic book artist Gil Kane, who conceived, plotted and illustrated the project, and writer Archie Goodwin, who scripted under the pseudonym Robert Franklin, the black-and-white magazine was published by Kane's Adventure House Press, and distributed to newsstands.
His Name Is... Savage #1 (June 1968), the sole issue published, was the first full-length comics story in a non-comic book format since 1950, when St. John Publications issued the digest-sized hardboiled detective novellas It Rhymes with Lust and The Case of the Winking Buddha. Like them, Savage was also sold on newsstands rather than in book stores. Marvel Comics, shortly after Savage appeared, published the first of a two-issue comics magazine, The Spectacular Spider-Man, starring that titular superhero. Like the similar, anthological comics magazines of the time, such as Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, both His Name Is... Savage and The Spectacular Spider-Man cost 35¢, whereas a typical comic book cost 12¢ and double-size issues 25¢.
Gil Kane in the 1960s was a well-established comic-book artist who had co-created the modern versions of the DC Comics superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom. He was additionally an early and outspoken advocate of creators' rights in an industry that at the time did not offer character ownership or royalties. Circa 1963, Kane set up a studio on East 63rd Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and for five years worked sporadically on both His Name Is... Savage and a project that would become the paperback comics novel Blackmark. Kane in 1996 said the actual drawing of Savage "was done, from beginning to end, in 30 days. That last page was inked at the printer while they were getting the book ready".
Kane conceived the character Savage, an espionage agent and troubleshooter, and developed the story and art. He based his protagonist visually on actor Lee Marvin, whom Kane had seen in the movie Point Blank. The resemblance was much more pointed on Robert Foster's photo-referenced painted cover, which was replaced by a new Kane illustration for the 1982 Fantagraphics reprint. Kane said in 1996, "We never had any trouble from Lee Marvin — obviously he never saw the goddamn thing. We never had any trouble from anybody".
During this process, he brought in Archie Goodwin, a writer-editor then at the black-and-white horror-magazine publisher Warren Publishing, to script. Goodwin did so under the pseudonym Robert Franklin; in the 1982 reprint, Gil Kane's Savage, Goodwin, under his own name, is credited alongside Kane for "Story." Larry Koster handled production, with artist Robert Foster contributing a painted cover. Manny Stallman, a comic-book artist and Kane colleague, introduced Kane "to printers and sales representatives, and it was through Manny that I met the people who ultimately allowed me to turn out His Name Is... Savage," Kane said.
Kane entered into an arrangement with the large newsstand-distribution company Kable News, who jointly published the magazine with Kane under Kane's imprint, Adventure House Press, Inc.. Kane said in 1996 that Kable paid the printing and manufacturing costs but no art or editorial fees.
I've forgotten the percentage the publisher took out, but it was something like a 60-40 thing, and they took the larger percentage. ... The chief administrator at Cable [sic] didn't want to give me [distribution], and while he was talking, the head of the company came in, [and] saw the material. I talked to him for about a half-hour. And I walked out of there dazed. We had a reasonable deal, and they did the best they could. They gave us a contract and were going to pay for three books....
The project encountered production difficulties, with Kane having difficulty finding a printer willing to risk alienating the large mainstream comics publishers.
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His Name Is... Savage
His Name Is... Savage is a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel released in 1968 as a precursor to the modern graphic novel. Created by the veteran American comic book artist Gil Kane, who conceived, plotted and illustrated the project, and writer Archie Goodwin, who scripted under the pseudonym Robert Franklin, the black-and-white magazine was published by Kane's Adventure House Press, and distributed to newsstands.
His Name Is... Savage #1 (June 1968), the sole issue published, was the first full-length comics story in a non-comic book format since 1950, when St. John Publications issued the digest-sized hardboiled detective novellas It Rhymes with Lust and The Case of the Winking Buddha. Like them, Savage was also sold on newsstands rather than in book stores. Marvel Comics, shortly after Savage appeared, published the first of a two-issue comics magazine, The Spectacular Spider-Man, starring that titular superhero. Like the similar, anthological comics magazines of the time, such as Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, both His Name Is... Savage and The Spectacular Spider-Man cost 35¢, whereas a typical comic book cost 12¢ and double-size issues 25¢.
Gil Kane in the 1960s was a well-established comic-book artist who had co-created the modern versions of the DC Comics superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom. He was additionally an early and outspoken advocate of creators' rights in an industry that at the time did not offer character ownership or royalties. Circa 1963, Kane set up a studio on East 63rd Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and for five years worked sporadically on both His Name Is... Savage and a project that would become the paperback comics novel Blackmark. Kane in 1996 said the actual drawing of Savage "was done, from beginning to end, in 30 days. That last page was inked at the printer while they were getting the book ready".
Kane conceived the character Savage, an espionage agent and troubleshooter, and developed the story and art. He based his protagonist visually on actor Lee Marvin, whom Kane had seen in the movie Point Blank. The resemblance was much more pointed on Robert Foster's photo-referenced painted cover, which was replaced by a new Kane illustration for the 1982 Fantagraphics reprint. Kane said in 1996, "We never had any trouble from Lee Marvin — obviously he never saw the goddamn thing. We never had any trouble from anybody".
During this process, he brought in Archie Goodwin, a writer-editor then at the black-and-white horror-magazine publisher Warren Publishing, to script. Goodwin did so under the pseudonym Robert Franklin; in the 1982 reprint, Gil Kane's Savage, Goodwin, under his own name, is credited alongside Kane for "Story." Larry Koster handled production, with artist Robert Foster contributing a painted cover. Manny Stallman, a comic-book artist and Kane colleague, introduced Kane "to printers and sales representatives, and it was through Manny that I met the people who ultimately allowed me to turn out His Name Is... Savage," Kane said.
Kane entered into an arrangement with the large newsstand-distribution company Kable News, who jointly published the magazine with Kane under Kane's imprint, Adventure House Press, Inc.. Kane said in 1996 that Kable paid the printing and manufacturing costs but no art or editorial fees.
I've forgotten the percentage the publisher took out, but it was something like a 60-40 thing, and they took the larger percentage. ... The chief administrator at Cable [sic] didn't want to give me [distribution], and while he was talking, the head of the company came in, [and] saw the material. I talked to him for about a half-hour. And I walked out of there dazed. We had a reasonable deal, and they did the best they could. They gave us a contract and were going to pay for three books....
The project encountered production difficulties, with Kane having difficulty finding a printer willing to risk alienating the large mainstream comics publishers.