scans_daily

Greetings all! Reading through some old issues of Conan the Barbarian, Spider-Man and Batman pencilled by Gil Kane, I've picked up a trend in his artwork, and I'd like to share it with you guys to get an idea of how well-known this trend is.

Now, what is that trend? The long and short of it is this:

This particular shot, drawn from a low angle and highlighting the bottom of people's noses.

Here's a slightly bigger pic of the above cover (Conan the Barbarian Pocket Book #13, Roy Thomas writing and John Buscema on interior art):

Here's another example from the Conan pocket books (#7, Roy Thomas writing, Gil Kane interior art). Note how there's one larger figure drawn in the upshot with foreground events detailing the present - we'll be seeing more of this soon.

Yet another from the same issue, this time a 3/4-page spread. Take a close look at the bat-creature: Gil Kane even designed his nose to be ideal for the dramatic upshot.

And here's a closeup on the bat-creature itself!

This is far from an isolated incident either. I don't doubt this consideration was on Kane's mind when he designed Morbius in his debut in Spider-Man (The Amazing Spider-Man #101, Roy Thomas writing):

As opposed to an uncostumed vampire? (Never mind, let's not go there)

Once again, dramatic nasal upshot in the back, "action" in the foreground:

(Amazing Spider-Man #104, Roy Thomas writing)

Horrifying as it is, it isn't limited to men and beasts either! Never has Gwen Stacy looked so unappealing. Ugggrgghgh.

(Amazing Spider-Man #97, written by Stan Lee)

And now he tops himself, with a cover comprised purely of that one dramatic angle! Well, there's Spider-Man too.

Now we take a break from nasal upshots and nostrils, to show a self-portrait of the man himself, and his own oddly bulbous nose (and Roy Thomas):

(Conan the Barbarian pocket book #6, Roy Thomas once again)

In fact, nostril shots aside, the way Gil Kane drew noses in general just kept getting weirder and weirder:

Seriously, it's like a couple of rutabagas crawled up their faces and died. Also, relevant cultural references FTW! (Detective Comics #520, Bob Rozakis writing)

Overall, one has to wonder why Gil Kane was so prone to this particular angle and noses in general. Was he a rather short fellow? Was it the main view he saw of people when he sat down drawing? Did he keep a mirror on his desk to reference that angle? Will we ever know?

DISCLAIMER: I have nothing against Gil Kane and his art (I wouldn't have put effort into scanning and cropping these if I really disliked it), just intrigued by the prevalence of this particular shot and focus on the nose in general.