In Memoriam - Marie Severin 1929 - 2018
Aug. 31st, 2018 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyThe news has been released that pivotal artist and colourist Marie Severin has passed away at the age of 89.
Her first comic work was in 1949, when she helped out her brother John Severin, an artist for EC comics, by colouring a romance story he had drawn. "A Moon.. a Girl".
She went on to regularly colour ALL of EC's war comics for Harvey Kurtzman
"I went on to color all their books, they were happy with it, and I learned a lot about production color and how everything worked. ... I believe the color chart for the printed pages had a range of up to 48 colors. I had the full range; I would mix colors — golds, greens, blues, and so on — and you would intensify them so that the separators could see the difference. ... What they liked is that I really studied which colors looked best and sharper next to one another, the subtleties of it. I would also proofread the colors"
She expanded from war into EC's horror comics as well.
Al Feldstein called her "The conscience of EC", saying that if she was colouring a comic and felt that the panels depicted something in too poor taste, she would colour it very dark blue.
Marie herself refuted that, stating that she was never act as an editor when she was being paid to be a colourist, but she did have certain colours she used for certain things, so dismemberments would be overcoloured yellow, because it was garish and let you see what was going on clearly, but wouldn't appear accurately viesceral.
After EC folded and just as the Silver Age was beginning she moved to Marvel, where she was an early artist on Doctor Strange, along with Stan Lee she created characters like The Living Tribunal, the three faced entity who is the arbiter of ultimate cosmic justice (Basically God's representative in the MU) and one of my favourite comic entity designs ever
She remained Head Colourist at Marvel until 1972, when she turned her hand to more pencilling work, working on stories with the Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Iron Man, Kull the Conqueror, Dardevil, the Cat (later Tigra) and, for Marvel's Star Comcics imprint, drawing Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies.
One of her most relevant claims to fame (out of many) would be that she co-created Spider-Woman in 1976, and designed her first costume (That would be the one with the cowl rather than the loose-haired look she'd later adopt as standard),
In the 90's she also did some work for Claypool comics, on their "Soulsearchers and Company" and Elvira titles.
She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2001.
She formally retired around this point, but still did some work, like contributing to the Batman Balck and White miniseries, recolouring the EC-era comics for the Harvey and Eisner Award sinning retrospective books.
After recovering from her first stroke in 2007, she continued to be a popular and widely respected presence at conventions.
She passed away from a stroke on Thursday 30th August aged 89.
As one would hope for such a prolific and groundbreaking creator, and one of the most respected (if not necessarily widely known) female creators the genre has known, the big names from all eras in the comic world led the tributes. Stan Lee, Tom King, Walter Simsonson, Scott Edelman all paying tribute not just to the artist, but the friend and inspiration she had remained.
It's perhaps a sign of how much comics have moved into the mainstream in just how many non-comics specific media sites have also noted her passing.
I know I speak for the Mod Team and the entire Scans_Daily community when I say that we send our sincere condolences and thoughts to her family, and her many, many friends.
Her first comic work was in 1949, when she helped out her brother John Severin, an artist for EC comics, by colouring a romance story he had drawn. "A Moon.. a Girl".
She went on to regularly colour ALL of EC's war comics for Harvey Kurtzman
"I went on to color all their books, they were happy with it, and I learned a lot about production color and how everything worked. ... I believe the color chart for the printed pages had a range of up to 48 colors. I had the full range; I would mix colors — golds, greens, blues, and so on — and you would intensify them so that the separators could see the difference. ... What they liked is that I really studied which colors looked best and sharper next to one another, the subtleties of it. I would also proofread the colors"
She expanded from war into EC's horror comics as well.
Al Feldstein called her "The conscience of EC", saying that if she was colouring a comic and felt that the panels depicted something in too poor taste, she would colour it very dark blue.
Marie herself refuted that, stating that she was never act as an editor when she was being paid to be a colourist, but she did have certain colours she used for certain things, so dismemberments would be overcoloured yellow, because it was garish and let you see what was going on clearly, but wouldn't appear accurately viesceral.
After EC folded and just as the Silver Age was beginning she moved to Marvel, where she was an early artist on Doctor Strange, along with Stan Lee she created characters like The Living Tribunal, the three faced entity who is the arbiter of ultimate cosmic justice (Basically God's representative in the MU) and one of my favourite comic entity designs ever
She remained Head Colourist at Marvel until 1972, when she turned her hand to more pencilling work, working on stories with the Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Iron Man, Kull the Conqueror, Dardevil, the Cat (later Tigra) and, for Marvel's Star Comcics imprint, drawing Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies.
One of her most relevant claims to fame (out of many) would be that she co-created Spider-Woman in 1976, and designed her first costume (That would be the one with the cowl rather than the loose-haired look she'd later adopt as standard),
In the 90's she also did some work for Claypool comics, on their "Soulsearchers and Company" and Elvira titles.
She was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2001.
She formally retired around this point, but still did some work, like contributing to the Batman Balck and White miniseries, recolouring the EC-era comics for the Harvey and Eisner Award sinning retrospective books.
After recovering from her first stroke in 2007, she continued to be a popular and widely respected presence at conventions.
She passed away from a stroke on Thursday 30th August aged 89.
As one would hope for such a prolific and groundbreaking creator, and one of the most respected (if not necessarily widely known) female creators the genre has known, the big names from all eras in the comic world led the tributes. Stan Lee, Tom King, Walter Simsonson, Scott Edelman all paying tribute not just to the artist, but the friend and inspiration she had remained.
It's perhaps a sign of how much comics have moved into the mainstream in just how many non-comics specific media sites have also noted her passing.
I know I speak for the Mod Team and the entire Scans_Daily community when I say that we send our sincere condolences and thoughts to her family, and her many, many friends.
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Date: 2018-08-31 10:33 am (UTC)RIP Marie Severin, artist and inspiration.
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Date: 2018-08-31 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2018-09-04 04:28 am (UTC)