Joe Staton
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Joe Staton (born January 19, 1948 in North Carolina), is an American illustrator and writer of comic books.
Staton grew up in Tennessee, attending Milan High School there and Murray State University in Kentucky, graduating from the latter in 1970. After DC Comics published some of his letters in their titles, Staton began to connect with science fiction fandom and began to expand upon the amateur comics art he practiced as a child. He started his work with Charlton Comics in 1971 and gained notability as the artist of the super-hero book E-Man. Staton produced art for various comics published by Charlton, Marvel and Warren during the 1970s. After being hired by Roy Thomas to work for Marvel, Paul Levitz brought him to DC Comics to work on their revival of the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics and later Adventure Comics. Staton illustrated stories chronicling the origin of the JSA and the death of the Earth-2 Batman among others. Staton also illustrate the solo adventures of two female JSA members created during the JSA revival; he drew Power Girl in Showcase and the Huntress. During that time, Staton also worked on Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, the 1970s revival of the Doom Patrol in Showcase, and the 1970s run of Metal Men. In 1979, Staton began a two and a half year run on Green Lantern.
Staton served as art director for First Comics for three years in the 1980s, returning to DC Comics afterwards for a second run on Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps. He also illustrated Guy Gardner, the Millennium mini-series, The Huntress and The New Guardians. He currently draws DC's Scooby Doo title for younger readers.
"E-MAN
The character premiered in E-Man #1, the first of ten issues (Oct. 1973 - Sept. 1975) published by the Derby, Connecticut-based Charlton Comics. For the last four, artist Staton created painted covers, a comics rarity at time.
E-Man is a sentient packet of energy thrown off by a nova. Traveling the galaxy he learned about life, how to duplicate the appearance of life, and good and evil. Reaching Earth, he met exotic dancer/grad student Katrinka Colchnzski, also known as Nova Kane, and formed himself into a superhero he called E-Man, with a civilian identity he self-mockingly dubbed "Alec Tronn". Nova would later be caught in a nuclear explosion and gain the same powers as E-Man and become his partner. The stories were humorous and lighthearted, in the style of Plastic Man, especially as E-Man could form himself into anything he wanted.
E-Man #4 (Aug. 1974), art by Joe StatonBackup features were Cuti and Tom Sutton's "The Knight", starring a superspy agent of C.H.E.S.S.; Joe Gill and Steve Ditko's "Liberty Belle"; two stories of writer-artist Ditko's fascinatingly bizarre, superhero Objectivism tract, "Killjoy"; the time-traveling "Travis", by Cuti and Wayne Howard; and, in the color-comics debut of John Byrne, four stories of "Rog-2000", written by Cuti and starring a wiseacre, cigar-smoking robot Byrne had created in his fan-artist days.
A supporting character, the grubby but right-hearted detective Mike Mauser, got his own backup series in Charlton's Vengeance Squad. An additional E-Man story, which introduced his energy-being "sister", Vamfire, appeared in the company's in-house fan magazine, Charlton Bullseye #4.
In 1977, the original 10-issue run was reprinted by a company called Modern Comics for sale as bagged sets in discount department stores across North America.
First Comics
In 1983, during a period of financial uncertainty for Charlton, the company sold independent publisher First Comics the rights to E-Man. First's E-Man ran 25 issues (April 1983 - Aug. 1985), with the company also publishing a seven-issue miniseries, The Original E-Man and Michael Mauser, that reprinted those characters' Charlton stories.
Staton did the artwork, with stories written by Martin Pasko, Paul Kupperberg, Cuti, and Staton himself. This series was more satirical than the original Charlton run."
E-man was awesome but Joe Staton was even awesomer! I loved the way he brought out the true character in each of his...characters. If I could only own one comic I'd own a Joe Staton comic or at the very least a Joe Staton drawn comic like E-man.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
I thought awesomeness couldn't get any more...awesomer but cast your eyes on this. Joe Staton INKING Sal Buscema!!!!! It don't get no better than this.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
My near-mint copy of Hulk 194 sits proudly in my Incredible Hulk collection; proudly indeed. I wish I had some E-Man, but, understandably, they've long since been sold out, and the people who own copies refuse to sell them for any amount of money.
Here's Bill Gates' copy of #1:
Dandelion don't tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion
I'm afraid there's no denying
I'm just a dandelion
a fate I don't deserve.
Wow. That is totally awesome. I guess Bill Gates himself can't get an E-Man #1 CGCed at 10.0. I own E-man 2,4 & 9. Hog heaven doesn't describe how I feel about that.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
I hear Dick Cheney has a copy of #1 in 9.8 condition, and the main reason the democrats went after Haliburton was to get to the safe he keeps in in. How awesome is that?
Dandelion don't tell no lies
Dandelion will make you wise
Tell me if she laughs or cries
Blow away dandelion
I'm afraid there's no denying
I'm just a dandelion
a fate I don't deserve.
ak, never could stand Sal Buscema's work. He was a one-trick pony. Look at the mouths and hands of every single character... the same every time (almost).
gah... I was better than him!
just venting people... sorry, nothing to see here.
keep moving...
~...with a floating smile and a light blue sponge...~
Usivius wrote:ak, never could stand Sal Buscema's work. He was a one-trick pony. Look at the mouths and hands of every single character... the same every time (almost).
gah... I was better than him!
just venting people... sorry, nothing to see here.
keep moving...
Finally. An opinion I can agree with.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
I first learned of him from his work on one of my favorite characters: the original Huntress. Great stuff!
He also did the new Huntress. Of course, the art is as good, but she's not the real Huntress. *sigh*
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
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