Monday 8 November 2010

Strongbow the Mighty - Ron Embleton's early strips

Here's an example, courtesy of David Slinn's archives, of some of Ron Embleton's pre and in tandem Wulf work. By in tandem, I'm alluding to the fact that when Embleton commenced work on Wulf in May 1957, he was still in harness with a couple of black and white strips and this; "Strongbow the Mighty" is one of them. These pages show just what a master of dynamic art Embleton was. And by dynamic, I'm not just referring to his figure work, but also his innate sense of design and his disposition of solid blacks and mid tones. All rendered with a brush, some of which were so fine that they were but a single strand of Sable.





Amazing stuff indeed!

2 comments:

  1. Fabulous work indeed. I especially like the lightning strike behind the galloping riders. What drama and energy that panel conveys!

    I'm curious about the character and story. Evidently it's Robin Hood but under a different name. Why, though? Would ITV have cut up rough about violation of their "copyright"? Surely not - Robin Hood has been out of copyright for centuries!

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  2. Hmmmmmmmmm ... I've given this some thought Dave amd I think the answer lies between the pages of Hulton's Swift comic which were running Robin Hood adventures illustrated by the amazing Frank Bellamy and that may well have been at the crux of the matter.

    Like you I'm very partial to that panel on the third example. In fact that page in particular is a knockout page - really amazing both in terms of atmosphere and drama.

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