Outland by Jim Steranko - a lost masterpiece

It took a tweet from Cory Doctorrow to remind me of Outland by Jim Steranko which is a little surprising as it is truly spectacular, possibly his most striking work visually.

One reason that it got lost is that, unlike his work on characters like Nick Fury and Captain America, it was never that obvious in the first place. It was serialised in Heavy Metal in the early 1980's and I was lucky to be reading it then.

I recall that the story, an adaptation of the film of the same name, did not impress me that much but the art work most certainly did. These two pages show why. They speak for themselves and I will not attempt to explain why they are brilliant.

The other reason it is lost is that it is out of print, physically and digitally. All of his Marvel work is available digitally, and I think that I have bought all of it, but Outland is not despite the obvious demand for it from the many Steranko fans like myself.

I did look on eBay to see if there were any copies of the book available and there was just one, in America and it cost 150 USD. It's in French.

The Complete Steranko SHIELD Collection

I have written before about the comics legend that is Jim Steranko but that was mostly in relation to his Captain America work whereas it is Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. that he is rightly most famous for.

I had read and bought various collections of his later episodes, and I may even have the occasional single issue in a comic box somewhere, but there was much of the run that I had not seen before, or even knew much about.

The ComiXology made me an offer that I could not refuse.


I am not sure what the occasion was but they had the completion collection in one of their sales and I did not hesitate to take the bait. The prize was almost 500 pages of comics for around £5.

Unexpectedly, and welcomely, the complete collection included complete copies of Strange Tales where Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD first appeared and which it shared with Dr Strange.

Both artists seem to have been told to try and emulate the styles of those that preceded them with Jim Steranko looking very like Jack Kirby (who did some of the layouts) and Dan Adkins like Steve Ditko. One of the joys of the comic is to see how the artists' styles evolved as they developed their own styles.

Elements of the Steranko style were there from the beginning, especially in the high-tech equipments, but it was a while before he was able to throw of the constraint of the six panel page to create stunning compositions.

The detailed line work with heavy contrasts that had been used sparingly became the signature of Steranko's work and why he is a legend.

The storytelling developed nicely too and I love the way that the panel above has no words, something that Warren Ellis also does very well. This is a marked contrast to Stan Lee who filled panels with lengthy speech balloons and explanatory texts. Comics were growing up then and Steranko was one of the people helping them to do it.

It is many years since I first came across Steranko's work and it still gives me a thrill. 

Revisiting Jim Steranko's Captain America

Timed for the release of the second Captain America film, Marvel are having a sale of Captain America comics. I learned about this on Saturday morning via a tweet from ComiXology and went to their website to see what was available, hoping to pick up some Jack Kirby copies leading up to issue #200 which I bought when it came out in August '76.

I might still do that but my casual searching first uncovered the short Jim Steranko run (issues 110, 111 and 113) from 1969. I was not reading the original American comics then, only the black and white UK reprints in comics like Pow!, and I have only managed to acquire one tatty original for my collection. I have bought most of his work in some form or another since then, sometimes more than once, and this was an opportunity to buy his Captain America issues in a digital form.

A few clicks later then all I had to do was wait for them to download onto my iPad. So much easier than going up to the top floor to look for a pint copy in one of the bookcases, I did not even need to get out of bed.

Jim Steranko is a genuine comic book legend, despite working on so few comics, because of his distinctive and original drawing style. Even today these comics look fresh even though they were drawn almost fifty years ago.

The obvious things to note are the use of panels, cropping, varied viewpoints including at an angle, heavy shading and rich detailing of machinery etc.

One thing that has changed, and for the better, over fifty years is the storytelling. These issues, written by Stan Lee, are verbose (note the additional text in the top right corner of the page above) and the story is full of gaping plot holes, such as when all the baddies leave Captain America alone in the assumption that one robot would finish him off.

Perhaps with another artist the story's weaknesses would have made it unreadable now (it was good for its time) but the Jim Steranko artwork did more than rescue the books, it made them classics that I was delighted to read again. A wonderful start to the weekend.

Fear Itself 7.1: Captain America

Fear Itself is the latest "epic" from Marvel following in the manner of Civil War and Secret Invasion.

It is somewhat the lesser cousin of those stories that both ripped the Marvel Universe apart, setting hero against hero, with ramifications that are still felt today.

Instead Fear Itself introduces seven mystical weapons to up the power of seven established characters, e.g. Juggernaut and Grey Gargoyle. You know that the goodies are going to win and so the story becomes little more than a seven issue slug-fest.

Anticipating this I avoided all the spin-offs apart from those in the comics that I read regularly already, e.g. Iron Man and Avengers.

In contrast I bought just about every Secret Invasion story going and while some were weak (e.g. Thor) some were excellent (e.g. Black Panther).

The good news about Fear Itself is the epilogue. Issues 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 show the impact on Captain America, Thor and Iron Man respectively. This both ties the story up and hints at where future stories may lead. The not-very-subtle aim is to encourage you to read the individual characters' books.

It could work because Fear Itself 7.1: Captain America is excellent.

I loved the story but I loved the Butch Guice art work more.

I have seen many examples of his work over the years, starting with his first work for Marvel on Micronauts (great book) in 1982, but this is a bit special because there are strong hints of Jim Steranko in the movement,bold lines and page construction.

Comics greats - Jim Steranko

Marvel Comics have started doing a poll on the best comics of all time. While recognising the many flaws in this concept, such as trying to identify a single issue in a major story such as the Kree Skrull War, it was a welcome prompt to revisit some of my favourite stories from the last forty years or so.

I have some more research and memory prodding to do to complete my list of all time greats but a few came to mind quickly.

So far all the stories that I have thought of are worthy of the highest praise mostly because of the art. That is not to dismiss the stories in any way but in each case the artist is somebody recognised as a true master of comic book art.




First up is Jim Steranko who had drew a relatively small number of comics back but had a dramatic impact on the media in the late 60s and early 70s.

Steranko's art was very striking and so a lot of his work was covers and when he did interiors there were often large dramatic images, one stretched over four pages!

But the main impact Steranko had was on page composition, eschewing the traditional square panels for a collage of pictures with unusual perspectives and eye-catching images.

The two page spread above is from an episode of Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and is typical of his work.

I first discovered Steranko in British black-and-white reprint comics where the already heavy contrasts are even more pronounced and the pictures are made even more dramatic.

Sadly I only have one bettered second-hand copy of an original comic in my collection and I have to satisfy my love for his art in various collected volumes of his work. Luckily I have several of these.