RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Ernie Chan RIP

Legendary Conan artist,Ernie Chan,passed away yesterday. Such a bummer.He was my favorite artist on Savage Sword.By coincidence I had just started reading Savage Sword vol. 11 this week and had just finished one of his stories before I read this.

I really disliked his work for DC but, yeah, he was top notch on Conan.

I first saw Ernie Chan's work (under the pseudonym "Ernie Chua") in 1975 on the CLAW series (issues 1-6), and then suddenly taking over the cover art and interior work for a multitude of DC titles, particularly DETECTIVE and BATMAN. His CLAW work was okay, but I quickly detested his work scumming up so many DC titles I'd previously enjoyed when done by other hands. For reasons I'll never understand, he became DC's cover-artist of choice in 1975-1976, and DC's covers never looked so bad.

I actually stopped buying many DC titles because of his work. I hated it.

Not until I finally picked up his work inking Buscema on CONAN THE BARBARIAN and SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN did I develop some degree of appreciation for his work. But even then, his work (1970's and early 1980's) was hit-and miss for me, and his post-1985 work was horrible. At his best, while some of his work was decent, I still always preferred another inker. In particular Alfredo Alcala, Rudy Nebres and Pablo Marcos.

I actually met Chan at San Diego Con in 1987. He was an overweight, sweaty looking guy in jeans and a t-shirt, and stunk to high heaven of tobacco, even from 6 feet away. I actually thought he was an illegal Mexican until someone identified him to me as artist Ernie Chan. There are many great Phillipine artists, such as Nestor Redondo, Alex Nino, Alcala, Nebres, Noly Panaligan, E.R. Cruz, and many others. And of them all, I never understood why they chose Chan, of all these guys, to ink the overwhelming bulk of John Buscema's 20-plus years of Conan work.

I have a nostalgic love for Chan's work as a part of what I consider the best era of comics, but I won't pretend like he's one of the great artists. He was a work-horse who left behind a prolific body of work, but I view him as a fourth-tier artist along the lines of Vince Colletta, Frank Giacoia, Sam Grainger, and Jack Abel. I enjoy them as cogs in the greater structure, but have never sought out their individual work.

I was looking at some of my favorite BATMAN material from the 1970's, of the Robbins, O'Neil, Adams, Novick, Giordano, Wein, Aparo, Grell and Golden period, that Chan is a part of...

http://www.comics.org/series/141/covers/?page=6

...and Chan's part on the series spanned from BATMAN 262 (April 1975), and 268-283 (Oct 1975-Jan 1977). Mostly the covers as well as interior art.

As I recall, Chan primarily worked for Marvel, except for a brief 2 years or so for DC, and then went back to work almost exclusively for Marvel. But as I said, during his brief period at DC, Chan was extremely prolific, across virtually every title. After that, the cover-artist mantle at DC seemed to pass on to Buckler and Aparo.

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An interesting Jim Starlin/Ernie Chan collaboration, the inside front cover pin-up from RAMPAGING HULK magazine issue 7.
https://viewcomiconline.com/rampaging-hulk-v1-7/

There's also an impressive and lengthy Starlin/Nino story in issue 4.
https://viewcomiconline.com/rampaging-hulk-v1-4/

SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN and CONAN THE BARBARIAN obviously offer the biggest selection of pages by Chan and other Phillipine artists, but I love the work of a number of artists across the 27 issues of the HULK magazine, by Simonson, Alcala, Nebres, John and Sal Buscema, Starlin, Nino, Wiacek, Giffen, Mayerick, Pollard, DeZuniga, Wilson, Villamonte, Colan, Sienkiewicz, McLeod, Rubinstein and others.

I think by Chan, some of his nicest pages were portfolio sections in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, with single or double pages by Chan.
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-125/ (page 59)
and
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-079/
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-082/
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-092/
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-094/

https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-160/
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-172/
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-177/
https://viewcomiconline.com/savage-sword-of-conan-v1-180/
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Savage-Sword-Of-Conan/Issue-172?id=65239#53
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Savage-Sword-Of-Conan/Issue-180?id=65256#57
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Savage-Sword-Of-Conan/Issue-177?id=65249#50
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Savage-Sword-Of-Conan/Issue-160?id=65215#57

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Chan pencils and inks, on a SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN pin-up

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This last Hulk page is dated 2011, shortly before Chan died.

I was curious about Chan's work on the actual INCREDIBLE HULK series.
Chan did covers on issues 210-220, 222-224, and 226, April 1977- August 1978. Which roughly is the period right after he was DC's cover artist.

https://www.comics.org/series/1866/covers/?page=4

With mostly Sal Buscema/Chan interior art on issues 210-220.


https://viewcomiconline.com/incredible-hulk-v1-216/

From a previous Halloween comics topic, a bit more on Chan's run in SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN :


As prolific as Ernie Chan was on SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, it was still less than expected when I first explored these issues.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=93191

Chan actually did a lot of issues of the CONAN THE BARBARIAN color comic series, starting with issue 26, May 1973, up to issue 43,
Then back again from issue 70 (Jan 1977) to 77 (Aug 1977) , and 79-115 (Oct 1980). And 117 (Dec 1980) - 118 (Jan 1981), and 131 (Feb 1982), 134 (May 1982), 144 (Mar 1983), 147- 153, 156-157, 175, 178, 181-185, 187-190 (Jan 1987), which was John Buscema's last pencilled issue.
And Docherty//Chan art in issue 250 (Nov 1991), and 252-253, and the final issue 275, long after Buscema had moved on.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=80561

Plus a number of CONAN ANNUAL issues, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, and 11.

And KING CONAN / CONAN THE KING 1-11 .
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=80661

Aside from that, the work I like best by Chan are his early 1970's work on DC mystery titles like HOUSE OF MYSTERY, HOUSE OF SECRETS, GHOSTS, WEIRD WAR and others.
And his work on CLAW, in the same period that he became DC's main cover artist, circa 1975-1976, before and after which he seemed to do most of his work at Marvel, after initially breaking in at DC in 1972.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Chan

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On the aforementioned Hulk magazine issues, for those not in the know, it began as a black and white magazine in issues 1-9,
as RAMPAGING HULK
https://viewcomiconline.com/rampaging-hulk-v1-1/

Then the series went to full color offset printing on a nicer paper stock in 10-27. re-titled as just
HULK!, and returned to black and white in its last two issues :
https://viewcomiconline.com/hulk-1978-issue-13/

I liked the early-Marvel time-setting portrayed in RAMPAGING HULK 1-9 ( set in circa 1963), mostly with Simonson/Alcala art.

Then the shift to more human interest stories over superhero type stories, when the magazine went color in issues 10-25 (in that way conforming with the Bill Bixby TV series at the time). And I liked the range of art collaborations across the entire run of the magazine, that included Simonson/Alcala, Starlin/Nino, Wilson/Alcala, work by Rudy Nebres, Fran Matera, Wilson/Villamonte, Buscema/Alcala, Mcleod, Zeck, Chaykin, Sienkiewicz, and Colan/Alcala and Colan/Simons in the final issues.
Some collaborations very impressive, others less so, but all still worth seeing, and valiant efforts.
I saw the book wasn't selling (hence the return in the final issues to black and white, to minimize the financial loss), but I still very much enjoyed it while it was coming out, and regretted that it was cancelled.

I particularly mention it for the range of Phillipine artists presented in various collaborations, of which Chan's contributions was a part (Wilson/Chan art in issue 12 ) and even more so to see Chan's collaboration in contrast with that of other Phillipine artists (and American artists) presented in the magazine.