Marshall Rogers and That Quazar Cover

Several months ago I posted a tribute to Sanho Kim, my first comic book influence. Now I’d like to pay tribute to another comic book artist who had a tremendous early influence on me as a creator and a person: Marshall Rogers.

Rogers was a wonder when it came to the mechanics of comics storytelling, executing them with elegance, craftsmanship, respect and boundless imagination. He influenced many other people, too, as the description to the new TwoMorrows retrospective Brightest Days and Darkest Knights proclaims:

“From underdog to icon, Marshall Rogers helped redefine Batman for generations, inspiring readers and up-and-coming artists alike. Initially savaged by editors at DC Comics, his style was uniquely complex with vast and angular architectural design anchoring his storytelling[.]”

“…vast and angular architectural design…”

There were other comics artists in the seventies with complex art styles, though not many. Artists like Walt Simonson (Manhunter), Howard Chaykin (The Scorpion) and Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing), grandmasters all. And like his peers, Rogers not only incorporated design concepts into his page and panel layouts to enhance his story communication, he was adept at staging a scene, differentiating characters and underscoring their thoughts and moods through expressions and body language, and (perhaps better than anyone except Wrightson) creating atmosphere through shadow and light. But best of all, when Rogers got the chance to draw Batman, he didn’t just return the hero to his Dark Knight roots, he transported the character back to his artistic beginnings. Panels in Rogers’ Batman stories often harken to those in Batman’s initial adventures, right down to the lettering.

To get a true appreciation of Rogers’ talents as a comic book artist, however, you will find nothing better than cartoon theorist R.C. Harvey’s “The Reticulated Rainbow: A Lingering Look at the Comics Art of Marshall Rogers” in The Comics Journal #54 (March 1980).

Getting back to Brightest Days and Darkest Knights for a moment, it is written by Jeff Messer and Dewey Cassell, the team behind Mike Grell: Life is Drawing Without an Eraser, and when Messer first posted on Facebook that he was going to be working on the retrospective, he requested that anyone who had a rare or unusual sample of Rogers’ work contact him to see about including it in the book.

I was already excited to find out there was finally going to be a Rogers retrospective, but the thought of being even an infinitesimal part of it sounded super-fan-tab-u-listic, so I sent Messer a scan of the cover Rogers drew for Quazar. (“What’s Quazar you ask?”  Bear with me one minute.) In reply Messer asked if I could write a few words about how the cover came about.

Even better!

I sent him the following, which, unlike the cover, didn’t make it into the retrospective, so I thought I’d share it here:

Marshall Rogers’ cover art as it appears on Quazar (1980).

“I will always be grateful to Marshall Rogers for drawing the cover to Quazar, an anthology comic book produced by my friend Dave Arnold and me in 1980.

“Quazar was an independent small-press production. Sort of the comic book equivalent of a student-made film.  Dave and I were in our early twenties and had little money much less experience, but we did the best with what we had. To pull off Quazar we printed it at our local Penny Saver on newsprint. That included the cover, which featured hand-cut red and yellow coloring, spurring one reviewer to compare us to a ditto-zine.

“Fair enough.

“We gave you 64 pages for a buck, though, and showcased the first published comics work of Dan Jurgens—who contributed his own sci-fi/gladiator tale as well as the breakdowns and artwork for my superhero story Vanguard—and that Marshall Rogers cover.

“Since 1977 Rogers had been amazing me with his design-y neo-noirish art for DC Comics and the Eclipse Comics graphic novel Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green.  Rogers’ artwork had strongly guided my vision for Vanguard, so when I heard he was attending the Chicago ComiCon, I purchased some Bristol board and scraped together what money I could on the chance he would agree to draw a convention sketch of my Vanguard character that Dave and I could use for the cover of Quazar.

“Audacious?

“Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“Does this guy look familiar?” Marshall Rogers’ untampered cover art.

“Keep in mind, the Chicago Comicon was one of America’s largest comic book conventions at the time, although it was much smaller in 1980 than its current media-focused incarnation. That included its Artist Alley, where I found Rogers sitting in a corner with just a few fans waiting at his table. When my turn came I held up my Bristol board like Oliver Twist holding his gruel bowl and stammered my request.

“And what do you know?

“I think Rogers quoted a price of $150, but I will never forget his polite patience as I sat starry-eyed across the table watching MARSHALL ROGERS draw my superhero which he had influenced.

“About an hour later someone from the con reminded Rogers that he had a panel coming up.  Rogers finished inking the figure of Vanguard and then quickly drew a flare effect around the character. “I wanted to give you a better background than this, so how about you just pay me one hundred dollars?”

“Wow.

“As cool as that was, the next day Dave and I were driving home from the con and ogling our cover when Dave peered closer and said, “Hey, is that you?”

“’What?’  I looked even closer than I had been.

“At the time I was spindly and had a mustache, but, yep, Vanguard had my face and mane.  Rogers may not have drawn the background he wanted, but he did take the time to make one starry-eyed fan’s day.

“And for that, like I said, I will always be grateful.”

Feril Nightlinger by Marshall Rogers

More than twenty years later, I was a minor guest at a comic book show in Minneapolis where Rogers was a guest of honor. The con put on a private get-together that Saturday night, and, although I normally avoid these things, I went hoping Rogers would be there so I could shake his hand and tell him I was a huge fan. When I got there, though, I found Rogers debating the state of the imploding comic book industry with some other guest as more creators looked on. I should have taken notes, because I can no longer recall the specifics of that debate. All I remember is that Rogers wasn’t happy with how things were going with the industry, so I decided to wait on that handshake.

The next day I visited Rogers’ table, paid my respects, and asked for a sketch of my character Nightlinger. At this point in his career Rogers was limiting his convention sketches to headshots, but that was fine by me. So, once again, I found myself across a table from this incredible artist and one of my greatest influences as he drew a character of mine, and as he sketched Rogers said, “Sorry about last night. I get passionate when it comes to comics.”

“No reason to apologize,” I told him. “I honestly would have paid money to listen to what you had to say.”

I don’t recall Rogers reacting in any way, except to continue sketching.

Two years later Rogers passed away from heart failure at the age of 57.

In the summer of 2016, I was putting together my Heroes and Horrors anthology for Caliber Comics. I did it at the request of Gary Reed, the publisher, who had been encouraging me to collect some of my early and unpublished stuff for a few years, and as the project neared the end, I asked Gary if it would all right if I reused the Rogers Quazar art for my anthology’s cover. I had the cover recolored and laid out, and after a couple of changes suggested by Gary, he approved it.

On Saturday, October 2, I sent Heroes and Horrors off to Caliber.

On Monday, October 4, I found out that Gary had died the day before of a heart attack.

Since then Caliber has continued on with Eric Reichart of Eagle One Media at the helm. He and Gary had gone into partnership in 2014, but I had never worked with him before, and I certainly didn’t want to make things more difficult for him during the transition period after Gary’s passing, so when Eric asked to use a different cover for Heroes and Horrors that wasn’t so retro, I agreed. And, based on the two times I met Marshall Rogers, I’m sure he would have been fine with my decision.

That said, I still think the reworked cover turned out pretty dang well. And it would have been nice to have that piece as the cover of my own little retrospection, considering its history and the influence Rogers had on the stories in the anthology.

In any event, I’d like to say, “Thank you, Mr. Rogers. I am and always shall be a huge fan.”