Staff Picks (Feb14): Steranko's Nick Fury — Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Artist’s Edition

Publisher: IDW Publishing

The sixties was the time of the Cold War. We knew who our enemies were and were willing to confront them. Spying was part of the country’s arsenal of weapons to defend itself, and it made its way into popular fiction and media from James Bond to the Men from U.N.C.L.E.

Comics were never afraid of jumping on the band wagon of media popularity. While Gold Key presented stories of Steed and Peel and Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin and DC comics actually gave us James Bond’s Doctor No in comic book form, Marvel took a new approach with Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

Starting out as Nick Fury formerly of the Howling Commandoes and CIA agent with guest appearances in Fantastic Four, Nick became part of the super spy organization SHIELD. Stories were still more super hero than spy and the art started by Kirby retained that Kirbyesque feel.

With Strange Tales #151, while Kirby was still a part of the team, a new face to Marvel came aboard, penciler Jim Steranko. He started by working over Kirby layouts, and before long Steranko (first name was no longer needed, either) became synonymous with Fury and SHIELD. His unique layout and design work was one of the high points of comics during this time.

This IDW Artist edition collects the first 12 stories of Steranko‘s run, from Strange Tales #151 to #162, as well as all his covers from those issues. Taken from Steranko‘s private archives each page was scanned from the actual original artwork. This format gives you the rare opportunity to see the work Steranko put into each page of his pages. With each page scanned in color to replicate as closely as possible the viewing of his original art with all imperfections from paste-overs, blue pencils in the art, editorial notes, and art corrections. Since each page is printed the same size as drawn, and the paper stock selected is as close as possible to the original art board you’ll need taller shelves to place in your bookcases.

This is a rare glimpse into the creative process of a legendary creator and comic that is a high water mark even in today’s digitally created environment.

Even if you have collections of Steranko‘s SHIELD stories, you gotta have this book, just one more reason to Don’t Yield – Back SHIELD!

~ Steve Leaf