GIL KANE’s HIS NAME IS… SAVAGE: The Most Powerful Adaptation of a Movie That Never Was
A 100th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION of the late, great comics creator… By PETER BOSCH Today is a special, celebratory day: the 100th anniversary of Gil Kane’s birth. Kane — born Eli Katz in Riga, Latvia, on April 6, 1926 — is a big-time 13th Dimension favorite and we are finally taking a look at one of his greatest works — His Name Is… Savage. In the 1960s, the spy obsession was everywhere, thanks to James Bond. Movies, TV and comic books, too. And, in return, movies, TV, and comic books got more violent. Blame it on Bond, if you will, but it had been building in other genres. Certainly, war and Western. Anyway, by 1968 we had already seen major comics talents applying themselves to the spy phenomenon: Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Wally Wood on Total War M.A.R.S. Patrol and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Steranko creating Spyman (but drawn by other hands). Plus, there were comic-book adaptations of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Danger Man/Secret Agent, Mission: Impossible, and Dr. No. But none were like Gil Kane’s magazine, His Name Is… Savage. Though Savage (no first name revealed) was designated a secret agent, nothing done in the single issue of his adventure was done in secret. Savage was a killing machine. You didn’t send him out clandestinely; what you did was — to quote an old expression — “you turned him loose.” The same might be said about Gil Kane. Kane had a career that was known for his incredible artwork no matter the genre: science-fiction, war, Western, adventure, or just plain old romance comics. And let’s never forget his dynamic superhero work (which included co-creating the Silver Age Green Lantern and the Atom). But he was dissatisfied. “When I first started Green Lantern and the Atom, they (DC) wouldn’t allow me to do more than one panel of action, of fighting action in a fight,” he told Gary Groth and Mike Catron in a 1981 interview (printed in Gil Kane’s Savage #1, March 1982, Fantagraphics). However, when he started doing material he had total control over, such as His Name Is… Savage (where he was creator, artist, co-writer, and co-publisher), “I just let loose, I indulged myself in every way.” And he did let himself loose of all restrictions. His Name Is… Savage...
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