A 100th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION of the late, great comics creator…
Alter Ego #10 (1965). Kane image by John Severin. Border images (including Savage) by Gil Kane.
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.
His Name Is…Savage (June 1968, Adventure House Press). Cover art by Bob Foster.
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 is an exercise in ultra-violence. Violence on a scale – repeatedly – that was probably never seen before in comics history, not even in the pre-Code era. In the below sequence, Kane created a single panel (at the end of the fifth page below) that, once seen, can never be forgotten — not even by those of us who were around 58 years ago, in 1968, when the issue was published.
When we first meet Savage himself, he is in a prison holding cell, awaiting his execution. We don’t know for what, exactly, except he was to be hanged as an assassin because the U.S. government’s super-secret organization, The Committee, which gave him the assignment, had denied his existence. However, he is being reprieved because The Committee needs him again. But not before more extreme viciousness is shown in the below pages.
It continues from there. However, none of this detracts from the work. It makes His Name Is… Savage unforgettable. Though Kane’s art was more expressive in superhero comics, his work here is more commanding because of his absolute expertise in storytelling. His Name Is… Savage could be said to be the most powerful adaptation of a movie that never was. Each panel is like a storyboard with only seconds happening between them. His Name Is…Savage is Gil Kane’s comics-illustrated masterpiece.
Take a look at these other pages (with text by Archie Goodwin, using the pseudonym of “Robert Franklin”):
Now, we get to the difficult news. His Name Is… Savage ceased publishing after that first issue. Was it because of the unlicensed image of Lee Marvin on the cover? Was it the extreme violence that might be seen by children? Was it poor sales? Actually, the answer is likely something of each.
Lee Marvin was depicted on the cover: For decades it has been believed the star’s people sued and that was what cancelled the book, but Kane denied that.
Was it the violence? It has been stated that some stores were nervous about complaints from parents and that sellers sent back their copies.
What is it poor sales? Definitely “yes” to this… because it never had a chance to sell well. Kane said that the people who were doing the complaining were possibly connected with or had influence within the Comics Code Authority. Whatever the case, 180,000 of the 200,000-copy print run were returned to the distributors for credit. His Name Is… Savage could not survive on just 20,000 sales (if it achieved even that many).
Kane went back to working for DC and His Name Is… Savage would not reappear until 1982 when Fantagraphics reprinted it, under the title Gil Kane’s Savage, along with a new cover (perhaps to avoid Marvin, I would guess). The interior’s typeface was also replaced.
Gil Kane’s Savage #1 (March 1982, Fantagraphics). Art by Kane.
The final page of the reprinted story includes a redone panel at the end that had been used in 1968 for subscription purposes.
Finally, in late 1986, Kane returned to Savage.
Anything Goes! #1 (Oct. 1986, The Comics Journal Inc.). Cover art by Kane.
Anything Goes! was a short-run benefit comics series published by Fantagraphics’ The Comics Journal to help pay legal bills resulting from a lawsuit. The contributions by the likes of Michael T. Gilbert, Alex Toth, and Gilbert Hernandez were all done gratis. Same f0r Kane, who, in the first issue (Oct. 1986), provided a new, four-page, silent Savage story, as well as the cover.
Though the last panel indicated there would be more Savage stories to come, there weren’t. At least, not until 2018, when a new His Name Is… Savage issue appeared, written by Steven Grant and drawn by Jesús Antonio Hernández Portaveritas. The issue also contained an ad for Her Name Is… Savage, which was published in 2020.)
Gil Kane, one of the greatest of all comics creators, died January 31, 2000, of complications from lymphoma. We still miss him.
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MORE
— The JERRY ORDWAY and GIL KANE BATMAN Miniseries That Should Have Been. Click here.
— BURIED TREASURE: Jan Strnad and Gil Kane’s SWORD OF THE ATOM. Click here.
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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.
