Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jul 24, 2024 | 4 comments

A BIRTHDAY SALUTE to the artist, who turns 65…

By PETER STONE

I knew roughly who Trevor Von Eeden — born 65 years ago, on July 24, 1959 — was from 1982’s Batman Annual #8. It was before I knew who Alex Toth really was (other than the guy who drew Zorro for Disney), so I didn’t completely understand what Trevor was trying to do. That annual was great, though, written by Mike W. Barr and drawn with a unique and stylistic approach. (It also featured Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia. Once again, it seems that Ra’s perishes at the end… but of course that isn’t true.) Trevor’s work was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Lynn Varley colors

As I started looking for more intellectual fare, I discovered Thriller, a 1983 series co-created by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden. It was more sophisticated than the standard superhero stories DC was producing. As I heard later at a dinner with a bunch of Marvel freelancers and employees, there was a falling out between Fleming and Trevor. I know this because I was seated next to Mr. Fleming and everything was going just fine until I mentioned that Trevor and I were working together. It got a bit frosty after that.

Von Eeden

Three years after Thriller came out, I was an intern at Neal Adams’ Continuity. It was the beginning of Neal’s publishing effort so there were a number of artists using desks to draw pages. There was Mark Beachum drawing Samuree, Win Mortimer drawing the first issue of Toyboy, Rudy Nebres inking many issues, and Trevor drawing Issues #2 through #6. For those who never read Toyboy #5 and #6, I’ll tell you that Trevor had to draw likenesses of famous silent movie actors and he did a great job.

He started so young, only a teenager when he helped Tony Isabella create Black Lightning in the 1970s. His desire to draw more stories of the Black experience in this country continued, culminating with The Original Johnson, based on the true story of one of history’s greatest boxers.

Von Eeden

In-between the Batman Annual and The Original Johnson, Trevor drew a variety of stories for DC Comics. Green Arrow, Black Canary, more Batman and so many others. He got a chance to work with the great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez on Legends of the Dark Knight, which boosted his appeal even higher. He consistently turned out interesting pages.

For the time period Trevor worked at Continuity, he was nothing but nice to me. He drew five issues of Toyboy, three issues of Urth 4, Armor #6 and even drew two issues of Megalith over Neal’s layouts. He drew some additional issues of Armor that never saw print but at a certain point, he moved on. Continuity Comics was struggling, but so many of the smaller companies were as well.

Vince Colletta inks

Enamored of being around “real” comic book artists, I would pull up a chair and watch him draw. For me it was fascinating. I loved seeing my stories come to life under the pencil of Trevor… or Beachum… or watching Rudy ink. Some artists are fun to watch draw and some are not. It seemed like everyone at Continuity at that time was very interesting. Mark Beachum drew women better than almost anything, Rudy Nebres’ feathery linework was heavenly, Neal’s pencils were pure magic and Trevor was influenced by Alex Toth so his style was vastly different from everyone else’s. But everyone was different from each other.

Neal Adams inks

Trevor and Mark used to put on a “Michael Jackson” dance show as they were preparing to leave. They were both pretty damn good. (This was 1990-91, before Jackson’s very public “problems.”)

I am truly happy that I experienced that time period at Continuity and met those wonderful artists… especially Trevor. He was a wickedly smart dude. We would talk about art and movies and books. I never knew if he considered me a friend; maybe we were just co-workers trying to make the job as good as possible.

I wish him the happiest of birthdays.

—

MORE

— 13 GREAT PAGES: A TREVOR VON EEDEN Birthday Celebration. Click here.

— The TOP 13 BATGIRL ARTISTS of the Silver and Bronze Ages. Click here.

—

Peter Stone is a writer and son-in-law of the late Neal Adams. Be sure to check out the family’s twice-weekly online Facebook auctions, as well as the NealAdamsStore.com, and their Burbank, California, comics shop Crusty Bunkers Comics and Toys.