Herb Trimpe (1939 – 2015).
My earliest experience with Herb Trimpe’s work, at least as far as I was aware, was this issue of Marvel Super-Heroes #100. I was mostly a DC kid at the time, but I also liked buying extra-sized anniversary issues, which this was. The artwork was a lot more…grainy and lumpy and odd-looking compared to the seemingly more polished DC Comics I was reading, partially because of John Severin’s inking (a name I did know thanks to his work in Cracked). That’s not meant to be a negative description…the comic certainly captured my interest.
I became more familiar with his work as time went by, particularly after my entrance into comics retail. He was a good and dependable artist who worked on Hulk comics far longer than I’d realized, including the first appearance of Wolverine, and lived quite the eventful life even after mostly leaving the comics industry. (If you follow any link here, read that last one.)
Of interest to folks who may recall Trimpe’s ’90s work is this entry in Brian Cronin’s “Comic Book Legends Revealed” column, which Brian wrote directly in response to my long-held belief that Trimbe was asked to change his classic art style to one more closely emulating the then-popular “Image Comics” style. Read that article to hear the truth of the matter straight from the Trimpe’s mouth. (HINT: I may have been incorrect.)
So long, Herb.
Thank you for this. That NY Times piece with entries from his diary was revealing. Not just about Marvel in the mid-90s, but about dealing with the blow to self-worth from losing the job he’d held for 30 years, and finding a new career late in life.
I just recently picked up some old Super-Villain Team-Ups that he did the art on–great stuff.
This was my first experience with the Shrimpy One’s work. Impressed the heck out of 6-year-old me.
http://www.comics.org/issue/24570/cover/4/
My cousin had a copy, before I was allowed to get my own comics. It made me want to start buying them.
This makes me really sad. I had many of his original Hulk comics he did when they came out. I always got the comics from soldiers in my dad’s unit when they were finished, and Hulk was one of their favorites, I guess. My mom thought they were too violent, but I loved them. No one could do “Hulk Smash” like Trimpe could. Interestingly, I was just thinking about him the other day.
G.I. Joe. He was only there for a handful of issues, but for some reason my memory has him drawing the first hundred and something. Last summer he signed my copy of #1. Thankful I had the opportunity to shake his hand. Thanks, Mike, for the links.
Randal – Because a lot of Trimpe’s Joe issues were early in the run, they were quite iconic. He also did a good bit of the Special Missions series.
aw! I hadn’t heard this!
his work with Severin on HULK was the best! I enjoyed GODZILLA as well.
he also did some work on The Nam that was interesting!
oh, Machine Man & Shogun Warriors too!