Marshall Rogers RIP

[Super Monkey]

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=106531

He was one of the greatest Batman artists ever!

RIP

[TELLE]

I just saw that --very surprising.  He was only 57.

[Permanus]

This is very sad and unexpected news. I have loved Rogers' art for a long time now, even though his name didn't really register with me until I read Detectives, Inc. twenty years ago or more, when I realised he was the same guy who did the Batman stories I liked so much. I had hoped we would see more of his work since last year's Englehart Batman series.

[MatterEaterLad]

He was way after my time, but sad to hear.

[Great Rao]

I loved his work on Batman, Superman, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Madame Xanadu/Scorpio Rose, and Cap'n Quick and a Foozle.  I hope they get reprinted.

[nightwing]

This is terrible news.  I still remember what a thrill it was to have this amazing new talent show up on Detective back in the late 70s, just as Batman art was sliding into mediocrity and it was finally sinking in that Neal Adams was NOT coming back (there were only about 3 years, amazingly, between Neal's last Batman work and Marshall's first, but as a kid that was an eternity).

Like a lot of kids, I loved comics for the art first, and Rogers' run on 'TEC was one of the absolute highlights of the period for me, along with Garcia-Lopez on the Super-books, Michael Golden on "Micronauts," Byrne and Austin on the X-Men, Perez on the Avengers, Walt Simonson on anything and the occasional Howard Chaykin "Dominic Fortune" tale in Marvel Premiere (or the black and white mags).  This was an exciting period where it looked like a whole new generation of artist greats were ready to take the reins.

What a disappointment when Rogers vanished from Batman, then from the face of the Earth it seemed to me.  But when he and Englehart reunited for their run on Dr Strange, it was like old times again. What an amazing run that was, cementing Strange once and for all as my favorite Marvel character and providing, for my money, the only post-Ditko material that matters.

I also could never forget that classic "Tales Of Krypton" story with the Christ-like figure.  If memory serves, Rogers' pencils were pretty smothered there (as they often were on Mr Miracle) by a lackluster inker, but they were still powerful enough to impress.  Then of course there was his amazing contribution to the legendary Superman #400: https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/a/400/resist/

So sad to know we've seen the last of his contributions to comics.  And to go at such a young age.  Crud. 

[Permanus]

Then of course there was his amazing contribution to the legendary Superman #400: https://www.supermanthroughtheages.com/a/400/resist/

So sad to know we've seen the last of his contributions to comics.  And to go at such a young age.  Crud. 

Beautifully put, Nightwing, and good thinking on linking to that Superman story, which is a great example of Rogers' understated, elegant art. It's worth noting, also, that Terry Austin really was a perfect inker for Marshall Rogers.

[JulianPerez]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WHY, God? WHY?

For me, my personal favorite examples of Marshall Rogers's work is the brief four-issue MISTER MIRACLE revival that he did with Englehart.

It's interesting how Marshall Rogers got on Englehart's "definitive" Bat-Run: Englehart, when he wrote his scripts (and at that point script-writing was unusual for Englehart, who was used to "Marvel Method" style plotting) did not know who the artist DC was going to give him. But because at that time DC was shedding artistic talent like dogs shed fleas, he strongly suspected it wasn't going to be anybody good.

Imagine his surprise to get the dynamite combo of Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin! His art is still spectacular today: for a long time the Dracula-esque widescreen panel of Batman bursting through Silver St. Cloud's room was my desktop. So many things made this run readable: Batman reflected in the Deadshot's mask (back before George Perez would overuse this technique), Batman perched on a corner with gargoyles.

The realism, the details, and most of all, the MOOD: the most frightening of all panels has to be Silver St. Cloud inside of her phone booth, lit from above by a noir-esque cone of streetlamp light...entirely surrounded by Hugo Strange's men. Yowza!

I've often wondered why it is that Englehart's JLA is not well-remembered, but his DETECTIVE COMICS run is. It may be that his DETECTIVE COMICS run was just such a big deal that it overshadowed the other. But Englehart was actually brought over to DC to do JLA. Englehart only did DETECTIVE COMICS because, as he was the 800 pound gorilla at this period in comics history, he asked to be placed on it (and got it).

I suspect the reason DETECTIVE is as well-remembered is the art. Not so much because Marshall Rogers was great, but because he was the right artist for the right job. Dick Dillin, Englehart's JLA artist, is in the category of good artists that are awkward around superheroes, a category that includes Don Heck as well.