I would never celebrate at the death of a fellow human being, especially someone as talented in his own right as L. Sprague de Camp, but...really, thanks to him dying we've got these deluxe, unabridged versions of Conan, the Bran Mak Morn tales, etc. While L. Sprague is a great writer, his copyright-ownership stranglehold on Howard's estate, and refusal to allow "pure" Howard to be published really hurt fans. A pastiche by him or Lin Carter has no business with Howard's work, no more than something I write belongs there.
And Superboy has had some pretty mediocre artists. I'm talking about George Papp and Al Plastino here. The brief, but major exception is Bob Brown, who is one of my all-time favorite AVENGERS artists, right up there with Perez and Heck. They had Murphy Anderson to ink over him on SUPERBOY, and you've got something explosive enough to need a warning label. Still, the Brown/Anderson combo didn't last as long as it ought to.
It surprises me that L. Sprague de Camp had
any say in the publication of unedited and unexpurgated tales of Conan. More so as a British publisher brought out a first volume (of two) of such Conan stories just before de Camp died, although his assistance was mentioned in the acknowledgements (though I must say, these books were shockingly proofread, and I am glad I was able to replace them with the newer Ballantine/Del Rey editions).
I agree with you to some extent, Julian - Papp and Plastino have usually failed to excite me, and in my opinion their stories nearly always stand or fall solely on the merits of the writing, unlike the case with Curt Swan on art duties, for instance, with him even if the story is tending towards mediocrity I can still enjoy the art.
The late 1960s-early 1970s Frank Robbins/Bob Brown stint on Superboy is my favorite era of Superboy, with some of the stories having a distinctly darker,
noirish edge to them. You omitted to mention, Julian, the great Wally Wood's fairly brief stint as inker over Brown's pencils on Superboy just before Anderson came along. Wood and Anderson are two of the greatest inkers who ever lived in my opinion, and the Superboy comic was certainly much better for having their talents on the book for several years. The less said about Jack Abel's brief spell as Superboy inker around about the same time, the better.
I treasure my complete run of Superboy comics from this period, particularly as apparently none of them have ever been reprinted.
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