Marshall Rogers Originals

As promised below, here are photos of my three Marshall Rogers original art pages. The top one is from a circa-1981 Doctor Strange story from the anthology series MARVEL FANFARE. It's written by Chris Claremont, and features Rogers's only (to my knowledge) collaboration with artist P. Craig Russell, who inked this page. In the middle is a page from Rogers's run on the regular DOCTOR STRANGE comic, also circa 1981. This page is from DOCTOR STRANGE #50, and features the time-travelin' sorcerer supreme meeting his old STRANGE TALES roommate Nick Fury (and one of his Howlin' Commandoes) in a blitz-period London pub. The inker is Terry Austin, and the writer is Roger Stern. The third is one of the gems of my collection: The splash page from the first issue of Rogers's 1977-1978 run on DETECTIVE COMICS with inker Austin and writer Steve Englehart, hailed as one of the best depictions of Batman in the character's multi-decade history.

All three pages show many of Rogers's strengths: His expressive faces, his cartoony touches, his skill at depicting architecture and stage settings, and his marvelous ability with comic-book storytelling. Each panel communicates more story than most artists can fit in an entire page.

The Doctor Strange pages are copyrighted by Marvel Comics. The Detective page is copyrighted by DC Comics/Warner Communications/Etc.

Marshall Rogers, R.I.P.

This one hit me in the gut. Marshall Rogers was one of those rare comic book artists who (a) had a style all his own and (b) carried it off brilliantly. His versions of Batman and Doctor Strange, along with the characters he created or co-created (Coyote, Scorpio Rose, Cap'n Quick, the Foozle) were unforgettable.

He didn't make it out to the West Coast much, but he did appear at an LA convention in 1991 and I had a nice chat with him. I also have three of his original art pages up on the walls of my house. I'll post pictures of them soon.

The only fortunate part is that he and writer Steve Engelhart were able to create one more Batman story together, last year, before Rogers succumbed at the far-too-young age of 57.