Marshall Rogers

For the retired American professional basketball player, see Marshall Rogers (basketball).
Marshall Rogers

Marshall Rogers, New York City, 1979
Born William Marshall Rogers III
January 22, 1950(1950-01-22)
Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York
Died March 24, 2007(2007-03-24) (aged 57)
Fremont, California
Nationality American
Area(s) Penciller
Notable works Batman
Detectives Inc.
Awards Extended list

Marshall Rogers (January 22, 1950[1] – March 24, 2007)[2] was an American comic-book artist best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics in the 1970s, particularly as one of the illustrators of Batman and Silver Surfer. In addition, Rogers illustrated one of the first graphic novels, Detectives Inc. (1979).

Contents

Biography

William Marshall Rogers III[2] was born in the Flushing neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens,[4] and raised there and in Ardsley, New York.[5] He took up mechanical drawing in high school,[6] and then attended Kent State University, in Ohio,[7] to study architecture, feeling this

...would keep my parents happy, because it's a legitimate profession, and would allow me some artistic outlet as I worked. Well, I quickly found out that the world wasn't ready for another Frank Lloyd Wright ... and I would end up doing parking lots and designing heating / cooling systems. I had wanted to draw and be imaginative. And then there was one last stumbling block, and that was calculus. ... I just couldn't grasp those weird theories that were running around.[6]

He studied architectural drawing, and his work was characterized by the depiction of detailed rendering of buildings and structures.[5]

He left college in 1971, before graduating, and returned home to New York, where he discovered his family was moving to Denver, Colorado, where his father's employer, Johns Manville, was relocating. Opting to remain, he completed a 52-page story he had begun in college and presented it in 1972 as a sample to Marvel Comics production manager John Verpoorten, who found Rogers' work wanting.[6] To earn a living, Rogers did illustrations for men's magazines that he described as "[r]eal low-grade schlock sleazo magazines that had illustrations to precede the stories." When one client went bankrupt, owing him at least $1,000, a friend offered him a rent-free house for the winter in Easthampton, New York, on Long Island, in exchange for "four or five illustrations" for a never-completed project.[8] The following summer he worked in a hardware store for several months, was fired, and while living on unemployment benefits approached the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard Comics and

...was given a couple of very small assignments. One was to design a costume for a kung-fu character they were going to establish, and another was to do a couple of illustrations for a back-up feature in a black-and-white monster book. The kung-fu costume I designed was rejected because they said, 'It was too good,' which meant, I felt, the costume was too intricate to draw over and over. The black-and-white illustrations were used. One appeared in the back of the black-and-white monster book on a little game-page they called 'Dr. Frankenstein's Brain Twisters.'"[8]

At some unspecified point, "I bounced in and out of a shipping clerk job" and did some retouching work for DC Comics, on reprints of 1940s Batman stories.[8] He continued showing samples to both Marvel and DC, and in 1977, his artwork began interesting Marie Severin and Vince Colletta, the two companies' respective art directors. "That got me my first job; it wasn't really the drawing ability," he said in 1980, "as much as my design capabilities."[6]

Some of his first comic-book work appeared in the black-and-white magazine The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, where he worked with writer Chris Claremont on a story featuring the "Iron Fist" supporting characters Misty Knight and Colleen Wing as the Daughters of the Dragon. He eschewed the grey wash that was used in other black-and-white comics stories in favor of applying screentone.

With writer Steve Englehart, Rogers penciled an acclaimed run on the character Batman in Detective Comics #471-476 (Aug. 1977 - April 1978),[9] providing one of the definitive interpretations that influenced the 1989 movie Batman and be adapted for the 1990s animated series.[3] He also penciled the origin story of the Golden Age Batman in Secret Origins #6 (Sept. 1986) with writer Roy Thomas and inker Terry Austin.

The two also did a sequel miniseries, Batman: Dark Detective, and had worked together on other series, such as The Silver Surfer. Also striking was Rogers' short run on DC's revived Mister Miracle series. Englehart and Rogers' first Batman run was collected in the trade paperback Batman: Strange Apparitions (ISBN 1-56389-500-5), and the second run in Batman: Dark Detective (ISBN 1-4012-0898-3). Rogers remained as artist on Detective Comics for a few issues after Englehart's departure from the series. With writer Len Wein, Rogers co-created the third version of the supervillain Clayface.[10]

An Englehart-Rogers story featuring Madame Xanadu that sat in inventory for a few years would be published as a one-shot in 1981, in DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to the "direct market" of fans and collectors.[11] In 1986, Rogers drew a graphic novel adaptation of "Demon with a Glass Hand", an episode of The Outer Limits television series, based on a script by Harlan Ellison.[12] It was the fifth title of the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel series.

He did independent work at Eclipse Comics and others. This included the first Coyote series with Englehart, and his own Cap'N Quick & A Foozle.

Rogers died on March 24, 2007,[2] at his home in Fremont, California.[5] His Batman collaborator Steve Englehart said he was told by Spencer Beck, Rogers' agent, that, "His son found him. They think it was a heart attack, and that he might have been dead for a while.”[13]

Personal life

Rogers' mother was Ann White Rogers. He had a sister, Suzanne, and a stepson, Russell Young.[5]

Bibliography

Comics work (interior pencil art, except where noted) includes:

DC

Eclipse

Marvel

Books and compilations

Portfolios

Comic strips

Awards

References

  1. ^ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comic Buyer's Guide. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. http://cbgxtra.com/knowledge-base/for-your-reference/comics-industry-birthdays. Retrieved December 12, 2010. 
  2. ^ a b c Social Security Death Index listing for William Marshall Rogers III, Social Security Number 084-38-8742, which notes of the date "Death Certificate Observed"
  3. ^ a b "Batman Artist Rogers is Dead". SciFi Wire, Syfy.com. March 28, 2007. Archived from the original on July 9, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070709051154/http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=5&id=40748. "Even though their Batman run was only six issues, the three laid the foundation for later Batman comics. Their stories include the classic 'Laughing Fish' (in which the Joker's face appeared on fish); they were adapted for Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. Earlier drafts of the 1989 Batman movie with Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight were based heavily on their work." 
  4. ^ Englehart, Steve (March 1980). "From Detective to Detectives, Inc.: An Interview With Marshall Rogers". The Comics Journal (Introduction, reprinted from 1979 New York Comic Art Convention program book) (54): 56. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. http://www.tcj.com/archive-viewer-issue-54/?pid=2393. Retrieved October 24, 2011. 
  5. ^ a b c d Tidwell, Beau (March 29, 2007). "Marshall Rogers, 57, Artist Who Drew Batman Comics, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on Octoer 28, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/obituaries/29rogers.html. Retrieved December 13, 2010. "Rogers drew highly detailed architectural features for the moody backdrops of Batman's exploits, down to the individual bricks in the buildings of Gotham." 
  6. ^ a b c d Rogers interview, The Comics Journal (54): 57. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  7. ^ "An Interview With Marshall Rogers". Swashbucklers (fanzine: Don Secrease, editor-publisher; reprinted at Marshall Rogers Fan Site) (2). Spring 1980. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. http://mrogers21.tripod.com/interview/misc_swash2.htm. Retrieved October 24, 2011. 
  8. ^ a b c "From Detective to Detectives Inc." An Interview with Marshall Rogers". The Comics Journal (54): 58. March 1980. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. http://www.tcj.com/archive-viewer-issue-54/?pid=2393. Retrieved October 24, 2011. 
  9. ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "...first-time collaborators Steve Englehart and artist Marshall Rogers firmly entrenched Batman in his dark, pulp roots." 
  10. ^ McAvennie, p. 179: "Writer Len Wein and artist Marshall Rogers vividly depicted Batman's battle with a third Clayface."
  11. ^ Catron, Michael (June 1981). "DC Taps Fan Market for Madame Xanadu". Amazing Heroes (1): 25. "Madame Xanadu, a 32-page/$1.00 comic that marks DC's first attempt at marketing comics specifically to fans and collectors, went on sale in early April. The book contains a 25-page tale by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers entitled 'Dance for Two Demons' ... The tale was originally commissioned for Doorway to Nightmare but was put into DC's inventory when that title was cancelled." 
  12. ^ Science Fiction Graphic Novel #5 at the Grand Comics Database
  13. ^ Contino, Jennifer M. (March 26, 2007). "R.I.P. Batman Artist Marshall Rogers". The Pulse (column), ComiCon.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. http://www.comicon.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=367483#Post367483. Retrieved July 5, 2008. 
  14. ^ Kronenberg, Michael (February 2011). "How the Batman Nearly Stepped Out of the Mainstream and into Independent Comic". Back Issue (46): 26. "Marshall did a portfolio called 'Strange' in 1979 that had Batman-esque plates, sans Batman. ... It is also worth noting that in 1981, courtesy of Sal Quartuccio Publishing, Marshall Rogers released 'The Batman', a color portfolio consisting of four plates (if you purchased the signed edition of the portfolio, you received a fifth plate) that allowed Rogers to illustrate Batman and his world unencumbered by comic book panels." 
  15. ^ Norwood, Rick, ed. Comics Revue #41 (1989), #42 (1990), and #43 (1990) Fictioneer Books

External links