Hi Chris. I think I can answer your question concerning the 14 pages of Batman Darwyn used to get work at DC. I was in San Diego and remember Mark Chiarello telling a room full of artists, hoping to get a big break, that he'd just received a submission from an artist whose published work was going to blow our minds. He was talking about Darwyn and the submission included pages of the re-worked Batman story "Night of the Stalker". If there are 14 of those pages they are the Batman pages you'd heard landed Darwyn the DC gig. As far as I know nothing from EGO was produced until much later. Darwyn re-worked the "Night of the Stalker" pages again for print in SOLO. The original version didn't have Lee Marvin or any likenesses to characters that had appeared in "Selina's Big Score". Thank you for this video. It's nice to see the old guy appreciated and understood with such glowing praise. On a personal note, the Wonder Woman/Black Canary story I drew for the New Frontier one-shot is, to me, some of my best work. It was definitely a highlight of my career so far. Thanks again. best, J.Bone
Darwyn was a rare breed of comic creators. He could do it all. Draw, write and ink to a higher level than most creators. His SPIRIT run was so much fun to read. His Parker run were all masterpieces. Tragic that as comic fans we only got 4 Parker graphic novels. He also designed the opening credits for the Batman Beyond animation series last minute over a weekend. Truly was a huge talent .
The New Frontier brings tears to my eyes every time I read it! Darwyn truly understood DC’s characters and told a beautiful action filled story. Batman: Ego is THE most underrated unread Batman story ever told!
I've worked in advertising for 30+ years and before that, I used to hang out at our family's ad agency when I was a kid in the mid-70s. It was the tail end of the era depicted in MAD MEN and the art directors and illustrators I got to know then created ads and visual images in much the same style as Darwyn Cooke. There is something about that "mid-century" look today that makes it very hip - like the graphic design used for Playboy, Esquire and other mens' mags of the 60s. As a huge pulp and golden age comics guy, I'm glad you showcased New Frontiers. I'm going to buy it now and savor it. It looks right up my alley. Thanks again, Chris, for a great show and all you do for the comics industry.
I don’t feel his art was retro, I think it was timeless and tells a story. Something that many newer artists aren’t anywhere as accomplished both technically or creatively.
The thing that always amazed me about Cooke’s simple, but gritty line work, is how he fleshes it out with marker like rendering. His use of Grey over color, and Color Highlights add dimension the way Zip A Tone once did. He also proved that gritty and dark stories don’t always have to come with murky shadows or “edginess” to be effective. Storytelling first. While I’m disheartened there won’t be more, I’m glad for what there is, and glad to learn more about it, and him, here. Thanks, Chris.
Was fortunate to meet Darwyn at a con a year before he passed, incredibly friendly with every guest in line. New Frontier is an absolute beauty of a story a must for any superhero fan.
Yep, he worked at the Madison pub in Toronto prior to his breakout as a comic creator. As a student at the University of Toronto at the time, would hang out there a lot as it was close to campus. I knew him casually and we would share a laugh later at conventions remembering those days.
I've read New Frontier this year. It was such a great book it was indeed a love letter from the past but I like how he made it complicated by addressing Racism, politics, gender... all the things that were bubbling under the facade of Golden Age America. such a sad loss that we lost him this early. RIP.
RIP to a legend. New Frontier gets a lot of well deserved love but him and Brubaker on Catwoman is my favorite. Cooke also gave us those amazing Parker adaptations.
DC The New Frontier is my favorite comic book out there and I don’t think anything captures the spirit of superheroes like it does. Darwyn Cooke was a master at storytelling, just got his Parker series and can’t wait to read it!
Great to see some coverage on Darwyn Cooke, but I would have liked to see some mention of his work on The Spirit. I've always felt that his work on the character was the truest to Eisner in terms of both writing and visuals.
Not only the art, but his writing was great on that series. It was a joy to read and you are right he respected Eisner's original vision and added his own touch to the character. Not an easy thing to do.
Every-time I re-read BEFORE WATCHMEN MINUTE MEN, I cry . Partly because it really works and its a worthy, tragic prequel Moore’s book, but partly because it’s the (unintentional) final testament for Cooke, and really highlights the great talent we lost.
Batman Ego is one of the single best Batman stories ever made. Absolute must read. It's the most interesting one character internal struggle and it's almost entirely in the batcave and Bruce's mind. It goes so deep into the heart of the character in a conversation that feels like it must have happened at some point, it's great to actually see it. How does Bruce live with Batman and vice versa?
My introduction to Darwyn Cooke’s work was his illustrious of Catwoman. I went through a huge phase when I was about 5 or 6 when I was obsessed with Catwoman and I remember seeing Cooke’s art of her in a character encyclopaedia. His design of Catwoman will always be the definitive version for me.
Thank you for recognizing Darwin Cooke as he weaves beautiful storytelling through visuals! I actually own BTAS artbook with his amazing storyboarding! Thank you again for recognizing his talents and art style!
Another banger of a video! Man, DC The New Frontier is THE greatest superhero comic book of all time for me. Cooke is such a legend, I loved the way he wrote Silver Age Barry Allen, just totally made me fall in love with that character. So happy you finally covered him!
And his take on Wonder Woman remains the BEST modern take on the character, perfectly balancing between strong and compassionate. "For The Greater Good", the add-on story to New Frontier, drove that point home.
Rest in the Infinite, Darwyn. He was able to imbue deep heart and gravitas into his art while maintaining a shamelessly cartoonish flare. Acknowledged the harshness of life while reminding of it's limitless promise.
There are many YT channels that showcase opinions, reactions, theories...even propaganda. Chris, I find that your work has become the YT equivalent of a literary essay. Keep up the great work, and Happy New Year's.
Darwyn was such a comic book purist. His Parker stuff is awesome. I was at Walmart one day and saw they had an anniversary edition on Blu-ray for 5 bucks. I had to scoop it up. I liked how he illustrated Wonder Woman being taller than Superman. Lol. The work he did with Brubaker was phenomenal. Always felt his art was just an homage to the silver age of comics in the 60s. Thanks for this video appreciating this gentleman's legacy.
I got to meet Darwyn at a Baltimore show in 2007, I think. He asked me to wait while he had a smoke break. When he came back, I got to speak with him about his work on Spirit, which I loved.
This could have been three times longer and I'd have relished every second. Few creators are as consistently and uniquely rewarding as Darwyn Cooke. It was especially fascinating how his skills as an illustrator and designer informed his strong instincts as a writer. For what it's worth I'd say his Before Watchmen issues (Minutemen and Silk Spectre) stood far above the rest and were the most respectful to Moore.
Hey Chris! This is FANTASTIC!!!!! I was one of Cooke's best buds and this made my day. As was J.Bone below. I miss my brother and this was absolutely awesome. Thanks Chris!
I always forget how short his bibliography actually is. He just feels like one of those writers who have been around forever and have done everything. Wish it was true.
I met him in 2013 and he was incredibly kind. He signed multiple things for me and patiently answered all my stupid questions. An amazing comics talent and also an amazing person.
I’m very new to Cooke. Didn’t know he wasn’t with us anymore. First of his works I purchased was Parker: The Score. I’ve been loving it. Gonna go back and grab many of his works now. Thanks Chris.
@@johnathonhaney8291 You got me even more excited! I kinda started out of order. But The Score has been so good. If The Outfit is better, I’m in for a real treat! Thanks bro!
As an old school comic strip fan I can pay Darwyn Cooke no higher compliment than to say he would have been a circulation booster for the newspapers that carried his artwork. His talent shares a place at the cartoonist table alongside Milton Caniff, Roy Crane, Frank Robbins, Walt Kelly, Crockett Johnson, Gus Arriola, Kreigh Collins, among others whose work , especially in the 1950s made comic strip reading addictive and memory inducing.
I can’t help but think how much my dad, who influenced my sequential art favorites, would have loved D. Cooke’s output. Thanks for turning me on to his work. Great stuff, always!
Wow, I've heard about Darwyn Cooke, but never really got into his work before. I've got the animated "New Frontier" movie, but never read the graphic novel. I may just have to pick it up. Another wonderful episode, Chris!
My favorite artist/creator too! Thanks Chris, for such a moving tribute to a much loved person. 😍 🤩 Your retrospective angle is the 👌 best.... keep up this great work! 😁👍👍👍
I loved most of everything I ever came across (his comics work). I know true talent when I see it, and he manifested true talent from my first encounter to my last encounter of his work. Another of the great ones, gone, but never forgotten.
I read Parker and I loved it, its an amzing adaptation of the books that I had already read, hitting the dark and almost mean tone just perfectly. I had no idea that I'd seen his work in the animation that I watched as a kid. Awesome video.
DUUUUUDE!!!! It's here! Thank you Chris, ending the year on such an incredible voice in comics. Hope you've had a good holiday season! This is one of of best gifts of the year man, I can't thank you enough.
Personally, there is nothing wrong with having adult themes in comics, it's more what adult has come to mean in the modern entertainment industry. Though they had their own share of problems relative to the time period, take a look at adult shows from the 50s when things were still heavily censored, a lot more substance. It feels as if we have the exact opposite now, less censorship, but adult content is used for cheap points rather than anything meaningful. For example, someone laughing at an F-bomb over why the profanity was used in the first place. I tend to not find this very satisfying.
Agree, nowadays seems like adult content is defined by "bad" words, tons of bood and violence, and sex/nudity, which are all cosmetic things and very few things go to the actual story being told.
I found the animated show Bojack Horseman to be such an amazing example of this. It uses vaudeville, slapstick, wordplay and downright silly humor while also tackling some VERY heavy subject matter... Yet rarely do they drop F-bombs. Or show full on sex/nudity. (in fact I don't remember any actual nudity) I think there's like... ONE f-bomb per season, and it always comes at a very intense emotional moment. Seriously, don't let some of the silliness of the premise fool you. The show has some masterful writing.
Awesome job. Thanks for putting this together. The loss is painful but his work endures. I wish Darwyn’s vision for the Marvel Adventures all-ages line had come to pass, as my three sons would have really enjoyed them!
Great as always. I would love it if you would do a show on Mike Parobeck. I think his ability to tell a story through his images alone were on par with Kirby. Truly a talent that was taken from us too soon.
I loved Cooke and Brubaker's Catwoman. I got it physical at home. It was great how they made conversations interesting both with dialog and in terms of graphic design.
This is one of my favorite videos on your channel. The new opening is great. The kirby krackle background is great. And Darwyn Cooke is great! Well done.
Sorry, Chris. Had to pause the video for a while just to immediately purchase New Frontier. Cooke is a freaking genius, thanks for introducing him to me and keep up the good work!
Wolverine/Doop needs a shout out, seems like no one else read it but Cooke killed it in a short fun 2 issue story. Not as epic as New Frontier but I love his IDW, Catwoman and smaller stuff because it shows how much he can do without needing Batman or Superman on the cover of his work.
I think Darwyn Cooke got better over time, I personally didn’t like his cat woman art because arms would be large or heads would be large, etc. But, his later work that he did ,like in the noir comics , he got better in my opinion.
Great retrospective on one of my favorite artists! But, I was kind of disappointed that there's no mention of the Spirit series written and drawn by Cooke for DC back in 2007 (I think). Those were great.
Good morning Chris. Thank you for another great informative episode. I've been trying to get my hands on that New Frontier (both book and movie) for a while now. I like the fact that Darwin Cook seemed to respect the history of the characters and wrote/drew such. It seems some newer writers lean more towards "fan fiction" writing then keeping character. That kind of turned me off for a bit. Some day I'll try to find a few examples from my collection. Hope you are having a great holiday time and a safer new year to us all.
Wonderful video! As a 'son of the post-Crisis', it was very meaningful to get to read The New Frontier, perceiving it precisely as you said, a love letter to not only DC characters, but the Silver Age specifically, something I sort of had kept in a box , in the back of my incipient, rather sporadic childhood comic reading. Cooke, even including the formerly masked social issues, and precisely for THAT, made it Magic. I 'blame' Wolfman and Pérez New Teen Titans for my becoming a true comic book fan (The "Runaways" two-part story). So the post-Crisis was perfect for me, even if I didn't experience 'Watchmen' until almost right before the movie came to be. And speaking of which, I was almost certain you would not mention Cooke's take on it, as I think his work alone carries that torch properly. In the end, it more than made up for it; Cooke's quote from the RS interview said all. And in the end, The New Frontier would always be his Magnum Opus. It moved me so much as to review it in my fb page, nothing special and only for my friends, but still as a way to express how much it meant to me. Thanks for, once again, a wonderful video...
I read and then rereading new frontier multiplie times as a kid. I think it and the wisdom of my kindergarten teacher who was a proud Native American and war vet which help influenced my own patriotism
I have always felt it you are hired by DC for anything they should hand you a copy of New Frontier, as it is the emotional heart of those characters, and should be the true north to always strive for.
I've been waiting for this episode since I first started watching Comic Tropes. Darwyn Cooke is one of my favorite comic book artists and writers. His comics always bring me a special kind of joy, the kind you get from enjoying art that feels earnest and free of any cynicism or irony. He is truly missed.
FYI, regarding the all-ages issue, Cooke's point was made clear in an interview (which has been posted on CZcams). He says that characters created in an all-ages comic should *remain* in all-ages stories. He had no problem with new characters being made for more adult stories. But he didn't think a kid who reads some back issues of Batman should also get the over-the-top grittiness of the recent decades. For what it's worth, I agree with him.
Man was a huge inspiration with my love of crime and historically-set superhero stories and art style. His loss his tragic. It would be cool if you did an episode on his Before Watchmen: Minutemen book as I consider it one of the only good things to come out of that whole line.
The New Frontier is seriously my favorite comic book of all-time and I stumbled across the collected graphic novel (not the Black Label one...I may get that) during one of my spells when I wasn't interested in comics. I've never read any of his other work. I need to rectify that.
Chris, you made a great point at around 20:33 with regards to multiple genres in comics. The truth is that there are, and have always been, multiple different genres in western comics. The problem is that people think that the word "comics" only means DC and Marvel and nothing else. DC and Marvel tend to focus mainly on the Superhero genre, but the industry as a whole is bigger than only those two publishers. The rest of the industry focuses on more than just Superheroes. Sci-fi and Horror are well represented. Action and Adventure are also well represented. Comedy is well represented, too. There are also genres such as Weird West, Post Apocalyptic, and Tragic Romance. True Crime and Noir are still a thing, as well. There are great comic book IP's in these other genres such as The Walking Dead, Aliens vs Predator (the comic books, not the movies), Crossed, Locke and Key, the night of the living dead comics, the HP Lovecraft comics, and too many more for me to list in a single comment. So, what Darwyn Cooke wanted, has always been there. Maybe a lot less back then because the CCA was going around and knee-capping the competition while trying to hide behind appeals to morality. However, there are multiple genres in western comics, and there have always been. People just need to realize that western comics is about more than only DC and Marvel and superheroes, and that the industry is bigger than that. I apologize for the size of the comment, but it is kind of a pet peeve when people equate the word "comics" to ONLY DC and Marvel superheroes and nothing else, as if the rest of the industry doesn't exist and isn't successful in its own right.
Thanks for making comics fun. I was a director at Warner Bros for quite a while. One day I ended up at the front desk at the redone galleria. Also there was Darwyn Cooke talking to someone that I didn’t recognize. The guy was asking Darwyn why he was finished with animation. Cooke replied he was sick of having his work changed and at DC no one touched his pages.
Hi Chris. I think I can answer your question concerning the 14 pages of Batman Darwyn used to get work at DC. I was in San Diego and remember Mark Chiarello telling a room full of artists, hoping to get a big break, that he'd just received a submission from an artist whose published work was going to blow our minds. He was talking about Darwyn and the submission included pages of the re-worked Batman story "Night of the Stalker".
If there are 14 of those pages they are the Batman pages you'd heard landed Darwyn the DC gig. As far as I know nothing from EGO was produced until much later. Darwyn re-worked the "Night of the Stalker" pages again for print in SOLO. The original version didn't have Lee Marvin or any likenesses to characters that had appeared in "Selina's Big Score".
Thank you for this video. It's nice to see the old guy appreciated and understood with such glowing praise. On a personal note, the Wonder Woman/Black Canary story I drew for the New Frontier one-shot is, to me, some of my best work. It was definitely a highlight of my career so far.
Thanks again.
best,
J.Bone
Thank you so much for this important correction, or at least additional information, Jay. I love the Tangled Web Christmas story you two did together.
WOW!
This is one of your all-time best episodes and certainly 👌 one of my favorites.
I gotta admit, as much as I love the awesome new animated intro, I’m gonna miss the old “comic tropes” intro jingle haha
We all miss things that used to be, even when the future is obviously a million steps above what came before
I miss the "Oh hi! You caught me_________" intros.
@@ShinbrigTV I feel you.
Love the old song
Like the new intro.
Darwyn cook understood the hearts & souls of dc’s characters and was a master storyteller with a passion for comics.
I still miss him.
Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier was a huge inspiration for me to move forward and be a positive person, comic book industry will miss him
yah i love his retro art style it inspires my style a lot
wasn't that hard, now, was it?
Yeah, me too. I was awed throughout. Now I must read it again! We all miss him, Nikita. Be well.
I didn't know Cooke was responsible for Selina's modern catsuit. I totally agree with him about doing his best to honor the past.
Darwyn was a rare breed of comic creators. He could do it all. Draw, write and ink to a higher level than most creators. His SPIRIT run was so much fun to read. His Parker run were all masterpieces. Tragic that as comic fans we only got 4 Parker graphic novels. He also designed the opening credits for the Batman Beyond animation series last minute over a weekend. Truly was a huge talent .
The New Frontier brings tears to my eyes every time I read it! Darwyn truly understood DC’s characters and told a beautiful action filled story. Batman: Ego is THE most underrated unread Batman story ever told!
I've worked in advertising for 30+ years and before that, I used to hang out at our family's ad agency when I was a kid in the mid-70s. It was the tail end of the era depicted in MAD MEN and the art directors and illustrators I got to know then created ads and visual images in much the same style as Darwyn Cooke. There is something about that "mid-century" look today that makes it very hip - like the graphic design used for Playboy, Esquire and other mens' mags of the 60s.
As a huge pulp and golden age comics guy, I'm glad you showcased New Frontiers. I'm going to buy it now and savor it. It looks right up my alley. Thanks again, Chris, for a great show and all you do for the comics industry.
I was unaware he passed away in 2016. That’s sad he was a tremendous creator
I don’t feel his art was retro, I think it was timeless and tells a story. Something that many newer artists aren’t anywhere as accomplished both technically or creatively.
He drew clothes to the superheroes, not naked guys with color over, you can see the lines of the costumes over the bodies.
_“I want [mainstream comics] to stop catering to the perverted needs of forty-five year old men.”_ -- *Darwyn Cooke*
Speaking as one of that demo, I second that statement.
so he abandoned his goal, then?
I agree with Mr. Cooke. What, are those guys afraid to watch porn or something?
@@truefanforum3273 Porn with really good stories to go along with it aren't all that easy to come by.
@@somerandofilipino6957 That's probably because good stories are about as necessary to porn as screen doors are to submarines.
The thing that always amazed me about Cooke’s simple, but gritty line work, is how he fleshes it out with marker like rendering. His use of Grey over color, and Color Highlights add dimension the way Zip A Tone once did. He also proved that gritty and dark stories don’t always have to come with murky shadows or “edginess” to be effective. Storytelling first. While I’m disheartened there won’t be more, I’m glad for what there is, and glad to learn more about it, and him, here. Thanks, Chris.
Was fortunate to meet Darwyn at a con a year before he passed, incredibly friendly with every guest in line. New Frontier is an absolute beauty of a story a must for any superhero fan.
I didn’t know he was Canadian! It’s always cool as a Canadian learning a out creators from here. I also didn’t know he had died! RIP Darwin Cooke.
Yep, he worked at the Madison pub in Toronto prior to his breakout as a comic creator. As a student at the University of Toronto at the time, would hang out there a lot as it was close to campus. I knew him casually and we would share a laugh later at conventions remembering those days.
I've read New Frontier this year. It was such a great book it was indeed a love letter from the past but I like how he made it complicated by addressing Racism, politics, gender... all the things that were bubbling under the facade of Golden Age America. such a sad loss that we lost him this early. RIP.
RIP to a legend. New Frontier gets a lot of well deserved love but him and Brubaker on Catwoman is my favorite. Cooke also gave us those amazing Parker adaptations.
DC The New Frontier is my favorite comic book out there and I don’t think anything captures the spirit of superheroes like it does. Darwyn Cooke was a master at storytelling, just got his Parker series and can’t wait to read it!
Great to see some coverage on Darwyn Cooke, but I would have liked to see some mention of his work on The Spirit. I've always felt that his work on the character was the truest to Eisner in terms of both writing and visuals.
Not only the art, but his writing was great on that series. It was a joy to read and you are right he respected Eisner's original vision and added his own touch to the character. Not an easy thing to do.
Quite. As an illustrator and a designer, Cooke brought both a lightness and a depth that evoked Eisner's, and yet remained completely his own.
Every-time I re-read BEFORE WATCHMEN MINUTE MEN, I cry . Partly because it really works and its a worthy, tragic prequel Moore’s book, but partly because it’s the (unintentional) final testament for Cooke, and really highlights the great talent we lost.
I admire Darwyn Cooke's work so much. Thanks for shining a light on him.
Batman Ego is one of the single best Batman stories ever made. Absolute must read. It's the most interesting one character internal struggle and it's almost entirely in the batcave and Bruce's mind. It goes so deep into the heart of the character in a conversation that feels like it must have happened at some point, it's great to actually see it. How does Bruce live with Batman and vice versa?
AND it offers no easy or pat answers, tempting things for this kind of story.
My introduction to Darwyn Cooke’s work was his illustrious of Catwoman. I went through a huge phase when I was about 5 or 6 when I was obsessed with Catwoman and I remember seeing Cooke’s art of her in a character encyclopaedia. His design of Catwoman will always be the definitive version for me.
I asked for and got the Parker Martini edition for Christmas. Really cool that you made this video for the holidays!
Thank you for recognizing Darwin Cooke as he weaves beautiful storytelling through visuals! I actually own BTAS artbook with his amazing storyboarding! Thank you again for recognizing his talents and art style!
That quote at the end wow thats legit right there RIP Darwin you are missed
Another banger of a video! Man, DC The New Frontier is THE greatest superhero comic book of all time for me. Cooke is such a legend, I loved the way he wrote Silver Age Barry Allen, just totally made me fall in love with that character. So happy you finally covered him!
And his take on Wonder Woman remains the BEST modern take on the character, perfectly balancing between strong and compassionate. "For The Greater Good", the add-on story to New Frontier, drove that point home.
Rest in the Infinite, Darwyn.
He was able to imbue deep heart and gravitas into his art while maintaining a shamelessly cartoonish flare. Acknowledged the harshness of life while reminding of it's limitless promise.
There are many YT channels that showcase opinions, reactions, theories...even propaganda. Chris, I find that your work has become the YT equivalent of a literary essay. Keep up the great work, and Happy New Year's.
Darwyn was such a comic book purist. His Parker stuff is awesome. I was at Walmart one day and saw they had an anniversary edition on Blu-ray for 5 bucks. I had to scoop it up. I liked how he illustrated Wonder Woman being taller than Superman. Lol. The work he did with Brubaker was phenomenal. Always felt his art was just an homage to the silver age of comics in the 60s. Thanks for this video appreciating this gentleman's legacy.
It's been a while since I last watched, I like the new intro and was suprised by the lack of intro skit
Edit: grammar
Darwyn Cooke really makes me wish i could draw, such an amazing artist who simplified the human form while keeping the emotions intact. RIP.
I got to meet Darwyn at a Baltimore show in 2007, I think. He asked me to wait while he had a smoke break. When he came back, I got to speak with him about his work on Spirit, which I loved.
It's honestly painful to imagine how many more great stories we might have gotten from Darwyn Cooke if he was still with us, but will now never see. 😪
Such an amazing talent, God rest his soul
This could have been three times longer and I'd have relished every second. Few creators are as consistently and uniquely rewarding as Darwyn Cooke. It was especially fascinating how his skills as an illustrator and designer informed his strong instincts as a writer. For what it's worth I'd say his Before Watchmen issues (Minutemen and Silk Spectre) stood far above the rest and were the most respectful to Moore.
Hey Chris! This is FANTASTIC!!!!! I was one of Cooke's best buds and this made my day. As was J.Bone below. I miss my brother and this was absolutely awesome. Thanks Chris!
The Spirit was the reason I got into comics. Cooke’s Spirit/Batman will always have a special place in my heart.
I always forget how short his bibliography actually is. He just feels like one of those writers who have been around forever and have done everything. Wish it was true.
Thank you for this one, Chris. Means a lot.
I met him in 2013 and he was incredibly kind. He signed multiple things for me and patiently answered all my stupid questions. An amazing comics talent and also an amazing person.
Ironically, Cooke’s ‘Minutemen’ was the only ‘Before Watchmen’ that I considered essential reading. Everything else felt like a retread.
I’m very new to Cooke. Didn’t know he wasn’t with us anymore. First of his works I purchased was Parker: The Score. I’ve been loving it. Gonna go back and grab many of his works now. Thanks Chris.
You're going to LOVE The Outfit, brother. Personal opinion, all four Parker pieces are great but it's the best of them.
@@johnathonhaney8291 You got me even more excited! I kinda started out of order. But The Score has been so good. If The Outfit is better, I’m in for a real treat! Thanks bro!
As an old school comic strip fan I can pay Darwyn Cooke no higher compliment than to say he would have been a circulation booster for the newspapers that carried his artwork. His talent shares a place at the cartoonist table alongside Milton Caniff, Roy Crane, Frank Robbins, Walt Kelly, Crockett Johnson, Gus Arriola, Kreigh Collins, among others whose work , especially in the 1950s made comic strip reading addictive and memory inducing.
I can’t help but think how much my dad, who influenced my sequential art favorites, would have loved D. Cooke’s output. Thanks for turning me on to his work.
Great stuff, always!
Merry Christmas, mate!👍 Love the channel. UK fan👍
Love Darwyn Cooke. Love the new intro as well.
Wow, I've heard about Darwyn Cooke, but never really got into his work before. I've got the animated "New Frontier" movie, but never read the graphic novel. I may just have to pick it up. Another wonderful episode, Chris!
My favorite artist/creator too! Thanks Chris, for such a moving tribute to a much loved person. 😍 🤩
Your retrospective angle is the 👌 best.... keep up this great work! 😁👍👍👍
Yes, yes, yes! New Frontier is an absolute masterpiece.
Darwyn Crooke and Mike Mignola styles are our favorite . Simple yet detailed
I loved most of everything I ever came across (his comics work). I know true talent when I see it, and he manifested true talent from my first encounter to my last encounter of his work. Another of the great ones, gone, but never forgotten.
oh yeah comic troopes and sunday coffee :) Great video ! I love Brubaker and Cook make some awesome comics and Parker books are soooooo good !
Loving the trope/coffee combo.
Next I'll look for those Parker books.
I read Parker and I loved it, its an amzing adaptation of the books that I had already read, hitting the dark and almost mean tone just perfectly. I had no idea that I'd seen his work in the animation that I watched as a kid. Awesome video.
I know this has probably been said to death but that new intro is so beautifully animated!
Wonderful post about the late Darwyn Cooke. I love his style especially in The New Frontier and Richard Stark’s Parker. Thanks much!
DUUUUUDE!!!! It's here! Thank you Chris, ending the year on such an incredible voice in comics. Hope you've had a good holiday season! This is one of of best gifts of the year man, I can't thank you enough.
Personally, there is nothing wrong with having adult themes in comics, it's more what adult has come to mean in the modern entertainment industry. Though they had their own share of problems relative to the time period, take a look at adult shows from the 50s when things were still heavily censored, a lot more substance. It feels as if we have the exact opposite now, less censorship, but adult content is used for cheap points rather than anything meaningful. For example, someone laughing at an F-bomb over why the profanity was used in the first place. I tend to not find this very satisfying.
Agree, nowadays seems like adult content is defined by "bad" words, tons of bood and violence, and sex/nudity, which are all cosmetic things and very few things go to the actual story being told.
I found the animated show Bojack Horseman to be such an amazing example of this. It uses vaudeville, slapstick, wordplay and downright silly humor while also tackling some VERY heavy subject matter... Yet rarely do they drop F-bombs. Or show full on sex/nudity. (in fact I don't remember any actual nudity) I think there's like... ONE f-bomb per season, and it always comes at a very intense emotional moment. Seriously, don't let some of the silliness of the premise fool you. The show has some masterful writing.
I think it takes far more skill to produce true ‘all ages’ work.
Awesome job. Thanks for putting this together. The loss is painful but his work endures. I wish Darwyn’s vision for the Marvel Adventures all-ages line had come to pass, as my three sons would have really enjoyed them!
Great as always. I would love it if you would do a show on Mike Parobeck. I think his ability to tell a story through his images alone were on par with Kirby. Truly a talent that was taken from us too soon.
Great episode Chris. Wonderful coverage on the amazing Mr. Cooke. I feel fortunate to have known him.
Darwyn Cooke was someone we need in this declining comic book industry.
I see a Harvey Kurtzman at EC influence on the Hal in Korea portion of New Frontier.
I loved Cooke and Brubaker's Catwoman. I got it physical at home. It was great how they made conversations interesting both with dialog and in terms of graphic design.
This is one of my favorite videos on your channel. The new opening is great. The kirby krackle background is great. And Darwyn Cooke is great! Well done.
Sorry, Chris. Had to pause the video for a while just to immediately purchase New Frontier. Cooke is a freaking genius, thanks for introducing him to me and keep up the good work!
Wow. Such a cool episode. I recently discovered your channel and i'm learning a lot of new stuffs. Cheers from Argentina! 🇦🇷💛
Thanks for making this! Love Darwyn Cooke's work and am happy to learn a little more about him.
Wolverine/Doop needs a shout out, seems like no one else read it but Cooke killed it in a short fun 2 issue story. Not as epic as New Frontier but I love his IDW, Catwoman and smaller stuff because it shows how much he can do without needing Batman or Superman on the cover of his work.
9:49 and even his reference to very first superman cartoon, when John goes the cinema is recognisable but has his own style witch showed his talent
The Parker story The Hunter was also adapted into film in 1967 by John Boorman as Point Blank, with Lee Marvin as Parker.
One of my favorite films, actually. And Lee Marvin was also the basis of Stark, Cooke's Parker stand-in for his DC stories.
Got the New Frontier Black Label edition for my birthday, as per your recommendation. I'm loving it so far!
rip Darwin Cooke you were one of the greats
I think Darwyn Cooke got better over time, I personally didn’t like his cat woman art because arms would be large or heads would be large, etc. But, his later work that he did ,like in the noir comics , he got better in my opinion.
Great retrospective on one of my favorite artists! But, I was kind of disappointed that there's no mention of the Spirit series written and drawn by Cooke for DC back in 2007 (I think). Those were great.
Thanks for talking about Cooke! He’s probably my favorite cartoonist, and it breaks my heart that he passed
Good morning Chris. Thank you for another great informative episode. I've been trying to get my hands on that New Frontier (both book and movie) for a while now. I like the fact that Darwin Cook seemed to respect the history of the characters and wrote/drew such. It seems some newer writers lean more towards "fan fiction" writing then keeping character. That kind of turned me off for a bit. Some day I'll try to find a few examples from my collection.
Hope you are having a great holiday time and a safer new year to us all.
The New Frontier is my fav DC movie. Great story and visuals.
I loved his work on the Batman Beyond opening.
Wonderful video! As a 'son of the post-Crisis', it was very meaningful to get to read The New Frontier, perceiving it precisely as you said, a love letter to not only DC characters, but the Silver Age specifically, something I sort of had kept in a box , in the back of my incipient, rather sporadic childhood comic reading. Cooke, even including the formerly masked social issues, and precisely for THAT, made it Magic. I 'blame' Wolfman and Pérez New Teen Titans for my becoming a true comic book fan (The "Runaways" two-part story). So the post-Crisis was perfect for me, even if I didn't experience 'Watchmen' until almost right before the movie came to be. And speaking of which, I was almost certain you would not mention Cooke's take on it, as I think his work alone carries that torch properly. In the end, it more than made up for it; Cooke's quote from the RS interview said all. And in the end, The New Frontier would always be his Magnum Opus. It moved me so much as to review it in my fb page, nothing special and only for my friends, but still as a way to express how much it meant to me. Thanks for, once again, a wonderful video...
Yo a video on my favorite Comic Book artist! Can't wait to watch it later tonight.
Batman Beyond is probably my favourite tv opening ever and the creator is from my hometown. how did I never know that
The comics tropes jingle was nice. I will miss it but this intro was rad. Like an old cartoon show that I loved.
Grabbed like 13 of these on veve . Classic is timeless
I read and then rereading new frontier multiplie times as a kid. I think it and the wisdom of my kindergarten teacher who was a proud Native American and war vet which help influenced my own patriotism
I have always felt it you are hired by DC for anything they should hand you a copy of New Frontier, as it is the emotional heart of those characters, and should be the true north to always strive for.
I've been waiting for this episode since I first started watching Comic Tropes.
Darwyn Cooke is one of my favorite comic book artists and writers. His comics always bring me a special kind of joy, the kind you get from enjoying art that feels earnest and free of any cynicism or irony. He is truly missed.
FYI, regarding the all-ages issue, Cooke's point was made clear in an interview (which has been posted on CZcams). He says that characters created in an all-ages comic should *remain* in all-ages stories. He had no problem with new characters being made for more adult stories. But he didn't think a kid who reads some back issues of Batman should also get the over-the-top grittiness of the recent decades. For what it's worth, I agree with him.
Have been following for a few years now, want to say thank you!!! And couldn't agree more about 'New Frontier' and all of Cooke's work! You da man!
Twilight children was published by vertigo, not image I believe. Cooke is a legend! Very happy with your video on him thank you!
The man worked his way into our hearts with his work on animation and comics
I love his thick black lines and shadows
Man was a huge inspiration with my love of crime and historically-set superhero stories and art style. His loss his tragic.
It would be cool if you did an episode on his Before Watchmen: Minutemen book as I consider it one of the only good things to come out of that whole line.
Very interesting. So much researching. Thank you.
Always a pleasure. Thank you for your consistent quality and heart.
Cooke's Slam Bradley is Robert Mitchum 100%
The New Frontier is seriously my favorite comic book of all-time and I stumbled across the collected graphic novel (not the Black Label one...I may get that) during one of my spells when I wasn't interested in comics. I've never read any of his other work. I need to rectify that.
Always top videos , thank you from Italy 🇮🇹
i was really sad to hear of his passing he brought a lot to the medium of comics
Chris, you made a great point at around 20:33 with regards to multiple genres in comics. The truth is that there are, and have always been, multiple different genres in western comics. The problem is that people think that the word "comics" only means DC and Marvel and nothing else. DC and Marvel tend to focus mainly on the Superhero genre, but the industry as a whole is bigger than only those two publishers. The rest of the industry focuses on more than just Superheroes. Sci-fi and Horror are well represented. Action and Adventure are also well represented. Comedy is well represented, too. There are also genres such as Weird West, Post Apocalyptic, and Tragic Romance. True Crime and Noir are still a thing, as well. There are great comic book IP's in these other genres such as The Walking Dead, Aliens vs Predator (the comic books, not the movies), Crossed, Locke and Key, the night of the living dead comics, the HP Lovecraft comics, and too many more for me to list in a single comment. So, what Darwyn Cooke wanted, has always been there. Maybe a lot less back then because the CCA was going around and knee-capping the competition while trying to hide behind appeals to morality. However, there are multiple genres in western comics, and there have always been. People just need to realize that western comics is about more than only DC and Marvel and superheroes, and that the industry is bigger than that.
I apologize for the size of the comment, but it is kind of a pet peeve when people equate the word "comics" to ONLY DC and Marvel superheroes and nothing else, as if the rest of the industry doesn't exist and isn't successful in its own right.
Thanks for making comics fun. I was a director at Warner Bros for quite a while. One day I ended up at the front desk at the redone galleria. Also there was Darwyn Cooke talking to someone that I didn’t recognize. The guy was asking Darwyn why he was finished with animation. Cooke replied he was sick of having his work changed and at DC no one touched his pages.