Jim Aparo Brave and The Bold #119
The Panel: Batman becomes a "manbat" in order to escape the prison of a third world island dictator.
Aparo had a lot going for him. A certain attention to detail and an ability to work in proportions better than most comic book artists made for a lot of attention during his 1970s peak days. Though obviously derived from the Neal Adams "new look style" that rejuvenated DC Comics in the last years of the 60s and then the early 1970s, Aparo had his own recognizable embellishing method.
He worked well in superhero comics, and in my opinion his best came out when working with editor/writer Archie Goodwin or Len Wein, and he is probably best known beyond DC Comics fandom for his The Spectre revival work he did with Michael Fleisher (Aparo injected some humor into the black pathos of Fleisher's grim version of the erstwhile deadman-detective-superhero).
Aparo's 1980s work in the years leading up to his retirement seemed tired and rushed, leaning more and more on outline drawing that didn't have as much emphasis on building a sense of weight and depth, something Aparo gave attention to earlier. Maybe Aparo was trying to develop a simplified method that would be less labor-intensive in a field where an embellishing style can become a trap that's hard to get out of, and can be a dead end when fashions change.
Still, certainly one of the best superhero artist DC Comics has had since Neal Adams changed how superhero comics came to look during the so-called "bronze age" of comicbooks.
June 26, 2009
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