Lit R.I.P. Carmine Infantino

As the regular penciller on Marvel's Star Wars up until The Empire Strikes Back era, Infantino was one of the earliest EU creators, and a legend in the comics world. He will be missed.

http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/04/04/comics-legend-carmine-infantino-has-died/

 

A classic artist who, aside from his great legacy in comics in general, contributed a lot to the early days of Star Wars and will, I hope, someday be an Aluminum Falcons Hall of Fame member. A sad, sad loss.

 

Very sad news.

As a kid, my first exposure to Mr. Infantino's artwork were these late '70's Marvel Star Wars comics - thanks for posting the pics. Great stuff, especially the Crimson Jack/water planet storyline, Return to Tattoine, The Wheel, etc. Excellent artwork, and his drawings of Stormtroopers are still my favorite comic book depiction of these characters...

 

Aw... now that's seriously depressing. His was some of the very first EU I read, and just thinking of the term "Expanded Universe" immediately brings his artwork to mind. The man was a fantastic old-school sci-fi visionary.

 

Oh :/ he allways was awesome, though his Star Destroyers did look a little odd. RIP

 

Another great artist passes. RIP.

His work on Marvel's SW was awesome.

 

So that's where the fan model of the Praetor Battlecruiser comes from. It's what was used in game mods for years until Warfare gave us an official model.

 

Warfare gave us an official model of the Praetor II- Admiral Giel's ship. I didn't see any Praetor I pics in that book though.

 

R.I.P. Carmine Infantino, this is a sad loss. Like you guys, he has a special place in my heart for his work on Marvel's Star Wars series (some of my favorite EU).



But also just as much, if not more, for his work from the same era on Marvel's John Carter: Warlord of Mars.



I just happened to stumble on 10 - 15 of these at the flea market a few years ago, and the covers were so bad-ass I had to have them. I had never even heard of ERB's Mars franchise. I loved them and when I saw old copies of the novels for sale I bought and loved those too. Looking further into the history of science-fiction, I learned about the franchise's important role as the first to incorporate pulp action elements into the genre. The connection with Star Wars was apparent, but also mentioned a lot. When I first joined JCF my signature for a very long time was promoting the original trilogy of books - A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and The Warlord of Mars) - as the original swashbuckling science-fiction adventure or something like that. Oh yeah, and then there's my s/n here. And pretty much all this is due to Carmine Infantino's amazing art in the old Marvel John Carter: Warlord of Mars series. Thanks Carmine!

 

I've always like the cover to #14, mainly because it featured Han wielding a blaster rifle and Chewbacca brandishing a pistol. Different from what is normally shown.

 

Hilariously, there was actually some direct crossover there, Tarkas. Infantino drew a fill-in issue or two for the John Carter series that was left hanging when the series was canceled. In order not to waste the art, Chris Claremont wrote a Star Wars story around it and Walt Simonson tweaked it to fit the Star Wars adaptation. We thus got two issues of Marvel Star Wars out of Infantino's John Carter art.

 

Whoa. Mind = blown. Thanks a lot for sharing that. Do you know what issues of Star Wars they were?

 

Yeah, the Aron Peacebringer arc. Star Wars 53: The Last Gift From Alderaan! and Star Wars 54: Starfire Rising. Basically, Leia crash-lands on Mars and meets John Carter. The names were changed to protect the innocent and the villain became General Sk'ar, an Imperial.

 

Well we can assume that a Praetor II follows the same upgrade style as Imperial I to Imperial II Destroyers. Similar enough in design with the modifications being made for performance. I've just always loved the ship design shown above. It's a beast in some of the mods for Empire at War I've played.

 

Yeah, Vader in Phoenix Rising with the Invincible is nothing to laugh at.

In any case, RIP to an excellent illustrator. I only wish that I had more exposure to Marvel Star Wars.

 

Dude... I didn't think anything could possibly alter my priority to get all the pre-Empire Strikes Back issues of the Marvel run first, but you may have just done so. Still, I need that young-Obi-Wan-in-the-Old-Republic issue next and NOTHING can change that.

 

In The Essential Guide to Warfare the Praetor is 4000m whereas the Praetor II is 4800 m.

I'd be OK with it looking different- more "Star-destroyer-ish"- with the high conning tower and domes (one of those ships- I think Wermis's, is shown with four "shield/sensor domes")- whereas Giel's flagship has a much lower tower with no domes. Giel's ship is also broader-looking.

 

Silent Drifting, one of my favourite Marvel SW issues.

 

That's sad. Still weird to think that without him, comic books probably would've died a long time ago(no Silver Age Flash means no SA Green Lantern, no Justice League, no Fantastic Four, no Marvel, etc).

His and Goodwin's run on Star Wars is one of the best!

RIP Mr. Infantino

 

A sad day. I love his art, especially his SW comics.

 

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176368261/comic-book-artist-carmine-infantino-reinvented-the-flash

 

Great info./pictures - Thanks for the posts. I wasn't aware of the Marvel comics John Carter of Mars/Star Wars connection, but it makes perfect sense since I remember SW #53-54 were somewhat different & almost out of place from the rest of the series (not to say they weren't interesting, however).

Re: Carmine's work on the John Carter, Warlord of Mars Marvel comic, there was an Omnibus reprinting the whole series that came out last year. Good stuff - though not cheap, the color & reproduction are great, and worth checking out if you like the material.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

Ah, I'm sad. He and Broome made Batman's New Look most agreeable in '64 and the way the characters moved and thrust themselves nearly out of the panel, priceless. Liked his Star Wars work, as well, and how interesting to read of the reuse of his work.

EAD Urk, I'm so used to HTMLing everything. Had to fix.