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The Wonderful Comic Books of Kenneth Landau
Paperback
Publisher: Bearmanor Media
Published: Dec 21 2023
Pages: 148
Weight: 0.61
Height: 0.40 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Kenneth Landau was an artist of considerable talent during the late Golden Age and Silver Age of Comics. His work particularly graced the pages of ACG's horror and mystery comics... although my favorite was his rendition of Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub in the mid-1950s. If only more artists had followed his lead in signing their work, expressing their pride in their contributions to what was one of the liveliest forms of popular culture!
Roy Thomas, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics (1972-1974) and writer of The Avengers, The X-Men, Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, et al.
In 1960, at age 8, I was nearly traumatized by Kenneth Landau's bizarre Interplanetary Episode, in which a pathetic village idiot is so cruelly abused by the locals that the appearance of the hideous aliens midway through is actually a relief, they being essentially kind and noble. The story was originally published in a censored version in 1955, then inexplicably reprinted in its original, ghastly glory in 1960, during the sanitized Comics Code era. Landau's unsettling artwork, in the grand tradition of Daumier and Ensor, captures his withered, sardonic, decaying characters and their world so effectively that this story still gnaws away at me today, with its bleak, disturbing... but fascinating power.
Larry Rapchak, composer, conductor, speaker
For many years I was under the impression that the ACG comicbook artist Ken Landau was actually the renowned actor/artist Martin Landau who was using a pen name in order to hide his true identity until one day a fellow comicbook historian asked Martin Landau that very question. Although Martin did assist daily strip artists early on in his career, he was not the Ken Landau that we mistook him for nor was he related to that artist. That led me to embark on a quest of locating the real Ken Landau which I was able to accomplish back in 2012. Our very first chat revealed that he was unaware anyone was even looking for him let alone having any admirers of his work. It was one of the highlights of my comicbook researching career to relay to him the fact that he had many many fans. I don't think Ken ever accepted that fact as he never thought of his own work as anything exceptional even though I did try to correct that opinion. I believe this book that his daughter Maranee has written will finally give fans some insight into Ken Landau the artist, the animator and father. It's a must have for any golden age comicbook horror & sci-fi art fan of which Ken Landau excelled in! He was even able to make the most mundane romance comicbook look interesting with his natural ability at drawing the woman form. Although this book has taken many years of pain staking research, I believe it has been worth the wait. I just wish Ken was here to meet his fans and see what a wonderful job his daughter has done with honoring his memory.
Shaun Clancy
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