As before, here’s another chunk of CANCELLED COMIC CAVALCADE #2, the home-printed collection of material intended for print but spiked by the DC Implosion, created to secure copyright and trademark on the material.
This time out, we’re looking at material intended to comprise STEEL: THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #6, written and created by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Don Heck. STEEL was one of a number of new characters/series that Conway had conceived of during this time. Others included FIRESTORM, which like STEEL ran for 5 issues, and VIXEN, which never released a single issue.
STEEL was something of an odd duck series, a wild combination of the Six Million Dollar Man, a DC war title, and Captain America. It was set entirely during World War II and featured a hero who had been put back together as a cyborg and who ran around in a patriotic-themed metal costume. It’s release was ill-timed as things turned out. DC was having a difficult time getting retailers to stock and display new titles, and so much of what they launched during the mid- to late 1970s failed and folded within a couple of issues. STEEL was no exception.
A number of years later, Roy Thomas would incorporate some of the pages from STEEL #6 into two issues of his own wartime series, ALL-STAR SQUADRON #8 and #9, though they were somewhat rescripted and redrawn for that appearance. But the entire story has never been published in its original form.
Don Heck is an underappreciated artist in the history of comics, but he does some very nice work here. Heck wasn’t always the most comfortable doing super hero work, in particular in the jack Kirby-derived manner of Marvel. But he was excellent when it came to genre pieces: westerns, romance, war features, etc. STEEL gave him the opportunity to illustrate a lot of period material, which was in his wheelhouse.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
It wasn’t redrawn in All-Star Squadron in the respect that (except for the last page or so, and a few drawings that were changed to splash pages) it follows Heck’s layouts almost exactly. However, Jerry Ordway (who was inking the issue) only had the photocopies to rely on, so he lightboxed them onto drawing boards and then embellished them from what he traced. But he was exceptionally faithful to Heck’s work I thought. (Even as a 12 year old reading it I recognized Heck’s signature style in the mix). The dialogue is pretty much taken from the Steel script, except for the subplot with Hank’s girlfriend and the Senator. Those All-Star Squadron used most of the buffalo! And it got me collecting back issues of Steel almost immediately!
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I decided for fun to pull out All-Star Squadron 8-9 and see how it stacks up. It uses about 80-90% of the issue and uses Heck’s artwork pretty much as is, right down to the sound effects. The main exceptions:
So other than the faces of Churchill and Hitler and that last page or so, it’s all using Heck’s artwork!
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The other great thing about the All-Star Squadron using the Conway/Heck material… it pretty much followed up on Conway’s intent, which was to give an origin story to Baron Blitzkrieg– a character he had used in the World War II version of Wonder Woman he did in the ’70s (when the comics followed the lead of the TV series). Which was the first time they more or less said Steel was set on Earth 2.
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Your words about Don Heck remind me of his kindness to a friend of mine; as a teenager, she wrote him regarding comics art and expressing her interest. He sent her a long letter back, encouraging her to practice and be artistic, and included stats of some pencils from one of the JLA-JSA crossovers. Having read those issues, I was struck by how his pencils were massacred by the inker. It frankly gave me a lot more respect for his talent, which I’d only encountered mostly in this 80s context where I’m sure he was winding down somewhat, and done no favors by the inking and the Flexographic process (that the final issue of Wonder Woman should look as it does is criminal!)
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Please note the inks were not by Joe Giella they were done by Frank Chiarmonte.
The original art has a blue penciled line threw Joe’s name and a vertical note to add Chiarmonte. Of course blue penciled line does not show up on NON color photocopies.
Found this scan on ComicArtFans.com website which is a truly valuable resources for finding Cancelled Comic Cavalcade 1st gen scans from the art boards — Not to mention so much Bronze Age art.
https://cafans.b-cdn.net/images/Category_450/subcat_29087/QURYrCpD_0304221259191sbpi.jpg
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From same website here’s the nice “angular” action Heck Cover
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I really liked that 1970s STEEL run — and it was precisely the not-quite-a-superhero flavor to it that worked so well for me. Heck was great at the period stuff and the character stuff, and the action felt suited to his particular wheelhouse — it was trying to be “Caniff with powers” rather than “Jack Kirby.”
And that unpublished cover is my favorite of the run, too.
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I liked this run as well. Six issues is hardly enough time to find and audience.
Heck would have been a pretty good replacement for Robbins on the Invaders… especially if Springer stayed as an inker. Although I reckon that Don preferred to work on books with fewer characters.
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Heck’s work on those LIBERTY LEGION issues fit nicely with the series, yeah.
And sure, Heck would probably have preferred to do solo books, but then, with rare exceptions, in the days before royalties, almost everyone would. Team books were more work for the same rate, and were harder to get artists for because of that very problem.
Thank heaven for lunatics like George Pérez!
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Agreed!
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That helmet/cowl on Steel certainly looks a lot like the Swordsman from back in Avengers #19-20. That also was drawn by Don Heck, was it not?
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Yes a bit like Swordsman , but even more like the Patriot from the Liberty Legion. Heck drew/designed that one for Marvel Premiere and Invaders just a year before he went to DC in 1977.
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The Swordsman was likely designed by Jack Kirby, and the Patriot had a fin on his head back in the 40s, but Heck may have certainly been influenced by drawing both — and by Kirby’s (non-finned) Fighting American design.
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Heck was around a long time. And there’ve been comicbook characters with fins on their cowls a long time, too. Even 20 years before the Swordsman. Like DC’,s Starman, Ted Knight. And the second costume worn by the Crimson Avenger.
There’s also another character during Marvel’s Avengers’ first decade; the Red Guardian. His suit was very 40’s influenced, including by Cap’s suit.
So when new characters in the ’70’s and ’80’s were set in the ’40’s, like Steel, the Patriot, and later Cyclotron and Deathbolt in “All-Star Squadron”, their design included a cowl fin to make them look “retro”. Even Michael T. Gilbert gave his Mr. Monster a vintage cowl fin.
i don’t think only the Swordsman was an influence on Steel’s cowl fin. It was meant as a call back
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Based on interviews where Heck states which characters he designed I’m fairly certain that the Swordsman is a Heck design despite the cover of Avengers 19 looking like a Kirby concept board.
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DC Comics went one way with the Six Million Dollar Man ( 1973 — Cyborg – 1972 novel ) inspired Steel the Indestructible Man and Marvel went darker with Deathlok [ Astonishing Tales#26 ( October 1974 ) ]. Steel set during WW2 and Deathlok set in what back then was the future ( 1990s ) — both armed with a gun ( Deathlok’s a maser ). Misty Knight [ Marvel Premere#21 ( March 1975 ) more in the spirit with the Bionic Woman ( March 16, 1975 ) with her human looking bionic arm ( minus the Bionic Woman’s bionic legs and right ear ). All-Star Squadron was how I learned about Steel and took a liking to the character.
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Iron Fist#2 ( December 1975 ) Misty Knight demonstrated super-strength in her right arm and again in Iron Fist#3 ( February 1976 ) before the Ravager/Radion’s energy blast exposed it as mechanical.
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Timely Comics has a character named Commander Steele ( British ambassador and father of Billy Steele )[ Daring Comics#10 ( Winter 1944-45 ) Sub-Mariner story “Death from the Unknown” – Vanza ( a water-breathing Venusian ) — A criminal ( George Mulford ) steals a spaceship and travels to Venus. He returns with some of the population and attempts to steal the wealth of a West Indian island of Barbuda, but Sub-Mariner kills him — comics.org & marvel.fandom.com ]. Then there is the golden age Canadian super-hero Commander Steel ( Jack Steel ) [ Grand Slam vol.3#9 ( August 1944 ) Anglo-American Publishing — affiliations the International Police Service. Fatally wounded by a German shell at the Battle of El Alamein, Jack Steel was saved from death by an unidentified scientist in hidden cave laboratory injected him with the “Elixir of Power”. Has superhuman strength, speed and durability. Plus regenerative healing ( internationalhero.co.uk )–very Hugo Danner of him ]
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I’m not sure why people defend Don Heck. His work was dull and lifeless – he made every comic he drew just a little worse. His early 1960s run on The Avengers after Kirby left almost derailed what was otherwise a well-written series. When I pick up a random comic and see Don Heck’s name in the credits, I immediately put it down again. He was almost as bad as George Tuska (and that’s saying something).
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People defend Don because they don’t share your opinion, Dann.
I only got to work with him once, but I was thrilled with the job he did, and I’d have loved to work with him on an ongoing basis.
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Hi Kurt. Absolutely – everything’s subjective. 🙂
On a sidenote, I’m a big fan of your work, especially your run on The Avengers with George Perez. You two got me back into mainstream comics again after I fell out of love with the medium during the late 80s and early 90s.
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Thanks.
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Come to think of it, I only got to work with George Tuska once, too,* and would gladly have done a longer project with him.
*once with him drawing a story I wrote, anyway. I also hired him to draw some spot art for an ASTRO CITY letter column, and he did really nicely on that, too.
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I like a lot of Heck’s work also,
He was a solid story teller, especially on period or psychological or gothic horror type work,
I thought he worked well with both Chiarmonte and Giella on this book,
I also really liked Tuska but for a slightly different reason: no one did dynamic fights better than Tuska except Kirby, Every Tuska fight scene looks like someone winds up going to the ED.
Related to this, no one made “flying Brick”-type heroes like Superman or Iron Man (or even Luke Cage, at a “street level?) look like they take up so much space and have that kind of mass (again, except Kirby),
They look like regular people get out of the way almost involuntarily.
That kind of art (in the right story) almost gives you mood and congruences from the art alone,
It was another thing he had in common with Kirby.,
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And I liked Tuska too. He’s one of the few artists I thought routinely maintained their style when inked by Colletta. I tend not to badmouth creators because I know art is subjective to a point. I wouldn’t choose to read a Liefeld book unless I really liked the character or writer but that’s as far as I go. Except for McFarlane. I hated his work on Infinity Inc and have never changed my opinion.
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Again, I went in a bit hard with my comment but I don’t shy away from it. Nothing anyone says to me will change my view that Heck and Tuskas were less-than-dynamic artists. Dependable, reliable, Technically competent? Yes. Interesting? No.
But as I said to Mr Busiek, it’s subjective. I’m a huge Herb Trimpe fan, but I’m sure some people would have negative opinions on his style, too.
I also dislike Liefeld’s art, but I know he had/has a loyal band of fans. McFarlane was less egregious to my eyes, especially his work on the Hulk.
I’ve always enjoyed Erik Larsen’s art, so it’s not like I had a “thing” against the original Image crew. 🙂
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I like George Tuska. John Byrne’s inks on The Champions#17 ( January 1978 ) brought some zing to his pencils. But I still found his work very acceptable on other series.
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I liked Steel a great deal despite being hit or miss on Conway written stories. I think it’s when I started to appreciate Heck’s art. I really didn’t like it all when I first started reading comics but work like Steel and my maturing had me looking past what had turned me off and seeing his craft. It wasn’t long after this that I could even look at old books I had disliked his art in and absolutely enjoyed it for how good it really was. His Barry Allen Flash work made him one of my favorite artists for the character.
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I loved his FLASH run, and his JLA as well.
I thought STEEL had bad inkers too often, but the storytelling was there even when I didn’t like the finishes.
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Don Heck was pretty divisive among fans in the 70s. I didn’t mind his art but I wasn’t a fan until I saw his excellent work on Silver Age Iron Man comics. Still later, I ran across his Golden Age art – which generally focused on genres other than super-heroes – and was especially impressed. Same with George Tuska, another Iron Man artist I enjoyed who did his best work on Golden Age titles like Crime Does Not Pay
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Heck’s work looked great in the 1950’s & ’60’s. His Avengers back then still holds up for me. His 1980’s superhero work looked watered down and outdated, compared to newer artists’ styles. He’d have been great on a Slam Bradley feature.
These Steel pages look dated in spots, but are still really fundamentally strong. Especially the lighting. Maybe influenced by 1930’s & 40’s cinema. His 50’s cops & robbers crime comics had a great noir look.
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I’d reuse the Commander Steel name for John Henry Irons, sans the cape & hammer. A design crossed with the Persuader, Iron Man, & the Iron Patriot. Complete with “concussor” beams instead if “repulsor” rays. Imitation being flattery, etc.
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’70s and ’80s Don Heck is one of those pencillers who really needed an inker who was sympatico with him– rather like Carmine Infantino in that era, or Gene Colan. It used to drive me nuts when I was a kid reading Heck’s JLA run. Early on, they gave him Romeo Tanghal, and it was beautiful. Then it was Sal Trapini and a lot of other inkers who were really indifferent to what he was doing and made the artwork look worse.
One of the great underrated runs in comics is the Dan Mishkin / Don Heck run on Wonder Woman. Nobody, and I mean nobody, cared about this book. But for my money, it’s my favourite version of Wonder Woman. I avoided it like the plague back in the day because of Don Heck , but re-reading it a couple of decades later I was so impressed with how dynamic Heck’s layouts are. Plus he got to ink himself a few times in that run, and he’s great.
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I like that run too (https://frasersherman.com/2019/07/09/not-a-dream-not-a-hoax-not-an-imaginary-story-wonder-woman-marries-steve-trevor/)
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