Byrne Robotics: Russ Heath

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Steve Horn
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Joined: 26 February 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 636

Posted: 22 March 2008 at 11:59pm \| IP Logged \| 1

Are there any Russ Heath fans here, and does he have a website?

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Edgar Snowball
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Joined: 27 August 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 16

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 4:54am \| IP Logged \| 2

What I've seen of Heath's work I've quite enjoyed, I understand that he was one of Neal Adam's biggest influences,

From what I've read, his most renowned work was in war comics, but I've not had the pleasure of seeing any of his war stories in full, just bits and pieces. The only complete story of his that I've read was a "Legends of The Dark Knight" arc from a number of years back, his renderings of Batman and Catwoman in it look a little dull (costumed heroes were never really his thing) but he did a great job of capturing mood and atmosphere.

He draws nice babes too.

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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133683

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 5:42am \| IP Logged \| 3

Very first piece of original comicbook art I bought was a Russ Heath SGT
ROCK page.

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Bill Wiist
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1555

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 7:04am \| IP Logged \| 4

Love that line-work on your Heath page. Those eyes, those tanks. Nice.

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Lars Skau
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Joined: 03 February 2006
Location: Denmark
Posts: 220

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 7:38am \| IP Logged \| 5

I grew up on his Sgt. Rock - I think he's amazing.

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Brad Teschner
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Joined: 01 June 2005
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Posts: 3933

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 3:23pm \| IP Logged \| 6

My first exposure to Russ Heath. Always wished he would have done more...although I believe he did some work on the animated series.

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Gene Kendall
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Joined: 13 September 2004
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Posts: 209

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 6:23pm \| IP Logged \| 7

Heath did the character designs for the G. I. Joe cartoon (he was hired because the producers wanted the show to look like a Sgt. Rock comic). A young Bruce Timm worked in the same office with him. Timm talks a bit about working with Heath in his Modern Masters issue. Heath once told Timm that drawing war comics was fun, but he would've drawn funny animal comics if it paid more.

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Felicity Walker
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Joined: 19 February 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 349

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 7:59pm \| IP Logged \| 8

I like Russ Heath. As Brad and Gene said, Heath did the character designs for the original GI Joe cartoon. They looked so good that I wish Heath had done subsequent cartoons, like X-Men and Batman. The problem with a simplified, cartoony style like Bruce Timm�s is that it has to be executed by good, expensive animators or it looks flat and wrong, whereas a more realistic-looking GI Joe style can be used by low-budget studios, and as long as they follow the model sheets, the cartoon will look all right--it may not move around a lot, but as drawings, it will look decent.

(Low-budget, cartoony, and flat: Batman episode �Prophecy of Doom.� Studio: Akom.)

(Low-budget, but on-model: Transformers episode �The Autobot Run.� Akom.)

(Low-budget, but realistic: Jem episode �The Beginning.� Akom.)

In the late eighties through mid-nineties, when high-quality Japanese animation became too expensive to use for an entire series, it would have been much better for cartoons to have had Heath-like designs than toony designs that only look right in high-quality animation.

Edited by Felicity Walker on 23 March 2008 at 8:00pm

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Edgar Snowball
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Joined: 27 August 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 16

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 9:32pm \| IP Logged \| 9

Hey Teschner, how about posting some more scans of Heath's GI Joe work?

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Richard Siegel
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Joined: 04 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 868

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 10:22pm \| IP Logged \| 10

Like JB my VERY first piece was a Heath and boy does he rock!

Here's the final panel...

one of these days Ill get a decent shot of it......maybe tomorrow? Stupid flash..

Edited by Richard Siegel on 23 March 2008 at 10:23pm

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Kirk Melton III
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Joined: 17 June 2007
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Posts: 501

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 10:40pm \| IP Logged \| 11

I bought a print of his last summer at the Super-Con in San Jose. I don't have the print scanned in

GREAT guy! This print is of a lovely woman who he says he's still with. A great color piece of a topless brunette...LOVELY, I tells ya!

I've said it before on this very forum, but the guy is a guy's guy. He told me the story of how they met, and how they've been in this fabulous love affair for years.

What's also funny was, when I went to him to have his sign Mister Miracle 24, (Golden pencils, Heath inks) I asked: How much to sign this comic Mr. Heath?(Golden wanted me to buy something before he signed anything...that's nothin' against him but it IS another story, yeah ....?) Anyway, back to Mr. Heath:

He kinda growled...'HOW MUCH? I'm not gonna charge you to sign a comic book, man!' Then he signed away. And that's when I bought the print and asked about other prints. I really dig the one I have, o'course.

This year he's gonna be there (Super Con) and I'm gonna try to hang with him a while. He's a good guy.

Don't know of any Russ Heath websites.

He's pretty f' in cool.

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Robert Bradley
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Joined: 20 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4887

Posted: 23 March 2008 at 11:35pm \| IP Logged \| 12

More Russ Heath -

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