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Craig Earl
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

The thread about Reed Richard's facial features have made me think more about distinctive looks for other major characters, and how much those looks are set in stone as 'must-haves'.

Obviously, in Reed's case, the grey temples are a given, but does everyone draw Peter Parker with brown eyes or Steve Rogers with a cleft chin? Adding to this, are there distinctly left-handed characters or characters with turned-up noses?

I'm guessing that many of these details would have been featured in the old OHOTMU (and maybe that was considered a reference point for artists), but it strikes me that having certain features locked-in would only help make certain heroes very recognisable.
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Craig Earl
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 12:15pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Obviously, I meant:

"does everyone colour (or color) Peter Parker with brown eyes"
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John Byrne
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

No less than Stan Lee busted my chops way, way back when, because I had drawn a cover on which Cap did not have a cleft in his chin! (This was before my brief sojourn as penciler on Cap’s title.)
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Doug Centers
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Seems like hair- facial and head- goes a long way in the medium for recognizability.

But things can change, like Peter Parker's spit curl. I think he was just drawn with a widow's peak early on, wonder when that became canon?
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Craig Earl
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

No less than Stan Lee busted my chops way, way back when, because I had drawn a cover on which Cap did not have a cleft in his chin! (This was before my brief sojourn as penciler on Cap’s title.)

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I remember the issue in that great run which included mention of the very cleft itself (Stern & Byrne - such a lovely fit but over way too soon!).

Interestingly, I recently saw a few Ron Lim issues of Captain America where the cleft seemed intact. Then I spotted that every other face in view seemed to have one too!
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John Byrne
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

When Roger left CAPTAIN AMERICA in protest, Jim Salicrup, the editor, offered the writing job to me. I declined, leaving in support of Rog.

Decades later I learned Roger hadn’t quit for the reason I thought he had!!

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Brian Miller
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Was it a reason you could’ve lived with and continued on the title?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Hard to say.
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Doug Centers
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Posted: 08 June 2024 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I was just talking with Rubenstein about that run a few weeks ago at a con. I told him I wished it had gone 40 more issues minimum. He said he wished the same.

Related to this thread he also said that editorial had a staff artist lengthen Cap's smile on that Presidential pin cover. Joe said when he got it Cap looked like the Joker and pared it down himself
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Jonathan A. Dowdell
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Posted: 09 June 2024 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I think I remember in an FF letters page (early in Mr. Byrne's run) someone commented on Reed's eyes now being Brown (sometimes colored blue). And JB commented that Reed's eyes are brown. I'll try to big out those issues to take a look. 
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John Byrne
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Posted: 09 June 2024 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Character eyes tended to turn blue over time because it was easier in those days of manual color separation. Blue took one tap of the brush, brown took two. (That’s what happened to the Thing’s eyes.)

One day Shooter’s Whim of Iron took the form of demanding that all characters whose eyes had started out brown would be brown again. That included Reed.

Fortunately, Ben Grimm was spared since his eyes being blue had become a major element of the character.

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Jim Petersman
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Posted: 09 June 2024 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Well, thank goodness that the EIC had time to get that oversight corrected.
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