Gil Kane would have turned one hundred today. Gil was a titanic force in comics during the 1960s and 1970s, and he kept on creating cool comic art almost until his death in the year 2000. Mr. Kane was known for being a fan of the pulps. He played a special role in my own Sword-and-Sorcery journey.

As I've commented here and elsewhere, my first introduction to Conan the Barbarian was by way of an ad in Captain Marvel #27. The artist? Gil Kane with Ernie Chan inks. The whole thing stuck with me and I bought my first issue of Conan the Barbarian--#38--about a year later. The cover artist? Gil Kane. I wouldn't buy another Conan comic for about a year: Giant-Size Conan #5. Guess who did the back-up story? Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Gil even put in a cameo of himself and R$oy Thomas. By way of that, Gil and Roy were the first ever comics professionals I actually felt I 'knew'.

Of course, as I've noted elsewhere, Gil's career began long before 1973. He started reading the pulps in the '30s and he was illustrating comics by the '40s. During the early '60s, Kane helped kick-start the 'Silver Age of Comics' at DC before jumping over to Marvel. He almost became the first artist on Conan the Barbarian--except his going rate was too high. Despite that, he was known at DC and Marvel for being the 'pulp guy' and helped Roy Thomas when it came to Robert E. Howard and Conan.

During 1976-1977, Gil also financed/edited The Morning Star Press, which published several notable Robert E. Howard-related books.

Kane would go on to pencil hundreds of dynamic Marvel Comics covers during the '70s and '80s. Many of those were for Conan the Barbarian. Meanwhile, Gil was continuously publishing his own heroic fantasy characters--Blackmark, Flame Horse and Chane--wherever he could. At the same time, he and Ron Goulart were syndicating their classic space opera comic strip, Star Hawks, across the USA and also abroad. Good times.

I could easily devote this entire post to Mr. Kane's heroic fantasy art or sword & planet or space opera work...or his superhero stuff. Instead, I'm taking the broad approach. Gil excelled at so many things, it is only fitting to showcase as much as I can. in honor of his centennial.

Feel free to check out the gallery below.