Gil Kane’s artwork done specifically for Roy Thomas (circa 1990?) featuring many of the comics characters Gil had a major impact on.

Gil Kane—-born ‘Eli Katz’—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 Marvel’s 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; then 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 Roy. By way of that intro, 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, where his work influenced both Neal Adams and John Romita, Sr. Mr. Kane would end up creating almost six hundred dynamic and ground-breaking covers for DC over the course of three decades.

Gil then jumped over to Marvel, where he almost became the first artist on Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian--except his going rate was too high. Despite that, he was known at both DC and Marvel for being the 'pulp guy' and often advised Roy Thomas when it came to Robert E. Howard and Conan.

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

Gil and Roy, creating “The Blood of the Dragon”, one of the very first non-Conan tales set in the Hyborian Age.

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 during the late ‘70s. Good times.

Mr. Kane would go on to more projects in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. While not at his fifteen-year peak of popularity, Gil was still influential. One of his fans from that period was some guy named Todd McFarlane.

I can still recall the exact moment of juxtaposition. My good friend, Jimmy Jarman, was just starting what would become his retail comic store empire. He didn’t even have an actual store at that point. So, there he was babbling about some artist named Todd McFarlane drawing Spider-Man while simultaneously selling me the first issue of the ‘Ring of the Nibelungs’ mini-series from Gil Kane and Roy Thomas. Who knew?

Mr. Kane would go on to take a well-deserved victory lap through various comics conventions during the ‘90s. I wish I’d had a chance to meet him, but I was focused on other things.

As it turns out, another comics legend—Howard Chaykin—also weighed in with a post in honor of Gil’s centennial. Chaykin was an assistant to Mr. Kane and counts him as one of his greatest influences, both personally and artistically. Check it out here.

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.