My school and public libraries had copies of a 4-volume set he wrote - books about Spider-Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk - which reprinted classic stories featuring those characters alongside Kraft's histories. In those days libraries carried precious few books about comic books, so those four were books I treasured.
Kraft is likely going to be best-remembered for his work on Defenders, particularly for the span of issues drawn by Keith Giffen (back in his faux Kirby days) which included an epic story with the Zodiac as its villains. It's an offbeat story - certainly following in the footsteps of Steve Gerber's work - and maybe the peak of Kraft's quality. His very goofy 'Defenders for a Day' was another memorable tale.
He also co-created Devil-Slayer, the character so nice, they created him thrice! I wrote about the oddity behind Devil-Slayer's many recreations here.
Kraft also ran the magazine Comics Interview, which ran lengthy interviews with major comic book personalities. They've become invaluable as a historical record and insight into comic book creators.
As a quick tribute for the Marvel Appendix, I wrote up a profile on a minor character from Kraft's Savage She-Hulk: Jill Stevens.
Rest in peace, Mr. Kraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment