Comics / Spotlight

In Memory of Donna Summer - Comics and Disco

By Hervé St-Louis
May 18, 2012 - 00:07

During the 1970s, much of the counterculture from the 1960s protest against the Vietnam War had waned. The Civil Rights movement and the landing on the Moon had all happened. Comics were trying to catch up leaving an opportunity for upstart comic book publisher Marvel Comics to leap in front of DC Comics with culturally relevant characters that reflected the conflicts of their times and their readers.

Donna Summer sang her first tunes awakening the disco craze in a generation of baby boomers who discovered dance clubs and were caught in the midst of an energy crisis that said that the lofty goals of the United States and unbridled economic growth could be affected by oil cartels far away from America’s shores. In comics, there was a lot of experimentation in visual storytelling influenced by the work of Neal Adam, the first disco comic book artist, if there ever was one. His signature styles included concentrated effort on greater realism in human figures and elaborate facial expression and sets that resembled the very disco-influenced design seen in televisions and clubs. Blacks had big afro haircuts and characters wore bell bottom pants with thick soles.



Neal Adam’s page designs showed Mondrian compositions with blocks of colours used as backgrounds for characters that jumped from comic book panels breaking the fourth wall. His style which was less blocky than Jack Kirby’s influenced several comic book artists such as Barry Windsor Smith and was reinforced by the work of similar cartoonists breaking regular comic book compositions such as Sal Buscema and Gil Kane.

The 1970s, the bedrock of disco culture opened the door for many different characters such as Sweet Jesus jibing Luke Cage and Black Lightning. Each had huge afros and spoke in an inner city vernacular that paralleled that of blacks living in urban projects in neighbourhoods abandoned decades ago by gentrified whites. Their costumes were as much super hero get up as disco gear that assumed they could each spend a whole night on the dance floor grooving to the latest tunes from Gloria Gaynor.

By then the comic book world was in experiment mode, trying to pinpoint where the next counter culture craze would go next and cover the ground for the older kids reading comics. They tried Blacksploitation with the above-mentioned Luke Cage, Kung Fu with Shang Shi, Karate Kid and Power Fist, and old fantasy with Conan.



But the same resistance to disco seen elsewhere in the United States was also seen in comics. While Latino artist George Pérez drew disco-friendly characters such as the White Tiger, his upcoming visual equal, John Byrne instilled nothing but non disco tones to his work with a reduction of the extravagant poses and crazy costumes and extra gear sported on super heroes in favour of tight-fitting leotard-like suits that focused on the muscularity of characters and their propensity for adventure and action, while removing all sexual overtones that was usually rendered by such perfect specimen of male and female anatomy. In the end, it was John Byrne’s designs that won the day over the Neal Adams’ disco-friendly shapes.



Yet that did not stop Casablanca Records, one of the many victims of the sudden drop of disco’s popularity to introduce, in partnership with Marvel Comics its own disco queen, one of the first comic book diva in super hero comics – Dazzler. Dazzler was Marvel Comics’ answer to disco, but her first appearance on the last days of the disco craze did not help her. Over the years, her repertoire moved away from disco and she began to sing other genres, much like Donna Summer, the original disco queen she was supposed to emulate.

Donna Summer died on May 17, 2012 at her home in Florida after battling breast and lung cancer.  She had two daughters and a popular discography that is still played in every gay club in the world. ComicBookBin extends its sympathies and condolences to the friends and family of Donna Summer.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12