Angel Gabriele

Infobox Comics creator

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imagesize = 150
caption =
birthname = Pasquale Demetrio Angelo Gabriele
birthdate = birth date and age|1956|03|21
location = Brooklyn, New York
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
profession(s) = comic book artist, professional wrestling manager
alias = Pat Gabriele, Dark Angel, Angel Gabriele


notable works = Space Giants
awards =

Angel Gabriele is an American comic book artist and publisher best known for the comic book adaptation of the Space Giants and a professional wrestling manager and promoter renowned for his role as the Dark Angel.

Career

Gabriele began his venture in comic books under the name "Pat" Gabriele by holding the convention Fan Con '72 in Norfolk, Virginia on July 29th and 30th of that year, hosting such guests as Kelly Freas, Wally Wood, Murray Leinster, and Mike Kaluta. [Steadman, Ethel A. "Collector of Comics a Marvel." Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) April 3, 1972.] Gabriele learned the basics of the art trade in the early 1970s from Kelly Freas in his Virginia Beach studio. In 1974 Gabriele's professional comic book art career started when he left his parents home in Tidewater, Virginia and sojourned back to New York City, assisting Rich Buckler at Marvel Comics on uncredited work involving the Fantastic Four, Deathlok, and other assignments. [Thomspon, Kim. "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. On The Horizon." Amazing Heroes #8. February 1981, page 41.] By 1975 he had graduated to producing covers and splash pages for Marvel's British department while still working with Buckler. Gabriele's first credited work was DC Comics' Kobra (comics) #4 in 1976, a comic which was 4 weeks late when assigned to him for "layouts & pacing." [Isch, Tanya. "Dark Angel." News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, IN) January 4, 1989, page 23.] In 1977 he became acquainted with lifelong friend and fellow artist, Denys Cowan

Becoming disillusioned with the comics industry, [Thomspon, Kim. "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. On The Horizon." Amazing Heroes #8. February 1981, page 41.] Gabriele relocated to Wabash, Indiana and began designing t-shirt art for the Shirt Shed Inc. (later a division of Nexus Industries). In 1978 Gabriele acquired merchandising rights to the Space Giants, a US adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Japanese comic, Magma Taishi( Ambassador Magma) and his company, FBN, published a comic book adaptation of the first four episodes in one of theearliest independent comic books.

In 1981, Gabriele was approached by Leader Comics Inc. of Merrillville, Indiana, a fledgling multicultural comic book company which published a title created by Chicago artist Tom Floyd called Blackman and was contracted to develop new characters. When the company folded, Gabriele returned to New York City, working again for a very short period with Rich Buckler, where he met Mark Texeira with whom he later shared a studio with and produced the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents revival for JC publications. [Thomspon, Kim. "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. On The Horizon." Amazing Heroes #8. February 1981, page 41.] Eventually, Gabriele, Denys Cowan, and fellow artist Trevor Von Eeden, shared an apartment at New York's Chelsea Hotel. Here Gabriele designed the original "Beast Machine" characters for Strongen-Mayhiem's Power Lords the action figures would be released by Revell. It was during this period that the character of the Dark Angel was born. [Isch, Tanya. "Dark Angel." News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, IN) January 4, 1989, page 23.]

By 1986, Gabriele had again left New York City and returned to the Midwest where he introduced his stylized alter ego, the Dark Angel, in the first three issues of the independent comic book series Dark Adventures. Around the same time, Gabriele stepped into the roll of the Dark Angel, and became part of Dick The Bruiser's WWA, working live events & television episodes with wrestling legends like Don Kent, Yukon Moose Cholak, Bobo Brazil, Scott Steiner, Terry Sullivan as well as Dick the Bruiser himself. [Slacian, Joseph. "Pat's Living Out a Pair of Dreams." Wabash Plain Dealer (Wabash, IN) April 18, 1987, page 1.] After a disagreement with Dick the Bruiser, he began operating his own wrestling promotion and television show from 1988 to 1991, Powerslam Professional Wrestling, [Isch, Tanya. "Dark Angel." News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, IN) January 4, 1989, page 23.] featuring established wrestlers such as Ox Baker and Calypso Jim (now Bobo Brazil, Jr.), the Ed Farhat (aka the original Sheik) as well as booking early matches with new talent such as Sabu and Rob Van Dam.

During the 1990s, Gabriele (along with his protege Jeff Newman) collaborated with Denys Cowan in developing the universe for Milestone Comics as well as inking on titles such as Static & Hardware. Gabriele also drew several covers for DC including a three cover run for one of DC's Impact titles, The Web (comics). He also produced several books for Boneyard Press including an adaptation of the stories of Ed Gein, Billy The Kid, and another issue of the Space Giants, which printed a Mark Texeira story originally drawn in 1981. By 1994, Gabriele began signing works by the name "Angel," which came both from his wrestling and middle name. In 1996, Gabriele was approached by the California firm L & K Managment to publish a line of comics with Gabriele as it's executive editor. A deal was struck and Gabriele set up the Hyper X Studio (a division of his Hyper Graphics Studio) in North Manchester, Indiana. Utilizing the talents of Willie Peppers, Greg Theakston, Jeff Newman, and Byron Black. From this arrangement the Pyramid Comics line was born. Several full comics were prepared and solicited before the California company vanished with investors funds. Gabriele attempted to save the fledging company, but by the end of 1997 Pyramid had ceased, leaving him with twenty-three unpublished comics and more disdain for the industry. In 1998, Gabriele was enticed back into professional wrestling and revised his 1980s television show Powerslam as Powerslam2000 and recruited Big Bang Comics co-creator Chris Ecker as an announcer. Gabriele held a live event at the 1999 Novi, Michigan Pop Culture Convention with the Iron Sheik managed by himself in the main event. In 2000, Gabriele withdrew again from active involvement in the world of professional wrestling and has only made a few rare appearances at live matches since retiring. For the past decade Gabriele has been accepting commission work and has maintained a website promoting Powerslam Wrestling and Space Giants memorabilia. He collaborated with his friend Richard "Grass" Green producing his 2002 Xal-Kor comic book released By TwoMorrows Publishing, only months before Green's untimely passing due to lung cancer. Gabriele also contributed an article on hidden messages in Bill Everett's inking of Jack Kirby's art for Thor (Marvel Comics) in The Jack Kirby Collector #49.

Select Bibliography

*Kobra #4 (1976)(DC)
*Space Giants NN# (1979)(FBN)
*JCP Features: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (1981)(JC Publications)
*Dark Adventures #1-4 (1986)(Darkline)
*Alphawave #1 (1986)(Darkline)
*Darkside #1 (1986)(Darkline)
*Calypso Jim Souvenir Album (1986)(Wehner)
*Elfinwild #1 (1987)(Wehner)
*Astonish #1 (1988)(Wehner)
*RIP #5 (1991) (TSR)
*Frank(Frankenstein) #3 & #4(1992)(Nemesis/Harvey)
*The Web #6,7,8 (DC/Impact)(1992)
*Ox Baker Souvenir Coloring Book (1993)(Hypergraphics)
*KlownShock #1 (1993)(Northstar)
*True Gein: The Story Of Ed (1993)(Boneyard)
*The Space Giants (1994)(Boneyard)
*Billy The Kid (1994)(Boneyard)
*Static #17 (1994)(DC/Milestone)
*The Long Hot Summer #3 (1995)(DC-Milestone)
*Hardware #34,35,36 (1995)(DC/Milestone)
*Xal-Kor, The Human Cat (2002)(TwoMorrows)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/greatandpowerfulangel Angel Gabriele's MySpace page]
* [http://www.powerslamcollectibles.com/ Powerslam's Space Giants Homepage]
* [http://comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=5984 Comic Art Gallery of PD Angel Gabriele at ComicArtFans.com]
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/PowerslamProduction Powerslam Production's Channel]