The Fabuleous Fifties

The Other Comics Detective

Friday Comic Book Day.

For this post I have loaned the title of Ken Quattro's comics research blog, The Comcis Detective. It's a very ambitious blog, written by a very thorough and ambitious comics researcher. I have been thinking about submitting a longer and more thought out piece along these lines to him, but haven't gotten around yet to putting down on paper every scrap of information I have about this subject. So instead, I am doing it here as an excuse to share some comic book stories with you.

I have posted before about the mysterious Al Gordon. Most notebly on Jan 15 this year. Follow the link for the full story, but this is the short version. In late 1954 Joe Kubert did a few stories for Stan Lee. he started by inking a couple of stories by artist Al Gordon. Then he did a couple of his own. And then he did a few more, which were inked by Seymour Moskowitz. In that earlier post, I confused Seymour Moskowitz with the later sf writer Sam Moskowitz, but apparently they are very different persons. Anyway, about Seymour Mokowitz very little is know apart from the fact hat he drew and inked a few stories for Stan Lee on his own and after that inked some of Kubert's. I don't kow if he was a young artist starting out, who might have ended up in advertising or if he was an older artist winding down and slumming in the comic book market. Unti someone who knew and worked with him speaks up, we are without a clue.

The same goes for Al Gordon. In a recent issue of Alter Ego I found a reference to an older Al Gordon, working in comics in the 1940's. I had always ssumed that he must have been an young artist starting out. I'll explain why. In theory it is possible that Joe Kubert was handed a story done by the elder Al Gordon. Gordon was not the best of artists and pairing him with Joe Kubert would have made sense. Je Kubert all but obliterated Gordon's work (even signing Gordon's name for him in his own brush letter style in one story), which would seem a bit harsh if he was an older artist, but still possible. It could have been what Stan Lee ordered. But if he was so unsatisfied with Gordon's work, why would he buy more of it? And why would he pair him up with Joe Kubertwith all his storie? That seems unjustly harsh towards Kubert. But if Al Grdon was a young artist starting out, Kubert may have taken him under his wings and helped him with his first few jobs, made them respectable. After a few, Kubert's influence diminishes and Gordon comes into his own. Why he later left the field (after doing some work for Charlton), I don't now.

Anyway, here are some more Gordon/Kubert stories. Kubert's hand is obvious in all of them, even more so than I thought earlier. I have no shown all of their collaborations here (though only the splash page of E-619) except for E-856. I will add it as soon as I lay my hands on it. And if anyone is near Joe Kubert in the next few months, please ask him about Kubert and Moskowitz and report back to me.

E-35 Keep Out Marvel Tales 122 5 pages Apr 1954 Gordon/Kubert?
E-142 Two-Gun Kid 14 5 pages Jun 1954 Gordon
E-922 Kid Colt Outlaw 38 5 pages Jun 1954 Gordon
E-122 Wild Western 34 5 pages Jun 1954 Gordon
E-758 Darkness! Battlefront 22 6 pages Aug 1954 Gordon
E-619 Redman's Revenge Western Outlaws 4 5 pages Aug 1954 Gordon
E-836 The Man Who Shot Jesse James World's Greatest Songs 1 2 pages Sep 1954 Gordon
E-856 South Of Kot'ri! Battle Action 13 5 pages Oct 1954 Gordon

Battlefront #22:







Kid Colt Outlaw 38:






Two Gun Kid #14: