Saturday Leftover Day.
Another Ray Bailey series I hadn't shown yet, was his work for Tower's Undersea Agent. Six thick issues full of gorgeous Ray Bailey work (although it does look as if it had to be made a bit quicker and cheaper, as did all of Tower's line). I will be selling my whole set of these soon on e-bay in a misguided effort to try and empty some space in my home office. This one is from numer two and shows what Steve Canyon would have looked like if he was a James BOnd type spy doing stuff underwater...
2 comments:
When UNDERSEA Agent first came out I was already a big Bailey fan. This particular story always looked "off" to me. Last year I stumbled onto the information that it was inked not by Bailey but (of all people) by Shelly Moldoff. From its similarity to Bailey's solo work I presume RB was a tight penciller.
You're right; Bailey's Tower work did seem hurried, especially after Davy Jones became a superhero. But the first story in the first issue shows the old stuff. I don't know if you saw my post of the UNDERSEA original I own: (http://smurfswacker.blogspot.com/2009/04/ray-baileys-undersea-agent.html)
It's great stuff, complete with Asian stereotype and lotsa rocks.
Are you sure Moldoff inked all of it, though? There are some real rarities in the whole bunch. Stories by Mike Sekowsky, Skewosky inked by someone making it look like Bailey's work. A story by Gil Kane that certainly looks like Bailey inked it...
I always wonder what someone who had such a huge production was doing inbetween those spurts of work, such as Undersea Agent. I had a look for more of Bailey's work in the Harvey war books from the late fifties, but found more Lee Elias (certainly in the early issues). Ah, Lee Elias... I have a ot of scanning to do for that, but when I am ready, I really like to give him some attention.
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