The Fabuleous Fifties

Crime Pays The Bills

Friday Comic Book Day.

I have shown here several times that I am a big fan of George Tuska's work in the mid-fifties. It is a period of his career that is often forgotten, especially the work he did on the Scorchy Smith strip (which you can see if you follow th tag). I am eagerly awaiting the new issue of Alter Ego devoted to the life and career of Tuska, but I wouldn't be surprised if there too, this creatively balanced period is skimmed over. What I like particularyry, id the fact that his inking seems to have been a little bit hevier than in the forties or sixties. He shows himself not only a master of good storytelling and xharacter expression, but he also displays a great balance between light and dark. In the forties his line was thinner and his pages less balanced. In the sixties, he was either inking others or his own work was inked, resulting in a less satisfying look.

Here are four stories he did for Gleason in 1954. He had worked for Gleason in the forties, but as I said, his work there was in the thin line-centered house style. In the early fifties he developed his own look at Standard (along with Alex Toth and Mike Sekowsky) and Timely. After that, he appears all over the place, including a return to Gleason, where he immediately got the lead story position.