Wednesday Illustration Day.
Apart from the comic sections and the cartoons and the comic strip ads, Boy's Life also had numurous illustrated stories. Most of those were illustrated vy a few regulars, all well known illustrators of their day. But there were some comic book names doing illustrations as well. Most well known among comics fans of these would be Bernie Krigstein. Krigstein had started his career in the forties, but shot to fame when he did his idiosyncratic stories for the later EC books. After that he did a good run of remarkable stories for Stan Lee's Atlas line, but he never again rose to the heights of his EC years. When the comic industry fell apart at the end of the fifties, he returned to painting, making the occasional buck by doing illustrations. It is around this time he also appears in Boy's Life. The samples I have here are from 1960/62 and there may be more before and after that. If there are, I will add them as soon as I come across them. But this is it and as you can see, he was not used very frequently. If I had been the editor I would have used him at all. These illustrations... I don't know what they are, but they seem to me like a selfconscious attempt at creating a new 'modern' style. Whatever it is, it doesn't work for me, certainly not for a kid's magazine.
1 comment:
I think your judgment of these Krigstein illustrations is a bit harsh. He worked very much in the popular style of the era. Had BOY'S LIFE been able to run these illustrations in full color, I believe they would work better. But as is, they're striking and effective--to my eyes, at least.
All the same, thank you kindly for this and all your recent posts.
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