Saturday, October 29, 2011

A Good Seeing To

Saturday Leftover Day.

The Quality books of the forties and fifties were filled with talent. Most of the attention has gone to the origin issues and the superheroes started in the early forties, but for me some of the best work is to be found in the late forties and early fifties and not in the superhero department. Artists like Alex Kotzky, Bill Ward, Gill Fox and Reed Crandell were producing work that still holds up today. And of course the two great artists/writers Jack Cole and Klaus Nordling. Each had their own style, though there were similarities. And each had a tremendous output, sometimes helped by ghosts or assistants. For the work of Jack Cole, there is the excellent blog of Paul Tumey. He showcases and anylazes the work of Plastic Man's creator like noone could and I strongly urge you to go and visit it. There is a new post on the later dark Plastic Man stories now, that really gives you some insight. As well as a couple of great stories. Some time ago, he devoted a post to a couple of Bob and Swab stories by Jack Cole. This series of short stories about two navy men, which ran in Hit Comics (I believe) was always thought to have been created by Klaus Nordling, one of a series of funny series, including Lady Luck (which he took over from others), Penn Miller and his best remembered creation The Barker. But apparently, some of the earlier unsigned ones were done by Jack Cole. And if you see them on Paul's site, there is no doubt. No more than a couple, all the others are by Klaus Nordling and they are signed.

Which brings me to todays post. Yesterday, I ran across another unsigned Bob and Swab story in another title, one of the last issues of Candy, a teen title Quality did until well into the fifties. It is not by Cole and looks remarkably like Klaus Nordling's work. But funny that he ddn't sign it, as he signed everything I have seen. My only other guess would be it's by Gill Fox.





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