Sunday, November 27, 2011

Golden Lads

Sunday Meskin Measures.

And a new signed Mort Meskin page! See below.

With Action Comics #121 or #122 Meskin return to the Vigilante. The change is his style is fenomenal. We see the same shift in style in his work on the Vigilante stories in Western Comics and soon after this, he starts doing stories for Standard's Black Terror and Fighting Yank with Jerry Robinson. Meskin had appeared with Robinson in Golden Lad and Atoman, but they had never worked together (although he may have inked some of Robnson's stories according to the GCD) and specificl what their working style was, is never clear. Much of what they did on the Standard books looks as if Meskin could have done it on his own... only it is better. I think looking at the stories chronologically and comparing them to what was going on in his other series, Johnny Wuick, at te same time, we can conclude that most of the time Robinson refined Meskin's pencils. And althoug the credits in the GCD vary when they didn't sign together and put it down as Robinson on pencils and Meskin on inks, this division with Meskin laying out, Robinson refining and Meskin inking is at work here as well.

Whatever the specific division of labor, the GCD gets it wrong here. Not all of it. The Vigilante story in #120 is credited to George Roussos and that seems right. This story is typical of his style, it makes me wonder why he didn't sign it. The story in #121 I haven't got, but it is credited to Robinson and Roussos. I have a strong suspicion it will be by Robinson and Meskin (which should be obvious at the first glance if it is). They then have the story we see here as being done by Roussos, but it is as typically a Robinson and Meskin collaboration ad can be found. More the next weeks.

From roughly the same period, maybe slightly earlier, comes what may be the first true collaboration of Meskin and Robinson. Although the 15 page story from Western Fighters #2 is credited to meskin solo, I see a lot of detail that only appeared in his work when he started working with Jerry Robinson. Look the fleeing crowd on the splash page or the first panel of page four. The old Mort Meskin would have found a less detailed way of drawing this. At the same time, if you look ate the second panel on page one of the whole of page two, there is a lot of George Roussos there as well. So Meskin on lay-out, Robinson on pencils and Roussos inking, with all of them chipping in where they could?





























Hm, looks like Roussos, I thought while loking at a filler page from Jet Fighters #7 from Standard. I scrolled down and saw the signature. Mort. He did do fillers for them in the early fifties, including one for Out of the Shadows. Most of these have been catalogued, but this one not yet.

10 comments:

Steven Brower said...

Great detective work Ger. However, there were earlier Meskin/Robinson collaborations: Headline 28 (v.3, n.4) Feb 1948 has a story "The Postage Stamp Swindle" from earlier that year as well as Headline 29 (v.3, n.5) April 1948, “The Night Of The Freak Murder.”

The Vigilante story is really interesting in showing the combined talents of all three men. And a great find in that single pager!

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Do these Headline stories include George Roussos as well? I am always interested in the 'story' behind the history. Robinson and Meskin and Roussos must have met at DC. Did they talk, go out, collaborate? Then in 1946 they worked together for Atoman and Golden Lad. What was the division of talent there? One title featured Robinson's hero and the other Meskin's. So who hooked up with that publisher first? And if they collaborated then, why didn't they for a year after that? Who got them the Standard assignments? Why collaborate there? Why did Meskin stop with the Vigilante for a while and let George Roussos take over? In your book, you have uncovered a lot of facts. I think I am ready for some educated guesswork. Although, maybe Jerry Robinson can still help. My gess is their first real collaboration must have stuck in his mind. What surprises me, when I see all of Mort's work in sequence here, is how much it changed when he started working with Jerry Robinson. It suddenly turned into an extreme version of itself. More Mort Meskin then ever, only better. At least in my eyes.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

After having a look at the earliest work Jerry and Mort did for Prize, I still think the Billy the Kid thing could have been done before that. Or maybe it was done after leaving DC, when there was an economic reason to accept more than they could handle (explaining George Roussos' helping hand). But I am still looking for the 'story'. What made Meskin and Roussos team up? Why work together on a set of Vigilante stories, when George Roussos had nicely taken over?

Sandy Jarrell said...

The only time I met Robinson he was about to start a sandwich that had been delivered, so I got my Batman (29 I think?) signed and moved on. Ever since I've wished I could have asked him questions- grilled him on The Meskin partnership etc. I dream of emailing him, but sadly can't...

Steven Brower said...

I won't have too much time to look over my notes and interviews with Jerry and Dylan's interviews with Roussos for a few weeks so this is off the top of my head for now (and I'm right there with you in trying to further the story).

All 3 worked together at National in the early 40s. I know Jerry and Mort worked in the office, not sure about George. Mort and Jerry didn't not collaborate, according to Jerry, on Atoman, that was all Jerry, nor Golden Lad, which was all Mort. Not sure who had that account, but Jerry and Most decided band together soon afterward and start a studio (they were no longer roommates). Around the same time George was helping Mort on Vigilante and took over when Meskin missed deadlines. So all three were working together in various incarnations and I think Roussos was their go-to-guy when deadlines got tight.

jay said...

Another lovely set one day I hope to back and read them all. Btw have you read that essay on Meskin by Alex Toth?

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Thanks, Steve. Sounds like a 'story'.

I have the Toth piece (on view at www.tothfans.com, with two others). It surprised me that it was about Meskin's earliest work...

Steven Brower said...

Sandy, Jerry's on Facebook if you want to ask him any questions.

Sandy Jarrell said...

Thanks, Steven!!! Are you?

Ger Apeldoorn said...

I'd love to befriend him... I'd like to believe I was a fan of his work before it was fashionable. Hey, I even credit his book on comics with getting me interested in all this! He was the first and only comics historian who gave the fifties the attention it deserved.