The Fabuleous Fifties

Out of Orbit

Sunday Meskin Measures.

Last week I showed a story from The Westerner that has always been identified as a rare Mort Meskin story, even though on closer inspection his involvement seemed small. Four years later Meskin again did a story for Orbit, this time for their crime title Wanted (#45). And again it seems that his actual involvement is not very large, although probably more than on the Westerner story. In most pasrts it is very clear that Meskin worked on this story. But still, there is something wrong. If you compare this to the work Mesking was doing at the time at Prize, most of the figures are much too dteailed. Mort Meskin was a very impressionistic artist, using the minimum of lines to construct his figures. Jim Vandeboncoeur, identifies this story as being by Meskin and Roussos, which to me means pencilled by Meskin and inked by Roussos. As it happened there were a couple ofMeskin/Roussos stories in the early Tmely/Atlas books ad they look nothing like thta. Mort Meskin pencilled very light and George Roussos inker very heavily. Roussos also had a few inking tricks that are missing here, the half blacked out faces and the chicken wire crosshatching on shadows. Instead this looks like it was pencilled by a whole diffeent artis and inked by Meskin. Who this artis would be and why Meskin would take on such a job when he was up to his ears in work for Prize and other companies, I don't know.