Saturday, May 18, 2013

Clemmier and Clemmier

Curious Clem

Saturday Leftover Day.

Thanks to the scanners at the Digital Comics Museum, I came across some fun war stories that I find really remarkable. I like this kind of loose style, whic seems a once inappripriate for the subject and in line with it. Mastr art spotter Jim Vandeboncoeur Jr. attributes this art to a Clem Weisbecker, a journeyman artist who is mostly know for his work for MLJ, the Archie company in the mid forties.

But it struck me that this must also be the unnamed artist of the funny Hector the Spector and Luke the Spooks tories in Sterling's The Informer books. I have shown these stories before, because I thought I had found the artist, when a piece of work in a similar style turned up in The Armed Forced Features, signed Jess Benton. Benton was another joruneyman artist, who must have worked as someone's ghost or something, since the only signed solo work he did was when he did a spot on Li'l Abner imitation called Jasper Jooks - in a completely different style. In my previous post I conclude that Benton must have been the unnamed artist of Luke the Spook (noting the preference for alliterating names). Now I don't know. Jim usually knows his stuff. Still, all the Clem Weisbecker material I can turn up is in a compeltely different style, not as humorous and most of it ten years earlier. At least Benton was still working in the mid fifties.

So here we have the evidence. Are these one and the same artist? And is it Benton or is it Weisbecker?

For more samples of Jasper Jooks, go to Alan Holtz' Strippers Guide or wait until I have scanned in my run of dailies.




























































































3 comments:

JoĂŁo Neves said...

Gostei de ter visto o seu blog e de ter lido alguns textos. Parabéns! Sou de Portugal e chamo-me João Neves.

Martin OHearn said...

Ger, if I'm right on Weisbecker on my April 2021 blog post that you commented on (https://martinohearn.blogspot.com/2021/04/weisbecker-and-riss-at-movies.html), then you're right on Jess Benton. The best evidence is that both artists have stories in Soldier Comics #2. Your artist has "Beware of the Bellybuster" but the guy I'm identifying now as Weisbecker has "No More Noise from Snafu." Two very different styles! Your working from signed Benton strips to ID the "humorous" one convinces me you were correct there to begin with.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Thanks, Martin. Your blog remains an inspiration and although I don't go there daily I drop by every now and hen and make a meal out of it. I never thought to look at the other stories in Soldier Comics. Sounds interesting, I'll give it a look. I have since done a few posts with Jasper Jooks (and more to come) and found several years of AAFF online, so I could do a post with long runs of black and white microfiche scans of Pft. Gooch.