When I did the Howard Post horror story from Men's Adventures yesterday, I realized that title for a very short while was one of the most exciting ones in the Timely-Atlas line-up. Among collectors it is agreed that Manace was probably the best horror book the company produced, not only because most of the early issues were written in full by Stan Lee, but also because he used his best artists for himself (and therefore for the title) and continued to do so even after stopped writing the stories himself.
But if you look closely at the contents of Men's Adventures #21 to #26 (all from the 1952-53 period) you'll see that Lee used a similar approach and line-up there. Lots of his best artists and towards the later issues he even wrote a couple of stories himself, that just have easily have gone into the later Menace issues that did not have any of his work. What the thinking behind this was (or even if there was a concious plan) I do not know. I just like the pretty pictures by some of the industry's greatest artists, such as Russ Heath, Gene Colan, Bill Everett, Fred Kida, John Romita and Reed Crandall.
7 comments:
Love me some Kida! Thanks
Especially in this period. I don't think his work in the forties is as exciting and in later years he reverted to a blander, all-American style.
Did you like his work on the Spiderman strip?
I never saw a lot of it, but because I am such a fan of Romita's version I guess I would probably see it as part of his (Kida's) bland period. At some point all American comic artists start to look alike to me and even George Tuska and Ross Andru (two of my favorite stylists) even lose their appeal to me. Having them do superheroes doesn't help either for my taste. I prefer the genres of the fifties. Did you see the promo comic Kida did on my blog? It's an early sample of his subdued style, but pretty rare.
Kida's work held it own against Romita's on the strip IMHO.Yes, I saw that but read the promo by bonds comics today. Biro had a rule about his artist not spotting any blacks, odds since he did so many crime comics. Guess that explains the open line art style Kida used for the promo comic.I hear the short stint he did on Judge Wright is some of his best. Thank you for bringing this stuff to light.
You don't mention Carmine Infantino drew "My Brother Must Die" and there is no tag for him. I like the pulpish style he used here before he went back to study design. Of course his later "Space Museum" stories are incomparable but this is fun.
I have a book of Fred Kida's Flash Gordon dailies. Very stylish and easy on the eyes.
You are right, George. For some reason I thought I read it was credited to Vic Carabotta, although it bewildered me and I did not include his name. After reading your comment I immediately agreed and rechecked to see it was credited to him all along. I love all of his early styles, including the early work for DC, his Kirbyesk period (Chalie Chan, etc) and this weird scratchy middle period stuff. And have shown a lot here.
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