The Fabuleous Fifties

2012-01-29T00:26:00.000-08:00

Putting Up A Fight

Sunday Meskin Measures.

Here are three more early Meskin/Robinson stories from Fightink Yank #24 and #25. I will put all these early 1948 books I have been showing the last few weeks in the right order at some point, but for now I am going backwards and forwards, because some I have to scan myself and are not done in time and others I did not think I had, but turn up anyway. But it still makes a good read.

2012-01-28T03:03:00.000-08:00

Hi-Yo, Golden!

Saturday Leftover Day.

From Golden West Love #1, here's what George Roussos was doing about a year after the Meskin/Robinson period I am covering on Sundays now.

2012-01-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

It's A Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch Mad

Friday Comic Book Day.

This week the third issue of the Dutch Mad came out. It had our regular Funnipasti pages as well as three pages of Mars Gremmen Deals With... Disaster Prophets. And the 11 dumbest things and Persons of 2011, Dutch style. here are some highlights (all issues are available for anyone everywhere at www.madmag.nl).

Introducing our Mad Eleven for 2011 with art by Gerben den Heeten.

Commenting on the Junior Minister for Culture's savaging of the budget. With art by Jorge de Vos.

Famous criminal takes a movie company to court for misrepresenting him in a movie. With art by actual court scetch artist Aloys Oosterwijk.

A bacterial outbreak in Germany leads to a widespread fear of all raw vegetables. With art by Bernard J. Vonk.

63 year old woman delivers a baby, art by Willem Ritstier, Willy Lohman and Serge Beaken.

Prime Minister Rutte makes a costly calculating error, art by Stef de Reuver.

And finally, our Maddest artist, Mars Gremmen delivers new episodes of his series Mars Takes On...

There is more in the actual magazine of course. Now available in a newsstand probably not very close to where you life.

2012-01-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well, Blow Me Down

Thursday Story Strip Day

I am a huge fans of the work of Roger Langridge. His Fred the clown on itself was hilarious. Then, after giving an interview to The Comic Journal indicating he might stop doing comics, he turns around and starts doing the best reincarnation of the Muppets since the original television series - in comic form. Then he leaves the company creating those comics (at the moment Disney/Marvel takes back the licence) and creates his own new genius masterwork called Snarked. The adventures of a little brat princes and her even younger brother the Heir to the Throne who try to find their lost father the King with the help of the Walruss and the Carpenter - all of hich is played out in the Alice in Wonderland world, of course. You can see all of this and more on his awesome wesite The Hotel Fred, where you can also find the announcement that he will be writing a new Popeye comic book. As a child he was hugely influenced by the Popeye telvision cartoons and as a young adult he was a fan of the original by Segar. So we know we are in good hands there. I will certainly order my copies.

All this made me want to have a look at the original work by Segar. Not the Popeye stories, which have been reprinted by Fantagraphics in a pretty cool format, but the strip he wrote and drew for years before Popeye came along, Thimble Theater. Unfortunately, whatever scans I could get was not much. In fact, what you find here is pretty much what I could lay my hands on, about three month woth of Sundays from 1926 and one month of Sundays from 1928. Still, it shows that Segar was a genius even before he created the spinache eating freak we all know and love. I know I am a sucker for the weird and unknown, but how come none of this has ever been reprinted...?

So for Roger (send him by, if you know him) and all the other fans... here is Olive Oyl and her brother Castor in some early stories...

2012-01-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

Preachy Peachy

Wednesday Advertising Day

My feelings exactly.

2012-01-24T08:12:00.000-08:00

Kid's Stuff

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

I have shown a longer run of Dave Gerard's Will-Yum strip from 1959 earlier. The more I see of this strip, the more I like it. It is no Dennis the Menace, but it has it's moments.

2012-01-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

VIP For VIP's Sake

Monday Cartoon Day.

Here are all cartoons Virgil Partch (VIP) did for Collier's betwen december 1945 and july 1946. Like Hank Ketcham, Virgil Partch started cartooning after leavind Disney. But unlik Ketcham, he doesn't seem to have served time in the army. So he arrived at Collier's a couple of years before Ketcham and while the later creator of Dennis the Menace was still searching for his style and only selling one cartoon every couple of weeks, Partch seems to have been there every week and sometimes even twice. And not a dud among them! The good news is, there will me more...

2012-01-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

It's A Crime!

Sunday Meskin Measures.

Here is another Meskin story from the tumultuous period of 1948. As I have been saying these last few weeks, Mort Meskin started working with Jerry Robinson and in my opinion it made huge leap forward. Still, it is not easy to say what the actual contribution of Robinson was. There are touches of pure Meskin at each artistic level level (page lay-out, sketching, line-inking and spotting of blacks). This story comes before the Justice Traps the Guilty stories I showed twoo weeks ago and like the first of these two, it could be that the later normal order of things was reversed - and what we see here is Mort Meskin inking over Jerry Robinson pencils. It shows a lot of Meskin, while still being more intricate than the last solo work we saw him doing (the stories he did vor Prize's Treasure, for instance - also shown here some time ago).

I thought this was an important story to include, one of the first he (and Robinson?) did for the Simon and kirby team producing the crime and romance books for Prize. I had to wait until I was able to scan it myself, since there were no other scans available on the internet.

2012-01-21T07:55:00.001-08:00

It's A Jungle Out Here

Saturday Leftover Day.

Cleaning up the old computer, I came across this unfinished lot of Bob Lubbers Tarzan Sundays. I also have some of his comic work from the same period, but this is infinitely better.

2012-01-20T10:15:00.000-08:00

Standard Stuff

Friday Comic Book Day.

George Tuska worked for just about every comepny in the fifties. And where he worked he was very uch appreciated, often given the first story spot such as here in Standr's Crome Files #5.

2012-01-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

Calling All Stars

Thursday Story Strip Day.

Here's the rest of last weeks Buck Rogers story by George Tuska.

2012-01-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

Cough Til You Drop

Wednesday Advertising Day.

In the early fifties Dik Browne, Gil Fox and Bill Williams did a series of comic strip ads for Smith Brothers. Fve years before that, they had already used crtoonist Virgil Partch for another series.

2012-01-17T02:50:00.001-08:00

The Best Years of his Life

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

As I said, I recently got a lot of new tear sheets from the late fifties, which included these gems...

2012-01-16T07:33:00.000-08:00

Ketcham while They Are Up

Monay Cartoon Day

I recently was alerted to a website that enables me to show all cartoons Hank Ketcham did for Collier's in sequence. He starts out in late 1945 and it takes a while for him to become a regular. In fact, in all of March 1946 I couldn't find him in Collier's at all. Of course he worked for other magazines as well, most notably his Half Hitch feature for the Saturday Evening Post (some of which I have shown earlier) and magazines such as 1000 Jokes. Still, these Collier's cartoons are as good a chance to see the developement of his trademark open style as anything. I have added five cartoons from 1944/45 issues of Laff, which are in an even earlier style and an original taken from ebay from what appears to be that same end of the war period. But in fact it could be from any other period as well. The note on the original says it was for a magazine abbreviated 'J'. I am open to suggestion what that could be. I also added a run of cartoons from 1000 Jokes which are in the same scratchy style he flirted with in the beginning. He tries different ways to capture the openess of his sketches, until finally in the last sample from May we see the Ketcham we know...

2012-01-15T01:27:00.000-08:00

Terrorrific

Sunday Double Feature.

So now we come to Meskin and Robinson's work for Standard. The worked on two series, The Fighting Yank and The Black Terror. It seems both were full Meskin/Robinson collaborations and The Black Terror appeared one month earlier. These are both from Black Terror #23 which was on the stands in June 1948.

2012-01-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

Ketcham B.D.

Saturday Leftover Day.

I am currently collection a large run of cartoons from Collier's magazine. Here are two by Hank k=Ketcham and three by Harry Lampert, just to get your attention.

2012-01-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

Say Penn

Friday Comic Book Day.

Two more Penn Miller stories by Klaus Nordling. Great gimmick, great art, great stories.

2012-01-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Buck Starts Here

Thursday Story Strip Day.

Another incredible job by George Tuska. I will do this one in two parts, next part next week.

2012-01-10T23:30:00.001-08:00

The Top Three

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Inadvertising, when something works you imitate. When the Peter Pain ads' hernia goblin was a succes, the cold demons quickly followed. When starting with a pained image worked, many ads took that format. In the early sixties, this probably was the format of the day. And are we seeing the three succesful realistic artists of Johnstone and Cushing here? The last one seems to be by Neal Adams, the second one to last by Tom Schreuer/Sawyer and could the Mennen ad be by Wexler? The opening ad is another much earlier example of that format, a Mennen ad from 1947.

2012-01-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

Flopley Flop

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

Emil (Zek) Zekley assisted George McManus almost form the earliest years of Bringing Up Father. Some sources say that towards the end he may have done whole dailies on his own. Still, when McManus died in 1954, Zekley did not get to continue the strip. The syndicate gave that job to veteran Vernon Greene. In 1955 Zekley came with his own comic strip, Dud Dudley. It turned out to be, well... a dud. As we can see from the 1956 newspaper clipping, Mcmanus did provide for Zekley in his will, although he apparently had to sue for it to get paid.

2012-01-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Tall Order

Monday Cartoon Day.

Some more Tall Tales by Al Jaffee. Some of the ones in between these I have shown earlier. I will collect all of them sometime in some big post. But for now... new ones.

2012-01-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

Branching Out

Sunday Meskin Measures Day.

I am still in two minds about how to continue with these Sunday posts, now that I have reached the end of the Mort Meskin Vigilante stories in Action Comics. I have three more Vigilante stories by Meskin and Robinson from Western Comics, but it has been brough to my attention that presenting comlete runs like this, I might actually be diminishing the chances of them ever being collected by DC.

So for now I am stepping aside to examine the collaboration between Meskin and Robinson. For me personally, this represents the best period of Meskin's career (although I can understand why some people prefer the early stories he did at DC).

What I actually would like to di, is try and show you all the Meskin/Robinson and Meskin solo stories (with or without the help of George Roussos), but there are a couple of things standing in my way. First of all, I have not yet got all of them. Some I have to scan myself, some are just out there. The other problem is the timeline. All comic books are made sometime before the publication date (duh!). The actual time between production and publication can differ, though. So although we have a timeline for the publication dates of the work Robinson and Meskin did together, we do not know which one was drawn first.

What we do know, is that Meskin worked for DC on two series, Johnny Wuick and the Vigilante. At some point he added a couple of Wildcat stories as well, which I will show later. Then he drops out of Vigilante for a coulple of issues, while George Roussos takes over. Johnny Quick keeps on coming every month, without fail.

Then, at the start of 1948 everything happens as once. Meskin starts working with Jerry Robinson at Standard and Prize and even pick up the Vigiante again, also with Robinson. But the Vigilante stories he does for the new Western title, seem to be solo stories. He also does solo stories for Standard just before the ones he does with Robinson. And as we can see here, his first story for Prize may have been solo as well. So why the drop in work for Action Comics? Was he doing the Western Comics stories in advance? And getting new clients such as Standard and Prize makes sense to me if they were the result of his work with Jerry Robinson. But why are the first ones solo? And how does the Billy the Kid story for Hillman fit in which may of may not have been done with Jerry Robinson's help?

Jesse James Rides Again
Vigilante / comic story / 12 pages Western Comics (1948 series) #1
January-February 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin
Inks: Mort Meskin

I have this as Meskin and Robinson, but indeed there seems to be more of Meskin here than I first thought. If so, the amount of Meskin pencils in the work that is attributed to Robinson is even bigger than I thought. It could very well be, that this is pure Meskin and what we see in their collaboration is Jerry punching up and slicking up Mort's rough pencils before inking.

The Roamin' Roman
Johnny Quick / comic story / 9 pages Adventure Comics (1938 series) #125
February 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Cowboy and the Killers
Vigilante / comic story / 10 pages Western Comics (1948 series) #2
March-April 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin
Inks: Mort Meskin

Another one I will have to have a look at.

Tubby Watts, Athlete
Johnny Quick / comic story / 9 pages Adventure Comics (1938 series) #126
March 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Brady Gang
Famous Cases of the FBI / comic story / 7 pages Real Fact Comics (1946 series) #13
March-April 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin ?

I have shown this story. Harry mendrick agrees with me that it is inked by Meskin and offers the interesting theory that he might have done only the spotting, after someone else did the line inking. There may be some George Roussos pencilling going on here as well.

Mayhem in the Meal-o-Mat
Johnny Quick / comic story / 9 pages Adventure Comics (1938 series) #127
April 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Night of the Freak Murder
comic story / 8 pages Headline Comics (1943 series) #29
April 1948 Prize
Inks: Mort Meskin

Steven Brower has this as Meski and Robinson. I will go and have a look. I haven't scanned it yet, though.

The Birthday That Backfired!
Vigilante / comic story / 9 pages Action Comics (1938 series) #119
April 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Two-Faced Bandit of Mesa Town
Vigilante / comic story / 10 pages Western Comics (1948 series) #3
May-June 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin
Inks: Mort Meskin

Again, no Robinson?I'll have to have a look.

The Miracle Farmer
Johnny Quick / comic story / 8 pages Adventure Comics (1938 series) #128
May 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Slowpoke Crimes!
Johnny Quick / comic story / 8 pages Adventure Comics (1938 series) #129
June 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

Billy The Kid
comic story / 15 pages Western Fighters (1948 series) #v1#2
June-July 1948 Hillman
Pencils: Mort Meskin
Inks: Mort Meskin

I showed this and came to the conclusion Robinson must have had a hand in this. Now I am not so sure anymore. Why did he not sign it? He signed all the other collaborations they did? I really have to go back to that Headline story, because I am curious if that has Robinson...

Eye of the Lady Serpent!
Black Terror / comic story / 10 pages The Black Terror (1942 series) #23
June 1948 Standard
Script: Jerry Robinson ?; Mort Meskin ?
Inks: Mort Meskin (signed)

Now here we have a real Robinson/Meskin collaboration. Signed even.

The Nimble Names Crimes
Johnny Quick / comic story / 9 pages Adventure Comics (1938 series) #130
July 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Four Notches of Hate
Vigilante / comic story / 10 pages Western Comics (1948 series) #4
July-August 1948 DC
Pencils: Mort Meskin

The Inferior Male
comic story / 8 pages Young Romance (1947 series) #v1#6 (6)
July-August 1948 Prize
Inks: Mort Meskin

I think I showed this. If not, I will.

The Crossroads of Crime
Fighting Yank / comic story / 10 pages The Fighting Yank (1942 series) #25
July 1948 Standard
Inks: Mort Meskin (signed)

The Shadow of Dismal Island
Fighting Yank / comic story / 10 pages The Fighting Yank (1942 series) #25
July 1948 Standard
Inks: Mort Meskin (signed)

Murder Special Delivery
comic story / 8 pages Justice Traps the Guilty (1947 series) #v1#5 [5]
July-August 1948 Prize
Inks: Mort Meskin (signed)

2012-01-07T07:58:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I showed stories from Dan DeCarlo's The Brain #1. In the same issue was another story, which I am showing here. Over at the CGD it has no attrubution, but my guess is, it's by Mell Casson. Of course, there were a lot of people doing this sort of Dennis the Menace knock-off, so I could be wrong.

2012-01-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

Friday Comic Book Day.

I don't know how IDW packaging of Dan DeCarlo's Jetta sold, but ever there was another Dan DeCarlo series derserving that treatment its... well, scrap that, in fact it is all of them. But here's a series that is funny, different and has a style all of it's own. again, like all Dan DeCarlo series, I guess.

2012-01-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

Thrown Clear

Thursday Storystrip Day.

I have not yet been able to download and clip the last leg of the Juliet Jones story I started two weeks ago. In the meantime I have found some sources saying that Bob Lubers only took over from Stan Drake (after he had the accident which killed Alex Raymond). Still a huge feat, since he was doing his own daily and Sunday Long Sam as well. In that same period, it seems to me Bob Lubbers did some Juliet Jones Sundays as well. At that time, the Sundays and dailies of that strip had seperate storylines. The deadline for the Sundays was even more ahead of publication. I think the first story here is by Drake and the start of the second one is by Lubbers. Drake may have been back as soon as the third installment.

I will add the end of that story later...

2012-01-04T03:40:00.000-08:00

Recruitmink Ads

Wednesday Advertising Day.

Looking through some clippings from 1941, I came across this oddity. A Popeye recruiting ad series for the Navy. Now here's something that should be featured in any book or article on comic figures doing their bit for the war. Oddly enough for a Navy recruitment ad, it seems to have been distributed mainly to the mid-American states.

What interests me most, is the act that it is signed J.M. This problably is Joe Musial, who assisted on Popeye in 1938 and drew promotional material for King Features for most of the forties. This also makes him a prime candidate for the Kellogg Grape=Nuts ad series Fireball Twigg, although stylisticly Paul Fung Jr. remains the best optionn.

2012-01-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

All That Yar

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

A pretty girl looking for succes in Hollywood or on Broadway. There have been many strips about that. First there was Patsy, then Jeannie, then Tallulah who started out as a dumb blonde but went on to become an aspirinf actress called Jezabelle, then Down O'Day, then Mary Perkins and Dilly. In between there was Sherry and the Showgirls by Dan DeCarlo and Stan Lee and who knows who else. Jezabelle/Tallulah was was a cartoonist called Yar, whom I have not seen before or since. The Comic Strip's Who's Who tells us his real name was Ira Yarbrough. He worked in the Siegel and Shuster studio, inking Superman in the forties. He isn't mentioned as one of the assistnts of Siegel and Shuster's later strip Funnyman, although the style would fit. Remarkably, he is also mentioned as co-created of Mr. Mzyzptlk. It also mentions that Jezabelle was from another syndicate than Tallulah, but I can find no evidence of that here.

2012-01-02T04:55:00.000-08:00

Humoresque

Monday Cartoon Day.

It's been a long time snce I have devote a post to just a single illustration, but if this gag cartoo is what I think it is, it deserves the attention. Although the scan is of two pages, it's the cartoon on the right that concernes us. As you can se, it is signed DeCarlo and wouldn't it be great to think it ay be one of the first published cartoons by Dan DeCarlo? The subject matter certainly would help you think that, because DeCarlo, like the soldier in this cartoon, was stationed in France and met his wife Josie there. The soldier in bed does look like Dan DeCarlo did in the cartoons he sent his wife during their courtship, with the greased cowlick hairstyle and his reletively small size. The girl in the back does not look like his brownhaired wife, though and there are more problems. The style itself is miles away from either the wobbly style DeCarlo used when he ws still in the army. It is also completely unlike the style he would develop at Timely/Atlas around the same time this cartoon was published in Smiles #22 (Summer 1947). Still, until he got that job, he had unsuccesfully tried to become an illustrator, so who knows? He may have tried his hands at cartooning. What makes me double unsure, is the fact that in the midfifties, there was another cartoonist signing DeCarlo. He had a totally different style, though. Unfortunately, the signature itself is no big help either. It is done with a capital D and C, as DeCarlo used and there is the little squiggle at the end of the O he used in the late forties on some projects, but I could find no match for it in Bill Morrison's biography of Dan DeCarlo. Maybe if Bill drops by, he can tell us what he thinks this cartoon might be...

2012-01-01T01:58:00.001-08:00

The Last of a True Hero

Sunday Meskin Measures.

And then, Mort Meskin's run on the Vigilante in Action comics ended. His work there was taken over by Joe Kubert, Bob Lubbers, Dan Barry and lesser talents. But that was not all. He would do four more stories with Jerry Robinson in Western Tales #1 to #4. They were not done after the last four Action Comics I showed before, but were all part of the 1947/1949 part of his career Meskin and Robinson joined up. It is all supposed to have ended in 1949, when Meskin hit a wall and had to be hospitalized for a nervous condition. In the publication list of his work there seems to be no gap, but the point is marked by the fact that his collaboration with Jerry Robinson ended. Why Robinson would not help Meskin get back on his feet, I don't know. Robinson left comics for a while, that may have been part of it. I will reread Steven Brower's excellent visuel biography of Meskin and try and cover this tumultuous period in Meskin's life over the coming year.

The official credits for this story read: Robinson on Pencils, Meskin on inks. I think this work represent Mort Meskin's best work in the business, with a possible exception for the early splash pages on the Vigilante. I agree with the credit assesment, although Jerry Robinson has stated several times that their working relationship was more complicated than that. I certainly see touches of Meskin's composition work here and there and he certainly had the freedom to do addition faces in his own manner.

2011-12-31T04:09:00.000-08:00

Looking For Answers?

Saturday Leftover Day.

Some puzzles for the holidays.

2011-12-29T13:26:00.000-08:00

Who Was That Masked Ghost?

Friday Comic Book Day.

Continuing the Bob Lubbers theme of this week, I have some of his ealry comic book work. All through the late forties he worked on all sorts of comics for Fiction House. Representing that, I have a late Firehair story he did, one of his main characters there. After that, he worked for several publishers, including ACG and St, John, shown here, but also Gleason and Better/Nedor/Standard. And he did some jobs for DC, including a three issue stint on The Vigilante (following Joe Kubert and befor Dan Barry took over). All the while he was doing the Tarzan daily and Sunday strip in what I would call a much more typical Bob Lubbers style - and apparently he was doing advertising work with Stan Drake. I have shown one series of ads I believe were by Lubbers earlier (for some sort of soap, you'll find it if you follow the tag), but Lubbers expert Joachim doesn't see it. Still, the Who's Who mentions him doing some newspaper advertising in that period. It also mentions that he ghosted Secret Agent X-9 between 1956 and 1960, when I am sure it was drawn by George Tuska, though. And that would have meant he did three strips in 1959. I guess he ghosted on and off in that period, although I have not yet come across any samples. Still, it look like all though his life Lubbers was capable of doing a lot of polished high quality work all at once, in fact almost twice as much as any other artist.

2011-12-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

A Lot Of BL

Thursday Story Strip Day.

Having shown a lot of Bob Lubbers' work the last few weeks, I thought I'd go an collect what I have of his late 1959 Saint run. he did this, while he was still doing Long Sam, filling in between John Spanger and Doug Wildey. I have most of this three month run, althoug I may come back and add some of the missing strips in the end. The Sundays are the best and I have gone back to my own prvious psoting to gather what I have and added another I found. I am not completely sure when he started, it may have been before John Sprangers' signature disappeared from the strip. We'll get back to that later, when I find a suitable way to share the rather large run of Spranger Sundays I have. December 1st is the last Lubbers daily I have, but the last Sunday seems to be dated the thirteenth. By the 21st of december Wildey has stepped in. All in all I think Lubbers did one full three month story.

2011-12-28T08:33:00.001-08:00

Animal Attraction

Wednesday Advertising Day

Last week a showed a lot of Sgt. Bilko Camels ads by Bob Bugg. before that he did a shorter series for the same company.

2011-12-27T01:24:00.000-08:00

Long Live The King

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

I am sorry to see that the King Aoo reprint series from IDW was either discontunued or put on hold. Here are some new Sunday color scans and some scattered black and white dailies leading up to it. I have never seen any strips beyond 1960, although ran until 1965. Anyway, I have included some dailies, which we syndicated by a smaller company after McClure discontinue the strip.

2011-12-26T05:10:00.000-08:00

Random Cartoonery

Monday Cartoon Day.

Laff-a-Day was the 'other' daily cartoon panel after This Funny World, using slightly less upscale cartoons and cartoonists. But if anything like it was in the papers today, it would be one of the first things I would go for. Funny to see how later on in the sixties Henri Boltinoff, Orlando Busino and Don Orehek were frequent contributors.

2011-12-25T13:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas Fillers

Sunday Spector Special

In the early years of this blog, I showed a ot of material by Irving Spector. He s best know for his cartoon storyboarding in the sixties, but he worked in comics in the forties and fifties. I came across his work when I stumbled on his Sunday only comic strip Coogie, whic was done for thw New York Herald newspaper and syndicate. That inturn led to a contact with his son Paul, who has tried to keep the memory of his father alove with a blog and other activities. He also has boxes full of originals of about half the Coogie pages, which should be put to good use for a complete collection of this charming Pogo like newspaper odity. I ran into Spector again, when I found that he had served with Stan Lee in the Signal Corps in the army and returned to New Yor after the war to do some work for Lee in his comic books. He then turns up again in the fifties with Coogie and after that he did a couple of very funny funny animal books, but there still is a gap for 1947/8. Some sources led me to believe that he had taken an editorial job for Gleason, doing filler pages or at least buying product for them. But I never found any evidence for them. So now I came across two 1947 filer pages that look like his work to me, in Black Terror #18. Black Terror was produced by the company that would later grow into the Standard company, which published all of Sector's mid fifties comic book work. So now I have to go and check all of Nedor/Standard's outut for 1947/8, I guess.

If you are new here and aven't seen the aforementioned Spector material, you might want to use the tag to have a look. It's worth it.

2011-12-25T01:15:00.001-08:00

The Fastest Inkslingers in the West

Sunday Meskin Measures.

Meskin and Robinson doing what they did best.

2011-12-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

One Man's Accident

Saturday Leftover Day.

Here is some more of the Juliet Jones stoy I started thursday. I have since seen (in the second volume of reprint series by classiccomicpress) that the story itself runs until the end of december, making it a four month storyline. I will gather the rest and share it as well, although I repeat that for a better quality art you'd better get the reprint books (volume three, taking it up to 1960, has also been published, with a fourth volume under way). This was just, to see if anyone can spot where the Bob Lubbers guest art starts and where it ends. Stan Drake was further ahead on the Sunday pages, which had a seperate storyline, but they too, seem to have been ghosted by Lubbers as well (with Lubbers doing his own Long Sam dailies and Sundays at the same time).

2011-12-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

Orange and Purple Haze

Friday Comic Book Day.

I am still getting together the rest of the Juliet Jones story for tomorrow. So here are two more Stan Lee/George Tuska wester stories. Not the best either of them ever produced, but you've got to admire the easy with which they pulled these off. From the 'what the hell is going on with those color' age of Marvel.

And for those of you who want to compare the work of George Tuska and Pete Morisi, I have added two stories Morisi did around the same time.