Saturday Mental Health Day.
Let's Explore Your Mind was a long running feature that started in the late forties and ended in the early sixties. Arthur Wiggam was a popular psychiatrist who worked a lot in the media. he wrote books, made radio an dtelevision appearances... and he produced this weekly Sunday strip, which was drawn by various artists. The first artists were a bit middle of the road and did not fit well into the Sunday comics sections. From the midfifties, the work was given to a new artist, who delivered big time in a bright and attractive style. It continued in this style until 1961 or 1962. `For the last few years I concluded that the artist was new young talent Richard Doxsee, who started at Timely-Atlas, where he drew many post-code 'horror' stories. His style was based on that of Al Williamson, but with a slightly different interpretation. In the late fifties he went on to work for Mad imitation Cracked. And it is there that his funny style remsembled one on one the style used in Let's Explore. But when this style first appeared in 1955, Doxsee was still at art school. When I bought to daily originals (yes, there was a daily version, too) they were sold as being by Dan Heilman, the artist of the longrunning soap opera strip Judge Parker. And it fits, certainly for the first few years. Especially the way he drew kids here and in Judge Parker. My theory now is that Doxsee started working as Heilman's assistent in the late fifties, when more and more funny version of these figures started to appear. These samples from 1957/58 are all Heilman, I'd say.
Follow the links for more of all the strips mentioned.
