The Fabuleous Fifties

Caniffy

Sunday Comic Book Extra.

Here's a story I picked from Ace's Hand of Fate #9. It's from 1951 and I think it is remarkable. The staging, the figures, the inking are all very well done. This is either a fluke or a very competent comic artist. But alas, there is no name.

The figure work and design reminds me of the work of Fred Kida. Kida had done a lot of work on Gleason's crime titles and would go on to do some remarkable stuff for Stan Lee, before settling in a bland all-Aerican style for the remainder of his career. But the inking here is certainly not by Kida, wjich makes me doubt the whole thing. There is a Caniff influence with bold brushstrokes and well placed shadows. But there is also a weird sort of thinline doodling going on, creating a very special effect. The only atist I know doing such stuff is Bill Benulis. And he only inked his own work, if someone else didn't do that for him.

Unfortunately, this issue is not noted at the GCD (I will send them a list, with my other guesses on it as well, including a story that seems to have been drawn by Mike Sekowsky). The issues before and after have more uncertain art guesses, including a possible Johnny Craig cover on the issue before it.

So if anyone has a lead on this artist, I'd love to know. All the rest can just enjoy his nameless mastery.