Thursday, July 28, 2016

A Darker Shade

Thursday Story Strip Day.

In the forties Chad Grothkopf did a series Sunday pages called Famous Fiction. I have shown quite a few of these, namely the Alice in Wonderland and Ali Baba adaptation. Those were in a variation of his 'funny' style, which he later simplified to use in comics and for the Howdy Doody newspaper strip as well. But he also had a 'serious' style, whch he used for his earliest comic book work and the Sunday edition of True Comics (where he was only one of many artists contributing). So here is part of a story he did in the serious style. A remarkable artist with a remarkable career.

7 comments:

  1. Ger:

    The artist on these pages is not Chad Grothkopf, but BaryƩ Phillips, better known as a paperback cover illustrator.

    Have a look at my blog

    http://alberto-s-pages.webnode.it/news/barye-phillips/

    for detailed information about Phillips, who Drew the following sequences of Famous Fiction:

    The Murders in the Rue Morgue - 23 July 1944-27 Aug 1944.

    The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - 3 Sept 1944-8 Oct 1944.

    A Midsummer's Night Dream - 15 Oct 1944-5 Nov 1944.

    Arabian Nights - The Fisherman and the Genie - 12 Nov 1944-17 Dec 1944.

    Hansel and Gretel - 24 Dec 1944-28 Jan 1945.

    Treasure Island - 4 Feb 1945-25 Mar 1945.

    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1 Apr 1945-20 May 1945.

    The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor - 27 May 1945-15 July 1945.

    Huckleberry Finn's Trip Down the Mississippi - 22 July 1945-9 Sept 1945.

    A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - 16 Sept 1945-4 Nov 1945.

    Aladdin's Lamp - 11 Nov 1945-30 Dec 1945.

    The Minotaur - 6 Jan 1946-1946.

    King Arthur - 1946-19 May 1946.

    Best,
    Alberto

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  2. Thanks! I am always surprised how you know these things! Thanks for the link. I never knew you had a website!

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  3. By the way, I did not know how to contcat you quickly, but have a look at my Charles Raab stuff. I have some samples of the series he did for one Sweet Sixteen. I also have a set of army newspaper cartoons he did, which I was keeping for my book on the Sickles/Caniff school. But I can send them to you when I am back from my trip this week. Hey, maybe we should work together on a proposal for such a book.

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  4. About Raab... based on the story in Western Fighters and his work on the Charlie Chan comic I wonder if he isn't the mysterious 'button nose' inker in some of the Prize Comics westerns (and other Prize titles). There is a ysterous inker there, who is clearly int he Caniff/`Sickles school. Sometimes I have thought it might have been Leonard Starr, but he is a bit too good for that. Raab seems to fit (and may even have been one of the inkers on Carmine Infantino's Charlie Chan as well).

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  5. Ger:

    I'm very much interested in your Caniff School project and would like to contribute if I can. Please show me those Raab samples... You still have my email, don't you?

    Best,
    Alberto

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  6. Ger:

    I have just posted a detailed profile of Chad Grothkopf on my blog, here:

    http://alberto-s-pages.webnode.it/news/chad-grothkopf/

    Best,
    Alberto

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  7. I'll contact you as soon as I am back from my holiday trip and can get to the saved mails.

    ReplyDelete