Not So Shocking Tales

Sunday Al Williamson Surprise. 

Williamson didn't only do westerns. Every once in a while he was lent to the horror devision.

 

Art Vs Opinion

Saturday Leftover Day. 

For me Hank Barrow is one of the biggest talents to come out of the Associated Press art department in the thirties. Okay, there was Al Capp. And Noel Sickles. And Milt Caniff. And Mel Graff.  And George Wunder. And Doin Flowers. But they all made their biggest splashes after they left the bullpen. And there was Morris, who took over AP's Scorchy Smith in 1959-61. Barrow was definitvely better than him.

Hank Barrow first became visible, when he took over the daily panel The Gay Thirties from Milt Caniff, who took off to do some adventure strip. But he really came into his own when he started doing political cartoons for the AP pares in the early forties (alongside Noel Sickles). I have a large collection of those cartoons and have shown quite a few through the years (and I am still not done yet scanning). His cartoons were sharp, very well drawn and may have had the best comic strip lettering I have ever seen.

After the war, he took on a weekly feature called Things To Come, about possible future inventions. It was similar to the later Radebaugh feature Closer Than We Think - but funnier. I have shown as many of those as I could lay my hands on as well.

In august 1949 he joined the Omaha World-Herald as a regular political cartoonist. It seems he did not like being told what to draw in the AP bullpen and took the opportunity to strike out on his own. This implies he had been doing AP cartoons after the war as well, although I did not see a lot of them.

Unfortunately, although the art remains as fresh and captivating as ever, on his own his political power was decidedly less. As a conservative man in conservative times, he had very little to atttack. Most of his cartoons are illustrations of popular opinions rather than a specific attack on a point. Like saying the Britsh are descending into socialism (with 'our' money even), without giving specific examples. He also seemed to have a thing about taxes being too high all the time and every december every other cartoon seems to have been about drunk driving accidents around Christmas. But the art is so pretty and sharp. And , as I said, the lettering is a pleasure to behold.

I am not certain yet how long Barrow stayed at the World-Herald. It may even have been until his retirement. I will dive further into this rabbithole and show you some more later.

The Trouble With Girls

Sunday Williamson Surprise. Another story signed by Williamson and apparently inked by Ralph Mayo. Not signed by Stan Le and no sign of him having written it.

Acing It

Saturday Leftover Day. Over the last few years I have shown stuff from the fake comics section The American Armed Forces Features, which was used in several army papers between 1955 and at least 1965. Cheaply produced, it had army related features (often/mostly funny) by many of the time's beter known cartoonists, like Bill Wiseman, Jacl O'Brien, Vic Martin and even Jack Cole and Mort Drucker. The whole thing may have been organised by Herb Rogoff, whoi also did a couple of strips. Here are the strips by Henry Boltinoff, who was always presen if short and funny strips were needed. He probably did them in a couple of hours a week, but they look just as nice as his DC work.

A Trick Of The Light

Sunday Al Williamson Surprise. This one is signed by Williamson, but he is almost overpowered by a very strong inker. I have no idea who that is, it could be anyone from Werner Roth to Williamson then often used regular inker Ralph Mayo.

 

Drawing For Your Life

Sunday Al Williamson Surprise. It's been some time since we've seen Stan Lee writing and signing these stories. I see no reason why he would be involved.

Panel Play

Sunday Al Williamson Surprise. Al's back at his best genre, the western.