The Rise and Fall of a Western Town

Sunday Al Williamson Day. 

I almost forgot to do my weekly duty and bring you another story Al Williamson did for Timely Atlas. This time it is a very special one and I am relying on the unmissable Atlas Tales website to confirm it is inked by Al Williamson. But the pencilling (of course) is by none other than Reed Crandall. Williamson and Crandall worked together often in the late fifties, but this may be one of the first times. 

Reed Crandaal did a lot of work for Stan Lee after EC folded, but never as much as much as Al Williamson. Seeing them together is a feast for the eye. Crandell usually inked his own work, but here Williamson lifts it to another level. Stan Lee spins an atypical tale, overwrites it a bit, but all in all it works for me. Not in the last place because of that striking first page.

 

Chuckfull of Plots

Saturday Leftover Day.

When I did the Howard Post horror story from Men's Adventures yesterday, I realized that title for a very short while was one of the most exciting ones in the Timely-Atlas line-up. Among collectors it is agreed that Manace was probably the best horror book the company produced, not only because most of the early issues were written in full by Stan Lee, but also because he used his best artists for himself (and therefore for the title) and continued to do so even after stopped writing the stories himself.

But if you look closely at the contents of Men's Adventures #21 to #26 (all from the 1952-53 period) you'll see that Lee used a similar approach and line-up there. Lots of his best artists and towards the later issues he even wrote a couple of stories himself, that just have easily have gone into the later Menace issues that did not have any of his work. What the thinking behind this was (or even if there was a concious plan) I do not know. I just like the pretty pictures by some of the industry's greatest artists, such as Russ Heath, Gene Colan, Bill Everett, Fred Kida, John Romita and Reed Crandall.