Oh, The Horror!

Friday Comic Book Day.

I am selling my Timely books on Ebay at a slow and steady pace. At the moment I have the first of a few lots up with my Marvel Tales issues from the fifties, Timely's golden age of horror. Among them is a very poor book, without a cover even. So I am showing it here in full, not from my own scans, but an online copy, with the cover.

I particulary like the odd styles that were allowed in these books. Among comic book historians there was the idea that EC was the only company that allowed their artists to use their own style, but in fact it was mostle DC who had a strict visual editorial policy. Stan Lee got his art everywhere and he liked it (or didn't care) if every story looked different. He also allowed artists to sign their work, although he apparently didn't mind if they did not want to.

Followers of this blog know I am a huge fan of the mid fifties work of Gorge Tuska. This story shows all his strengths. In fact, both the theme and it's handeling suggest that this could be a Stan Lee story, who like working with Tuska. But teher are no other hints supporting this. Stan Lee wrote in batches and there are no other Lee stories surrounding this job number.

Martin (or Marty) Rosenthall was a comci book artist with a very small output. Among fans he is best known for working alongside Ross Andru and Mike Esposito on their selfpublished titles under the MikeRoss imprint, mostly inking Ross Andu and signing as Thall. In an interview in Alter Ego a couple of years ago, he told the interviewer he had even invested in their company with money he had gotten from his mother.

Chuck Winter's style is just plain weird. He was not suited to very much except horror comics and even then only in limited doses. He was a graduate from the Iger shop, where drawing abillity does not have been the primary requisite. Steven Thompson mentions that he was a jazz age advertising artist and he may have gotten back to that. There are no credits for his work after the fifties and also no mention if he is still with us or not. probably not, because it seems he was an older artist by the time this story was made.

Tony DiPreta deserves a book of his onw, so varied and long lasting was his career. He is now mostly remembered for his run on joe Plaooke from the ealry sixties onward. But before that he did all sorts of stuff, including a long run as a regular on Gleason's crime comics of the forties. But the work he did for Stan Lee and the atmospheric style he adopted for this, is the most inspired of his career to me. And at least it looks most like a personal style.

Forging Ahead

Friday Comic Book Day.

Bob Forgione was a prolific artist. Most collectors know him from his work with inker Jack Abel on the DC war titles of the sixties. Some also know he did a similar run of war and western (but mostly war) stories with jack Abel for Timely comics in the late fifties (before it becane known as Marvel). Less people know he did a substantial run on Charlton's Thing series before Stev Ditko came and made it the collectable (and often collected) comic it is these days. Even less know that he studied with Jerry Robinson's evening classes on comics at the New York School of Art and worked as Robinson's assistant in the early to mid fifties and again in the early sixties when Robinson returned to comics to do the Bat Masterson series for Dell. While he was doing those, he also did some solo work. I don't know how those fit in with his work for Robinson, but most of what I have seen shows Robinson's influence, particularily in the long nosed faces both men loved to use. And this is where it all gets complicated. Forgione was influenced by Robinson. Robinson worked with Mort Meskin in the late forties. Steve Ditko did Robinson's evening classes as well and was influenced by Robinson, but even more by Meskin (whose work he got to know through Robinson, I guess). So to some, Forgiones work looks a bit like Ditko's. On top of that, I get the impression that Forgione reinforced some stylistic habits in Robinson's work which make his later solo stuff look very much like Forgione's work as well, making it very hard at times to see who did what.

Which is all an elaborate way to say that Forgione's work deserves a good look on it's own. Who was the man behind all these looks. When he was inked by Jack Abel, his work took on a certain look as well and that is the look everybody remembers him for. But it is not necessarily his best work. For me, that is the solo work he did for Timely and Charlton.

So to kickstart that, here are a couple of early pieces. Forgione started publishing in the early fifties. So he must have been working while he was doing the Robinson classes or he was an early student. The Robinson influence is there from the start, as you can see from this story from Hillman's Deadeye Western and an early Timely piece, both from 1953.

I have added another early Timely story from Men's Adventures #19 (also from 1953), which is attributed to Forgione on the excellent Atlas Tales website (Atlas being the other name the later Marvel is known by), but I don't think it is his. The composition, the often fine linework and the uses of lettering make it look like Bill Benulis, another extremely interesting artists, who often was inked by Jack Abel, by the way. As he probably was here. I am including this story here, because some friends wanted to see it and because the cover of Men's Adventures is by Jerry Robinson and I wanted an excuse to show that was well.

I have also added a Jerry rObinson story I had never seen before. Looking back through time, we often don't see or forget the difference an couple of years can make. Jerry Robinson was doing this sort of realism three or four years before others even dared to develeop their own style.