Kid's Play

Sunday Robinson Reparations.

We interrupt our regular Alex Toth post today for an examination of Jerry Robinson's work on The Green Lama. Just after the war a new comic book company Spark Publications produced three series that have always interested me. Atom Man and Golden Lad had loads of work by the newly formed duo Mort Meskin and Jerry Robinson. Robinson's companion on Batman (and frequent collaborator to their and later Meskin's work) George Roussos can be found there as well.

Each of them often worked and signed on their own as well, but they certainly shared a common sensibility - or helped each other out on their solo stories. That makes it very hard sometimes to determine who did what when Robinson and Meskin did work together. I have always believed that Robinson added more solidity to Meskin's work on the many Black Terror and Fighting Yank comics they did for Standard.

But here they were both just transitioning. All of the Spark books were very well executed. The stories were well written and both the creator and the writer were credited. It seems everyone tried to deliver his (or her) best work. Certainly Mac Raboy (who did The Green Lama) did some of the best work he produced until he took over the Flash Gordon Sunday strip in the fifties.

But are those credits a true reflection of who did what? Here are two stories from the first two issues of The Green Lama available on the Digital Comic Book Museum, both signed by Robinson. The first one (sadly missing the first two pages) has the solid Robinson work, you will later also see on The Black Terror and Fighting Yank (as well as his solo work for Timely and his newspaper strip Jet Scott). Apart from everything else, Robinson was a master at incorporating realistic backgrounds into the story in such a way that it gave depth to his images. You can clearly see that in the first story. The atmospheric trees and cityscapes give the story a grounding many comics at that time did not yet have. Since the first page is missing, there are no credits, but I am sure the GCD listing of Jerry Robinson is right.

Mort Meskin was less inclined to use backgrounds. On his two DC series The Vigilante and Johnny Quick, he concentrated on the action. He could do backgrounds or machinery, but usually made them up without using any sort of photo reference. Instead he used a number of panel shapes and shadow tricks to lead the eye of the reader over the pages, without anyone noticing how little actual drawing work it took. And he was very good at that. There are many people, who believe his work for DC is the best he did in his career. Alex Toth also tells the story that he once saw Meskin covering a whole page in grey pencil and drawing his figures' shapes with an eraser. After which he inked the shaped, filled them out and removed the pencil layer when the drawing was completed.

I see some of that in the second story, which is also signed by Robinson - but doesn't look like his work on the first one very much. Take a look at that figure on the splash page, the use of circles as a background saving storytelling device, the shape and inkwork on the main character's face. All look more like Meskin's work than Robinson's to me.

Of course George Roussos could do all of that as well. Roussos' work can vary in quality but he did approach Robinson's facility with backgrounds in his work on the General Motors' give-away series he drew for many years. And whenever he drew on his own, his faces always looked a bit weird, as if he wasn't able to draw a normal handsome hero.

Of course Robinson s here as well (he wouldn't have signed it otherwise). For me he is most visible on the more detailed panels, such as the first and the last one on page two and three.

And this is not the last of it. The Green Lama went up to #8, so we'll see what's there next week!

Another Lovely Meskin Revisited

Sunday Meskin Repair Measures.

As regulars of this blog know, I have shown large parts of Mort Meskin's work and career. In fact, I have almost shown everything. The only exception is his early DC work, which was often in books that are too expensive for me to get and to copyrightprotected to find online. I often had to rely on donations by fellow Meskin fans, such as Sandy Jarrell. To make matters worse, what did show, was not in a system that allows me to see what I did and did not use. So when I found a couple of issues of Action Comics with The Vigilante in them, I could not really see if I had done them before. This one at least seems to be earlier than most I have done. I am still hoping for a Complete Johnny Quick and/or a complte The Vigilante. Or even a 'best of' as long as it would include all the splash pages.

I will add some commentary to show why I like this strip (and Mort Meskin) so much. I hope you will do the same in the comments.

Like all good comic strip artists, Mort Meskin was as much a designer as an artist. In this splash page he shows how to create focus , create depth and suggest movement, all in one drawing.

The one thing I am not particulary mad about (in all of this story) is the ink work. Mort Meskin was an artist who could do it all: lay-out, pencil, ink, spot blacks. In most collaborations he gave away some part of this four step appoach. There are some later Vigilante and Johnny Quick stories that were inked by Joe Kubert, for instance. On those occasions, the inker was credited. On other occasions, he created his style just by inking and one can wonder how much he even pencilled. Here, very little is added at the inking stage making it look like a bit of a rush job.

Meskin love circular panels and spotlights. It's all about focussing the reader's attantion on the action - and getting away with a little drawing as possible. In a circular panel or spotlight, it doesn't show you are not using a lot of background.

In the two middle panels, you can see Meskin's dynamic appraoch to action (less uncommon in his time). Characters are not always standing up straight in the middle. Somtimes the horizon is tilted and sometimes faces are cut off by the panel borders. Less is more. While western comics have drifted towards the overillustrated, manga has used this principle to gain a larger audience.

Panel five is one of the few panels that hint of a background here, and very atmospheric too.

I've been told that artists can be identified by how they draw a punch. Does the fist connect (as Meskin does here) or do we see it after it hit the opponent (like Jack Kirby does)?

Again, the spotlight provided siome much needed solidity.

All the focus on this page goes to the kid's face in panel three.

The lay-out of the last panel is very weird. And yet, it is typically Mort Meskin. The space between the characters gives more attention to the speaker.

The first panel has too much text, of course. Changing it to a top shot, gives the artist more chance to draw the motor.

Here we see Mort Mskin drawing a non-connecting punch. I have to have a look what his usual m.o. was.

Art Comparison

Sunday Corrective Measures.

Having shown almost all Mort Meskin pages on Sundays here, when someone online suggested they had found another unknown Meskin story in Standard's Gangworld #5, I had to have a look. At first I agreed, but taking a second look I thought it may be Bernard Baily imitating Meskin's line. It is a hard destinction to make. A couple of years ago, I almost bought an original Meskin page from Heritage, which turned out to be Bailey as well (after I lost the bid). On The Digital Comics Museum and the Grand Comic Book Base, they follow Jim Vadeboncoeur's lead and say it's Jerry Grandenetti. That could be true as well, as Grandenetti at that time could look like anyone.

Back In The Saddle

Boxing Day Meskin Extra.

I came across thos rare Mort Meskin Vigilante story I hadn't yet done here. Although he was never a superhero artist, I always like his work best when there is a bit of action to it.

Justice Will Bite You

Sunday Meskin Measures.

A couple of weeks ago I was selling the first half of my Prize crime comics on eBay and I showed the photos I made of the Mort Meskin splash pages (and two of the whole stories) here. Since then, most of them have been bought and I am ready to sell the second half. So again, here are the photos I took to go along with that. Again, these books contain some Meskin stories I was not able to show here, so I hope I am making amends by sharing the photos. This lot contains all of my 1953/55 book, which have the best work Meskin ever did for Prize. Maybe he was spurred on by his efforts to get hired by DC, but shaking off the heavy inking methods of George Roussos, he developed a new slick style that suits these stoies quite well. His characters all look like true criminals, as you can see for yourself below. I even found a couple of the earliest issues, including one with the first Meskin/Robinson sory for this title. At the end you see two stories by George Roussos, who had taken Meskin's cue and lightened his own style as well.

My name on eBay is geapelde and I hope you will have a look.