(I'm not the one who Disliked the post by the way.)
I was.
I find the cover stiff and ... odd-looking.
Something about the face just bugs me, plus the really clean lines of the belt and holster don't match the rest of the costume.
Yeah, it’s probably my least favorite cover of Alan’s, but it was still early in his career. And that’s Giordano doing a last-minute job with the holster, which had more little details in the original Davis/Neary version. The belt doesn’t stand out nearly as much in black-&-white, but it is rather glaring with the coloring. And it’s really the coloring that’s the problem. The gray of Batman’s suit is much too dark compared to the brightness of the belt—much darker, in fact, than the interior coloring of Batman’s suit, and what Alan and Neary were used to seeing on the covers. A darker yellow or darker yellow shading, or a lighter gray—or some combination of those—would make all the difference.
Granted, comic book coloring was in a state of crazy flux at the time... plus all the Stupid Paper Tricks that were going on. This was far from the only less-than-great cover of the period.
This one works despite the very odd coloring choice.
Must've been a sale on magenta ink that week.
Windsor-Smith colored that cover himself, or at the very least provided the color guides. He was using a lot of limited palettes for his covers during that time period. Stuff like this:
It wasn’t just horror, crime, and homosexual superheroes Wertham went after in SotI. He even went after seemingly wholesome fare as Classic Comics/Classics Illustrated. In the case of their adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, he quotes a student as having said, “Why should read the real book if I have this?” A fair point, I suppose, but imagine what Wertham would think of Cliff’s Notes.
Classic Comics #10 cover pencils and inks by Stanley Maxwell.
For Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Wertham quotes a 14-year-old boy (an 8th grader with a 2nd grade reading level—so a well below average reader) as saying he liked the part where Jeckyll “comes to the little girl and hits her with a cane.” The problem with Wertham’s argument here, of course, is that there is plenty of lurid violence in the novel as well, and it would stand to reason that those scenes would be the favorites of this and most any other teenaged boy.
Classic Comics #13, cover probably by Arnold Hicks.
With Great Expectations, Wertham complains that the first eight images on the page are of an “evil-looking man” threatening a boy with a large knife, and the boy saying, “Oh, don’t cut my throat, sir!” He goes so far as to suggest this is a crime comic, never mind that that exact scene and quote are pulled directly from the opening text of the novel.
Classics Illustrated #43 cover pencils and inks by Henry Kiefer.
My favorite though is his beef with the Silas Marner adaptation. Wertham gives the impression that he was a great admirer of the novel, because he argues that there are too many inconsistencies between the two, that Marner is depicted as being too old, and that, “the flavor of George Elliot, the warm human touches, the scenes of matchless humor,” were “ignored” in the comic.
Classics Illustrated #55 cover pencils and inks by Henry Kiefer.
There are more issues he pillories, but you get the gist. So, basically, Wertham at times says the comics are bad because they aren’t enough like the novels, and at other times because they’re too much like the novels.
I grew up in the days of declining availability, when a lot of stores and shops ceased carrying comics, in the days before Comic Shops came along. I lived behind a shopping center where my regular comic outlet was the corner drug store, but the other stores that used to sell comics continued to carry the Classics Illustrated and the Classics Illustrated Juniors for several years more before they finally dropped those as well.
I never saw them in stores, but when I was a kid, my mom got me a subscription to—I don’t know if they were the actual Classics Illustrated comics repackaged, or if they were original adaptations. This would have been sometime in the late ’70s, maybe early ’80s. Unfortunately I don’t have them anymore and it’s been over 20 years since I’ve seen them. I do remember that they were squarebound with cardstock covers and, I think, glossy paper—definitely not newsprint—and I read some of them nearly as much as my other comics. I don’t remember all the ones I had, but Treasure Island and Last of the Mohicans were my favorites.
I think those might have been repackaged -- though by the late 70's, Marvel was doing them with new adaptations and art. In the 60's, they were just like any other comic: same paper, same cover stock; only the price was different, fifteen cents in a twelve-cent market. The only squarebounds were the special editions.
They probably were repackaged, but none of the covers for the different Classics Illustrated variations, nor the few pages of interior art I’ve seen from those comics ring any bells, so I can’t be sure. It definitely wasn’t the Marvel material though. That I would have remembered. I’m almost positive there were no prices listed on the covers, front or back. As I said, these were through a mail order subscription, like a mail order book club—probably from some educational publisher or distributor. My mom was a teacher (later a principal), and at the time she was a reading specialist helping elementary school kids with below grade level reading ability, so I assume that’s how she came across the subscription. My memory is just too fuzzy when it comes to the actual comics.
It looks to me like one of the Fillipino artists, like Luis Dominguez or Rico Rival -- but Dominguez usually initials his covers, and I can't place the style beyond the generalization.
While this book was not mentioned in SotI, it is the comic the Sen. Kefauver held up while questioning Bill Gaines during the infamous hearing in 1954. Crime SuspenStories #22 (Apr./May 1954) cover pencils and inks by Johnny Craig.
Jack Sparling actually started out as a newspaper gag cartoonist in 1941. He drew two fairly successful strips: Hap Hopper, Washington Correspondent from 1941–43 and Claire Voyant from 1943 to 1948, both of which he co-created. As a side note, Al Plastino of later Superman fame took over Hap Hopper when Sparling left the strip. His first comic book work appeared in 1942—a Hap Hopper six-page story in Sparkler Comics, and he generally drew a handful of stories—primarily for Fawcett—each year throughout the ’40s, including two Claire Voyant features which appeared in Keen Teens. It wasn’t until 1950 that his career fully shifted over to comics.
The earliest Sparling cover I’ve been able to find is from a 1951 commercial comic—the kind they used to hand out at schools that were “educational” and were sponsored by some big company like Radio Shack or Union Carbide. Well this one was sponsored by United States Steel Corporation, and told the story of a John Henry-type of steel worker while showing the history of steel rail making. It’s called The Return of Joe, the Genie of Steel, and both the cover and the 15-page story inside were penciled and inked by Sparling.
His first mainstream comic cover was for Tell It to the Marines #5 (Nov. 1952), published by a fly-by-night outfit called Toby, which mostly produced comics featuring licensed characters like Li’l Abner, Felix the Cat, and John Wayne. It doesn’t appear to have any connection to the 1926 Lon Chaney film of the same name.
Boy, that doesn't look much like Sparling either... but not only does my copy of the Showcase Presents The House Of Mystery (vol 2) confirm that it's his work, but his signature is visible in the lower left corner. This is so unlike what I'm used to seeing of his work, but I've certainly no complaint. It's a beautiful cover.
I remember Sparling doing a lot of work during the 60's, ranging from a lot of quick, rushed-looking adaptations of movies and TV shows for Dell Comics to some really nice work on Green Lantern, Plastic Man and Metamorpho. I recall that he was also the regular artist on Eclipso for the last half of his original run.
Is it really!? Because this looks so unlike his usual work. I would swear that the inks look more like the Fillipino style.
It’s Sparling according to the GCD, but I admit it doesn’t look like most of his work. It does have a bit of a Luis Dominguez quality to it—though Dominguez is actually Argentinian, not Filipino—but Dominguez’s inks were usually a bit finer, a little more illustrative than the thick blacks of the Weird Mystery cover. Look at the ghost’s elbow; Dominguez wouldn’t have inked it that way, nor would any of the Filipino artists I can think of, except maybe Niño, but nothing else in the cover looks remotely like Niño. I’ll stick with Sparling for now.
Is it really!? Because this looks so unlike his usual work. I would swear that the inks look more like the Fillipino style.
It’s Sparling according to the GCD, but I admit it doesn’t look like most of his work. It does have a bit of a Luis Dominguez quality to it—though Dominguez is actually Argentinian, not Filipino—but Dominguez’s inks were usually a bit finer, a little more illustrative than the thick blacks of the Weird Mystery cover. Look at the ghost’s elbow; Dominguez wouldn’t have inked it that way, nor would any of the Filipino artists I can think of, except maybe Niño, but nothing else in the cover looks remotely like Niño. I’ll stick with Sparling for now.
Well, given its similarity to the HOM cover, I'll accept that it's Sparling. It's just a side of his work that I've never seen before.
Sparling rarely got cover jobs during the first half of his comics career, but here’s another cover for Toby—John Wayne Adventure Comics #18 (Dec. 1952).
And another commercial comic, this time for copper, sponsored by the Copper and Brass Research Association. Pencils and inks by Sparling on the cover and the 15-page story inside.
In late 1959, early 1960, Sparling began a long association with Dell, which is where he did the bulk of his work over the next few years, although he did quite a bit for Western in the mid-’60s as well. In 1964 he began to get work from DC again—he had done a handful of jobs for them in the early ’50s—and it was DC who gave him his first cover assignment of the decade, Strange Adventures #187 (Aug. 1964).
How could I not post a little something to celebrate the 65th birthday of my friend José Luis García-López?
I’m pretty sure Tarzan #251 (July 1976) was the first comic with José’s work I got—I was six at the time. José did the cover and the interior story (though the interior was inked by Rudy Florese).
I was never a big Superman fan, but this cover was enough to get me to pick this up as a kid. Action Comics #480 (Feb. 1978), pencils by José and inks by Dick Giordano.
Sparling quickly became one of DC editor Jack Schiff’s go-to guys. His work showed up primarily in Schiff’s sci-fi and horror titles Strange Adventures, Tales of the Unexpected, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets (where he drew several Eclipso covers and stories).
But when Schiff was fired from DC in 1967, Sparling’s work there dried up. Sparling was never one to keep all his eggs in one basket however, and had kept a foot in the door at Dell and Western, so he was able to shift his work load there, particularly to Dell’s The Outer Limits and Western’s Mighty Samson.
Before long he was getting work at DC again. He took over the short-lived Bomba with the second issue, but was used primarily as a fill-in artist.
In the late ’70s the majority of his work was done for Western and Charlton, with the occasional odd job for DC, and by 1982 he was pretty much done with comics except for a handful of small assignments for DC and Marvel. His last job was providing pencils (Chris Ivy inked him) for an eight-page Silver Surfer story in Marvel Comics Presents #50 (May 1990) titled appropriately enough, “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Here’s his last cover: Grimm’s Ghost Stories #59 (May 1982).
I remember Sparling's work on Mighty Samson being pretty decent, but his general work at Dell as being weak and rushed -- I can only guess there was a very low page rate involved with working for Dell and he needed to turn pages in at a hurry in order to make a decent wage.
He seemed to fall into a pattern of being assigned to books that were doomed to die, as he drew the final issue of the original Metamorpho run and the last few issues of Plastic Man's 60's series. His tenure on Green Lantern was very brief, and looked almost like a harbinger of that series' imminent demise as well (although I rather liked his visual approach there), but he soon departed as Gil Kane returned for a few issues with then-new writer, Denny O'Neil.
I didn't know about his Surfer story, so I'll have to look that up; I'm pretty sure I have that issue of MCP. I know his work for Marvel appears to have been very slight; the only other instance I can recall was a Captain America story back during the Tales Of Suspense days that was heavily inked by (if I recall correctly) Vince Colletta -- and we know how that often turns out.
Oh yeah!! I forgot about his work on Secret Six!! Great stuff! He did all but the first two issues, which were by Frank Springer.
Sparling also did several issues of the Challengers Of The Unknown around the same period. (No covers, though -- those were done by Neal Adams or Joe Kubert.)
I remember Sparling's work on Mighty Samson being pretty decent, but his general work at Dell as being weak and rushed -- I can only guess there was a very low page rate involved with working for Dell and he needed to turn pages in at a hurry in order to make a decent wage.
He seemed to fall into a pattern of being assigned to books that were doomed to die, as he drew the final issue of the original Metamorpho run and the last few issues of Plastic Man's 60's series. His tenure on Green Lantern was very brief, and looked almost like a harbinger of that series' imminent demise as well (although I rather liked his visual approach there), but he soon departed as Gil Kane returned for a few issues with then-new writer, Denny O'Neil.
I didn't know about his Surfer story, so I'll have to look that up; I'm pretty sure I have that issue of MCP. I know his work for Marvel appears to have been very slight; the only other instance I can recall was a Captain America story back during the Tales Of Suspense days that was heavily inked by (if I recall correctly) Vince Colletta -- and we know how that often turns out.
Well, that’s what a fill-in artist does. He did one issue of Metamorpho, three issues of Plastic Man, and two issues of Green Lantern, but he was also still doing short stories for the anthology books. I think, besides Bomba, the only other regular series he did for DC during that period was Secret Six, which he took over with issue #3 and drew until it was cancelled with #7. Perhaps the other DC editors weren’t overly fond of his work, but more likely it was because each editor already had a stable of artists they worked with on a regular basis, and they would give those artists the best assignments. Or perhaps Sparling just didn’t want to rely solely on one editor again for jobs.
That Captain America story was his first job for Marvel, and it was actually inked by Joe Sinnott. He also penciled X-Men #30 and #78—both inked by John Tartaglione. He did four issues of Ghost Rider in 1981 and ’82. For the first two he only did breakdowns—one for Don Perlin, one for Mike Esposito. The second two were inked by Tom Sutton. Then he penciled a couple of shorts for MCP, including that Silver Surfer story, in 1989-90. And that was it. I don’t know why he didn’t get more work from Marvel—his work was certainly dynamic enough. Maybe he had enough work and didn’t feel the need to knock on their door very often, but surely he would have tried to get work there before going to Charlton. Of course, by that time Marvel was being flooded with new talent, so he would have had a lot of competition.
First read the novel this series is based on when I was 15 or so and loved it. The comic book adaptation is pretty well done. You got Gabriel Rodriguez doing the pencils. And Chris Ryall adapting it. What surprised me is how close to the book the comic is. There is plenty of pretty perverse stuff in the novel and most of it made it to the comic. If you like horror and Lovecraftian style stuff this is worth a read. Warning,it is the first book in a 3 book series. The second book Everville came out in the mid 90s and so far the 3rd hasn't come out. I haven't even heard Barker mention it in interviews in decades now.
Comments
Must've been a sale on magenta ink that week.
Classic Comics #10 cover pencils and inks by Stanley Maxwell.
For Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Wertham quotes a 14-year-old boy (an 8th grader with a 2nd grade reading level—so a well below average reader) as saying he liked the part where Jeckyll “comes to the little girl and hits her with a cane.” The problem with Wertham’s argument here, of course, is that there is plenty of lurid violence in the novel as well, and it would stand to reason that those scenes would be the favorites of this and most any other teenaged boy.
Classic Comics #13, cover probably by Arnold Hicks.
With Great Expectations, Wertham complains that the first eight images on the page are of an “evil-looking man” threatening a boy with a large knife, and the boy saying, “Oh, don’t cut my throat, sir!” He goes so far as to suggest this is a crime comic, never mind that that exact scene and quote are pulled directly from the opening text of the novel.
Classics Illustrated #43 cover pencils and inks by Henry Kiefer.
My favorite though is his beef with the Silas Marner adaptation. Wertham gives the impression that he was a great admirer of the novel, because he argues that there are too many inconsistencies between the two, that Marner is depicted as being too old, and that, “the flavor of George Elliot, the warm human touches, the scenes of matchless humor,” were “ignored” in the comic.
Classics Illustrated #55 cover pencils and inks by Henry Kiefer.
There are more issues he pillories, but you get the gist. So, basically, Wertham at times says the comics are bad because they aren’t enough like the novels, and at other times because they’re too much like the novels.
I grew up in the days of declining availability, when a lot of stores and shops ceased carrying comics, in the days before Comic Shops came along. I lived behind a shopping center where my regular comic outlet was the corner drug store, but the other stores that used to sell comics continued to carry the Classics Illustrated and the Classics Illustrated Juniors for several years more before they finally dropped those as well.
The earliest Sparling cover I’ve been able to find is from a 1951 commercial comic—the kind they used to hand out at schools that were “educational” and were sponsored by some big company like Radio Shack or Union Carbide. Well this one was sponsored by United States Steel Corporation, and told the story of a John Henry-type of steel worker while showing the history of steel rail making. It’s called The Return of Joe, the Genie of Steel, and both the cover and the 15-page story inside were penciled and inked by Sparling.
His first mainstream comic cover was for Tell It to the Marines #5 (Nov. 1952), published by a fly-by-night outfit called Toby, which mostly produced comics featuring licensed characters like Li’l Abner, Felix the Cat, and John Wayne. It doesn’t appear to have any connection to the 1926 Lon Chaney film of the same name.
I remember Sparling doing a lot of work during the 60's, ranging from a lot of quick, rushed-looking adaptations of movies and TV shows for Dell Comics to some really nice work on Green Lantern, Plastic Man and Metamorpho. I recall that he was also the regular artist on Eclipso for the last half of his original run.
And another commercial comic, this time for copper, sponsored by the Copper and Brass Research Association. Pencils and inks by Sparling on the cover and the 15-page story inside.
In late 1959, early 1960, Sparling began a long association with Dell, which is where he did the bulk of his work over the next few years, although he did quite a bit for Western in the mid-’60s as well. In 1964 he began to get work from DC again—he had done a handful of jobs for them in the early ’50s—and it was DC who gave him his first cover assignment of the decade, Strange Adventures #187 (Aug. 1964).
I’m pretty sure Tarzan #251 (July 1976) was the first comic with José’s work I got—I was six at the time. José did the cover and the interior story (though the interior was inked by Rudy Florese).
I was never a big Superman fan, but this cover was enough to get me to pick this up as a kid. Action Comics #480 (Feb. 1978), pencils by José and inks by Dick Giordano.
And a more recent goodie.
But when Schiff was fired from DC in 1967, Sparling’s work there dried up. Sparling was never one to keep all his eggs in one basket however, and had kept a foot in the door at Dell and Western, so he was able to shift his work load there, particularly to Dell’s The Outer Limits and Western’s Mighty Samson.
Before long he was getting work at DC again. He took over the short-lived Bomba with the second issue, but was used primarily as a fill-in artist.
In the late ’70s the majority of his work was done for Western and Charlton, with the occasional odd job for DC, and by 1982 he was pretty much done with comics except for a handful of small assignments for DC and Marvel. His last job was providing pencils (Chris Ivy inked him) for an eight-page Silver Surfer story in Marvel Comics Presents #50 (May 1990) titled appropriately enough, “You Can’t Go Home Again.” Here’s his last cover: Grimm’s Ghost Stories #59 (May 1982).
He seemed to fall into a pattern of being assigned to books that were doomed to die, as he drew the final issue of the original Metamorpho run and the last few issues of Plastic Man's 60's series. His tenure on Green Lantern was very brief, and looked almost like a harbinger of that series' imminent demise as well (although I rather liked his visual approach there), but he soon departed as Gil Kane returned for a few issues with then-new writer, Denny O'Neil.
I didn't know about his Surfer story, so I'll have to look that up; I'm pretty sure I have that issue of MCP. I know his work for Marvel appears to have been very slight; the only other instance I can recall was a Captain America story back during the Tales Of Suspense days that was heavily inked by (if I recall correctly) Vince Colletta -- and we know how that often turns out.
Sparling also did several issues of the Challengers Of The Unknown around the same period. (No covers, though -- those were done by Neal Adams or Joe Kubert.)
That Captain America story was his first job for Marvel, and it was actually inked by Joe Sinnott. He also penciled X-Men #30 and #78—both inked by John Tartaglione. He did four issues of Ghost Rider in 1981 and ’82. For the first two he only did breakdowns—one for Don Perlin, one for Mike Esposito. The second two were inked by Tom Sutton. Then he penciled a couple of shorts for MCP, including that Silver Surfer story, in 1989-90. And that was it. I don’t know why he didn’t get more work from Marvel—his work was certainly dynamic enough. Maybe he had enough work and didn’t feel the need to knock on their door very often, but surely he would have tried to get work there before going to Charlton. Of course, by that time Marvel was being flooded with new talent, so he would have had a lot of competition.
Gabriel Rodriguez
First read the novel this series is based on when I was 15 or so and loved it. The comic book adaptation is pretty well done. You got Gabriel Rodriguez doing the pencils. And Chris Ryall adapting it. What surprised me is how close to the book the comic is. There is plenty of pretty perverse stuff in the novel and most of it made it to the comic. If you like horror and Lovecraftian style stuff this is worth a read. Warning,it is the first book in a 3 book series. The second book Everville came out in the mid 90s and so far the 3rd hasn't come out. I haven't even heard Barker mention it in interviews in decades now.
more from Mr Sparling