I've talked about Elias on this thread before, but he did a ton of comic book work, especially for DC. He was an assistant to Milt Caniff for a time, and that experience stuck with him throughout his career and is plainly visible in his work.
Yeah, I remember Elias as a Green Arrow artist in the early 60's, and the replacement for Carmine Infantino on Adam Strange when CI shifted over to the Batman books. I remember him doing a lot of stories, including a run on Cave Carson in Showcase. The last I saw his stuff was when he worked for Marvel in the 70's on books like Power Man and Daredevil.
October 1940: Not a great selection this month. I haven't had a jungle girl yet, so here’s Jumbo Comics #20, featuring a Sheena cover by John Celardo.
Celardo worked for a time at the Eisner & Iger studio (which is where he was when he drew this cover), working on features for Quality and Fiction House, before leaving to become assistant art director at Fiction House until around 1949. He did a lot of work for Standard in the early ’50s, but left comics in 1954 to take over as the artist of the Tarzan newspaper strip, which he drew until 1968. He stayed in the strips as an artist and later as an editor for King Features Syndicate until the mid-’90s.
I'd never heard of Lee Elias before but apparently he drew and inked many of the early "Witches Tales" covers. Here's one of my favourites, from March 1952. (Just before Wertham)
November 1940: It's bee versus swordfish! Who will live? Who will die?
Okay, nobody dies. Red Bee pulls the old “trick the swordfish into cutting the ropes that tie your hands” routine and swims back to shore to catch the crooks who tossed him overboard into swordfish infested waters. (Seriously, there's a sign on the bouy that says “Swordfish.”)
December 1940: I'm bypassing the iconic All-Star Comics #3 in favor of Single Series #25, published by United Features. As you might suspect based on the publisher, Single Series reprinted newspaper strips distributed by United Features.
The cover feature for this issue is Abbie an’ Slats, a strip created by Al “Li’l Abner” Capp. Capp wrote the series from its launch in 1937 until 1945, after which his brother Elliot took over the writing. The artist on the strip was Raeburn Van Buren, who was a successful illustrator before Capp recruited him. Van Buren drew the strip for the entirety of its run, which ended in 1971 with Van Buren’s retirement.
The art for this cover is a composite of Van Buren’s artwork for the strip taken from two separate panels, but done so in a clever manner.
Van Buren was an excellent artist. To give you a better idea of his work, here’s a Sunday strip of Abbie an’ Slats, followed by one of his illustration sketches.
Not sure how this thread is done since I don't visit it much, but I figured I could share this here. I saw this issue at Denver Comic Con and had to pick it up. This is a gorgeous cover by a fantastic artist. I don't think I've ever seen anything by Charles Vess that I didn't immediately enjoy. This is from Amazing Spider-Man #261, February 1985.
That's the fun thing about this topic thread, @fredzilla... you can whip out any theme you like! And Charles Vess' Spider-Man covers are certainly a welcome theme!
January 1941: It's another Lou Fine cover, this time for National Comics #7, featuring Uncle Sam. I love the crazy proportions of the figures and the eerie menace of the Nazis’ underwater transport looming in the background. So much energy in this piece.
Feb. 1941: During the war years there were a lot of covers that featured fighter planes. There were even a few titles who focused on the battle of the skies. But most of the covers to those titles get to be a bit monotonous. There are only so many ways to show a plane in the dimensions of a comic book cover. For the cover of Wings Comics #6, artist Gene Fawcette focused more on geometric design and produced a fairly interesting piece.
Fawcette was a good artist, who like many others of his time, started out at the Eisner & Iger Studio. And again, like many others of his time, he worked in every genres, including funny animals, and could work well in different styles. He left comics in the late ’50s—again, like many others of his time—and went into magazine illustration for a short time before becoming the artist of Our New Age, a science and technology factoid newspaper strip, which he stayed with until 1975. After that he dabbled in comics again, doing work for Western.
Feb. 1941: During the war years there were a lot of covers that featured fighter planes. There were even a few titles who focused on the battle of the skies. But most of the covers to those titles get to be a bit monotonous. There are only so many ways to show a plane in the dimensions of a comic book cover. For the cover of Wings Comics #6, artist Gene Fawcette focused more on geometric design and produced a fairly interesting piece.
Fawcette was a good artist, who like many others of his time, started out at the Eisner & Iger Studio. And again, like many others of his time, he worked in every genres, including funny animals, and could work well in different styles. He left comics in the late ’50s—again, like many others of his time—and went into magazine illustration for a short time before becoming the artist of Our New Age, a science and technology factoid newspaper strip, which he stayed with until 1975. After that he dabbled in comics again, doing work for Western.
March 1941: I have to go with the first comic book cover to feature Adolf Hitler getting socked by a superhero, not to mention the first appearance of Captain America—Captain America Comics #1, with a cover by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.
March 1941: I have to go with the first comic book cover to feature Adolf Hitler getting socked by a superhero, not to mention the first appearance of Captain America—Captain America Comics #1, with a cover by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon.
50 years ago today. Amazing Spider-Man 25 (cover by Steve Ditko). Not quite in the same league as your Captain America #1 @nweathington, but still an iconic cover! " />
Incidentally, @nweathington, I'll be more than happy to join you in your "Cover of the Month" series, but not until we reach a period from which I recognise the covers! I'm hoping to get involved once you get up to 1958!
April 1941: This beauty is probably Reed Crandall’s first cover. I've talked about Crandall before in this thread, so I won't go into his career other than to say he was best known for his Blackhawk work (during the time Blackhawk was a top ten selling comic) and was a very influential artist during his day. I'll probably be showing more of his covers before this is done. Man, I love that giant’s face.
May 1941: A pretty weak month, but Crackajack Funnies #35 has some really nice figure drawing and an interesting composition. The cover is by Frank Thomas—not to be confused with Frank Thomas the Disney animator—and features the Owl, a character Thomas created in 1940 (he also created the Eye among others), and drew (and sometimes wrote) until the feature was dropped in 1943. Thomas was pretty much out of comics by the time the war ended, and he spent the rest of his career drawing (often ghosting) newspaper strips.
I can't let today go by without mentioning William Woolfolk (born 25 June 1917 - died 20th July 2003.) A graduate of New York University, Woolfolk went to work in advertising before joining the comic book industry in the 1940s Woolfolk worked in the comic book business, starting with MLJ Magazines, from 1941 through 1954, with time out for military service. He rose in the business to become one of the highly paid writers of comic books, earning $300 a week, ten times the average salary. He toiled for several companies, including Detective Comics (Batman and Superman); Fawcett Comics (Bulletman, Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr.); Quality Comics (Blackhawk); Police Comics (Plastic Man); and Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics (Captain America and the Sub-Mariner). He claimed he created Captain Marvel's "Holy Moley!" catchphrase. He also worked for Archie Comics, National Comics and Orbit Publications. He became famed as "The Shakespeare of Comics" during the Golden Age of Comics. After a decade of working at Fawcett, Detective Comics editor Mort Weisinger hired Woolfolk for Superman, a marketplace rival of Captain Marvel, one of the titles Woolfolk worked on. At the same time of his hiring, he was also working for Orbit and Timely and freelancing articles and stories to mainstream magazines. He accepted the offer to gain security. However, he clashed with Weisinger and continued to freelance with a wide variety of publishers.
He claimed that his comic books work outshone his other literary production.
Comments
Celardo worked for a time at the Eisner & Iger studio (which is where he was when he drew this cover), working on features for Quality and Fiction House, before leaving to become assistant art director at Fiction House until around 1949. He did a lot of work for Standard in the early ’50s, but left comics in 1954 to take over as the artist of the Tarzan newspaper strip, which he drew until 1968. He stayed in the strips as an artist and later as an editor for King Features Syndicate until the mid-’90s.
Okay, nobody dies. Red Bee pulls the old “trick the swordfish into cutting the ropes that tie your hands” routine and swims back to shore to catch the crooks who tossed him overboard into swordfish infested waters. (Seriously, there's a sign on the bouy that says “Swordfish.”)
Still, another great cover by Lou Fine.
The cover feature for this issue is Abbie an’ Slats, a strip created by Al “Li’l Abner” Capp. Capp wrote the series from its launch in 1937 until 1945, after which his brother Elliot took over the writing. The artist on the strip was Raeburn Van Buren, who was a successful illustrator before Capp recruited him. Van Buren drew the strip for the entirety of its run, which ended in 1971 with Van Buren’s retirement.
The art for this cover is a composite of Van Buren’s artwork for the strip taken from two separate panels, but done so in a clever manner.
Van Buren was an excellent artist. To give you a better idea of his work, here’s a Sunday strip of Abbie an’ Slats, followed by one of his illustration sketches.
50 years ago today - Star Spangled War Stories #121 "The Killer of Dinosaur Alley." If you're worried about sales, stick a dinosaur on the cover!
Cover Artists Ross Andru, Mike Esposito
Fawcette was a good artist, who like many others of his time, started out at the Eisner & Iger Studio. And again, like many others of his time, he worked in every genres, including funny animals, and could work well in different styles. He left comics in the late ’50s—again, like many others of his time—and went into magazine illustration for a short time before becoming the artist of Our New Age, a science and technology factoid newspaper strip, which he stayed with until 1975. After that he dabbled in comics again, doing work for Western.
Not quite in the same league as your Captain America #1 @nweathington, but still an iconic cover!
A graduate of New York University, Woolfolk went to work in advertising before joining the comic book industry in the 1940s
Woolfolk worked in the comic book business, starting with MLJ Magazines, from 1941 through 1954, with time out for military service. He rose in the business to become one of the highly paid writers of comic books, earning $300 a week, ten times the average salary. He toiled for several companies, including Detective Comics (Batman and Superman); Fawcett Comics (Bulletman, Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr.); Quality Comics (Blackhawk); Police Comics (Plastic Man); and Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics (Captain America and the Sub-Mariner). He claimed he created Captain Marvel's "Holy Moley!" catchphrase. He also worked for Archie Comics, National Comics and Orbit Publications.
He became famed as "The Shakespeare of Comics" during the Golden Age of Comics. After a decade of working at Fawcett, Detective Comics editor Mort Weisinger hired Woolfolk for Superman, a marketplace rival of Captain Marvel, one of the titles Woolfolk worked on. At the same time of his hiring, he was also working for Orbit and Timely and freelancing articles and stories to mainstream magazines. He accepted the offer to gain security. However, he clashed with Weisinger and continued to freelance with a wide variety of publishers.
He claimed that his comic books work outshone his other literary production.