Those Back Issue magazines dedicated to Giant-Size & Super Specs/etc. that I read a while back put me in the mood to revist some old favorites, so while I was recently waiting for my Legion Archives to arrive via snail mail, I re-read my copies of Justice League of America 110 - 112.
I think I've posted my copies of the first two before, so here's the last issue in that span. Love these 100-pagers from back in the day. It's the way I learned about a lot of earlier comics history (before the Internet), from the Seven Soldiers of Victory to early reprints of JLA itself. This one definitely shows signs of many childhood re-reads... Justice League of America #112 (July-August 1974) Pencils & Inks: Nick Cardy
Those Back Issue magazines dedicated to Giant-Size & Super Specs/etc. that I read a while back put me in the mood to revist some old favorites, so while I was recently waiting for my Legion Archives to arrive via snail mail, I re-read my copies of Justice League of America 110 - 112.
I think I've posted my copies of the first two before, so here's the last issue in that span. Love these 100-pagers from back in the day. It's the way I learned about a lot of earlier comics history (before the Internet), from the Seven Soldiers of Victory to early reprints of JLA itself. This one definitely shows signs of many childhood re-reads... Justice League of America #112 (July-August 1974) Pencils & Inks: Nick Cardy
That's my first-ever comic. I was absolutely enthralled. Read it cover to cover.
May 1954: This cover for Superboy #34 by Win Mortimer is nothing special, but frankly it’s one of the more interesting covers Mortimer drew—and during this period he drew a lot of covers for DC.
James Winslow “Win” Mortimer was Canadian-born (May 1, 1919). His father worked for a lithography company and taught Win how to draw. After serving in the Canadian Army during WWII, Win went to work designing posters like his father. He moved to New York to study at the Art Students League, and in 1945 found work at DC Comics as one of Bob Kane’s ghost artists. The next year he got his first Superman story to draw. In 1947 he was made the ongoing artist (as “Bob Kane”) of the new “Robin” lead feature in Star Spangled Comics, which also included drawing the cover of each issue. But he was soon taken off “Robin” and the covers in favor of Jim Mooney (also as “Bob Kane”), and was moved to the “Star-Spangled Kid” backup. It gave him more time to draw Superman, Superboy, and Batman covers and stories (as well as other odd jobs). In 1949 he took over the Superman daily newspaper strip, which he drew until 1956. He must have been pretty fast to have penciled a daily and still have time to draw a story or two and several covers each month.
In 1950 Mortimer was assigned to draw a series of one-page public service ads. These were sequential stories on a wide range of subjects such as the United Nations, human rights, the handicapped, and personal health. These increasingly took more of his time, and by 1953 he was only doing these PSAs and covers, along with the Superman newspaper strip which he was now also inking. This continued until 1956 when he left comics to become the artist of the David Crane newspaper strip, which at its height ran in 600 newspapers. But Mortimer quickly felt constrained; he wanted a strip all his own. And in 1960, he got his wish, creating, writing, penciling, inking, and lettering his own strip, Larry Brannon, for the Toronto Sun.
In 1966 Mortimer was back at DC—though it must have almost felt like he never left, as the PSAs he had drawn back in the early to mid-’50s were still being reused every month. This time, though, he was doing mostly romance and humor work, including co-creating (with Arnold Drake) “Stanley and His Monster” and penciling fill-in issues of Plastic Man and The Inferior Five. Needing more work, he began moonlighting with Western, doing a backup in the Doctor Solar book. He eased back into doing more superhero work in 1968, drawing “Legion of Super-Heroes” backup stories, and later the “Supergirl” feature. He also began doing more stories for Western, and within a couple of years was working for Marvel as well, where he co-created Night Nurse. In 1974, he finally got a regular ongoing gig as the main artist of Spidey Super Stories, which he stayed with for its entire run (though he still had time for other jobs, like Western’s Battle of the Planets). He left comics again in 1983 to work at Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’ Continuity Studios, doing advertising art, though he would dip his toe back into comics a couple more times before his death in 1998.
Cover by Jack Sparling (pencils and inks). I actually had this issue as a kid. Until seeing the cover just now, I'd forgotten all about it... which is probably why I only had the one issue. Well, that and the fact that Charlton had terrible distribution, and the fact that the series only went five issues before cancellation.
A couple of comics I recently added to my collection, both with gorgeous Michael Golden art, inside and out.
-chris
Someone who was interviewed on CGS (maybe Uncle Sal?) cited that Dr. Strange issue as the single best comic ever. He said he looks for and buys back issues of it at every show, just to give to young artists as an example of how to do it right.
That Batman issue is quite incredible, as well... and I would add one more Golden "must-have" to the list....
Mar. 1954: This month’s cover is Joe Palooka #83. Joe Palooka was created by Ham Fisher in 1920, though he didn't manage to get the strip syndicated until 1928. Even though Fisher wasn’t a particulary good cartoonist, his strip took off, becoming one of the most popular newspaper strips in the country for many years. It didn't hurt that he brought in talented assistants to draw the strip for him, including Al Capp. (I won't go into the feud between Fisher and Capp after Capp left to create L’il Abner; google it if you don't already know the story.) And the longevity of the comics series (and its two spinoffs)—which ran for 118 issues from Nov. 1945 to Mar. 1961—is just another testament to the strip’s success. For most of its run, the comic simply reprinted the newspaper strips, but later in the run original stories were also produced.
I can’t find verification on who drew this cover, but it certainly wasn’t Fisher, and most likely wasn’t one of his assistants. I'm pretty sure that the artist was Al Avison, who drew many covers for the series, as well as some of the original stories.
Avison began his career at Timely in 1941, co-creating the Whizzer among other assignments, and soon was getting work from Harvey as well. After Kirby and Simon left Timely in late 1941, Avison and Syd Shores took over the art chores for the character, often inking one another. From that point until 1949—except for a couple of years of service during the war—Avison was most closely associated with Captain America and the Green Hornet (for Harvey). By the end of 1948, Avison was working exclusively for Harvey—mostly cover assignments, which soon included Joe Palooka. Avison left the industry sometime in the mid- to late ’50s.
A couple of comics I recently added to my collection, both with gorgeous Michael Golden art, inside and out.
-chris
Someone who was interviewed on CGS (maybe Uncle Sal?) cited that Dr. Strange issue as the single best comic ever. He said he looks for and buys back issues of it at every show, just to give to young artists as an example of how to do it right.
That Batman issue is quite incredible, as well... and I would add one more Golden "must-have" to the list....
You're correct. It was "Cousin Buzz" when he was on with Uncle Sal. That's actually the reason I had it on my radar. The Batman book was another recommendation I'd heard recently on a podcast, though I cannot remember where it was. Might've been here, but I think it was on another one.
And, as @nweathington pointed out when I posted those images, both the stories were great! Loved them.
And (finally), that Star Wars issue is another cool book. Honestly can't remember the story, but having Golden on art is always a plus. I'm fairly certain it was an inventory issue they used when the "Empire" adaptation got pushed back an issue, but I could be completely wrong on that count.
The late Rich Buckler was a fan of the MLJ/Archie superheroes, particularly the run Kirby and Simon worked on. In 1981 John Carbonaro hired Rich to work up some concept drawings of those heroes to pitch to Archie as a new line of books. Archie liked the pitch, and Buckler was hired as managing editor of the Red Circle line (later changed to Archie Adventure once they expanded from direct market-only distribution to newstand distribution). Buckler also ended up drawing and writing many of the stories in the eight monthly titles. Unfortunately, it was the newstand returns that killed the line.
I think it was in the splash page thread that someone shared a number of Alan Davis images. Davis is one of the best -- no doubt -- and one of those artists whose work I admire, immensely, but do not own much of. He's just not worked on a lot of titles that have interested me, I guess. That said, his name having been broached in that thread sent me into an online rabbit hole. Here are some of images I found:
Comments
-chris
I think I've posted my copies of the first two before, so here's the last issue in that span. Love these 100-pagers from back in the day. It's the way I learned about a lot of earlier comics history (before the Internet), from the Seven Soldiers of Victory to early reprints of JLA itself. This one definitely shows signs of many childhood re-reads...
Justice League of America #112 (July-August 1974)
Pencils & Inks: Nick Cardy
I bought those last two you posted off the stands and loved them both! :)
(sorry, couldn't help myself)
The first JB issue I remember buying from a spoinner rack.
COMICS!
-chris
James Winslow “Win” Mortimer was Canadian-born (May 1, 1919). His father worked for a lithography company and taught Win how to draw. After serving in the Canadian Army during WWII, Win went to work designing posters like his father. He moved to New York to study at the Art Students League, and in 1945 found work at DC Comics as one of Bob Kane’s ghost artists. The next year he got his first Superman story to draw. In 1947 he was made the ongoing artist (as “Bob Kane”) of the new “Robin” lead feature in Star Spangled Comics, which also included drawing the cover of each issue. But he was soon taken off “Robin” and the covers in favor of Jim Mooney (also as “Bob Kane”), and was moved to the “Star-Spangled Kid” backup. It gave him more time to draw Superman, Superboy, and Batman covers and stories (as well as other odd jobs). In 1949 he took over the Superman daily newspaper strip, which he drew until 1956. He must have been pretty fast to have penciled a daily and still have time to draw a story or two and several covers each month.
In 1950 Mortimer was assigned to draw a series of one-page public service ads. These were sequential stories on a wide range of subjects such as the United Nations, human rights, the handicapped, and personal health. These increasingly took more of his time, and by 1953 he was only doing these PSAs and covers, along with the Superman newspaper strip which he was now also inking. This continued until 1956 when he left comics to become the artist of the David Crane newspaper strip, which at its height ran in 600 newspapers. But Mortimer quickly felt constrained; he wanted a strip all his own. And in 1960, he got his wish, creating, writing, penciling, inking, and lettering his own strip, Larry Brannon, for the Toronto Sun.
In 1966 Mortimer was back at DC—though it must have almost felt like he never left, as the PSAs he had drawn back in the early to mid-’50s were still being reused every month. This time, though, he was doing mostly romance and humor work, including co-creating (with Arnold Drake) “Stanley and His Monster” and penciling fill-in issues of Plastic Man and The Inferior Five. Needing more work, he began moonlighting with Western, doing a backup in the Doctor Solar book. He eased back into doing more superhero work in 1968, drawing “Legion of Super-Heroes” backup stories, and later the “Supergirl” feature. He also began doing more stories for Western, and within a couple of years was working for Marvel as well, where he co-created Night Nurse. In 1974, he finally got a regular ongoing gig as the main artist of Spidey Super Stories, which he stayed with for its entire run (though he still had time for other jobs, like Western’s Battle of the Planets). He left comics again in 1983 to work at Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’ Continuity Studios, doing advertising art, though he would dip his toe back into comics a couple more times before his death in 1998.
-chris
I'm pretty sure the last one was a cover at some point.
@nweathington poined out this was a cover and @bralinator followed up with a definition. Go team! Any way here it is in covers thread.
Totally unrelated art...
That Batman issue is quite incredible, as well... and I would add one more Golden "must-have" to the list....
And, as @nweathington pointed out when I posted those images, both the stories were great! Loved them.
And (finally), that Star Wars issue is another cool book. Honestly can't remember the story, but having Golden on art is always a plus. I'm fairly certain it was an inventory issue they used when the "Empire" adaptation got pushed back an issue, but I could be completely wrong on that count.
-chris
Here’s one of Buckler’s covers:
That said, his name having been broached in that thread sent me into an online rabbit hole. Here are some of images I found:
Just beautiful work.
-chris
-chris