Jan. 1956: While I don't have a confirmation, this cover to Pep #114 was almost certainly drawn by Harry Lucey, judging by the body language and poses. Lucey was, for my money, the best Archie artist. He got his start in comics in 1940 with Ace, drawing superhero adventures for “Flash Lightning” and “Magno the Magnetic Man” while working in a studio with Bob Montana. By the end of that year, the two had designed the original Archie characters (and named Betty after Lucey’s sister-in-law), and were set to work by MLJ. But in his early years at MLJ Lucey was mainly drawing superheroes, particularly Hangman, and his co-creation, the evil seductress Madam Satan. Then in 1943, he and Montana were drafted into the war, where they worked Stateside as photo interpreters and map-makers.
After the war, Lucey spent a few years in advertising before rejoining MLJ, now renamed Archie Comics, in 1949. His main assignment initially was as the artist for Sam Hill, Private Eye, but in 1952 Sam Hill was cancelled and Lucey moved over to the humor title Ginger, along with the occasional “Jughead” or “Archie” story. But once Ginger ended with issue #10 in 1954, it was all Archie and the Riverdale gang all the time for Lucey. Throughout the ’60s and into the early ’70s, Lucey drew most of the stories for Archie, the flagship title, along with covers for Pep and a many other stories for Archie’s various books. He had to start wearing gloves while drawing in the late ’60s, due to an allergic reaction to graphite, and he was forced to retire altogether in 1976 when he developed Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease). He died from cancer in 1984.
Today’s entry from my DC cover-a-day calender: Brightest Day: The Atom Special one-shot (Sept. 2010), pencils and inks by Gary Frank, colors by Brad Anderson. So far I've been pretty disappointed with the selections. This is one of only three or four covers I’ve liked so far. And this is how it appears in the calendar—without any credits or identifying trade dress—except for the calendar they even removed Frank’s signature in the bottom-right corner. Infuriating!
From the cover-a-day calendar: This time they kept the trade dress. I guess DC has never remastered the cover digitally. But they did remove Mike Kaluta’s signature (I'm using a scan with the signature). Batman Family #17 (Apr.-May 1978), penciled and inked by Michael William Kaluta and colored by Tatjana Wood.
From the cover-a-day calendar: This time they kept the trade dress. I guess DC has never remastered the cover digitally. But they did remove Mike Kaluta’s signature (I'm using a scan with the signature). Batman Family #17 (Apr.-May 1978), penciled and inked by Michael William Kaluta and colored by Tatjana Wood.
Cover art by Moebius. Includes the classic Jodorowsky/Moebius short story “Les Yeux Du Chat” along with interesting interview with them about it. Also, Chapter 3 of From Hell, along with an Alan Moore From Hell painting, and an Elaine Lee/Charles Vess story that would eventually lead to (and be reprinted in) Charles’ fantastic Book of Ballads & Sagas series. Taboo was a bit hit or miss, but always contained at least a few nuggets of pure gold.
Feb. 1956: This month marked the debut of Sheldon Mayer’s revered Sugar and Spike. The series lasted 98 issues, coming to an end in late 1971. While Sugar and Spike is what Mayer is best know for, he was an important player in comic book history. But he didn’t start his career in comics.
Mayer began as an assistant to several newspaper cartoonists in 1932, then became an opaquer for Fleischer Studios (meaning he painted the foreground cels) in 1934, not long before a new publisher called National Allied Publications published its first comic, New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine (which was literally tabloid magazine sized). Mayer would contribute a four-page story to the first issue of the company’s second comic title, New Comics (which was much closer in size to modern comics), cover dated Dec. 1935, making him one of the first writer/artists to produce original material for a comic book. In 1936 he created his long-running character Scribbly for Dell’s Popular Comics #6, and the character would go on to appear in a variety of Dell titles over the next few years. While doing “Scribbly” stories for Dell, Mayer became an editor for the McClure Syndicate, working under M. C. Gaines. During this time he saw Siegel and Shuster’s Superman newspaper strip samples, which had been rejected by the syndicate (among many others). He kept pushing it to Gaines, to the point that Gaines eventually took it to Harry Donenfeld at National, which of course led to Action Comics #1.
Soon after, Mayer left McClure with Gaines to become editor for Gaines’ new All-American Publishing (thanks to the funding of the aforementioned Donenfeld), and he brought Scribbly with him to be a regular in their flagship title All-American Comics. It was in those Scribbly stories that Ma “Red Tornado” Hunkel became a supporting character, who proved popular enough that in 1941 the feature was renamed “Scribbly and the Red Tornado”. It was during this time that Mayer took under his wing three promising young artists: Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Kubert. All three cite Mayer as being instrumental in their development.
Mayer stepped down as editor in 1948 to pursue cartooning full-time, and Scribby was promoted to its own title. Scribbly was a bi-monthly, which afforded Mayer time to write and provide layouts (which Bob Oksner would finish) for several Leave it to Binky stories, and to draw covers for Mutt & Jeff, among other things. Scribbly was cancelled with issue #15, and Mayer turned his attention to various funny animal features. And that brings us back to Sugar and Spike.
Mayer began losing his eyesight in 1971, which is why he ended Sugar and Spike, but he continued to write and sometimes even draw stories for DC, including co-creating Black Orchid and writing/drawing multiple Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer treasury edition books. He continued working into the ’80s, and after a successful cataract surgery even made more Sugar and Spike stories for the international market. He passed away in 1991.
Today’s entry from the DC cover-a-day calendar is Huntress #1 (Dec. 2011). Again, for the calendar the trade dress and artist signatures have been removed, but it’s penciled and inked by Guillem March with colors by Tomeu Morey. I like March’s work quite a bit. Yeah, he often twists the human body in ways that defy anatomy, but his figures are always very expressive, and they just look good.
Sienkiewicz over Denys Cowan is always cool. Did you know: Sienkiewicz and Cowan shared a studio space for a while back in the mid-’80s.
I always thought Cowan's art looked like "What if Neal Adams and Sienkiewicz had a baby".
Ha! Of course early Sienkiewicz art looked like “What if Neal Adams and later Sienkiewicz had a baby?”, so...
Seriously though, I think Cowan and Sienkiewicz have a lot of the same influences, including Neal, but also Sergio Toppi. Both Cowan and Sienkiewicz show a strong emphasis on graphic shapes and patterns in their work, and they approach textures in a similar manner. They’re just a natural fit together.
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After the war, Lucey spent a few years in advertising before rejoining MLJ, now renamed Archie Comics, in 1949. His main assignment initially was as the artist for Sam Hill, Private Eye, but in 1952 Sam Hill was cancelled and Lucey moved over to the humor title Ginger, along with the occasional “Jughead” or “Archie” story. But once Ginger ended with issue #10 in 1954, it was all Archie and the Riverdale gang all the time for Lucey. Throughout the ’60s and into the early ’70s, Lucey drew most of the stories for Archie, the flagship title, along with covers for Pep and a many other stories for Archie’s various books. He had to start wearing gloves while drawing in the late ’60s, due to an allergic reaction to graphite, and he was forced to retire altogether in 1976 when he developed Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease). He died from cancer in 1984.
Mayer began as an assistant to several newspaper cartoonists in 1932, then became an opaquer for Fleischer Studios (meaning he painted the foreground cels) in 1934, not long before a new publisher called National Allied Publications published its first comic, New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine (which was literally tabloid magazine sized). Mayer would contribute a four-page story to the first issue of the company’s second comic title, New Comics (which was much closer in size to modern comics), cover dated Dec. 1935, making him one of the first writer/artists to produce original material for a comic book. In 1936 he created his long-running character Scribbly for Dell’s Popular Comics #6, and the character would go on to appear in a variety of Dell titles over the next few years. While doing “Scribbly” stories for Dell, Mayer became an editor for the McClure Syndicate, working under M. C. Gaines. During this time he saw Siegel and Shuster’s Superman newspaper strip samples, which had been rejected by the syndicate (among many others). He kept pushing it to Gaines, to the point that Gaines eventually took it to Harry Donenfeld at National, which of course led to Action Comics #1.
Soon after, Mayer left McClure with Gaines to become editor for Gaines’ new All-American Publishing (thanks to the funding of the aforementioned Donenfeld), and he brought Scribbly with him to be a regular in their flagship title All-American Comics. It was in those Scribbly stories that Ma “Red Tornado” Hunkel became a supporting character, who proved popular enough that in 1941 the feature was renamed “Scribbly and the Red Tornado”. It was during this time that Mayer took under his wing three promising young artists: Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Kubert. All three cite Mayer as being instrumental in their development.
Mayer stepped down as editor in 1948 to pursue cartooning full-time, and Scribby was promoted to its own title. Scribbly was a bi-monthly, which afforded Mayer time to write and provide layouts (which Bob Oksner would finish) for several Leave it to Binky stories, and to draw covers for Mutt & Jeff, among other things. Scribbly was cancelled with issue #15, and Mayer turned his attention to various funny animal features. And that brings us back to Sugar and Spike.
Mayer began losing his eyesight in 1971, which is why he ended Sugar and Spike, but he continued to write and sometimes even draw stories for DC, including co-creating Black Orchid and writing/drawing multiple Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer treasury edition books. He continued working into the ’80s, and after a successful cataract surgery even made more Sugar and Spike stories for the international market. He passed away in 1991.
Seriously though, I think Cowan and Sienkiewicz have a lot of the same influences, including Neal, but also Sergio Toppi. Both Cowan and Sienkiewicz show a strong emphasis on graphic shapes and patterns in their work, and they approach textures in a similar manner. They’re just a natural fit together.
Ho Che Anderson.
This is an amazing book. If you get a chance to read it, you should.