Comments on: Not Kirby, My Date #4

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:38:56 +0000

Ger,

Roussos certainly worked for S&K, he did a couple of signed stories in 1952 and there may be some unsigned ones as well in that year. His style for those works has similarities to Meskin so I believe he learned some things from Mort.

Meskin was an extraordinary prolific artist. When I was preparing for my Meskin inking post I wanted to carefully review his work. But since there was so much of it I felt I did not have the time. So as part of my preparation I reexamined all the work Meskin did for Young Romance, a title he consistantly contributed to throughout his time with S&K. With one possible exception, all Meskin’s work looked like it was inked by one hand. Since I knew that Meskin actually worked in the S&K studio for at least part of this time, I concluded that inker was Meskin himself. That is not to say that Meskin’s work was consistant, some seemed sketchier, others seem more finished. My interpretation of this variation is that although Meskin was prolific, his art sometimes suffered from drive to produce a lot of work.

Are there differences between Mort’s signed and unsigned work? I did not notice any, but then again I was not specifically looking for it either. None of the artists who signed work that they did for S&K were consistant in doing so, so I did not have any reason to believe Mort was any different in this regard. But sometimes what you find is based on what you are looking for, so maybe the next time I review Mort’s work I will see something I failed to recognize before.

Harry

By: Ger Apeldoorn

Ger Apeldoorn — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:43:07 +0000

Yes, it was The Frozen Death I was referring to. I accidentally added a / to the link. I agree that the most likely explenation is that Roussos borrowed the crosshatching trick from Mort Meskin. I know now where I picked up the idea that they worked together in the fifties. On the Roussos section of the Meskin websie it says Roussos worked for Crestwood in the fifties. That together with some remarks somewhere that Meskin only did the stories signed Mort solo made me think the others were inked by Roussos. I don’t have the time or the training to see inking styles as you do. Do you see any difference between signed and unisgned Meskin stories at Prize? Or does this just go for the work he did at DC (where he also did signed and unsigned stories and Roussos did solo work as well)?

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:54:25 +0000

Ger,

The link that you provide does not seem to get me there, but I believe you are refering to “The Frozen Death” story. My study of Roussos inking is not very thorough, but if you do not mind a preliminary opinion it looks like Roussos inking to me as well. The amount of crosshatching is surprising, but I do not believe it excludes Roussos, and I certainly do not believe it proves Meskin’s involvement. Crosshatching is a frequently used device, Meskin is by no means the only artist to use it. I feel one has to look at the rest of the inking as well and that does not look like Meskin to me at all.

Harry

By: Ger Apeldoorn

Ger Apeldoorn — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:28:22 +0000

This question of Meskin and Roussos keeps haunting me. There’s a great horror story up at http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/, which I would blindly assume was Roussos solo. But a poster there says it can’t be because of the crosshatching… the same crosshatching you identified as Meskin’s here and can be seen all through his Prize stuff. So either this is something Roussos picked up from Meskin or Meskin helped him imking. In both cases it seems to confirm me idea that they worked together all through the fifties and/or helped each other out.

By: Harry

Harry — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:26:27 +0000

Ger,

Joe Simon’s collection includes the original art for that Harvey story, “Credit and Loss”. It is one of Mort’s better efforts.

Harry

By: Ger Apeldoorn

Ger Apeldoorn — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:19:09 +0000

I have been downloading some stuff from komics-live and came across some of those rarer books I’d never buy blindly. The Prize Tom Corbett books are there, as is Charlie Chan and some of Meskin’s earliest work for DC. There is no Atoman (which was from 1946), but I have those myself. Strangest thing about them is that Robinson and Meskin both worked solo in that title. From the same company came The Green Lama, whic is at Komics-live and has a solo Robinson story at least in #7 and 8. As for solo Meskin work from 1948 I have Western Comics #1-4, which have some of his last work for DC. Sadly, those are not scanned in… his listings at the GCD are not complete, but very interesting. He did Wildcat in Sensation? He worked on an issue of Whitchcraft? Frankenstein is there. As is a single Harvey horror story.

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 19:45:35 +0000

Ger,

I wish I had more evidence for the Robinson involvement in My Date #4. Personally I think the connection I made is pretty good, but I wish I had examples of what Robinson and Meskin were doing for other publishers at this same period.

I am not familiear with either Atoman or Treasure #7. Once again you have pointed out things for me the check up on. Thanks.

Harry

By: Ger Apeldoorn

Ger Apeldoorn — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 14:27:54 +0000

Harry,

Very well spotted. I completely agree with everything, even though I think the evidence showing that Robinson worked on My Date #4 as well is slight. But still, with what little there is to go on, it’s a reasonable guess. I believe anecdotal evidence shows that Meskin had some sort of nerveous breakdown around this time, which forced him to go into some sort of rest home. This is what broke up the Robinson/Meskin partnership. Have you got their joined title Atoman? Around the same time Meskin also shows up with a very poorly drawn (finished by someone else?) story in one of the later issues of Prize’s Treasure Comics. I believe it was #7.