Monthly Archives: April 2007

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Posted on April 30, 2007 by Harry

The recent edition of Time magazine (May 7) has a very short article about a new Hulk movie. It provides a time line which starts with:

MARVEL COMICS: Created in 1962 by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby …

It is nice to see a national publication take the time to get the credits correct. Too often in the past Stan Lee alone would have been called the creator.

Posted in 2007/04, Uncategorized, z Archive | Leave a comment

Bill Draut And His Imitator, Jack Kirby

Posted on April 28, 2007 by Harry

First Love #69
First Love #69 (October 1956) “Remember, I’m Your Girl”, page 1, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

With the period having 1956 cover dates Kirby was pretty much the only artist working on the Prize romance titles (Young Romance, Young Love and Young Brides). During this time Bill Draut and John Prentice who had previously been doing work for those titles began to appear regularly in the Harvey romance books instead. “Remember, I’m Your Girl” is typical of the work Draut did for Harvey. Bill still had an distinct style particularly characterized by simple but prominent eyebrows.

This a story about a man (Joe), his sister (Annie), and a former friend (Phil). Joe is now a successful politician and his sister is enjoying the financial fruits of that success. There is an approaching election and his position is being threatened by Phil, a rival candidate. Years before all three were good friends so Joe asks Annie to reconnect with Phil in order to find some weakness. His sister refuses but runs into Phil by accident and a romance develops. Joe wins the election but the sister continues her romance. When Joe confronts Annie to choose between her previous financial rewards or the rival, she chooses Phil.

First Love #69
First Love #69 (October 1956) contents page, pencils by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, inks by Joe Simon?

Joe Simon was probably working for Harvey as an editor at this time. I generally do not consider works such as “Remember, I’m Your Girl” as Simon and Kirby productions. The format and length match Harvey romance stories from well before Joe’s time as Harvey editor. However something unusual happened in FL #68 and FL #69. Generally Harvey romances has a content page with at most a portion of the splash for each story. In FL #68 and #69 the content pages had a short original art that served as an introduction to the featured story.

For First Love #69 the feature story was Bill Draut’s “Remember, I’m Your Girl”. The same characters that appear in the feature story are presented here. The text makes it clear that the trio are shown in the earlier days while they were all still friends. A casual glance at the introduction story could result in attributing it to Bill as well. What particularly stands out are the simple but prominent eyebrows, which as I said was a Draut trait. A close examination reveals that the faces are not quite like Draut would do them, particularly in the story panels. There is not much to go but the spot inking does not look like Draut’s either. But I do not think it is just the case of some other artist inking Draut’s pencils. The layouts in the introduction story are not quite like Bill’s.

It is the layouts that provide a suggestion who the real artist was. In the first panel Joe is shown lighting up a cigarette. This is a typical Kirby theme and pose. In panels 2 to 4 the main speakers are placed in the front while those not speaking are placed in the background. This is a typical Kirby layout. Even the way Annie looks over Phil’s shoulder as they embrace is a typical Kirby pose. Although the artist tried to draw the characters like Bill Draut did he really could not completely adopt Bill’s more stylized pencils. Keeping in mind that he is imitating Draut, a close look at the faces suggests Kirby was the penciler.

First Love #69
First Love #69 (October 1956) “Remember, I’m Your Girl”, page 4 panel 1, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

In the past I have often warned about using some Kirby-esque features for attributing a work to Jack. Joe Simon was also familiar with Kirby’s techniques and was pretty good at mimicking most of them. If you ignore the attempt to copy Draut’s style, the number of Kirby-isms seems rather high even for Joe. But look at the drawing of Annie that appears in the bottom of the contents panel. It appears to be the done by yet another artist. A search of the actual story shows that the contents drawing was swiped the first panel of page 4. It would seem to be a reasonable deduction that Joe Simon did the contents drawing. If that is true then he was not have been responsible for the penciling of the introduction story.

The possibility of Kirby ghosting another artist was brought up recently by Bob H. in a comment to All-Star Western #99. I do not know if what Jack did for FL #69 introduction story would properly be called ghosting. It was not a case of fooling the editor, Joe was also involved in copying Draut on the content page. Nor was Draut a regular artist recognized by the reading public. Harvey romances are all unsigned and the artist used for the feature story would change. This was just a case of trying to maintain visual continuity between the contents page and the feature story. Imitating another artist was not something Jack did very often. Although his Draut was not perfect, it was good enough to fool many.

Posted in 2007/04, 7 Freelance, Alternate Takes, Featured Work, Ghosting, Harvey, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Topic, z Archive | 5 Comments

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 4, Prize Covers

Posted on April 28, 2007 by Harry

Simon and Kirby always seem to put special effort into their covers. So it is on the covers that we are most likely to find the use of techniques such as picket fence or drop strings. In the last chapter we saw how in the Prize romance interior art these Studio Style methods disappeared by the end of 1956. What occurred on the covers was a bit more complicated.

Young Romance #80
Young Romance #80 (December 1955) pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The YR #80 cover was the first cover that Jack did upon returning to working on Prize romances. At first look one might believe that Kirby had immediately jumped into the Austere Style. Nowhere do we find any picket fence brush work and only a limited use of a drop string like technique. However the absence or limited use of these special brush work was probably due to how complicated the image was. Without the colors this becomes a difficult image to read. Because the surface was already so busy it would have been difficult to add picket fences. So the absence of picket fences can be misleading. What spotting there is more closely resembles the use in the Studio style. Later in this post I will present another cover truly done in the Austere inking which will highlight the difference between that style and what was done for YR #80.

Young Romance #81
Young Romance #81 (February 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

YR #81 is an cover inked by Jack not long after his returned to working on the Prize romances. In the previous chapter I gave examples from the interior art of this same issue for both Studio and Austere style inking. The cover seems a good example of Studio style work. In fact if you did not know what was coming it would be easy to overlook the ways that it deviates from previous work in this style. The picket fence patterns are done every so slightly in a finer manner. Some of the spatulate cloth folds on the man’s shoulder seem more typical of the Austere style. Note how they just seem to attach themselves to fine ink lines almost like they were leaves. Also there are some fine form lines used in the man’s forearm. The entire image has a lighter look to it without being anywhere near as light as the true Austere inking. But I want to repeat that none of this would be particularly surprising except in view of what is to come.

Young Romance #82
Young Romance #82 (April 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Jack’s next cover for Young Romance looks rather different from the standard Studio style. It has the overall lighter look typical of an Austere piece. Yes there are blacks but they have been concentrated on the young man at the center. Elsewhere most of the spotting is rather sparse. In many respects it is a good candidate for showing the evolution from Studio to Austere inking. But look at all the drop strings and picket fences. It is not their presence that is surprising is the fact that they are now done with much finer brushings. This is the start of what I am going to refer to as the Fine Studio style. It might not warrant a special designation if it was limited to these Prize romance covers. However we are going to encounter it again when Kirby begins freelancing with Atlas.

Young Love #71
Young Love #71 (June 1956) pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

About midway through the year, Jack provides a cover that can easily be said to be done in the Austere style. Note the lighter look and the simpler treatment of clothing folds. When blacks are used they tend to flood the area as in the jacket of the man or the woman’s blouse. The ink lines are so fine that I originally thought they were done using a pen. However I have seen the original art for this cover in Joe Simon’s collection and it shows that a brush was used. Note how the folds in the jacket of the man dancing on our left seem concentrated in the elbow and shoulder regions leaving the other areas of the arm relatively plain. Although a complicated image with lots of background figures, this cover still looks very typical of the Austere style. It makes a good contrast to the Studio style used on the cover for YR #80 that I showed in the start of this chapter.

Young Brides #29
Young Brides #29 (September 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

This is excellent example of Jack Kirby’s Austere style in inking a cover. The over all image has a very light appearance. Black is used, here in the blouse and hat of the lady on our left, by flooding the area with ink. Some of the brush work looks like a modified drop string but are for the most part done in an overlapping manner forming a ragged line.

Once again I cannot restrain myself from commenting about the art. The cover shows some celebrity surprised while signing an autograph by a kiss from an adoring fan. Very charming. But you can still see the celebrity signing the autograph book. So how did the attractive lady get into his arms? Of course she could not if we tried to interpret this cover as if it was done by a camera. But this is not a photograph nor should it try to act like one. Although not logical as a frozen moment in time, this cover makes perfect sense when view as presenting a story. Had it been more logical the story would probably have been less clear.

Young Romance #84
Young Romance #84 (October 1956) pencils by Jack Kirby inks by Bill Draut

This serial post is about Kirby inking Kirby. Still during this year Jack did not ink all of his pencils. So I like to include examples of other inkers of his drawings. The above image of YR #84 looks like it was inked by Bill Draut. It is interesting to see how Draut’s inking also has the lighter quality present in the Austere Style. While Kirby’s pencils did not provide any guides to the spotting, it did indicate where things like clothing folds should be placed. The more limited use of such folds gives the image the lighter look. Spotting was still up to the inker as indicated by Draut’s different handling of the woman’s jacket.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 1, Introduction
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 2, Mainline
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 3, A Lot of Romance

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 5, Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 6, Atlas
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 7, DC
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 8, More Harvey
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 9, More Prize
Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, A Checklist and a Glossary

other post with Kirby inking Kirby:

Strange Tale Indeed
Battleground, Jack Kirby’s Return to Atlas
Captain 3D

Posted in 2007/04, 7 Freelance, Periods, Prize, z Archive | 1 Comment

Joe Simon on CNN

Posted on April 22, 2007 by Harry

I do not have cable so I knew I would not see Joe Simon’s appearance on CNN. But through the magic of YouTube I can now view it as can you.

Posted in 2007/04, Artists, Simon, Joe, z Archive | Leave a comment

The Black Rider Rides Again, And Again

Posted on April 21, 2007 by Harry

Gunsmoke Western #47
Gunsmode Western #47 (July 1958) “Trouble In Leadville” page 1 pencils by Jack Kirby

Like “The Raiders Strike” in Gunsmoke Western #51 this Black Rider story with an “M” job number is probably inventory left over from before the Atlas Implosion. One reason that I have been reviewing some of Kirby’s work that might have been done before the Implosion is the hope of finding more examples of Kirby inking Kirby. Alas GW #47 is not inked by Jack but instead looks like the same inker as GW #51. I check Atlas Tales and they do not list the inker for GW #47. Because I forgot to do so in my previous post, I also check Atlas Tales for GW #51 and they list Dick Ayers as the inker. A check of GCD gives Ayers as the inker of both stories, but surprisingly says Dick also penciled “Trouble In Leadville”. Sigh, what can I say, the GCD is such a mixer of accurate and, in this case, widely off mark attributions. Anyway I really do not know enough about Ayers to voice an opinion on the inking attribution. Whoever the inker for GW #47, he did a good job and did not overwhelm Jack’s pencils. As with GW #51, I feel that inker’s more detailed style is a poor match for Kirby’s pencils. Jack’s pencils in these Black Rider stories are stylized and the inker’s style make the figures look somewhat freakish. It may seem odd to say the inker did a good job but a poor match for Kirby’s pencils. With Black Rider Rides Again #1 I felt that Kirby’s inks complimented his pencils. Jack’s pencils would suffer from any inker not following that style, which would be pretty much any other inker. That being the case the most one could expect is that at least the line inking be sensitive to Jack’s pencils.

In the very beginning of “Trouble In Leadville” the Black Rider is involved in a shoot out against a number of opponents. He proves too much for them and the ride away. We then find that he has saved Marie (the recurring female character) and her father from Dan Basset’s gang. The gang came asking a lot of questions about Leadville and became angry when the pair refused to answer. Suspicious that the gang was up to no good the Black Rider tries to go after them but the trail goes cold. But he asks Marie to go to the sheriff and warn him about the gang’s presence. Back in town and having resumed his identity as the local doctor, we find out the sheriff has left with a posse. Basset and his gang arrive to find the town is unprotected and make for the bank. But the doctor does a quick change to the Black Rider and saves the day.

I have to admit I am really not a big fan of these Black Rider stories. Of course Kirby’s art is nice but the stories themselves leave a lot to be desired. They seem very formalistic. The stories often seem to start with action where either the Black Rider prevents the bad guys from whatever they are doing but is unable to capture them, or the Black Rider arrives too late to and the bad guys are already gone. The Black Rider resumes his identity as the town doctor. Later when the bad guys show up, he dons his Black Rider outfit and almost effortlessly saves the day. The repetitive nature of the plots indicates to me that they were not by Kirby who, if anything, had an overly active imagination.

Posted in 2007/04, 7 Freelance, Atlas Kirby, Periods, z Archive | 4 Comments