Category Archives: Harvey

The Cover for Alarming Tales #2

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Odds & Ends, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) art by Mort Meskin and Joe Simon

The Simon and Kirby studio must have been closed at the time Joe Simon produced a new title, Alarming Tales, for Harvey Comics. Jack Kirby had been doing freelance work for almost a year. Jack and Joe were still listed as editors for Young Romance and Jack would provide some art for that title. But missing from Young Romance were old S&K studio artists like Bill Draut, John Prentice and Mort Meskin. At this point the “usual suspects” were also absent from the Harvey romance comics that Joe Simon had been editing. John Prentice had begun what would be a long gig as the artist for the syndication strip Rip Kirby. Meskin, a prolific artist, had already been doing work for DC for a few years. What Draut was doing is a bit of a mystery, but he would do work for DC in the 60’s. What is clear is that Draut, Meskin and Prentice were conspicuously absent from the Harvey comics that Joe produced at this time. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the good working relationship these artists shared with Simon and Kirby had not weathered well the breakup of the studio. (This relationship was not permanently damaged because Bill Draut would do a lot of work with Joe in the 60’s.)

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) original art by Mort Meskin and Joe Simon (with thanks to Paul Handler)

The cover for Alarming Tales #2 is surprising, considering Meskin’s otherwise absence from Joe Simon’s productions of 1957 and 1958. Previously I believed this cover was penciled by Joe Simon. Actually I still adhere to that attribution for the man on the lower right. The similarity he has in his facial features and pose to other work by Joe, particularly the cover for Alarming Tales #4, leave me with little doubt that Joe was indeed the penciler. I have come to re-think my position about the figure of the giant after seeing the original art attributed to Mort Meskin by Paul Handler in the Comic Art Forum. (Paul has an excellent original art collection which includes some really nice Simon and Kirby pieces.) The facial features of the giant, particularly the eyebrows, certainly suggest Mort Meskin’s work. Unfortunately I really have no equivalent Meskin piece to compare it with. Meskin had done some work for titles like Black Magic and Strange World of Your Dreams but those titles lacked the science fiction emphasis found later in Alarming Tales and Black Cat Mystic. So the absence of similar figures by Meskin like the one on Alarming Tales #2 is not very surprising.

So what can we make about this cover for Alarming Tales #2? Well here is where the original art really helps. The art shows that it actually consists of two separate pieces that have been combined. The edge that delimits them from each other marks an irregular path between the two figures. The giant does not accurately reflect the story the cover is based on (“Fire Balls”). In the story the strange visitors are roughly human in size and the flames they are ensconced in obscures their features. The differences between the cover and the story maybe nothing more then artistic license, or it might reflect that the Meskin portion was originally meant for something else. Mort did provide work for Black Magic up until the end of the first run (the last issue of the run was #33 cover dated November 1954). As I said above, Black Magic did not have much of a sci-fi bent but that might have been changing. The last issue had a story by Jack Kirby called “Lone Shark” that best belongs in the science fiction genre. So perhaps the Black Magic title was in the process of including more sci-fi just when it was cancelled. I doubt the Meskin piece was meant for a Black Magic cover since previously Kirby did every single cover for that title’s first run. But a splash page seems quite possible or it could have been meant as a cover for a never launched title. Whatever its ultimate source, the Meskin piece appears to have been modified for Alarming Tales #2 by the inking of the background.

This combining of two different sources to make one piece is something I have seen Joe do before. His collection includes an unpublished romance cover constructed in just that manner. In the 60’s many of the covers for comics that Joe produced are combinations of original art and stats.

Year of the Robots

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Periods, Robots, Topic, z Archive.

Generally speaking robots did not appear often in Simon and Kirby productions. But for some reason S&K produced three stories about robots over a single year towards the end of their collaboration. Actually I am doing a bit of a stretch when I say that. It is not clear that it is a robot in one story, “Gizmo”, but it sure looks like one. Another story is an early Challengers of the Unknown and although Joe Simon help create that team it is uncertain if he had anything to do with the initial stories.

SPOILER ALERT: I will be discussing stories below including their endings. so do not proceed if you have not read these yet but still want to.

Black Cat Mystic #58
Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956) “Gizmo” page 3, art by Jack Kirby

The sudden appearance of the large Gizmo brings terror to a small family. Neither the walls of the house or bullets will stop it. In the end the family’s baby puts an end to Gizmo’s destruction, he was only looking for someone to play with. The arrival of an even larger version showed that Gizmo was just a baby. As I discussed above, Gizmo may not really be a robot. In fact the boy describes him as a man from Mars. But clad in metal he sure looks like a robot and we do not learn he is a baby until the end of the story. After all how could a baby robot possibly grow?

Showcase #7
Showcase #7 (April 1957) “Ultivac Is Loose” page 4, art by Jack Kirby (from DC Archives)

An evil scientist creates the ultimate machine. Unfortunately for him the robot escapes. It is the Challengers of the Unknown team to the rescue! Except a beautiful scientist seems to be the one that convinces Ultivac that he need not fear humans. A meeting is arranged with the leaders of the world where Ultivac promises to help mankind solve many of their problems. But up springs the mad scientist who destroys Ultivac rather then lose his creation. Ultivac can still be used as a computer but is no longer sentient.

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) “I Want To Be a Man” page 1, art by Jack Kirby

A scientist’s advanced computer develops consciousness. To keep Fabiac happy, the scientist makes him a robotic body. This ploy works until Fabiac sees himself in a mirror and realize he never will be human. Gee you would think he would just look at his hands and see something was not right.

There seems to be a common threads to these stories. In all of them the robot is very large and only marginally human in shape. This was done to make so that their fearsome appearance would belie their true nature. In all three stories it turns out that the robot does not truly want to hurt anyone. In two of the stories the robot wants to help mankind, but that help is ultimately lost.

The robot for the last two stories have similar names; Ultivac and Fabiac. These are take-offs from the names of two very real computers. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was completed in 1946. UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) was first released in 1951. These were very significant and widely reported developments. By the time these stories appeared, UNIVAC cost about a million and a half dollars. That is a lot of money even today (50 years later) especially since the computer may only have had 60 kilobytes of memory.

I have no idea what was the source that sparked these robot stories. Part of the explanation was that S&K stories had gotten substantially more science fiction based at this time. Still it is likely that something in particular inspired this effort. I do not think it was the movies. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) had a large robot but it was not nearly as large or “roboty” as in these stories. “Forbidden Planet” (1956) had a sufficiently convincing robot but it was neither large nor threatening. I suspect the source was some science fiction pulp or book that Jack and Joe had read.

Rewrite!

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Posted in 2007/06, 7 Freelance, Alternate Takes, Harvey, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

First Love #69
Gangster’s Girl” original art by Bill Draut published in First Love #69 (October 1956) as “Remember, I’m Your Girl”

We are on location for the filming of a television drama. Suddenly someone taps the director on his shoulder and hands him a cell phone. We cannot make out the conversation but it is obvious the the director is very unhappy. He gives the phone back to his assistant and then calls out “Get the author, we have to do a rewrite”.

Well I do not know how often this sort of thing happens but I have heard of various movies under going a series of rewriting of the script. In the comic book industry of the 50’s such rewrites were very unusual. Sure a word here or there would be changed or some art editing performed, but generally the story was published as it was originally scripted. With a product that was sold for ten cents and with smaller print runs, care was taken to avoid waste when producing the comic. The most frequent reason for comic book rewrites resulted when a title was cancelled. Because the art was created well before publication, a cancelled title would often result art in various stages of work including some that was fully complete. Such art might have to be rewritten in order to publish it in some other title. But baring recycled art, it was unusual for a comic book story to be extensively rewritten.

Not too long ago I posted on a Bill Draut story “Remember, I’m Your Girl”. Shortly after my blogging on it some of my readers pointed out to me that the art for the story was up for sale on eBay. However the image on the eBay listing showed the story title was “Gangster’s Girl”. I was intrigue and although I felt the art was not the best that Bill Draut had done, I put in what turned out to be the winning bid.

Also included with the art that I received was the text paste-ups that had come off or been removed. I did not think much about the paste-ups at the time because I thought they would just be the text as it was finally published. Later I would find I was wrong. Like most of the art for S&K productions, there was little on the margins except for a few production instructions. However you could tell that that was not always the case because an eraser had been used on the margins. So I scanned the art and did some processing in Photoshop. This allowed me to bring out some of the erased pencils. I also did some work to bring out the color blue because some blue pencil markings had also been erased. Armed with the original art, the paste-ups and enhanced scans I could do an analysis as if I was some sort of comic book archeologist. I can now outline the steps in the process of converting the story from the original “Gangster’s Girl” to “Remember, I’m Your Girl”.

The Photoshop enhancements did bring out some erased pencils that probably date from the when the art was first produced. Inside some of the captions and balloons there can be seen some of the text in pencil. It was standard for the S&K shop to have all the text placed on the art before the final lettering was done. I am not clear on whether the penciling of the text was done before the art was penciled, or if it was done by the penciler or the letterer. Also from the original state of the art, each page had in pencil the story title on the upper left and Bill Draut’s address on the upper right margin. The handwriting seems the same for the two, and I suspect that it was Bill’s but I have nothing to compare it with.

The original art no longer has any of the paste-ups still attached. This meant that the original story could be read in full. The only exception was that one word balloon had been inked over. But by viewing the art at an angle the pencils show up and it was possible to read the original text.

The story is a love triangle between Joe (a gangster), Annie (the love interest) and Phil (former friend). Phil’s running for election on a clean up campaign is a clear threat to Joe. Joe asks Annie to get close to Phil in order to find weaknesses, overcoming her reluctance with expensive presents. Annie stages a meeting with Phil and a romance ensues. Phil looses the election but Annie says she will stay with him. During a confrontation between Joe and Phil, Joe shows Annie one of his presents, a mink coat. Enticed by Joe’s rich presents, Annie decides to stay with Joe.

That is right, in the end the gangster gets the girl. This has got to be the most unusual story from a romance comic that I have ever read. Not only that, it is probably the best. My story outline does not give it justice, in particularly how Annie’s weakness is portrayed. But this story was published in 1956. Who in their right mind would think that this story could get Comic Code approval? I do not know how to explain this lapse. Perhaps it was actually produced before the Comic Code but had somehow never been used.

Well someone realized that the story would have to be altered if it was to be published. So the first rewrite was performed. That is right, there were actually three versions of the story. For the second story Joe became a big businessman. All the details of the second story cannot be reconstructed. It is not clear whether Joe still uses expensive gifts to get Annie to spy on Phil, or if instead the final version of the plot was used. Fortunately the end can be reconstructed and surprising Joe still gets Annie in the end. Only it is not the expensive gifts that changes her mind, it is the fact that she detects that Phil does not trust her enough to reject those gifts. The confrontation has made Joe realize his own failings, he decides to marry Annie and changes his ways.

First Love #69
Page 4 editing changes for the first rewrite from the Photoshop enhanced scans.

A lot of text had to be changed in the rewrite. First a pencil was scribbled over whatever was going to be replaced. Then the new version was written in pencil generally in the margins but for small changes it might be done nearer. The above image of the Photoshop enhanced image shows an example from page 4. In the lower right is the new text for the second balloon:

JOE – ALL I EVER WANTED FROM YOU WAS A TENDER WORD. BUT YOU SEEMED TO HAVE LOST THEM.

This rewrite was only used for the second story, the third story reverted back to the original script. That is why the pencils scribbling over the second balloon are lighter then those for the first balloon. The second balloon scribbling was erased and are hardly visible on the art without Photoshop adjustment.

First Love #69
Page 5 from the Photoshoped enhanced scans.

The final page had a very effective series of panels showing Annie trying to make her final choice. In all versions of the story this appears to have been without any text. But the enhanced scans show that for a time word balloons were considered. The one in the second panels says:

PHIL THINKS YOU WANT THE MINK HONEY

The last has:

ANYONE CAN SEE HE TRUSTS YOU —

Since both statements deal with trust I believe these changes were considered for the second version of the story where Phil’s lack of trust causes Annie to choose Joe. But thankfully this version did not make it into the second story and was never inked. This set of panel “speaks much loader” without the use of any words.

The margin rewrites look to me to be in Joe Simon’s hand writing. But to be sure I will be showing them to Joe on my next visit to see what he thinks.

First Love #69
Close-up from page 2 filtered for blue.

The rewrite was done in a way that not much art had to be altered. A classic technique used to change art is the use of whiteout. Here there is not a lot of use of whiteout in the art. You can tell that some whiteout was used by Draut because the inking over it is his. That particular whiteout use had nothing to do with the rewrite. Whiteout was also used on Joe’s face and this does seem related to the rewrite because it was not re-inked. Of course the whiteout obscures the art that has been changed but the filtering for blue in Photoshop sometimes allows us to see through the whiteout. As can be seen in the example above Joe originally had wrinkles, jowls and a mustache. As a powerful gangster Joe was older because the appeal he had for Annie was based solely on his money. The whiteout changes were done to make him younger.

First Love #69
Close-up from bottom of page 1 filtered for blue.

When I examined the art I found a couple of spots that were inked by another artist. For example in the foreground of the splash panel there is a table with a funny shadow and an unusual vase-like object. By looking at an angle at the art I could see the original pencils. Unfortunately I cannot scan at an angle but I found that further manipulation of the blue filtered scan sometimes brings out the pencils to a certain degree. In the image above you can see that the shadow hides a gun laying on the table and that the vase-like object was originally a glass. Drinking and the use of guns is appropriate for a gangster, but not for a business man, even a shady one. The Comic Code was very sensitive to anything that might “corrupt” the morals of the young readers. Similar re-inking hides guns a couple other places in the story.

First Love #69
Close-up from page 3 filtered for blue

With the art changes made and the altered scripts pasted into their proper places, the second version of the story was ready to go. The next individual to work on the story used blue pencil to indicate certain changes. ‘X’s were placed in the margins at certain spots and other editing marks were made. These marks are all somewhat cryptic because for the most part they are not accompanied with any remarks. This blue penciling was done after the first rewrite because in some places it extends over the paste-ups. Once it even indicated a change to be made on a paste-up. Interestingly not all the changes indicated by the blue pencils were ever made. One is shown in the image above. There a circle was made around Joe connecting to a comment

where did he get the mustache?

Sure enough this was the one place that whiteout had not been used to remove Joe’s original mustache. But for some reason this was never corrected.

First Love #69
Close-up from page 3 filtered for blue.

On the third page the art had a blue pencil notation leading to an area with an ‘X’ (see above image). Again looking at an angle I could make out the original pencils. In this case the pencils showed a part of Annie’s anatomy that, let us just say, normally would not be visible with her dress on. I have heard of artists fooling around like that but I think we can be pretty confident that this was not included in the inked version and therefore was not the problem. But there is an indication that perhaps Annie was shown more busty then desirable for the Comic Code. Rather then whiting it out and re-inking, the area was just filled with black so that Annie’s profile was no longer distinguishable.

The way the blue pencil was used leads me to believe that the art had been presented to someone at Harvey for approval. In his book, “The Comic Book Makers”, Joe describes presenting Silver Spider to Leon Harvey, so perhaps Leon was responsible for the blue pencils in “Remember, I’m Your Girl”. In any case I suspect all the blue ‘X’s indicated that the second version of the story had not gone far enough. This resulted in the second rewrite.

In the third and final version of the story Joe becomes Annie’s brother and now became a shady politician. Of course all mention of a romantic connection or marriage between the two had to be removed. I am not sure what type of person Annie was in the second version, but in the final she is clearly given a more moral character. Although she accepts gifts from Joe she refuses to arrange to spy on Phil. But fate intervenes with an accidental meeting between Annie and Phil after which the story continues pretty much as before. However in the final confrontation Annie goes off with Phil leaving Joe all alone.

The same person who did the first rewrite did the second one as well. And the same technique of writing the altered version in the margins was used. Some of these new notes were done over erased portions of previous notations. This not only made it impossible to read large portions of the earlier versions, but some portions of the latest are hard to make out as well.

First Love #69
Page 5 final art panel from a normal scan of the original art.

Most of the art changes were done with the first rewrite. An exception is the art for the last panel was dramatically changed for the last version. The two foreground figures are now shown largely as silhouettes. However a careful examination of the inking shows that this was not always the case, some of the original spotting can be made out on the original (but not in the image I supply). The doorway was also modified. Whiteout has been used to cover up a dark background that original extended much further down the doorway. The background figure is a silhouette as well, but I wonder if it was originally. Regrettably it is not possible to detect any original spotting or pencils. These changes were made because in the last version of the story Phil, not Joe, gets the girl. The making of the foreground figures as silhouettes was done because originally Annie was wearing her mink coat. The change in the background was done to change the original looser Phil into Joe, a silhouette being easier to do then a full re-inking.

The story ends with a vertical caption. Because all the different versions of the story had unique endings, this caption was changed for each of the rewrites. Fortunately when the second rewrite was done the paste-up from the first rewrite was peeled off, flipped over and reused. Therefore all versions of the final caption have been preserved. These are the endings in the order that they were written.

OKAY… SO I SOLD MYSELF… CHEAP! I LOVED PHIL… BUT I LOVED JOEY’S MONEY MORE! SO WHAT? LOVE ISN’T THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD IS IT? BUT I WONDER WHY SOMETIMES, IN THE NIGHT I CRY…

PHIL HAD MADE UP MY MIND FOR ME– EXPECTING ME TO TAKE JOE’S MINK COAT. HE HAD EVERY SHINING QUALITY– EXCEPT TRUST! I WAS GLAD I CHOOSE JOE. HE KEPT HIS PROMISE. HE LEARNED TO BE TENDER!

JOE WAS ALONE, NOW– WITHOUT FRIENDS OR FAMILY! THE FUTURE WAS UP TO HIM– HE COULD WALK TO HIS DOOM DOWN THE SIDE STREETS OF SHADY POLITICS OR WALK INTO THE SUNLIGHT WITH HIS HEAD HIGH– AS I HAD!

The story line for the last two versions are not nearly as good as the first. That is just the nature what had to be done to alter the story so that it could get Comic Code approval. When you keep that in mind, the rewrites are impressive particularly since they required only limited changes to the art.

Jack Kirby’s Take At Imitating Bob Powell

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Posted in 2007/06, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Ghosting, Harvey, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Hi-School Romance #55
Hi-School Romance #55 (September 1956) “Scandalous” page 1, art by Bob Powell

A relationship starts between two high school students, Tom and Linda. Apparently Tom’s interest in Linda was not too strong because he begins seeing another girl, Ellen. Linda finds out about this and in an article for the school’s newspaper reports about her relationship with and love of Tom. When Ellen reads and finds that she has unknowingly come between the two, she breaks off with Tom. Tom confronts Linda and declares his love of Ellen. Realizing that Tom and Linda are meant for each other, Linda regrets what she has done. Tom and Linda go off to find Ellen and after a long search find her at the edge of a cliff. Distraught about breaking with Tom, Ellen has decided she cannot go on. Linda calls out to she regrets what she has done and Tom only loves her (Ellen). The couple re-unite for a happy ending.

This has got to be about the worse love story I have ever read. Histrionics rules all. It is bad enough that everyone’s emotions are overblown, they seem to switch to the complete opposite at a moments notice. The thing is I can imagine a young girl might actually enjoy reading this story. But for an adult male reading it fifty years later it is just painful. It is so bad that not even Bob Powell’s art can save it.

Hi-School Romance #55
Hi-School Romance #55 (September 1956) content page, art by Jack Kirby

It seems that the harder Jack tries to imitate another artist, the more his own personal touches disappear. Not just the expected facial features but his layouts as well. Well for the contents of HSR #55 Jack hardly tried to imitate Bob Powell at all. That explains why this shows the most Kirby traits of any of the contents that I have examined so far. It is certainly the most interesting of the introduction stories. Not only is the art rather nice but the script is pretty good as well. I suspect that Jack added his own input to the writing, the exchange in the last panel seems pure Kirby to me.

Joe Simon’s Turn At Imitating

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Posted in 2007/06, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Ghosting, Harvey, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

All the Harvey content with introduction stories that I have posted on so far have been drawn by Jack Kirby with Joe Simon’s involvement limited to supplying a splash panel. But that was not the only formula used for creating Harvey content pages.

Hi-School Romance #56
Hi-School Romance #56 (October 1956) “Rage of Night” page 1, art by Bob Powell

Jean’s parents did not approve of her boyfriend Biff. Biff convinces Jean to have a party at her house. Her parents will not be home and would not permit a party that included Biff without their supervision. Jean tells Biff that he cannot come to the party. Nick was a friend who went away to college but is back in town. Biff arrives at the party despite not being invited. Trouble begins which Nick helps to stop. Jean then realizes her true feeling for Nick.

Generally when I discuss Harvey romance stories I write about Bill Draut or John Prentice. After all these two artists did a lot of work for Simon and Kirby and that in turn is the subject of this blog. The truth of the matter is that most of the Harvey romance artists are not worth writing much about anyway. However Bob Powell does not deserve the same neglect. Bob was a talented artist with, at least during his earlier career, his own unique style. Unfortunately I believe he was one of the artists whose stay at Marvel had deleterious affect. Stan Lee asked his artists to use Kirby as a model of what Marvel wanted. These were not young artists just starting their careers. Rather they, like Bob Powell, had a proven track record and their own style. In trying to please Stan, Powell and others ended up surrendering too much of their own uniqueness while not gaining sufficiently from their attempts to apply Kirby’s methods.

Hi-School Romance #56
Hi-School Romance #56 (October 1956) content page, art by Joe Simon

Often it is not easy to make attributions for the Harvey content pages. That is with the exception that it is pretty easy to see that that the artist for the feature story did not do the introduction story. This introduction has a number of layouts very similar to Kirby’s. In particular the second panel with Jean and Biff in the foreground and Nick forlornly looking on in the background. But the drawing itself just does not seem Kirby to me. Now why that is may be hard to explain. It requires you to mentally delete traits that are imitations of Bob Powell. When I do this what I am left with does not look as much as Kirby’s work then the examples I previously provided for Harvey contents. What I see, once I look past the Powell imitations, remind me of Joe Simon. In this particular case there really is no reason to expect that Joe was trying to copy Kirby since Powell was really the artist to imitate. But I suspect that Simon had so often imitated or inked Jack that he just adopted some of Jack’s mannerisms. I believe the Kirby layouts we see in this contents are all second hand via Joe Simon.

Hi-School Romance #56
Hi-School Romance #56 (October 1956) “Rage of Night” panel 7 of page 3, art by Bob Powell

But not all the layouts look like Kirby’s. The last panel in particular would be unusual for Jack, or Joe for that matter. Jean is shown in a close profile with her chin and the back of her head cut off by the panel border. Despite Biff being behind Jean he is still brought forward. The pair of heads take up almost all of the panel. I do not think I have ever seen Jack or Joe do anything like this. But a search through the rest of Powell’s story shows that it was clearly swiped from panel 7 of page 3. Now we have already seen a Kirby swipe in a Harvey introduction story, still this sort of thing is more characteristic of Joe.

Kirby Imitating John Prentice Again

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Posted in 2007/05, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Ghosting, Harvey, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

I got more of a response from my query about whether to continue posting on Kirby’s “ghosting” then I expected. Let me be frank, these are probably the poorest examples of Kirby art that you are likely to find. Because Kirby was imitating another artist he would give up much of what we admire about his artistry. At the same time Jack just was not very successful at adopting the other artist’s style. The shortness of the pieces and their marginal nature does not help much either. Although they are not great works of art, I still find them fascinating. It is interesting to see what Jack would keep, what he would let go, and what he would try to adapt.

Anyway my game plan is to do a couple posts each of Kirby imitating two other artists. Also an example which I believe is Joe Simon doing the ghosting. Then perhaps a more casual examination of some other content pages.

True Bride-To-Be #20
True Bride-To-Be #20 (October 1956) “Homecoming” page 1, pencils and inks by John Prentice

Newlyweds start their life in a small town. Originally the wife as a city girl and she finds life in a small town difficult. She struggles as best she can but the feeling of isolation takes its toll. Just as she decides to return to her family in the city things make a turn for the better. People, including her husband, begin to realize how difficult it has been for her and start to provide support.

A very different splash by John Prentice then the last one I reviewed (First Love #70). But still a real nice design and a great segue into the story. Once again Prentice leaves out a normal panel boarder. But this time he also leaves out some of the background as well, in particular the walls. Not all of it is eliminated, we can still see a view of the outside through the open door. Not much there, just a picket fence, a small house and some trees. (And this time picket fence does not refer to an inking technique). Just this simple view is all what we need to place the story in some small town. The man carrying the woman over the threshold is pretty much completes the visual introduction.

True Bride-To-Be #20
True Bride-To-Be #20 (October 1956) Contents page, pencils by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon

This content pages follows the most common pattern, a splash panel (in this case not much bigger then the rest of the panels) and a short introduction for the feature story.

The splash panel is a close copy of from the third panel of the first page. Well in this case close means without much change in the posture. That hardly means that it is a good enough copy to really look like a Prentice. Still the woman is closer to John’s version then found in the introduction story. The splash does not provide much to go on but it does not look like Kirby’s work. The inking does not look like Jack’s either but it could be by Joe Simon. Because of that and in view of previous examples of contents, I am going to attribute the splash to Joe.

The introduction is once more a prelude to the feature story. Showing how the couple met and fell in love. Yeah it really is superfluous but at least it does not spoil the story much.

Ignore superficial traits such as eyebrows we can see some typical Kirby poses and layouts. Also some typical Kirby rendition of architecture. Jack even uses a similar architectural drawing style for penciling the interiors. I feel confident that this is Kirby “ghosting” for Prentice. But it is another not so good imitation. This time Jack does the best job on the man’s eyes. Eyebrows are not so well copied but at least they are closer to art by Prentice then they are to that by Bill Draut. The woman still has Jack’s preference for a triangular face with widely separated eyes. Not at all the longer, more oval face and closer eyes that Prentice preferred.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 8, More Harvey

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Posted in 2007/05, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Periods, z Archive.

In Chapter 5 I limited discussion about Harvey work by Kirby to those with cover dates in 1956. Among those works was art for Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956). That title had some stories that were inked by Jack. Some were done in standard Studio style while others in the newer Austere style. The combination suggested that the work may have begun slightly earlier then the cover date suggested but basically agreeing with other work Jack inked in 1956.

In the next two chapters I discussed freelance work that Jack did for Atlas and DC. Work begun for Atlas in December 1956 and for DC in February 1957. The standard Studio style does not appear at all for that body of work. There is some Fine Studio Style used for some of the early Atlas work but otherwise everything is done in the Austere style. The main variation is how much use, if any, of spotting with a pen. I have not yet discussed Kirby’s inking for the Prize romance comics of this same period but it also was done with Austere inking.

Black Cat Mystic #59
Black Cat Mystic #59 (September 1957) “Take Off Mr. Zimmer”, page 1 splash pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Considering the type of inking Jack used in 1957 for Atlas, DC and Prize we would expect to find in Black Cat Mystic #59 (with cover date September 1957) the same Austere inking. Instead we find typical Studio inking very much like what we saw in BCM #58 from a year ago. In the splash panel for “Take Off Mr. Zimmer” shown above we can see some use of a standard picket fence. Also look how strong the form lines on Mr. Zimmer’s left billowing overcoat. Such bold lines would have been quite at home just a couple of years previously but are not found in any of the DC or Atlas work. There are some shadows in the background on our lower right whose brushwork does not reflect any stonework. Under Austere inking these would almost certainly been flooded with black ink.

So why did Kirby revert to his older inking style? The answer, in my opinion, is that actually he did not. I am sure this art was made some time in 1956 probably roughly the same time as that for BCM #58. The inking for BCM #59 matches well with what Jack did in BCM #58. The year between these two issues probably had not been part of the plan, at least as far as Simon and Kirby were concerned. Not long after they finished the art for BCM #58 they started working on BCM #59. But for whatever reason Harvey decided to delay publication for BCM #59 for a year.

Black Cat Mystic #59
Black Cat Mystic #59 (September 1957) “The Great Stone Face”, page 1 splash, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I just wanted to provide another example from Black Cat Mystic #59. We can see from the splash to “The Great Stone Face” that once again it looks like typical S&K Studio inking. The shadows on the stone face are created by bold brush lines close enough to each other to leave only a small strip of “white” in between. This type of dark shadows would not be expected in the Austere where it would most likely been done by flooding the area with ink. The face’s left cheek is not inked quite so densely but still consists of robust brush strokes. Austere inking might have similar lines but I suspect they would be more finely done.

Alarming Tales #1
Alarming Tales #1 (September 1957) “The Cadmus Seed”, page 1 splash, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Surprisingly after a year’s publication delay when BCM #59 was finally released it is joined by a new title, Alarming Tales. Alarming Tales maybe a new comic but it has the same type of stories as BCM, excluding Mr. Zimmer. In fact the cover story, “Donnegan’s Daffy Chair”, was originally slated for BCM #59. At first Harvey did not seem all that interested in the horror genre, why else would he wait a year to publish BCM #59? Then suddenly Harvey wants to publish two horror titles at the same time and on the same bimonthly schedule. It just does not make sense.

Although I cannot explain Harvey’s motivation, it did result in a really great comic. As far as I am concerned Alarming Tales #1 is among the best of the comics that Kirby help create during this period, surpassed only by Yellow Claw #2 and #3. Other then the cover the entire comic was drawn by Jack. Kirby also did all his own inking except for one two page story. The stories themselves are quirky and just pure Kirby.

But back to Jack’s inking. A look at the splash for “The Cadmus Seed” might convince us that Kirby was doing Austere inking. No sign of the use of picket fence and an overall lightness. Where there are black areas they are flooded with ink without brushwork.

Alarming Tales #1
Alarming Tales #1 (September 1957) “The Cadmus Seed”, page 1 panel 3, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

However with panel 3, on the same page as the splash, we find typical picket fence inking. The pickets are done with a brush, not with a pen. So like BCM #59 we seem to have a story inked in a manner resembling what Jack was doing in 1956. That is a combination of work with Studio and Austere inking.

Alarming Tales #1
Alarming Tales #1 (September 1957) “The Last Enemy”, page 1 splash, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I want to provide another example of inking that looks like it is transitioning from S&K Studio to Austere style. For “The Last Enemy” splash we once again find some nice, typical picket fence brushing. We also find some areas flooded with ink very much like Austere. The cloth folds also are simpler shapes and used a little more sparing as in Austere. The image overall has the lightness found in typical Austere inking. So as we saw in “The Cadmus Seed” this story seems to fit better with the inking Jack did in 1956 then it does with what he was doing in 1957 for Prize, Atlas or DC.

How cool can you get. “The Last Enemy” is so obviously a prototype for Kamandi. Of course Kirby made changes when he revisited this theme so many years later. Jack would recycle other Simon and Kirby creations as well. For instance Bill Draut’s the Red Demon was the seed for Kirby’s Demon. You cannot call this copying because as part of the S&K team Jack was involved in the original creation. It is an interesting aspect of Kirby’s working method nonetheless.

Alarming Tales #1
Alarming Tales #1 (September 1957) “The Fourth Dimension Is A Many Splattered Thing”, page 1 splash, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

This story from the same AT #1 issue looks like full blown Austere inking. No picket fences or other S&K Studio techniques. Simple cloth folds and an overall light image. It maybe wise not to make too much of this because the story is such an oddity in Kirby’s oeuvre. Most of it takes place in another dimension where everything consists of simple but ever changing shapes, even the hero. Still what is there looks like typical Austere inking.

Black Cat Mystic #60
Black Cat Mystic #60 (November 1957) “A Town Full Of Babies”, page 3 panel 2 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

With the next issue of BCM Jack is recognizably working in the Austere manner. Above I provide an image of a typical panel. Simple cloth folds, some of the just oblong ovals, a shape I describe as spatulate. Simplified negative folds on some of the lower legs, but still having the Kirby feel to them. Light overall image with blacks done by flooding ink. Even an abstract arch shadow makes an appearance. Although there was similar Kirby inking in 1956, it would also fit quite nicely with what he was doing in 1957 as well.

Black Cat Mystic #60
Black Cat Mystic #60 (November 1957) “A Town Full Of Babies”, page 5 panel 2, pencils by Jack Kirby, unidentified inker

Not all the inking was done by Kirby. Look at the panel from another page of the same “A Town Full of Babies” story. Some of it looks like Kirby’s Austere inking. Overall lightness and flooding blacks. However also examine the cloth folds. They are all long, narrow and rather pointy. Even the line inking makes the faces not quite look like the ones Kirby did. I cannot say who the inker is but he is not Jack.

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) “The Fireballs”, splash, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Alarming Tales #2 came out in the same month as BCM #60. In it we find some things we did not see in BLM #60. Case in point is panel 4 from page 2. There we find picket fence spotting. But not just any picket fence, this was done with pen. The same sort of technique Jack used for some Atlas work he did at the end of 1956 and the beginning of 1957.

Alarming Tales #3
Alarming Tales #3 (January 1958) “This World Is Ours”, page 1 splash, pencils and inks? by Jack Kirby

Not long ago it was recently pointed out to me that a page from “This World Is Ours” was up for sale on eBay. In the listing the seller suggested that it was inked by Steve Ditko. In all fairness the seller later added that he had received some email indicating that some disagreed with that attribution. I wonder if some people have suggested Ditko inking based on the man in the lower right corner of the splash page. I think he has a Ditko look to him. Unfortunately I really have no idea what type of inking Ditko was doing at this time. I certainly would not want to base my attribution on that one face.

Alarming Tales #3
Alarming Tales #3 (January 1958) “This World Is Ours”, page 2, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Perhaps because the splash image is so filled with the fireballs, I find nothing else on it that provides me with any good clues for the attribution. Besides which I always like to look at the inking for the entire story. The second page has a very familiar look, it is Jack Kirby doing his Austere inking. We find simple, often spatulate, cloth folds, negative cloth folds, flooded blacks and even a shoulder blot. I have not yet reviewed Jacks late work for the Prize romances, but we will see the rather abstracted upper eyelids of panel 5 again there. The presence of pen spotting should not come as a surprise because we have seen it often before in the Austere inking for Atlas and DC. With this in mind and returning to the splash I find nothing in the brush work that I have not seen Kirby do previously. I will not discount the possibility of other inking hands at work on this story, but clearly Jack’s played an important part in the inking.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) “Forbidden Journey”, page 1 splash, pencils by Jack Kirby, unidentified inker

For each issue of Alarming Tales there are less and less art penciled by Jack. Moreover there seems to be increase in the inking of Kirby’s work by other artists. For Alarming Tales #4 Jack only drew “Forbidden Journey”, but what about the inking? Let us start with the splash panel. One thing that stands out is there are some picket fence spotting on the rock formation on the right. It is done with a brush and looks pretty good although the pickets are bowed ever so slightly something I have not seen Kirby do. Let us next examine the form lines on the monster’s legs. You can find Kirby doing something like this on occasion. But again something looks a little off to me. The lines are pretty uniform in thickness along their length. Jack’s form lines tend to widen and then perhaps thin out again. But Jack is not an automaton and these small differences could just be explained as normal artistic variations. So perhaps it is best to reserve judgment until we look at some other pages.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) “Forbidden Journey”, page 2, pencils by Jack Kirby, unidentified inker

On page 2 we find what looks like Austere inking with some pen spotting. In the second panel we even find a shoulder blot. Normally I would consider that good evidence of Jack’s inking.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) “Forbidden Journey”, page 2 panel 3, pencils by Jack Kirby, unidentified inker

What bothers me most is the spotting of panel 3 of the same page. Unfortunately the full page image does not make it clear so I provide a closer view. There looks like there is picket fence on the youngster’s leg. But look more carefully and you will find some other sort of pattern entirely. I have never seen Kirby do anything like this and I do think he did it here. I am convinced what we have is another inker whose is a good artist but initially was not quite sure how to ink Jack’s work. So he has examined S&K art with Studio inking and picked up some ideas. Of course there is no attempt to really mimic Jack’s inking because no art credits are given anyway. So although some of the brush techniques are modeled from Jack, the inker works with in his own particular fashion. Also some of the inker’s own techniques show up as well as in the odd (for Jack) spotting on the boy’s leg. Still whoever the inker is he did a real nice job.

Black Cat Mystic and Alarming Tales went on for some more issues but without any work from Kirby. That was not the end of Jack working for Harvey comics. He would return in September and November for Race To The Moon #2 and #3. None of that was inked by Jack, instead Al Williamson would do the honors (as well as penciling some of his own stories). Al Williamson is a great artist in his own right with a style somewhat different from Kirby’s. But you can tell Al had a lot of respect for Jack’s work and the inking job he did is just suburb.

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 4, Prize Covers
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 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

Kirby Imitating John Prentice

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Posted in 2007/05, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Ghosting, Harvey, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

First Love #70
First Love #70 (November 1956) “Paid In Full” page 1, pencils and inks by John Prentice

It is a dark and stormy night that we find our heroine. Alone and unsure as to what to do or where to go, she still is determine not return home. Looking out from a bridge (no mention of suicide but you got to wonder if that was the suggestion) a policeman confronts her. Rather then taking her in (as a vagrant?) he takes her to a boarding house run by an elderly lady. With the help of the cop and the landlady, our heroine begins a new life. A romance begins with the policeman. The lady is unsure about revealing her past to her love. However the cop has such high standards that she decides to keep it a secret. What this secret actual consists of is finally revealed when her brother suddenly appears. The brother is a criminal and is on the lam from the law. It was the discovery of that fact that originally led our heroine to leave home. The lady finally reveals her past to the policeman, but not about the actual presence of her brother. He is outraged because she is not the good person he thought she was. He breaks off there relationship. Later he has second thoughts and goes to her home. The brother pulls a gun but the lady prevents its use. A fight ensues between the criminal and the cop, which of course the cop wins. Afterwards the cop expresses his regrets and asks forgiveness, which the lady gives.

As usual, Prentice did an outstanding job on the art for this story. Particularly nice is his handling of the start of the story. The woman is alone, at the mercy of her inhospitable environment. A good visual presentation of her inner turmoil and despair as describe by the writer. The splash panel starts it off just right by rejecting a normal panel border and instead providing an rough edge to the art. John had a more realistic approach then most comic book artists. As seen in this example, John did not depend on that naturalism alone. He had a good sense of design and story telling as well.

First Love #70
First Love #70 (November 1956) Content page, art by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon

The content page for FL #70 follows the same sort of pattern I posted about for FL #68 and FL #69. That is Jack Kirby providing a short story introduction to the comic’s feature story. As before Kirby is purposely imitating the feature artist. For FL #70 the introduction story is quite short, only three panels. Therefore there is less to go on for the correct attribution. Forearmed with previous examples of Kirby “ghosting” we know to ignore some superficial traits such as the eyebrows. So even with what little we have it looks like Jack was the actual penciler.

The Prentice imitation really does not come off that well. Actually the previous Draut imitations were not that close either. Draut’s very stylized eyebrows stand out in his art. Do a good imitation of the eyebrows and other inaccuracies get unnoticed. Prentice, on the other hand, did not have any single outstanding trait. All of his style’s traits must be mastered in order to make a good pseudo-Prentice. Jack succeeds most in the brother in panel 3, and to a lesser extend the father in panel 2. Kirby completely misses with the woman. This best seen in panel 3. Prentice’s females have a sophisticated beauty. This is due in part to the eyes being closer together and the face being longer and more oval. Jack’s version still has the more widely separated eyes and triangular face that he favors. Surprisingly all the eyebrows are closer to Bill Draut’s art then they are to Prentice’s manner.

Not all failure to provide a good imitation of Prentice can be laid on Jack. It seems to me that the inker has to take some of the “credit”. In FL #68 and #69 there was not enough of the inking for me to be certain who did it, although it clearly was not Draut. In FL #70 there is more then enough spotting to say that Jack did not do this inking. I am not certain, but some of it looks like Joe Simon’s work. Perhaps someday I should do an analysis of Simon’s spotting techniques. (I can see my readership dropping to even greater depths).

Before I leave the topic of the introductory story I would like to add a short comment on its use. Frankly in this case I think this was a really bad idea. A lot of the impact of the actual feature story rests on not providing the reason for the lady’s plight for most of the story. This effect is completely destroyed by the introduction which provides the explanation. This not only ruins the start of the story but makes story’s explanation repetitious.

First Love #70
First Love #70 (November 1956) “Paid In Full”, panel 3 of page 4, pencils and inks by John Prentice

The splash panel of the contents page was clearly not done by Jack. At a glance it would seem to have been done by John Prentice. Since previously we have seen Simon do close copies from the story art I went looking to see if that were true here as well. Sure enough the woman is from panel 3 of page 4. In this case the copy is so close that I really cannot see any distinctive Simon traits. There is a significant deviation in the exaggeration done in the lady’s eyebrows, but that cannot be considered characteristic of Simon. Because this sort of copying was previously Joe’s modus operandi for the First Love content page, I am going to attribute this swiping to him as well. Besides some of the inking looks like Joe’s.

Jack Kirby Swiping From Bill Draut

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Posted in 2007/05, 7 Freelance, Alternate Takes, Featured Work, Ghosting, Harvey, Kirby Or Not, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

First Love #68
First Love #68 (September 1956) “Forbidden To Love Him”, page 1, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

A young lady meets a man at a dance and quickly falls in love. Early in the relationship the man tells the woman that he is an Indian. The lady is surprised and then ashamed at her response. She loves him and wants to marry him. On her return home she finds her parents waiting. They have heard from neighbors that her date was an Indian and they insists she stop seeing him. Of course she refuses and the conflict at home continues. The man gives a speech at a bond rally before the entire town. It is revealed that he is a war hero. He gives an impassioned speech about the importance of foreigners in the history of America and the true meaning of freedom. The town is ashamed about their treatment of the man and the couple wed with everyone’s approval.

The story of “Forbidden To Love Him” is based in Oklahoma and the chief character is an Indian. Nevertheless it is hard not to a consider this story a more universal condemnation of the racial or ethnic intolerance in much of America during the 50’s. It is a topic that Simon and Kirby had touched on in “Different” (Young Romance #30, February 1951). But their version was much more circumvent and not nearly as bold as this story. “Forbidden To Love Him” may have been a little heavy handed but it effectively highlighted the hypocrisy involved.

First Love #68
First Love #68 (September 1956) contents page, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Jack Kirby?

As with FL #69 we have a contents page with an introductory story that at a casual glance could appear to be the work of Bill Draut. In FL #69 the story was a sort of prequel to the feature story. Here in FL #68 it is more like the comic equivalent of a movie trailer. We have less to work with in determining the correct attribution because in four panels all we have are the couple with limited background. Still once you ignore the Draut style eyebrows Kirby characteristics keep popping out. The poses for panels 3 and 4 look particularly like Kirby’s and not the way Draut would have done it. I am discounting Joe Simon’s as the penciller because FL #69 provided examples of both Joe and Jack copying Draut. The art in FL #68 contents page matches Kirby’s version of Draut then it does Simon’s.

First Love #68
First Love #68 (September 1956) “Forbidden To Love Him”, page 5 panel 1, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

The last panel of the introduction story is more complicated and provides more clues as to Kirby’s involvement. In places Jack seems to forget that he is supposed to be imitating Draut and some faces look like pure Kirby. What is particularly surprising about this panel is that it is a swipe from one that Bill did in the story. Bill’s original depicted the crowd’s shame as the man revealed his wartime heroism. Jack has converted the scene to town’s anger about the coming marriage. But there is no mistaking the derivation because the lady’s father and mother have the same positions. The bride-to-be herself was left out by Jack because it would not have been appropriate for her to share the town’s anger. It is interesting to compare Bill and Jack’s approach to the crowd. Bill provides more people and arranges them to regularly diminish in size as we go from front to back. Jack draws fewer individuals and we are less aware of the size of the crowd because we cannot see the back. By doing this Kirby is able to provide clearer representation of the emotions for the people he does shows. In the comments to FL #69 Stan Taylor correctly remarked how the architecture looked like Kirby’s. This panel in FL #68 does not provide as many buildings but it still is interesting to compare Jack’s method to how Bill handle’s architecture.

Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking, Chapter 5, Harvey

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Posted in 2007/05, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Periods, z Archive.

While Jack Kirby was almost single handedly penciling all the Prize romance comics (see previous chapter) Joe Simon seems to have been doing some editorial work for Harvey. I say “seems” because I have no firm evidence to indicate when Joe started doing this work. Joe’s collection still includes some proofs of Harvey romance content pages. Also Bill Draut and John Prentice, long time Simon and Kirby artists, both start appearing in the Harvey romances at this time. Perhaps related to Joe’s editorial work, Jack would also provide some covers for Warfront and the romance titles. Harvey would also publish Western Tales (#31 to #33) and Black Cat Mystic (#58 to #60) which appear to be actual Simon and Kirby productions.

Warfront #28
Warfront #28 (January 1956) original art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The inking on this cover is done in typical Studio style manner by Kirby. Not much in the way of picket fences but lots of variants of drop strings. Particularly convincing are the negative folds on the paratrooper’s right lower leg. What is not quite so certain is whether this art was originally meant for the cover of Warfront #28. The plane engulfed in flames was modeled (by no means a close copy) from a panel in “Hot Box”, a story that appeared in Foxhole #2 (December 1954). This suggests the possibility that this art was originally meant to be the cover for Foxhole #2. Certainly the penciling and inking are both good matches for some of the Foxhole covers such as issues #2, #3 or #5. However we saw in chapters 3 and 4 that early in 1956 Jack would still do a typical Studio style inking. With only four months separating the last Foxhole issue from Warfront #28, I am not sure we much we can deduce from the stylistic similarities.

Warfront #29
Warfront #29 (July 1956) pencils and inks by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon?

Jack did the pencils and inks for much of the Warfront #29 cover. Excluded is the torso where both the penciling and inking seems to have been done by another hand. I previously discussed this cover in my serial post on the End of Simon and Kirby. There I concluded that originally the man held a flame thrower but had been reworked to avoid problems with the Comic Code. Since Jack did not do the reworking, the most likely candidate would be Joe Simon. The parts I think were inked by Jack were done in typical Studio manner.

The Jack Kirby Checklist, and some comic scholars attribute the cover drawing of Warfront #30 (September 1957) and #34 (September 1957) to Jack. I disagree with those attributions. But as far as I can remember no one has claimed that Kirby did the inking for these covers. Therefore they need not concern us here.

Western Tales #31
Western Tales #31 (October 1955) pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

With the end of the Mainline/Charlton S&K would want to produce new material to take their place. But what was likely to sell during these troubled times in the comic industry? Well it did not take an expert to figure this out, at that time it must have seemed that all the kids were wearing coon skin hats. Walt Disney had aired “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” in three episodes (December 15, 1954, January 26, 1955 and February 23, 1955. The response, at least among young boys, was overwhelming. For comic book publishers, what was especially attractive about Davy Crockett was that he was a historical figure and therefore not subject to copyright or trademark protection.

Probably the only thing unusual about these Western Tales issues was how much Kirby was in them. Actually this really was not too surprising as it was the modus operandi of S&K when launching a new title. Not all of it was new, also included in each issue was a reprint story from Boys’ Ranch. The new art was typical Simon and Kirby and used Studio Style inking. This is what would be expected judging from what we have seen for the Prize romances at that time.

Western Tales #32
Western Tales #32 (March 1956) pencils and inks by Joe Simon

Although Kirby did pretty much all the new art for Western Tales, I believe the cover for WT #32 was penciled and inked by Joe Simon. A comparison with WT #31 shows that Joe did a pretty good job with the Studio Style. Nice picket fence and drop string work. The spot inking on Davy’s right leg seems a little different then Jacks, particularly the negative folds.

Western Tales #33
Western Tales #33 (July 1956) “Jim Bowie Makes A Magic Knife” page 1 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

A comic on Davy Crockett might have seem very topical and free from legal hassles. The only problem was that it was obvious to other publishers as well. By the time WT #31 hit the stands there was already numerous competitors doing Davy Crockett material. Not only that but one of them was Dell who had the Disney franchise and could use a photo cover of Fess Parker, the actor from the Disney TV shows. To avoid the competition, a changed seemed in order. So the new hero for WT #33 was Jim Bowie. There was a television show for Bowie as well, but it did not air until September 7, 1956. Much too late to be any influence on Simon and Kirby. Even the movie “The First Texan” was probably too late as well (June 1956). But S&K were well aware of the Alamo, they included a double page splash on it in an issue of Boys’ Ranch. So Jim Bowie was in all likelihood just an obvious choice for a new hero.

There is a marked similarity of the art in WT #33 as compared to issues #31 and #32. This is a little surprising because by July the Prize romances were showing frequent use of the Austere Style. In WT #33 all the inking continued to use the Studio Style. With the long time between Western Tales issues I cannot help but wonder if the art was done earlier then the July cover date would indicate.

Love Problems and Advice #38
Love Problems and Advice #38 (March 1956) restored line art, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

As if doing almost all the art for the Prize romance titles was not enough of that genre for Jack, he would also do some of the covers for the Harvey romances. Although Kirby used the Studio Style for Harvey’s Warfront and Western Tales covers, he never used it for the romance covers. None of the covers have picket fences, and even drop strings get limited use. Actually the Harvey covers are not good matches for the Austere Style either. I would give Jack’s Harvey inking a name except there are still some unresolved issues as I will discuss below.

The inking for Love Problems and Advice #38 cover is probably the one I am feel most sure about attributing to Jack Kirby. Although on a whole not in true Studio Style it does have some similarities. The way the modified drop strings are handled is the same as in the Studio Style. The clothing folds are done in a similar manner as well. New, at least for Jack, are the roughly parallel lines that cover some areas. Jack had done something similar, as for instance in the Warfront #28 cover shown above. But for Warfront #28 the lines are bold in keeping with the Studio Style. In Love Problems #38 the lines are finer, although I would still hesitate to describe them as truly fine. There are some areas flooding with black as in the Austere method, but the overall image does not have the lightness typical of that style.

True Bride-To-Be #19
True Bride-To-Be #19 (August 1956) original art, pencils by Jack Kirby inks by Joe Simon

Many, probably most, of the Harvey romance covers were not inked by Kirby. The one from True Brides-To-Be #19 that I show above is a good example of inking by another artist. Jack did indicate the folds for the clothing in the pencils so once again we find a bunching up of folds in the elbow and shoulder regions. The inker has also picked up of Jack’s flooding of ink in certain areas. But the treatment of the blacks on the man’s jacket do look a little unnatural. I am not certain, but the way the elbow folds are handled remind me of some work Simon did later so I attribute the inking of this cover to Joe.

First Love #70
First Love #70 (November 1956) pencils by Jack Kirby inks by Jack Kirby and Bill Draut?

The line inking of the First Love #70 cover remind me of Kirby. The spotting is a more questionable issue. Much of the gray of the image is created by the use of fine parallel lines. These lines are similar to those found in Love Problems #38 only finer. It could very well be that this could reflect the same move to finer brush work that we found on some of the Prize romance covers. That was in fact the conclusion that I previously reached. While reviewing the matter for this serial post I have come to a different opinion. Note the man in the background, he seems to be treated to a different spotting style. That did not bother me before because this man was a late addition. His upper part was done on a piece of paper that was pasted over previous art. The paste has held so the original art is not visible but by using a strong light from behind it looks like his place used to be occupied by the side of a house. Anyway the spotting on the man in the background reminds me of Bill Draut’s work. Bill would sometime use fine parallel lines. Compare the lines on the jacket collar of the man in the front with some of the brush work for an unpublished cover by Bill Draut shown below. Perhaps he was responsible for the spotting of the whole cover. I now think Bill did most of the spotting but I still feel outline inking of the couple were done by Jack.

The story gets more complicated. There may be two hands involved in the spotting. The first one did all the fine work that I described. The second came in later and strengthen certain areas on the man’s arm and in his hair. This was done with a very bold and assured brush. You can still make out an area on the arm where this was done with a sort of coarse picket fence brush work. If Jack was the first inker then I suspect the touch up work was by Joe Simon. The need for such strengthening is more likely seen by someone other then the original artist. If Draut was the initial spotter then Jack probably did the correction.

Artists and Models
Artists and Models unpublished cover from about December 1954 pencils and inks by Bill Draut

The Black Cat titles present a difficulty to any chronological analysis. Harvey’s support seemed to be lukewarm to publishing Simon and Kirby productions. Four to five months separate the Western Tales issues described above. That was bad, but Black Cat was much worse. Black Cat Mystery #57 is cover dated January 1956, Black Cat Mystic #58 is September of the same year. Black Cat Mystic #59 was not released until a year later (September 1957). With such long periods between releases who can be sure when the art was actually done. I will leave of a discussion of Black Cat Mystic #59 until a future chapter, but we shall see that stylistically BCM #59 was very much like BCM #58.

Black Cat Mystic #58
Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956) “Read To Us Mr. Zimmer” splash panel from page 1 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Jack drew and inked the cover for Black Cat Mystery #57 (January 1956). Considering the cover date it is not surprising that it was done in a typical Studio style, although without the use of picket fence brush work. Similar Studio style inking is found even in Black Cat Mystic #58 despite the late September date as can be seen in the splash panel above.

Black Cat Mystic #58
Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956) “Gismo” splash panel from page 1 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

But not too much should be made about the absence of picket fences in the Mr. Zimmer splash. Elsewhere in the comic very typical use of picket fences can be found as for instance the splash to “Gismo”. It is a perfectly good example of typical Studio style brush work.

Black Cat Mystic #58
Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956) “Read To Us Mr. Zimmer” panels 4 and 5 from page 4 pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

However some of the art for BCM #58 does begin to look like Austere inking, particularly when you get into the story panels. So what should be made about this combination of Studio and Austere style inking? Considering the late date for this title it is surprising that Studio style seems predominant. I suspect that some of the art was create earlier. But since some Austere inking can be found I do not believe the all the art was done right after BCM #57 and then held until Harvey was ready to publish.

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 4, Prize Covers

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