Category Archives: Art of Romance

Art of Romance, Chapter 38, A Final Transition

Posted August 21, 2010 in Art of Romance, Serial Posts and tagged Art of Romance, bob powell, Bruno Premiani, Jack Kirby, joe orlando, Joe Simon, john prentice, marvin stein, paul reinman, ted galindo

(July – December 1959: Young Romance #101 – #103, All For Love #15 – #17, Personal Love #12 – #14)

Young Romance #102 (October 1959) “The Wounded Party”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby was comparatively busy with romance art during this period providing one cover and four stories. All really nice pieces and all but one of them inked by Kirby himself. I do not think realism was ever an appropriate description of Kirby’s art, but his work seems especially abstract during this period. Note the simplified nostrils of both the man and the woman. The bridge of the nose seems unnatural. Details such as the eyelids are often dropped. But while these are by no means realistic portrayals, they are by no means unexpressive.

Young Romance #103 (December 1959), pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Kirby’s last cover for Young Romance, or any Prize publication. Jack presents a nicely humorous variation on the theme of a third party looking at a romantic couple.

Young Romance #103 (December 1959) “The Man For Me”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Floating heads are not typical for Kirby’s art, but he does turn to them every once in a while. In this case it provides good examples of how Kirby was now drawing woman. In this respect his art is at a mid-point. Earlier Jack drew woman with much variation in looks, some of which while not completely unattractive would hardly be described as beauty queens. Later in his career, most of Kirby’s woman looked alike; differing mainly in their hair and clothes styles. In the splash for “The Man For Me” there still is some variation in the faces of the woman but nowhere near as much as before. All are attractive but I wonder if many readers in 1959 would have consider these woman as truly beautiful?

Young Romance #103 (December 1959) “Liars In Love” page 4, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

A final example of Kirby’s romance graphic story telling. Shifting perspective, varying viewing distances, body language and facial expressions all played a part in Jack’s art. What a master.

Young Romance #101 (August 1959) “Man In The House”, pencils by John Prentice, inks by Joe Simon

In the last chapter I briefly discussed a piece that looked like the work of John Prentice. The problem was that it was not nearly as well done as was typical for Prentice. I put off deciding about the attribution until this chapter where I would have four stories by the same artist to examine. While it is perfectly possible for one artist to imitate another, it is difficult if not impossible for such imitation to be consistent over an entire story, let alone a number of stories. This work must have been drawn by John Prentice. But there are some parts that look like some other artist hand, in fact like a particular artist, Joe Simon. I now believe that unlike his prior practice, Prentice only supplied pencils which Simon then inked. I have to say that as much as I admire Joe as an artist he really was not doing Prentice justice. Perhaps it was Joe’s blunt brush, which had gotten even blunter over the years. Perhaps Joe was in a rush.

All For Love #15 (August 1959) “Love For a Lifetime”, pencils by Jack Kirby

During the prior year and a half, Kirby only appeared in Young Romance. “Love for a Lifetime” is the first, and only, piece Jack did for All For Love. This was not the only example of an artist that appeared in Young Romance and either All For Love or Personal Love. I will be pointing out some other below and conclude with an explanation why this was happening. Kirby did not ink “Love for a Lifetime”. Nor was it inked by the artist who Jack used often at this time for his inking (who I believe was Marvin Stein). The inker did a good job but I have no idea who he was. This seems to be the only piece he inked for Kirby.

All For Love #17 (December 1959) “Why Turn Back”, art by Paul Reinman

Previously Paul Reinman was another artist who frequented Young Romance but never appeared in either All For Love or Personal Love. During the period covered in this chapter, Reinman drew four stories but only one appeared in Young Romance. The others were published in All For Love.

The piece I selected as an example of Paul’s work is perhaps not the most typical of his art. But I find the art for the opening page rather nice. The tall narrow panels and the way the lady advances in each panel is very interesting. There is something a little unnatural about it all but it is still very effective.

All For Love #15 (August 1959) “Scheduled For Heartbreak”, art by Bob Powell

A new artist appearing in the Prize romance, or more correctly reappearing in the case of Young Romance, is Bob Powell. Powell did five stories; two for Young Romance, two for All For Love and the last for Personal Love. Hence is another example of an artist during this period appearing in all the Prize romance comics. Powell used studio assistants and his art varied quite a bit. I believe Bob had little if anything to do with some of the work attributed to him for the Harvey romance titles. Quality of the Prize romances vary but in my opinion all had significant involvement by Powell himself.

All For Love #17 (December 1959) “Our Man, Van”, pencils by Bruno Premiani, inks by Joe Simon

Perhaps my biggest surprise when reviewing this period was return the of Bruno Premiani. Premiani last worked for Simon and Kirby from in 1949 and 1950. He is said to have left the United States in 1952 (in a short biography by an unknown author which no longer resides on the web) but returned in 1960. However “Our Man, Van” indicates Bruno was actually back in the U.S. around July 1959 (the proper date for creation of art with a December cover date).

Premiani, just like John Prentice, provided pencils only Which Joe Simon then inked. Again it was not the best combination. Further Bruno only did this one story (probably because he began working for the better paying DC).

I should add that earlier in this series I always included a question mark with my Premiani attributions. That was because the work for Prize looked different from what at that time I had seen by Premiani. Since then I have examined a story in DC’s Greatest Adventure that Bruno did that shows a similar drawing style. So I have now dropped off the question mark feeling confident that Premiani was indeed the correct attribution.

Personal Love #12 (July 1959) “Lover’s Knot”, pencils and inks by Marvin Stein

There is only a single piece during this period by Marvin Stein (same thing was reported in the last chapter). Marvin has gone further in simplifying his art. That is saying a lot since his earlier work would hardly be called complex. Stein has gone so far that I doubt I would have recognized his hand in this work had it not been for “Lost Paradise” (AFL #14, June 1959), the previous piece that he did. While his art style had changed he has not lost his skill at graphically telling a story. It would have been interesting to see where Stein’s style would end up had he continued to do comic book art but unfortunately I believe this he is last comic piece.

Personal Love #13 (September 1959) “Reckless Impulse”, art by Ted Galindo

While some artists were appearing in both Young Romance as well as All For Love or Personal Love, Ted Galindo was not one of them. All three stories that he did appeared in Personal Love. He really was a talented artist and among the Prize romance artists he seemed to be the one to experiment the most. For the “Reckless Impulse” splash, Ted has completely eliminated all the background as well as the panel border. The rest is very effective.

Personal Love #13 (September 1959) “Shadow of Love”, art by Joe Orlando

Yet another Orlando signature that I missed until this latest review. During this period Joe also did an unsigned piece. Orlando also seemed to like to experiment a little. The splash is actually part of the story but what is more interesting is that the second panel is higher than the splash. The three remaining panels are also tall and narrow.

Chapter Conclusion

In his book, The Comic Book Makers, Joe reports that when Mike Bleier (one of the partners for Prize Comics) died in 1960 the remaining partner, Teddy Epstein, asked Joe to take over the comics. So it is not surprising that the postal statements from 1960 until 1963 list Simon as the editor. In 1960 Joe would replace All For Love and Personal Love with a re-launched Young Love and a new title Going Steady. In the past I believed these steps were taken by Joe as soon as he began as the romance editor. This review has made me change my mind. During the previous year and a half the different artists appeared in Young Romance as compared to All For Love or Personal Love. Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman were only shown in Young Romance while Ted Galindo and Joe Orlando only worked for All For Love and Personal Love. Other artists, most unidentified, also followed this pattern. The only exception seems to have been Marvin Stein who appeared in all the Prize titles. However Jack Kirby is in the August issue of All For Love and Reinman does work for the December issue. John Prentice appears in YR #101, AFL #15, #16 and #17. Bob Powell shows up in YR #103, AFL #15 and #16, as well as PL #16. My conclusion is that Joe started as the romance editor in August when this mixing of artists began. This would mean that the 1960 date of Bleier’s death is inaccurate; that he actual died in 1959. I believe that such a error is understandable and not particularly significant.

Series Conclusion

When I started this serial post, Art of Romance, I knew it would take some time to finish. Well over two years later and with 38 chapters I have finally come to the end. Prize’s romance comics would continue from 1960 to 1963 but they were different from what came before. In his book, Joe described it as a basement operation with substantially reduced art and script costs. Most importantly for this blog, they would no longer include any involvement from Jack Kirby. In fact there would be no further Simon and Kirby collaboration of any type until many years later. I am certain I will post about the Prize romance titles under Joe Simon someday, but I am not prepared to do it now.

While for most fans, Simon and Kirby’s reputation rests on their superhero, crime, horror and similar genre, the romance genre was much more important to Joe and Jack. To put some perspective on it for the period spanned by this serial post (cover dates September 1947 to December 1959) Jack Kirby drew a total of 3855 pages of art*. At 1936 pages, romance was by far the greatest part of that work. The breakdown per genre is:

1936 romance
507 hero
459 crime
417 horror
356 western
91 humor
45 science fiction
24 war
20 anthology

There was more romance art than all the other genre combined. Once Simon and Kirby launched Young Romance, they never stop producing romance comics right up to their parting of ways at the end of 1959 (cover dates). Simon and Kirby produced no other genre continually during that period.

One of the themes of this blog is that Simon and Kirby did not only create art, they produced comics as well. Actually that is how they made most of their money. While working together, Simon and Kirby produced 7593 pages of romance art**. This included the work of a lot of different artists and since Simon and Kirby seem to encourage the creators to sign their work, this serial post was able to identify and give examples of the majority of the contributors.

I thought I was well acquainted with Simon and Kirby romance work when I started Art of Romance but I learned a lot by reviewing them sequentially. Much of the knowledge I gained concerned artist attributions but there was three more general observations as well.

Based on interviews of a couple writers that Simon and Kirby had employed, Jack was heavily involved in supplying the writers with plots. But in my opinion, Kirby subsequently had little if anything to do with the stories supplied to the other artists. However I believe something very different happened with the stories that Kirby drew himself. I find the writing of the Kirby drawn romances to be very different for the stories drawn by others. Frequently they display phrasing that to me sound very much the writing of Kirby himself. I am certain that Jack would re-write much of the scripts that he drew.

With the exception of Jack’s own art, Simon and Kirby left all inking of art to the artists themselves. That does not mean that all the other artists inked their own work but the great majority of them appeared to do so. Certain this was the case for frequent contributors Bill Draut and John Prentice. Mort Meskin’s pencils often inked his own pencils but he for a time he used George Roussos as an inker as well. I do not claim to have sorted it all out but my opinion is that Mort did almost all his own inking with a relatively small fraction inked by George. Inking of Kirby’s pencils was something very different. Joe Simon has described it as an assembly line with different inkers contributing to different parts of the same story. My observations of the actual comics supports Joe’s statements. When I identify a particular inker of Kirby’s art I am not saying that they were the only inker but rather just the only one I thought I could identify but other inkers may have been involved as well.

My final observation concerned the question of Kirby layouts for other artists; an often repeated claim. It is also one that is difficult to disprove by conventional comparisons. That is because it is hard to distinguish the difference between layouts, influence and swiping. Particularly since it often involves admittedly subjective criteria. The methodology I have found often useful was panel layouts. I would compare panel layouts from Kirby’s own work and those of other artists during the same period. After all its seems very unlikely that Kirby would adopt different panel layouts for work supplied to other artists to complete. I often found particular panel layout used by some artist over and over again. for instance during one period Leonard Starr frequently used tall narrow panels that rarely appeared in Kirby’s art. Using panel layouts I can confidently say that Kirby did not supply layouts to more important artists like Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, John Prentice, Bob McCarty and others. Kirby did appear to provide layouts for some minor and less talented artist but then the difficulty becomes distinguishing Kirby layouts that were finished and inked by the other artist from Kirby pencils just inked by another artist.

Footnotes:

* In the calculation present here I am excluding the work Kirby did for DC and Atlas after the breakup of the Simon and Kirby studio. I have included the 146 pages of Boy Commandos in the hero genre. Personally I do not consider the Boy commandos published during the time of World War II as war comics, but the post-war examples clearly do not belong in that genre.

** I am excluding from these calculations All For Love and Personal Love. As I discuss above Joe Simon may have been the editor of these titles as well for a period. However there is little reason to believe Jack Kirby had anything to do with them other than supplying a single story for All For Love.

Chapter 1, A New Genre (YR #1 – #4)
Chapter 2, Early Artists (YR #1 – #4)
Chapter 3, The Field No Longer Their’s Alone (YR #5 – #8)
Chapter 4, An Explosion of Romance (YR #9 – #12, YL #1 – #4)
Chapter 5, New Talent (YR #9 – 12, YL #1 – #4)
Chapter 6, Love on the Range (RWR #1 – #7, WL #1 – #6)
Chapter 7, More Love on the Range (RWR #1 – #7, WL #1 – #6)
Chapter 8, Kirby on the Range? (RWR #1 – #7, WL #1 – #6)
Chapter 9, More Romance (YR #13 – #16, YL #5 – #6)
Chapter 10, The Peak of the Love Glut (YR #17 – #20, YL #7 – #8)
Chapter 11, After the Glut (YR #21 – #23, YL #9 – #10)
Chapter 12, A Smaller Studio (YR #24 – #26, YL #12 – #14)
Chapter 13, Romance Bottoms Out (YR #27 – #29, YL #15 – #17)
Chapter 14, The Third Suspect (YR #30 – #32, YL #18 – #20)
Chapter 15, The Action of Romance (YR #33 – #35, YL #21 – #23)
Chapter 16, Someone Old and Someone New (YR #36 – #38, YL #24 – #26)
Chapter 17, The Assistant (YR #39 – #41, YL #27 – #29)
Chapter 18, Meskin Takes Over (YR #42 – #44, YL #30 – #32)
Chapter 19, More Artists (YR #45 – #47, YL #33 – #35)
Chapter 20, Romance Still Matters (YR #48 – #50, YL #36 – #38, YB #1)
Chapter 21, Roussos Messes Up (YR #51 – #53, YL #39 – #41, YB #2 – 3)
Chapter 22, He’s the Man (YR #54 – #56, YL #42 – #44, YB #4)
Chapter 23, New Ways of Doing Things (YR #57 – #59, YL #45 – #47, YB #5 – #6)
Chapter 24, A New Artist (YR #60 – #62, YL #48 – #50, YB #7 – #8)
Chapter 25, More New Faces (YR #63 – #65, YLe #51 – #53, YB #9 – #11)
Chapter 26, Goodbye Jack (YR #66 – #68, YL #54 – #56, YB #12 – #14)
Chapter 27, The Return of Mort (YR #69 – #71, YL #57 – #59, YB #15 – #17)
Chapter 28, A Glut of Artists (YR #72 – #74, YL #60 – #62, YB #18 & #19, IL #1 & #2)
Chapter 29, Trouble Begins (YR #75 – #77, YL #63 – #65, YB #20 – #22, IL #3 – #5)
Chapter 30, Transition (YR #78 – #80, YL #66 – #68, YBs #23 – #25, IL #6, ILY #7)
Chapter 30, Appendix (YB #23)
Chapter 31, Kirby, Kirby and More Kirby (YR #81 – #82, YL #69 – #70, YB #26 – #27)
Chapter 32, The Kirby Beat Goes On (YR #83 – #84, YL #71 – #72, YB #28 – #29)
Chapter 33, End of an Era (YR #85 – #87, YL #73, YB #30, AFL #1)
Chapter 34, A New Prize Title (YR #88 – #91, AFL #2 – #5, PL #1 – #2)
Chapter 35, Settling In ( YR #92 – #94, AFL #6 – #8, PL #3 – #5)
Appendix, J.O. Is Joe Orlando
Chapter 36, More Kirby (YR #95 – #97, AFL #9 – #11, PL #6 – #8)
Chapter 37, Some Surprises (YR #98 – #100, AFL #12 – #14, PL #9 – #11)
Chapter 38, All Things Must End (YR #101 – #103, AFL #15 – #17, PL #12 – #14)

Art of Romance, Chapter 37, Some Surprises

by Harry Mendryk

Posted August 13, 2010 in 2010/08, 7 Freelance, Art of Romance, Artists, Breifer, Dick, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, Stein, Marvin, z Archive and tagged Art of Romance, dick briefer, Jack Kirby, joe orlando, marvin stein, paul reinman, ted galindo

(January – June 1959: Young Romance #98 – #100, All For Love #12 – #14, Personal Love #9 – #11)

Young Romance #98 (February 1959) “Secret In My Heart”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Kirby provides four stories for two issues of Young Romance (YR #98 and #99). I believe Jack inked three of the stories himself as well as the splash page for the fourth story. It is hard to be sure because some of the old inking techniques such as arched shadows (Inking Glossary) do not show up often. Further the other inker, who I believe was Marvin Stein, was doing a pretty good job matching Kirby’s work.

Note the tilted image in the first story panel. This is a bit unusual for Kirby but then again Jack was always trying something different.

Young Romance #99 (April 1959) “Man Wanted” page 2, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Above is an example of the great graphical story telling Kirby was doing during this period. Jack’s drawing style has taken on a more abstract quality. Note the eyelids of the woman in the second panel. They really are not natural or realistic but are very expressive nonetheless.

Young Romance #98 (February 1959) “A Husband for My Sister” page 3, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Marvin Stein

While I believe the splash page for “A Husband for My Sister” was inked by Kirby himself, the rest of the story does not look like his inking. Perhaps the most obvious difference is the shadow inking found in the first panel of page three. The inker obviously had a poor understanding of the shape of the head. Particularly grievous is the shadow around the eye of the woman. Nor would one expect the man’s lips to catch the light as it does here. I have never seen Kirby do this sort of thing but I have seen Marvin Stein do similar unnatural handling of shadows (“Tragic Circle, JTTG #75, Criminal Artists, Marvin Stein).

Young Romance #99 (April 1959) “Fair Game”, art by Paul Reinman

Paul Reinman was used often during this period, providing five stories for Young Romance. His abundant appearance in Young Romance and absence from All For Love and Personal Love is another indication that they titles were produced by different editors.

Young Romance #98 (February 1959) “Made in Heaven”, art by John Prentice?

I am not sure what to make of “Made in Heaven”. The art superficially resembles that by John Prentice but is no where nearly nicely drawn as was typical for John. At this time Prentice was primarily working on the syndication strip Rip Kirby but he may also have been doing some work for DC. Was this Prentice quickly dashing something off or was it some other artists copying John’s style? Like I said, I am not sure but I will deffer my opinion until the next chapter when I will have further examples to examine.

All For Love #14 (June 1959) “Lost Paradise” page 4, pencils and inks by Marvin Stein

Marvin Stein only did a single story during this period. Stein had begun working for Cellomatic in 1958 so presumably his comic book work was done during his spare time. Perhaps this explains his the increasingly looser style that Marvin was using. Still “Lost Paradise” is a graphically well told story.

In the previous chapter I mentioned an unidentified artist who, like Stein, used a rather blunt brush. I wrote that this unknown artist liked to provide very thick outlines in parts. Well it looks like Stein has adopted that style as well. I still believe they are different artists because of the very different manners they drew woman.

Personal Love #10 (March 1959) “The Ties That Bind”, art by Ted Galindo

Ted Galindo’s attractive work continues to show up frequently in All For Love and Personal Love. Would you call this a splashless story or one with just a reduced size splash? An unusual panel layout for Galindo or any other artist doing work for the Prize romance titles.

Personal Love #11 (May 1959) “True Devotion”, art by Joe Orlando

I would have saved myself much effort had I noticed before the signature on the splash for “True Devotion”. There as clear as day is Joe Orlando’s full signature. Even the letters J and O are executed in the same manner that he used on cover art for All For Love, Personal Love and Justice Traps the Guilty. No question about it all that cover art was done by Joe. Orlando was no longer providing covers but he was now drawing full stories. Besides “True Devotion” there are two other unsigned stories from this period. Considering the quality of the covers Orlando did, it is not surprising how excellent the story art was.

All For Love #14 (June 1959) “Love Walked In”, art by Dick Briefer

Unlike Orlando’s “True Devotion”, I had previously seen the signature on “Love Walked In” but I had misread it. So I was rather surprised when I reviewed it for this post to find the correct reading was clearly Dick Briefer. What a pleasant but unexpected find. A fortunate one as well, I doubt I would have identified Briefer as the artist without the signature. I have never seen romance art by Dick before and he does it surprisingly well. Once you know it was done by Briefer you can pick out some of his traits, particularly Briefer’s love of asymmetry. But the style on a whole is a lot more conservative and realistic than typical Briefer art especially compared to his Frankenstein.

Personal Love #11 (May 1959) “Something To Remember You By” , art by Dick Briefer

Briefer also did two unsigned pieces during the period so I could not resist including another example. I really love what he does with these stories.

I thought Dick had pretty much given up work as a comic book artist after Prize’s Frankenstein was cancelled in 1954 (a casualty of the Comic Code). The GCD only lists reprints for him after that date. “Who’s Who” has him as a non-comics freelancer from 1956 to 1960, followed by advertisement art (1960 – 1972) and fine arts (1962 – 1972). But now we know he did not completely abandon comics.

Art of Romance, Chapter 36, More Kirby

by Harry Mendryk

Posted August 7, 2010 in 2010/08, 7 Freelance, Art of Romance, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, Stein, Marvin, z Archive and tagged Art of Romance, Jack Kirby, marvin stein, ted galindo

(July – December 1958: Young Romance #95 – #97, All For Love #9 – #11, Personal Love #6 – #8)

Young Romance #97 (December 1958), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Jack and Rosalind? Kirby

Kirby drew two of the Young Romance covers during this period (he also did Young Romance #95). Both appeared to be inked by Jack as well. But note the unusual hand belonging to the contestant wearing the blue dress. When Kirby drew covers those hands found in the periphery often were just crudely sketched. Inkers were generally artists as well and they would ink Jack’s quickly drawn hands in a way to provide them with some semblance of normality. But this example from the YR #97 cover could only be described as quite amateurish. I find it hard to believe that any professional artist would have inked such a hand. That is why I suspect that Jack’s wife Rosalind provided the outline inking. It has been reported that Rosalind did help Jack with the inking at this time, most notably for DC’s Green Arrow. Some have said that her help amounted to nothing more than filling in the black areas but other believe she did some of the outline inking as well using a pen. YR #97 convinces me that the latter proposition is correct. Rosalind Kirby may have outline inked some of Jack’s other romance art from this period but I have not noticed other such obvious examples.

Young Romance #95 (August 1958) “Listening To Love” page 2, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The above page is a nice example of Kirby’s Austere inking. This style provided art that normally had a lighter overall look to it compared to earlier Simon and Kirby work. Yes panels 3 and 6 are filled with black but the figures are still light. Some characteristics of earlier inking remain. For example the arched shadow in panel 5 was often found in previous work. While I am a great admirer of the earlier style (which I call the Studio style), I find the Austere style rather beautiful as well.

Young Romance #97 (December 1958) “Hearts and Flowers”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I personally find Kirby’s romance splashes from 1957 as among Kirby’s poorer pieces. But the splashes he did in 1958 are just great. The fact that Jack inked so many of them himself in 1958 provides part of the explanation about why they are so much better. However even pieces inked by others (such as the one from “Jealousy” from the last chapter) seem more interesting. It seems Kirby got his creative juices flowing again and began provided interesting compositions. The man in the foreground of “Hearts and Flowers” seems to block the reader’s viewpoint as well as the ladies. Her straight back pose seems to shout her feelings of being trapped. The man in the background occupies only a small part of the image but his presence at the focal point makes certain that the reader sees his disapproval of the other man’s actions. Great art, great story telling, great Kirby!

Young Romance #97 (December 1958) “Uninvited Guest” page 4, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I love the final romance art that Jack Kirby did for Young Romance. Most fans focus on Kirby superhero features but it is his romance work that Jack truly showed his genius. This page is a great example. While there is no action this is by no means a collection of panels of standing figures. Expression, body language and view points are all manipulated to advance the story and keep the reader interested.

Young Romance #95 (August 1958) “Hold Back The Tears”, pencils and inks by Marvin Stein

Marvin Stein is one artist that I have reevaluated over the years. Initially I was not impressed. My earlier low opinion was largely due to his early romance art which even now I do not think that all that great. It was his crime work in particular that changed my opinion (Criminal Artist, Marvin Stein). While in some ways I find his style not as conducive for the romance genre, Stein’s romance art is still very interesting.

Note the long eyebrows found on the woman in the last panel. Such exaggerated eyebrows sometimes appear in the inking of Kirby’s pencils from 1956 and 1957. That is one of the reasons I sometimes believe Stein was the inker for much of Kirby’s work during that period.

Young Romance #95 (August 1958) “Lover, Come Back”, art by unidentified artist

Some of the yet unidentified artist doing romance for Prize during this period were frankly not as good compared to those used previously. There are, however, exceptions. I particularly like the work for “Lover, Come Back”. The art appears to be based on photographic reference material and not all panels are quite as successful as those from the first page. But all the art is nicely integrated so that the swiped parts are not so noticeable. There is another story from the same issue (“A Young Man’s Fancy”) that I believe was done by the same artist. While that story also appeared to be in parts based on photographs it was not so successfully integrated. In fact the results was pretty much a disaster.

Young Romance #97 (December 1958) “The Lamb In The Grey Flannel Suit”, art by unidentified artist Paul Reinman

Another interesting but unidentified artist appearing in Young Romance. I have not noticed any other work by the same artist. Reinman did two other stories during this period and would play an important roll in futher issues of Young Romance.

All For Love #9 (August 1958) “Portrait of a Broken Heart”, art by unidentified artist

This artist appears fairly frequently in All For Love and Personal Love. Like Marvin Stein, he uses a rather blunt brush for his inking. However his woman are very different from Stein’s so there should be no problems confusing the two. Unlike Stein, this artist likes to use very thick outlines in places such as in the above splash on the woman’s hair and the man’s back.

All For Love #10 (October 1958) “Little Liar”, art by Ted Galindo

Ted Galindo continues to frequently appear in All For Love and Personal Love but not in Young Romance (the title still produced by Simon and Kirby). Ted provides 6 stories with most issues having one of his stories. It does not work out perfectly since Galindo appeared twice in All For Love #10 (October 1958) but not at all in Personal Love #7 (September 1958). The above page shows Ted using a tall narrow splash. While Galindo did not use such a splash panels often, tall and narrow panels do appear fairly frequently in the story pages.

Art of Romance, Appendix, J.O. Is Joe Orlando

by Harry Mendryk

Posted August 7, 2010 in 2010/08, 7 Freelance, Art of Romance, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Art of Romance, joe orlando

Black Magic #34 (September 1957) “The Hidden Doors”, pencils by Joe Orlando

In recent entries of the serial post of The Art of Romance (Chapter 34 and Chapter 35) I discussed the cover art by an artist who used the initials JO. Although I have not yet written about him in my other serial post, Criminal Artists, the same artist also did covers for Justice Traps the Guilty. I had tentatively credited Joe Orlando as the artist in question. The main reason for uncertainty of this conclusion was that I had not had a chance to do a comparison of work from this period that can be confidently attributed to Orlando. One great thing about databases is that the remember details that the human mind sometimes forgets. I was pleased to find that my database indicated that I did in fact have something with a full signature by Joe Orlando, “The Hidden Doors” from Black Magic #34 (September 1957). This was the first issue of the re-launched Black Magic (the final issue of the earlier run was cover dated November 1954) . The new series was a very different comic from the earlier, Simon and Kirby, produced one. I am sure I will someday do a serial post on the second Black Magic run.

But let me get back to the actual subject of this post. While “The Hidden Doors” was a different genre, there are enough similarities to the romance and crime covers that I believe all were done by the same artist. Further the date for the Black Magic piece is perfectly aligned with the cover art. Therefore I am going to dispense with the question mark and just go with the Joe Orlando attribution.

Art of Romance, Chapter 35, Settling In

by Harry Mendryk

Posted July 31, 2010 in 2010/07, 7 Freelance, Art of Romance, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, Stein, Marvin, z Archive and tagged bill benulis, Jack Kirby, joe orlando, marvin stein, ted galindo

(January – June 1958: Young Romance #92 – #94, All For Love #6 – #8, Personal Love #3 – #5)

I was mistaken when in my last chapter I wrote that the postal statement for All For Love listed Joe Genalo as the editor. That was true for all such statements except the first which listed Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as the editors. Where Simon and Kirby really the editors or was this just an error caused by cutting and pasting from a statement in Young Romance to the one for All For Love? I believe it was just an error because in this chapter as in the last one, different artists appeared in the different publications. Jack Kirby and Bill Benulis only appeared in Young Romance while Ted Galindo only appeared in All For Love and Personal Love. Marvin Stein appeared to be the only artist appearing in both Young Romance and All For Love, although oddly not in Personal Love.

Young Romance #92 (February 1958), pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

The cover for Young Romance #92 (February 1958) was the first one that Kirby did since his run of all-Kirby Prize romance issues of 1956. The preceding six covers done by other artists is a clear indication of the very different nature of Young Romance from 1957 on. Previously Kirby was the artist for all drawn covers except during the period when he and Joe were busy with Mainline Comics (there own publishing venture). This cover was inked by Kirby as well in the manner I call the Austere style (Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking). Older techniques like picket fence crosshatching (Inking Glossary) are absent although drop strings continue to be used but in an overlapping manner. Inking is sparser giving the art a lighter look. When a black region is called for it is executed by flooding the area with ink. The Austere style appears to have been adopted as a means to speed the inking process but not by sacrificing the aesthetics of the final result.

Young Romance #92 (February 1958) “Running Mates”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

“Running Mates” marks the beginning of Kirby inking his stories as well. An inker working on his own pencils always has an advantage, but when the artists is as talented inker as Jack was the difference can be astonishing. Jack’s drawing style has changed as well compared to his earlier work. His lines take on a more abstract quality. Look at the woman in the splash; particularly here nose and eyelids. This is far from realism but provides the figure with an expressive quality that realistic art generally fails to achieve.

Young Romance #93 (April 1958) “Jealousy”, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Marvin Stein

Kirby would not inked all his pencils during the period covered by this chapter, or even most. There are a number of Kirby stories that seemed to be inked by the same artist but I am generally not willing to commit myself to say who that artist was. However I have little doubt when it comes to the inker of “Jealousy”. Marvin Stein inks this piece in exactly the same manner that he would ink his own. When looking at the details it is easy to forget about Kirby’s involvement because Stein’s touch so permeates the piece. Only when one steps back to look at the forest instead of the trees does Jack’s hand become obvious. It is in my opinion a beautiful combination. This is one of my favorite Kirby pieces inked by someone other than Jack himself.

Young Romance #92 (February 1958) “Lovable Dud”, pencils by Bill Benulis unidentified artist, inks by Vince Colletta

None of the stories from this period that I attribute to Bill Benulis are signed but the style does look like his. Benulis did some signed work for Simon and Kirby published in January 1954 (Young Brides #11 and Young Love #53) but I also credit to him an unsigned work from October 1955 (Young Love #67). Benulis is one of the younger artists who did romance in a more modern style and gave his characters more modern clothing and hair styles. Bill had a penchant for patterned clothing as for examples seen worn by the woman in the splash page above.

8/8/10 – Based on observations made by some commentors I went back and compared this and three other stories with “Live Alone And Love It” from Young Romance #91 (December 1957) a piece signed by Vince Colletta. All appeared to be inked by the same artist, Vince Colletta. I also compared these four stories with work from 1954 and 1955 that can confidently be credited to Bill Benulis. I no longer feel they all were done by the same penciller. I still feel that “Loveable Dud” and the other three stories were pencilled by a different artist than the Colletta signed piece. Therefore I have removed the Benulis attribution and left the penciller as unknown while crediting the inking for all to Vince Colletta.

All For Love #6 (February 1958), pencils by Joe Orlando?

The cover for All For Love #6 is unsigned but appears to be by the same artist who initials J. O. appear on other All For Love, Personal Love and Justice Traps the Guilty covers. There have been some comments (both supportive and not) to the last chapter about my tentative suggestion that these covers may have been done by Joe Orlando. Frankly I have not real evidence to back up my suggestion. The artist is quite talented and he almost certainly has done work in comic books before. There really are not a lot of candidates from this period with these particular initials. None of the candidates seems more appropriate than Joe Orlando and so I am now questionably attributing this material to him. My practice in this blog is to use provide credit based on my own observations but this in no way should be interpreted as a disagreement with those who are more knowledgeable about certain artists than I am. Once I have had a chance to familiarize myself with the work Orlando did for other publishers, I am sure either the question mark will be removed or the attribution dropped.

All For Love #6 (February 1958) “To Love is to Trust” page 6, pencils by Ted Galindo

Ted Galindo was perhaps the most used artist for All For Love and Personal Love during this period. He certainly is one of my favorites. The above page is a good example of why I like him. The floating hearts are, in my opinion, a little hokey (but very much in fashion for the period) but otherwise this is a well designed and executed sequence.

All For Love #7 (April 1958) “Love For Granted” page 5], pencils by Marvin Stein

As in the last chapter, Marvin Stein appears in Young Romance (produced by Simon and Kirby) and All For Love. In some ways this is the better romance work compared to what Stein had been doing earlier in his career. In general I feel that Marvin’s style was more appropriate for the crime and western features he was doing for Prize. But now his woman are more lively and attractive. But I do feel Stein’s art now looks a bit rushed.

Art of Romance, Chapter 34, A New Prize Title

by Harry Mendryk

Posted July 24, 2010 in 2010/07, 7 Freelance, Art of Romance, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Art of Romance, Jack Kirby, lou cameron, marvin stein, ted galindo, vince colletta

(May – December 1957: Young Romance #88 – #91, All For Love #2 – #5, Personal Love #1 – #2)

This serial post has now entered the period after the crash and near collapse of the comic book industry. Prize Comics was never a big publisher but these must have been particularly difficult times. At the start of this period Prize was only publishing three bi-monthly titles Justice Traps the Guilty, Young Romance and the new released All For Love. In September they would also release another new romance title, Personal Love. Like All For Love, Personal Love was not produced by Simon and Kirby. The annual postal statements list Joe Genalo as the editor and the contents seem somewhat different from that found in Young Romance. The artists used also seemed to be different as well, at least during this period. Jack Kirby appeared in three of the four issues of Young Romance covered by this post but did no work for All For Love or Personal Love. Lou Cameron played an important part in Young Romance #89 and #90 but he does not appear in the other Prize romance titles. On the other hand Ted Galindo appears frequently in All For Love and Personal Love but he does not show up in these issue of Young Romance.

Since at this time Kirby was freelancing for DC and Atlas, it is clear that he and Joe were no longer running their old studio. So the question becomes how Young Romance was actually produced. While previously there can be found examples of Jack in his roll as an art editor stepping in to fix up some parts of stories supplied by other artists or provide a splash page, I have seen no examples of that practice in the period from 1957 to 1960. On the other hand the annual postal statements still listed both Simon and Kirby as editors up to 1960. My suspicion is that Jack really was not involved in the editorial work for Young Romance and it was Joe who was really producing the title. Not that I believe this effort took much of Joe’s time; it was only a single bi-monthly title.

Young Romance #91 (December 1957) “The Waiting Game”, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Marvin Stein

Jack Kirby provided art for three of the four issues of Young Romance during this period. However all were rather short pieces (1, 4 and 5 pages) and only one of them was the lead feature (a position often reserved for Jack in the past). All were nicely done but hardly very remarkable (for Kirby). Jack did not inked any of the pieces but one of them “The Waiting Game” looks very much like it was inked by Marvin Stein. Not the blunt but still subtle handling of the face of the man in the background of the splash. Of particular significance is the handling of the lady in the first story panel. She share a rather distorted perspective that I find hard to describe but is so often seen in Stein’s own work when a head is viewed from above and to the side. I am not as confident that Stein inked the other two Kirby stories but he could have.

Young Romance #91 (December 1957) “Live Alone and Love It”, art by Marvin Stein

Marvin Stein not only inked a work for Jack Kirby but he penciled and inked his own story for Young Romance. I have remarked before how I find Stein’s style more appropriate for the crime genre than it was for romance. His “Live Alone and Love It” seems done in a particularly blunt manner even for Stein. Note the simplified eyebrows of the lady on this page, very reminiscent of the inking found in some of the Kirby pieces, another reason to possibly attribute to Marvin some of the more recent inking of Kirby’s art. Stein was an exception in that he appeared not only in Young Romance but also All For Love and Personal Love as well. However prior to this he also was one of the very few artists that worked on both Simon and Kirby productions along with the titles not produced by that pair.

Young Romance #89 (August 1957) “Pal Joannie”, art by Lou Cameron

Lou Cameron, an artist new for Young Romance, played an important part in issues #89 and #90 supplying 5 stories. His work was really excellent; great graphic story telling and beautifully drawn women. Like some of the other younger artists new to the title, Lou drew in what I would describe as a more modern style. I am not that familiar with Cameron’s art but he also work for Atlas, DC and St. John Publishing. I am not sure what to attribute his sudden abundant appearance and just as quick disappearance in Young Romance but he is one of the artists that I wish had made a longer contribution to the title.

Young Romance #91 (December 1957) “That Certain Something”, art by Vince Colletta

Young Romance #91 included the only appearance of Vince Colletta in a Simon and Kirby production. Colletta did a lot of work for Atlas, much of it romance art. However he is most famous as the inker that Kirby fans love to hate. Mostly this is due to his habit of erasing some of Kirby’s pencils to speed up the inking. Oddly Colletta has a small but very vocal group of supporters who I refer to as Colletta apologists. According to the Colletta apologists, Vince was the greatest romance artist who worked in a realistic style. While I admire Colletta’s romance art, neither of these assertions are true. I have never heard anyone other than a Colletta apologists claim Vince as their favorite romance artist and as far as I can tell Colletta apologists otherwise have no interest in romance art. And while his woman are beautiful they are not truly realistic. This is fortunate because I do not believe true realism would be appropriate for comic books. For my part, while I find Colletta’s women beautiful, I also find them to lack any individuality. The only distinction found between individual examples are the hair styles and clothes. Still he is another of those artists that I wish provided more work for Young Romance.

Young Romance #89 (August 1957) “Rock-A-Bye To Love”, art by unidentified artist

In these last few chapters of the Art of Romance, I do not plan to discuss all the artists that appear in the Prize titles. Frankly most of them are not that great and I am so far unable to identify them. That is not to say that they are totally uninteresting. This is a period of transition for Young Romance as the title tries to maintain its appeal with a more modern audience. Hence the inclusion of rock-and-roll in some of the stories. However there is a tendency for rock music to be judged somewhat negatively.

All For Love #2 (June 1957) “My Destiny”, art by Mort Meskin

Mort Meskin provides two stories for All For Love #2 (June 1957). Both works appear to have been inked by Mort as well. As far as the art is concerned the work is nicely done but does not differ much, if at all, from the romance work that Mort did up until the end of 1955. It is not the art that is a cause for a surprise but his appearance in a Prize comic. As I wrote, his romance work was about a year and a half prior to this but his art appeared in the Prize crime titles for a few months further (March 1956). His last work for Prize Comics Western was for the July 1956 issue. Then suddenly these two stories in All For Love and then Meskin disappears from further Prize comics. I suspect that Prize offered much lower page rates than what DC did which is where Meskin was doing most of his work at this time. But it is suggestive that it was in All For Love that Meskin appeared and not Young Romance which was still being produced by Simon and Kirby. In any case I believe this was the last romance comic book art that Mort Meskin would ever create.

All For Love #3 (August 1957) “The Voice of Love”, art by Marvin Stein

As mentioned above, Marvin Stein was one of the few artists appearing in Young Romance as well as All For Love or Personal Love. If anything, the art for “The Voice of Love” shown above is more carefully drawn than that from Young Romance #91.

All For Love #3 (August 1957) “The Match”, art by Ted Galindo

Ted Galindo provided work for all the Prize titles at this time except for Young Romance. Ted had previously drawn a story for Foxhole which, to be frank, was really not that well done. His romance work was much better, most likely because he now was a more experienced comic book artist. I feel the best work he was doing at this time appeared in Justice Traps the Guilty which will be the subject of a future chapter to Criminal Artists.

All For Love #2 (June 1957), art by J.O.

Some of the Prize titles during this period had cover art signed only as JO. No interior stories bear that signature and as far as I can seen none of the unsigned pieces were by this artist. The covers are very well done and indicate that this is a talented artist. I have only begun investigating whom this might be and have not reached any but the most tenuous conclusions. Although I have as yet no good evidence to back it up, I wonder if this might be by Joe Orlando.

Personal Love #1 (September 1957), “The Truth About Love”, art by unidentified artist

I could not resist including another romance story from this period with a rock-n-roll reference. In the background of the splash can be seen a singer playing an acoustic guitar. That, plus the lyrics he sings, clearly were meant to be a reference to Elvis Presley who was very popular at that time (and since).

Art of Romance, Chapter 33, End of an Era

by Harry Mendryk

Posted July 3, 2010 in 2010/07, 7 Freelance, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, Kirby, Jack, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Art of Romance, bill draut, Jack Kirby, Mort Meskin, ted galindo

(November 1956 – April 1957: Young Romance #85 – #87, Young Love #73, Young Brides #30, All For Love #1)

Number of Romance titles 1947 – 1958 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

We now come to the end of the all Kirby Price romance comics and transition into a new and significantly different period of Prize Comics. Young Brides #30 (November 1956) and Young Romance #85 (December 1956) qualify as all-Kirby comics but only half of Young Love #73 (December 1956) was drawn by Kirby with the rest of the art done by Bill Draut. Unfortunately the comic book crash had finally caught up to Prize Comics. Young Love #73 and Young Brides #30 would be the final issues of those two titles although Young Love would be resurrected in 1960. At the point of cancellation Prize Comics would only be publishing three titles; Young Romance, Justice Traps the Guilty and Prize Comics Western. Since all were bi-monthlies this was a rather small line-up even for such a small company.

Starting with issue #86, Young Romance was a very changed title. The annual postal statements still listed Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as the editors but whatever working arrangement the two had it clearly was not the same as before. Kirby had started doing freelance work for DC and Atlas while Simon was doing some editorial work for Harvey Comics. Most, but not all, issues would include art drawn by Jack Kirby. Previously cover art was typically done by Kirby alone but now most covers would be done by other artists. The biggest change that came over the title was the largely complete absence of the earlier S&K Studio artists. Artists who previously played prominent rolls in the title such as Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, John Prentice and Bob McCarty would never again appear in Young Romance. The fact that some of these artists would show up in Prize romance titles not edited by Simon and Kirby suggests that there may have been some hard feelings between the artists and their former employers.

The change in Prize Comics was not a complete retreat but rather a reorganization. In April 1957 Prize came out with a new romance title, All For Love. It may seem strange to cancel two romance titles only to start up a new one. The answer is suggested by the Postal Statements which list Joe Genalo as the editor for All For Love. Prize not only wanted a new title, they particularly did not want Simon and Kirby to produce it.

Young Romance #85 (December 1956) “Lizzie’s Back In Town”, pencils by Jack Kirby

As I mentioned earlier, YR #85 was one of the issues that was drawn entirely by Jack Kirby. While the story art was often first rate, the splashes frequently left something to be desired. At least compared to the work Kirby had done in earlier years. The splash for “Lizzie’s Back In Town” is a good example of this. There is nothing wrong with the splash and granted it was probably a challenge to instill interest into some standing figures, but it was just this sort of romance splash that earlier Kirby was so good at. I suspect Kirby was just trying to do too much romance art in too little time. Some interesting splashes will be found in the future issues when Jack had returned to a more measured output of romance stories.

Young Romance #86 (February 1957) “Reject”, pencils by Jack Kirby

There are exceptions to lackluster splashes. I certainly like the one for “Reject”. This is not because of the subject matter because once again all there is are some standing figures. Nor is it the how well the art was handled; I suspect the original pencils were much better than what was left after the inker got finished with it. I think what appeals to me is the characterizations of the players; the stern central figure and the gossipers in the background. I also like the way the title of the story is placed on a placard worn by the lady.

Young Brides #30 (November 1956) “The Unhappy Housewife”, pencils by Jack Kirby

There seems to have been one inker used for all the works penciled by Kirby during this period and a good portion of the art from the all-Kirby romance issues. In the past I had considered it likely that the inker was Marvin Stein. I have heard others advance Bill Draut and Joe Simon as candidates. During the review for this chapter I have come to the conclusion that I am just not sure who he was. In some places it looks like Bill Draut, other Marvin Stein or even Joe Simon. But I also feel it is quite possible that it was someone else entirely.

One interesting feature of the inking of the splash for “The Unhappy Housewife” is the presence of picket fence crosshatching (Inking Glossary). This technique was once a staple of the inking of Kirby pencils during much of the Simon and Kirby collaboration. Part of what I refer to as the Studio style inking. Picket fence crosshatching appears on some of the covers from this period but is largely absent in the stories.

Young Romance #85 (December 1956) “Resort Romeo” page 2, pencils by Jack Kirby

The inking of eyebrows during this period were often done in a simplified but exaggerated manner. The women in panel 5 of the page shown above is a good example. There is some resemblance between these eyebrows and those used by Bill Draut which is the main reason to suggest Draut was the inker for these Kirby pencils. Unfortunately I cannot find any other evidence to support crediting Draut as Kirby’s inker during this period. But I will return to this subject below.

Young Romance #87 (April 1957) “Rock n’ Roll Sweetheart” page 4, pencils by Jack Kirby

Note the inking of the man’s face in the last panel from page 4 of “Rock n’ Roll Sweetheart”. The black shadow down one side of the face is what I refer to as negative highlights. I have never seen Bill Draut use negative highlights but Marvin Stein did and his looked very much like this example. Because the inking evidence does not consistantly suggest one inker, I have decided to no longer attribute the inking to Marvin Stein and for now leave it as an open question.

Young Love #73 (December 1956) “Soldier’s Homecoming”, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

Bill Draut provided two of the four stories from the final issue of Young Love. The style is similar to that he was using just prior to the start of the all-Kirby run. However even that was somewhat different from his earlier work. This is most notably seen in the clothing folds which earlier had been somewhat splotchy but now where cleaner and more streamlined.

Young Romance #86 (February 1957) “I Took The Easy Way Out”, art by unidentified artist

The first issue (YR #87) of Young Romance after the cancellation of Young Love and Young Brides had only a single Kirby story. Oddly the other three stories were all done by the same artist. He is not a bad artist, but I do not believe I have seen him in a Simon and Kirby production before. It is a puzzle why he suddenly achieved such dominance in this romance title.

All For Love #1 (April 1957) “Dream Wedding”, art by Bill Draut

As mentioned above, the new Prize romance title All For Love, was not produced by Simon and Kirby. One of the things I will be looking for in future chapters of the Art of Romance was whether the same artists would appear in Young Romance and the Prize titles that were not produced by Simon and Kirby. One artist that shows up in the first issue is Bill Draut. Not only does Draut provide a story but he did the cover art as well. Here Bill is working in the same style we saw Young Romance #86 (February 1957).

Bill had also been appearing in some of the Harvey romance titles at this time which I believe were edited by Joe Simon. But it is unclear whether these were new stories or reprints of older material. In any case work by Draut for Harvey would end at this same time. Draut would not work with Joe Simon on comics until 1966. Bill did work on Sick but right now I am not sure when that was.

All For Love #1 (April 1957) “Hollow Triumph” page 3, art by Mort Meskin?

There are two stories in All For Love #1 that I am somewhat uncertain about. I some ways “Hollow Triumph” reminds me of the work of Mort Meskin. The way the eyebrows are inked might suggest Bill Draut but the story lacks any of Draut’s mannerisms of graphically telling the story, in particular the body language depicted and how the use of view points. Meskin is a better fit in just these graphic qualities. However if this was drawn by Mort I am certain it was not inked by him. Some of the inking reminds me of the unidentified inker for Kirby that I discussed above.

All For Love #1 (April 1957) “My Wishful Heart”, art by Bill Draut?

“My Wishful Heart” is the other story that I questionably attribute to Mort Meskin. Although not identical to “Hollow Triumph” it is close enough to suggest it was done by the same artist.

All For Love #1 (April 1957) “I Was Only Cheating Myself”, art by Ted Galindo

The only other romance artist from this period that I can identify other than Jack Kirby, Bill Draut and possibly Mort Meskin was Ted Galindo. Ted does a real nice job on his romance stories. His women are attractive and his art style more modern than most of the artists that I have discussed so far. Galindo’s use of changing viewpoints keeps his stories graphically interesting. we will be seeing more of his work

We are now coming into the final period covered by the Art of Romance. It was always my intention to take this serial post up to 1960. However I am really uncertain how many chapters remain. Frankly overall I find the Prize romance titles from this point on the least interesting of the series. If not for the presence of Jack Kirby I might be tempted to cover it in some future serial post. But there is some really great Kirby art, much of it inked by Jack himself. Plus some other interesting artists appeared from time to time.

Art of Romance, Chapter 32, The Kirby Beat Goes On

by Harry Mendryk

Posted June 12, 2010 in 2010/06, 6 Mainline, Art of Romance, Artists, Brewster, Ann, Draut, Bill, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged ann brewster, Art of Romance, bill draut, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, ted galindo

(May – October 1956: Young Romance #83 – #84, Young Love #71 – #72, Young Brides #28 – #29)

Number of Romance titles 1947 – 1958 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

This is part of the period that saw the collapse of comic, the end of the golden age. While the number of romance titles has been steady the number of publishers of romance comics has been declining (The Real Reason for the Decline of Comics).

Young Love #71 (June 1956) “Love Me Or Leave Me”, pencils and inks by Bill Draut

Although I describe this period as being all Kirby romances, that is not completely accurate as other artists did appear. Of the six issues discussed in this chapter five were truly all Kirby while one (Young Love #71) was a more normal Simon and Kirby production. For YL #71 Kirby does the cover and one story but the three other stories were by other artists. It is odd that all the artists were placed in this one issue while Young Romance #83, which came out in the same month, was all Kirby. All of the artists for YL #71 had been used prior to this year but one only in a war genre title. Therefore it is uncertain whether this was left over inventory or not.

Bill Draut’s art has the somewhat cleaner look that his art showed in the last chapter. Clothing folds are smoother and more sweeping and not so blotchy as was his style previously. The GCD lists Bill in DC’s Tales of the Unexpected #2 (April 1956) so I wonder if this change is an attempt to change his style to one more acceptable to DC. If so it is the beginning of a change that would rob Draut’s art of much of what I admire and replace it with a style that was not that much appreciated by DC or any other publisher.

Young Love #71 (June 1956) “Birthday Present” page 3, pencils and inks? by Ann Brewster

“Birthday Present” would be Ann Brewster’s last work for Simon and Kirby. Joe and Jack only used her for the romance titles but this story does allow Ann to show how she can handle action. That she does so well with action should not come as a surprise because he she was doing superheroes earlier in her career (Ann Brewster, Not One of the Guys).

Young Love #71 (June 1956) “Love That Money”, pencils and inks? by Ted Galindo

This is Ted Galindo’s first appearance in the “Art of Romance” but he did work for Simon and Kirby in Foxhole (Foxhole #4, Enter the Comic Code). Frankly the art for Foxhole was not all that great so it comes as a surprise what a wonderful job Galindo would do in “Love That Money”. We will see even more impressive work by Ted when I cover him in “Criminal Artists”, my serial post on the post S&K Prize crime titles. For “Love That Money” Ted’s women are beautiful and elegant and he works in a more modern comic book art style. It is a shame that Simon and Kirby did not make more use of Galindo before this but perhaps they also were put off by the poorer job he did for Foxhole.

Young Romance #83 (June 1956), pencils by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon

There was one other exception to the otherwise all Kirby art for this chapter besides those found in Young Love #1 and that is the cover for Young Romance #83 (June 1956). Oh that certainly is Kirby’s pencils for the foreground figures but he did not do the figures projected on the screen. The black and white art looks like the work of Joe Simon. The screen was done using special art boards that provide several degrees of tone based on chemical applied to it. Years later these boards were used by Joe and the artists working for him for work on Sick. Joe still has some of these boards and once offered to show me how they worked. Unfortunately all the required chemicals that I could find had dried up.

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

Young Love #71 provides a more typical example of a Prize romance cover than Young Romance #83. The inking for this cover was done in Austere inking style that Kirby worked in during this period (Jack Kirby’s Austere Inking). The ink lines are so fine that it would be reasonable to suggest that the work was done using a pen. However the original art is part of Joe Simon’s collection and a close examinations shows that it was done with a brush. While story art was usually done twice up (twice the size compared to as it would be published), generally the art for the Prize covers were done at about 1 1/2 size. But the truly twice up size of the original art for YL #71 allowed Kirby to achieve such fine lines with a brush.

Young Romance #83 (June 1956) “Dancing Doll” page 7, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein?

I find Kirby inking Kirby to be particularly interesting and therefore want to provide a number of examples below. However much of the inking of Kirby’s pencils during this period was not done by Jack himself. I therefore think I would be remiss if I did not provide at least one example of Kirby inked by another artist. While the inking on “Dancing Doll” is rather nice it does have some characteristics that I believe exclude crediting it to Kirby. For instance, although it is hard to make out from the image I provide, the cheek of the main in panel 4 has some fine feathering that I have not seen Kirby use. Inking attributions during this period are particularly difficult. There are two leading candidates; Bill Draut and Marvin Stein. There are some examples that can be confidently attributed to each of them. But these are the exceptions and in most cases it is hard to tell if one of them inked it or some unidentified artist. “Dancing Doll is just such an example. However the way the inking is done around the mouth of the man in panel 4 suggests to me it might have been done by Marvin Stein.

Young Romance #83 (June 1956) “The Serious Type”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Some of the work from this period appears to be a combination of inking by Jack himself and some other artist. This is true for “The Serious Type” with the other inker questionably identified as Marvin Stein. However the work on the splash page appears to me to be inked by Kirby alone. Note the simple, spatulate forms that the clothing folds on the waitress in the splash and the shoulder blots throughout. Admittedly not the most exciting splash, even by standards of the romance genre, but still a well executed piece.

Young Brides #28 (May 1956) “Under New Management” page 4, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

“Under New Management” is another jointly inked work and again by Kirby and possibly Stein. This seems to be a case of inkers working on particular pages; Kirby on pages 2 to 4 and 7 with Stein doing pages 1, 5 and 6. Besides the simply shaped clothing folds and shoulder blots there are also a couple of abstract arch shadows (panels 1 and 4). These are all typical of Kirby’s inking although Joe Simon used these techniques as well. I feel it fair to point out that I am a bit uncertain about whether Kirby inked the nose and eyebrows of the man in panel 4.

Young Brides #28 (May 1956) “New Boy In Town”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I believe that all of the “New Boy In Town” was inked by Jack himself. Again while I cannot fault his drawing or inking it is not one of his more exciting splashes. The same theme is covered in a much more interesting manner on the cover.

Young Brides #29 (July 1956) “The Sound Of Wedding Bells”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Only the wedding couple’s hands are shown in the foreground. Behind their hands are the man presiding over the ceremony (a judge?) and a witness. The background is filled with clamoring bells announcing the festive occasion. This is certainly the most interesting romance splash Kirby has done during this period.

Still more all-Kirby romance comics to come in the next chapter of The Art of Romance.

Art of Romance, Chapter 31, Kirby, Kirby and More Kirby

by Harry Mendryk

Posted May 29, 2010 in 2010/05, 6 Mainline, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, Kirby, Jack, McCarty, Bob, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Art of Romance, bill draut, bob mccarty, Jack Kirby

(January – April 1956: Young Romance #81 – #82, Young Love #69 – #70, Young Brides #26 – #27)

Number of Romance titles 1947 – 1958 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

Young Romance #81 (February 1956) “He Had Only Me”, art by Bill Draut

As discussed in the last chapter (Chapter 30), the three Prize romance titles would be almost entirely drawn by Jack Kirby. There are only two exceptions one being “He Had Only Me” by Bill Draut from Young Romance #81 (February 1956). Bill’s drawing style does not seem to differ from what we have seen in his previous work but his inking does reserve comment. Typically in the past Bill inked clothing folds in a rather blotchy manner. Here however is spotting is much smoother. This makes his brush techniques more similar to those of Marvin Stein. While there is little reason to believe that Stein was inking Draut’s pencils it does present a problem when trying to indentify either of those artists as an inker to Kirby pencils during this period.

Young Love #69 (February 1956) “Bright Boy”, art by Bob McCarty

The other non-Kirby story from this period was “Bright Boy” by Bob McCarty. Like the one by Draut, this story was also has a February cover date suggesting that the two pieces were leftover from before the switch to all Kirby art. Previously McCarty’s art had become very similar to that done by John Prentice but here he reverts to a style more like his older one.

Young Love #70 (April 1956) “A Week in Frisco”, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Bill Draut?

Much of the inking of Kirby’s pencils during this period were done by Jack himself, but not all. It is hard to be certain who were the inkers that Kirby used but there are two most probably candidates: Bill Draut and Marvin Stein. Unfortunately as we say about in the story that Draut drew himself (“He Had Only Me”) that Bill had converted to a cleaner, less blotchy brush style at least some of the time. The inking of the splash for “A Week in Frisco” shows thicker type of clothing folds that I normally associate with Draut and therefore I tentatively credit it to him.

Young Romance #81 (February 1956) “The Lady and the Truck Driver” page 3, pencils and inking by Jack Kirby

The Kirby’s Austere style of inking is characterized by an overall lighter spotting. Older techniques like picket fence crosshatching or drop strings (Inking Glossary) are used sparingly if at all. When larger dark areas are required they are made by flooding the region with ink. Page 3 from “The Lady and the Truck Driver” is a good example of Austere inking. However the real reason I choose this page is because of the delightful portrayal of the lady especially in panel 7. I just do not understand why people keep saying Kirby could not draw beautiful women!

Young Romance #82 (April 1956) “Bundle from Heaven”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Actually I think I do understand why people continue to make the claim that Kirby could not draw beautiful women. In my opinion the reason is that Kirby never quite bought into what I call the Barbie look that so dominated romance art starting from the late 50’s. So many artists seem to try to draw women as attractively as possible but ended drawing females that were indistinguishable except by hair style and coloring. At least while doing romance for Prize, Kirby would try to give all the lady protagonists individual characteristics that were appropriate for whatever story he was drawing even if that meant that this might detract a little from their beauty. Sometimes Jack even managed to combine individuality and beauty as for example in “Bundle from Heaven”. Despite her haggard look would anyone doubt that the lady in the splash was anything but beautiful? Frankly I do not believe any inker other than Kirby himself would successfully achieved this nuance depiction.

While Kirby began to adopt the Austere inking style it was by no means a sudden switch. I would not hesitate to describe the above splash as Austere style inking and yet look at the man’s shirt with its picket fence crosshatching and drop string. Such holdovers from the older Studio style inking were still present but would become much more infrequent in the months to come.

Young Brides #26 (January 1956) “Love And Lamb Chops”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

Decisions, decisions, decisions! Lamb chops or jewelry, what is a woman to choose? Comic book stories were always meant to be a little over the top but this splash is just hilarious. But I kind of suspect that Jack knew that as well.

Young Brides #27 (March 1956) “Sad Wedding”, pencils and inks by Jack Kirby

I am really not completely certain that Jack inked the splash but I suspect so since he provided the spotting for the rest of the story. Such a simple splash is rather unusual for Jack who preferred scenes where people were prominent. Perhaps the splash appeals to me because the scene it portrays can still be found in Manhattan including my neighborhood. I am sure that had Kirby chosen to show the street level what we would see would hardly be mistaken for a more modern local but this higher viewpoint shows the architecture that has not changed much in many places. The only thing to give its age away are the clothes hanging of the lines.

Art of Romance, Chapter 30, Appendix

by Harry Mendryk

Posted May 29, 2010 in 2010/05, 6 Mainline, Art of Romance, Artists, Kirby, Jack, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Jack Kirby

Young Brides #23 (July 1955) “The Day I Grew Up” page 3, art by unidentified artist and Jack Kirby

In the comments to Chapter 30 Ger Apeldoorn remark on a story that I did not include in my post, “The Day I Grew Up”. My neglect was not intentional as I originally planned to discuss it. It may seem strange to some that such a minor artist should be singled out. After all I have not covered every artist who worked for Simon and Kirby during this period and most of them were much more talented than this one. This artist admittedly crude drawings do have a very Kirby look to them, which can be particularly be seen in the final panel for page 3. The similarity to Kirby’s work extends beyond the style used to draw the characters but includes a similarity to Jack’s way of graphically telling the story. Among these are the use of viewing angles, the shifting viewing distance, depth of field, and a similar use of perspective. This similarities could be explain as Kirby layouts, imitation, or swiping. While an imitator might copy some aspects of another artist’s style it is unlikely that he would pick all these mannerisms. Nor would a swiper be expected to be able to combine multiple sources into such a coherent whole. This leaves as the most likely conclusion that Kirby supplied layouts. While this seems the best explanation it is remarkable that Jack would supply layouts to such an untalented artist when he (Kirby) was doing so little artwork.

Simon and Kirby

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, their studio, and the artists who worked for them

Category Archives: Art of Romance

Art of Romance, Chapter 38, A Final Transition

Art of Romance, Chapter 37, Some Surprises

Art of Romance, Chapter 36, More Kirby

Art of Romance, Appendix, J.O. Is Joe Orlando

Art of Romance, Chapter 35, Settling In

Art of Romance, Chapter 34, A New Prize Title

Art of Romance, Chapter 33, End of an Era

Art of Romance, Chapter 32, The Kirby Beat Goes On

Art of Romance, Chapter 31, Kirby, Kirby and More Kirby

Art of Romance, Chapter 30, Appendix

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