Tag Archives: Mort

Art of Romance, Chapter 28, A Glut of Artists

Posted January 16, 2010 in 2010/01, 6 Mainline, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, In Love, Kirby, Jack, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Serial Posts, Simon, Joe, Starr, Leonard, z Archive and tagged albistur, Andru, Art, Bill, Draut, gates, george, hargis, Jack, joaquin, John, Kirby, leonard, martin, meskin, Mort, Prentice, Ross, roussos, Scheuer, starr, thall, tom

(August 1954 – November 1954: Young Romance #72 – #74, Young Love #60 – #62, Young Brides #18 & #19, In Love #1 & #2)

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

As can be seen in the above chart romance comics had entered into a decline during this period. Did Joe Simon and Jack Kirby notice this? Had they been observant they might have for as will be shown they benefited from the failure of other titles. But then again there were always fluctuations in the number of titles and publishers so perhaps Joe and Jack were not aware that things had become very different. Or perhaps they were too caught up in their own business to notice the bigger picture. August 1954 (cover date) marked the release of Bullseye the first title for Mainline, Simon and Kirby’s own publishing company. In Love, the romance title for Mainline, would be released in September. Starting their own publishing company was a big step for Simon and Kirby but unfortunately their timing was particularly bad.

In chapter 27 I noted the appearance of some new artists in the Simon and Kirby productions (unfortunately as of yet unidentified). The art covered in the last chapter was created by 8 artists which in itself was an increase over the earlier period. I have identified 12 artists for the period covered by this chapter and that does not include unidentified artists. There are more pages of unattributed art than those by any identified artist. Frankly I have not sorted them all out but I believe that there are at least 5 or 6 artists that I cannot identify. A couple of these additions to the studio had appeared previously in Simon and Kirby productions and almost all would only provide a few pieces before disappearing from the studio. Oddly one artist, Bob McCarty, who played an important part in the two previous chapters, is completely missing in this one. However McCarty will be returning in future chapters.

The artist line-up based on their productivity was Bill Draut (42 pages), John Prentice (41 pages), Jack Kirby (25 pages), Mort Meskin (20 pages), Art Gates (19 pages) with Leonard Starr and Jo Albistur tied (12 pages). The rest of the artists provide a single story or a small number of single page features. There are 65 pages by unidentified artists but as I wrote above these were distributed among 5 or more artists.

With one exception the covers for the Prize romance titles were done by Draut and Prentice. As seen previously, some of the covers were made from stats of a splash panel (or visa versa). The one exception is the cover of Young Brides #19 (November 1954) which I have tentatively attributed to Joe Simon. This assignment is not based on art style but rather on evidence from Joe Simon’s art collection. I hope that someday I will be able to write about this cover.

In Love #1 (September 1954) “Bride of the Star” Chapter 1 “The First Pang of Love”, art by Jack Kirby

As I promised last chapter, Jack Kirby returns to romance comics after a short absence. However he appears only in Mainline’s In Love and not in any of the Prize romance titles. Kirby’s absence from Prize romances will continue for some time. In Love was an interesting title whose “hook” was the long story contained in each issue. Kirby did all 20 pages of the art for the “Bride of the Star” from In Love #1. I will not write much about this story here because I covered it in a previous post on In Love #1.

Besides the length of the story, one of the things that distinguish In Love from the Prize romance titles is that Jack returns to full page splashes for all the three chapters. Frankly I already illustrated the best splash in my previous post but I felt I must include one of the other ones here. To be honest it is not one of Kirby’s best pieces but I feel that the splash for the other chapter to be even more inferior. But all of the story art is actually quite good.

Kirby on contributed a small part to the featured story “Marilyn’s Men” from In Love #2 (November 1954) with most of the work being done by Bill Draut. Since the post whose link I provided covers this story I will forego further comments here.

The cover for In Love #1 was one of the rare collaborations between Jack Kirby and an artist other the Joe Simon, in this case John Prentice (Jerry Robinson at the Jack Kirby Tribute Panel). Not only was the cover drawn by different artists but inked by different hands as well. Prentice’s back was clearly inked by himself and I suspect, though I am by no means certain, that Jack inked his own pencils as well.

Young Romance #74 (November 1954) “The Kissoff”, art by Bill Draut

Bill Draut was the most prolific artist during this period but not by much. His recent decreased presence in S&K productions is a bit hard to understand. I once surmised that it might be due because of the work he was doing in preparation for the launch of Mainline. But on reflection there just does not seem enough work by Draut in those early issues of the Mainline comics to impact his normal work load. So I now suppose that his recent decreased contribution was due to some personal reason. Draut is one of the more consistent artists to work for Simon and Kirby but his style did not change much over the years. This makes it difficult to have new things to say about him. The same link I provided above for my post on In Love #2 goes into more detail about Draut’s work on “Marilyn’s Men”. I also did a post (Swiping Off of Kirby) about the use Bill made of art from an earlier story by Kirby.

Young Romance #73 (September 1954) “Girl from the Old Country”, art by John Prentice

John Prentice was just behind Draut in productivity. This is one of the examples where a stat of the splash for this story was used to create the cover. Note that while story splashes were no longer being used in the Prize romance titles, Prentice is still providing a smaller than typical splash panel.

Young Love #60 (August 1954) “Outcast”, art by Mort Meskin

There was an unexpected surge in productivity by Meskin in the last chapter and now there is a just as sudden drop in his output. I must admit that I am a little perplexed about what is going on with Mort. He was working for other publishers and that suggests that he was no longer working in the actual Simon and Kirby studio. But how does one explain the ups and downs since then? I have heard of discussion somewhere on the web where it has been suggested that when Meskin left the S&K studio to work in his own studio that Mort was once again plagued with difficulties in starting work on a blank page. I have no way of saying whether this is true but perhaps it would explain his varied, but often unusually low, output in Simon and Kirby productions. Even if Meskin’s productivity was poor during this period he still did some very nice work. “Outcast” is a good example of a real nice piece by Meskin (I believe he inked it as well). I previously posted on a Mort’s “After the Honey-Moon” from In Love #1 which while very short is one of his masterpieces.

Young Brides #18 (September 1954) “My Cheating Heart”, art by Mort Meskin

“My Cheating Heart” is another great piece by Mort Meskin. I particularly like the inking in this piece. The solid blacks are used very effectively. I am pretty sure this is not Meskin’s own inking or that of George Roussos either but I cannot suggest who the inker was.

Young Romance #74 (November 1954) “A Holiday for Love”, art by Art Gates

Art Gates continue to supply numerous single page features but he is also did a few 3 page stories. At 6 pages, “A Holiday for Love” is the longest work Gates has yet done for Simon and Kirby. I cannot say that Art is one of my favorite Simon and Kirby artists but I admire the way he can do pieces like this a more cartoon-like gag features as well.

Young Love #61 (September 1954) “Miss Moneybags”, art by Leonard Starr

Leonard Starr was not a new artist for Simon and Kirby productions but a returning one. He played an important part in the Prize romance titles for a little under two years ending in February 1951. His style has not changed that much during his absence and even without a signature “Miss Moneybags” (Young Love #61, September 1954) and “Cinderella’s Sisters” (Young Love #62, November 1954) were clearly done by Starr. However Leonard style had evolved somewhat so it is just as clear that this is not left over material. Although Starr was no longer using page formats that provided a series of tall and narrow panels he still had a predilection for such panels and was using alternative ways to introduce them. While it is possible that the reviews I perform for future chapters of this serial post may uncover one or two other stories by Starr, I am pretty confident that there will not be more than that. Leonard Starr would be like a number of artists from this chapter in that he made a brief appearance and then disappeared from Simon and Kirby productions. In Starr’s case he would be starting his own syndication strip, “Mary Perkins on Stage”, in a year or so.

Young Love #61 (September 1954) “Mother Never Told Me”, art by George Roussos?

I am by no means certain, but “Mother Never Told Me” looks like it might have been done by George Roussos. The resemblance is mostly in the men with the woman reminding a little bit like the work of Marvin Stein. But overall I believe the Roussos seems the best fit. George last appeared in a Simon and Kirby production in Black Magic #24 (May 1953). If this attribution is correct, Roussos like Starr will not appear in a future Simon and Kirby productions.

Young Romance #73 (September 1954) “Afraid of Marriage”, art by Jo Albistur

Although unsigned, “Afraid of Marriage” and “Just For Kicks” (Young Love #61, September 1954) are both clearly the work of Joaquin Albistur (he also appeared in Police Trap #1 in this same month). I had previously used Joe as the first name for this artist but it is now clear that he was an artist from Argentine (Joaquin Albistur the Same As Joe Albistur?). Joe Simon does not remember Albistur by name, but he does recollect someone from South America doing work for Simon and Kirby. Most people assume Simon was thinking of Bruno Premiani, but I believe it is even more likely that it was Albistur that Joe was recalling.

Unlike most of the new artists in this chapter, Albistur will play an important part in Simon and Kirby productions in the coming year. Jo is not well known among fans and I am not sure how much comic book work he did outside of Simon and Kirby productions. I have seen some original art from “The World Around Us” from 1961 that has been attributed to Albistur. I am not convinced but if it was his work Albistur had adopted a particularly unpleasing dry style. Despite Jo’s short time working for Simon and Kirby he is one of my favorite studio artists. His woman have an earthy beauty that I like, he had an eye for gestures, used interesting compositions and was skillful at graphically telling a story.

Young Love #62 (November 1954) “Too Darned Innocent”, art by W. G. Hargis

There is one signed piece by W. G. Hargis, “Too Darned Innocent”. However given the number of unidentified artists appearing in Simon and Kirby productions there is the distinct possibility that other unsigned worked may have been done by Hargis during this period as well. In fact I have heard of suggestions that Hargis may have been responsible for a story in Police Trap.

In Love #2 (November 1954) “Mother by Proxy”, art by Tom Scheuer

Tom Scheuer is another artist that only did one signed work for Simon and Kirby. Scheuer (who much later changed his name to Sawyer) is perhaps better known for his advertisement comic work (see For Boys Only from Those Fabulous Fifties and Comic Strip Ad Artist Tom Scheuer from Today’s Inspirations; both great blogs).

Joe Simon’s collection includes the original art for a page from this story. On the back is the name Art Sehrby, a telephone number and a street address. This raises the possibility that Simon and Kirby obtained Scheuer’s piece, and perhaps those of some other artists, from an agent.

Young Brides #19 (November 1954) “Love for Sale”, pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Martin Thall

There is a story behind “Love for Sale” that has been discussed on the Kirby list but I do not believe I have written about in my blog. Mike Esposito and Ross Andru launched their own publishing company Mikeross with their earliest comic having a cover date of December 1953 (3-D Love). This then was well in advance of Simon and Kirby’s Mainline Comics whose first issue (Bullseye) came out in August.

Mikeross only published four titles (3-D Love, 3-D Romance, Get Lost and Heart and Soul. The 3-D romance titles were single issues and I suspect that their timing was a little off. The initial 3D comics sold very well but were apparently a novelty item. My understanding is that Simon and Kirby’s Captain 3-D which came out in December 1953 was already a bit late and sales were not that great. Since the Mikeross 3D romance titles have cover dates of December and January, I suspect they suffered from lower sales as well. Get Lost went to issue #3 while Heart and Soul only lasted to issue #2. Usually when a title is cancelled after just 2 or 3 issues it is a sign that something other than poor sales was involved. I suspect that the returns from their first comic, 3-D Love were so poor that the distributor pulled the plug on the whole deal.

I do not have the biography of Mike Esposito that came out a few years ago but I did have the chance to flip through it to see what he had to say about what happened next. If I remember correctly Esposito claimed that the distributor forced them to hand over their unpublished artwork to Simon and Kirby. Frankly this is a pretty suspicious claim because a distributor does not have any legal claim to the artwork. Further in my discussions with Joe Simon he has vigorously denied that it happened. Martin Thall gave an interview published in Alter Ego #52 where he stated that in order to recover some money they sold some art to Simon and Kirby and that Kirby was the one who arranged and received it. This makes a lot more sense and is the version that I accept.

The last issue of Heart and Soul was cover dated June so the next one would be expected for August. “Love for Sale” was used in Young Brides #19 (November). The timing is so perfect that there is little doubt that this story was among the art sold to Simon and Kirby. What makes that even more convincing is that the lettering was not done by Ben Oda like almost all of Simon and Kirby’s productions.

This is not Ross Andru’s first appearance in Simon and Kirby productions as a story by him appeared in May 1952 (Chapter 16) and two in May and June of 1953 (Chapter 19). Another Andru story will be seen in the next chapter which also was probably bought from the defunct Mikeross publishing company.

Young Brides #19 (November 1954) “Telephone Romeo”, art by unidentified artist

Since one story from Mikeross has been identified the question becomes can any others be found? Such art need not have been used right away but it is interesting that Young Brides #19 contains another story, “Telephone Romeo” that was not lettered by Ben Oda. However the letterer is not the same one that did “Love for Sale”. I have only examined the 3-D Love, 3-D Romance and Heart and Soul #1 but none of them used this artist. Actually I find Andru’s hand through most of them and I suspect Ross and Mike did all the art themselves. So it cannot be said with any certainty that “Telephone Romeo” was another piece sold by Mikeross but it can be confidently said that is was bought from some distressed publisher or artist stuck with unused art.

Young Love #62 (November 1954) “My Scheming Sister”, art by unidentified artist

There is yet another piece, “My Scheming Sister”, with lettering clearly not done by Ben Oda. Look at the caption to the first story panel, Simon and Kirby productions did not typically use lower case letters in their captions. Once again this was a piece bought by Simon and Kirby but not necessarily from Mikeross. Whoever the artist was he was one of the better of the unknowns from this period. A smooth confident line and great characterization.

Young Romance #72 (August 1954) “Reform School Babe”, art by unidentified artist

Not all the unidentified artists were new; the one that did “Reform School Babe” had been an important contributor to Simon and Kirby productions for some months. I believe one of my commenters suggested Vince Colletta, at least for the inking, but I am not sufficiently knowledgeable about that artist/inker to hazard a guess.

Young Romance #74 (November 1954) “Idol Worship”, art by unidentified artist

I will not be supplying examples of all the unidentified artists from these romance titles as I have not sorted them all out and anyway some are not that great. But I did want to provide an image from “Idol Worship” by one of the better artists working at this time for Simon and Kirby.

In summary, Simon and Kirby were using a number of new artists. Some like Jo Albistur would play important contribution to S&K productions; others like Tom Scheuer would make a brief appearance and not be seen again. Some may have been hired from the street but there is also the suggestion that some work may have come from an art agent. Further there is good evidence that some of the work came from the failed Mikeross publishing and perhaps other publishers as well. I have not yet done a review of Ben Oda’s lettering like I have those by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and Howard Ferguson. I suspect a careful comparison of Ben Oda’s lettering with that used in the stories from this period will reveal others that came from romance titles that were failed. Simon and Kirby’s use of such material is not surprising because they had previously obtained art from Harvey after the love glut (Chapter 13, Romance Bottoms Out).

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 27, The Return of Mort

by Harry Mendryk

Posted January 2, 2010 in 2010/01, 5 Studio, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, McCarty, Bob, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Bill, bob, Draut, John, mccarty, meskin, Mort, Prentice

(May 1954 – July 1954: Young Romance #69 – #71, Young Love #57 – #59, Young Brides #15 – #17)

Simon and Kirby had done more than well with romance, they had done great. Their deal with Prize entitled Joe and Jack to a share in the profits. While it is true that they had to pay all the expenses that were required to produce the art, the sales of the romance titles was high enough that Simon and Kirby made a lot of money. Much more than anything else they had produced. But this was going to change and the first signs of that change started now.

Young Brides was the third title of what for all practical purposes had the same format as the other two titles. Even so the title had been selling well enough that it went on a monthly release schedule with the October 1953 issue. However sales apparently did not remain high and Young Brides returned to a bimonthly schedule with the July issue.

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

Was schedule change for Young Brides just a sign that the Prize romance titles had reached the limit of what the market would bare? Perhaps, but it was also possible that Young Brides was just caught up in a bigger market change for comics in general. I have increased the period covered in the chart of the number of romance titles that I include in each chapter. I did this to provide a better perspective on what was occurring. June 1954 marked a local high in the number of romance titles published. There had been two previous peaks followed by recoveries but this time there would be no recovery. What was to come was actually a bit worse that the chart suggests. The chart shows a plateau of about 50 titles was reached by January 1955. However underlying that plateau was a steady decline in the number publishers doing romance comics. The chart also shows that a new plateau was reached at January 1957. But the number of romance titles at this time was inflated by Charlton’s desire to keep their presses running. For a more complete description of these events please see my post “The Real Reason for the Decline of Comics“. History had begun to catch up with Simon and Kirby.

I mentioned in my last chapter that I thought the story format may have been changing. Well I can verify that. Typically comic features started with a splash that served as a preview of the story. For the previous year Prize romance features started with a splash that was actually part of the story line, either that or no splash at all. Now the Prize romance titles return the splash to its traditional function. The format switch is not complete as some features continue to use the story splash or are splash-less.

However it is not a complete return to the earlier format. During the earlier years of Simon and Kirby romance productions at least some of the stories would have a full page splash but such large splashes remain absent as they did during the previous year. During the earlier years some features, and in particular the lead story, would have a splash where a protagonist would introduce the story and the word balloon would include the feature’s title. I call that format a confessional splash. The disappeared during the previous year and do not return.

In the comments to the last chapter, Bob Cosgrove pointed out that the logo for Young Love changed with issue #56 (April 1954). I totally missed that fact but Bob is correct. The new, more modern looking, logo would remain on Young Love for some time. The logos for Young Romance and Young Brides however would remain unchanged.

As I mentioned in the last chapter, this is a period where Jack Kirby does not appear in any of the Prize romance comics. I suspect that means I have lost 90% of my readers. But don’t loose heart fans, Jack will be back in the next chapter (just not in Prize romances). As I mentioned before, even though Kirby art does not appear in these romance comics that does not mean they are now longer Simon and Kirby productions. The lead story is clearly marked as such and the same artists appear. Also Joe Simon’s collection still contains some cover proofs. One of them is the cover for Young Brides #16 (June), only it is not the one eventually published there but instead was published as Young Love #57 (May). Another proof shows that the cover that was actually published as Young Brides #16 (June) was first considered for Young Brides #15 (May).

In prior chapter Kirby’s absence was taken up by John Prentice and Bob McCarty. While those artists remain important contributors to the romance titles the number one spot is taken by Mort Meskin. This is a surprising turn as Mort had been a minor player for a little over a year. However cover art was still dominated by Prentice (4 covers) and McCarty (3 covers) with Meskin and Draut only contributing a cover each. The line up for this chapter is Meskin (57 pages), McCarty (38 pages), Prentice (34 pages), unidentified artist A (34 pages), unidentified artist B (24 pages), Draut (19 pages), unidentified artist C (12 pages) and Gates (8 pages). Note the significant presence of three unidentified artist. After a period where most of the work was done by the same set of artists (Kirby, Draut, Meskin, Prentice, McCarty and Eadeh), the studio now enters a time where new faces appear. However the artists working on the Prize romance titles are still different from those used in Prize Comics Western, Headline and Justice Traps the Guilty (titles not produced by Simon and Kirby at this time).

Young Brides #15 (May 1954), art by Bob McCarty

One of the big dividends of my reviewing the all the romance titles in sequence is I now realize that some of the work that I previously attributed to John Prentice was actually done by Bob McCarty. At this point in time they have similar art styles both being heavily influenced by Alex Raymond. They generally can most easily be distinguished by their different manners of drawing eyes on men; McCarty are larger and more open and Prentice smaller and almost beady eyed. This attribution technique works well with stories but is more problematical with covers. The cover for Young Brides #15 is an example where this attribution technique is just not helpful.

Young Brides #15 (May 1954) “Dancing Doll”, art by Bob McCarty

Fortunately for the cover for Young Brides #15 is based on first story panel for “Dancing Doll” which includes pages that obviously were done by Bob McCarty. The cover and story panel are not just similar they are so close that without doubt one is based on a stat taken from the other. I believe it is the cover that was based on a stat of the splash because that was the technique used by another example that will be discussed in a future chapter. However it is not simply of using a stat because both the cover and the splash include art that does not appear on the other. This is the earliest use of stats in a Simon and Kirby production that I have found. There will be more and all cases involve the cover.

Young Romance #70 (June 1954), art by Bill Draut

I mentioned above that Bill Draut did a single cover during this period (Young Romance #70). But there is a catch in that this is another case of a cover being based on a stat of the splash of the story “Gotta Get Married”.

Bill Draut is a relatively minor player in the romance titles during this period. This may be due to the same reason as Jack Kirby’s absence as Draut played an important hand in one of the Mainline titles that will soon appear.

Young Love #58 (June 1954) “Perfect Lady”, art by John Prentice

I cannot resist the artist and model theme, and apparently neither could Simon and Kirby. John would do the cover for Young Love #58 based on the “Perfect Lady” as well. For interior he uses the borderless splash that I find so effective.

Young Romance #71 (July 1954) “Beauty Loves the Beast”, art by Bob McCarty

The “Beauty Loves the Beast” provides a good example of McCarty’s art during this period. Note the larger eyes of the man in the last panel. But also observe how similar the women are to those drawn by John Prentice. They are not identical but are close enough to make distinguishing the two artists difficult.

Young Brides #15 (May 1954) “Lavender and Old Lies”, art by Bob McCarty

The first page of “Lavender and Old Lies” is not as good example of McCarty’s art as “Beauty Loves the Beast”. However I could not resist a splash with so much skin. Woman in swimsuits do appear in these romance comics from time to time but it is unusual for a man to be so prominently displayed.

Young Romance #71 (July 1954) “Forsaking All Others” page 2, art by Mort Meskin

Not surprisingly Mort Meskin does some nice work but I wanted to show the inking found in some of this work. Note the fine crosshatching on the faces in panel 3, 5 and 7. While Meskin’s inking technique includes crosshatching it usually is not so fine. I suspect that some of these stories were inked by another artist.

Young Romance #69 (May 1954) “Added Attraction”, art by unidentified artist

As I mentioned above there are some unidentified artists found during this period. Such unknown artists had appeared during previous periods but usually not so prominently. One of the unidentified artists not only tied John Prentice for third place but also did the lead story for Young Romance #69, “Added Attraction”. Whoever this artist is he has a more modern style than most of the other studio artists.

Young Romance #69 (May 1954) “I’ll Never Let You Go”, art by unidentified artist

The second unknown artist is not as talented as the one discussed above but he does have his dramatic moments. He has a manner of providing his men with unusual eyebrows. The eyebrows give his men a somewhat puzzled look.

Young Love #59 (June 1954) “Little Cheat”, art by unidentified artist

The third unknown artist is no where near as talented as the other two. I might have skipped him in this post altogether except look at the splash from “Little Cheat”. The splash, and in particular the woman, look like something Kirby might do. In cases like this it is hard to be sure what is going on. Only the splash looks so Kirby-like. I believe this is a case of someone swiping Kirby and not someone working from a Kirby layout of the splash. But it is hard to be certain.

Young Brides #17 (July 1954) “Every Man for Herself”, art by Art Gates

Art Gates generally provides single page features but “Every Man for Herself” but is longer but at three pages not by much. Gates was an unusual artist in that he did both cartoon-like gag features and more realistic work.

Art of Romance, Chapter 26, Goodbye Jack

by Harry Mendryk

Posted December 26, 2009 in 2009/12, 5 Studio, Art of Romance, Artists, Donahue, Vic, Draut, Bill, Kirby, Jack, McCarty, Bob, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Art, Bill, bob, Draut, gates, Jack, John, Kirby, mccarty, meskin, Mort, Prentice

(February 1954 – April 1954: Young Romance #66 – #68, Young Love #54 – #56, Young Brides #12 – #14)

Number of Romance Titles 1947 – 1954 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

Simon and Kirby started using photographic covers for their romance comics in April 1949. There were short periods when they reverted back to graphic covers but beginning in May 1951 for Young Romance and July 1951 for Young Love all the romance covers used photographs. Now after three years they suddenly switched back to drawn covers; Young Brides #13 (March 1954) would be their last photographic cover. Why the switch? Unfortunately I do not have a clue.

An even bigger surprise was that Jack Kirby would not draw any of these romance covers. Up to this point there was only one comic produced by Simon and Kirby with a cover drawn by another artist (My Date #4, September 1947, drawn by Mort Meskin and Jerry Robinson). Other artists will be provided covers for the Prize romances for some time. The artists that appeared on the covers were the same ones that dominated the interiors; for the most part that would be Bill Draut, Mort Meskin and John Prentice.

For approximately the last year Kirby was producing much more of the Prize romance art then any other artist. That was not particularly surprising because that was typical for the Simon and Kirby studio. However there had been a period when Mort Meskin produced most of the love art. Now once again Kirby’s output dropped. The line up for the period covered in this chapter is Bob McCarty (50 pages), John Prentice (49 pages), Bill Draut (44 pages), Mort Meskin (37 pages) and Jack Kirby (25 pages) with some very minor contributions by some other artists. Not only was there a dramatic drop in Kirby contribution he did not appear in any of the April issues and would not again for some time to come.

A Simon and Kirby production without Kirby art is a rare thing. A run of Simon and Kirby comics without Kirby was simply unprecedented. And make no mistake these are Simon and Kirby comics. As we will see the same artist will provide work for these Kirby-lacking issues that had been used previously. Further the first interior page would continue to use the cartouche declaring it “A Simon and Kirby Production”. While I do not have an explanation for the switch to photographic covers, I do believe I can provide a good reason for Kirby’s absence. Simon and Kirby would launch a new Prize title Fighting American in April (cover date). Even more significant the first Mainline comic, Bullseye, would appear in July. With Mainline Simon and Kirby would become publishers themselves. Most of the Fighting American art was drawn by Jack but he his contributions to the Mainline titles (Bullseye, In Love, Police Trap and Foxhole) would be relatively low. Many people believe that Kirby did the art while Simon handled the business but the reality is that both Jack and Joe did whatever had to be done to get the comics out. I am sure some of these more mundane but essential business needs kept Kirby from the drawing board.

One thing that did not change about the Prize romance titles was the story format. With just a couple exceptions the features start with a story splash (a splash that is actually part of the story) or no splash at all. Full page splashes continue to be missing.

Young Brides #12 (February 1954) “Big Baby”, art by Jack Kirby

I thought I would present Kirby’s farewell (at least for now) from the Prize romance comics with a bang. Jack always had a tendency to introduce action into his romance stories. Kirby is also famous for his fights were everything goes flying. Well this is not fight but the only things not rushing through the air are the irate husband and his frightened wife. One of the things that attract me to Simon and Kirby romance comics, besides the great art, is how well they reflect the times. It is a view of 50’s culture as if it was an ant stuck in a piece of amber. The husband’s uncontrolled temper is portrayed as the title says, a “Big Baby”. But today he would just be considered (quite rightly) as abusive. However Simon and Kirby were well aware of the danger in the husbands rage as he learns his lesson when his temper turns on some pet birds. The wife says “these were only birds, tomorrow it might be human beings”.

Note the odd panel shape that Kirby uses for the splash. At this time it was actually one that he preferred but not often used by the other studio artists. The upper right corner might be a “dead zone” but Jack manages to create a diagonal in the lower portion of the splash that connects it to the right side. The second panel hardly seems to intrude at all.

Young Love #55 (March 1954) “Love War”, art by Jack Kirby

Another action splash by Jack Kirby. Note the same odd panel shape although this time Kirby did not successfully connect the upper right with the rest of the image. This is also one of the few true splashes from the period covered by this chapter. The fight scene does not lead into the story but serves the more tradition purpose of providing a preview. And what an unusual story this is. Usually when Jack inserts violence into a romance story it is the men who fight but in “Love War” we get lots of female on female violence.

Young Love #55 (March 1954), art by John Prentice

As mentioned above, the cover art was not provided by Kirby. Of the five drawn covers from March and April three of them illustrated a story from the interior. For the Young Love #55 cover John Prentice’s drawing is based on the story that Kirby did, “Love War”. Simon and Kirby always kept the more controversial images inside and this is no exceptions. Still Prentice makes it quite clear where his scene is heading for. As the man says “this party’s getting rough”.

Young Love #56 (April 1954), art by Mort Meskin

One of the covers (Young Romance #67) is unrelated to any story within. The same could be said for Meskin’s cover for Young Love #56. It is clear that was not the original intent as the depicted scene clearly relates to the title provided in the caption, “Two Sisters, One Man”. However a story with that title not only does not appear inside it would never be published by Simon and Kirby. Further none of the April issues had a story involving a sibling love triangle. Whatever happened to “Two Sisters, One Man”?

Young Brides #14 (April 1954) “Faithless”, art by Mort Meskin

Don’t get me wrong, I like Meskin’s romance work. But I do regret that Mort never did any more action packed stories like those he drew during the war, features like the Vigilante and Johnny Quick. It is not much of a splash, perhaps it should not be called a splash at all, but it shows that the old Mort still had what it took to do action. Just a couple of running kids but probably better then anybody actually doing superheroes at this time except, of course, for Jack Kirby.

Young Love #56 (April 1954) “Lola’s Other Life”, art by Mort Meskin

For various reasons I guess I am going to provide a bit more of Meskin’s work then usual but he is such a great artist anyway. The story’s protagonist, Lola, lives a double life which Meskin highlights with his splash. Remember this is a period where most features start with a story splash so this was a bit of a deviation.

Young Love #56 (April 1954) “Lola’s Other Life”
left panel from page 2,
right panel from page 3, art by Mort Meskin

While the splash is interesting in itself, but the real reason I want to post about this story is that Mort repeats the splash posses in the story as well. Can an artist be said to swipe from himself? But look closely at the positions of things like the arms and the reader will see that these are in fact redrawn and not just stats. While the use of stats would be common in work that Joe Simon did years later, I have not been able to find any examples from the Simon and Kirby collaboration up to this point in time. Stats were added expense and had to be sent out of the studio to be made. It was easier and quicker to just draw the art. The one important exception was the stats used for cover titles. Even then the stats were generally removed from old cover art and recycled onto new ones.

Young Romance #68 (April 1954) “The Man I Couldn’t Have”, art by Mort Meskin

Another great Meskin splash but note that here he uses the same inverted ‘L’ shaped splash that Kirby prefers. Unfortunately he does not really pull it off since the upper right corner does not visually connect with the rest of the splash. Probably the only reason Mort used this panel shape was the room it provided for the speech balloons.

Young Romance #68 (April 1954) “The Man I Couldn’t Have” page 4, pencils by Mort Meskin

The first two pages of “The Man I Couldn’t Have” looked like they were inked by Meskin himself. But not the rest of the story. I have no idea who this inker is but his inking certainly has given Meskin’s pencils a rather unique look. While I prefer Meskin’s own inking, this unknown inker is rather interesting and much better then George Roussos inks. Page 3 has a more intermediate look to the inking. I think this was done on purpose to make the switch in�distinct styles less jarring to the reader.

Young Romance #66 (February 1954) “Fools Rush In”, art by Bill Draut

While “Fools Rush In” has story splash so prevalent in the more recent Prize romance comics, Draut was able to provide a more standard size splash. While I find the story splashes and splash-less stories interesting, I must admit to missing the more traditional splashes. There seem to be more deviations to the type of splashes used during the period covered in this chapter. Perhaps this is a hint that Simon and Kirby are moving away from their more recent approach.

Young Romance #68 (April 1954) “High Class Trash”, art by John Prentice

Even Prentice gets a chance to provide a tradition splash. Recently he had been mainly doing splash-less stories. This is another of the borderless splashes that John did from time to time. It is a simple device but I think it gives his art a special touch.

Young Brides #13 (March 1954) “Little Coquette”, art by Bob McCarty

Bob McCarty gets a chance to provide some action in his splash. McCarty’s art provide an interesting and effective fight scene. Not the way Kirby would have done it but I think it is rather successful.

Bob supplies cover art for Young Romance #68 which is based on the “High Class Trash” story that Prentice did for that issue. This would be one of the few exceptions of a Prize romance cover done from this period by an artist other then Draut, Meskin or Prentice.

Young Love #54 (February 1954) “Kisses For a Stranger”, art by Vic Donahue?

There are a few stories done by other artists most of which I cannot identify. I think I can attribute “Kisses for a Stranger” to Vic Donahue. Donahue last appeared in Young Love #13 (September 1950) so he has been missing for some time. While this does look like Donahue’s work it seems a rather poor piece of art considering the quality of work Vic was doing four years ago. Perhaps Donahue was just doing a rush job.

Young Love #54 (February 1954) “Love Me, Love My Family”, art by unidentified artist

Usually I only include examples of the unidentified artists if they were sufficiently talented. Unfortunately “Love Me, Love My Family” does not fall into the more talented category. But look at the inking. A blunt brush and shoulder blots are not typical inking techniques for most artists. While not all the inking in the story is done in this manner it does show up in places. I believe this story was touched up, in this case by Joe Simon.

Young Love #56 (April 1954) “Too Young To Love”, art by Art Gates

Single page features were often done by less talented artists who were probably studio assistants. However now one artist would appear that specialized in these often overlooked stories. Art Gates not only did typical comic art but also gag strips. Fortunately he often signed his work but in the last panel.

Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby

by Harry Mendryk

Posted December 12, 2009 in 2009/12, Artists, Meskin, Mort, Swiping, Topic, z Archive and tagged alex, meskin, Mort, raymond, rip kirby

Rip Kirby (12/5/46) art by Alex Raymond

Syndication strips had a great influence on comic book artists. The newspaper comics developed before comic books were widely read and their creators (at least with the more popular strips) were big money earners. Milton Caniff probably had the greatest impact on comic book artists either directly or indirectly. This was particularly true of the Simon and Kirby studio where most artists, including Jack Kirby, grew up reading Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates and had adopted much from Caniff’s style. However he was not the only influential strip artist, another was Alex Raymond. Raymond grew to fame with his earlier Jungle Jim, Secret Agent X-9 and especially Flash Gordon. However Alex’s most important work was, in my opinion, Rip Kirby.

Rip Kirby (3/5/46) art by Alex Raymond

Raymond had a long successful run on Flash Gordon before he volunteered for the Marines during World War II. When he returned from service he found that King Features, his syndication company, had contracted Flash Gordon to another artist. I always thought that companies were required to give returning veterans their original jobs but it turns out that was only true if they had been drafted, not if they had volunteered for service. I guess it was just another example of no good deed goes unpunished. King offered Raymond to create a new feature and the result was Rip Kirby. Some good did come out of this as Raymond not only received a large percentage of the profits but owned the rights to the strip as well. Rip Kirby was immensely popular and became the fastest selling syndication strip.

Rip Kirby (10/25/46) art by Alex Raymond

Some have described the art of Rip Kirby as photo-realistic. Frankly this is not an accurate description at all. True realism in the panel size used in newspaper comics would have made the strips difficult to follow. Raymond carefully worked his realism to keep his characters easy to recognize and expressive as well. Many comic artists that have attempted this sort of realism only ended creating rather dry art. Not Raymond, his lines seem natural and relaxed and his designs always interesting.

Rip Kirby (3/12/46) art by Alex Raymond

Alex Raymond did not have nearly the influence on comic book art as Milton Caniff. This might have been just a greater appreciation to Caniff’s more cartoon-like approach, but the difficulty of adopting Raymond’s greater realism may have been a factor as well. Still some artists were clearly influenced by Raymond. I have mentioned in my recent post on The Art of Romance that Simon and Kirby studio artist Bob McCarty had in 1953 developed a style seemingly influenced by Raymond’s art. John Prentice was even more of a follower of Raymond. Raymond’s approach to Rip Kirby was something that would work quite well in romance stories that Prentice was often asked to do. Prentice’s romance work was so successful that I believe Simon and Kirby preferred to give him love assignments more so then work for Black Magic (although I feel he was quite good at that as well). John Prentice was so adept at Raymond’s approach that after Alex’s untimely death in 1956 John became his replacement on Rip Kirby. While I do not claim Prentice was as good an artist as Raymond, I feel fans have sadly underappreciated Prentice’s work on Rip Kirby. Raymond was a tough act to follow but I feel no one could have done it better then Prentice.

Young Love #14 (October 1946) “Girls like Her”, art by Mort Meskin

While Alex Raymond’s influence Bob McCarty and John Prentice was not unexpected I was surprised to find clear evidence of his impact on another artist. Of all the artists working for Simon and Kirby I would think Mort Meskin was the furthest from Raymond’s approach. Meskin had developed a stylized style that superficially seems quite different from Raymond’s more realistic manner. However I realized I had been underestimating Mort Meskin when I saw a panel from the Rip Kirby strip of March 10, 1946. The scene depicts Rip Kirby entering a model agency but while that is the true subject of the panel the entire foreground is occupied by some of the agency’s models. A similar composition, but by no means an identical one, was used by Meskin for “Girls like Her” (Young Love #14, October 1950). Obviously Meskin is not copying Raymond’s piece but clearly that was the original inspiration for his splash. Once again we view a man entering a modeling agency but only through a foreground of an array of models. There are telling differences. While some of Raymond’s models are actual doing something (reading a magazine or having a conversation) all off Meskin’s models look like just lounging around as if in some modern day harem. Raymond’s models seemed attired in the latest (for 1946) manner (I understand Raymond had a consultant keep him abreast of the latest fashions) but while the clothing of Meskin’s models is imaginative it does not seem realistic. Meskin has placed all his models in a rather confined space while Raymond’s models are arranged with a much greater depth of field. Meskin was obviously inspired by Raymond but created his own unique piece of art.

Rip Kirby (6/19/48) art by Alex Raymond

I am happy to say that IDW will be reprinting the entire run of Raymond’s Rip Kirby. The first volume covering 1946 to 1948 is already out and the second volume should be released in March. The volumes are said to be based on syndication proofs of the original strips. The quality of the reproduction in the first volume varies a little bit but is always much better then I would expect if it was reproduced from actual newspaper strips (newspaper printing is as bad as that used on comic books). Rip Kirby was a daily strip so there are no color pages. All of the volume is printed on real nice flat paper (I do not understand why some people prefer glossy paper). The book’s width is greater then its height which is admittedly awkward for storing on a shelf but makes for much better reading. IDW does such a nice job on their reprints and I cannot recommend their Rip Kirby too highly.

Rip Kirby (12/13/46) art by Alex Raymond

Art of Romance, Chapter 25, More New Faces

by Harry Mendryk

Posted December 4, 2009 in 5 Studio, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, Eadeh, Kirby, Jack, McCarty, Bob, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Serial Posts and tagged Al, benulis, Bill, bob, Draut, Eadeh, Al, Jack, John, Kirby, lawrence, mccarty, meskin, Mort, Prentice

(November 1953 – January 1954: Young Romance #63 – #65, Young Love #51 – #53, Young Brides #9 – #11)

Number of Romance Titles 1947 – 1954 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

There have been no significant changes in the romance comics from that reported in the previous two chapters. One variation, or rather the lack thereof, is that almost all the stories are exactly 6 pages long. The only exceptions are some two or single page features, two stories by Jack Kirby (7 and 8 pages long) and one by Al Eadeh (4 pages). Previously the title Young Brides had become a monthly publication and so this chapter covers 9 comics. The line up of contributing artists is Jack Kirby (63 pages), Bill Draut (36 pages), John Prentice (36 pages, Mort Meskin (18 pages), Bob McCarty and an unidentified artist (13 pages each), Mort Laurence and Bill Benulis (12 pages each), Al Eadeh (10 pages), a single story by another unidentified artist (6 pages) and 6 single page features but a probably studio assistant. As can be seen in the list there are some new names among the studio artists.

Young Romance #64 (December 1953) “The Heartbreaker”, art by Jack Kirby

There were no full page splashes but Jack Kirby’s art is still first rate, even compared to his work from other periods. With the reduced size splashes Kirby favored an angular format. Such a panel shape would have been a challenged for most artist but Jack makes good use of it. Observe how the main action of the splash for “The Heartbreaker” occurs in the lower corner making it visually fit in with the second panel. Kirby then uses the helmets of the soldiers ascending a boarding ramp to provide a diagonal from the lower left to the upper right. The second panel hardly seems to intrude at all.

Young Romance #63 (November 1953) “A Matter of Pride” page 3, art by Jack Kirby

While I usually provide examples of the splash pages, it is important to remember that Kirby was primarily a story teller. Once again during this period Jack’s graphical story-telling is first rate. I particularly like the way Kirby drew older men. The craggy face of white haired man in this story perfectly matches his rustic life.

Young Brides #10 (November 1953) “The Stranger in His Heart”, art by Bill Draut

Most romance stories are about, not surprisingly, young love. However stories with other themes would occasionally appear in Simon and Kirby romance titles. “The Stranger in His Heart” is about the entry of the orphaned son of a combat buddy into the life of his young wife. It is the sort of story that Bill Draut is particularly good out, being second only to Jack Kirby among the studio artists.

Young Romance #64 (December 1953) “The Doctor is in Love” page 2, art by John Prentice

One of the formats that John Prentice would use during the period involved the use of tall narrow panels. This type of panel layout had previously been used by artists like Leonard Starr, Mort Meskin and Ross Andru; however at this time Prentice seemed to be the only studio artist that would sometimes use such narrow panels.

Young Love #52 (December 1953) “Loving Sister”, art by Mort Meskin

As I have remarked in the previous couple of chapters, Mort Meskin contributed much less than what would be expected towards Simon and Kirby productions. For a few years Mort had been working almost exclusively for Joe and Jack. However in recent months his work had been appearing in other publishers’ comic books. But it would appear that Meskin’s combined output was much lower then previously. Whatever the reason behind this change, it must have been financially tough times for Meskin.

Young Love #51 (November 1953) “The Will to Love” page 2, art by Al Eadeh

Al Eadeh had not been a major contributor to S&K productions but he had been a regular one for some about a year and a half. Eadeh was not the greatest of the studio artist but he showed some improvements over time. His earlier work for Joe and Jack were rather stiff but in his more recent work he does quite well in graphically telling a story. I love this page of the interaction of the good hearted nurse and a gold-digger. Sure it is a little over the top, but that is what comics are for!

Young Romance #63 (November 1953) “The Two Mrs. McGillicudys”, art by unidentified artist

“The Two Mrs. McGillicudys” and “Summer Replacement” are two stories by the same unidentified artist I mentioned in the last chapter. I am quite fond of this mystery artist and I am sure he must have been doing romance art for some other publisher prior to doing this work. In some ways the above page is a good example of the format he liked to start his stories with. The first story panel covers an area a little more then two regular story panels. This makes it not much of a splash although more of one then some other studio artists, such as John Prentice, used. The artist also includes a head in the title box. Only one other artist, Jack Kirby, would include such head shots in the title caption. But in this case the artist increased the size of the head and provided speech balloon. Thus he as effectively turned the title into a second splash. It is almost a confessional splash since the woman is introducing the story, but it differs from the classic S&K confessional splash in that the title is not part of the speech balloon. True Confessional splashes no longer appeared in Simon and Kirby romances and nobody else did anything like this.

Young Love #51 (November 1953) “Speed”, art by Bob McCarty

During the review I conducted in preparation for this chapter I found two stories by Bob McCarty that in my database I had previously to another artist. I will discuss this more below. The splash for “Speed” is probably the most typical splash in all the issues covered in this post. The title is not separated into its own box, the splash takes up the full width of the page and vertically it is much greater then the row of story panels. It splash art still adheres to the latest formula of actually being part of the story but otherwise it is a perfectly typical splash.

Young Love #53 (January 1954) “Sweet Talking Man” page 5, art by Bob McCarty

Both of the stories that I am now attributing to McCarty I had previously entered into my database as by John Prentice. My original entries into my database were made as I obtained the comics and depending on when that was would dictate how accurate I was likely to be. That is one of the reasons that I find the reviews that I am now conducting so useful. I find it interesting that the work Bob McCarty resembles the art of John Prentice more now then he did previously or would later. This might be due to influence; not so much Prentice influencing McCarty’s art as much as both of them being influenced by the great syndicate artist Alex Raymond as particularly seen in his Rip Kirby strip. Another possibility is that McCarty and Prentice knew one another and that Prentice may have helped in some on these particular stories.

I purposely choose page 5 from “Sweet Talking Man” because it most clearly shows McCarty’s hand. The doctor in the final panel as eyes that art larger then Prentice would use but typical for McCarty. The woman also lacks Prentice’s more sophisticated beauty. The fact that I have now found three stories by McCarty that I have previously missed makes me suspect that perhaps more will be uncovered as I continue my reviews.

Young Love #52 (December 1953) “Worthless”, art by Mort Lawrence

New to the Simon and Kirby productions, but certainly not new to the comic industry, is Mort Lawrence. The GCD� only lists a single romance work by Lawrence (Love Diary #2, October 1949). I suspect that is just due to the general bias against love comics by most comic book collectors. That said, judging by the work he did for S&K Lawrence really was not that great at the romance genre. But check out the older man in the splash. A similarly downtrodden gentleman appears in the splash of Lawrence’s “Love Me, or Else” (YR #65, January 1953) as well.

Young Love #53 (January 1954) “You’ll Be Sorry”, art by Bill Benulis

Another new artist to start working for Simon and Kirby was Bill Benulis. Benulis was new to comics and his art has a more modern approach. I like some of his techniques but he gives his woman a scratchy look which is very unfortunate thing to do in romance comics. Benulis entry into comics was ill timed and he seems to have been a victim of the crash that would affect the comic industry in a few years.

Art of Romance, Chapter 24, A New Artist

by Harry Mendryk

Posted November 28, 2009 in 2009/11, 5 Studio, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, Eadeh, Kirby, Jack, McCarty, Bob, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Al, Bill, bob, Draut, Eadeh, Al, Jack, John, Kirby, mccarty, meskin, Mort, Prentice

(August 1953 – October 1953: Young Romance #60 – #62, Young Love #48 – #50, Young Brides #7 – #8)

Number of Romance Titles 1947 – 1954 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

I had discussed in Chapter 9 of the Little Shop of Horrors that the title Black Magic went to a bi-monthly schedule starting with the September issue (BM #25). This is a certain indication that sales of Black Magic was not doing as well as previously. However with the October release, Young Brides would assume a monthly schedule. This is just as clear a sign that the romance titles were still doing very well. This despite the fact that the number of romance titles published in the industry had reached a local low in August.

This period marked the 50th issue of Young Love. Admittedly this is just a psychological marker but it does serve as a reminder that Simon and Kirby had done quite well over a relatively long time with their romance titles (about the last six years). Since their deal with Prize Comics gave them a share of the profits, Joe and Jack made a lot of money off of romance. Simon and Kirby paid for all the expenses for producing the art however that was recently offset by the fact that Jack had been drawing a significant proportion of the titles. But things would not remain so favorable for Simon and Kirby. A very different state of affairs would exist about a year later.

The story format used during this period pretty much matches that found in the last chapter. Full pages splashes were often found throughout most of the run of the romance titles that is until recently. There is not a single full page splash in the comics from the period covered in this chapter. Before the period that started in the last chapter splashes played a role similar to a movie trailer; they provide a sort of synopsis to entice the viewer to buy the comic and read the story. During this period only three stories used such a standard splash. By far the most common use of the splash, found in 18 stories, was for the splash to actually be part of the story. Less common (6 stories) was the complete elimination of the splash panel. One uncommon format (3 stories) was to include heads in the story title panel. I do not consider this a true splash because the heads occupy a very small portion of the panel. There is also a single example of what I call a theme title that I will discuss below.

Once again during this period Jack Kirby was the most prolific of the romance artists having penciled 79 pages. The next most prolific artist was Bill Draut (44 pages), followed by John Prentice (32 pages), Mort Meskin (16 pages), an unidentified artist (10 pages). Two artists (Bob McCarty and Al Eadeh) each supplied only a single story. Another unidentified artist did two single pages pieces. As discussed in the last chapter, I find Mort Meskin’s much diminished contribution rather surprising. As I mentioned in Chapter 9 of the Little Shop of Horrors, Meskin had begun to produce art for other publishers during at this time; Harvey (July), DC (August), Standard (August) and Marvel (September).

Young Romance #62 (October 1953) “The Mystery Blonde of Lover’s Lane”, art by Jack Kirby

The Prize romance comics may have been running for some time but Simon and Kirby still managed to provide good stories with just a suggestion of the risque. The start of “The Mystery Blonde of Lover’s Lane” can accurately be described as an attempted rape. One wonders whether the man would have given up even after the woman left the car had that hobo did not happen to be on the scene. By the way, this is a good example of splash that is actually the start of the story.

Young Brides #7 (September 1953) “A Husband for Tracy”, art by Jack Kirby

For “A Husband for Tracy” Kirby tackles the subject of love an overweight woman. I remember this theme was used before but in that story the lady in question lost her weight to become popular. That is not the approach of this story where except for a change of attitude, the protagonist is unaltered throughout the story. This is an example of a standard splash. As I said earlier there were only 3 standard splashes and all of them were done by Kirby.

Young Love #48 (September 1953) “The Marrying Kind”, art by Jack Kirby

In the previous chapter I discussed a story by Bill Draut (“The Hard Guy”) where Bill added some drawing to the title box to provide a sort of a theme. I did not consider this a splash because the title dominated the box and the art did not depict anything specific about the story. At the time I wrote that none of the other artist picked up the technique. Well now Kirby has with “The Marrying Kind”. Jack has increased the amount of art so the panel is now more splash-like. However the art still lacks specificity normally supplied by a splash. Since little more then a cruise ship is depicted the question is was this really drawn by Kirby? I think it was because the brushwork found in the inking of the foreground trees look like Jack’s hand to me.

Young Love #49 (September 1953) “Highway of Dreams”, art by Bill Draut

Although I have classified “Highway of Dreams” as a story splash the panel is nothing more then two standard story panels combined. While Bill, like the rest of the studio artist, does a good job with this new format one wonders what was behind this new approach.

Young Romance #61 (September 1953) “Tried and Untrue”, art by John Prentice

All the romance work that John Prentice did during this period was in the form of splash-less stories. While the new formats seem to have been a direction to the studio artists (almost certainly from Simon and Kirby) there seems to have been some variation on the precise approach adopted by the different creators.

Young Brides #7 (September 1953) “Mind Your Own Marriage”, art by Mort Meskin

As discussed about, Mort Meskin was only a minor contributor. At least some of the work he did pencil was inked by some other artist. “Mind Your Own Marriage” does not look like it was inked by either Mort or his frequent inker at this time, George Roussos. I am not sure who the inker is but he does a nice job.

Young Romance #60 (August 1953) “First Kiss”, art by Al Eadeh

While Al Eadeh has been doing little work for Simon and Kirby, his occasional pieces still keep showing up.

Young Love #50 (October 1953) “Miss Puritan” page 5, art by Bob McCarty

Up till now Bob McCarty mostly did horror stories for Simon and Kirby and very little romance work. His last romance piece appeared some months ago (YL #41, January 1953). His last Simon and Kirby piece was Black Magic #21 (February 1953). I do not know why he has been absent from the S&K productions and he will not appear regularly again until late 1954. “Miss Puritan” marks a mid-way place between the earlier art he did for Simon and Kirby and the later material. Previously I had noted some differences between the two and I was not certain they were done by the same artist. In “Miss Puritan” McCarty has largely stopped depicting over-sized eyes but retains enough of his older style to be recognized. Thus I am now confident that all this work was done by McCarty and I have stopped adding the question mark to his attributions.

Young Love #49 (September 1953) “The Doormat” page 3, art by unidentified artist

The unidentified artists who worked for Simon and Kirby in the more recent few years have all been artists of lesser talent that were only assigned very short pieces. With “The Doormat” however, there is an artist of exceptional talent. The example page I provide above shows that he was more than comfortable with romance, he excelled at it. I do not know who he is but I examination of work by other publishers from this period might identify him.

Young Love #50 (October 1953) “Two Kisses For Your Anniversary” page 4, art by unidentified artist

Another example from the same mystery artist. Both of the stories he did start with his own version of the story splash. The splash was formed by vertically joining two panels. So while the stories adhere to some sort of direction from Simon and Kirby that direction did not seem to be in the form of a layout. More likely it was a direction from the script. Page 4 of “Two Kisses for Your Anniversary” not only shows a similarly vertical panel but also an unusual borderless panel of talking heads that spans the width of the page. No other Simon and Kirby studio artists used such a device. This is further evidence that this artist was not working from Kirby layouts.

Art of Romance, Chapter 23, New Ways of Doing Things

by Harry Mendryk

Posted November 6, 2009 in 2009/11, 5 Studio, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, Eadeh, Kirby, Jack, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Al, Bill, Draut, Eadeh, Al, Jack, John, Kirby, meskin, Mort, Prentice

(May 1953 – July 1953: Young Romance #57 – #59, Young Love #45 – #47, Young Brides #5 – #6)

Number of Romance Titles 1947 – 1954 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

The artists who contributed to the romance titles during this period were the same as those covered in the last chapter; Jack Kirby, Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, John Prentice and Al Eadeh. Kirby was by far the most prolific having penciled 97 pages of art. Second place went to Draut (41 pages), followed by Prentice (21 pages), Meskin (18 pages) and then Eadeh (12 pages). The only other artist involved only produced two single page features both in the same issue (YR #57) and was likely a studio assistant. Still missing were some other artists that not so long ago had been doing a share of the work; Bob McCarty(?), Bill Walton and George Roussos.

Over a period of about half a year there has been a dramatic shift in the amount of art produced by Mort Meskin and Jack Kirby. Prior to this shift Meskin was producing a lot of romance art while Kirby was doing much less. Now the rolls were reverse with Jack being quite productive and Mort doing relatively little work. I do not think this reversal was coincidental. It would appear that Kirby was doing the work that had previously been going to Meskin. It is not at all clear whether this was because Meskin for some reason could no longer produce the same amount of work or whether Simon and Kirby decided to give him much less work to do. There is no sign that Mort made up for this loss of work by doing more in the titles he appeared in that were not produced by Simon and Kirby (Headline, Justice Traps the Guilty and Prize Comics Western). Nor had Meskin at this time begun working for other comic book publishers. Whatever the explanation, Mort’s had suffered a rather drastic drop in income.

Young Romance #59 (July 1953) “A Family Affair”, pencils and inking by Jack Kirby

There were some significant format changes that fully developed during the period covered by this chapter. One of the most noticeable is the almost complete abandonment of full page splashes. The splash for “A Family Affair” is the only full page splash in any of the 8 issues. The move away from the larger splash was obviously not due to any flagging talent on Kirby’s part as this splash is full of Kirby punch (pun intended). I am not sure what the teen-age girl purchasers of the day felt about such action in a romance comic, but it sure makes a dramatic splash for a modern reader. Jack makes great use of the often awkward space left over from the inclusion of the single story panel. Kirby creates a powerful diagonal that starts at the lower left and ascends to the upper right corner. Almost all the parts of the composition takes part in that diagonal except for the female protagonist who balances out the story panel where she also appears.

The first story panel for “A Family Affair” is an example of another of the format changes that occurred during this period. It is not a true story panel but rather a confessional panel where the protagonists introduce the story. Previously we have seen the frequent use of what I have described as a confessional splash where a characters also introduces the story and where the speech balloon forms the title of the story. Confessional splashes still are used although perhaps not quite as commonly as before (there are four). I do not want to over emphasize the use of confessional story panels; there are only four features that use them.

Jack may have been producing a lot more art than he had for some time but this did not affect the quality of what art he did create. If anything his work is stronger then ever. I think this maybe due to Kirby doing a greater percentage of the inking then he has been. Certainly the spotting in the splash for “A Family Affair” looks like Kirby’s brushwork.

Young Romance #57 (May 1953) “Peeping Tom”, art by Jack Kirby

A more significant format change that became common during this period concerns the use of the splash panel. Previously Simon and Kirby productions, and in fact almost all comics by any publisher, used the splash as the comic book equivalent of the movie trailer. That is the splash would provide a sort of synopsis of the story to entice the reader. Now some of the Simon and Kirby productions would have a splash that was actually the first panel of the story. “Peeping Tom” is a good example. Carefully done, as in “Peeping Tom”, the splash still entices the reader but it is also an essential start to the story. Remove it and the following panels are difficult to understand.

Young Romance #59 (July 1953) “You Stole My Girl”, art by Mort Meskin

Some stories have gone even further then making the splash into the first panel of the story, in them the splash panel is eliminated entirely. This would even be done in the first, or lead, story of a comic. The “produced by Simon and Kirby” cartouche would still appear but it would seem a bit oversized and out of place in the first panel.

Young Romance #58 (June 1953) “Love That Landlady”, art by Bill Draut

For some pieces two of the new story formats would be combined. In “Love That Landlady” the splash panel has been eliminated and the first panel provides a confessional by the male protagonists. Most of the confessional story panels were used in features without splashes.

Young Love #46 (June 1953) “The Hard Guy”, art by Bill Draut

One consequence of using the splash as the first story panel or eliminating it entirely was that the title ended up isolated in a band at the top of the page. Frankly this resulted in a visually un-integrated and rather uninteresting title caption box. Only one artist appeared to address this deficiency and that was Bill Draut in “The Hard Guy”. The art work in the title caption would never be mistaken for a splash and it certainly was not the start of the story. All it provided was an ambiance of a run down waterfront to the title. Not much but in my opinion very effective. However none of the other artists seem to have picked up this approach and Draut did not repeat it, at least for the titles covered in this chapter.

Young Love #47 (July 1953) “The Web We Weave”, art by John Prentice

Except for the unidentified artists of two single page features, all the artists did stories with the new formats. I provide above an example of a splashless story by John Prentice.

Young Brides #5 (May 1953) “Stepchild”, art by John Prentice

Not all the stories used the new formats; some were pretty much indistinguishable from those of earlier issues. I have a fondness for the borderless splashes that John Prentice occasionally uses and so I provide an image from “Stepchild”. Perhaps this is not the best example of an older format because the first story panel is a confessional introduction.

Young Romance #59 (July 1953) “Love Me, Don’t Laugh at Me”, art by Bill Draut

Simon and Kirby productions could still provide strong story lines. “Love Me, Don’t Laugh at Me” begins (in the splash) with an attempted suicide. Pretty strong stuff but of course the protagonist does not die in the end. In a way this is another example of confessional as the lady proceeds to tell her life story to explain how see arrived at such an emotional state.

Young Romance #57 (May 1953) “Little Flirt”, art by Al Eadeh

Al Eadeh only did two stories for this period. I could have chosen “The Perfect Setup” as a further example of the use of the new formats (in this case without a splash) but “Little Flirt” is probably the best drawn romance story that Eadeh has provided Simon and Kirby. It is in a more standard format.

I have finally settled my mind about attributing these works to Al Eadeh. I had previously visited the Atlas Tales site but had then concentrated on the females because Eadeh does them in such a distinctive manner. Unfortunately there were few examples in Atlas Tales that provided examples of women. This time I returned but concentrated on the men. Sure enough there are some signed works that clearly were done by the same artist that was working for Simon and Kirby.

Splashes that are actually the start of the story, splashless stories and stories with confessional introductions are pretty recent and sudden developments. Actually Chapter 21 included “Loving is Believing” by Bob McCarty with a splash that was the beginning of the story. Not all stories used the new formats, actually there still were 13 standard and 4 confessional splash with 5 story splashes and 8 no splashes. While Kirby did 3 story splashes he did not do any features without a splash. If we remove Kirby from the statistics we get 4 standard splashes, 1 confessional splash, 2 story splashes and 8 no splashes. What was behind this shift? It could be just the use of a new script writer. However since Simon and Kirby always placed much importance on the splash I rather expect that this was a directive from one of them. Since Kirby did not participate in the new format as much as the other artists I suspect therefore this was largely Simon’s doing.

Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 8, The Gang’s All Here

by Harry Mendryk

Posted October 23, 2009 in 2009/10, 5 Studio, Artists, Draut, Bill, Eadeh, Kirby, Jack, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Walton, Bill, z Archive and tagged Al, Bill, Black, bob, Draut, Eadeh, Al, george, Jack, John, Kirby, Magic, mccarty, meskin, Mort, Prentice, roussos, walton

(February 1953 – April 1953, Black Magic #21 – #23)

Just like in the romance titles from this same period, Kirby toke a commanding lead in the amount of art provided for Black Magic (24 pages). Second place fell to Al Eadeh(?) (17 pages), followed by Bill Draut (12 pages) Bob McCarty(?) (10 pages). Mort Meskin, John Prentice, George Roussos and Bill Walton all provided a single story each. There are three short works for which I have not been able to determine the artist. The romance art from this period was almost entirely done by Kirby, Draut, Meskin and Prentice with a single piece by Eadeh. It is interesting therefore that during this period McCarty, Walton and Roussos only provided work in the horror genre title.

Black Magic #21 (February 1953) “The Feathered Serpent”, art by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby was not only the most prolific Black Magic artist during this period he also did all of the most important work; all the covers and featured stories. No full page splashes but still some rather nice art. I like most of the artists who worked on Black Magic but in all honesty no one other than on Kirby was capable of making a truly interesting monster. This is not as much of a defect for the title as it might seem because few stories had monsters or demon antagonists. Black Magic was more oriented toward the supernatural and not true horror.

Black Magic #23 (April 1953) “Those Who Are About To Die” page 2, art by Jack Kirby

Part of Kirby’s reputation is that he really was not very good at drawing beautiful women. I have to admit I find little variation in the females that he depicted later in his career. I am not sure if Kirby was always to blame for this or if much of it was the result of “corrections” performed by some of his inkers. However during the period he worked with Joe Simon, Jack penciled quite a variety of women. The wife of the painter in “Those Who Are about to Die” is one of my favorites. Both devoted and intellectual she fits perfectly into the part she plays in the story. As far as I am concerned she is just one of the many different beautiful women Kirby drew.

Black Magic #22 (March 1953) “Barbados Burial Vault”, art by Bill Draut

Bill Draut did more than his fair share of good splashes but perhaps his best from this period is the one from “Barbados Burial Vault”. It really does not demonstrate his talent as a penciller; the figures are all rather small and the simple architecture dominates the scene. It is Bill’s willingness to abandon his typical draftsmanship to achieve a mod is what makes this work so appealing to me. The impact is provided by the contrast of the small procession carrying the casket from the bright light of day into the dim burial vault.

Black Magic #22 (March 1953) “Horrible Herman”, art by John Prentice

Perhaps the best story from this period was Prentice’s “Horrible Herman”. John spent most of his time when work for Simon and Kirby with doing romance stories but I feel he had a real talent for horror. Not that this was true horror but rather more of a suspense concerning a boy with great powers. No one could stop Herman, or could they?

Black Magic #23 (April 1953) “Land of the Dead”, art by Mort Meskin

Mort Meskin drew some great splashes in Black Magic but perhaps none of them were more unusual than the one for “Land of the Dead”. It is not that his drawing itself was so technically superior, if anything it was a little bit below his usual work. However Mort has managed to invest this splash with a sense of other-worldliness. No speech balloons but none are required to explain the confrontation of a woman and two eerie figures that block her from a tombstone bearing the words “Here Lies Loves”. The bizarre cloud formations complete the effect imparted to the splash.

This story would have been more appropriate for the by now defunct Strange World of Your Dreams title. Not only would it have been appropriate, this story was almost certainly originally meant for the unpublished fifth issue of that title that would have been published just a few months before. A repeating feature in SWYD was “Send Us Your Dreams” with a pipe smoking Richard Temple doing the dream analysis. The same character is found in “Land of the Dead” except his name has been changed to Bart Roberts. That this was in fact just a substitution can be seen in how that name was just pasted over the older version in the caption of the first story panel (note how the name in is not aligned with the rest of the caption).

Black Magic #21 (February 1953) “Warning Voice”, art by Bob McCarty(?)

Many of the Black Magic stories from this period are rather short. “Warning Voice” is only three pages. Perhaps that is why such a small splash panel was used. The panel is hardly wider than the first story panel and at a glance could be mistaken as the first story panel. While I can see the logic behind such a small splash panel I do not feel it was a good approach due to the confusion it causes.

Note the large eyes particularly in the close-up panel. This remains the chief reason that I am not yet comfortable with the Bob McCarty attribution that I have been following.

Black Magic #21 (February 1953) “The Mind Reader”, art by George Roussos

There is only a single two page story by George Roussos. Observe the Meskin influence that can be seen in the man in the last two panels. I do believe this is an influence and not an indication of actual involvement by Meskin.

Black Magic #22 (March 1953) “Stanwick’s Theory”, art by Bill Walton

I admit than generally I am not overly fond of Bill Walton’s art. He was a competent artist but he only occasionally produces something that really grabs my attention. The splash for “Stanwick’s Theory” is a pleasant exception. In fact I really, really like this splash. The use of a tall narrow panel and extreme close-up and cropping are very effective. Even the cigarette and its smoke play an important part in the composition. This splash is not only unique for Walton it is also rather unusual for Simon and Kirby productions.

Black Magic #23 (April 1953) “Evil Spirit”, art by Al Eadeh(?)

Al Eadeh(?) really made good use of the script for “Evil Spirit”. The image of a beautiful woman using her long hair to strangle a man is certainly memorable. So memorable that years later Jack Kirby would re-use the concept for Medusa a villain (who later becomes a heroine) in the Fantastic Four comic book.

The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 7, Kirby Returns

The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 9, The Party’s Over

Art of Romance, Chapter 22, He’s the Man

by Harry Mendryk

Posted October 16, 2009 in 2009/10, 5 Studio, Art of Romance, Artists, Draut, Bill, Eadeh, Kirby, Jack, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Serial Posts, z Archive and tagged Al, Bill, Draut, Eadeh, Al, Jack, John, Kirby, meskin, Mort, Prentice

(February 1953 – April 1953: Young Romance #54 – #56, Young Love #42 – #44, Young Brides #4)

Number of Romance Titles 1947 – 1954 (the period covered in this chapter is shaded in blue)

I must admit we have entered the period of Simon and Kirby’s romance production that I find the least interesting. This is somewhat unfair because most of the artists used were doing good work. Part of the problem is that while the art was still fine it was largely done by artists we have seen for a number of years. Another contributing factor was that Simon and Kirby were having greater difficulties in coming up with new plots. There are still some stories that are real gems, but they just were not as frequent as previously. I had considered devoting longer periods of time for each chapter but I feel that by keeping on the current three month pace allows me to present more examples of work by artists that are much too overlooked today.

I have remarked in the last couple of chapters of The Art of Romance and The Little Shop of Horrors that Jack Kirby had become more productive after a long period where S&K comics depended more on other artists. While Kirby had become more prominent he still had not returned to the really dominant status he had in earlier years. That is until this period where Jack provides 62 pages of art. This is well above the second place artist who was John Prentice with 46 pages. Third place was taken by Bill Draut (38 pages) and fourth by Mort Meskin (31 pages). These four artists provide almost all the art for this period with Al Eadeh(?) drawing a single story, an unidentified artist contributing two stories and another artist, probably a studio assistant, doing three single page features. Completely absent are two artist that were pretty common presence in previous chapters; George Roussos and Bob McCarty(?).

Young Love #43 (March 1953) “Teen-Aged Widow”, art by Jack Kirby

Kirby is not only back in terms of quantity of art, much of it consists of rather nice material. Four of the seven featured stories were done by Jack and one of them, “Teen-Aged Widow”, even returns to a longer length (12 pages) that had previously been typical for Kirby. The splash page for “Teen-Aged Widow” is rather nice. It is a great example of a confessional splash, what young reader of the day could have resisted such a story. Tears do not play so important a part in Simon and Kirby romances as they did in comics produced by others during the silver age. But those tears are very appropriate here. Note how the small sculpture piece in the foreground repeats the protagonists reclining posture. One odd thing is the small size of the books in the foreground. I doubt that this was meant to be taken literally but was just a consequence of the limited space available.

Young Love #43 (March 1953) “Girl Friday”, art by John Prentice

The work by John Prentice during this period is an exception to my lack of great enthusiasm for this period of S&K romance. This is probably due the relatively late arrival of Prentice into the Simon and Kirby production having started just two years previously. Even Meskin has been around longer (three years) while Kirby and Draut have been around since the beginning (six years ago). While Meskin has only been around one more year then Prentice he produced a lot of more work. John was generally not the most productive of the studio artists which is all the more reason to be pleasantly surprised by the amount of work he did during the period covered in this chapter.

The splash for “Girl Friday” is another of those by Prentice that eliminates the normal panel borders. Perhaps my fondness for this effect has caused me to include in my posts enough examples to mislead my readers into thinking this was Prentice’s typical approach. Actually borderless splash panels were pretty uncommon for Prentice however he did use this format more often than other studio artists.

Young Brides #4 (April 1953) “Here Cries the Bride”, art by Bill Draut

Bill Draut’s romance art has not changed very much over the years. Joe Simon has remarked to me a number of times how reliable Draut was, a true professional. Bill graphically told his story in a clear manner with enough variations in viewpoints to keep the reader’s interest. Probably none of the studio artists other than Kirby made as effective use of background details in his splashes. These details probably do not mean much aesthetically but are quite important in capturing part of the story in the splash. While Draut’s style did not evolve much during the period he worked for Simon and Kirby it would undergo large changes afterwards. Although Draut’s art became more acceptable to silver age publishers unfortunately in my opinion the changes to his style were detrimental to his art.

Young Brides #4 (April 1953) “Under 21”, art by Mort Meskin

I feel that the work Mort Meskin did during this period was on a whole not as good as his earlier efforts. That is not to say there were not an exceptions and “Under 21” was certainly one of those. What a great splash, perhaps Meskin’s best effort for a feature story. The wistful pose of the young lady wonderfully captures the mode of the story. The scandal suggested censored newspaper clipping was sure to attract the reader. Meskin’s placing the protagonist on a small town front porch is unexpected but rather effective. The quality of Meskin’s inking had recently been rather sporadic but here the pen and brush are fully under Mort’s competent command. Fortunately none of Meskin’s work for this chapter was inked by George Roussos. I have to admit that I find the inking by Roussos of pencils done by Meskin or Kirby to have been at best unfortunate and at worst disasters.

Young Love #44 (April 1953) “What’s Mine Is Yours”, art by Al Eadeh?

I do not have much to say about the single story questionably attributed to Al Eadeh but I did want to include another example of his work.

Young Romance #55 (March 1953) “Heartless”, art by unidentified artist

Two stories (“Heartless” and “The Other Woman”) by an unidentified artist occur in the same Young Romance issue. He is certainly not among my favorites but he is competent artist nonetheless.

Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 7, Kirby Returns

by Harry Mendryk

Posted October 3, 2009 in 2009/10, 5 Studio, Artists, Draut, Bill, Kirby, Jack, Meskin, Mort, Periods, Prentice, John, Prize, Walton, Bill, z Archive and tagged Al, Bill, bob, Draut, Eadeh, Al, Jack, John, Kirby, mccarty, meskin, Mort, Prentice, walton

(November 1952 – January 1953, Black Magic #18 – #20)

It looks like once again I have slipped up. I meant to mention, at the appropriate time, Simon and Kirby’s new title Strange World of Your Dreams. Well the time should have been during the last chapter (Chapter 6) because the first issue of SWYD has the cover date of August 1952. I have previously debated with myself whether to include SWYD in this serial post. While SWYD shares some characteristics with the horror genre and with Black Magic in particular, the title is in other ways quite unique. In the end I had decided not to include it because I have posted on it previously (Strange World of Your Dream, strange indeed and Featured Cover, Strange World of Your Dreams #2). However those posts did not include a discussion of the work by the participating artists so I have added a checklist (Stange World of Your Dreams Checklist) which can also be found in the sidebar. It was a short-lived title which with the last issue cover dated January 1953, the month that this chapter ends with. Black Magic was successful but that does not mean that every title that Simon and Kirby came up with would be as well.

In some earlier chapters of Little Shop of Horrors I have commented on the relatively decreased roll that Jack Kirby’s played in Black Magic. However in my last chapter I remarked on his greater contribution having taken the position of the second most prolific artist. In the period covered here Jack takes the first place with 25 pages. This is really not quite as significant as it might sound because Bob McCarty(?) takes second place with only 2 less page then Jack. However the two have a substantial lead over George Roussos (14 pages). All other artists provided only minor contributions. Surprising that includes the normally prolific Mort Meskin.

Black Magic #18 (November 1952) “Nasty Little Man”, art by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby’s contribution to Black Magic during this period has not only increased in amount of art but also played a more prominent part; Kirby did the first, or featured, story for all three issues. One of the stories, “Nasty Little Man”, is in my opinion one of the best pieces Kirby did for Black Magic. The splash is another example of how Jack could make a masterpiece out of virtually nothing. All we are presented with is a standing man that is smoking a pipe. His large head clues us to the fact that he is the little man mentioned in the title. And what a nasty man the story shows that he is. A warning to never underestimate someone based on height.

Black Magic #20 (January 1953) “The Strangest Stories Ever Told”, art by Jack Kirby

While I often highlight Kirby’s more substantial contributions it is important to realize that Jack drew rather minor works as well. Sometimes despite their short length these could be masterpieces. However occasionally these short pieces could be all too easily overlooked as was certainly the case for “The Strangest Stories Ever Told”. This work is not included in the Jack Kirby Checklist and in all honesty I had previously failed to recognize it as well. For me the most obvious clue as to the correct attribution is found in the final panel and particularly in the woman. I feel that once the rest of the panels are examined more carefully they reveal Kirby’s hand as well.

Black Magic #20 (January 1953) “Pied Piper of Flame”, art by Bob McCarty(?)

As I mentioned earlier Bob McCarty(?) plays an important part in these issues of Black Magic. I guess I find that a little surprising since the large eyes that he provides his characters of both sexes give them a rather soulful look that seems a little out of place in the horror genre. That aside, McCarty was certainly good at graphically telling the stories.

Black Magic #18 (November 1952) “Detour, Lorelei on Highway 52”, art by Bob McCarty(?) and Jack Kirby

Bob McCarty(?) may have been talented but his work was, like that of many of the studio artists, subjected to the inclusion of parts by Jack Kirby. In his perhaps unofficial roll as art editor Jack was sometimes called to touch up another artist’s work. Parts drawn by Kirby occur so often in the splash that the possibility remains that this is not so much a touching up as a preplanned activity. In “Detour, Lorelei on Highway 52” we can see Kirby’s distinctive hand in both the penciling and inking. The entire female figure was done by Kirby and his blunt inking brush can also be seen in some of the nearby road side. However all the foreground elements were inked with a finer brush presumably by McCarty. I am uncertain who did the inking of the background steep hill.

Black Magic #20 (January 1953) “Hatchet Man” page 4, art by Bill Draut

Bill Draut only did a single Black Magic story during this period. Actually it might easily be overlooked because much of the story is drawn from a more distant viewpoint. This is unusual because Draut is generally very good and using more varied viewing distance to keep the story visually interesting. Further the splash panel is one of his poorer efforts so I have decided to deviate from the normal splash page example and show a story page instead. Bill’s hand is particularly easy to spot in the fifth panel.

Black Magic #19 (December 1952) “Return from the Grave”, art by Mort Meskin

Mort Meskin also only provides a single story and it is also not one of his better efforts. I believe most of the fault lies in the inking. While there are some effective spotting in parts most of the inking lacks Mort’s typical control and seems a bit crude. I have not been able to come to a conclusion of whether Meskin himself did the inking or some other artist like George Roussos.

Black Magic #20 (January 1953) “Crash Report”, art by John Prentice

The most pleasant surprise is the return of John Prentice. While Prentice plays an important part in the romance titles he is much less frequently used in Black Magic. I feel John does a great job in his horror genre stories but I suspect that his romance work was so appreciated by Simon and Kirby that they preferred to assign him romance pieces.

Black Magic #19 (December 1952) “This’ll Kill You”, art by George Roussos

George Roussos provides some work where some of the people have a Meskin look to them. While it is possible that Mort actually had a hand in this art, I am presently interpreting it as Meskin influencing George rather then actually working on the art. This opinion is largely based on some Meskin art that was inked by Roussos without George being so heavy handed as to make it difficult to recognize Mort’s pencils.

Black Magic #18 (November 1952) “A Deadly Dream”, art by J. G.

Two very short works (one and two pages) resemble the work of a still unidentified artist that signed a piece as J. G. (BM #9, February 1952, “The Man In The Judge’s Chair”). The splash for “A Deadly Dream” includes some picket fence crosshatching and some abstract arch shadow (see Inking Glossary) that are part of the Studio Style inking. Such techniques are not found elsewhere in the story and so they indicate someone, probably either Simon or Kirby, touching up the splash.

Black Magic #19 (December 1952) “Dead Man’s Isle”, art by Bill Walton

Bill Walton also provides a single story during this period. I feel there is no reason to write in more detail about this piece but I do think it helps to provide examples of all the more important artists that work for Simon and Kirby.

The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 1 (#1 – 3), Expanding Their Fields
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 2 (#4 – 6), Up and Running
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 3 (#7 – 8), The Same Old Gang
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 4 (#9 – 11), Another Hit
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 5 (#12 – 14), New Faces
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 6 (#15 – 17), Mix Bag

The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 8 (#21 – 23), The Gang’s All Here
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 9 (#24 – 26), The Party’s Ovetr
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 10 (#27 – 29), A Special Visitor
The Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 11 (#30 – 33), The End

Simon and Kirby

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

Tag Archives: Mort

Art of Romance, Chapter 28, A Glut of Artists

Art of Romance, Chapter 27, The Return of Mort

Art of Romance, Chapter 26, Goodbye Jack

Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby

Art of Romance, Chapter 25, More New Faces

Art of Romance, Chapter 24, A New Artist

Art of Romance, Chapter 23, New Ways of Doing Things

Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 8, The Gang’s All Here

Art of Romance, Chapter 22, He’s the Man

Little Shop of Horrors, Chapter 7, Kirby Returns

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