[The Australian Panther]

Artists Showcase

Located over in 'Odds and Ends' is a section started by NarfStar. We have here work by specific artists culled from different books.  Thank you Narfstar.

He wrote,

The works of specific artists. Enjoy but also learn. Please help use signed work here to identify the unsigned work elsewhere.

I have chosen three collections.

Benulis, Bill
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=38785

Discount Bill
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=38787

Saaf, Art
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22057

Enjoy - and learn?

[narfstar]

Getting sleepy tonight so I will try to hit these tomorrow.

[Quirky Quokka]

These look interesting, Panther. Do we know roughly what era these are from? I’m thinking 1950s?

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

QQ, I think you are right, but I can't say for sure.
Looks like Narf may join us for a while and he may make it clear.,

[SuperScrounge]

Benulis, Bill

The Ghost of Doctor Renick
This seems familiar. I think it was in a previous book we read.

Page 3, panel 1. That seems a bit lazy, just drawing the train and not the surroundings?


Bride of Horror
Nice art, but some of the panels caused some reading order questions.


The Face in the Shroud
Ditto.


Not a bad artist, but some of his panel choices are questionable.

[Robb_K]

Benulis, Bill

The Ghost of Doctor Renick
This seems familiar. I think it was in a previous book we read.

Page 3, panel 1. That seems a bit lazy, just drawing the train and not the surroundings?


Bride of Horror
Nice art, but some of the panels caused some reading order questions.


The Face in the Shroud
Ditto.


Not a bad artist, but some of his panel choices are questionable.

"The Ghost of Dr. Renick" is from Avon Periodicals'  "Eerie Comics" #12, from 1953.  It's artwork on the opening Splash Panel looks a lot like an early '50s Farrell/Ajax Horror publication.  But Avon and Farrell may have used some of the same packaging studios in 1950-54.  As far as I remember, neither publisher had a large staff of their own directly hired artists like DC and Marvel/Atlas at that time.

"Bride of Horror" is from Fiction House's "Ghost Comics" #7, from 1953.

"The Face In The Shroud" is from "Ghost Comics" #8, also from 1953.

[Morgus]

These are great showcases for artists I probably never would have heard of otherwise.
Bill Benulis; His style could have fit right in with DC’s HOUSE OF MYSTERY when it revived as a horror title over a decade later.
THE GHOST OF DR RENICK There is an unwritten rule that all female ghosts have to come back wearing Fredricks of Hollywood lingerie. Glad to see this was enforced. Nice angles and panel structure.
BRIDE OF HORROR Yes, the comics code was coming to town and we didn’t want to FOSTER BELIEF IN THE OCCULT, now did we??? Nice old crone holding the hypo on page 6. Leading lady sort of has an Anita Ekberg/FANGS OF THE LIVNG DEAD thing going.
FACE IN THE SHROUD All Bob Higgins forgot to do was twirl his moustache silent villain style and wear a Snidely Whiplash hat. The art goes a long way to make a pretty standard story more interesting.

[Morgus]

Discount Bill (sorry can’t resist...)
A notch or two below Ben Benulis, but still a lot of fun.
LADY LUCK has nothing to do with the Eisner character with the same name. From DANGER #13, Charlton. 1955.  The printing job is off centre so it always looks like the lady is spitting out strawberry jam. Be an average job for a bigger company but stands out at Charlton.
KILLER IN SHIRTS is from DEATH VALLEY #4 Comic Media,1953. Nice art, but way too wordy.
GALLOWS GHOSTS; GHOST COMICS #7  FICTION HOUSE  1951 (The same comic that had BRIDE OF HORROR)
Different textures and perspectives help the story along.
TERROR STALKED THE SECRET CITY(1951) WEB OF MYSTERY #16. Ace. Nice detail, even though the critters look like the guys from ALLIGATOR MAN
DAY OF DOOM (1952) WEIRD TERROR #11 Comic Media. Best panels are the ones featuring WWIII action. Did anybody believe that radiation would turn guys into mega Charles Atlas? No. Really. I’m asking. I knew from age age 6 OR 7 that duck and cover was bull. The bombs go off, we would ALL die. But other folks had ALL SORTS of notions about what would happen.

[Morgus]

Art Saaf I have a lot of time for. He did great work at Standard/Pines/Nador and you have to give a guy a lot of credit who could follow Alex Toth and didn’t embarrass himself. His style fit in nicely with the other regulars and rewarded close examination.
The two examples here are both from the Standard/PInes/Nador line up..
THE WOLF DANCER (1952) from THE UNSEEN #11 (Pines)
THE COSMIC TERROR ((1952) FANTASTIC WORLDS #6 (Pines)

[SuperScrounge]

Discount, Bill

[Insert inflation joke here] 


Lady Luck
The first page, then a western story interrupts, then the Lady Luck story continues??? Somebody goofed up the formatting.

Did Shiv break Nicky's back? That "Crack" sound effect didn't have anything visible breaking to go along with it.


Killer In Skirts
This story seems similar to the Belle Starr story we read a few weeks ago, which made me wonder if there was a writer who had a basic story where he mostly changed names and various details and sold it over and over again.


The Gallows Ghosts
Annoying second person narration.

The rougher looking art did add to the darkness of the story, though.


Return Engagement
Okay, but nothing special story.


Terror Stalked the Secret City
Interesting idea, but not told as well as it could be.


Day of Doom
Interesting.


Shame this wasn't presented in chronological order as it looks like his art improved as he went along, but with the earlier stories printed later his work looks like it gets worse.

[The Australian Panther]

This story seems similar to the Belle Starr story we read a few weeks ago, which made me wonder if there was a writer who had a basic story where he mostly changed names and various details and sold it over and over again.

I think this was standard operating procedure for many writers, but just not so obvioiusly.
In the early days of Marvel, it sure was for Stan Lee. The late 50's and early 60s Superman and Superboy stories were mostly variations on a theme.
I remember once reading that there were only 7 basic plots for Westerns. That made me wonder if there were only a limited number of plots for all stories.
I think of it like music. There are only a certain number of notes but there are some musicians you can listen to more than others - because of their 'craft' and some singers you prefer over others because of their creativity.     
Variations are infinite.

[SuperScrounge]

The late 50's and early 60s Superman and Superboy stories were mostly variations on a theme.

Part of that was based on the idea that readers would cycle out of reading comics after... I've heard as low as a year and a half and as high as five years, so reusing a plot idea (i.e. Jimmy Olsen turns into a gorilla) would get reused thinking very few people would complain. (Boy did they guess wrong on that.  )

I remember once reading that there were only 7 basic plots for Westerns.

When I was a young wannabe writer I heard it as only 8 basic plots and later learned that the number varied from as low as 1 plot to as high as 37. There was a guy who wrote down 36 theatrical plots and after he died, or something, someone came up with a variation that he missed.

[Quirky Quokka]

Bill Benulis

Thanks Robb, for clarifying that these are from 1953. I'm not really a horror fan, though I guess these are on the milder side of that and I did appreciate his art.

The Ghost of Dr Renick

p. 1 - I thought the opening panel was interesting, with the smoke from his pipe morphing into the vision of his dead wife.

p. 2 - Some interesting perspective shots.

p. 3 - SuperScrounge mentioned that the drawing of the train was a bit lazy, without includinging the surroundings. It certainly doesn't have much detail, but I didn't mind it. It provides a bit of a link between the dream/vision sequence and the real-life scenario with the boy. Also, we could probably make something Freudian out of the fact that it looks a bit like a snake. Foreshadowing impending danger?

p. 5 - Interesting battle between the spirits trying to take control.

p. 6 - Interesting twist at the end. I did wonder for a minute if it was going to be a religious redemption story.


Bride of Horror

Because there was a horse and carriage on p. 1, I was thinking it was going to be set in Victorian times or turn of the century. But the car on p. 2 makes it look more like 1920s or 1930s.

p. 3 - What bride wouldn't want to be married and live in a place called Scaffold Corners? I gather they're not talking about the scaffolds that builders and painters use 

p. 4 - Third frame in top row - I thought the horizontal blue thing near her hair was a knife at first. Took me a minute to realise it was the base of a candle holder.

p. 5 - SuperScrounge had noted that the order of some panels caused problems with reading order. I had that trouble on this page. Placement of some of the narration boxes doesn't help.

p. 6 - I got a bit confused. I could understand how Agatha could have affected his mental state all those years, but what about his physical appearance in becoming a monster and then returning to normal? Is that to do with whatever's in the hypodermic needle? Or did he just seem like a monster and didn't really change physically?

The Face in the Shroud

I don't have much to say about this one. I didn't think the art was quite as good. For example, in panels 3 and 4 on p. 4, it's hard to even see she's holding a gun. I also didn't think the story was as good.

Overall

The first tale was probably the best, both in terms of story and art. The other two didn't work as well for me, but as we've often said, it's hard to build a good story in such a small space.

Cheers

QQ

[SuperScrounge]

Saaf Art

So this is the art you put over your safe? 


The Cosmic Terror
Comet Calhoun? Is that a nickname or did his parents name him Comet? Does he have siblings named Moon, Satellite, Asteroid? 

"It's a -- a girl!"
Aren't you worried she might have space-cooties?  That line feels like something a 15-year-old boy might say.

How is Diana staying warm on that frozen world? Is her bare skin really covered with see-through fabric?

The telepathy save almost seemed to come out of nowhere. Yeah there was that scene where she sensed danger, but I interpreted that as 'women's intuition', not her picking up threatening thoughts of the aliens.

Neither Comet nor Diana are into long engagements apparently, or even dating and getting to know a prospective partner.

Iffy story, but nice art.


Meteors- Bullets of Space
Before going into space, remember to wear your meteor-proof vest. 


The Wolf Dancer!
Starring Kevin Costner. 

So did his clothes turn into wolf fur?


Nice art thoughout.

[The Australian Panther]

Benulis, Bill
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=38785
I like the Archive collections we have here on CB+ - when some volunteer finds the time to make them.
But I've always thought that it would be good to have Artists collectons and obviouwly Narfstar feels the sam way and started out to make some.
Lets have a look at some of the ones he's presented CB+ with.
Bill Benulis.
This is what lambiek has to say about Bill.

Bill Benulis was an American comic book artist who mainly worked for Timely/Atlas in the 1950s, often in cooperation with Jack Abel. He contributed to many mystery and war titles, including 'Adventures into Weird Worlds', 'Astonishing Comics', 'Battle', 'Journey into Mystery', 'Mystery Tales', 'Navy Action', 'Private Penny', 'Strange Tales', 'War Comics' and 'Speed Carter Spaceman'.
He was also present at Fiction House in titles like 'Ghost Comics', 'The Monster', 'Planet Comics', 'Rangers Comics and Wings Comics'. He was affiliated to the Simon-Kirby studio around 1952-53.

 
That means we don't have most of his work here on CB+. Which is a pity.
Interestingly, https://ausreprints.net.au/creator/909
has a list of his work that was reprinted in Australian editions of US comics.
So what do we have here?
The Ghost of Dr Renick.
Apparently Jack Able was Bill's regular inker, But  I don't see anything here that reminds me of Jack Able.
Excellent detail in the art and the art tells us things not spelled out by the writer - apparently the man's wife has previously died - but that isn't said in the words.
Page 2
The art keeps the narrative flowing, most of it from the viewpoint of the wife/ghost. Nothing wasted, nothing boring.             
The way he draws the Ghost, not your standard comic book spook - he gives her character.
I would have liked to see Bill draw [Marvel's] Dr Straange. 
Bride of Horrror.
This one's co-signed by Abel. and you can see the difference. Not nearly as crisp and detailed as the last story.   
The face in the shroud.
I feel that these three had the same scriptwriter, perhaps Bill hinself.
They are all about couples, one of whom is dead and they all have positive endings.
Bill seems to be the type who can't stop creating when he was drawing, he's alway adding atmospheric details into the panels.
lovely stuff.

as we've often said, it's hard to build a good story in such a small space.

   It's ckear that's more of a problem here than usual, it feels to me that the page number is fixed, can't be changed and Bill has to make the narrative work - which he does - but some of the details are very minimally shown.   

   

[Quirky Quokka]

Saaf Art

The Cosmic Terror
Comet Calhoun? Is that a nickname or did his parents name him Comet? Does he have siblings named Moon, Satellite, Asteroid? 

...

How is Diana staying warm on that frozen world? Is her bare skin really covered with see-through fabric?

The telepathy save almost seemed to come out of nowhere. Yeah there was that scene where she sensed danger, but I interpreted that as 'women's intuition', not her picking up threatening thoughts of the aliens.

Neither Comet nor Diana are into long engagements apparently, or even dating and getting to know a prospective partner.

I felt a bit the same, SuperScrounge. Gotta love the way they dress space heroines. No protective suit necessary. And I agree about the telepathy solution. There was no foreshadowing, but suddenly they sort of had this superpower we didn't know about. And let's throw in a little romance at the end when there's been no indication of even the slightest flirting in the story. Why not? 

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

Art Saaf

The Cosmic Terror

I liked the art in this one, as a whole. My first thought re the splash panel was similar to SuperScrounge regards the girl's outfit. Why is she wearing a bikini on what appears to be a frozen planet and where is her helmet? When we backtrack on p. 2, we see they found her unconscious after a crash and the captain says 'Quick, rustle up a breather helmet from her ship', but then she's helmet-less in the splash page when she's fully conscious. She then gets a helmet, but loses it in the first panel on p.4. Though I did wonder if that was a colorist problem, as her hairstyle looks a bit rounder. Maybe the inker or colorist mistakenly made the head round instead of the helmet.

And ah, the days when Pluto was still a planet. 'My very easy memory jingle' has not 'seem[ed] useful naming planets' since they booted out Pluto.

Like SuperScrounge, I thought the telepathy solution came out of the blue. There was no foreshadowing to suggest they had such a superpower, and the sudden romance at the end was a bit schmaltzy.

But in spite of a few problems, I enjoyed this one.

One Page Filler

An interesting way to get across a fact about meteors. Though I don't remember Buzz and Neil deflecting meteors with their suits (or the other 10 men on the moon for that matter).

The Wolf Dancer

And yes, SuperScrounge, shades of Kevin Costner.

Interesting having a bit about Navajo culture and what we would now regard as cultural appropriation. Though a bit unbelievable that a white guy doing a dance with a wolf mask would suddenly be a shostopping hit.

Some interesting perspectives in the art, though I ddn't like the art in this one as much as the space story. The slap on p. 6 doesn't seem to have a realistic angle and some of the faces aren't very good.

At least the evil wolf guy gets his just desserts. But I didn't like this story as much as the other one.

Cheers

QQ

[Robb_K]

The late 50's and early 60s Superman and Superboy stories were mostly variations on a theme.

Part of that was based on the idea that readers would cycle out of reading comics after... I've heard as low as a year and a half and as high as five years, so reusing a plot idea (i.e. Jimmy Olsen turns into a gorilla) would get reused thinking very few people would complain. (Boy did they guess wrong on that.  )

I remember once reading that there were only 7 basic plots for Westerns.

When I was a young wannabe writer I heard it as only 8 basic plots and later learned that the number varied from as low as 1 plot to as high as 37. There was a guy who wrote down 36 theatrical plots and after he died, or something, someone came up with a variation that he missed.

While I've been with European Disney Comics (over 40 years), our rule has been 7 years (apparently more conservative than the American Comic book industry).  And, by the way, the publishers weren't worried about the serious collectors, who would continue purchasing their books longer than those relatively short spans of years, as despite their underestimating that group, they knew that (at least during The Golden and Silver Age), they represented a very small percentage of new book purchases.

[Robb_K]

Bill Benulis - Eerie & Ghost Comics[/b]
(1) Eerie Comics 12 - "The Ghost of Dr. Renick"
Benulis' artwork is good, but his staging could be considerably better to fit what the author is trying to convey.  Very good expression of emotions on the characters' faces.  I like the use of colour (although that wasn't done by the artist), and use of light and shadow.  I, too, enjoyed the fighting between the two spirits over the boy's life.  Of course, it was obvious that the doctor would save him, and win the battle in his conscience to go back to his calling, ostensibly why he was put on Earth, - to save lives.





(2) Ghost Comics 7 - "Bride of Horror"
Same level of artwork, and same staging weaknesses in places, but also some good.  I find that Benulis' very detailed style helps when drawing grotesque faces.  (QQ) To me, the car on Page 2 looks more like the late 1900s (decade) to early 1910s, rather than 1920s or 1930s (when the look of cars changed drastically, to look much more modern.  The use of drugs to change the so-called cursed men into monsters was an interesting plot device (sort of partially taken from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and "The Invisible Man".  Both very fantastic and magical, as opposed to "Science Fiction", at least starting from a base of what is known to be true.






Ghost Comics 8 - "The Face in The Shroud"
The artwork was roughly similar to the other 2 stories, and staging was good and weak in different places.
Interesting story that a cultist married couple, who dared go where no man should go, into the occult, to meet with the dead, teamed up, after the husband was killed, to avenge his murder, and have him join his victim.

[The Australian Panther]

Discount Bill
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=38787

Interestingly, Bill Discount does not feature in Lambiek. A surprising ommision.
GCD has it that

From about 1952 to about 1955, Discount did pencil and ink work for several comic book publishers; Ace, Charlton, Fawcett, Fiction House, and Harwell known.

then entered advertising as an artist and later an art director.

Obviously, had he stayed with comics though the 60's and 70's he'd be much better known.

Lady Luck ( no, not the Lady Luck)  But this does read like an origin atory. What could have been, hey?
There are several elements on that Splash page.
First Lady Luck with a companion at top left.
Then that amazing line of dialogue, 'Sorry, I must share you with the sharks, my dear.'
We see immediately that they are on a ship and that Lady Luck is composed because she can see her saviour, the one with the outstreched hand, but the thug with the gun cannot.
Last panel, she get's introduced to someone and tells the reader that she is on a mission for the police.Phew! 
Great visual storytelling.
Second page, we are immediately at dinner. Here again we have the issue of trying to put all the detail of a story into a short number of pages.   
The writer seems to be something of an expert on poker and we get a couple of pages of poker cheating and tension. Since we don't get any explanation of why she's 'Lady Luck' but everyone seems to know, I suspect that there was more than one story with the character.   
Killer in Skirts
Nothing much to say about this one. Art is excellent, particularly the horses
Another in the 'Wild Women of the West' type of story.
The Gallows Ghosts
A lot of work needed for the image of the ghost on page 1.
Very modern story this one, we are clearly meant to see that Cass is really mod and the 'Ghosts' are really in his mindl the product of his conscience.
Return engagement
The same line-work for the ghost image.
Similar story to the last one.
Her guilt traps her..
Terror stalked the secret city
There are clearly one or two pages missing from this story.
Not enough left to make sense.
Day of Doom
This story is the best scan in this collection.
Vey much a 50's  story - about Atomic warfare and people hiding underground.
By 21st century standards, the idea that the white couple become superpeople but the others become ape-like creatures, makes me uncomfortable.
This feels like Bill put his heart into the story - 'the evil corportate boss getting justice' element  I think,
cheers!     

[The Australian Panther]

Saaf, Art
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22057
Art Saaf (4 December 1921 - 21 April 2007, USA)
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/saaf_arthur.htm
I was not familar with the man's work.
One of the reasons was that a great percentage of his work was for Romance comics -  which, unsurprisingly, were not my cup of tea.
Here is a selection of Romance comics he did for DC.
Artist Spotlight - Art Saaf
https://www.sequentialcrush.com/blog/2010/09/artist-spotlight-art-saaf
Sequential Crush , to my surprise, a Romance Comic Blog.
So, to these stories
The Cosmic Terror.

The work here is reminiscent of George Tuska, so much so that I have to wonder if Art penciled and George inked.
'A small wandering world entered the solar system.' Funny how often that happenes.
Surprisingly there are dwarf planets out there.
Ceres Facts – Largest Dwarf Planet in the Asteroid Belt
https://sciencenotes.org/ceres-facts-largest-dwarf-planet-in-the-asteroid-belt/ 
You never know what you don't know.
"Diana Colby - space article writer" Yes there are a lot of female journalists tooling round in spaceships looking for things to write about.
Not much to say about the art here, simple clear and servicable.
The last panel though, made me think what marriage would be like with a spouse who could read your mind.
Some men would say, 'Yeah, tell me about it.'
Meteors - bullets of space.
I live in the country and can tell you, if you look and the air is crystal clear, you can see 'shooting stars' nearly every night. They are quite common.
The last panel is very expressive.
The Wolf Dancer
When he has a whine and also man-handles her, I don't think 'I love you' is going to work.
Lou is impossible to sympathize with. He's a total loser.
The art is expressive and professional. Well illustrated and well told. 
Somebody, maybe not the artist, did a great job with the colouring. Very atmospheric.     

[The Australian Panther]

This fortnight's entry had the least replies and views for quite a while.
Northern Hemisphere summer?
Then again the general forum posts have been very low for a couple of weeks now, too.
Robb has something different for us tomorrow.   

[SuperScrounge]

Interestingly, Bill Discount does not feature in Lambiek. A surprising ommision.

Not really. Lambiek is good for European artists, but weaker on American artists. I've been adding links for the GCD's creator indexes and a number of what I thought were well-known American artists don't have Lambiek entries (at least, not yet). Of course Lambiek is a European bookstore, so it makes sense that they would have more 'home-grown' artists vs. us 'foreigners'. 

[Quirky Quokka]

This fortnight's entry had the least replies and views for quite a while.
Northern Hemisphere summer?
Then again the general forum posts have been very low for a couple of weeks now, tool.
Robb has something different for us tomorrow.

They were interesting selections, Panther. I guess there will always be ebbs and flows in different fortnights for various reasons. We have a relatively small number of regular commenters, so it only takes one or two to be busy and there's not as much traffic. But the topic is always there for people to look at.

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

We have a relatively small number of regular commenters, so it only takes one or two to be busy and there's not as much traffic. But the topic is always there for people to look at.

You are correct, in that the contributors and responders are a relatively small group, which is frustrating to me.
If you look though, at the number oif views, that's gratiflying, because it's usually in the high hundreds and sometimes in the thousands. So, what we do is not being wasted - we are not locked into an echo chamber.
But so far this thread has only had 195 views. But likely over time that number will increase.
There are obviously a lot of lurkers out there.