[The Australian Panther]

[In his interview Bernie Krigstein described finding the script of this book so stupid that he deliberately pushed the art over the top. Ironically some pages have more merit than BK intended. He's right, though. This is the single most goddam weird script I've read in a comic book. The only one that comes close is another late Dell Four Color--#1301, "Adventures in Paradise"--which I'll bet was written by the same person.]
The Odd thing is that this art looks more like Frank Springer than our Bernie.
I wonder if this was written by Don Segall - famous for the weirdness of Kona - monarch of monster isle - one of my all-time favorites actually!

Cheers!

Link to the book: 1309 - 87th Precinct

[Rintintin]

It sure looks like him.

[crashryan]

By now I'm pretty sure it was Segall who wrote this. He certainly turned out some weird comic stories. Krigstein's "serious" style shows in scenes like the car driveby and the splitting of dialogue over several panels (e.g. our pages 9 & 10). In other places you can tell he was drawing with middle finger raised. The inside back cover and the back cover are prime examples. I can't see the Frank Springer connection, though (full disclosure: I am one of the world's few Frank Springer fans).

[The Australian Panther]

Frank had the misfortune to be the artist who followed Steranko on his SHIELD run. Worst Editorial decision ever?