[Robb_K]

Ellis Chambers (Hi-Ho Comics #1, 1946):

Jim Tyer also drew "Daffy Dragon" (Hi-Ho Comics #3, 1946):

[Robb_K]

Here's more:

[Electricmastro]

Electricmastro, a nice selection. I have always been of the opinion, that there are comic pictures, or even entire comic pages, which - regardless of their actual comic story - are an independent work of art.

I have gotten the impression that publishers seemed to usually focus more on the art in a way that the writing was treated as less important, unless it was more socially conscious like the The Challenger or EC Comics, or with exceptions like Jack Cole

[Electricmastro]

Ellis Chambers (Hi-Ho Comics #1, 1946):

Ellis "Holly" Chambers had a reputation (back in the 1940s) that he was high (on drugs) most of the time.  He did a lot of freelance bouncing from client to client, and job to job back then, unlike some artists, who stayed with single publishers for many years.  Chambers drew for Robert Farrell's Four Star/Star/Farrell publishing, Victor Fox's Fox Features and other, smaller Eastern publishers during the 1940s.

I feel that he managed to pull off surreal drug-like, yet stylishly appealing art that stood out from other funny animal artists. Wish there was more info about Chambers online.

[Robb_K]

Electricmastro, a nice selection. I have always been of the opinion, that there are comic pictures, or even entire comic pages, which - regardless of their actual comic story - are an independent work of art.

I have gotten the impression that publishers seemed to usually focus more on the art in a way that the writing was treated as less important, unless it was more socially conscious like the The Challenger or EC Comics, or with exceptions like Jack Cole

[ComicMike]

  Many of the stories made no sense, and there often was no logic not only in the "story's" plot, but not even in the dialogues. 

Is it possible, that the artists were under a lot of pressure from the publisher, that they had to submit complete stories in a very short time and that only a few managed to deliver good work under this pressure?

[ComicMike]

At all the fantastic pictures, that I have seen here on CB+ so far - this is my favorite picture.



(Coo Coo Comics # 1 - Buster Bruin, the lazy bear)

[Electricmastro]

Electricmastro, a nice selection. I have always been of the opinion, that there are comic pictures, or even entire comic pages, which - regardless of their actual comic story - are an independent work of art.

I have gotten the impression that publishers seemed to usually focus more on the art in a way that the writing was treated as less important, unless it was more socially conscious like the The Challenger or EC Comics, or with exceptions like Jack Cole

[Robb_K]

  Many of the stories made no sense, and there often was no logic not only in the "story's" plot, but not even in the dialogues. 

Is it possible, that the artists were under a lot of pressure from the publisher, that they had to submit complete stories in a very short time and that only a few managed to deliver good work under this pressure?

Yes, especially those artists who "wrote" their own "stories", which were really scenes involving chains or a single chain of events, but having no real plot and no character development, and showing few if any reasons why characters did what they did.  Some of the so-called "writers" were also young people, with little, if any writing experience, and little life experience from which to draw. 

I started getting paid for writing comic book stories after age 40, and having had lived through 20 years working on development projects in 3rd World countries in Africa, The Middle East, and Far East, and having done the same for a few years on First Nation reservations in Canada, and Native American reservations in USA. I had spent time in war zones in Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Sudan, and Syria.  I had much more knowledge of how people behave in various situations(e.g. what motivates them to do what they do) when I was 40 years old, than when I was 20.  I am much better at that at 74 than I was at 40.  Had I tried to pass myself off as a "comic book story writer" at age 20, I may have gotten a tryout (test period), but I'd probably not been one of the better writers.  My opinion is that there were many weak and poor storywriters in the comic book field during the mid 1960s, but they were, on average, nowhere near as poor at story writing as the average comic book storywriter was in the early 1940s, when the comic book industry (for stories made exclusively for new books (rather than just compiling, re-formatting, and re-printing newspaper strips) was in its infancy.  The pay was miniscule, and so, veteran writers only took such jobs as a last resort.  So, many of the hired "writers" were young, comic book fans, soon after they graduated from high school.

[Electricmastro]

  Many of the stories made no sense, and there often was no logic not only in the "story's" plot, but not even in the dialogues. 

Is it possible, that the artists were under a lot of pressure from the publisher, that they had to submit complete stories in a very short time and that only a few managed to deliver good work under this pressure?

Yes, especially those artists who "wrote" their own "stories", which were really scenes involving chains or a single chain of events, but having no real plot and no character development, and showing few if any reasons why characters did what they did.  Some of the so-called "writers" were also young people, with little, if any writing experience, and little life experience from which to draw. 

I started getting paid for writing comic book stories after age 40, and having had lived through 20 years working on development projects in 3rd World countries in Africa, The Middle East, and Far East, and having done the same for a few years on First Nation reservations in Canada, and Native American reservations in USA. I had spent time in war zones in Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Sudan, and Syria.  I had much more knowledge of how people behave in various situations(e.g. what motivates them to do what they do) when I was 40 years old, than when I was 20.  I am much better at that at 74 than I was at 40.  Had I tried to pass myself off as a "comic book story writer" at age 20, I may have gotten a tryout (test period), but I'd probably not been one of the better writers.  My opinion is that there were many weak and poor storywriters in the comic book field during the mid 1960s, but they were, on average, nowhere near as poor at story writing as the average comic book storywriter was in the early 1940s, when the comic book industry (for stories made exclusively for new books (rather than just compiling, re-formatting, and re-printing newspaper strips) was in its infancy.  The pay was miniscule, and so, veteran writers only took such jobs as a last resort.  So, many of the hired "writers" were young, comic book fans, soon after they graduated from high school.

Wow, interesting historical perspective. Thanks for that!

[Andrew999]

Talking of Carl Barks - today marks the 20th anniversary of his death. We should pause for a moment to remember all he did for us in the 99 years he shared:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Barks

Old editor's joke:

Why is it artists live so long?
- Because they work so slowly!

[ComicMike]

Robb, thank you very much for your comments here and in "Reading Group Book # 227 - Jolly Jingles 10". It is always very interesting, to learn something from the early history of comics.

Andrew, thank you for reminding us of Carl Barks. In 1994 Carl Barks left the United States for the first time, for an extensive trip to Europe. From Scandinavia to Germany, Italy and France and a few more stations, the sprightly 93-year-old traveled through Europe. He held interviews and press conferences, gave long book signings, attended exhibitions held in his honor, and found time for a little sight-seeing. Unfortunately I didn't see him, but the fact, that Carl Barks was also in Germany, is a nice thing.

I was always very happy for him that, at least in old age, he finally got the recognition he deserved.

[Electricmastro]

Andrew, thank you for reminding us of Carl Barks. In 1994 Carl Barks left the United States for the first time, for an extensive trip to Europe. From Scandinavia to Germany, Italy and France and a few more stations, the sprightly 93-year-old traveled through Europe. He held interviews and press conferences, gave long book signings, attended exhibitions held in his honor, and found time for a little sight-seeing. Unfortunately I didn't see him, but the fact, that Carl Barks was also in Germany, is a nice thing.

I was always very happy for him that, at least in old age, he finally got the recognition he deserved.

Agreed!

[Robb_K]

Robb, thank you very much for your comments here and in "Reading Group Book # 227 - Jolly Jingles 10". It is always very interesting, to learn something from the early history of comics.

Andrew, thank you for reminding us of Carl Barks. In 1994 Carl Barks left the United States for the first time, for an extensive trip to Europe. From Scandinavia to Germany, Italy and France and a few more stations, the sprightly 93-year-old traveled through Europe. He held interviews and press conferences, gave long book signings, attended exhibitions held in his honor, and found time for a little sight-seeing. Unfortunately I didn't see him, but the fact, that Carl Barks was also in Germany, is a nice thing.

I was always very happy for him that, at least in old age, he finally got the recognition he deserved.

Carl Barks was an amazing man, and one of the nicest people I've ever met.  His work brought a tremendous amount of pleasure to a whole generation of children who grew up just after the horrors of World War II, while the European countries were slowly recovering, and most families didn't have extra money for entertainment (the cinema, etc.) and there was no TV as yet.  In Holland EVERY boy read "Donald Duck", and most girls did.  The same was true in Scandinavia and Italy.  Carl's work was instrumental in forming both of my careers, environmental scientist/economist on UN projects, and writing and drawing Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories.  Reading Donald Duck's and Uncle Scrooge's adventure stories made me want to travel all over The World and to see those distant lands.  So many of the well-respected, accomplished, well-educated people I know read Barks as a youth.  I was very glad to have met him in the mid 1960s (while I was in my 20s, and he was still working for Western Publishing), before he started getting swamped by thousands of his fans wanting to visit him.  I also was glad he was very happy that I got work on "Duck stories".  All through the years, I sent him copies of my work as it progressed and improved.

He was very genial, friendly, and always had a jolly disposition.  He brought his great sense of humour into his everyday life.  He was very lucky to have had a career doing something he loved to do.  THAT, and being a very easy-going, even-keeled person, who lived a simple life, and accepted, gladly, what The World has to offer, were the reasons he lived so long (and produced artwork almost to his end).  I visited him at his home in USA 3 times in the 1966, 1969, and 1971, and we wrote to each other and telephoned a little for the 30 years after.  Ironically, I moved to Europe in 1984, and although I was in 4 of the countries he visited during summer 1994, I missed his visit in each one of them.

[Robb_K]

Electricmastro, a nice selection. I have always been of the opinion, that there are comic pictures, or even entire comic pages, which - regardless of their actual comic story - are an independent work of art.

I have gotten the impression that publishers seemed to usually focus more on the art in a way that the writing was treated as less important, unless it was more socially conscious like the The Challenger or EC Comics, or with exceptions like Jack Cole

[Electricmastro]

Chesler:

Henry Kiefer (Star Comics #2, April 1937):



Fred Guardineer (Star Ranger #6, September 1937):



Charles Sultan (Yankee Comics #3, January 1942):



Rafael Astarita (Yankee Comics #4, March 1942):



Bob McCay (Punch Comics #11, November 1944):



Dick Ryan (Snap Comics #9, 1944):



Paul Gattuso (Punch Comics #14, July 1945):



Gus Ricca (Punch Comics #14, July 1945):

[Electricmastro]

D.S. Publishing:

Jack Keller (Outlaws #1, February 1948):



Tex Blaisdell (Gangsters Can't Win #1, February 1948):



Fred Bell (Exposed #2, May 1948):



Richard Case (Outlaws #3, June 1948):



Tom Hickey (Underworld #3, June 1948):



Maurice Whitman (Public Enemies #3, July 1948):



Al Wenzel (Public Enemies #4, September 1948):



Louis Schroeder (Whodunit #2, October 1948):



August Froehlich (Outlaws #6, December 1948):



Bob Jenney (Gangsters Can't Win #7, February 1949):



Ernie Schroeder (Roundup #5, March 1949):



Al McWilliams (Gangsters Can't Win #8, April 1949):



Bob Sale (Underworld #9, June 1949):



Paul Parker (Gangsters Can't Win #9, June 1949):

[Electricmastro]

Youthful Magazines:

Walter Johnson (Indian Fighter #1, May 1950):



Wally Wood (Captain Science #1, November 1950):



Gustav Schrotter (Captain Science #2, February 1951):



John Sink (Buffalo Bill #4, February 1951):



Manny Stallman (Indian Fighter #6, March 1951):



Keats Petree (Buffalo Bill #5, April 1951):



Joe Orlando (Captain Science #4, June 1951):



Tex Blaisdell (Captain Science #6, October 1951):



Harry Harrison (Captain Science #7, December 1951):



Vince Napoli (Stamps Comics #3, February 1952):



Roy Krenkel (Attack #4, November 1952):



Vic Carrabotta (Atomic Attack #6, March 1953):



Steve Kirkel (Chilling Tales #17, October 1953):

[Electricmastro]

Comic Media:

Don Perlin (War Fury #1, September 1952):



Pete Morisi (Weird Terror #2, November 1952):



Ken Landau (All True Romance #12, July 1953):



Rudy Palais (Horrific #7, September 1953):



Don Heck (Death Valley #2, December 1953):



Ross Andru (Danger #8, March 1954):



Bill Discount (Weird Terror #11, May 1954):

[ComicMike]

Electricmastro, thank you for bringing 'Captain Science' to my attention. 

[mopee167]

Walter Johnson (Indian Fighter #1, May 1950): I'm guessing that picture of Crazy Horse was swiped from somewhere.

[Electricmastro]

Electricmastro, thank you for bringing 'Captain Science' to my attention. 

You

[Electricmastro]

Columbia Comics:

Ogden Whitney (Big Shot #32, February 1943):



Mart Bailey (The Face #2, 1943):



Boody Rogers (Big Shot #98, February 1949):

[Robb_K]

This is from "Sleepin' Lena" a Winsor McKay "Rarebit Fiend"-type surreal fantasy about a young, female cat-person, who always gets fired for falling asleep on the first day of her job-from La Salle's 1945's one shot "Merry-Go-Round" giant 132-pager:

[Electricmastro]

This is from "Sleepin' Lena" a Winsor McKay "Rarebit Fiend"-type surreal fantasy about a young, female cat-person, who always gets fired for falling asleep on the first day of her job-from La Salle's 1945's one shot "Merry-Go-Round" giant 132-pager:

Nice surreal obscurity you found there.