[profh0011]

I started this blog in June 2011, and so far the bulk of it has spotlighted Jack Kirby's FOURTH WORLD. But I've also done pages for TIM HOLT, GHOST RIDER (the original, of course), JET! (Bob Powell), a variety of Silver Age Marvel series, and the complete run of SPACE CONQUERORS! from BOY'S LIFE magazine.  (I found that online and cleaned it up, so my postings are now MUCH better-looking and far more readable that at the "official" BL site.)

I just started a section on Marvel's DAREDEVIL, which, I admit, has probably some of the most negative comments I've made at the blog so far... but it was called for in this case.  I can imagine the fanatical "MMMS" types who hang out at the Masterworks board would have violent conniptions if they read what I wrote... GOOD for 'em!  I'm trying to celebrate the people who REALLY created and wrote these books, who've had their careers and reputations smeared for far too many decades already.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/01/daredevil.html

[profh0011]

Wally Wood's DAREDEVIL
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/01/daredevil-part-2.html

Page 2 of my DD blog section.  I admit up-front, this is probably the most controversial page I have ever written on my blog... SO FAR.  Enjoy.  Or just keep it to yourself!

[profh0011]

DAREDEVIL, Part 3 -- the beginning of the John Romita era.  Be warned, this is probably the most "controversial" blog page I have ever written.  Yes-- even more so than the 2 previous ones!!

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/02/daredevil-pt-3.html

[WileyJ]

Very enlighting stuff.the truth is sometimes dissapointing.looks like stan is right up there with bob kane!

[profh0011]

I'm amazed at how inspired and carried away i got with all that.  Finding that ONE rough Wally Wood sketch answered so many questions for me, but it also seemes to have opened up just as many new questions. 

For example... was Dick Ayers the one who came up with the idea of DD going on a sea voyage in the first place?  If so, it seems unlikely Ka-Zar & The Savage Land was supposed to be involved.

Presumably Jack Kirby had a Ka-Zar sequel in mind to do at some point, which would reveal his origin.  Was this what Wally Wood had in mind for the beginning of the SUB-MARINER strip, or was he thinking of a more generic "Lost World" (going direct to Arthur Conan Doyle or Edgfar Rice Burroughs for his inspiration-- did he even know about Ka-Zar?).

My guess is, Stan's SOLE contribution to the plot may have been moviing the story from SUB-MARINER to DAREDEVIL.  Where it makes musch LESS sense.  (Gene Colan no doubt had his own idea for what to do with Subby when he got the strip after Wood departer for Tower.)

I  confess, on thumbing thru my Masterworks book, it does look like much of DD #12 was based on VERY ROUGH Kirby layouts, but Romita's art is so dodgy, it's hard to be sure.  The results were MUCH better on the one HULK episode Kirby & Romita did together.  Of course, over there, Kirby was the regular writer, HULK was his character, and he wa really on a roll!  Whereas, with DD, all Kirby had done was design a costume on demand-- which wasn't even being used anymore-- before Lee pulled him back onto the book to supply Romita with a story. Had Kirby done full art, the results might have been a lot better. As it is, it's clear that most of #13, Romita used Kirby story elements but otherwise TOTALLY changed the layout, pacing, story structure, everything.

A good example is the dining room scene.  Kirby has it near the end of #13, and Ka-Zar is at the table with DD and the Plunderer.  In Romita's version, the scene is only halfway thru the episode, and Ka-Zar is in the dungeon at the time!

Things do get MUCH better once DD is back in his natural element-- NYC-- but still, that "Ox" story is pretty miserable.  It's weird, but Romita finally startes to seem inspired when he gets around to having Spider-Man guest-star for 2 issues. (At Stan's insistence, no doubt!)

This is at least the 3rd time some really bad comics "inspired" me to do in-depth reviews.

[profh0011]

Remember last year when I spent weeks downloading, cleaning up and re-posting the entire run of Al Stenzel's SPACE CONQUERORS! strip from BOYS' LIFE magazine? Well, I'm finally at it again!

Just posted the 1st 2 installments of TALES FROM THE BIBLE. What can I say? Even as a kid, 2 of my favorite subjects were the future... and the past.  Which may explain my interest in science-fiction, Biblical movies, and anything involving time-travel (heh).

By the way, if anyone can identify the artist who did these, please let me know so I can update the blog page.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/02/tales-from-bible-1952.html

[jimmm kelly]

I love a mystery and a quick internet search brought a possible answer. The artist on one of those pages (or both?) might be Creig Fessel...

...according to "Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine":

Creig Flessel, one of the earliest of the comic book journeymen, left comic books and after a stint as an assistant to comic strip artist John H. Streibel on "Dixie Dugan" went to the advertising agency, Johnstone and Cushing. In the heyday of comic art many ads were drawn comic art style by top comic artists (Lou Fine, Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles among others). The real money was in advertising, where pages were drawn for hundreds of dollars rather than a paltry few dollars at the comic book companies.

Beginning in the early 1950s Johnstone and Cushing provided the 8-page comic supplement to Boys' Life magazine. Flessel did this two-page adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol for the December, 1952 issue. It boils the story down to 23 panels, but the tale is so familiar we just fill in the details in our own heads. Flessel's artwork is outstanding. Flessel worked for many more years in various fields of comic art and advertising. He died at age 96 in 2008.

A Christmas Carol

[MarkWarner]

According to this article it is also Greig Flessel 
http://allthingsger.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/pound-of-flessel-sunday-leftover-day.html

[profh0011]

Thanks, guys. SPACE CONQUERORS! did have a variety of artists, but most of them were at least distinctive (at least, until the "Lou Fine" period-- when it's been suggested by several people that there may be several different people in there, not just Fine, and there was virtually nothing of Fine's own style in his J&C work). But I haven't looked much into the BIBLE series yet.  Creig Flessel's signature turned up on the 3rd installment. The odd thing is that is isn't on every one.

It'll be interesting as I continue on this project to see how long the series ran, and if and when they changed artists (if at all).

Last night, by luck, I ran across the Wikipedia page of Bob LaRose, who, apparently, colored ALL the J&C color comics in BOYS' LIFE.  I added links on all the BIBLE pages, and plan to do the same with the SC pages (but, there's a lot of 'em!!).

I was actually looking for info on Al Stenzel, but instead ran across that, and, a lengthy article at Hogan's Alley about the history of Johnstone & Cushing.  I'm sure I've read it before, but now I've included a link to the page on the BIBLE pages at my blog.

One interesting detail was that, at J&C, anytime someone got an account, they STAYED with it, to keep the ads consistent.  Unless they left and were replaced entirely. However, it was about 1962 that Al Stenzel started his own firm and took the BOYS' LIFE account away from J&C (causing J&C to go belly-up!!)  He may not have worried as much about consistency, which does suggest to me that, if there were different artists doing SC during that period I currently attribute to Lou Fine, it seems more likely it would be after the comics switched companies.  But I'm just speculating.

Thank goodness George Evans, Alden McWilliams & Gray Morrow have such distinctive, recognizable styles.

[profh0011]

From BOY'S LIFE magazine, TALES FROM THE BIBLE, 1956-- Irving Novick takes over from Creig Flessel.  Stories retold this year include 2 tales of King Nebuchadnezzar, "Daniel in the Lions' Den", "Easter", "Passover", "Queen Esther", "The Prodigal Son", "Sodom and Gomorrah", "The Good Samaritan", and "The Nativity".

1952   
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/02/tales-from-bible-1952.html

1953
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/02/tales-from-bible-1953.html

1954
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1954.html

1955
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1955.html

1956
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1956.html

1957
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1957.html

[jimmm kelly]

It's good to see yet another side to Irv Novick. He certainly grew as an artist. I like the work that he did for DC's war comics in the 50s and 60s. When he took over BATMAN in 1968 (inked by Joe Giella on interiors and inking his own pencils on covers), he melded his own style with Infantino's version. Personally, that's the version of Batman by Novick that I prefer. I was never as satisfied with his Darknight Detective of the 1970s, somewhat influenced by Neal Adams, and maybe heavily influenced by his new inker, Dick Giordano--although I still think he did topnotch work, for which he's never gotten enough credit.

[profh0011]

I shuld look to see if I have any of that late-60's work. I know I thought the early-70's "Adams" look was interesting, for the period, at least when I was a teenager, but it was never my favorite BATMAN.  I'd say I had several favorites in the comics-- including Jerry Robinson (early 40's), Dick Sprang (50's), Carmine Infantino (60's), Don Newton, and Paul Gulacy.

Unfortunately, while I'm still a fan of Gulacy's work (I LOVED his run on CATWOMAN), the longer he was associated with BATMAN, the more he began illustrating stories I just did not like at all. (That goes for a lot of his recent work. I don't know what "editorial" types are thinking these days...)

[profh0011]

From BOY'S LIFE magazine, TALES FROM THE BIBLE.

The latest retelling of the story of "Moses" continued for the bulk of 1959! In
addition, there were the latest retellings of "Passover", "Easter" and "The
Nativity", which had become real perennials by here.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1959.html

[profh0011]

1961.

The chronological retelling of the Biblical stories begun with the February 1957 installment continues with the stories of "Jonathan", "David And King Saul", "David And Goliath", "Solomon", and yet again, "Hanukkah".

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1961.html

[profh0011]

From BOYS' LIFE magazine, TALES FROM THE BIBLE, 1964.

The newest chronological retelling of the Biblical stories begun with the March 1963 installment continued with the stories of "Abraham", "Isaac", "Jacob", "Joseph", "Moses"... and, of course, "The Nativity".

More commentary on my part than usual so far.  Enjoy!

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1964.html

[profh0011]

1965
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/tales-from-bible-1965.html


The newest chronological retelling of the Biblical stories begun with the March 1963 installment continued with 3 more installments of the story of "Moses"... though these had been done much better back in 1958-59 (6 years earlier).


I don't know what was going on, but the entire April 1965 comics section was printed in ONE color ink on lime green paper.  (That's a really cheap way of doing "2-color" printing and only using 1 color of ink.)  Did the budget run low, or were they experimenting to see how it looked / how it would go over with readers?  Fortunately, it only lasted one month.


Additionally, there were no BIBLE installments for January, June or October.


A real surprise here was the return of "The Parables Of Jesus".  They hadn't done any of these since 1956!  2 of these, "The Good Samaritan" and "The Sower", had been done in the series before, but "The Pharisee And The Publican", "The Unmerciful Creditor", "The House On The Rock" and "The Good And The Bad Seed" were all making their BOYS' LIFE debut here!




1966
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/stories-from-bible-1966.html


The series was MISSING for 5 months from January-May 1966.  When it returned, it started over at The Beginning... AGAIN!  It looks like the books of Genesis and Exodus must have been the most popular. So far, this was the 5th time these stories had been told in the BOYS' LIFE series.


It seems very apparent to me (and fellow comics fan Steve Thompson) that the series has switched artists during the hiatus. I half-suspected it might be Gray Morrow, but neither of us have been able to positively identify who the new artist here is. Anyone have any ideas?

[profh0011]

1967
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/stories-from-bible-1967.html


The latest retellings of these stories, begun in June 1966, continue with new versions of "Abraham", "Jacob" and "Joseph".  Plus, as a bonus, the history of the usage of "X" in "Christmas".

At least two distinctly different art styles are used this year. I suspect Lou Fine is the first, but I'm unsure of the second.  See my notes at the blog.


By the way, I just checked... by my reckoning, Lou Fine's last SPACE CONQUERORS! episode on his first run was Feb'66.  So he could easily have taken over THE BIBLE for Jun'66.

[profh0011]

1968
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/03/stories-from-bible-1968.html

The latest retellings of these stories, begun in June 1966, continue with new 3 more installments of "Joseph", followed by 8 new installments retelling the story of "Moses".  Oddly enough, "Sodom And Gomorrah", skipped earlier, turns up in between therse two.  I wonder if anyone reading these for the first time thought that story took place in between the other two stories?

I've reached the point here where I came in.  My subscription ran from May 1968 to November 1969.  I don't know why it was more than 12 months, but those were the issues we got, based on the episodes of SPACE CONQUERORS! I read way back when (and collected into a scrapbook).

By the way, the artist who took over in mid-1967 continues with his 'realistic" yet "scratchy" rendering style. It kinda reminds me of Dick Giordano, but I can't be sure.  Seriously-- ANY ideas who this could be???

[profh0011]

I must be forgetting to post here...

1969
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/04/stories-from-bible-1969.html

1970
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/04/stories-from-bible-1970.html

1971
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/04/stories-from-bible-1971.html

1972
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/04/stories-from-bible-1972.html

The latest retellings of these stories, begun in June 1966, continue with new versions of "Elisha The Healer" (6 installments) and "Daniel" (5 installments).

There was no Bible installment for July 1972. I always wonder why that sort of thing happens.


They've obviously gone through several changes in artists in these last few years here. If anyone can help identify whose work this is, it would be appreciated!

[profh0011]

Just in case anybody missed it, there was exactly ONE installment of this series in 1973...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zn0JNK0sgfo/UWJBhkTOoEI/AAAAAAAAKd4/WPdHA7wAnis/s1600/Bible+1973+01++700.jpg


...then it went on hiatus for 17 months, replaced with "The Religious Emblems Program", which was more to do with Scouts than religion.


But then it returned, in July 1974, under a new name... 
BIBLE STORIES.

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/04/bible-stories-1974.html


PS:  There seems to be 3 different artists' work on display here.  Any help identifying who the artists are will be most appreciated!

[profh0011]

1975
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/04/bible-stories-1975.html

As has happened several times before, this latest incarnation of the BIBLE series featured new versions of the stories of "Noah's Ark", "The Tower Of Babel", "Abraham", "Sodom And Gomorrah", and, as a bonus, "Hanukkah".

Interestingly, the last chapter of the "Abraham" story focuses on events which had not been recounted in this series before, that of the search for a wife for Abraham's son, Isaac.  Apparently, Rebecca was already related before her marriage via Abraham's brother. That's keeping things "in the family", I suppose.

The art for the February through September installments border on "art nouveau", almost resembling stained-glass window art, a style that was apparently very popular in the mid-1970's.

1975 was also the first time in quite a few years that the feature reverted to full pages, if only for certain episodes (February-May, one of the two November episodes and the one for December).

[profh0011]

FANTASTIC FOUR #1 / Nov'61

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EO3CKlnfmtc/UWOUUld6dnI/AAAAAAAAKhM/olJSmF0EgsQ/s1600/FF+001_cf_BK_HK++B6.jpg

I just dug out the files for these and have begun doing ADDITIONAL clean-ups.  So if you've seen these before, they're going to look BETTER than they did before!

[profh0011]

X-MEN #33  /  Jun'67  /  v.1 by Werner Roth

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DcsuITDgWLM/UWXnKE1V4TI/AAAAAAAAKjw/14rEBPW0S7o/s1600/XM+033_c1c_HK.jpg

X-MEN seems to have had more than its share of rejected covers.

X-MEN #33 had 2 different covers rejected.  The first was by then-series regular Werner Roth.  While I consider Roth's depiction of the characters to be the definitive one (above even Kirby, who created them, and Adams, whose work was a huge inspiration for the 70's revival), he was known more for romance than action.

Gil Kane, a longtime DC mainstay, wound up doing several Marvel covers around this time.  AVENGERS #37 (Feb'67) & X-MEN #33 (Jun'67), both books written by Roy Thomas, had Kane's work replacing already-drawn pieces by each book's regular artist (Don Heck & Werner Roth, respectively).

(to be continued)

[narfstar]

I must have been in the minority but I did not like Kane's Marvel covers. Avengers 38 is one of my all time least favorite covers

[profh0011]

Narfstar:
"I must have been in the minority but I did not like Kane's Marvel covers. Avengers 38 is one of my all time least favorite covers"

I liked certain Kane, but most of it-- AUGH! What I thought was funny was a few years back, when I started doing "fantasy" versions of some covers, that an awful lot of them were Kane covers.  Like, there was some decent work, but buried under horrible (early-70's) design .

Kane did AVENGERS #37 ("To Conquer A Collossus") & 38 ("In Our Midst...An Immortal").  I hated BOTH of them.  Awhile back, I discovered the first one had replaced a AMAZING cover by Don Heck-- one of his BEST!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CMJNp-CxR4A/TtLbAA2s5VI/AAAAAAAAAYs/sN4U04TIm0w/s1600/AV+037_ca_HA++HK.jpg

Just today, Roy Thomas sent me this...

"I really don't recall how Gil happened to be doing those covers, except that he was looking to get away from DC to at least some extent... and he liked the idea of doing one big drawing instead of several small ones for what I believe was the same rate.  I don't think I went after him specifically myself... Stan was still more taking more personal involvement with covers then (1967, early 68?)... and I hadn't really worked with or gotten to know Gil... didn't until we worked together on CAPTAIN MARVEL."

Even so, it's interesting that at least twice a cover, done by a book's current artist, was rejected in favor of one by Gil Kane, and both time, it was on a book Roy was writing. Roy later worked with Kane on CAPTAIN MAR-VELL, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, WARLOCK, IRON FIST, CONAN, and probably some other things I'm forgetting.

Also, I recall once reading that Stan Lee "hated" Gil Kane's art.  On another occasion, Stan Lee claimed he thought Gil Kane's version of Spider-Man was "the best he'd ever seen!"  This makes me think that maybe Lee "hated" the earlier, "transitional" Kane (as seen on his 4 episodes of HULK and 4 episodes of CAPTAIN AMERICA, where he was clearly and deliberately in the process of MUTATING his style into something else).  Kane worked with Lee on those.  The "later" Kane-- the style he developed and KEPT for the remainder of his entire career-- really made its debut (as far as I can tell) on his 5 issues of CAPTAIN MAR-VELL. Kane was with Thomas on those.  Right after, he took over AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, where he worked with John Romita.  According to Romita, HE was writing the stories on all those issues, even when he wasn't doing either pencils or inks! (Lee would write dialogue, and "course-direct" after-the-fact where he felt it needed.)  The issues with Kane, Kane was "contributing" ideas. It's inescapable, the fact that when Kane gets on a series, it goes completely off the deep end into manic, intense, downbeat and ultra-violent. And almost every one of his covers has the word "DEATH!!!" on it somewhere.   


"DEATH!  DEATH TO ALL WHO OPPOSE US!!!!!"
--Barbarian Leader  /  HEAVY METAL  (1981)