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[Quirky Quokka]

Probably showing my ignorance here, but I wonder if the way in which speech and thought balloons were done in the early days could also contribute to errors? In the days before liquid paper, correction tape and computer software, were captions drawn directly onto the artwork or were they on separate sheets and overlaid in some way?

In US comics, for decades the standard procedure was to give pencilled pages to a letterer who lettered captions and dialogue directly onto the art board (and usually drew balloons as well). The art was then given to the inker for finishing. Corrections were lettered on separate paper, then cut out and pasted over the error. If you look at a lot of old original art you'll see brown stains where the rubber cement they used dried out over the years and the corrections fell off. They also used a water-based white paint to cover mistakes. The legendary Dr Martin's Bleed-Proof White was the Cadillac of white-out. This was more common for art corrections since the paint could dry unevenly and it'd be tricky to run a lettering pen over it.

When I started working in the 80s I saw more frequently stories where the lettering was done after the art was finished. The copy was still hand-lettered but it was done on adhesive-backed paper which was then cut to balloon shape and stuck to a transparent plastic overlay. I'm guessing this method was encouraged both by increasing deadline pressures and by the fact that many more artists worked at a distance from New York City. In the old days most comics artists were NYC-based and work was easily handed from one person to another without using the mails. Nowadays of course the finished art (assuming it is still drawn on paper and not digitally) is scanned into a computer where lettering and balloons are added to the digital file.

It seems to me that the old comics workflow may have been unique to the States. I've seen many British comic originals dating back to the 40s in which the lettering was cut out and pasted directly onto the finished art. I'm guessing that this was partly because British comic papers often used typeset captions (sometimes the dialogue as well, but not so often). They also bought a huge amount of art from studios in Spain, France, and South America. The most expedient procedure would be for the foreign studio to send finished art boards without lettering. The publisher would then paste on the text.

I used to have a 1970s Modesty Blaise original by Enrique Romero. The lettering and balloons had been drawn on sticky-back paper. Instead of discoloring the paper like rubber cement, time had made the paper semi-transparent. You could see the parts of Romero's art that had been covered up. There was quite a bit of it. Nice stuff, too.

Today no hand-drawn comics originals have text on them. Being an old coot I think that's a shame. Something I've always liked about original art is that you got a piece of story along with the drawings, and that's what comics were always about to me: words and pictures working together. On the other hand I can understand a modern artist's desire for the page to be a pretty picture without a bunch of stuff pasted onto it. To each their own.

Thanks for that detailed answer, crashryan. That's interesting. It explains why some of the old comics will have a letter here and there that looks funny. Probably a correction. The difference between the US and other countries is interesting too. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I'm looking at a UK Comic. You must have seen a lot of changes in your time since the 80s. The modern comics certainly look very crisp and professional, but there is something special about well-done handwritten captions. The good letterers really make the words pop.

I picked up a couple of volumes of Modesty Blaise comics from the 80s at one of my local library's monthly sales. Really love the artwork.

[Quirky Quokka]

Just a slight tangent, but we were talking about typos getting through in comics. Some typos are funnier than others. The latest Phantom comic released by Frew this week is actually a reprint of the 1983 story 'The Leopard Cult'. The baddie is supposed to say, 'Before the rooster crows twice, you'll be nothing but a skeleton,' but 'rooster' is printed as 'roster'. Doesn't quite have the same fear-inducing tone.   

[The Australian Panther]

I've been out all day and right now I'm watching the NRL - National Rugby League - grand final. A big event in Australia. I don't support either of the teams playing, but they are both native to the area where I live.
So, My own opinion and closing comments on this Reading Group will have to wait till tomorrow.
But do not despair!
Nola is going with the choices she suggested already, as of tomorrow!
Over to you, Nola!       

[The Australian Panther]

King of Diamonds 1
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=38774
my stated intention.

Here we have two artists, Don Heck and Mike Sekowsky at the top of their game.
Both are known for their work in the early silver age, but how good they were at the end of the Golden Age is not often appreciated.
We have just been looking at very early Golden Age work, So I thought lets look at some work from a few years later, when creators were taking more pride in their work.

Crash said,

I like this comic. The book-length story is well-paced and the artwork presents Mike Sekowsky at his finest. If I'd seen this as a kid I wouldn't have wasted so many years hating on Sekowsky because he drew tubby Justice Leaguers. While he cops out here and there in most of the book he gives us nice locales, moody lighting, and some interesting design ideas like the nighttime walk panels on pages 23 and 28. Having seen Sekowsky's pencils (I even inked some of them back in the day) I know all that stuff would have been Mike's doing, not something Giacoia added. What Giacoia did do was give everything a final polish that makes the whole job shine. Nice Broderick likenesses, by  the way.

I can add to that, but I won't. Sekowsky has said that he was glad to leave the Justice League and had a great deal of sympathy for whoever took it over [Dick Dillin] because remembering all those costumes was a nightmare.
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Dick_Dillin 
Mikes best work for DC, in my opinion, was the run he and Giacoia did on Wonder Woman, I think personally, inspired by the British TV show the Avengers. 
It was definitely hard to appreciate his work in the early Silver age when Marvel had Kirby and Ditko and Gold Key had Russ Manning and Dan Spiegle and DC also had Murphy Anderson and Gil Kane. To name a few. 
This type of Plain clothes noir book was definitely more his forte. 
I know an artist is excellent when I can go back to the work, look at it again and appreciate it as much, if not more. For me that's the case here.
OK. The TV show. What a mess!
The song with the lyrics doesn't seem to have actually been used for the episodes that went to air.
Some of those who got the project up and running seemed to have something like 77 Sunset Strip for a template and that show used the character of 'Kookie' to appeal to younger viewers. So we get Broderick Crawford for the lead and he was also the producer, so it seems he was looking for a property that would suit him, I'm guessing, more of a Nero Wolfe idea based around the diamond industry, which might have worked.
Crawford is today primarily remembered for Highway Patrol but he was obviously respected in the industry and did work for major directors.

In 1949, he played the role of Willie Stark, in ‘All the King's Men’. The film was a huge hit and his performance won him an Oscar award. In 1950, he starred in another blockbuster A-list production, ‘Born Yesterday’.
He eventually starred in films like Phil Karlson's ‘Scandal Sheet’ (1952), Fritz Lang's ‘Human Desire’ (1954), Federico Fellini's ‘Il bidone’ (1955), and Stanley Kramer's ‘Not as a Stranger’ (1955), showcasing his versatility.
In 1955, he played the role of the most brutal criminal, Rollo Lamar in ‘Big House, U.S.A’. In the film, his character is a hardened prisoner who commands submission from the toughest criminals possible.

Despite his alcohol problem, he worked regular to the end of the 70's.
Whatever bad decisions were made for the TV show, they likely weren't entirely Crawford's fault.
Probably this comic, which gave Mike Sekowsky the chance to take the brakes off, was the best thing that came out of it.
Cheers.
my life is getting in the way of my posting, so I will comment on the other book down the track a while.
cheers!     

[The Australian Panther]

Death Valley 2
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20317
I've just gone back and read all the comments on these two selections.
Fascinating. Covers a lot of ground.
So, Don Heck!
Morgus said,

I wish Heck had worked for Dell and did more of their movie adaptations, and I wish Dell had gotten a contract to do some of the spaghetti westerns from the 60's. His kinetic style would have worked great with some of Corbucci's films in particular. 

He would have been good on some of Dell's Westerns too. Wonder why he didn't work for Dell?
Crash said,

Others have already commented on the unfortunate way Don Heck was underrated. He was just getting started in his Comic Media stories. As time passed he got even better. If you look at those silly Atlas spook and critter stories you'll see some darned fine drawing...okay, except for the monsters themselves, who always looked like evil muppets. Give him a sorcery tale, a spy or war story, a western, a detective strip, and he was tops. Heck's one weak spot was superhero stories, and because he wasn't Jack Kirby fans never gave him a chance. Anyway, his art here is terrific.

On 'Evil Muppets' - agree completely. What lets down a lot of golden age monster and horror stories is the unbelivability [silliness?] of the drawn monsters.
One of Kirby's strengths was that no matter how wild his monsters looked, they always looked anatomically believable. They are themselves a tribute to his visual creativity.

Heck's one weak spot was superhero stories, and because he wasn't Jack Kirby fans never gave him a chance.   

I remember reading an interview with him where he said that he himself compared himself to Kirby and found himself wanting. So, rather than just relax and just be himself, he tried changing his work and still remained unsatisfied.   
He actually did quite good work. During his run on Iron Man he introduced both the Black Widow and Hawkeye. And he had a good run on the Avengers.
Apparently, during the 80's and into the 90's there was a tendency for the young Turks at Marvel to treat some of the older artists badly. Don Heck was one of these and even Kirby got treated shabbily when he returned to Marvel.
The Fan tendency to 'pile on' Don Heck seems to have started later, from the 90's on. I have never understood it.
Don during the 80's and 90's also worked for DC and some of that is quite good.
Quirky said,

Nothing makes a woman swoon more than a good murder!

I don't know about swooning, but 'Cozys', Drawing Room mysteries of the Agatha Christie type, were invented by women and are a staple of women's reading. My sister has read everything Christie ever wrote.
And saw the play 'the Mousetrap' when she visited London. 
goodreads.com/genres/cozy
Robb said,

The Apache young woman's outfit was quite unrealistic.  I worked for The Navajo Nation for several years, as well as for a few of The Pueblo Tribes in Arizona and New Mexico during the 1970s, and never saw any female outfits like that worn by anyone then, nor in any historical photographs or paintings.  But, the editors clearly wanted to help attract teenaged boys to read and buy their books, so I understand why those outfits are used, and why the featured Native women have European idyllic features.  Nevertheless, the story had an interesting (if not unexpected) plot, and a satisfying ending.

I have never expected a fictional representation of anything portrayed of the American 'West' in any kind of fiction, to be fully realistic.
1/ The period generally portrayed is the expansion phrase from the end of the Civil War [May 26, 1865] to the completion of the transcontinental raliway link. [May 10, 1869]
It's not til after 1895 that the 4 wheeled petrol driven car turns up.
[The American George B. Selden filed for a patent on 8 May 1879. His application included not only the engine but its use in a four-wheeled car. Selden filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process, resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent was granted on 5 November 1895]
So, most movies, comics and novels cover only a period of 10 years maximum of US 'Western' history.
2/ The 'Golden Age' of comics coincides with the postwar period when the US's attention was focused on the 'heroic deeds' of its past and Westerns were a staple of film and TV.
Disney's Davy Crockett was huge.
My mates and I played 'Cowboys and Indians'! 
It's always been clear to me that 'the West' is to the US as the Arthurian legends are to British culture and I have never expected full accuracy from its fictional depictions.
So, to the book!
A very well-composed cover. Designed to move the eye from the central figure to the gun and then back out again. The blood on the head is particularly graphic for a comic cover, tho.
If Don inked himself here, and I think he did, he should have done more of it.
The stories are essentially generic, although well-told, but I'm concerned mostly with the art.
Fool's Gold
CB+ page 5 is well-planned and clear and concise. Nice details on Quillan's clothes and face but only what's necessary for the landscape. As demonstrated -page 5 last panel - Don had a gift for drawing faces. 
Bloody Sheriff
Page #23, the Top panel of the square dance is nice.
The colouring and shading in this book is good too, maybe the colorist was inspired by the art? 

Sorry it took too long to post my final comments on this, but for once I had other things to prioritize.
cheers!
     


     

[gregjh]

Looking forward to reading these.

[SuperScrounge]

When I was a kid I didn't hate Heck's work, but I could be disappointed when he drew an issue. Something about his art just felt... flat. Thinking back on it I'm wondering if it's just that he was too used to drawing normal people in normal poses to easily adapt to the more stylised look of superhero physiques and poses? There's a page in How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way where Buscema draws a normal muscular guy next to Captain America and the difference is amazing. Thinking back to Heck's work, even his muscular characters look more normal human than superhuman.

[The Australian Panther]

Something about his art just felt... flat. Thinking back on it I'm wondering if it's just that he was too used to drawing normal people in normal poses to easily adapt to the more stylized look of superhero physiques and poses?

Scrounge, you are absolutely right! I felt that about some of that work too, particular some of his later work on the Avengers where he inked himself and appeared to be trying to formulate a new style, but it was always evident that he was an excellent draftsman. He was definitely uncomfortable adapting to the 'Marvel Way' and said so.
I find myself wondering if an artist's state of mind can unconsciously affect his work?
Another who had problems was Mort Meskin. If you read biographical material on Mort you find that he had a major breakdown which affected his work. His later work, mostly for DC was a pale reflection of his earlier Golden age work.
Artists are only human and sometimes we forget that. 
Cheers!       

[Quirky Quokka]

Something about his art just felt... flat. Thinking back on it I'm wondering if it's just that he was too used to drawing normal people in normal poses to easily adapt to the more stylized look of superhero physiques and poses?

Scrounge, you are absolutely right! I felt that about some of that work too, particular some of his later work on the Avengers where he inked himself and appeared to be trying to formulate a new style, but it was always evident that he was an excellent draftsman. He was definitely uncomfortable adapting to the 'Marvel Way' and said so.
I find myself wondering if an artist's state of mind can unconsciously affect his work?
Another who had problems was Mort Meskin. If you read biographical material on Mort you find that he had a major breakdown which affected his work. His later work, mostly for DC was a pale reflection of his earlier Golden age work.
Artists are only human and sometimes we forget that. 
Cheers!       

Yes, so many things could affect their art aside from their talent or ability. I imagine the pressure of deadlines wouldn't help either.