38) March 2, 2016
I’m taking a few days off from my
serialized posting of the original art pages to my uncollected 1994 graphic
novel, “The Mark In America” to post and blog about my small collection of
original art by Lee Elias. This page is from “Warfront” #7, page #2 of the
story “Medal for Smitty”. Published by Harvey in June, 1952, drawn by Lee Elias.
Lee Elias has been compared to
Milton Caniff for obvious reasons, but this page actually reminds me more of
George Wunder (Caniff’s replacement on “Terry and the Pirates” when Mr. C left
to create “Steve Canyon” for a rival syndicate). I think that’s largely because
there’s little spotting of blacks on this page even though is seems to be inked
mostly with brush. The fluid, chunky energetic line work mostly compensated for
the lack of shadow, thought I wonder why he made that choice (not to spot
blacks). I’ve seem several examples of work like this from Elias, including the
dealer I purchased the Black Cat story, “Banker’s Holiday” that I posted the
pages of last week. He’s so excellent at it that it seems perverse when he
eschews it. This page is worth study for the manner is which Elias uses brush
strokes to simulate drapery folds on the soldier’s uniforms. Frequently he creates
a swirling feel, especially in multi-figure groupings. My favorite example of
this is panel 2. Unfortunately the effect is slightly undercut because he
doesn’t go in tight enough; there’s too much air around the figures. Or maybe
not. Interestingly there’s an almost symmetrical balance of negative to
positive space in the panel.
No comments:
Post a Comment