Ross Andru, Sam Grainger, Gulliver of Mars, 1972

This page is pencilled by Ross Andru, inked by Sam Grainger. It was published in “Creatures on the Loose” #18, by Marvel Comics, July 1972. This was the third installment in the serial, “Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars” which ran from “Creatures on the Loose” in issues #16 through #21. It is adapted from “Liet. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation”, by Edwin Lester Arnold, in 1905. “Its lukewarm reception led Arnold to shop writing fiction” (Wikipedia). It precedes “The Warlord of Mars”, by Edgar Rice Burrows, by nine years. 

Installments one and two have stunning artwork by Gil Kane and Sam Grainger. Installments five and six have equallly stunning artwork by Gray Morrow. This current installment was graced by Andru, at the time, was one of my Top 10 most hated comic book artists. I’m not sure why my tastes have changed so radically, 

What I saw there was stilted, mannered and grotesque. What I see now a dynamic over-all page composition. The reptilian swimmer in the upper panels form the top of a “X” with the direction of their bodies. The black back ground of the montage panel forms the bottom, the supine damsel acting as a structural base.

What turned me from hater to lover was “Tales To Thrizzle”

Eduardo Barreto, The Shadow Strikes #12, Page 14, DC Comics, 1990

This is page 14 from issue 12 of “The Shadow Strikes”, published by DC Comics in September, 1990.

I’ve never had any interest in Eduardo Barreto. My eyes were arrested when they ran across this page on the Heritage Sunday Auction site, on the week of  November 1st, 2015. I was the winning bid of $215. This original was part of a lot with 2 other pages from the same issue. I did’t like the other pages nearly as much. I donated them to the annual 2018 fundraising auction for C.A.P.S. (Comic Artist Professional Society).

What struck me immediately was how closely this pages catches the vibe of a Joe Kubert or Alex Toth page from the late 40’s. Panels 4, 5 and 6 seem like they must be swipes, but I can’t pin down from where. This is not a criticism. These panels fit in seamlessly into the page layout and narrative, even enhancing it. 

I wish Barreto had aspired to this approach on the two other pages. They have good elements, but the pages seem modeled more from Marshall Rogers and John Byrne.

Actually, page 6 isn’t bad. I should have kept it.  What threw me were the inks. which are slick and tight. I prefer the rougher, Caniff-esque of Kubert, Toth, Infantino, et al. If page 6 had been inked by Frank Robbins, I would have thought it was great. What’s actually there isn’t bad at all… it just seems kind of stiff, kind of overly-busy.

And now it belongs to someone else. (sigh).

Tara Madison Avery, DC Hero Headshots

I’ve been a fan of Tara’s for quite some time. Last year at the Comic Bug’s Free Comics Day in Culver City, I had a chance to pick up an original. Or a set of 9 original drawings on baseball-card-sized blanks. The theme of these portraits is 60’s DC Comics Superheroes., although Tara threw in the Marvel Family because s/he wanted. I paid $120 for the set. 

I don’t recognize the character in card #. Anybody know who he is?

CAPTAIN MARVEL, MARVEL FAMILY

MARY MARVEL, MARVEL FAMILY

CAPTAIN MARVEL JR., MARVEL FAMILY

THE CHIEF,  DOOM PATROL

ELASTI-GIRL, DOOM PATROL

ROBOTMAN, DOOM PATROL

NEGATIVE MAN, DOOM PATROL

UNKNOWN

DOOM PATROL, BEAST BOY

Ross Andru, Sam Grainger, Gulliver of Mars, 1972

This page is pencilled by Ross Andru, inked by Sam Grainger. It was published in “Creatures on the Loose” #18, by Marvel Comics, July 1972. This was the third installment in the serial, “Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars” which ran from “Creatures on the Loose” in issues #16 through #21. It is adapted from “Liet. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation”, by Edwin Lester Arnold, in 1905. “Its lukewarm reception led Arnold to shop writing fiction” (Wikipedia). It precedes “The Warlord of Mars”, by Edgar Rice Burrows, by nine years. 

Installments one and two have stunning artwork by Gil Kane and Sam Grainger. Installments five and six have equallly stunning artwork by Gray Morrow. This current installment was graced by Andru, at the time, was one of my Top 10 most hated comic book artists. I’m not sure why my tastes have changed so radically, 

What I saw there was stilted, mannered and grotesque. What I see now a dynamic over-all page composition. The reptilian swimmer in the upper panels form the top of a “X” with the direction of their bodies. The black back ground of the montage panel forms the bottom, the supine damsel acting as a structural base.

Brent Anderson, Astro City 4, "Turning Point", DC Wildstorm

I don’t know much about this one. I purchased it directly from the artist at his booth. at WonderCon 2003. At least, that’s what my notes say. I can’t find much info about it on line and I’ve never seen or read the comic book.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Mr. Anderson, but I owe him. We met at my very first comic book convention, San Diego Comic Con 1983. I had just graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California (a very prestigious art school, in case you didn’t know). I had just done my first 4 months as a highly paid storyboard artist in the TV Animation Industry (for Ruby-Spears and Hanna Barbera). I expected that the various editors would see my samples, be awed by my resume’ and hire me on the spot. Needless to say, I was quickly disappointed. But Mr. Anderson was incredibly kind to me when I showed him my portfolio, giving me lots of advice and needed encouragement.

I bought this page from him at his WonderCon table because it was cheap ($20) and I really liked the use of the hallucinated bats as spotted-black graphic elements. I don’t know if I even remembered my meeting him at that earlier convention, 20 years prior. How odd that it would come to mind now.

Kevin Altieri, Mark Farmer, "Grunge Saves The World" Gen 13 Special Issue, Wildstorm

This page is pencilled by Kevin Altieri, inked by Mark Farmer. It was published by Wildstorm in May 1999, around the time that the imprint was bought by DC Comics.

Kevin was tapped by Wildstorm to write and direct its first foray into animation, a feature adaptation of the property “Gen 13”. The movie remains unreleased in the United States because Disney is the copyrights-owner.

The relationship with Wildstorm lead to Kevin writing and drawing two issues of the Gen 13 comic book series: Gen 13 Bootleg #18, and “Grunge Saves The World” (showcasing the Gen 13 team member, “Grunge”.)

I bought this page at LA Con 2019, from a dealer, for $70.

Altieri, Mandrake, Buck Rogers Game Module #4, page ?, TSR Publishing

This page is pencilled by Kevin Altieri, inked by Tom Mandrake. It is from issue #4 of “Buck Rogers XXVC”, (the 10 issue “game module” (a comic book with a board game and punch-out game pieces in the centerfold) spin-off thereof). Kevin was the penciller on the “Black Barney” back up stories, beginning in issue #2. That sub-series took over the book due to the sheer, compelling gusto that Kevin bought to the art, even taking over the writing on later installments. 

This page was a gift from Kevin. 

I met Mr. Altieri in 1984, while working alongside him on the “Kid Video” animated TV series at DIC Entertainment. Specifically, I was tasked with trimming 100 scenes from the storyboard to an episode’s storyboard. The story was written in 3 acts, Kevin doing the 3rd. There was nothing in Act 3 I could cut- it was tight and fun and imaginative. Actually I could cut one thing: the episode’s villains were a small team of anthropomorphized wolves. Kevin took it upon himself to add a tween-age wolf to the cadre to increase comic relief. To my apologetic regret, I was able to cut a couple of scenes by getting rid of the kid wolf.  

Kevin and I worked together at DIC until 1988. He was promoted to Director, guiding the creative team to which I belonged, on such series as “The Real Ghostbusters”. “ALF”, “ALFTales”, “C.O.P.S.”, and “Little Golden Book Land”. This team was dissolved  in 1988, which indicates that Kevin’s tenure on “Black Barney” was bookended by the D.I.C. firing and his hiring on “The Batman Animated” series at  Warner Animation.

I had been attempting to break into the comic book industry since college. I would whip up a new set of samples for each year’s San Diego Comic-Con and be rejected. I gave up trying in 1988.The kind of work I aspired to and the kind being bought were diametrically opposed; the cadre of artists who later formed Image Comics were darlings of the industry. I thought their work was WRETCHED, wanted nothing to do with it. 

Then Kevin found success with “Black Barney”. Seeing it gave me hope there might be space for me in the comics industry and I renewed my efforts.

Joe (Joaquin) Albistur, Foxhole #4, Iconic Panels, Mainline Publications, 1954

Albistur Foxhole 4 pg 2 pnl 6

Albistur Foxhole 4 pg 5 pnl 4

Albistur Foxhole 4 pg 6 pnl 1

Albistur Foxhole pg 4 pnl 5

Albistur Foxhole pg 4 pnl 7

 Albistur Foxhole 4 pg 2 pnl 7

 Albistur Foxhole 4 pg 5 pnl 7

Albistur Foxhole 4 pg 6 pnl 3

Joe (Joaquin) Albistur, Foxhole #4, Page 6, Mainline Publications, 1954

http://warpastpresentfuture.blogspot.com/2011/05/

The above is a link to a blog that prints scans of “30 Year Man” in its’ completeness. 

I suppose i should write something about what caused me to bid on this batch of 5 pages from Heritage Auction on January 6, 2013, for a hammer price of $263.13. Here are some random thoughts. 

The auction lot was described as 5 pages from a 7 page story This page is labeled as #7 in the upper left margin, but apparently was published as a 6 pager (as you can see if you click on the above link). i have been unable to find any confirmation or denial of this. The missing page 6 seems unnecessary, as the narrative flows smoothly from panel 7 of page 5 to panel one of  (labeled) page 7.

 

“30 Year Man” covers similar territory, literally, as “Saving Private Ryan”, i.e., soldiers landing on the beach at Normandy and making their way inland toward St. Lo. Judging from page 3, panel 4, our “outfit” is part of a second or third wave. 

Albistur’s artwork is less heroic, idealized than Russ Heath, Jack Kirby or Joe Kubert’s. There is a certain distance in his presentation, a reserve, a remove, a matter-of-factness that, to my mind, gives the story a feeling of greater realism. It’s odd to say, but Albistur’s approach feels less comic-book-y, more illustrational than his more popular, better known peers.

The characters aren’t individuated in the same way as Sgt Rock and the Easy Company, or Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos. Actually, this is one of the pitfalls of war cinema; the characters are difficult to tell apart when in uniform; Albistur doesn’t seem to even try.  

  

The pages average seven panels, which would make impact and dynamism difficult even for The King himself. Several of the panels in this story are downright iconic, but it’s hard to pick them out of the dense overall presentation, which was my motive for breaking the pages up into separate panels; this is my way of saying “look at this”. Perhaps I’ll do a follow-up post, a slide-show of the especially cool panels.

I really dig Albistur’s ink style, rough yet realistic. I didn’t even notice the “dots for eyes” trope until someone pointed it out to me. This doesn’t make the artwork cartoony (for me). I see it as an expedient graphic short-hand. It seems to be used arbitrarily; for instance, on page 4, panel 7 we have two soldiers with their heads at similar angles and sizes- one has dots for eyes, the other has them more fully rendered. Upon closer inspection, I see this isn’t quite accurate. The sergeant’s eyebrows are hidden by the shadow of his helmet, and the thicker bags under his eyes (than the private in the foreground), give his  dot-eyes a more realistic impression. 

Joe (Joaquin) Albistur, Foxhole #4, Page 5, Mainline Publications, 1953

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

The above is a link to the Wikipedia page from which this article is copies.

“With the 1950s backlash against comics, led by the psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, and propagated during the televised debates about comics leading to juvenile delinquency, as part of the Kefauver hearings, several publishing houses folded. This caused a problem for the printers. As Joe Simon detailed, "Comic book publishers were dropping out of the business in wholesale numbers. The printers grew frantic. It was a necessity of their business that the presses keep running. When the presses were silent, printing companies still had to pay overhead, so they were more than willing to back a new comics organization if it showed promise."^[1]

To serve as business manager for their Mainline Publications, Inc., they brought in Crestwood Publications office manager Nevin Fidler, who knew the mechanics of distributors and other necessary vendors, offering him a piece of the company. While keeping their hand in at Crestwood to fulfill their contract, Simon and Kirby invested their savings in their new company, working with veteran paper and printing broker George Dougherty, Jr.^[2] The two had long wanted to self-publish, and they further wished to create comics for the adults of the 1950s who had read comics as children in the 1940s.^[2]”

As Simon recalled,

“The distributor we chose was Leader News, the company that distributed Bill Gaines' EC Comics. As was the custom the distributor advanced the publisher 25 percent of the total income on a 100 percent sale. This advance was paid when the books were shipped from the printer to local wholesalers around the country. We assigned that money to the printer, who would then pay the engraver. ... Since a comic book would usually sell a minimum of 30 percent, everybody was happy. Mainline would be required to invest in only the editorial material, consisting of the art, lettering and scripts.^[1]

They set up shop in late 1953 or early 1954, subletting space from their friend Al Harvey's Harvey Publications at 1860 Broadway.^[1] Mainline published four titles: the Western Bullseye: Western Scout; the war comic Foxhole, since EC Comics and Atlas Comics were having success with war comics, but Mainline's was promoted as being "written and drawn by actual veterans"; In Love, as their earlier romance comic Young Love was still being widely imitated; and the crime comic Police Trap, which claimed to be based on genuine accounts by law-enforcement officials.”