I’m back with some more Splash Pages, this week I leaned on some I found while working on eBay listings and I had a visit from my pal Ivan yesterday so he inspired one.
Al Plastino, who I’m afraid I don’t know anything about gets ink and pencil credits for this splash page from Action Comics #222 and from my eBay auction pile. November 1956.
Another one from this week’s eBay pile. Comics.org gives pencil credits fro this splash from Jungle Comics #130 to Ken Battefield and ink credits to Jack Kamen, I really like the art on the headlock scene with the gorilla, pretty intense. October 1950.
This one is destined for the $5 bins, from Detective #460. I don’t even know why I was leafing through this but when I saw the splash from the Tim Trench backup story I was hooked. The piece evokes me as a kid watching Mannix, I even get a hint of the Beastie Boys Sabotage video! Mablo Marcos gets drawing credits with Al Milgrom doing a nice job on the inks. June 1976.
I found this great Edmund Legault page in one of Ivan’s great posts on the WECA comics, click here to see this epic post. From Bell Features, September 1941.
The last one will give a nod to the Westerns I did in this week’s Time To Collect post. Dick Ayers gave us this nasty splash in Ghost Rider #10 from December 1952.
What?! Half splashes, quarter splashes: what’s going on!
Scott! You’re so hardcore! For you nothing but full splashed next week.
That sharp Edmund Legault piece is from Wow #1, which has been reprinted in facsimile for $15…one of the few-to-none WECA books reprinted in its entirety. Good stuff, as good as any early Fiction House or Fox title. Legault is worth pursuing, even if just the online repro sites.
Al Plastino, Walter, a guy I also barely knew about until a few years ago. Here’s a bit from my (or Twomorrow’s) description, with my own recommendation. They published this 2016. We’ve got copies at half cover, $8.50, or check out Twomorrows’ site, they probably have a deal too. It’s a a good read. Unsung but important creator who, like Bob Kane’s ghosts, got little to no credit:
Al Plastino: Last Superman Standing. Highly Recommended. By Eddy Zeno. Foreword by Paul Levitz Laboring uncredited on Superman for two decades (1948-1968), he co-created Supergirl, Brainiac, and the Legion of Super-Heroes, drawing those characters’ first appearances, as well as the first story to feature Kryptonite. Insights are shared by Al, his family, and (Timely artist) Allen Bellman, Nick Cardy, Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino, Jon Bogdanove, Jerry Ordway, and Mark Waid—they paint a layered portrait of Plastino’s life and career. A wealth of illustrations show just how influential a figure he is in the history of comics.
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I had to look twice at the Dick Ayers, thought it was actually a MLJ Hangman story untul Insaw the western dudes. Those original Hangman issues are incredibly good, and tough to find in ANY shape. Bob Fuji, aka Bob Fujitani, knocked those Hangamn tales out of the park. Girissly, violent. This shows Ayers could have pulled them off to. His 1950s work on Ghost Rider is still underappreciated and plentiful, across several ME titles besides his own.
That Tim Trench has Nineteen Seventies written all over it, bell bottoms, gun fascination. But it reminds me of Jim Aparo’s work, at first I thought it was his. Aparo’s legendary, ultra-violent run on The Spectre (with Michael Fleisher writing) has just now been collected in a DC omnibus on the entire Silver Age Spectre. Its a good one, wild stuff there.
Good catch, I like that Terry Thunder. But Jack Kamen inks? I sure don’t see it, but then this was Iger Shop work, so always hard to credit. Ok, I just looked there, in GCD. They had question marks after each credit, Walter, so nobody really knows! My buddy Jim Vadeboncoeur is one one the experts credited with identfying this, but sounds like a best guess or he/they just gave up. By 1950, I would think Kamen would have enough style developed of his own, we could identify him. So I vote no. Battefield, I’ve never been any good at recognizing his work. Look close, the girl’s face looks like an unabashed Eisner swipe.
Bud, You’d have the knowledge and ability to write a illustrated book, called Bob Kane’s ghosts. It would be lovely to give more credit and acclaim to these great artists and writers.
Walt, a nice post, but its strange that the Bell feature misidentified the woman being tortured as a boy?
Dave, she was masquerading as a boy when she was captured by the natives. Her secret is revealed a few pages after she is rescued by the hero, Dart Daring.
Love that Bell Features and the great Ayers! While Frazetta had some great Ghost Rider art… Ayers was the man when it came to the phantom cowboy! That 50’s Superman work by Plastino and Boring as well was very clean work but I always thought they rendered Supes as a bit of a chunk…
Thank you Ivan. Lucky Dart Daring, dare I say?
Gerald, I always felt that way too about Borings Superman, kinda Burly. In hindsight, so many stars of cinema, sports, men in the work force and Dads, were Burly and heavy in their own right. Perhaps they drew them as they knew them.
Walt’s column may sometimes be half splashed but I like it anyway!