Emil Gershwin: LAIR OF THE VAMPIRE

More Forbidden Worlds goodness -- another entry by Emil Gershwin -- Lair of the Vampire is from #3, also the source of the Williamson/Wood story I posted last night.

Again, I did a certain amount of clean-up to the scans to make it more presentable. My apologies for the inner spine roll that shows up on some of the pages -- but that's there in the original scans. The color registration was particularly awful on a few of these pages -- I fixed what I could under the circumstances -- but there's only so much I can do when the color is that off.

I'm loving Gerswin's compositions and linework here. His drawing style has more in common with some of the newspaper story strips of the day than most comic book artists of that period. The bold, crisp lines remind me of another favorite of mine, Ray Gotto (Ozark Ike). But I must admit, Gerswin's drawing is superior to Gotto's. It also makes me think of Edgar P. Jacobs, the Belgian cartoonist who drew the Blake & Mortimer albums (La Marque Jaune) -- Gershwin's art being right in line with the European "ligne claire" school of cartooning.

Most of the scans I'm working with come from the amazing Digital Comics Museum, where hundreds of public domain titles are available for download. Check it out and find some gems yourself!

Since this is "Read a Comic in Public Day," I suggest those of you viewing this on your laptop, iPad or other electronic device at your local coffee shop (or other public place) -- make sure to point out to those around you what a nifty comic you're reading. Then after embarrassing yourself, take solace in knowing that those other folks are the ones missing out....

Williamson and Wood: SKULL of the SORCERER

Al Williamson (pencils) and Wally Wood (inks) collaborated on this story from Forbidden Worlds #3. What else do you need to know? Enjoy.

Forgotten cartoonists: King Ward

Here's another entry from ACG's Forbidden Worlds (#12, Dec. 1952). This is one of several stories from that title drawn by King Ward, a cartoonist about whom I know next to nothing. A look around the web doesn't turn up very much info, either. The Grand Comics Database lists 26 stories drawn by him -- most of them for ACG. I wouldn't exactly call him a great artist -- and what I've seen of his stories have a bit of a rushed quality to them - but there's certainly plenty to like in his work. This is the oddest of his work I've seen (so far) -- and at times it reminds me of EC's Graham Ingels. There's a Caniff influence here as well. It's this sort of oddball material that makes the early issues of Forbidden Worlds such a treat. Ladies and gents: Were-Spider's Doom!

Williamson and Frazetta's FORBIDDEN WORLDS

As a kid, reading as many comics as I could get my hands on, I never warmed to ACG's Forbidden Worlds. By the mid-60's the slick artwork by Ogden Whitney, Pete Costanza and Kurt Schaffenberger that was found in its pages seemed a little too squeaky clean for me. I'd gotten used to the more dynamic approach of Kirby and Ditko -- and the rough-edged work of Joe Kubert and others. Today, of course, I appreciate their slick, professional work and solid craftsmanship. But the early issues of Forbidden Worlds, published before I was born, are a whole 'nother story.

As noted in recent posts, the internet seems to be buzzing with scans of vintage comics, and recently I've been working my way through a long run of Forbidden Worlds. I was surprised to see that the early issues contain a very mixed bag of artwork -- some of it, frankly, pretty darned bad. But the less than stellar artwork is more than offset by some surprisingly strong entries. The first issue, from 1951 (Ken Bald's cover shown below), contains a collaboration between artist friends Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta. Though signed only by Williamson, Frazetta's hand is clearly evident here.

As with the Joe Maneely posts of the last few days, I've cleaned up these scans. The original comic had tanned badly and the four color printing was terribly off register. I couldn't fix everything -- but did do considerable work so that the drawings of these two remarkable artists could be seen to better advantage. We lost both of these comics legends recently -- but there's no question that fans of comics and illustration art will continue to admire their work for years to come. Though its an example from fairly early in their careers, Demon of Destruction is, nevertheless, full of the romantic/heroic imagery and remarkable linework that made both artists favorites of comics fans all over the world.

While Williamson and Frazetta are well known names in the comics world, Forbidden Worlds did feature some surprisingly strong work by artists largely unknown to most comics fans. I'll have more to say about that soon.