Name that artist! IDing artwork

[zilch]

Any ideas?

This is from Boy Commandos #34, first story.

http://www.geocities.com/dotymo@sbcglobal.net/BoyComm034.1.02.50percent.JPG

I'll post my guess in a bit.

Have fun!

[Lone Ranger]

Based on the fact that I know he worked on some later Boy Commandos issues, I'll make an educated guess in Curt Swan.

Lots of different styles going on here - someone from the Canniff school trying to fit within the Simon/Kirby style guidelines.


My first impression - based on the artwork alone, I don't think he was doing any DC work at the time - was Lee Elias.

[T GUy]

Panel 3 has a touch of Infantino in it, and the whole thing looks like someone who wants to be Milt Caniff remembering that he's working for the Simon and Kirby shop... but not all the time. The name 'Lee Elias' also popped into my mind.

[Scott Shaw!]

This probably sounds nuts, but my first guess would be Ramona Fradon, very early in her pro career.

Even further out, Wallace Wood inked by someone else?

Aloha,

Scott!

[MichikoS]

Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics credits the first story in Boy Commandos #34, "The Dog That Became a Commando," to Carmine Infantino (pencils) and John Giunta (inks). I can see it, especially after having recently read the Kubert/Infantino JESSE JAMES reprint volume.

The faces look more Giunta than Infantino.

More importantly, where can I get one of those pipe guns??

Michi

[Cherokee Jack]

I know it's not possible, but the profile in panel 5 reminds me of John Severin.

[zilch]

Hmmmm...

From what i've read elsewhere, i thought Swan/Brodie but i dunno, that's why i ask you fine folk.

Do i need to post more from the story? Larger scan?

And the other two stories have different styles too.

And all three look like they're copying from style sheets. Especially on Brooklyn.

As soon as i find the book again, i'll post more.

What do YOU look at/for when IDing art?

[Red Oak Kid]

Very interesting stuff.

But IMHO, it is impossible to ID the artist/s on something like this just by studying the art itself. Case in point; the art of Carmine Infantino in this period is totally different from his mature Silver Age style that we are so familar with.

I think this applies to most of the guesses.

This issue of BC was after the Simon and Kirby years. In fact, according to the Overstreet Guide, most stories signed by them are NOT by them. I don't know if this is true, but it is something to consider. I realize that no one thinks this is by S&K, but I mention it to show just how difficult it is to pin down something like this. Comic pages were being churned out at such a rapid rate, and so many of the artists were teen-agers emulating their own personal art gods, that the art of the period is a real melting pot of styles.

IMO, the only way to know who drew and inked this would be some kind of record/s kept by DC or the artists themselves.

btw, the hand in the lower right corner of the first panel is definitely Ditko.:D

[Scott Shaw!]

btw, the hand in the lower right corner of the first panel is definitely Ditko.:D

ROK, the same thing struck me the instant I saw this page!

Aloha,

Scott!

[MDG]

I never would have come up with Swan on my own, but after LR said it, I can see it in there. But this is earlier than any Swan I've seen.

I love Elias' 40s-50s work, but it's usually more Canniff-ish than this.

Not for nuthin', something about the inking says Frank Giacoia, but that's a total guess.

MDG

[benday-dot]

Maybe because the style was a little generic at the time (it really does seem to follow from Simon/Kirby) and maybe because I don't know nuthin', but that man yearning for a good old machine gun to blow that doggy away, that man's face speaks to me the name Johnny Craig.

[T GUy]

The faces look more Giunta than Infantino. - Michiko

Compare the phenomenon of the faces in Elongated Man stories in the back of Detective, which look more like Anderson faces than Infantino faces. For the sake of comparison, look at Kirby/Sinnott faces, Buscema/Sinnott faces and Kane/Sinnott faces - you might see a pattern emerging. To the extent that I was suprised on looking into Marvel Team-Up No. 23 to see Johnny Storm with a Kane face in two or three panels rather than a Sinnott face. The book's inked by Esposito and Dave Hunt over Kane, and I don't think I'd ever seen a Johnny Storm face not inked by Sinnott from that timeframe before.

This is a rather long-winded attempt to present my Pet Theory that faces are indicative of the inker rather than the penciller. It's probably more accurate to say that rendering is the inker; posing, layout and design indicate the penciller.

the art of Carmine Infantino in this period is totally different from his mature Silver Age style that we are so familar with.
- ROK

The 'mature Silver Age style' of Infa that everyone is so familiar with is actually not Infantino's style, but Infantino's style buried under the inks of either Murphy Anderson or a registered member of the Dan Barry Imitation Squad.

Compare the sample in question with a Black Canary reprint from earlier in his career (back of Adventure Comics, 48pp. for 25c era, or the Archives edition).

Also take a look at one of those Infanterson Elongated Man stories side-by-side with an Infa solo-drawn episode. The attributes that they have in common must be Infantino, and some of that style also rears its head in the aforementioned Black Canary stories and one of the stories in the first issue of either Girls' Romances or Girls' Love Stories. And those two are very difficult, because almost the entirety of both books are in the same style, so one is left unsure as to whether it's Sekowsky or Toth (or, indeed, Kane or Andru, if they were working for DC at that time). And I have two issues of Sensation Mystery with a similar problem, save for the Murphy Anderson story in one of them.

I hope Dan Brown is making notes for his next novel. :)

[zilch]

Okay... GCD-Chat email reflector is back, so i posted the same question there...

Jerry Bailes says...

Carmine Infantino (p) and possibly George Klein (i)

Carmine is trying to look like Curt Swan.


So maybe Infantino aping Swan aping Kirby/Simon with Klein inks.