John Severin ?

[Atlan746]

This story isn't by Severin, it's by Russ Heath,
he even signed it, just look in the lower left corner of the splash page.
RH = Russ Heath

[dan bailey]

Yeah -- I thought I was losing my mind for a moment there, &/or looking at the pages waaaay too early in the a.m.

I'm no expert, but Severin is my favorite artist ever (with Heath right behind him, as it happens), & try as I might I couldn't see even a trace of his style in this story.

Which makes me wonder about Steven's assertion* that "much of it's definitely Severin, though he's stretching his style some" ... In this case, it would seem to be Heath stretching his style some, or maybe working more loosely than usual, &/or with touch-ups by other hands. (That first soldier's face in the splash doesn't look Heathesque at all to me.)



*Y'know, a friend of mine over in the Classics forum had eye surgery recently & reports vast improvement in his vision. Maybe something to think about?

[Steven Grant]

Thing is, there are definitely panels that were inked or re-inked by Severin, esp. toward the back. (Severin was one of the three staff artists, with I think Bill Everett and Jerry Robinson, at Atlas at the time.) But obviously a lot of it looked like Heath as well. Then there are panels, like the big panel that opens the story, that don't look like either of them.

I didn't notice the RH on the first page, but every listing I've ever seen for the story identifies it as a Severin job and it just didn't look right to me. I suspect maybe it was a job Heath began and for whatever reasons it was either finished or touched up by others. Hence the "style stretch."

Thanks.

- Grant