Comic Book Auteurs?

[Jonathan Bogart]

We tend to think of comics — especially comic books — as created in assembly-line fashion, with one guy writing, another guy drawing, someone else inking the drawing for reproduction... but I'm more and more interested in the one-man shows, especially from comics' decade-long peak of popularity, between World War II and the institution of the Code in 1954. (I'm really interested in the pre-Code comics, but really, anyone whose comics were on the newsstands up to the mid-70s qualifies. So Ditko works, as does John Stanley's post-Lulu output.)

I don't need the big names. Everyone knows the big names. Cole. Eisner. Kurtzman. Wolverton. Simon/Kirby. And while I appreciate great artists like Wally Wood, C. C. Beck, Bernard Krigstein or Alex Toth, I'm really looking for the guys who wrote as well as drew their own stories. Especially guys who had their own particular sensibility: sure, maybe it's journeyman work, but the individual stamp of the creator is undeniably present.

(Thus the thread title: like the film directors of the 30s and 40s, these guys operated under fairly strict limitations, both of content and time, but still managed to eke out a distinctive vision.)

Who are the auteurs? I can think of Jim Davis, who drew The Fox and the Crow for years and years. And — holy shit, I can't believe I almost didn't mention Carl Barks. Sheldon Mayer. Walt Kelly. George Carlson. Any more exception kiddie cartoonists?

Two more names to get us started, and thinking along these kinds of lines: Dick Briefer and Boody Rogers.

Briefer's Frankenstein (both the horror and humor versions) has been one of the better-kept secrets of comics fandom, with only a single issue's worth of reprints (all humorous, which I frankly prefer) in the last forty years.

Boody Rogers I know next to nothing about except for one delightfully fetishistic story reprinted in Raw: his style (and content) is somewhere between H. G. Peters' early Wonder Woman and a simplified Al Capp.

How about adventure/crime/horror? Any more auteurs there?

Come on, people. You know this stuff. Share.

[MDG]

Two from the pre-code era that come to mind are Johnny Craig and Pete Morisi (PAM).

In the 70s, Sam Glanzman was writing and drawing his excellent USS Stevens stories for DC.

MDG

[T GUy]

I don't need the big names. Everyone knows the big names. Cole. Eisner. Kurtzman. Wolverton. Simon/Kirby.

I can't believe you left out Kirby on his own as an auteur.

And I back to the very hilt MDG's submission of Johnny Craig - the very first name I thought of.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Always nice to see you, Jonathan. Here are some more names:

Joe Kubert. He wrote his own stories for Tarzan.

Russ Manning. I believe he wrote at least some of his Magnus and Tarzan stories, as well as the "Aliens" backup in Magnus.

Howard Post. As far as I know, his only major "auteur" work is Anthro, but that series is pretty awesome.

Gil Kane. Although I don't know whether His Name Is... Savage had been released by the mid-'70s.

And didn't Wally Wood write some of his own material? Toth certainly did, though Bravo for Adventure wasn't published until the '80s.

[dan bailey]

Gil Kane. Although I don't know whether His Name Is... Savage had been released by the mid-'70s.

looks like it came out in '68 -- 3 years before blackmark.

[MDG]

looks like it came out in '68 -- 3 years before blackmark.
He also wrote Capt. Action after the first two issues (by Shooter), and really raised the level.

MDG

[Slam_Bradley]

And I back to the very hilt MDG's submission of Johnny Craig - the very first name I thought of.


Craig was my first thought as well. People forget he wrote a lot of his EC stuff. I guess Feldstein would count as well, though I'm not a huge fan of his artwork.

[Jonathan Bogart]

I can't believe you left out Kirby on his own as an auteur.
Well, I think it could be argued that he didn't really come into his own as an auteur until after the undergrounds and fanzines had already done what Cahiers du Cinema did in my film analogy. (The Fourth World, in this reading, would be analogous to the Ford of The Searchers.)

That means I'm discounting his Green Arrow and Challengers of the Unknown runs, I know. But — and this is just me — I think pre-Marvel Kirby is at his best with Simon; Boys' Ranch and their romance comics kick so much ass.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Craig was my first thought as well. People forget he wrote a lot of his EC stuff. I guess Feldstein would count as well, though I'm not a huge fan of his artwork.
Actually, I could see that. Feldstein is to Wolverton as, say, Lou Fine is to Eisner: a lesser-developed talent, but with its own unique charms.

Some more that have come to light, either in my own head or in conversation with others:

Fletcher Hanks
Ogden Whitney
Matt Baker
Bill Ward
Tarpe Mills
Charles Biro
Bill Everett (especially "Venus")
Dan DeCarlo (arguably, on "Josie & the Pussycats")

[Sir Tim Drake]

Who is Fletcher Hanks?

[MWGallaher]

Have you seen the cover of Gerard Jones' book "Men of Tomorrow"? The panels used are all by Fletcher Hanks, from one of his "Stardust the Super Wizard" stories. He's known best for that character and "Fantomah", one of Fiction House's jungle queens. He had a very stiff, crude style (that I've always described as "looking like it was drawn by a 12-year-old girl") that seemed something of an attempt to mimic Wolverton. His stories are dreamlike, with only a semblance of a true plot; mostly things just happen, while the heroes develop any superpower necessary to do whatever Hanks wanted them to do next, or even just to do something Hanks thought looked neat. Fantomah, for example, is able to turn her body into a flying statue (while her face becomes a skull). Utterly daft and incredible comics, but Hanks could create some startling if primitive imagery, such as the seen of hundreds of people floating (stiffly) upwards (as seen on the Jones bookjacket).

[MDG]

Who is Fletcher Hanks?
I'm glad someone else asked. One of Hanks' stories was reprinted in RAW.

Back to the topic, however: For most comics through the 60s, the real "auteur" was the editor.

MDG