Identifying a page?

[Scott Harris]

Well, that's what you get for relying on information from the Internet.

Well, you're not necessarily wrong, even though you are wrong.

I did a little googlfying myself on this and at least one site I found, which claimed to be authoritative, said that Andrew Probert made three copies of this prop for the film. They each had identical covers, but the interiors were just described as being a real comic book that the new cover was glued onto. And one site had a photo of the itnerior of one of these books, an interior which was very clearly a Gladstone reprint of an EC book.

That, of course, is impossible since Gladstone didn't reprint EC stuff until 1990; I think the photo was of a recreation of the prop that somebody made. But it's very possible that the three versions Probert made for the film may have different interiors if he just used a random comic. And one of those could have been Weird Fantasy #7 or some reprint of it.


Kurt's Dial H was an interesting guess as that series did have a boy/girl team-up as the lead. But as he says, it's not from Dia H. I only have one issue of that run in Adventure, but I can tell even from this tiny thumbnail that the art on this isn't nearly bad enough to be 80's Infantino.

One possibility is that this is an Infantino layout with finishes by someone from the Filipino school, which may reconcile both options being bandied about here. Infantino did pencils on the mid-80's TV adaptation V, with inks by DeZuniga and it's almost unrecognizable as Infantino work unless you read the credits.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

While Infantino's pencilling style can be buried under inks by others, his composition style is very distinctive and those panels don't fit Infantino's style of composition.

[dan bailey]

Well, you're not necessarily wrong, even though you are wrong.

Ah ... we have a budding political candidate in our midst.

[MWGallaher]

I can see why people would think of Infantino, but I sense that it's not Carmine's work; the layout is too sloppy (that awkward hand-swipe in panel two, the jumble of overlapping figures, lacking focus, in panel 4). I'd stake my reputation that it's drawn by one of the Filipino artists prominent at DC in the 70's and early 80's, and my impression at first glance is that it's the work of Fred Carrillo*, but the Filipino artists seem to have often produced their work in a studio environment with frequent assistance and/or ghosting, so I'm not certain.

*or, on another look at Carrillo's art, it might be Yong Montano or Sonny Trinidad or Ruben Yandoc, or...well, lots of possibilities, I guess...

[Roquefort Raider]

Maybe I'm nuts (quiet, dan!) but something about the page layout and the individual panel compositions says early '80s Carmine Infantino to me, possibly a "Dial H for Hero" page. I'm off to my files to investigate.

EDIT: Hrrm. If it is Infantino, it isn't from "Dial H." I'm not going through his Flash run!

I first thought of Infantino too, although I'm most familiar with his Star wars work. The position of the body at the bottom of the page is very Infantino-esque to me.

While Infantino's pencilling style can be buried under inks by others, his composition style is very distinctive and those panels don't fit Infantino's style of composition.

Argh! There go my ambitions as an art style sleuth!!!

MWG has a good idea regarding the Filipino artists. Rico Rival, perhaps? Some of the characters here look a bit like those in Dead of Night.

[MichikoS]

I'm getting an early '80s DC vibe from this page. Dr. Thirteen? Ghosts? I can look at some of the issues I have from that time and see if my gut is confirmed.
Michi

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

I've been looking through my various Showcase Presents collections of DC anthologies to see if there are any artists whose work has a resemblance. Unfortunately most of the SPs don't go very far into the late 70s (and none in the 80s). The closest I can see is Frank Redondo, but not close enough I think.

[Bill Angus]

I'd have to agree - I see Fillipino inks on that page (such as it is).

[Bill Angus]

And it looks like late 70's/early 80's DC to me as well.

[Red Oak Kid]

I came late to this thread but that is definitely an 70s/80s DC page. As others have said, I too am sure it is a Filipino artist like Luis Dominguez or Ruben Yandoc. I think a Filipino artist did some Phantom Stranger and Deadman stories, possibly in the Weekly Action Comics. My first reaction on seeing it was Phantom Stranger.

[MWGallaher]

Phantom Stranger popped into my head quickly, too, which led to my initial guess of Carrillo, but a quick look through the later issues of PS convinces me that this is not only not from a Phantom Stranger story, it's not by Carrillo, either--he was a much better artist that whoever drew this (in my opinion. of course). I'm pretty sure this is work from one of the DC mystery anthologies of the late 70's or early 80's, drawn by one of the less notable Filipino artists (of whom there were many). The lack of any obviously-identifiable characters strongly points to an anthology from a mystery comic (as most comics starring headline characters--aside from Phantom Stranger, which I've ruled out--would have most likely featured at least one recognizable character on each page. The obvious pulpiness suggests that this was a binding of an actual comic, not a Hollywood generated prop, which would more likely have been printed on better paper, and would more likely have employed an artist from the film industry, not a minor leaguer from the Filipino school.

[foxley]

My eyes aren't good enough to identify the artist from the scan but Tony DeZuniga, Nestor Redondo, and Alfredo Alcala all did stories in Weird Mystery Tales so later issues of that might be worth checking.

Actually, as I peer at that image again, I wonder if it might be Rico Rival's art.