Ogden Whitney Undercover Girl 5 Page 8

I first discovered the work of Ogden Whitney in the 1960's when he drew Herbie for The American Comics Group, better known as ACG. ACG was never a leader in the comics field, nor was it very innovative or have the best artists although it had a stable of solid artists like Kurt Schaffenberger, John Rosenberger and Ogden Whitney and it had a style of its own, and it had panache.

Ogden Whitney began his career in the 1930's and drew all genres: romance, horror, sci-fi and humor as well as work on Skyman. He was a mainstay at ACG doing a ll titles until ACG closed its doors. Whitney then found work at Tower Comics, where he was one of the stable of artists drawing issues of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and NoMan. He also worked for Marvel Comics, where he became the regular artist on The Two-Gun Kid from #87 to the final issue, #92 (May 1967 - March 1968). He drew Millie the Model and its sister title, Modeling with Millie and one 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." story, over Jack Kirby layouts, in Strange Tales #149 (Oct. 1966).

After leaving Marvel, he tried his hand at advertising and story board designs but failed badly. Around 1968, Whitney’s wife passed away and he became emotionally distraught, becoming obese and alcoholic. Without a job, he was bodily evicted from his apartment. No details exist of his death, but it is thought he died homeless and destitute in the mid-1970’s.

This is a page from Undercover Girl, a feature that had it all. A pretty spy... so good girl art... with other good looking spies, lots of action and intrigue in a post-war Europe. Here, Undercover Girl is interrupted during a bubble-bath in her lingerie and dresses to go solve a murder. This is page 8 from Undercover Girl 5, which collected a variety of published stories into one book. I believe this page was first printed as page 2 of the 6 page story, The Riddle of the Radio-Death that first appeared in Manhunt #7 (April 1948).