"Hirohito's Giant Headsman" featuring US Rangers in Rangers of Freedom Comics #14 p 20 (Dec 1943)

"Hirohito's Giant Headsman" featuring US Rangers in Rangers of Freedom Comics #14 p 20 (Dec 1943)
by Jim Mooney (1919-2008)
18 x 24 in, ink on board

Early Jim Mooney art. Mooney began his career in the 1930s Californian science fiction pulp magazine scene, submitting his first drawings to Weird Tales. He attended art school and had several odd jobs before settling in New York City in 1940. It was in New York where he began his career as a comic book artist, during the Golden Age of comics, in 1940. Mooney started at the Eisner-Iger shop, drawing features for Ace and Fox Publications, before landing a six month job as a staffer at Fiction House on features like 'Camilla' and 'Suicide Smith'. Shortly afterwards, he turned freelance and drew some funny animal features for Stan Lee at Timely.

Mooney found a professional home at DC Comics in 1946 where he stayed for the next 22 years. Mooney worked on many of DC's top-selling characters, such as 'Batman' and 'Superboy' and 'Supergirl'. After leaving DC in 1968, he returned to Stan Lee at Marvel as an inker on John Romita's 'Amazing Spider-Man' and John Buscema's 'The Mighty Thor'. He also pencilled stories for 'Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man' and 'Marvel Team-Up'.

Rangers of Freedom Comics #14 Pg. 20 from 1943. The cover story, featuring the US Rangers.