Justice Traps the Guilty #38

One question I have always had is whether Stein on some occasions was working from layouts created by someone else maybe Simon or Kirby.  I once went through 10 covers and the amount of detail , dyanmism of the compostion really varied in spite of the fact that most were signed by Stein. Compare this one with the one with the guys lined up agaisnt the wall and you'll see what I mean.  COuld these be Stein working off of other concept drawings on some of them?

It is not possible to answer questions like your's with complete certainty. Too much time has passed with little documentation from the studio. Stein was one of the artists that actually worked in the Simon and Kirby studio. If someone was doing layouts for him it would have been someone working in that studio. But the layouts for Stein's work is unlike that of Simon and Kirby, Mort Meskin or anyone else working for S&K. And the actual working technique used by Stein are unique. Stein would do very rough sketching in blue pencil and then proceed to do all detail work directly in the inks. No one else working for S&K used blue pencils. So IMO Stein was doing all the work himself without help.

Thanks