The legacies of both Al Hartley and Patsy Walker are largely obscured today. Both were mainstays of the Atlas/Marvel line from at least the late 1940’s until the late 1960’s. Patsy, at her peak, had seven comic books devoted to her with total monthly sales of over five million. Her chief writer during her entire run was none other than Stan Lee.
Al (Allen) Hartley (1921-2003), was a major Atlas/Marvel artist and writer for over two decades beginning just after World War II. He had many collaborators, Jack Kirby, Dave Berg, Dan DeCarlo, Dick Ayers, etc. though his longest and most productive association was with Stan Lee. You’ll notice that this page was signed by both Lee and Hartley, which was doubly unusual. Artists rarely were allowed to sign their work at that time (This page dates from 1961) and, even today, writers do not normally sign art. (I believe the signature is by Lee and not Hartley; it graphologically matches the one on Amazing Fantasy #15 which was drawn by Steve Ditko. I welcome comments on that)
Though now best remembered for his Christian comics, Archie and his girlie features, Hartley made a mark in almost every comic book genre (War, romance, cheesecake, etc.) except super-heroes.
His usefulness to Marvel declined as the super-heroes took over. His only job as an artist for Marvel Age hero (Thor in Journey into Mystery #90) was poorly received. He left Marvel altogether when he became a born again Christian and walked out on a cheesecake assignment he had been working for them
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From around 1970 and until suffering a stroke in 1991, Hartley had a major career in Christian comics, the Archie line and a special line of Archie Comics with a Christian perspective. He reportedly continued to work on a reduced basis until his death in 2003.
I own both pages of this story and chose to run only this one for now. It is the better of the two, having the splash with the two striking poses, the signatures and the Bridgette Bardot reference. Most of this commentary is based on information contained on three websites whose urls escape me at the moment.
