Frank Godwin - "Rusty Riley" Sunday - December 2, 1956

A comics artist once looked at this Sunday and said that he felt Godwin's work reached a kind of "uncanny valley" level of realism, I guess, making it stiff and un-comics-like. I understand his point: Godwin's realism somehow goes beyond that of the "photo-realists" like Stan Drake, Neal Adams, Alex Raymond, to a sort of "frozen moment" look, but I still find life in it. And the rendering, to me, is as beautiful as any of them. This Sunday doesn't feature the trademark of the strip - horses - but I find each panel quite gorgeous, the emotional gestures (where the "frozen moment" quality really emerges), the feathered shading and cast shadows, and I particularly like Godwin's lush foliage in the top 2 tiers.

Did Godwin work from photographs? Does anyone know the answer to this? You could certainly believe it, looking at the art. Or is that just a level of skill derived from the illustrational tradition of Charles Dana Gibson and James Montgomery Flagg? Godwin was a friend and shared a studio with the older Flagg, and is a worthy successor.

What is maybe a little jarring is the juxtaposition of this carefully rendered realism with Lil Abner-like country dialect: "Golly! They is magic in that well!" And is there really a character named "Droop Sour?!"

Who wrote this s"trip? According to Wikipedia, the strip launched in 1948, with scripts by Rod Reed. Then, The Sunday strip began five months later, on June 27, with Godwin illustrating scripts written either by Reed's brother Harold, or Godwin's brother Harold." So it's safe to say Harold wrote it.