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Despite obsessively studying these pages as a boy, there were details I hadn't noticed until I received the original art. For example, I'd missed the bullet holes in the boat and the Japanese marine's pistol in the bottom left panel.
Glad you like it. There were other action pages available but I was drawn to this page with the sweeping view of the town and that amazing final panel.
That's amazing, Dewey! His inking style translates so well to paint.
Thankfully, editor Joe Kubert didn't feel the urge to get out his white paint and draw a new face on Cloud!
Not only is Russ in the first panel, that's Joe Kubert to his left!
The page from #255 where the soldiers are fixing the road signs at night in the rain and are then accidentally bombed is masterful. I always look forward to seeing everyone at Jeff's.
A first class page! This is what I was reading as a boy and I love these comics as much now as I did when I was buying them new.
It's only the second painting I did in egg tempera. The fist was a self-portrait I made in high school. I really like how it turned out, but it took me forever to complete. The last thing I need is for something to make me even slower!
I'm always amazed by how clean Russ's pages are, not a drop of white paint to be seen and no replaced panels. He always knew where best to put the camera when staging these action scenes. From talking to him, I got the sense that it was instinctual and not something he gave much conscious thought to.
Before taking the piece in to be framed, I removed the foam board the art had been attached to. Written on the back was the word "Barns", the artist's initials, and either 1922 or 1923.
Nice of you to say, Ed, but you have an incredible collection of Graham's work including one my very favourite covers "Crest of Hate" and one of my favourite Paddy Payne pages by him with the Mosquito. I have an artist friend who was a neighbour of his in the 1970s and has told me that what Graham wanted most was to be a serious landscape painter. His landscapes are fine, but the best of his comic art is what he'll be remembered for.
I loved this issue when I bought it off the stands and the pages look even better when stripped of their colouring. Nobody else should have been allowed to ink a page by Robbins and this story demonstates the reason why.
Russ did all the sound effects and while he could letter captions and dialogue, he avoided it whenever possible. However, he would submit his finished art with all the inked balloons and caption boxes in place. John Costanza, who may have lettered this, said that his lettering always fit those spaces perfectly.
I agree completely! The issues of Phantom Stranger and Unknown Soldier that he did with David Michelinie are some of my favourite comics from that period. It was tragic when he was demoted to only inking the remainder of the US run shortly after Michelinie and Orlando left.
Yes, you're right. Kaluta took extra care to help Bernie Wrightson, the original inker who avoided doing research, and then had the inking assigned to an aritist who excelled on accurate weapons, uniforms, and vehicles.
Thanks Lee, I find it to be a haunting image. If I were to guess, I'd place it among his 1920s Saturday Evening Post illustrations. The board is attached to another board and I may try to separate them to see if there's anything written on the back.
Vic Catan's art in this issue is incredible. Why wasn't he given more lead stories to illustrate?
Terrific page, Steve, but how did the Germans get a 63 ton Tiger up there?
Wow, what a great cover! The Westland Whirlwind is a personal favourite and this is one of the best Fleetway covers to feature them.
Those bombs defy the laws of physics but it's still a wonderful page!
Yes, the cover for "Crash Action" was painted by Graham Coton. "NB" stands for "New Battle" which was a series of 344 Battle P.L. issues published by Ron Phillips between 1985 and 1992. They were all reprints of the Fleetway issues.
This one was painted by Alessandro Biffignandi for the story "Rival Aces" (August, 1962).
In an interview Evans said that he was thinking of creating a pulp inspired series of drawings that would depict a WWI squadron of skeleton pilots. That was back during the late '70s portfolio boom. It's a shame that he never went through with it as his WWI Weird War covers are among the best in the run.
Even reduced to thumbnail size, the page reads clearly because of Kubert's superb spotting of his blacks. An outstanding piece.
That's a very nice Fred Ray page. His passion for the Civil War always came through on those DC short stories.
I find it strange that every little spot of ink on the edges of the panels and balloons was circled in blue pencil and painted over but the white tape covering the fingers was allowed to go to print. Thanks so much Jeff for letting me know about these outstanding pages.
Yes, before The Karate Kid Russ was a principal designer on G.I. Joe from 1984 to 1987 and then again in 1990.
Cool piece, Steve. It's from Apple Pie #4. There was one other small painting that went with the feature.
I'd forgotten that the story was co-written with Bill Everett. I'm happy to have a page from this issue as it's been a favourite ever since I traded for it as a young boy in the playground.
Bernie Wrightson was supposed to have been the inker on this but he only inked the drawing on the front cover (not the dust jacket) before backing out. Russ received the job because he happened to call looking for work at exactly the right moment. It was chance that threw them together but I think the combination works very well. Sadly, the colouring on the book was wretched and it makes it difficult to appreciate the drawings. Yeah, we really should try and get together soon.
You're so right! Spiegle's Balloon Buster stories and Severin's Enemy Ace stories were my favourite features in The Unknown Soldier comic.
The part they used is 15 x 11.5" but the entire painting is 18 x 15", which is actually small for Coton. The masking tape is easy to peel up but it leaves behind a mixture of white paint and glue that is difficult to remove without damaging the paint below.
I'd be getting out of that plane as well! A terrific piece by an illustrator that I'm not familiar with.
Kubert's darker ink and white paint can be found throughout the story. The skipper's face in panel two and the sailor in profile have both been partially redrawn by him. Other examples of redrawing include the left side of panel 6 on p. 4, panel 5 on p. 6, and the skipper's face in the first and last panels on p. 7. In other places Kubert eliminated detail with either ink or paint.
An outstanding Dell'Orco, but as I've learned to my co$t it's not possible to have only one!
A Coton classic! I only knew the cover from the Holiday Special and hadn't known that it had been altered.
He was such a complete artist. There's a note in the margin requesting the letterer to not add balloons, borders, or sound effects because Robbins wanted to do them. I especially like his DC work because of his ability to control what each page looked like. I think it was a shame that Marvel saw him as only a penciller.
Despite working so quickly, Pino's illustrations of military hardware are always accurate. The only other comic book cover artists who had Pino's knowledge of tanks, ships, and aircraft were Scotland's Ian Kennedy and Argentina's Jose Maria Jorge.
If you'll notice, I cropped out the stain in the margin! Thanks so much for this, Bill.
I'm glad to have been able to help out a fellow fan of Dell'Orco. Even as a young boy, I could tell he was a notch above his contemporaries when it came to authentic hardware and bold compositions.
