Who are the best precode horror & sci fi artists?

1 1

Cat-Man_America · March 23, 2015

...who was the most Ghastly...

Ingels is my favorite* as well, but I don't own a single Ingels cover. Maybe I need to rectify that.

*clear favorite if we're talking horror; if we're talking sci-fi, too, it gets tougher; Wally Wood would be right up there.

This book is as close to perfect as a horror comic cover can be. Beautiful copy Richard!

+1 >>>

Cat-Man_America · March 23, 2015

Best is always a tough call, but for SF it comes down to Wood or Frazetta for me....

But there's a lot of exceptional pre-code art by other artists (for instance, Murphy Anderson).

Heck, Bill Everett also did some tasty SF cover art (a departure from more familiar PCH covers)...

For horror, "Ghastly" Graham Ingles takes top honors in my book...

...but I'd also list artists like Jack Davis, Basil Wolverton, & Bernard Baily as among PCH's best.

Flex Mentallo · March 23, 2015

Ingels, Frazetta and Wood seem to be scoring the most "votes" if my impression is correct.

*paull* · March 24, 2015

In no order...

L.B. Cole

Ingels

Fox

Wolverton

Baily

Edited March 24, 2015 by *paull*

comicjack · March 24, 2015

Wood and Cole would get my vote

Point Five · March 24, 2015

For precode horror, this Reed Crandall story from Out of the Shadows #9 ranks among my favorites.

Yes!Yes! Mine too. Reprint of this available in the the book Four Color Fear. Also used as the cover image first printing. Great art and expression in this one. So many great artists to celebrate. Nice thread.

I was glad to see you mention Reed Crandall. I think he must be among the most underrated of EC artists. Love his linework and shadows. His interior art on stories for the Crime and Shock titles has always blown me away (including, it's worth noting, the 'story behind the cover' for Crime Suspenstories #22).

BB-Gun · March 26, 2015

In no order...

L.B. Cole

Ingels

Fox

Wolverton

Baily

I would put Palais in that mix. He did a lot more work than most of those guys.

Probably should include Powell too. :makepoint:

Edited March 26, 2015 by BB-Gun

BB-Gun · March 26, 2015

and don't forget Jack Cole.

BB-Gun · March 26, 2015

More Palais...

Edited March 26, 2015 by BB-Gun

Jayman · March 26, 2015

and don't forget Jack Cole.

This splash is fantastic!

What issue is this from? It's going on the want list! (thumbs u

retrocomics · March 26, 2015

and don't forget Jack Cole.

This splash is fantastic!

What issue is this from? It's going on the want list! (thumbs u

That's Web of Evil #2 I believe, Jay

Jimmy Linguini · March 26, 2015

Bob Powell

fifties · March 26, 2015

Tivo32 · March 27, 2015

So this is kind of a long story, but my wife and I got into comics about two years ago from sports cards. One of my first covers I fell in love with was this variant by Paolo Rivera for Guardians of the Galaxy #5:

After buying it and reading some discussion on the cover, I realized it was an ode to an artist named Wally Wood. So I kept digging and I discovered the run of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy covers and I'm in the process of putting together a full (very low grade) run of both series. Both Wood's and Feldstein's covers are my absolute favorites:

(This one is so drool worthy, what a BEAUTIFUL copy of a great book. In the James Halperin collection)

Thanks for your time!

jimjum12 · March 27, 2015

So this is kind of a long story, but my wife and I got into comics about two years ago from sports cards. One of my first covers I fell in love with was this variant by Paolo Rivera for Guardians of the Galaxy #5:

After buying it and reading some discussion on the cover, I realized it was an ode to an artist named Wally Wood. So I kept digging and I discovered the run of Weird Science and Weird Fantasy covers and I'm in the process of putting together a full (very low grade) run of both series. Both Wood's and Feldstein's covers are my absolute favorites:

(This one is so drool worthy, what a BEAUTIFUL copy of a great book. In the James Halperin collection)

Thanks for your time!

..... these old 50's books do have quite an attraction.....and EC SCIFY are at the top of the heap..... it's neat that you AND the wife got into them. Judy also loves the EC's...... GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

BOOT · March 29, 2015

Bob Powell

Great idea for a thread!

The pre-code horror era is when the art of American comic books really started to grow up. Mature subject matter, fantastic themes, and a more adult intended audience allowed creators to really stretch their creative muscles and invent new storytelling techniques.

ECs featured some great artists, but their formulaic stories and cramped panel layouts stifled artistic invention. It's frustrating to see some of the best artists that ever worked in comics cramped in tight panels and nearly buried beneath the acres of Leroy lettering.

There were so many great artists who flourished in pre-code horror. Here are a few of my favorites:

Harry Anderson

Bill Benulis

Lou Cameron

Jack Cole

Reed Crandall

Steve Ditko

Joe Kubert

Rudy Palais

Pete Tumlinson

C.A. (Charles/Chuck) Winter

Basil Wolverton

And all those guys from the Iger shop who produced horror comics for Ajax Farrell and Superior.

The cream of the cream:

George Evans

Known mainly for his EC work, he really shone in a handful of works he created for Fawcett. His extended narratives for Worlds of Fear and This Magazine is Haunted are some of the best American horror fiction of any medium - intense, sustained, masterfully drawn fear fests! "Metamorphosis of the Gkmlooms!" (Worlds of Fear #3) and "Slithering Horror of Skontong Swamp" (This Magazine is Haunted #5 - posted in full here.) are stone cold classics.

Bill Everett

While Everett's horror stories for Atlas was often in their "house" style, he still managed to innovate, like with his wordless story from Marvel Tales 108. He really hit his stride with his classic run on Venus.

Russ Heath

Again, Heath worked almost exclusively for Atlas. But even restrained by their house style, his draftsmanship and storytelling abilities towered above many of his contemporaries. A classic example of his work is "Death and Doctor Parker!" from Suspense 14, with its horrific tale of a man who learns the curse of eternal life. Unforgettable!

Graham Ingels

Sure wish he would have had a chance to work outside of EC's strict format, though!

If I had to crown a king of pre-code horror artists, it would undoubtedly be Bob Powell. How Powell's work matured from the early 1940s superhero comics to the late 1940s through the 1950s is an amazing artistic transformation. His run on The Shadow comics produced a series of classic covers and dozens of well-told stories.

But when precode horror fully erupted, Powell's innovation went into overdrive. He worked for Harvey, St. John, Fawcett, and Ziff-Davis.

Powell and his studio pioneered a host of storytelling techniques. Some stories are workmanlike, but in his prime period, he seemed to challenge himself to come up with new perspectives, new framing, new panel designs, new ways to tell a story.

Here are just a couple of examples:

In the well-known classic "Colorama", from Black Cat Mystery #45, a man has intense sensitivity to colors. He finds an optometrist whose glasses bring him relief. The man won't sell the glasses, so he kills him and steals them. The unknown side effect of the glasses is that they cause the man to go blind. For the last page of the story, we see a street scene. As the action changes, the color fades away, from moment to moment, panel to panel, until only darkness is left. This story is probably one of the most reprinted precode horror stories because of its masterful innovation in storytelling.

BOOT · March 29, 2015

Bob Powell

In "Walking Dead" from Chamber of Chills #23, a blind man gets an eye transplant. He starts to see strange sights, possibly those of the eyes' former owner. To show the point of view of the transplant recipient, Powell actually shows the view from inside the eyeballs, complete with blood vessels and muscles framing the action.

BOOT · March 29, 2015

Bob Powell

Like George Evans, Powell was able to stretch his artistic muscles more in Fawcett's longer stories. In "Wall of Flesh" from This Magazine is Haunted #12, a mad doctor has created a giant wall of living flesh. He pushes a nurse into the wall to be absorbed. As her boyfriend races to save her, Powell shows her being slowly absorbed, against the face of a clock. As the hands tick forward, she becomes more and more engulfed by the living protoplasm. A great storytelling device to show time passing and to heighten tension, and another often-reprinted story.

BOOT · March 29, 2015

Bob Powell

By the way, as others have mentioned, many of these have been reprinted in Four Color Fear, one of the greatest collections of precode horror. And Craig Yoe produced a great book reprinting Powell horror stories.

Here are some scans of some Powell original art gathered over the years from various sources. They show Powell's craftsmanship, sometimes lost in the substandard reproduction in the comic books themselves.

I am puzzled why Powell didn't do more horror covers. His Shadow Comics covers are classics.