The Undead Thread: Pre-Code Horror 21 21

[Haunted Thrills]

I have a few coverless PCH comics, and this issue of Mysteries Weird and Strange #6 from Superior.
Anyone know who penciled this story "Howling Horror?"  Once again, It is Iger Shop, but I'm looking for the specific artist.
 

 

[telerites]

1 hour ago, Haunted Thrills said:

I have a few coverless PCH comics, and this issue of Mysteries Weird and Strange #6 from Superior.
Anyone know who penciled this story "Howling Horror?"  Once again, It is Iger Shop, but I'm looking for the specific artist.
 

 

 

I do not know the answer but I looked on GCD and unless I am doing something wrong, that series is not even listed which I thought was weird and strange.  HA sold a copy of the #6 but had no credits listed.  Hopefully someone here can help you out. 

[Hap Hazard]

5 hours ago, Haunted Thrills said:

Love the Ditko covers on these.  Seems like there's a million #16's around, did someone discover a warehouse full of them

Yes a low grade one is the rarety!

[Hap Hazard]

7 hours ago, telerites said:

I do not know the answer but I looked on GCD and unless I am doing something wrong, that series is not even listed which I thought was weird and strange.  HA sold a copy of the #6 but had no credits listed.  Hopefully someone here can help you out. 

Under the title Mysteries, no Weird and Strange in the official title of the book.

[adamstrange]

10 hours ago, Haunted Thrills said:

I have a few coverless PCH comics, and this issue of Mysteries Weird and Strange #6 from Superior.
Anyone know who penciled this story "Howling Horror?"  Once again, It is Iger Shop, but I'm looking for the specific artist.

Given the assembly line process they used it's very hard to decipher the particular artists (emphasis on the plural) involved.  We would probably need access to the the company records, assuming they kept them at a detailed level per story and didn't just pay the artists a salary.

[Darth Corgi]

On 12/29/2018 at 7:44 PM, Hap Hazard said:

The Thing! 13-17 That finished it up!

Congrats on completing this run. Some of the best Precode horror stories are present in this title. Many Precode horrorheads say there’s not a bad issue in the whole run. Having read through them all, I agree. What’s your next title to complete?

[telerites]

11 hours ago, Hap Hazard said:

Under the title Mysteries, no Weird and Strange in the official title of the book.

Ah, thanks.  Not a genre I actively collect.  

[Hap Hazard]

15 hours ago, Darth Corgi said:

Congrats on completing this run. Some of the best Precode horror stories are present in this title. Many Precode horrorheads say there’s not a bad issue in the whole run. Having read through them all, I agree. What’s your next title to complete?

Good Question been collecting Pre-Code since the 90's with Tales to terrible to Tell to motivate me. I have most of the small publishers with not as much with Atlas. I kind of keep buying until  a run gets close to being completed and then just focus on that one title.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Hap Hazard

[Haunted Thrills]

13 hours ago, adamstrange said:

Given the assembly line process they used it's very hard to decipher the particular artists (emphasis on the plural) involved.  We would probably need access to the the company records, assuming they kept them at a detailed level per story and didn't just pay the artists a salary.

Accessing records is probably impossible, but with enough cross referencing of styles I might be able to find the specific artist but it might take a good while.

For example, CC had this OA listed as "artist unknown," (Iger shop) however I'm pretty sure the penciler is Robert Webb from Iger based upon this HA listing and other pieces and the fact that they are both from Journey into Fear comics  -

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/robert-webb-and-iger-studio-journey-into-fear-2-story-page-3-original-art-superior-publ-1951-/a/121811-13136.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515#

 

 

[adamstrange]

Robert Webb was one of the senior artists at the Iger Studio.  His hand is in many, many stories and covers.  How much of his hand was involved could vary from panel to panel and from one story to another.

[fifties]

On 12/30/2018 at 8:53 AM, Haunted Thrills said:

Love the Ditko covers on these.  Seems like there's a million #16's around, did someone discover a warehouse full of them

In fact that's exactly what allegedly happened, and because of their abundance, they are the least valuable of the run (all of which I have).  I would say that issue 13's lead story, "Library of Horror", as illustrated on the cover, IMO is the best story in the run.

[Haunted Thrills]

On 12/31/2018 at 12:56 PM, adamstrange said:

Robert Webb was one of the senior artists at the Iger Studio.  His hand is in many, many stories and covers.  How much of his hand was involved could vary from panel to panel and from one story to another.

It's pretty easy to surmise one's specific pencils if you can cross reference material.  It's not like Webb did a little pencil work on a page and passed it off to someone else to finish the pencils.

Edited January 2, 2019 by Haunted Thrills
more info

[Haunted Thrills]

On 12/31/2018 at 1:51 PM, fifties said:

In fact that's exactly what allegedly happened, and because of their abundance, they are the least valuable of the run (all of which I have).  I would say that issue 13's lead story, "Library of Horror", as illustrated on the cover, IMO is the best story in the run.

Absolutely, it is a great story.

[adamstrange]

18 minutes ago, Haunted Thrills said:

It's pretty easy to surmise one's specific pencils if you can cross reference material.  It's not like Webb did a little pencil work on a page and passed it off to someone else to finish the pencils.

That's exactly how the Iger shop worked (and the Binder shop).  You might have a guy lay out the pages, someone else drew the girls, someone else did the other characters, someone penciled the background and then various hands did the inking.  They techniques you mention work great and have been applied to come up with thousands of creator credits.  Of all GA comic work, the production shop material is pretty much what remains to be identified because of this difficulty.

[creaturefan95]

[Haunted Thrills]

On 1/2/2019 at 2:26 PM, adamstrange said:

That's exactly how the Iger shop worked (and the Binder shop).  You might have a guy lay out the pages, someone else drew the girls, someone else did the other characters, someone penciled the background and then various hands did the inking.  They techniques you mention work great and have been applied to come up with thousands of creator credits.  Of all GA comic work, the production shop material is pretty much what remains to be identified because of this difficulty.

While I have read that a few Iger Shop artists would INK a page, I have never read where multiple artists penciled a page.  Do you have a source for your statement?

[adamstrange]

Can't cite something specific because it was a while back and I have hundreds of magazines and books about artists.  It's pretty easy to tell just by looking as, for example, you can see Baker or Kamen doing the girls and someone else do other characters back in the 40s for Fiction House, another Iger shop client. Disbrow's "Iger Comic Kingdom" might have a discussion of their methods.

[Haunted Thrills]

23 hours ago, adamstrange said:

Can't cite something specific because it was a while back and I have hundreds of magazines and books about artists.  It's pretty easy to tell just by looking as, for example, you can see Baker or Kamen doing the girls and someone else do other characters back in the 40s for Fiction House, another Iger shop client. Disbrow's "Iger Comic Kingdom" might have a discussion of their methods.

That's where I got my statement from.  They clearly say that a few artists would INK a page, but nowhere is it mentioned that multiple artists would pencil a page.

[Haunted Thrills]

On 1/7/2019 at 2:27 PM, adamstrange said:

Can't cite something specific because it was a while back and I have hundreds of magazines and books about artists.  It's pretty easy to tell just by looking as, for example, you can see Baker or Kamen doing the girls and someone else do other characters back in the 40s for Fiction House, another Iger shop client. Disbrow's "Iger Comic Kingdom" might have a discussion of their methods.

Here is the quote from Iger artist Jay Disbrow taken from his Iger Comics Kingdom book -
"All penciling was done by freelancers, and Iger's 7 member staff consisted of 5 inkers, a letterer, and editor Ruth Roche."
"Sometimes more than one inker worked on a page.  When the stories were completed, somehow the style of the penciler showed through the finished product..."

If there were multiple pencilers for a page, Disbrow would have certainly mentioned it.

[MrBedrock]