Number 1566: Commie Smasher

I like the fifties Atlas versions of their triad of superheroes, Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. I thought the artwork was very good. John Romita’s work on Captain America stands out for me. He had been drawing comics since 1949, but when he did this issue of Captain America #78 (1954 —  the last issue until the sixties) he was a mature-in-style but young-in-age 24-year-old comic artist with the work he would be most recognized for still a decade and more in the future.

Since Cap was the patriotic hero he needed enemies of America on which to beat, and in the fifties that meant communists. At that time communist activity in the U.S. was mostly done in secret, but in the lead story the communist monster wears his hammer-and-sickle on his chest. Knowing your enemies by what they wear worked in World War II, when a swastika meant there was an enemy due for a butt-kicking. By 1954 the enemy was much more savvy than to wear his affiliation on the outside. Still, this is a comic, and symbols in comics give instant identification between good guys and bad.

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Redrawn Faces in MSH #14?

It is well-known that when Jack Kirby came over to DC in the early 1970s and started working on Jimmy Olsen as well as other titles, that Superman and Jimmy Olsen's faces were redrawn by DC staff artists like Al Plastino and Murphy Anderson. But it appears that this practice actually started at Marvel.

I've already talked about the bizarre one-off Amazing Spiderman story that appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #14. At least according to a note Stan appended to that story, Johnny Romita was ill and so Ross Andru was pressed into service to fill in for the Jazzy one for a single issue. But Romita apparently recovered and met the deadline, so the story was shelved.

There were a couple of oddities about this story. First, although Andre's longtime inking partner, Mike Esposito, was already inking ASM under the nom de plume of Mickey Demeo, he was not given this assignment; instead the tale was inked by Bill Everett. And second, it looks very much like Romita redrew the faces of Gwen and Mary Jane here:

A friend of mine named Jeff pointed this out to me in an email. As I noted in response to him, what clinches it for me is that while MJ and Gwen both look reasonably normal, Harry doesn't look like himself at all; he looks more like the Sandman. This also gives us a clue that the story must have been drawn well before the publication date of May 1968, as Romita had changed Gwen's hairstyle by then to make it longer. She looks more like she did in 1967:

By 1968 her hair was much longer and straighter:

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Number 579


I pity the poor immigrant...


It's a shame that this 56-year-old story should seem so timely and modern. I'm sorry we're not past tribalism. Old prejudices and xenophobia die hard. Or never die, as the case may be.

The story is written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Romita, originally published in Menace #3, May 1953.

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Single Issue Review: Daredevil #12

I was flipping through this one today and thought with current events in the world it would make for a topical review. This is Johnny Romita's first effort for Marvel. Daredevil had struggled to find a regular artist during its history. The first issue was drawn by Bill Everett, #s 2-4 by Joe Orlando, and #s 5-11 by Wally Wood. Wood bailed to start up Tower Comics, as I discussed. So this marked what might have been a long run at Daredevil for Romita, had fate not had other plans for him.

As the story begins, Matt is leaving Karen and Foggy behind. Believing that Karen doesn't love him, Matt has decided to go on a long cruise to leave the field open for Foggy. But as he boards the ship he hears a passenger ask a curious question:



And Stan doesn't put those foreshadowing bits in there for nothing:



But the pirates hadn't planned on DD being aboard:



Unfortunately for DD, the Plunderer has a trump card in the form of hostages. Surprisingly however:



Does that reply by the Plunderer sound more than a little gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that this comic has some very weird displays of affection going on. From another part of the story check out this:



The Plunderer is your classic loony:



We learn that his ship can convert to a submarine and that his hideout is called Skull Island which is located in a hidden land (of course, Ka-Zar's hidden land). But when they arrive at Skull Island, it has been raided by the Swamp Men. Before the Plunderer can seek his revenge against them, however, he is raided by Ka-Zar and Zabu. We get the obligatory good guy fight scene:



But later, when Daredevil is wounded, Ka-Zar remembers the courageous way he fought and brings the fallen hero back to his cave. The issue ends on a cliffhanger note, with DD near death's door as Ka-Zar tries to get some medicinal berries from a man-eating plant:



Comments: I really like this issue. The bit with the Plunderer not actually robbing the cruise ship seems unlikely, but it's a classic 1960s spy thriller plot device. Romita's artwork (with layouts by Kirby) hits home in every panel.

Update: A more critical reaction at the Comic Treadmill several years ago:

This story, involving pirates, the Savage Land and international intrigue, was beautifully suited for Kirby and Romita’s art. And it looks pretty. But what the heck was Daredevil doing in the middle of this? Like Spider-Man, Daredevil works well in an urban setting and stands out like Capt. Underpants at a JLA meeting when moved into fantasy realms.

A fair criticism. One thing is obvious about Stan Lee; he did things by the seat of his pants and often struggled for awhile to find appropriate villains and settings for his characters before hitting his stride.

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Number 468


Touched and retouched


I knew when I bought Tower of Shadows #1 off the stands in the summer of 1969 that something was wrong. The lead story by Steranko was great, but the story credited to Johnny Craig--THE Johnny Craig of EC fame, Vault Of Horror, Crime SuspenStories, Extra!--just didn't look like Johnny Craig. As I found out from reading this, it was and it wasn't:

The following year [1969], when Marvel launched two "ghost" comics, some there felt they'd found a place to better utilize the skills of Johnny Craig. He wrote and drew a story for Tower of Shadows #1 but, again, Stan did not feel the result looked like a Marvel comic. As with Craig's one DC job, the work was retouched so thoroughly — in this case, by John Romita — that no trace of the original artist's style remained. --Mark Evanier, POVonline, September 20, 2001.

It was obvious looking at the female face that it'd been retouched by Romita, but there are traces of Craig in the writing, which was probably also heavily edited by Stan Lee. On page two, a couple of panels show the main character upset because "Janie" is expecting a baby, now of all times, when a dozen creditors are hounding him. An unwanted pregnancy and need for money, that's a story in and of itself, but after those panels it drops into nothingness. It has nothing to do with the story itself, about a man exposing phony mediums. Craig was too careful a plotter and writer to create a situation and then let it languish, so I suspect there might have been something edited out. I'm not even sure why what was left in remained, since it added nothing to the plot.

What is Craig are the panels in the rain. I go back to the EC Comics. A man in an overcoat with his collar up, wearing a fedora, leather gloves folded down at the wrist, a gun in his hand, waiting in the rain. Craig could really draw noir scenes like that, and that's the closest part of "From Beyond the Brink" to the Johnny Craig I knew from EC Comics. Some artists flourished under the Marvel style, others didn't. Sadly, Johnny Craig was one of those whose artwork probably belonged more to a time and a place that, in the Marvel era, had past.

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