Number 1335: Bad batman and a crud named Krud!

The last time I showed a story by Fred Guardineer was just last month on George Washington’s birthday, for a story of a magician bringing Washington’s statue to life. Guardineer, who had drawn magician Zatara in Action Comics, seemed to have been typecast as a magician artist. Here's another, Merlin the Magician, from National Comics #21 (1942). This strip caught my eye the way it might have caught yours: the incredible logo, which foreshadows a story of giant vampire bats, and a stocky, gap-toothed costumed character who looks like a caricature of Batman.

As a bonus, I'm throwing in a Quicksilver strip Guardineer did in National Comics #39 (1944). Who could resist a story with a villain called Dr. Krud?

I've mentioned before about Guardineer’s precise ink line. In many ways it reminds me of the work of Charles Burns, whose inking is so perfect that it hardly looks like a human hand did it. I'm fascinated by artists who have such control of a brush.

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Number 739


Crandall and Fine...a couple of originals


These covers, both original art and printed versions, are from Heritage Auctions. I found them during one of my foraging forays into their fantastic archives.

The first impression I have of the covers is that graphically, while all are well drawn, from a commercial standpoint Reed Crandall's Modern Comics covers are much stronger than the Lou Fine National Comics covers, which have too many confusing elements.


The Fine covers are early, from 1940, the Crandall covers from 1948. By that time most comic book publishers had learned what covers sold comic books, and at Quality the late 1940's motto seemed to be, "keep it simple." The less elements, the less time it takes for a person looking at a newsstand to make a decision.


The worst cover is National Comics #9, which is a confusing mess of activity. The next worse would be #5, with that oddball looking skull peering out at us. Why the unusual placement of the skull? Neither illustration looks guided by an editor's hand.



The Crandall covers are just the opposite, with action clearly read. My favorite is Modern Comics #77, with its Beast Men cover, and next to that is #78, the girl with butterfly wings. I've said before that Crandall's action panels look to me like dioramas, people frozen in motion, but from a commercial standpoint these covers are posters which popped out at a newsstand browser.


Considering the auction prices realized for these covers, the buyers of the original artworks disagree with me. The National Comics #5 cover sold for $50,787.50.

The top price for one of the Crandall covers was the Madame Butterfly original, which went for just under half that amount, at $23,900.00.

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