Flex Mentallo

Part Superman, part Doc Savage, part Flash Gordon, part Adam Strange (though he of cxourse, had yet to be invented) Garth, man of mystery first appeared in a british paper, The Daily Mirror, Saturday 24th July, 1943. He was still going strong in the 1960's when I discovered him as a child, and I was enraptured. What made Garth unique was that he died many times over, only to be inexplicably reincarnated in a succession of different times and locations, giving the storytellers license to place him in settings as diverse as the Mexico of the Aztecs, the Wild West, Victorian London - and outer space. The stories were generally better than the art, until the 1970s, when the great Frank Bellamy took over. His stunning black and white artwork brought out the exoticism of the tightly spun tales. I was amazed years later to learn that his stories had been reprinted as far afield as Italy, New Zealand, Australia, France - and even the The Menomonee Falls Gazette. (And he is apparently very popular in India). Apart from the Bellamy strips, relatively few of Garth's adventures were ever published in the UK. Here are a couple of links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_%28comic_strip%29 http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/garth.htm So, begging your indulgence -and since as another boardie has pointed out it is Australia day, I will contentedly post some covers to the Australian series - which reprint the earliest adventures. They are incredibly scarce - this set was part of Steve Geppi's collection until I snaffled them on ebay after years of fruitless searching. But first, an example of the early stories:

I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting behind the table working out that deal with you. I bought it after you had failed to sell it to someone else because they didn't want to pay over guide. I was at the bootht and told the potential buyer that it was the kind of book that went for a premium and that it was smart, in that case, to pay over guide. My logic didn't work for him but when he turned it down it worked on me, and I wasn't previously even looking for that issue. Bedrock the gouger. Buttock the ... Poker This the kind of dialogue that just so warms the cockles of my heart.

That's a beauty! Do you have a #2?

I recommend a change!

What he said! Round and round and round we go! My turn soon...

What makes you think he is done there? Keep watching the skies!

WoW!! Scott - those are unreal!

Yeah man. (thumbs u It's easy to see why it's your favorite title. There's just so much great stuff to be found in those books... Eisner's Espionage , Gustavson's The Jester, Jim Mooney's (Jim Mooney?!) Wildfire, Nordling's Lady Luck, and arguably the greatest superhero art ever produced in Fine/Crandall/Fine's The Ray. Cole's early run on Midnight is really interesting. It has to be a transitional work. It looks like he's trying to figure out how to balance the realistic with the cartoony. He hasn't quite divorced himself from the foundation yet (Realism) so the work has an odd feel. But when he comes back to Midnight later in the title he's got it dialed in and he's firing on all cylinders. It's brilliant stuff. You guys are right on the money. Many of these "lesser" titles get overlooked, and happily, that makes them more affordable for us bottom feeding geeks. The interiors on quite a few GA second and third tier titles are simply fantastic. What he said! (thumbs u

Great run of Fight Against Crime. I think they are all well done, all very readable. The notorious teens are great for horror fans, but even earlier, pure crime issues had some great stories. Quite right - and some of them are really tough to find! I guess I prefer the later covers because of the change in artist.

Here is another run that really hit me when I first perused Gerber - Fight Against Crime #12-21 (dont have #12 or #14 right now). I know that scrooge is of the view that the interiors are rather dull, but actually, the art and stories are pretty strong - clearly stealing from EC but with a style of their own - and Story had some pretty slick artists as well!

Michelle Nolan wrote an article about ACG for CBM years ago in which she said that Adventures into the Unknown #70 -#79 had some exceptional material. They are also very tough to track down because of low print runs - but I did eventually find them and they are hugely enjoyable, just as her article had promised. They are generally characterised by a combination of romance, fantasy wish fulfillment, time travel, mythology, spaceships, dinosaurs and alien races. The often poignant stories were almost all written by editor Richard Hughes. They featured Harry Lazarus, Curt Schaffenburger, and of course Ogden Whitney. Here is a selection of the best covers, all from the mid-50s:

I think this is one of the very best Jumbo covers. I was struck by the depth of color on this copy, which I'd not seen before.

I think this is one of the very best Jumbo covers. I was struck by the depth of color on this copy, which I'd not seen before.

Like Billy with the Worlds of Fear, Doc Savage is not a title I've ever considered collecting until I came across this wonderful cover recently on Ebay: Almost, almost pm'd Billy to let him know it ws there as I knew he was collecting them, then thought, what the heck, love the cover, never seen it before, let's take a look inside. And I was pleasantly surprised by what I found, which I thought I'd share: ...with apologies for the camera shake!

It's been on my wants list for just as long and I've never seen one either!

ACGs from the mid-1950s are really tough. You've reminded me that Adv into the Unknown had a great run from 71-80. Forbidden too from the same era. Stories full of charm and Ogden Whitney art as well! Some great covers in there. I'll post some scans tomorrow! (thumbs u

I no longer have any of these but I recall that they had some pretty good splash pages.

I love those! The sophistication of the artwork stands out from the relatively primitive material in most of the other stories (apart from the great Doolin artwork, which was stunning). I dont think I've got that one.

Joe Doolin was the artist of the majority of the covers you posted. Here is a pulp cover by him. Rapid-Fire Detective Stories (April 1933) Intriguing cover with brilliant use of color as a compositional tool (think Matisse) . If not for the sig I would not have recognized his style.

Come to think of it, this is a sweet little run combining great interior artwork with wonderful covers. Williamson and Everett!

I could post those too unless you want to? I find the extraordinary interior artwork by Werner Roth to be the best ever rendering of a jungle girl. And I love these two Russ Heath covers!

Exactly right!