Flex Mentallo Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Here's a cool Baker splash from Love Romances 45... I cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop. I think there is a good chance Baker also inked this one. I think the inker is Anderson (cf "Cult of Killers", Wanted #52) I'm not sure I agree. You can see some similarities with the CL cover above. I looked at the Anderson story thanks for the reference. I don't really know much about him but looking at the story he has kind of a cross hatch look to his shading which I don't see in this particular story line. I'll have to look and see if I can see any other stories outside of Atlas that have this type of "dreamy" appearance. I understand your doubts, and I wouldnt stake my life on it either! (You know far more about baker romance than I do.) As Scrooge said, the face and hair of the woman lower left is very like Harry's work. I agree that the "Cult of Killers" story has very heavy cross-hatching. The way I read it, and I'm only speculating here, is that Anderson fitted his inks to suit Baker's romantic style. Anderson did do some work for Atlas - there are a few horror stories I've seen. He is arguably the most underrated artist of the era. (He is Jim Vadeboncoeur's favourite comic book artist) This story is my favorite romance story outside of the St. John's because of the attention to detail. If Anderson did indeed ink this, I wish he would have been able to do many more with Baker. I'll have to look up some more about Anderson. He looks like he was also a great illustrator too. I wonder why he wouldn't have just done his own pencils too? You can see that Anderson cared about what he was doing and not just cranking out the panels. He appears to have been a dedicated christian who painted religious paintings for minimum wage. Speaking as an artist myself, its clear to me that he had mastery of technique, the rendering of surfaces, anatomy and composition. As a painter he depicts an etherial. light-filled earthly paradise. His use of pencil and/or inks shows a darker sensibility however. No less masterful - but almost as though he moonlighted as a (sinful?) journeyman comic book artist (maybe to pay the bills allowing him the time to paint the religious pictures). But there is usually a darkness to his comic work, therefore well suited to Atlas horror and Wanted. Perhaps it didnt occur to his editors that he might adapt his style to romance tales? He only seems to have inked a couple of romance stories for Atlas. His powerful and stylistically distinctive use of inks is arguably a match for Baker - and he would surely have respected Baker's sensibility and understood his technique. I believe he would have sought to "fit" Baker's style, but was simply too strong an artist to subsume his own personalty completely. I'm sure it's clear to all baker lovers, that even when inked by a mediocre artist, Baker's style is too distinctive to disguise - but conversely, and with apologies for stating the obvious - it does make it difficult to be sure how much of "baker art" includes the work of lesser artists. Especially if the "lesser" artist is a Harry Anderson! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Mentallo Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 ..oh, and if you want an entertaining half an hour give Jim Vadeboncoeur a ring and ask him to tell you about Harry Anderson! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GGA_Fan Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 I nearly forgot about this nice comic book from my collection. I haven't had the chance to have it slabbed yet, but one day I will. Diary Secrets #11 with a really sweet sheen to the cover. I suspect all Diary Secrets' Comics reprint other St. John romance comics, and this one is no exception. It reprints 3 stories from TR#3, and one from Pictorial Confessions #2. Can't wait to see scans of your Phantom Lady comics, as well as the spanking panels. (Sure, it's kinky, but it's also dang funny.) What do you think is the best thread here to post my PL's in? So far as the spanking panels, the funny thing about collecting any specific type of interior story theme, whether spanking panels, bondage panels, Atom Bomb panels, or Vampire appearances, GGA comics (and so on), is that the collection itself becomes very esoteric in it's outward appearance. For instance Spanking panels appear in many appealing titles such as TR#3, Diary Secrets #11, Patsy Walker, Candy, Crack, Feature, Spirit Sections, Crimes By Women etc., etc. So unless I started my own thread, I'd have to post these all over the board. (Well, I post them over at my website). Let me say, the spanking panels all tie into GGA, which was my original interest in collecting Golden Age Comics. The best ones are the wildest, funniest and sexiest. I have many other non-spanking panel GGA titles as well, such as Phantom Lady, Torchy, Rulah and All Top. I am a true collector at heart, and even have another collection of very high grade late '60s - early '70s TV comics such as Land Of The Giants, Sid & Marty Krofft & even Jay Ward, but mostly Hanna-Barbera. But that again is for another thread or two. I'm sure many of you out there collect more than just a single theme when it comes to comic books. For now, Diary Secrets #11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnT Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 Start your own thread focused on spanking. It would get some play! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 I am not a Baker collector but I've been keeping an eye out for this one for a while as it is one of, if not my favorite Baker Romance cover. I don't need high-grade. Glad to see the interiors are nice as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Svord Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 I am not a Baker collector but I've been keeping an eye out for this one for a while as it is one of, if not my favorite Baker Romance cover. I don't need high-grade. Glad to see the interiors are nice as well Nice pick-up Scrooge. Any splashes to share? From what little I've seen, Baker's Teen-Age Romances interiors appear to be far superior to the rest of his St.John's work. (They're richer, more complete drawings. A Flagship title of the company gets the best work deal?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JvR11 Posted August 26, 2010 Author Share Posted August 26, 2010 Here's a cool Baker splash from Love Romances 45... I cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop. I think there is a good chance Baker also inked this one. I think the inker is Anderson (cf "Cult of Killers", Wanted #52) I'm not sure I agree. You can see some similarities with the CL cover above. I looked at the Anderson story thanks for the reference. I don't really know much about him but looking at the story he has kind of a cross hatch look to his shading which I don't see in this particular story line. I'll have to look and see if I can see any other stories outside of Atlas that have this type of "dreamy" appearance. I understand your doubts, and I wouldnt stake my life on it either! (You know far more about baker romance than I do.) As Scrooge said, the face and hair of the woman lower left is very like Harry's work. I agree that the "Cult of Killers" story has very heavy cross-hatching. The way I read it, and I'm only speculating here, is that Anderson fitted his inks to suit Baker's romantic style. Anderson did do some work for Atlas - there are a few horror stories I've seen. He is arguably the most underrated artist of the era. (He is Jim Vadeboncoeur's favourite comic book artist) This story is my favorite romance story outside of the St. John's because of the attention to detail. If Anderson did indeed ink this, I wish he would have been able to do many more with Baker. I'll have to look up some more about Anderson. He looks like he was also a great illustrator too. I wonder why he wouldn't have just done his own pencils too? You can see that Anderson cared about what he was doing and not just cranking out the panels. He appears to have been a dedicated christian who painted religious paintings for minimum wage. Speaking as an artist myself, its clear to me that he had mastery of technique, the rendering of surfaces, anatomy and composition. As a painter he depicts an etherial. light-filled earthly paradise. His use of pencil and/or inks shows a darker sensibility however. No less masterful - but almost as though he moonlighted as a (sinful?) journeyman comic book artist (maybe to pay the bills allowing him the time to paint the religious pictures). But there is usually a darkness to his comic work, therefore well suited to Atlas horror and Wanted. Perhaps it didnt occur to his editors that he might adapt his style to romance tales? He only seems to have inked a couple of romance stories for Atlas. His powerful and stylistically distinctive use of inks is arguably a match for Baker - and he would surely have respected Baker's sensibility and understood his technique. I believe he would have sought to "fit" Baker's style, but was simply too strong an artist to subsume his own personalty completely. I'm sure it's clear to all baker lovers, that even when inked by a mediocre artist, Baker's style is too distinctive to disguise - but conversely, and with apologies for stating the obvious - it does make it difficult to be sure how much of "baker art" includes the work of lesser artists. Especially if the "lesser" artist is a Harry Anderson! I was thinking another reason this might be Baker inking this is because of the level of details that flow through to the completed piece...kind of like he envisioned the end product even while penciling. The consistency of details that intertwine with the overall concept of the piece...i.e. different shades of color ...flows so smoothly. I think it might have been a bit difficult for a different inker to know that certain colors would represent certain shadowing effects. Here's page 2 for your viewing enjoyment... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JvR11 Posted August 26, 2010 Author Share Posted August 26, 2010 I am not a Baker collector but I've been keeping an eye out for this one for a while as it is one of, if not my favorite Baker Romance cover. I don't need high-grade. Glad to see the interiors are nice as well Nice pick up Scrooge. I just got this issue a few months ago and also think it's a great one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Svord Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Here's page 2 for your viewing enjoyment... Nice one Mrs. van R! (thumbs u ( <- Paul Harvey) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 I haven't posted anything for a long time. Sorry about the lousy scan on this one. It's in a slab and doesn't fit well on my scanner. The rest of them are raw books. It's too bad there isn't an interior story that goes with this cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecollectron Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheetah Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 What exactly is going on in that cover? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Mentallo Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 What exactly is going on in that cover? Girl in the showers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spillred Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 Wow, those are all of the classic Bakers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...