Baker Romance 43 43

[comicnoir]

Here's the group shot. The 26& 28 have been upgraded.

[Robot Man]

On February 27, 2018 at 11:44 PM, comicnoir said:

I saw a Cinderella Love 29 sell on a thread, which inspired me to re-post mine.

Such a great book. Easily, in my Baker top 5. The cool car and the innocent flirtation just wrap it up for me!

[sacentaur]

Splash page from True Love Pictorial #2, another Baker beauty!

[Ricksneatstuff]

28 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

Splash page from True Love Pictorial #2, another Baker beauty!

That splash would have made a great cover! Very nice!

[Sqeggs]

38 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

Splash page from True Love Pictorial #2, another Baker beauty!

Great story, but if they'd had any sense, they would have left Nebraska and moved to Miami Beach! 

[29dukedog]

1 hour ago, sacentaur said:

Splash page from True Love Pictorial #2, another Baker beauty!

That top panel bears a passing resemblance to TR 32's cover.  

  ... Naw. 

[Yorick]

2 hours ago, sacentaur said:

Splash page from True Love Pictorial #2, another Baker beauty!

I too would like to see a lot more of Elaine Trent!

[Yorick]

14 hours ago, comicnoir said:

Here's the group shot. The 26& 28 have been upgraded.

I think if you could only collect one Baker series, this would be it.

[sacentaur]

25 minutes ago, Yorick said:

I think if you could only collect one Baker series, this would be it.

If we're talking about a short series of covers only, I'd tend to agree.

But I also really enjoy Baker's interior stories, of which Cinderella Love is sorely lacking.

[JvR11]

Does anyone else have a Heart Throbs 46?  I don't see anything on the census and rarely for sale.  

[JvR11]

15 hours ago, comicnoir said:

Here's the group shot. The 26& 28 have been upgraded.

Great group shot

[sagii]

3 minutes ago, JvR11 said:

Does anyone else have a Heart Throbs 46?  I don't see anything on the census and rarely for sale.  

The 'Quality' Bakers seem to be the stepchildren. Very nice , I'm actively looking for a copy.

[JvR11]

Here's a Glory Forbes OA panel.  It's amazing just to look at the details in Baker's ink work.  

 

The panel that made it to print...

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by JvR11

[comicnoir]

Joanna, is this your OA?

If so congratulations.

[Sqeggs]

1 hour ago, sagii said:

The 'Quality' Bakers seem to be the stepchildren. Very nice , I'm actively looking for a copy.

I think maybe for a reason -- they actually aren't up to his previous standard, imho. It's a mystery to me how inferior his Quality covers are to the covers he was drawing for St. John just a couple of years earlier.  Granted, the Quality work was post-Code and most of his St. John work was pre-Code, but he did a lot of covers for St. John that wouldn't (I don't think!) have run afoul of the Code.  And his late covers for St John were among his best.  The CL covers, for instance, were all published in 1954-1955, although perhaps some of them may have been drawn somewhat earlier.

The HT 46 has a pub date exactly two years after CL 25 and just 14 months after CL 29.  Yet if you were to ask someone unfamiliar with Baker to guess when he drew HT 46 relative to the CL covers, my guess is most people would think the HT 46 was an early effort.

Had his health already taken a turn for the worse? Had he burned out on drawing romance scenes? Was the pay too low (I can't believe that near the end at St John the pay would have been lavish)? Was he distracted by other commitments? 

Or am I just not appreciating his work at Quality? 

[JvR11]

1 hour ago, comicnoir said:

Joanna, is this your OA?

If so congratulations.

Yes, I have had it for quite awhile. I wish there was more of his OA out there.

 

[JvR11]

12 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

I think maybe for a reason -- they actually aren't up to his previous standard, imho. It's a mystery to me how inferior his Quality covers are to the covers he was drawing for St. John just a couple of years earlier.  Granted, the Quality work was post-Code and most of his St. John work was pre-Code, but he did a lot of covers for St. John that wouldn't (I don't think!) have run afoul of the Code.  And his late covers for St John were among his best.  The CL covers, for instance, were all published in 1954-1955, although perhaps some of them may have been drawn somewhat earlier.

The HT 46 has a pub date exactly two years after CL 25 and just 14 months after CL 29.  Yet if you were to ask someone unfamiliar with Baker to guess when he drew HT 46 relative to the CL covers, my guess is most people would think the HT 46 was an early effort.

Had his health already taken a turn for the worse? Had he burned out on drawing romance scenes? Was the pay too low (I can't believe that near the end at St John the pay would have been lavish)? Was he distracted by other commitments? 

Or am I just not appreciating his work at Quality? 

There are some non-St John interior stories that have some great art work but yes, I agree his artistic merit at St. John was his best in romance comics.  You also have to take into account his magazine illustrations.  These were later on his career as well and they were really well done.  Maybe he just had more license to be creative in magazine illustrations.

[sagii]

4 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

I think maybe for a reason -- they actually aren't up to his previous standard, imho. It's a mystery to me how inferior his Quality covers are to the covers he was drawing for St. John just a couple of years earlier.  Granted, the Quality work was post-Code and most of his St. John work was pre-Code, but he did a lot of covers for St. John that wouldn't (I don't think!) have run afoul of the Code.  And his late covers for St John were among his best.  The CL covers, for instance, were all published in 1954-1955, although perhaps some of them may have been drawn somewhat earlier.

The HT 46 has a pub date exactly two years after CL 25 and just 14 months after CL 29.  Yet if you were to ask someone unfamiliar with Baker to guess when he drew HT 46 relative to the CL covers, my guess is most people would think the HT 46 was an early effort.

Had his health already taken a turn for the worse? Had he burned out on drawing romance scenes? Was the pay too low (I can't believe that near the end at St John the pay would have been lavish)? Was he distracted by other commitments? 

Or am I just not appreciating his work at Quality? 

All great theories, and thanks as always for 'tackling' the discussion with me when i bring up the subject of his Quality covers. I think the 'inkers' on most of the covers are what 'dilutes' the finished product. Some of the interiors of this era are pretty much up to standard of what i've seen posted here of his St. John interiors (though iv'e come across two interior stories in the quality era that are clearly Baker but credited to someone else). 

Because his St John romance stuff has' left the station' for me because i already have sometimes 'pricey' collecting focus' i'm committed to finishing to take on yet another pricey venture, i focused on his non romance St John stuff and his Quality Romance to have examples of the master in my collection.

There are some stand outs to me: HT 46(sorry T.), HT 30, Girls in Love 57, Exotic Romances 31, and Love Letters 51 is certainly a Baker cover (and babe)no doubt. Would be nice to see a poll on these covers one day .

And if anyone here has a Heart Throbs 46 they'd like to sell......

[Sqeggs]

2 minutes ago, sagii said:

All great theories, and thanks as always for 'tackling' the discussion with me when i bring up the subject of his Quality covers. I think the 'inkers' on most of the covers are what 'dilutes' the finished product. Some of the interiors of this era are pretty much up to standard of what i've seen posted here of his St. John interiors (though iv'e come across two interior stories in the quality era that are clearly Baker but credited to someone else). 

Because his St John romance stuff has' left the station' for me because i already have sometimes 'pricey' collecting focus' i'm committed to finishing to take on yet another pricey venture, i focused on his non romance St John stuff and his Quality Romance to have examples of the master in my collection.

There are some stand outs to me: HT 46(sorry T.), HT 30, Girls in Love 57, Exotic Romances 31, and Love Letters 51 is certainly a Baker cover (and babe)no doubt. Would be nice to see a poll on these covers one day .

And if anyone here has a Heart Throbs 46 they'd like to sell......

I agree that HT 30 is by Baker (and arguably his best Quality cover), although GCD isn't convinced it's by him.  But look at the lack of background detail on that cover.  I can't think of his having skimped that way on any of his St John covers.  And by pub date, HT 30 actually precedes his last St John covers. 

Something was going on!

[Sqeggs]

8 minutes ago, JvR11 said:

There are some non-St John interior stories that have some great art work but yes, I agree his artistic merit at St. John was his best in romance comics.  You also have to take into account his magazine illustrations.  These were later on his career as well and they were really well done.  Maybe he just had more license to be creative in magazine illustrations.

True.  Nugget Vol. 1, No. 1 is well worth picking up (and easy to find on eBay) and he did some good work for Manhunt.  Maybe the answer is that he had switched his focus in that direction and wasn't willing to put in the time for Quality that he had for St John.