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Question(s) for the comic book historians

Started by etanick,

27 posts in this topic

etanick

etanick

Posted
Posted

As I was going thru some old SA books, I was wondering...

 

Why didn't many artists back then(GA & SA) signed on the cover? I noticed that Jack Kirby didn't really have his sig on any covers for the longest time and even when he later decided to do so, it was just "JK" I think.

 

I can't imagine why many artists didn't but I love to hear what the historians have to say.

 

TIA

 

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seank

seank

Posted
Posted

Except for ECs, artists in general didn't sign their work in the GA and early SA. They were often doing work for hire, cranking out page after page for different publishers. Batman was always signed "Bob Kane" despite the artist because Kane was the creator. Carl Barks never got credit for his duck work because Disney was the guy who "drew" all those pages, most likely in the minutes between making movies and running a theme park. I believe that the practice of giving the actual creator credit for the work really began with Marvel starting with Fantastic Four #1. Others then followed Marvel's lead.

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Ze-man

Ze-man

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Not to mention, weren't many artists only doing comics until they got a "real" job? And viewed comics as sub par work?

 

I could be wrong, but seem to remember more then one artist retelling their story about how they planned all along to leave comics for greener pastures, only to become huge in comics.

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RedRaven

RedRaven

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Posted
Not to mention, weren't many artists only doing comics until they got a "real" job? And viewed comics as sub par work?

 

I could be wrong, but seem to remember more then one artist retelling their story about how they planned all along to leave comics for greener pastures, only to become huge in comics.

 

Not sure about the subpar part but from what I've read it seems like a lot of comic artists end up storyboarding as it pays much more. Trying to think of a few comic artists who wound up being great illustrators and off the top of my head I come up with Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis.. (shrug). Not sure who else would be a good example of moving on to greener pastures.

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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Posted
Trying to think of a few comic artists who wound up being great illustrators and off the top of my head I come up with Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis.. (shrug). Not sure who else would be a good example of moving on to greener pastures.

 

The list is in fact quite long. Many GA artists ended up working on strips: Leonard Starr, Stan Drake, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Tony DiPetra, Mel Keefer, Fran Matera, Harold LeDoux, Morris Weiss, Mac Raboy, Sy Barry, Irwin Hasen, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Al Plastino, Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, Paul Norris, ... and I am probably forgetting a ton and a ton of obvious ones too!

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Doctor Svord

Doctor Svord

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Posted
Trying to think of a few comic artists who wound up being great illustrators and off the top of my head I come up with Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis.. (shrug). Not sure who else would be a good example of moving on to greener pastures.

 

The list is in fact quite long. Many GA artists ended up working on strips: Leonard Starr, Stan Drake, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Tony DiPetra, Mel Keefer, Fran Matera, Harold LeDoux, Morris Weiss, Mac Raboy, Sy Barry, Irwin Hasen, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Al Plastino, Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, Paul Norris, ... and I am probably forgetting a ton and a ton of obvious ones too!

 

Yep, that guy went on to have a heck of a career outside of comics.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Kinstler

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RedRaven

RedRaven

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Posted
Trying to think of a few comic artists who wound up being great illustrators and off the top of my head I come up with Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis.. (shrug). Not sure who else would be a good example of moving on to greener pastures.

 

The list is in fact quite long. Many GA artists ended up working on strips: Leonard Starr, Stan Drake, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Tony DiPetra, Mel Keefer, Fran Matera, Harold LeDoux, Morris Weiss, Mac Raboy, Sy Barry, Irwin Hasen, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Al Plastino, Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, Paul Norris, ... and I am probably forgetting a ton and a ton of obvious ones too!

 

I wasn't considering strips. I was more thinking about those who went on to professional illustration eg book covers/ movie posters/ and most specifically advertising.

 

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Scrooge

Scrooge

Posted
Posted
Trying to think of a few comic artists who wound up being great illustrators and off the top of my head I come up with Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis.. (shrug). Not sure who else would be a good example of moving on to greener pastures.

 

The list is in fact quite long. Many GA artists ended up working on strips: Leonard Starr, Stan Drake, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Tony DiPetra, Mel Keefer, Fran Matera, Harold LeDoux, Morris Weiss, Mac Raboy, Sy Barry, Irwin Hasen, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Al Plastino, Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, Paul Norris, ... and I am probably forgetting a ton and a ton of obvious ones too!

 

I wasn't considering strips. I was more thinking about those who went on to professional illustration eg book covers/ movie posters/ and most specifically advertising.

 

Lou Fine and Martin Nodell had an advertising career.

 

But, yes, I figured you were excluding strips. I was including them in the list in response to Ze-Man who mentioned appropriately that it really was the objective / brass ring that most of these artists were reaching for ... and many did land there.

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JvR11

JvR11

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Trying to think of a few comic artists who wound up being great illustrators and off the top of my head I come up with Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis.. (shrug). Not sure who else would be a good example of moving on to greener pastures.

 

The list is in fact quite long. Many GA artists ended up working on strips: Leonard Starr, Stan Drake, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Tony DiPetra, Mel Keefer, Fran Matera, Harold LeDoux, Morris Weiss, Mac Raboy, Sy Barry, Irwin Hasen, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Al Plastino, Jack Cole, Harvey Kurtzman, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, Paul Norris, ... and I am probably forgetting a ton and a ton of obvious ones too!

 

I wasn't considering strips. I was more thinking about those who went on to professional illustration eg book covers/ movie posters/ and most specifically advertising.

 

Lou Fine and Martin Nodell had an advertising career.

 

But, yes, I figured you were excluding strips. I was including them in the list in response to Ze-Man who mentioned appropriately that it really was the objective / brass ring that most of these artists were reaching for ... and many did land there.

 

Matt Baker moved on to illustrations although not by choice but necessity.

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TheWatcher

TheWatcher

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There were a few artists that signed their comic work: Schomburg (already mentioned, and also as "Xela"), Biro, Wood, Ditko signed many of his Atomic Age works (The Thing!, Racket Squad), Frazetta, Simon & Kirby occasionally (Stuntman, Bulls-eye, Fighting American)

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Mister_Comics

Mister_Comics

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Back in the day it was common practice to sign ones work along the edge of the art. Whether the artist did or not would depend on the person. But the outer edge art work usually didn't get to see print. It got cut off at printing.

 

Another thing that was done back then was hiding ones sig among the art. Sometime initials or a name can be found in the art hidden very well.

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