Ok, what's the lowdown on Fiction House?

[GGA_Fan]

Is that a Maurice Whitman on Kaanga #18? He's one of those GA GG artists that I am really only beginning to acquaint myself with and soak in their amazing bodies of art. Lily Renee is another, both Fiction House artists.

 

It's a beautiful scan of Kaanga #18 Scrooge, and an absolutely magnificent piece of artwork. I've also never really taken a good, hard look at the later Fiction House covers (from approx. 1949-1954), but some of them are absolutely killer.

 

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[comicnoir]

Whitman. You can tell by the overbite on the woman.

[GGA_Fan]

Whitman. You can tell by the overbite on the woman.

 

Is the overbite his MO? It's a shame though, because the way Whitman drew Kaanga and those Gorillas, I can see very few artistic setbacks in it. The composition itself is brilliant. But, no art is truly flawless, well except for a few pieces I've seen by Baker, Frazetta, Williamson and a few others. Most art can generally be improved upon if the artist had the time and/or motivation.

 

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[comicnoir]

Some people like overbites. His women seemed to all have them, except when their mouths were closed I found it distracting at first, but learned to like it. He was obviously a talented draughtsman and his use of colour (if that was him) was exemplary. Was he as good as Baker?

No, but who is.

[GGA_Fan]

Some people like overbites. His women seemed to all have them, except when their mouths were closed I found it distracting at first, but learned to like it. He was obviously a talented draughtsman and his use of colour (if that was him) was exemplary. Was he as good as Baker?

No, but who is.

 

Did Whitman draw any F.H. Ghost covers too? I also have learned to overlook obvious aberrations and shortcomings within most GA artist's portfolios because I know they were being paid by the page, under a tight deadline, and had several projects to work on at any given time. So they could not afford to be perfect. I also find that many shortcomings from many artists add to their charm, like Al Feldstein, Vic Donahue, L.B. Cole, Manny Stallman, and Leonard Starr to name a few. Each has their own imperfect style, with their own self-standing positive attributes. Often, I like the ideas that some weaker art might attempt to convey, well unless they fail miserably.

 

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[Scrooge]

Tell me more about Vic Donahue. What company / feature did he work on?

[GGA_Fan]

I like Vic's artwork a lot. He was an excellent illustrative artist who put a lot of detail into his panels including background detail, and his figures were quite realistic. One of the short comings, that is a drawback to me personally, is that he either took his work too seriously, or else it lacked pizazz, (or missing something else that I cannot pinpoint) that would otherwise catapult his work and status to recognized greatness. But still, from what I've seen, he had very strong drawing skills. He did a lot of backup work on Simon & Kirby romance titles. You could add Crestwood to the list of Publishers he had worked for too. But I am not a Vic Donahue expert by any means, because I am not familiar enough with his entire portfolio which includes some Harvey Horror titles. I've only seen what I've seen, which is not enough.

 

Vic Donahue

[seank]

Some people like overbites. His women seemed to all have them, except when their mouths were closed I found it distracting at first, but learned to like it. He was obviously a talented draughtsman and his use of colour (if that was him) was exemplary. Was he as good as Baker?

No, but who is.

 

Did Whitman draw any F.H. Ghost covers too? I also have learned to overlook obvious aberrations and shortcomings within most GA artist's portfolios because I know they were being paid by the page, under a tight deadline, and had several projects to work on at any given time. So they could not afford to be perfect. I also find that many shortcomings from many artists add to their charm, like Al Feldstein, Vic Donahue, L.B. Cole, Manny Stallman, and Leonard Starr to name a few. Each has their own imperfect style, with their own self-standing positive attributes. Often, I like the ideas that some weaker art might attempt to convey, well unless they fail miserably.

 

Whitman did most of the late-run FH covers, including, IIRC, all the Ghost covers.

 

The woman with the overbite was likely a spouse or significant other of some sort who modeled for him. All the women he drew for FH covers look like her.

[adamstrange]

Some people like overbites. His women seemed to all have them, except when their mouths were closed I found it distracting at first, but learned to like it. He was obviously a talented draughtsman and his use of colour (if that was him) was exemplary. Was he as good as Baker?

No, but who is.

 

Did Whitman draw any F.H. Ghost covers too? I also have learned to overlook obvious aberrations and shortcomings within most GA artist's portfolios because I know they were being paid by the page, under a tight deadline, and had several projects to work on at any given time. So they could not afford to be perfect. I also find that many shortcomings from many artists add to their charm, like Al Feldstein, Vic Donahue, L.B. Cole, Manny Stallman, and Leonard Starr to name a few. Each has their own imperfect style, with their own self-standing positive attributes. Often, I like the ideas that some weaker art might attempt to convey, well unless they fail miserably.

 

Whitman did most of the late-run FH covers, including, IIRC, all the Ghost covers.

 

The woman with the overbite was likely a spouse or significant other of some sort who modeled for him. All the women he drew for FH covers look like her.

All the Ghost covers are by Whitman http://www.comics.org/series/12300/covers/

 

Practically ever FH cover from mid-1951 to their shutdown was down by Whitman. I've never heard whether he had anything to do with the coloring but FH also used better inks and printing quality starting at about the same time. It may have been a coordinated effort on the part of the publisher to improve their product or perhaps Whitman, like Infantino for DC, approached management with an offer to improve their "look." The notable exception to his work is the crediting of the Spirit covers to Eisner, though I'm not sure that's correct and would love to hear any comments on them. Spirit aside, Whitman drew everything imaginable from horror, jungle, animals, people, sci-fi, romance, western and made it all look easy.