Tecs 1-26 In Grade -- The Quest Is Finally Over

[sacentaur]

Flessel indicated that it's actually a collaboration as another artist (whose name escapes me) drew the detail on Fu Manchu's jacket.

 

I wonder if that's why the cover is unsigned.

[adamstrange]

Definitely one of the more memorable "Oriental Menace" covers.

 

Flessel indicated that it's actually a collaboration as another artist (whose name escapes me) drew the detail on Fu Manchu's jacket.

I heard it was an engraver, who also applied the technique to New Adventure #24.

Can anyone educate me?

Engraver sounds right -- I knew it was not just another comic artist but someone involved in the printing process.

[RareHighGrade]

Flessel indicated that it's actually a collaboration as another artist (whose name escapes me) drew the detail on Fu Manchu's jacket.

 

I wonder if that's why the cover is unsigned.

I think that his failure to sign a cover on which he mimicked another artist was intentional. He did not sign the cover to New Adventure 16 either.

[sfcityduck]

This is a GREAT thread full of beautiful comics. But I am surprised by this statement:

 

For years, it was assumed that the cover was by Leo O'Mealia, who drew the interior story "The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu," because the artwork looks exactly like O'Mealia's style.

 

That cover doesn't look at all like any other O'Mealia cover to me (e.g. Action 2, 3, 5, 6 or Det. 20 or 21). O'Mealia's covers are characterized by their clean black shading and minimal (or very light) tectures. And it is not signed, unlike every other O'Mealia cover. Whoever decided this was an O'Mealia cover was way off, IMHO.

 

With all due respect to Flessel, I don't think he was quite as good an illustrator as O"Mealia, but that may just be because I prefer O'Mealia's (Sickles inspired?) technique.

 

I'm looking forward to you 20 and 21.

[RareHighGrade]

This is a GREAT thread full of beautiful comics. But I am surprised by this statement:

 

For years, it was assumed that the cover was by Leo O'Mealia, who drew the interior story "The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu," because the artwork looks exactly like O'Mealia's style.

 

That cover doesn't look at all like any other O'Mealia cover to me (e.g. Action 2, 3, 5, 6 or Det. 20 or 21). O'Mealia's covers are characterized by their clean black shading and minimal (or very light) tectures. And it is not signed, unlike every other O'Mealia cover. Whoever decided this was an O'Mealia cover was way off, IMHO.

 

With all due respect to Flessel, I don't think he was quite as good an illustrator as O"Mealia, but that may just be because I prefer O'Mealia's (Sickles inspired?) technique.

 

I'm looking forward to you 20 and 21.

sfcityduck,

 

I appreciate your thoughts. Have you seen O'Mealia's artwork in the Fu Manchu strip in Detective or the Barry O'Neill "Fang Gow of China" storyline in Adventure Comics? I don't have access to those stories right now, but my recollection is that the artwork is very similar to Flessel's Tec #18 cover.

 

I agree that O'Mealia's covers on Tec #20 and 21 are stylistically different, but that artwork is not representative of his work in the interior stories. Perhaps there are other Board members who have access to this material who can weigh in.

[adamstrange]

O'Mealia's inking is especially impressive an,d having read a few of his stories, he is the better illustrator. Action 2 and Adventure 41 showcase his exquisite inking.

 

As a cover artist, however, I don't think his images had the "punch" that Flessel more reliably produced and that's probably why he was given more cover assignments by DC.

[Scrooge]

I agree that O'Mealia's covers on Tec #20 and 21 are stylistically different, but that artwork is not representative of his work in the interior stories. Perhaps there are other Board members who have access to this material who can weigh in.

 

I thought I had more but this is what I have of O'Mealia's Fu Manchu but this is the strip. I don't know if the content of 'Tec were reprints from the strip or not. Not enough here to get a good idea of the whole strip I am afraid.

 

 

[tth2]

Detective #18 is a favorite of many GA collectors because of the cover's exquisite rendering of the villainous Fu Manchu. For years, it was assumed that the cover was by Leo O'Mealia, who drew the interior story "The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu," because the artwork looks exactly like O'Mealia's style. It was later learned (from Flessel himself) that Flessel drew the cover. Flessel's uncanny skill in mimicking his contemporaries (another example is his cover of New Adventure 16, in which he does a dead-on impersonation of Joe Shuster) attests to his versatile talent.

 

My copy of #18 is a CGC 7.5.

My favorite Detective cover.

[tth2]

O'Mealia's inking is especially impressive an,d having read a few of his stories, he is the better illustrator. Action 2 and Adventure 41 showcase his exquisite inking.

 

As a cover artist, however, I don't think his images had the "punch" that Flessel more reliably produced and that's probably why he was given more cover assignments by DC.

I like O`Mealia better than Flessel, but that doesn`t mean that Flessel isn`t great.

 

Does anyone know why the noted artists of the pre-superhero covers never seemed to do any superhero covers? Did they think it was beneath them? Or had they all moved on to more lucrative work in other fields by then?

[PreHero]

Quite an impressive accomplishment! Long ago I had illusions of putting together a pre-Batman Detective run, but quickly came to my senses.

 

Cover to #18 always reminded me of O'Mealia's Barry O'Neill art from More Fun.

[adamstrange]

Does anyone know why the noted artists of the pre-superhero covers never seemed to do any superhero covers? Did they think it was beneath them? Or had they all moved on to more lucrative work in other fields by then?

You are probably over-estimating the number of artists. Flessel accounted for almost 2/3 of the covers from his start in Apr '37 through Dec '38 and he later drew the Sandman covers.

 

The others during that time were almost all by 3 artists: Vin Sullivan, who became the editor for Columbia Comics and then founding editor of Magazine Enterprises, Leo O'Meala, who left to go back to being a newspaper artist which he had started doing in 1907, and John Richard Flanagan, who only drew a few covers and then left, though I'm not sure for what. During this time I believe Wheeler-Nicholson had considerable difficulty paying the artists so it didn't necessarily take much to lure them away.

[PreHero]

O'Mealia's inking is especially impressive an,d having read a few of his stories, he is the better illustrator. Action 2 and Adventure 41 showcase his exquisite inking.

 

As a cover artist, however, I don't think his images had the "punch" that Flessel more reliably produced and that's probably why he was given more cover assignments by DC.

I like O`Mealia better than Flessel, but that doesn`t mean that Flessel isn`t great.

 

Does anyone know why the noted artists of the pre-superhero covers never seemed to do any superhero covers? Did they think it was beneath them? Or had they all moved on to more lucrative work in other fields by then?

 

Appears both O'Mealila and Flessel stopped doing comic book art early on. Flessel did do a number of early Sandman covers for Adventure, and Guardineer did a Zatara and a Superman covers for Action.

 

They did seem to specialize in the non-super hero covers that alternated in early Action, Adventure and Detective.

[RareHighGrade]

More Flessel trivia: Because of the confusion over who drew the cover of #18, along with the fact that many collectors believed that the last cover signed by Flessel was #17, there was uncertainty regarding the artist on #19. Early CGC labels did not attribute the #19 cover to Flessel. In fact, however, Flessel did initial the cover (with a "cf" similar to his initials on Tec #3), but the initials were cut off on most of the printed copies. The initials can be seen on a very few copies. For example, you can just make out half of the initials in the lower right corner of the Church copy.

 

Here is the Church Tec #19:

 

[tth2]

Does anyone know why the noted artists of the pre-superhero covers never seemed to do any superhero covers? Did they think it was beneath them? Or had they all moved on to more lucrative work in other fields by then?

You are probably over-estimating the number of artists. Flessel accounted for almost 2/3 of the covers from his start in Apr '37 through Dec '38 and he later drew the Sandman covers.

 

The others during that time were almost all by 3 artists: Vin Sullivan, who became the editor for Columbia Comics and then founding editor of Magazine Enterprises, Leo O'Meala, who left to go back to being a newspaper artist which he had started doing in 1907, and John Richard Flanagan, who only drew a few covers and then left, though I'm not sure for what. During this time I believe Wheeler-Nicholson had considerable difficulty paying the artists so it didn't necessarily take much to lure them away.

Yes, I was thinking of Flessel, O`Mealia and Flanagan.

 

I forgot when I made my post that Flessel did the Sandman covers, although if you think about it, he was a hero who didn`t wear tights.

[tth2]

More Flessel trivia: Because of the confusion over who drew the cover of #18, along with the fact that many collectors believed that the last cover signed by Flessel was #17, there was uncertainty regarding the artist on #19. Early CGC labels did not attribute the #19 cover to Flessel. In fact, however, Flessel did initial the cover (with a "cf" similar to his initials on Tec #3), but the initials were cut off on most of the printed copies. The initials can be seen on a very few copies. For example, you can just make out half of the initials in the lower right corner of the Church copy.

Interesting stuff! (thumbs u

[Bronty]

This is a GREAT thread full of beautiful comics. But I am surprised by this statement:

 

For years, it was assumed that the cover was by Leo O'Mealia, who drew the interior story "The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu," because the artwork looks exactly like O'Mealia's style.

 

That cover doesn't look at all like any other O'Mealia cover to me (e.g. Action 2, 3, 5, 6 or Det. 20 or 21). O'Mealia's covers are characterized by their clean black shading and minimal (or very light) tectures. And it is not signed, unlike every other O'Mealia cover. Whoever decided this was an O'Mealia cover was way off, IMHO.

 

With all due respect to Flessel, I don't think he was quite as good an illustrator as O"Mealia, but that may just be because I prefer O'Mealia's (Sickles inspired?) technique.

 

I'm looking forward to you 20 and 21.

 

I had the same thoughts re tec 18. If you just ignore everything about the entire rest of the cover and just focus on the treatment of the face, it screams flessel IMO. That being said I can understand some confusion if omealia did the interiors.

[Bronty]

Just to illustrate the point. Here's the tec 18 face in isolation. Notice the cragginess, strong features, and the solid black shading in recessed areas.

[Bronty]

Now here are some of the other faces from surrounding issues. Again notice the cragginess, strong masculine features (not surprising in a cops n robbers title I guess) and solid black shading in recessed areas (unless in a strong light source).

 

Compare especially to the tec 15 face (3rd pic), which is at a similar angle and light source. The treatment is extremely similar.

[Bronty]

more faces - again the shading has a unique treatment to it.

[RareHighGrade]

Excellent "Detective" work Bronty!