Advice on identifying Jumbo Comics cover artists based on style/technique? Specifically, Matt Baker 1 1

[aleccomix]

Interested to see if anyone knows of specific traits or identifiable features that could be used to identify likely cover artists on Fiction House books? It seems like a lot of these Jumbo Comics covers are unattributed on comics.org. I imagine it's near impossible to attribute these books now with confidence--just wondering if there are things to look for? I'm specifically hoping to identify the likely cover artist on Jumbo Comics 121 (1949).

Did Matt Baker create/contribute to any of these Jumbo Comics Sheena covers? Or just the sky girl interior art?

Thanks!

[aardvark88]

Jumbo 121 looks like a Baker face if he was still alive in 1949. Some Matt Baker interior Jumbo gga art:

 

[aardvark88]

Would say this is not a Baker face on Jumbo cover:

 

[MB1952]

Matt Baker was already at St John in late 1948. Anything after that will be Iger Shop or Maurice Whitman. 
 

[aleccomix]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:16 PM, MB1952 said:

Matt Baker was already at St John in late 1948. Anything after that will be Iger Shop or Maurice Whitman. 
 

He is attributed on the Sky girl story on the interior of March '49 Jumbo #121 though--- was it possible that he was freelancing at the time? What year/month did he fully leave Iger Shop?

I suppose if he was freelancing for Fiction House on just the the interior sky girl story, that would make it quite a bit less likely that he did any of the work on the cover (which I think was packaged by iger shop), right? 

Does anyone know of a specific Sheena cover that is confirmed to be Baker? 

[Yorick]

I'd imagine most of the Jumbo covers are collaborative efforts and may never be identified/attributable to just one artist.  121 has some Baker characteristics, but Sheena's face is wonky in my eyes.  Maybe just a rush job with the inking. 

[plady69]

On 8/1/2023 at 9:29 AM, aardvark88 said:

Jumbo 121 looks like a Baker face if he was still alive in 1949. Some Matt Baker interior Jumbo gga art:

 

4 Finger Matt! Ha! Ha! Ha!

[MB1952]

On 8/1/2023 at 11:11 AM, aleccomix said:

He is attributed on the Sky girl story on the interior of March '49 Jumbo #121 though--- was it possible that he was freelancing at the time? What year/month did he fully leave Iger Shop?

I suppose if he was freelancing for Fiction House on just the the interior sky girl story, that would make it quite a bit less likely that he did any of the work on the cover (which I think was packaged by iger shop), right? 

Does anyone know of a specific Sheena cover that is confirmed to be Baker? 

[Yorick]

On 8/1/2023 at 5:14 PM, MB1952 said:

[cheetah]

I understand a lot of FH books were collaborations with no good information on who drew what.  @adamstrange know more about this than anyone else I’ve talked to.

[adamstrange]

On 7/31/2023 at 8:57 PM, aleccomix said:

Interested to see if anyone knows of specific traits or identifiable features that could be used to identify likely cover artists on Fiction House books? It seems like a lot of these Jumbo Comics covers are unattributed on comics.org. I imagine it's near impossible to attribute these books now with confidence--just wondering if there are things to look for? I'm specifically hoping to identify the likely cover artist on Jumbo Comics 121 (1949).

Did Matt Baker create/contribute to any of these Jumbo Comics Sheena covers? Or just the sky girl interior art?

Thanks!

This cover looks like a Joe Doolin layout with Robert Webb on Sheena.

[adamstrange]

On 8/2/2023 at 5:11 PM, cheetah said:

I understand a lot of FH books were collaborations with no good information on who drew what.  @adamstrange know more about this than anyone else I’ve talked to.

FH is really tough because they tried for consistency of style and employed, at the same time, talented artists like Doolin, Webb, Baker, Kamen, and Whitman.  They could, ,when necessary, blend in with or imitate each other.  Iger operated an assembly line and broke down different parts of work for optimal efficiency, so more than one artist could even be involved in penciling a single panel.

Once Eisner split with Iger, FH generally had one primary cover artist at a time across all their titles.  They started with Zolnerowich, then Saaf, then Doolin, and finally Whitman.  There were other artists drawing covers from time to time, so it's not an abrupt transition from one of these to the other.

Wings was special as they made extensive use of art from Fawcette and Lubbers.

[Sarg]

There are no Jumbo covers by Matt Baker.