who IS this Hillman artist? 0

[ericjmz]

Hello

I have a question, a “Who is this artist?” question, that I thought might be recognizable to comics folk, specifically those familiar with Hillman comics (40’s-early ‘50s)

 

…and my question comes from the Book would, not the comic world.

The pic is of a very famous fantasy book, Jack Vance’s ‘The Dying Earth’ (published by Hillman,1950)

The pic is of its true first edition…this PBO (Paperback Original)

As famous as the author was, and the book is (it’s his first book), and specifically this True First Edition, the cover artist has never been identified?

 

And then it occurred to me-Hillman was more well-known (albeit for a brief period) for its comics than its books.

Maybe, just MAYBE, the answer to ‘who-this-unknown-artist-is’ lies in your folks world…comics.

 

Does anyone out there recognize the artist?

Im not looking for any old shot-in-the-dark; I’m wondering whether this seems a slam-dunk, or even quite likely as a bar, to be…

 

If anyone can say, please tell me, and if you would, please show a pic of a comic book cover or page that most resembles this artistry

 

I thank you in advance

 

Eric Margolis

on Facebook book boards I’m eric margolis

on Instagram I’m ericjmzrarebooks

… … …

 

[Get Marwood & I]

@ericjmz

Does this help, Eric?

 

 

 

 

https://www.pulpartists.com/Morey.html

I think I can see the three line M, O and Y if I compare the Dying Earth signature to another piece of his work?

 

[ericjmz]

un-friggin believable! :-) Thats it!  No question at all in my mind, not only for your forensic reveal of partial signature, but the many examples of his art in the link you provided, the womens & mens faces both, not to mention the overlapping field of what he worked in-YOU have identified what I believe no one else ever has-My thanx. As I mentioned in my inquiry I live in the world of books, and on my FB book boards, and on my IG page I post info & pics of first and important book editions several times weekly. I want to give you FULL credit mark, for this one; if you supply your last name (you can IM/PM me if you wish) I will credit you fully...in lieu of that you're merely 'marc' of the Cgccomics board/site: by the way, as a non-sequiter, I was big into golden age & all pre-code comics from circa 1975 to mid-90s, eventually having sold a 6 figure collection (which included Captain America 1-10, & a near entire run of every non-EC horror comic); now that you note it the name Leo Morey rings a bell, but he was so minor I would never have thought of it. Again, I applaud your skills

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/3/2023 at 2:46 AM, ericjmz said:

un-friggin believable! :-) Thats it!  No question at all in my mind, not only for your forensic reveal of partial signature, but the many examples of his art in the link you provided, the womens & mens faces both, not to mention the overlapping field of what he worked in-YOU have identified what I believe no one else ever has-My thanx. As I mentioned in my inquiry I live in the world of books, and on my FB book boards, and on my IG page I post info & pics of first and important book editions several times weekly. I want to give you FULL credit mark, for this one; if you supply your last name (you can IM/PM me if you wish) I will credit you fully...in lieu of that you're merely 'marc' of the Cgccomics board/site: by the way, as a non-sequiter, I was big into golden age & all pre-code comics from circa 1975 to mid-90s, eventually having sold a 6 figure collection (which included Captain America 1-10, & a near entire run of every non-EC horror comic); now that you note it the name Leo Morey rings a bell, but he was so minor I would never have thought of it. Again, I applaud your skills

I'm happy to have helped but it's the owner of the Flickr page below that deserves the credit, Eric:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/5864273406/in/photostream

Liking a challenge, all I did was interrogate the images of the book on Google and track them back to source. Most tracked back to 'artist unknown' pages but one image tracked back to that Flicker page with the answer. So the Steve who owns that page deserves the credit (although he may have picked it up from someone else of course).

Once I had the name Leo Morey, I Googled further, found more of his work and tried to compare the signatures. The signature on the book isn't the clearest you could hope for, set against a dark background, but you can make out some of the characters when comparing it to other signatures of his from around the same time.

I'm no expert on this era, or on identifying artists, but I could see the similarities in some of his work.

So I'm glad you got your answer Eric. I'm Steve too, but the Steve who should get the credit is the Flickr one. Looking at his photostream, he looks like the sort of chap you'd want to invite to your FB group / IG pages:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/

Good luck if you decide to send him a message 

[paqart]

@Get Marwood & I Since you enjoyed that challenge, maybe you'd enjoy a similar one. There is an Archie artist active up to the late sixties, maybe early seventies, whose work I really liked. It's been a long time since I've seen an example, and I'd like to find his name so I can find some original art. Unfortunately, I don't have any examples. To me, he is the Carl Barks of Archie, except I don't see his name in any of the Archie threads. Bob Montana and Dan DeCarlo seem to be the main Archie artists, but his guy is totally different. His characters are thinner, he drew Jughead more than Archie, and his stories tended to be weirder than normal. I want to say his first name was "Stan", but I'm not sure about that. If you have any notion who it might be, I'd love to know. The only story I remember that was definitely by him had to do with a "witch's claw" (a crow's foot, or similar). If I recall correctly, it granted wishes or had some other magic power. I can see in my mind's eye a half page panel with Archie holding it up at about chest height as he walks down a sidewalk with a few people, like Betty and Jughead.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:12 AM, paqart said:

@Get Marwood & I Since you enjoyed that challenge, maybe you'd enjoy a similar one. There is an Archie artist active up to the late sixties, maybe early seventies, whose work I really liked. It's been a long time since I've seen an example, and I'd like to find his name so I can find some original art. Unfortunately, I don't have any examples. To me, he is the Carl Barks of Archie, except I don't see his name in any of the Archie threads. Bob Montana and Dan DeCarlo seem to be the main Archie artists, but his guy is totally different. His characters are thinner, he drew Jughead more than Archie, and his stories tended to be weirder than normal. I want to say his first name was "Stan", but I'm not sure about that. If you have any notion who it might be, I'd love to know. The only story I remember that was definitely by him had to do with a "witch's claw" (a crow's foot, or similar). If I recall correctly, it granted wishes or had some other magic power. I can see in my mind's eye a half page panel with Archie holding it up at about chest height as he walks down a sidewalk with a few people, like Betty and Jughead.

It's annoying, isn't it, that fragment of a memory that you just can't place.

A quick search revealed a Monkey's Claw, that granted 3 wishes, but that was far too late. My only exposure to Archie is in relation to the UK Price Variants so I don't have any real experience to draw upon here. I'll just be Googling the same terms and periods that you undoubtedly have. Maybe these two might have a better idea of who the artist might be, if not the specific story, from your thinner description @archiecomicscollector @ArchieComicsMan 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:12 AM, paqart said:

His characters are thinner, he drew Jughead more than Archie

Samm Schwartz?

"Schwartz's style is distinguished by his loose, rubbery character poses and skinny, simplified designs."

"Schwartz, who pencilled, inked, and lettered much of his own work, specialized in stories featuring Jughead"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samm_Schwartz

And Saam isn't too far off Stan in the cloudy memory....

[143ksk]

On 8/3/2023 at 2:44 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Samm Schwartz?

"Schwartz's style is distinguished by his loose, rubbery character poses and skinny, simplified designs."

"Schwartz, who pencilled, inked, and lettered much of his own work, specialized in stories featuring Jughead"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samm_Schwartz

And Saam isn't too far off Stan in the cloudy memory....

Samm Schwartz would be my guess as well based on the description...

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/3/2023 at 12:17 PM, 143ksk said:

Samm Schwartz would be my guess as well based on the description...

I'm hoping it's him, firstly so paq gets closer to being reunited with his old comic story but also because Samm did some of the pence variant covers that I've posted about 

[JollyComics]

@Get Marwood & I  You might be a descendant of Sherlock Holmes (I know it's a fiction character) or someone else who worked at Scotland Yard.

[Pickie]

@Get Marwood & I Elementary! 

Great detective work

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/3/2023 at 1:56 PM, JollyComics said:

@Get Marwood & I  You might be a descendant of Sherlock Holmes (I know it's a fiction character) or someone else who worked at Scotland Yard.

 

On 8/3/2023 at 2:17 PM, Pickie said:

@Get Marwood & I Elementary! 

Great detective work

As the former resident of 221B once famously said, "Once you have eliminated the impossible, start Googling" 

[Malacoda]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:12 AM, paqart said:

The only story I remember that was definitely by him had to do with a "witch's claw" (a crow's foot, or similar). If I recall correctly, it granted wishes or had some other magic power. I can see in my mind's eye a half page panel with Archie holding it up at about chest height as he walks down a sidewalk with a few people, like Betty and Jughead.

Just to rule it out, you're not thinking of 'the Monkey's Claw'  by any chance?  This was drawn by Fernando Ruiz so seems unlikely, but it does involve the Archie gang walking down a sidewalk when they find a magic claw which grants wishes. 

 

 

[paqart]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:51 AM, Malacoda said:

Just to rule it out, you're not thinking of 'the Monkey's Claw'  by any chance?  This was drawn by Fernando Ruiz so seems unlikely, but it does involve the Archie gang walking down a sidewalk when they find a magic claw which grants wishes. 

 

 

Definitely not that story. The one I'm thinking of is from no later than about 1973 and the claw is a much smaller bird's claw. 

[Jayman]

I’m thinking Harry Lucey.

https://www.google.com/search?q=harry+lucy+archie+artist&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

[Malacoda]

On 8/3/2023 at 2:59 PM, paqart said:

Definitely not that story. The one I'm thinking of is from no later than about 1973 and the claw is a much smaller bird's claw. 

In 1973, Josie had some issues with a much smaller, evil magic bird's claw. Which was at chest height (it was a necklace).  But we're looking for Archie himself, right? 

[paqart]

On 8/3/2023 at 3:44 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Samm Schwartz?

"Schwartz's style is distinguished by his loose, rubbery character poses and skinny, simplified designs."

"Schwartz, who pencilled, inked, and lettered much of his own work, specialized in stories featuring Jughead"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samm_Schwartz

And Saam isn't too far off Stan in the cloudy memory....

I found him! It isn't Samm Schwartz, but that name led me down a trail that helped me find him. Along the way, I ran into "Stan" Goldberg, who also isn't the guy. The artist I wanted to find is Harry Lucey. I owned the original art to one of his covers a long time ago, but sold it, along with everything else I had at the time, for rent or food or something wasteful like that.

 

[paqart]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:07 AM, Jayman said:

I’m thinking Harry Lucey.

https://www.google.com/search?q=harry+lucy+archie+artist&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

This is the guy! Thanks!

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/3/2023 at 3:10 PM, paqart said:

I found him! It isn't Samm Schwartz, but that name led me down a trail that helped me find him. Along the way, I ran into "Stan" Goldberg, who also isn't the guy. The artist I wanted to find is Harry Lucey. I owned the original art to one of his covers a long time ago, but sold it, along with everything else I had at the time, for rent or food or something wasteful like that.

 

One out of two aint bad!

Glad you finally found it paq