Favorite Silver Age 50's style monster covers in your collection

[JohnT]

Your posting of the scan looks fine!

 

And your selection of MIS 55 is right on target. Like GL 8, it's a Gil Kane greytone.

 

I've never realized Kane drew this cover until you mentioned it. It's not listed in Overstreet. I've never really researched the whole greytone thing. Did only certain artists do it? How did it start? Why wasn't it used more? Seems like these comics would have jumped off the rack!

 

Here's another DC version of a Kirby Silver Age monster. It's got that "over the top" quality of the Atlas monsters--"It's even walking on water--and burning everything in its path (huh?)--but a little more restrained!

[selegue]

Your posting of the scan looks fine!

 

And your selection of MIS 55 is right on target. Like GL 8, it's a Gil Kane greytone.

 

I've never realized Kane drew this cover until you mentioned it. It's not listed in Overstreet. I've never really researched the whole greytone thing. Did only certain artists do it? How did it start? Why wasn't it used more? Seems like these comics would have jumped off the rack!

 

...

 

I saved this article without author credit. Does anyone know who wrote it so I can add the byline to the file?

 

Jack

 

THE "ADLER" WASHTONES- A Big Five exclusive

 

" In the last few years, one element of comic book collecting has received an incredible amount of attention. Greytones! Those beautiful wash covers found on a few DC comic books. Well you can thank the war collectors for this interest. And you can think the various publications for the inaccurate term "greytones".

Lately, collectors have been scurrying all over the country to acquire these issues. Even collectors who have little or no interest in BIG FIVE books actively search out these gems. For not only were these covers seen on the war titles, they were also found on such titles as-- SHOWCASE, SEA DEVILS and MYSTERY IN SPACE just to name a few! I have heard and read countless times about the "Great Kubert and Heath Greytones" and about the "Fantastic Grandenetti Greytones". Well, Fandom, You are all WRONG! You collectors are WRONG! And ALL the publications are DEAD WRONG!

To begin with, the proper term for these covers is WASHTONES. W-A-S-H-T-O-N-E-S. The term was given by the man who invented the process to achieve the effect that the covers give. Calling these covers "greytones" is the mark of an uninformed collector. Well, now you are informed. The man responsible for all the great DC "WASHTONE" covers, and also the inventor of the process (now used the world over!) is... JACK ADLER. Jack Adler was the senior colorist in the production department at DC.

The colorist seldom signs his name to his work. This was the case with Jack. He signed only one cover (a SHAZAM issue-- also featuring his grandchildren!). He has been devising color separations since 1938! He did the color work on the Prince Valiant Sunday sections for five weeks. Once, while doing these sections, William R. Hearst (Newspaper Magnate) went to see him because he wanted to know who the genius was doing the color. Well, the genius is Jack Adler!

Jack Adler came up with the washtone process out of necessity. Jack and his good friend Sol (DC Production man, Sol Harrison-- whom Jack had known since junior high school!), had a problem getting separations done for the cover art. The separations were done by a Union shop, and they did not want to do them. Jack had always wanted to be a photo engraver, but his talents as a colorist went unnoticed by the Union because they locked him out. Jack devised ways around the union rules, one of which was the WASHTONE process, and proceeded, along with Sol to form their own Union! He experimented constantly to obtain the effect he wanted.

The process is quite complicated and to accomplish the "look", artistic talent would be required. Jack would receive a piece of cover art drawn in pencil only, on either Strathmore paper or coquille board. He would then "ink" over the penciled work by doing wash separations done as separate drawings, making a watercolor blank being extremely careful with the color bleeds. Visualizing each color while doing the wash in diluted black ink (hence the term WASHTONE). He had to imagine each color and the effect it would have when overlapped with another color! By doing the art in this way, he would be categorized as an inker and the Unions couldn't touch him! And that's only the simple explanation!

In talking to the master craftsman, comic great and true gentleman, I learned quite a few other things. Mr. Adler is also the man who laid out the ground work for the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Arts! He was the first person Joe thought of when his idea of a school began. The school has been a success for many years, and that success can be attributed, in part, by his efforts.

Besides the fact that he created and did the DC WASHTONES, there is one more startling fact that will be revealed here in the BIG FIVE! When Jack Adler began his stint at DC in 1938, he sat at the desk with Donnenfeld, his friend Sol, and a few other notables, the moment the Golden Age of Comics began! The artwork for Action Comics #1 was laid out in front of him and the others as the decision to put Superman on the cover had been decided leaving only one final decision before history would be made. History not only for comics, but also for all of humanity for years to come! Jack was asked-- "What color should we make Superman's uniform?". And then Jack did it. Jack Adler gave Superman's costume the colors he wears to this very day! Red, Blue and Yellow! Siegel and Shuster gave the world Superman in black and white, Adler gave him to us in color! It doesn't get much more exclusive than that.

And now you know a little more about the EX-most unsung hero in comics!

As the popularity for these Washtones covers grow, and they will, let it be known to all that the man responsible, is Jack Adler. I don't call them washtones...I call them "ADLER WASHTONES". "

[AtlasFan]

Your posting of the scan looks fine!

 

And your selection of MIS 55 is right on target. Like GL 8, it's a Gil Kane greytone.

 

I've never realized Kane drew this cover until you mentioned it. It's not listed in Overstreet. I've never really researched the whole greytone thing. Did only certain artists do it? How did it start? Why wasn't it used more? Seems like these comics would have jumped off the rack!

 

Here's another DC version of a Kirby Silver Age monster. It's got that "over the top" quality of the Atlas monsters--"It's even walking on water--and burning everything in its path (huh?)--but a little more restrained!

 

Its intersting when you compare the Marvel and DC monster covers. With the exception of a handful, once of which is House of Mystery #85 (which I posted above), the Marvel monsters covers are always more dynamic than the often stiff and immobile DC monsters.

 

I guess it could be said that Ditko and Kirby made the difference.

Bill

 

 

Any thoughts?

[namisgr]

Mangog, a Kirby "monster" worthy of his creations from the fifties (Northland copy):

 

[adamstrange]

Chris Pedrin, author of the Big 5 Guide to DC War.

[adamstrange]

Your posting of the scan looks fine!

 

And your selection of MIS 55 is right on target. Like GL 8, it's a Gil Kane greytone.

 

I've never realized Kane drew this cover until you mentioned it. It's not listed in Overstreet. I've never really researched the whole greytone thing. Did only certain artists do it? How did it start? Why wasn't it used more? Seems like these comics would have jumped off the rack!

 

Here's another DC version of a Kirby Silver Age monster. It's got that "over the top" quality of the Atlas monsters--"It's even walking on water--and burning everything in its path (huh?)--but a little more restrained!

 

Another wonderful Kirby. He did another jeweled monster for (DC liked them for some reason) for My Greatest Adv 18.

 

There was extra work for Adler in doing the washtones so I suspect that was part of the inhibitor for widespread usage. The most frequent early use was for the GI Combat title.

 

Grandenetti and Kane are probably the most common DC washtone artists, but certainly Kubert, Heath and some others contributed as well.

[selegue]

Chris Pedrin, author of the Big 5 Guide to DC War.

 

Thanks. I hate posting articles without author credit.

 

Jack