John Severin at Atlas/Marvel

I tell ya.... when doing these posts, I try to get a hold of scans from an artists "hotest" period of work in the comics field..... well I had a real hard time on this one. Just when wasn't John Severin smokin' hot? From his earliest stuff with Will Elder until.... now! He has consistently pulled off some amazing ink work. So I've narrowed this down to his Atlas-Marvel era stuff. After a few early covers here, you'll find an incredible Nick Fury story, laid (out by Kirby)and a nice Tarzan parody, done with his sister Marie!... at the bottom there are a few scans of original art that are just mind boggling.... that is if your another weirdo like me who thinks cross hatching and brush feathering are important concerns. in life

Lost in the 1950's.... Joe Maneely

Ya'Know, I used to buy into all that Hoo-Ha that was going around, about EC being the only decently produced comics in the 1950's. I didn't know... hell, I was a child of the 70's.... Fifties comics comanded prices far above the couple of quarters I had for Spider-Man or The New Brave and the Bold,a few years went by the wayside... Then slowly I started to aquire some old Atlas, Harvey & St. John comis ..... guess what? .... uh huh.... I WAS AN EC dupe! I started to pick up big lots of Marvel Horror off of ebay in the early days for DIRT CHEAP!Most of the books were just re-printings of the tamer old Atlas Horror & Science Fiction stories. One artist kept on grabbing my attention.... Joe Maneely! I honestly think he is one of the Greatest Under rated Artist in comic Book History! Turns out Maneely was Ol' Stan Lee's Right Hand Man back in the pre-Kirby days. Joe.along with Russ Heath, Bill Everett (& John Severn after EC folded.) Produced some of the best comic art in world. As Good As.... and perhaps Superior in ways to EC! .... there I said it ...To Illustrate the point here are a few Joe Maneely cover scans & a Nice WAR comic for ya.... direct from 1952.... It's Joe Maneely!

John Romita Sr. and The Pompitudes of Love!

John Romita Sr. is probably best remembered as artist on SPIDER-MAN, when that was Marvels top selling book.....but in the early 70's Marvel produced a few romance comics that are really just F-ing Incredible! And leading the way was Romita Sr. His slick inks and great compositional skills are just feast for your eyeballs in these books. Let's face it... it's a lot harder to make some melancholy love scene interesting looking, as opposed to a Big Ol' Superhero slug fest. The dynamics are completely different, but John Romita Sr. had an inherent skill for solid story telling.... and does it ever pay off in these comics! Of course way back when these were published, Romance and Love were the furthest things from my mind..... but today I can appreciate the subtle nuances and challenges of the genre. So here is a quick look at one of the masters, in his prime!