With CAPTAIN AMERICA opening today, we revisit the odd, out of continuity years of the feature in which the post-war Cap is teamed with Betsy Ross as Golden Girl. In this episode they meet Chuck Berry. GCD question marks Human Torch creator Carl Burgos as artist but I'll agree with that guess, augmented by regular Cap inker Al Gabriele.
Here, from the new Craig Yoe volume, THE CARL BARKS BIG BOOK OF BARNEY BEAR, debuting this weekend at San Diego, is a sample story of the MGM characters from the so-called "Good Duck Artist." Unca Carl did the same thing with Barney as he did with Donald by making him a much better and more enjoyable character in print than he ever was on film.
National Comics cashed in on the coonskin cap craze started by Davy Crockett in one way by publishing a short-lived DANIEL BOONE comic, coincidentally predicting the other historical character actor Fess Parker would make famous a decade later. Art here is some very accomplished and lovely work by the great Nick Cardy!
Here we see the Winged Wonders, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, in all their Alex Raymond swipe file glory as drawn by Sheldon Moldoff in FLASH COMICS. This was actually some of the best Golden Age art of its day but the wings always looked more like smoke to me than feathers. Moldoff would also play a seminal role in launching the horror trend in comics and, aping an entirely different artist, would become the longtime "ghost" for BATMAN's Bob Kane.
Spike Jones was the Weird Al Yankovic of his day, taking popular tunes and skewering them with odd instrumentation (guns, breaking glasses, gargling) and odd performances from an odder than odd band. Here, from 1948, is Alex "Sandy" Toth, one of the great stylists in comic book history, in a brief look at Spike from JUKE BOX COMICS.
Some sloppy but energetic Jack Davis rip-off art in this horror tale from GHOST COMICS. GCD suggests two possibilities for the artist--John Belcastro (AKA Johnny Bell) or Larry Woromay. Based on what I've seen of the two artists' work, I'll go with Woromay.
