Shadow, Jr-Charles Coll (?)-1947

Shadow Jr had only 3 adventures as far as I know and yet two different boys were the kid version of the radio/pulp hero. The art on the other two is by one Charles Coll with whose work I'm not familiar so I'm going out on a  limb to say this middle story may well be also by him.

Robolink-Carl Pfeufer-1966

The plot starts out like Godard's ALPHAVILLE and the female character later on looks vaguely like  prototypical Power Girl but then everything changes in the last few panels as writer Otto Binder sets up a twist for a series that never materialized.

Silver Surfer-Jack Kirby-1967

Belated birthday remembrances to the late, great Jack KING Kirby who would have turned 96 years of age yesterday. This was the very first solo tale of his one completely acknowledged solo creation of the Marvel Age of Comics, The Silver Surfer. This oft-forgotten little one-off masterpiece--although undone by later continuity--is from the back pages of 1967's FF ANNUAL.

Superboy-Creig Flessel-1959

Here's something interesting--a SUPERBOY story drawn by early DC staple Creig Flessel. Flessel brought a unique, light-hearted look to this story, especially in his portrayal of Lana Lang. Many years later, the artist would do a Good Girl Art strip for PLAYBOY.

Death Lies Ahead-Warren Kremer (?)-1952

Here's an entertainingly creepy little tale of fortune telling and fortunes. GCD suggests the great, unsung Warren Kremer as artist. Doesn't look nearly as detailed as his work in that period to me but if it was him--or whomever it was--it's a great job! Very stylish!

Tiny Folk and the Giant-Walt Kelly-1945

Happy 100th birthday to Walt Kelly yesterday! If you're familiar with Kelly's POGO, you know it reached a standard of excellence in both comic books and strips that is hard to beat. But Kelly did so much more before he left comic books and all of it had a special delight and magic for young and old alike that has rarely been seen again. Here, from a FAIRY TALE PARADE issue of Dell's FOUR COLOR series, is a great example--an obvious kids story but genuinely amusing for adults as well, both in story and art.

The Girl Behind the Glass-Jay Scott Pike-1957

Although he did a lot of romance comics, artist Jay Scott Pike is probably best remembered for his one-off DOLPHIN strip in DC's SHOWCASE in 1968. Here we find him a decade earlier at Atlas with a story that, in retrospect, is reminiscent of some aspects of DOLPHIN!

Blondie-Bewitched-1965

Not sure who was drawing these BLONDIE stories for the comic books at this point but they were definitely making an effort to open them up from the standard home/office hi-jinks that had been successful for decades in both the newspapers and the books. From the look of the horse and the fact that this was a Harvey title, I'm tempted to say Warren Kremer!