My very first favorite art TEAM in comics was Andru/Esposito, whom I first met on METAL MEN and WONDER WOMAN. Turns out the pair had a long history together not just as artists but as publishers. Here's one of their 1950s stories with some lovely art. They would try again as publishers in the early 1970s before Ross finally found some measure of fame as Spider-Man's regular artist.
You mustn't miss the text story in this comic (Heart and Soul # 1), in which jazz musician Mike Esposito saves a lady from the clutches of lecherous salesman Ross Andru.
ReplyDeleteOther than how comically fast our gigolo falls from grace, the moral is kind of weird here. Think about it -- he would have been fine -- he owned a club, he was adapt at getting pretty women -- if he wouldn't have "fallen in love." So this story basically says love is for squares! Obviously, the authors were going for a different angle, trying to show how wrong his original behavior was, but it was him duplicating the behavior of his marks that caused his downfall!
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