Number 1594: There wuz giants in them thar days!

If the credits in the Grand Comics Database for Marvel’s Black Rider #8 (actually #1, 1950) are correct, then the artists who drew this story are giants of comic art. That seems appropriate since the story is called “The Mystery of the Valley of Giants.” GCD says (with their ? meaning they’re not quite sure) that the story was drawn by Syd Shores, Joe Maneely, John Severin and Russ Heath. Wow! What a crew. If you are an art spotter you can go through and see where each artist’s style pops up.

Not only are those art credits interesting, the cover photo is claimed to be Stan Lee in costume. Maybe any gun experts reading this can tell me if the pistols Stan “Black Rider” Lee is holding are real. To me they look like a set I wore circa 1952. They came with a Hopalong Cassidy outfit I got for Christmas.

More about →

Number 1312: Pre-and-post Comics Code with the Black Rider

I think it interesting that a Black Rider storyline from consecutive issues of his title straddled the pre-and-post Comics Code eras. Black Rider #27, dated March 1955, was the last before the Code was implemented. The comic book’s title changed to Western Tales of Black Rider with #28, dated May 1955, and carried the Comics Code seal. “The Spider Strikes” and “The Return of the Spider” show some differences.

In the first story, a dead man has a large and hideous brand of the villainous Spider on his back; in the next story the brand has been changed to a very small black image of a spider on the chest of a victim. (I'm less surprised at that change than I am that they were allowed to show a dead man.) Mention is made in issue #28 by Black Rider that whomever had been living in the cave he was exploring shared it with a skeleton, but a crude crosshatch has been inked over the skeleton, so it can barely be seen. There are a couple of other minor things that I’m reasonably sure the Code demanded.

The penciling for both stories is attributed to Syd Shores, who had a long run on the character. Inking for “The Spider Strikes” is attributed to Chrisopher Rule, with no guesses for the inker of “The Return of the Spider.”

More about →

Number 1106


Savorin' Severin

John Severin has died at age 90. Severin has been one of my favorite comic artists since I saw his "Melvin of the Apes" in Mad when I was very young. I have followed his career since. I'm saddened by his death, but also happy that we have so much of his artistic legacy to still appreciate.*

Here are two of my favorite postings of Severin's artwork: "Luck" from Pappy's #590, and "EC @ Atlas" from Pappy's #910.

Had I not read the expert opinion of Michael Vassallo I wouldn't have known that the Black Rider story from Best Western #58 (1949), was by John Severin. This early work just didn't look like the Severin I was used to. After reading Michael's credit in the Atlas Tales website I looked closer at the artwork. Sure enough it’s Severin, and thanks to Doc V for the heads-up.

As much as I love Severin's printed work, his original art is just as fascinating. The now defunct blog, Hairy Green Eyeball, had several Severin postings. This post with Severin originals, mostly from Severin's time at Cracked, is from the very last HGE blog, and you can link to it here.









In a story done a few years and several hundred comic book pages later the more mature John Severin style jumps out from 1955's Western Tales of Black Rider #28, in the short but poignant "The Brothers."

More about →

Number 854

Love is not in the cards for the Black Rider

Black Rider is a masked Western hero; not in the Lone Ranger style but a doctor who pretends to be a wimp. Like Zorro Doc Masters dresses up in his costume to whup on bad guys.

Everyone to their own thing. In the last panel of this story, Doc Masters asks the gal he's hot for, Marie, to ". . . close your eyes and pretend I'm the Black Rider." She says no. She knows better than to get involved in that kind of role-play. Doc must be in turmoil knowing he is his own rival. Several costumed heroes have found themselves in that situation.

The story is from The Black Rider #10 (actually #1), from 1951, credited by Atlas Tales to Joe Maneely. I showed the origin of Black Rider from the same issue last June in Pappy's #759.

As an add-on, here's a Black Rider story from '54 that I scanned 10 years ago from my copy of 3-D Tales Of The West, before I sold it on eBay. Atlas charged 10¢ less for this comic than other companies charged for their 3-D comics, but the 3-D effects in this book didn't work out so well. I wish I had a blackline copy of this story for those of you who don't have 3-D glasses, because even if the 3-D is lame, the artwork is good. It's drawn by the late Al Hartley, another versatile artist who drew in several genres for Atlas. Later in his life ended up at Archie, and then Spire Christian Comics.

More about →