Number 1527: Spirit of the gun

Recently I presented a bloody tale from Desperado #1 narrated by a gun. Here I have another tale, this time from Will Eisner’s Spirit Section of March 4, 1951, also narrated by a gun. Is this a good gimmick or not, having stories narrated by inanimate objects? (To answer my own question, the esteemed Ray Bradbury used it when he had a rocket ship narrate “I, Rocket” in Amazing Stories, May 1944. Perhaps I should just shut up.)

Another thing about this Spirit story that caught my eye was the panel sequence I have used as a teaser above, and a similar sequence from Mad #12 (1954), when Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder did their satire, “Starchie.”

I wonder if the Spirit had any inspiration on the Mad sequence, either consciously or unconsciously.

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Number 1491: More early Kurtzman

This past September I showed three 1943 humor stories drawn by Harvey Kurtzman. Less than a decade later Kurtzman went on to create Mad and secure his reputation as one of the greatest comic geniuses of all time. The stories showed glimpses of what was to come. To see them click on this link for Pappy's #1446.

Not so these stories, also by Kurtzman. They are crudely drawn superhero stories from Super-Mystery Comics Vol. 3 No. 5 (1943). Harvey was just 18 or 19 when he was a member of the Louis Ferstadt comic art shop. Despite the amateurish quality they are early work by an important figure in comic art history, and in addition I couldn’t resist showing the Buckskin strip, which has some panels of hanged men in a barn. It's the horror comics fan in me coming out. Some years later there were reports that Kurtzman had complained about the horror comics from his employer, EC Comics, saying they would get them in trouble. He was right. I wonder if that was from his experience; perhaps the Buckskin story got criticized for its excesses.

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Number 1446: Harvey (ol' bwah) Kurtzman on Flatfoot Burns

Harvey Kurtzman, one of my favorite comic book creators of all time, started his comic book career working for the Louis Ferstadt comics shop. Kurtzman earned his genius status over many years of toiling in the comic book factories, like drawing one-page gag strips for Stan Lee until landing his gig with EC Comics. When Kurtzman created, edited and wrote Mad it basically sealed him in comic book immortality.

But these early strips, “Flatfoot Burns,” six-page fillers which appeared in Police Comics, are the work of a 19-year-old artist looking to make a living in comics. Kurtzman was dismissive of this early work. As written in Kurtzman’s bio, Art of Harvey Kurtzman, Mad Genius of Comics, by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, Kurtzman is quoted as saying: “‘I never had a style so I had nothing to sell.’ In another interview Kurtzman referred to his pre-war output as ‘very crude, very ugly stuff.’ Nonetheless these give subtle hints of what is to come.”

When you look at these strips you will see panels here and there that are foreshadowing the future and his work on Mad and beyond. Mostly you are seeing a young cartoonist learning his way. These three stories are from Police Comics #24-26 inclusive (1943. When reference is made to “pre-war” in the biography I assume it means that period before Kurtzman entered the service.

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Number 590


Luck


Here's another great EC story presented with both scans of the original art* and from the printed comic book.

You hardly get any better than Harvey Kurtzman's war comics, especially drawn by John Severin. Add in Will Elder on the inks and you've got a perfect artistic trio.

"Luck" is from Two-Fisted Tales #27, 1953. According to the blurb over the title, Kurtzman heard the story from some hospitalized soldiers recently back from Korea. It's an urban legend set in a war zone, not necessarily true, but a good story with a strong sense of irony.

*Thanks, with a tip of Pappy's old steel Army helmet, to Heritage Auctions website for the scans.

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