Well, i didn't think we'd be getting back to Ed Wheelan for a bit. And when we did, i thought we'd be going to the Circus. But... nope. When i sat down this morning to do a post, the brain went cave crawling.
So - let's take a gander at Rockhead McWizzard - The Stone Age Genius. You didn't think it was only boy genius/inventors that appealed to me, did you?
Rockhead wasn't around for very long - fewer that a dozen and a half adventures. He premiered in Flash Comics cover dated June 1946, with an almost simultaneous second appearance in Green Lantern's June/July issue. Aside from that GL, he also appeared in one issue of Wonder Woman, one issue of All-Flash Comics, and two issues of All-Star Comics. Beyond that, he had stories in about a dozen issues of Flash, appearing throughout 1946, then irregularly for a few more tales, always three pages short. (It seems wrong to use the word 'long' with only 3 pages)
Here are his first half dozen appearances from Flash Comics -
Rockhead McWizzard, ladies and gentlemen - the inventor of the Hot Bath!
So - let's take a gander at Rockhead McWizzard - The Stone Age Genius. You didn't think it was only boy genius/inventors that appealed to me, did you?
Rockhead wasn't around for very long - fewer that a dozen and a half adventures. He premiered in Flash Comics cover dated June 1946, with an almost simultaneous second appearance in Green Lantern's June/July issue. Aside from that GL, he also appeared in one issue of Wonder Woman, one issue of All-Flash Comics, and two issues of All-Star Comics. Beyond that, he had stories in about a dozen issues of Flash, appearing throughout 1946, then irregularly for a few more tales, always three pages short. (It seems wrong to use the word 'long' with only 3 pages)
Here are his first half dozen appearances from Flash Comics -
Rockhead McWizzard, ladies and gentlemen - the inventor of the Hot Bath!
page art by Ed Wheelan from Flash Comics #s 71-76 (1946)
The artwork feels more open with more depth than his usual stuff. I wonder whether that was a conscious choice to contrast this primitive outdoor environment to the more densely packed cityscapes his characters usually inhabit.
ReplyDeleteAnd talking about dense, he sure packed a lot of story into those three short pages. I probably prefer his urban melodramas, but as these went along I started clicking more with this stuff, too.
Sorry i'm so slow. Head hasn't been screwed on tight lately.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was simply keeping the background/landscape "primitive" with simple lines and a few shapes? Whatever his thinking, the open space works well here. And some of the texture work is quite effective contrasted against the open areas. I like it.
I wonder if maybe he had more time on these, or if they were a project he worked on for a bit before submitting it? That would fit with both the art and the tightly packed stories. Of course, that's just idle speculation with no basis in fact. (In today's society, i feel the disclaimer is too often needed)