Showing posts with label Bernard Baily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bernard Baily. Show all posts

15 January 2020

In The Company Of Ditko

I noted last that i had been getting sidetracked a bit by the folks with whom Steve Ditko was co-working back in the period i was mining (the mid-50s). A good way to lead into that might be through a few of the stories drawn by others for which Ditko drew the covers.

For example, here's Steve Ditko's cover for This Magazine Is Haunted #16 -



...and for the story, we've got Shelly Moldoff...



On Space Adventures #11, we get a Ditko cover...


...for a story drawn by Joe Shuster and Dick Giordano!


And on rare occasion, we get it the other way around. On Daring Love #1 we get a cover from Bernard Bailey...


...for a tale drawn by Ditko...


Appropriate to the types of tales we've been looking at, it's time for an odd Twist Ending!

That's not Joe Shuster at all.
<Dramatic Fanfare>

According to One Who Generally Knows (Martin O'Hearn), that's actually Bill Molno ghosting for Joe. Here is Martin's article Joe Shuster's Charlton Ghost on his site, Who Created The Comic Books?.

Damn. Even when we get credits, we still don't know who did it.

page art by Steve Ditko, Sheldon Moldoff, and Bill Molno for Daring Love #1, Space Adventures #11, and This Magazine Is Haunted #16 (1953, 1954)

17 July 2018

The Impossible Earth Man

I must be still wiped out from the other day. My brain just can't make sense of Earth Man.


Who is this mysterious hero? Why is he called Earth Man? Can we even call him a hero when his quest/mission seems to be simply beating someone who doesn't like him to a salvage goal? Let's look and see...


A-ha! He's got a rocket ship. Maybe this isn't Earth, but an Earth-like planet and he's a visitor from our world? That could explain the Earth Man name...


Nope - they're heading through the "core of the Earth" so not a different planet.
Maybe that's where the name comes from - he can burrow through Earth with his ship? His power is digging holes?


But, wait! A hint of power appears...


...with zero connection to the name Earth Man. That was his one and only appearance. I guess nobody else could figure out what he was supposed to be, either. If you're going to do a hero named Earth Man, have a reason for the name. That's not too tricky, is it? It's not like i'm asking the impossible here.

Actually, the Impossible would work just fine, and make more sense. Since the name is in use by some Kirby-Come-Latelee, just pretend Hugh Mann chose the name Earth Man instead of Impossible Man in this tale and see if it doesn't seem more appropriate than the usage above (art by Bernard Baily? (contested)) -


page art from Supersnipe v2#8 and Meteor #1 (1945)