Virgil In Blue

To wrap up this week's look back at the artwork of Virgil Finlay, let's take a look at some of his more 'adult oriented' imagery in our 'back room' - The Other Voice Of ODD!

Step on back to peruse the full post.

artwork by Virgil Finlay

Tomorrow - In The Beginning

Those old timers among you who are familiar with Tommy Tomorrow likely know him as basically a space cop with the Planeteers. But back in the beginning, Tommy Tomorrow wasn't really a person at all. He was more of a template - a projection of the man of the future through which we could view his world. He was a potential character, waiting for someone to become him when the present became the future. That didn't last too long before he transitioned to a more typical character, but it was - for me - an intriguing approach.

What brings us to Tomorrow's yesterday today is our ongoing look at the artwork of Virgil Finlay. Back in 1947, Finlay illustrated Tommy's first two adventures in Real Fact Comics #s 6 & 8. Both were short 4-pagers, something of an expansion from the Just Imagine tales we saw yesterday.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Obviously, no FF&G this post. Still struggling against forces internal and external, but we shall continue on, eh?

page art by Virgil Finlay for Real Fact Comics #s 6 & 8 (1947)

Just Imagine - Virgil Finlay's Futures

As noted last time, Virgil Finlay did a bit of comic book work, too. Not a great deal - only 3 dozen pages all told. Most of his work was for Real Fact Comics #s 4-12 from 1946-1948. Those stories were all reprinted over the next few decades, but, as far as i know, only one more story was new work - a 1954 tale for Mystery In Space #19.

Today, let's look at the series he took over in Real Fact. Long before The Man did his "Just Imagine" series, the title was used for short, two page speculative tales of future events. Finlay illustrated seven of these stories during his stint at Real Fact. Since they're only two pages each, let's go ahead and take a look at all of them, eh?

In chronological order:

Next time: Tommy Tomorrow!  
(yes, we're still talking Virgil Finlay)

page art by Virgil Finlay for Real Fact Comics #s 4-7, 9, 11 & 12 (1946-1948)

Falling Further Into Finlay

I've spoken previously of my fondness for the artwork of Virgil Finlay, but we've gone much too long without returning to the topic. Happily, i got a little nudge in that direction while trying to get my brain back to the blog, so let's take a gander at some more of his work, starting with the one that inspired the topic title...

Note the unusual signature on this one...

...and, yes - it is part of a series, as one might suspect.

Something i've rarely seen is Finlay using duo-tone/duo-shade boards in his work. I don't think these exist any more, though i could be wrong. What they were is art boards with two contrasting shading patterns embedded in the page. The tones could be brought out using one of two developing solutions (or both, overlapping) painted on with a brush. We're so used to seeing his elaborate texturing work, it's a mild shock to see the use of duo-shade, as in this piece...

...not that he doesn't make it work well. It was just surprising to see, at least it was for me. Afterward, i began to notice some other more subtle uses with the duoshade providing background textures while primary figures received his usual detailed inks.

I think this odd little piece is enhanced by the title - The Angry Street...

This last piece is from late in Finlay's life. He died back in 1971, and this is from 1968. Sometimes when i view this one, i think of a valley of souls in the afterlife with Virgil leading a friendlier journey than his namesake...

Next time:
You knew that Virgil Finlay drew comics, right?

all art by Virgil Finlay (1937-1968)

Signature Finlay

I made comment this morning about Virgil Finlay's signature's evolution over time. Of course, as any good artist, his work evolved as well. Here's the signature he was using at the time of the work we saw in our previous post:

And here's a look at how both work and signature evolved into the look familiar to me when i discovered the art of Virgil Finlay -

That square sigil in the lower left corner of the pic above became a mark for me to hunt for in old pulps, and an instant "Buy Me!" sign when found. I promised a look at his work for those unfamiliar, and we'll go into greater detail in the future. For now, here are another dozen images to give you an little peek at the incredibly detailed (insanely detailed, say some artists who understand just how much work is involved) art of Virgil Finlay - 

Just because i'm sure some are wondering - the caption for that last image is "Irene gasped as her dress was snatched back into the other world.", from the story Peter Merton's Private Mint by Lee Archer in the October 1956 issue of Fantastic.

art by Virgil Finlay, of course (varied)