Tuesday, April 27, 2010

FOUR COLOR No. 481, July 1953

These lovely pages are from Phil Evans (story) and Nat Edson (art). I love how Edson sprinkles his beautiful panels with perfect, telling details which anchor the story in time and place. My favorite touch is that small dog in the last panel of page 10. Can’t you just feel his tension over the approaching riders? Easy, boy. It’s okay.

Nat Edson, bless him, appears never to have been an animator (as were so very many of the Western artists throughout the 1950s). His resume, as best as I can discover, includes only comic book work; first for Pines/Standard through the 40s, then Western Publishing from the 50s into the 70s. The great, painted cover goes un-accredited.


This black and white page is from the inside front cover. The artist is August Lenex. Wow, that’s some pretty pen work.

5 comments:

  1. If it's a Dell comic....it's a SWELL comic!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most comics' artists (even Western Comics' artists) do everything they can to NOT draw horses, but Edson clearly loved doing it, and did it well. And the colors are perfect! Beautiful stuff. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. . . .Most comics' artists (even Western Comics' artists) do everything they can to NOT draw horses . .

    So darn true! I have tried to figure out what makes horses so tough to render, but they sure are. Mine look like large dogs.

    Thanks for the comments, both Jeff and Tamfos! -- Mykal

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, Dell...

    Ah, Westerns...

    Ah, DELL WESTERNS!!

    I actually like this comic way better than the show its based on! [we have a DVD sampler for our kids] But that's not unusual with some of these 50s westerns, actually.

    Speaking of the drawing of horses... I can't help but ask if your new KINGDOM KANE blog will have some of his western work; say a DC HOPALONG or JOHNNY THUNDER?

    No one, but NO ONE, drew equines for comics like king Kane!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Albie: Fear not - indeed it will!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...