Pal, Stephen DeStefano, recently posted some work by the great Warren Kremer on his Facebook page; which put me in the mood to enjoy more from Harvey's main man. Kremer was the cartoonist that set the "Harvey Style" for page layout and character design. Dell comics may have been "good comics" (and they certainly were that and then some); but Harvey Comics were the finest line of pure kids' comics every produced.
Kremer's perspective and attention to detail is jaw-droppingly pleasurable. Both these stories are from Stumbo Tinytown No. 9, October, 1965. P.S.: Some astute Facebook observers offer a correction: The Hot Stuff story might be the work of Ernie Colon.
Great to hear from you again! Welcome back! You have been missed!
ReplyDeleteI never knew about Warren Kremer until reading about him here--but I had been enjoying his artwork for many years previously. I guess he was largely responsible for the look of a lot of the Harvey comics--his style seems the most "classic" and "definitive" of the Harvey artists. His characters are cleanly and sharply drawn, giving a distinctly "Harvey" look to his stories. My favorite characters of his, aside from the leading characters of course, are the many dwarfs who populate the Casper stories. He seemed to have a real knack for dwarfs, as well as for witches, ghosts, giants, and the rest. I often wondered who the "good Harvey artist" was, but I always recognized his work by its distinctive "on-model" and classic look.
Looking forward to more posts! Hope they'll be a little closer together! Best wishes!
Thanks, Scarcrow: Yeah, Kremer drew everything always on model - in fact, he defined the model at Harvey. He was a tremendous draftsman. I'll try to post more - thanks for checking in.
ReplyDeleteHarvey never totally left behind its Famous Studios roots. Kremer's Paul Bunyan resembles Famous' Bluto.
ReplyDelete