Here is a super collection of observations and additions from PS Fan Hames Ware.
Dear Roy and all the PS Gang!
Thank you so much for the new books to look at. Great job and providing a real boost to comic book history!
And trying to keep that goal always in the forefront, here are some hopefully helpful additions and observations.
ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOLUME # 4
I concur with all of Jim’s comments. And I feel so many SULTAN & MORITZ jobs were done in tandem with others, glad to see these type acknowledgements are starting to appear where known and ” ?’s ” where the collaborator is unknown ( So strange to think that no such collaborations seem to occur in pulp art ! ) .Speaking of collaborations, Jim and I have struggled for yerars to try and disentangle GATUSO, GUTWIRTH and APPEL from their latter forties, early fifties collaborative efforts, and Jim mentions seeing NO GATUSO in either the # 16 OZARK WITCHES or in # 18′s PHANTOM PIRATE and I wholly agree, but just to show how I am still struggling with the disentangling process, where Jim thinks it may be G.H. APPEL instead, which I readily see, I find myself also seeing more of MAURICE GUTWIRTH.
Who knows, maybe it’s BOTH of them, but Jim and I both agree. Neither is PAUL GATUSO. Also in #17 agree that PHANTOM FORETOLD is BOB BRICE.( maybe with PETE RISS ? ) and since I seem to have fallen into a collaborative mode of looking today, Maybe GHOST of NOVA SCOTIA is both him and JENNEY ( suggested no doubt by last panel on page 103 )
With the same eyes for Collaboration in mind, just look at the two MORITZ stories, back to back almost near end of issue # 17 and contrast the differences. Really some of the best inks I have ever seen on MORITZ in the latter !
ISSUE # 18 Last feature length story is credited to PAUL COOPER, yet somehow it looks as much like SAM COOPER to my weary eyes, PLUS the first name MAY be appended and I just can’t see it ! What I have always found puzzling is that NOWHERE in ANY of HUGHES materials that I am aware of (Rate sheets, Address books et al, is PAUL Cooper listed. And though PAUL’S style is definitely differently recognizable from SAM’s, cases like this one is issue # 18 continue to make me wonder !?
Back to collaboration guesses:
In issue # 19, is it not GEORGE KLEIN with AL CAMY on the last one ??
NOW, ON TO FORBIDDEN WORLDS Volume 3 !!!
I use exclamation marks, because if this volume of wonderful stuff is any indication, when we get closer in chronology with the AITU volumes, lots of fun ahead, ’cause this volume of FW is chock full of interesting work ! ( Enjoyed Peter’s intro reminiscences. It’s always interesting to hear how those in countries not the US have experienced the comics phenomena ! )
First off KEN BALD’S covers are nearly always a cut above. The lettering on the story titles also seems well done and even inspired at times
In ISSUE # 12 For Jim, I wonder if ” Natas ” might be collaborating with the ALWAYS collaborating CHAS. NICHOLAS ??
Wish I knew who was doing the little one pager, but alas I can’t figure it out. KING WARD, as with RUDY PALAIS’S cinematic work at HARVEY, KING WARD deserves a special place in ACG annals for work like this one !
Jim once found a close match for the style of the artist you list as UNKNOWN on TOMB of the UNSEEN in the work of an artist named MILT KNOPF.Though I still think Jim may’ve nailed our guy, I think Jim felt it wasn’t conclusive enough, but it has been usefully applied in previous of your volumes, to have listed KNOP, so to be consistent,unless Jim objects, that’s who would seem natural to also be credited for this one I love the work of JON L. BLUMMER ( and again, I guess it’s worth noting in passing that, according to David Saunder’s excellent Pulpartists website, that, like Richard Hughes, Al Camy,Bob Brice, et al was not always the name he used ) and , as an observation, overall I would just like to point out the obvious and say, how well SHADOWS.are employed by KING WARD ( and that may not be HIS real name either ! ) MILTON KNOPF, and JON L, BLUMMER in this issue alone. Really nice jobs ! ( ” KNOPF isn’t in the same league on figure art as the other two, but hard to beat all those shadow rendering, which is no doubt why Hughes continued to use KNOPF, who hardly has any work anywhere else. and if Jim hadn’t turned up the sole piece OUTSIDE of ACG SIGNED no less, we would not have KNOPF at all ( and maybe one of the things that tended to make Jim hesitant a bit WAS the very fact that KNOPF left ALL his ACG work unsigned…as far as we know…I am still scrutinizing those names on tombstone that seem to frequent this unique stylist’s stories ( So far LOB, FL, but no help with those eh ? )
Speaking of sneaks, CHAS. M. QUINLAN loves to letter names on storefronts et al and issue #13 is no exception. Jim and I once found a P.C. ” clearly sneaked in a splash of QUINLAN’s at Hughes Alma Mater PINES comics. I thought maybe PETER COSTANZA might’ve moonlighted on some of CMQ’s stuff since they were also both at FAWCETT. Jerry De Fuccio thought not, but interestingly Pete Costanza does turn up doing work for HUGHES at ACG post Fawcett fold, along with KURT SCHAFFENBERGER.
Of course KEN BALD, CHARLES TOMSEY PETE RISS et al had beaten them there several years previous NOW we come to Issue # 14
I need help from ALL of you on THE AWFUL LETTER art !!! The volume credits this art to a name I have never witnessed ANYWHERE amongst the thousands of artists and comics I have come in contact with over the years of the WHO’S WHO work and Jim and my collaborations. The name of the artist is credited as PAUL RICCIA
I am left to wonder:
( 1 ) WHERE did this name come from ???
( 2 ) If not a legitimate name, is it possible that some GCD contributor thought he was seeing PAUL GUSTAVSON,,,or maybe GUS RICCA’s work and, not being able to decide just formulated a NEW NAME cobbling together those two artists’ names and maybe even adding a dash of PETE RISS and MARIO RIZZI’s names as well ???
This is a dilemma for me because if a name is in a book, it’s gotta be there for a reason, so somebody please help me know HOW this name came to be in the book !
ISSUE # 15
On the first ART GATES is credited solo, I just don’t see. On second, could the two oldtimers BLUMMER & QUINLAN actually be collaborating on this one and isn’t it AL CAMY or BILL WALSH with GEORGE KLEIN on the last one ??
ISSUE # 16
The specific collaborative credit for MORITZ starts here with AL CAMY being listed, but on the next to the last 2 pager MORITZ is listed solo tho this is fairly atypical for him
In ISSUE # 17 MORITZ is given LEO MOREY as a collaborator so it appears this is becoming more the standard. I think MOREY was also one of SULTAN’s collaborators ( not usually noted ) and of course SULTAN’s best work, in my opinion is when SAM CITRON was his collaborator.
Lastly, in ISSUE # 18, I wonder if Jim thinks that DON PERLIN might be a possible for working with CHAS. NICHOLAS ( yet another nom de plume, as we know, this time for CHARLES NICHOLAS WOTJKOSKI, …and on that name and note, I close….thanking you all again for this marvelous opportunity and for being in the forefront of trying to give others the good fun and comic art history in wonderful way !
Best wishes, Hames
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