Number 459
Joe and Moe
"The Case of the Vanishing Year" is from Flash Comics #88, October 1947. The artwork is by Joe Kubert and the inking by Moe Worthman.
The story is a time travel story. Scientist Homer Brown loses a year, as does Flash. I thought while reading it, what would I do if I ended up a year ago, January 2008, with knowledge of the whole year until now? I'd probably have bet heavily on Barack Obama to win the U.S. presidency. As I recall a year ago he was quite a longshot. I would have dumped all my stocks before the economy, banks and stock markets tanked.
"Vanishing Year" is a fun story. Even with the talent he showed early on, some of Joe's figures look foreshortened, squatty and squashed. He kept working at it and became one of the best comics artists of all time. Inker Moe Worthman did a decent job here. Joe and Moe seem to have worked well together.
Most enjoyable! The Flash was the first Golden Age hero I was ever exposed to so he's always been a favorite and I'd never seen this one!
ReplyDeleteThere was a Moses Worthman, born c. 1911, who in a later period was a well-known watercolorist, living in Brooklyn. In his memory, a home for orphans is to be raised in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteUh, anyway. If everyone was going to return to their original place in time, uhm, well, why hadn't they? They'd had a whole year to do so.
ReplyDeleteWell for that matter, how come they didn't meet their selves from a year earlier? Ya really can't THINK too much on these Golden Age stories; ya just enjoy the simpler days before Skrull invasions and final crises and such, y'know?
ReplyDeleteTime travel is fascinating, but impossible, so like faster-than-light travel through space, you just accept it as part of the plot. My two favorite time travel books are Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer and Up The Line by Robert Silverberg. Both books are well thought out as to paradoxes and such.
ReplyDeleteThen, of course, there's my favorite time traveling caveman, Alley Oop...
Thanks for the information on Moses Worthman, Oeconomist...if he's Moe Worthman, he would not have been the first well-known artist who spent time in the comics field.
Oeconomist.com, you are quite right. Moses Worthman is the same man as Moe Worthman. He spent a long time working for Timely Comics as well as DC in addition to being a revered watercolor painter. He was also my grandpa :)
ReplyDeleteMy mom knows much more than I do about his artistic history, so hopefully I can get her on here to tell his story. Perhaps even do a story for the blog? Either way, thanks so much for bringing his work to the Web. He truly was an amazing artist.