All I need to say about this tale of a Texas Ranger riding to the rescue of a pretty girl ranch owner is that it is drawn by Graham Ingels, before his “Ghastly” horror comics days. Before specializing in said horror comics during his time at EC Comics, he had a background illustrating various genres of comic book stories: science fiction, crime, love, and Western, such as this story from Outlaws #2 (1948).
Dallas is mighty forgivin' 'bout bein' shot at; but, well, dames.
ReplyDeleteÜber-weak story, but fun art, with characters positioned almost as if they were funny-animal characters vigorously drawn.
Yeah, the story was cliche, boring, and rote.
ReplyDeleteThe art; I love Ghastly. My favorite horror artist by a mile, but I'm of two minds about his other work. First, it was terrible that he got pigeon-holed as a horror artist when he would do other artwork fine. But at the same time, the long, spindly figures and their positioning can be a bit weird in a western comic. He could certainly draw pretty women when required, like most all the EC artists.
I know a lot of these comics were disposable entertainment, but Ghastly did a lot of work on the art of this story and it's sad the writer couldn't do the same.
I'm always grateful to see any work from Ingels outside of his career at EC. There are some beautiful panels here, despite the fact that the majority of the art appears quite dull by comparison. The fourth panel on the last page is a very bizarre choice indeed. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBrian, Billy, one of the joys of doing what I do is bringing out early stories by artists who got famous (or infamous) at something else later in their careers. I like all the early Ghastly stuff, even if the writing isn't up to the artwork. Even if the artwork seems rushed or crude.
ReplyDeleteNowadays comic artists seem kind of stereotyped; they draw superheroes and nothing else, perhaps. In those days a comic artist was required to be able to draw basically every genre. Even Jack Kirby drew a funny animal strip in the forties, and it was good!
I don't think Ghastly ever drew funny animals, but he was a good artist in the genres I have seen, Western, love, science fiction, crime. As we later found out he had some problems with drinking and estrangement from family members, but he was still a star at EC for a reason...I think all of the variety of comic book stories he had done in his career up until then got him ready for EC.