The Montana mentioned in the title of this, my 2300th posting for this blog, is artist Bob Montana. He is best known for being the artist who gave the original look to Archie and his gang back in 1942. Before he became linked to Archie (comic books and a long-running newspaper comic strip), he drew more regular comic book fare for various publishers. That includes this episode of the Fox from
Blue-Ribbon Comics #18 (1941).
Montana could draw superhero action as well as the more passive Archie teenage poses. He could also draw the sort of thing that caused the hue and cry of those who thought comic books unfit for young minds. The splash panel for this tale is a good example. In Archie comics being “stabbed in the back” was not shown as literal, as it is here.
I suppose that it was too much to hope that Reggie might appear amongst the gangsters.
ReplyDeleteThe story both is simple and hangs upon two implausibilities in that Bronson's killers would surely have made certain that he were dead in their original assault and in that officers would have been in position all around the hideout; but it's otherwise pretty good. Instead of a lot of chasing and thrashing, with Our Hero getting struck from behind, Our Hero uses his brain. The art is primitive, but without seeming crude or otherwise unskilled.
This is great. It's interesting to imagine a world in which Montana had stuck with the golden age superheroes, alongside Everett, Cole, etc. I'd love to see what a decade of Montana Batman might have looked like. Not that I'd trade Archie for it, probably.
ReplyDeleteHappy blog milestone! Man, I don't know when I first started reading, but my first comment was way back at #290--April 2008. So almost eleven years of thanks to you, Pappy!