Number 1478: Reed Crandall keeps his feet on the ground

Classics Illustrated #167A was a special issue called Prehistoric World, published in 1962. Because the information in the issue is over 50 years old I would not rely on it for accuracy. Science marches on and new things are discovered all the time, but this is probably up-to-date as to what people thought of early people back in those days.

Reed Crandall did the artwork for this nine-page segment of the special (he did other pages, also, but they are interspersed with the work of other artists throughout the book). The Grand Comics Database credits George Evans with the inking. With tall panels in two tiers on the pages Crandall was able to do more full-figure drawing. Crandall’s figures had weight, and their feet were firmly planted on the ground. This is a good example of that. I have said once before I thought that later in his career Crandall’s figure drawing got a bit stiff, but when you see those figures there’s no doubt you’re looking at a Reed Crandall drawing.

Number 1477: Dashing through the snow with Terry and the Pirates

Terry, Connie, and Pat Ryan go to the rescue of Tony Sandhurst, who has been kidnapped and about to be tortured by some Chinese. Chasing after the cowardly, greedy Sandhurst is noble on Pat’s part, since he is in love with Normandie, Sandhurst’s wife.

It is from Milton Caniff’s epic Terry and the Pirates #6 (1947), published by Harvey.

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More Terry! Just click on the covers for the first three parts of this series.

Number 1476: Interplanetary Robinson Crusoe

Writers and aspiring writers, take note if you have problems finding plots for your stories. Just steal. Or if you prefer, call it “homage.” Like this shorty from My Greatest Adventure #24 (1958), written by a fan of author Daniel Defore. It saved a lot of trouble by just taking some incidents from Defoe’s work and transplanting them to a science fiction adventure. Not only that, but it created instant reader identification because Robinson Crusoe is a work so well known it’s practically imprinted on our brains at birth.

I like the artwork by comic book journeyman Jim Mooney, and I got a kick out of the hero finding raw diamonds that look like cut stones lying on the ground. It may have had something to do with editor Jack Schiff telling Mooney to make it obvious to their young readers that the stone were actually diamonds, because the kids might not recognize them as such in their uncut form.