Heroes In Action

 Saturday Research Day.

One of the great unforgotten comic strips of the early forties is Vic Jordan, which was written by the pseudonymous Paine and first illustrated by Elmer Wexler for the PM newspaper and distributed by the Field syndicate. In june 1942 the artwork was taken over by Paul Norris, starting his career as a newspaper artist. A year later he was relieved by a David Moneypenny, who was succeded by Bernard Baily in 1944 and 1945. Clipping the Baily period, I saw that just before his arrival in late February 1944, Moneypenny's story was finished  by no one less than former Batman artist Jerry Robinson. He drew (and signed the strip for two full weeks. Of course, my internet friend Alan Holtz had this in his excellent reference guide American Newpaper Comics (although he did not find the two weeks enough to include it in his seperate Robinson list). But I had never seen them and I am guessing neither did you. I clipped them all, including the last week of Moneypenny and the first day of Baily (which I will contonue later). I noticed that Baily changed the lettering from the start. Maybe he was doing it himself or from another location. But Robinson used the same lettering als Moneypenny, making me wonder if he had not had a hand in Moneypenny's last week...

Art Comparison

Sunday Corrective Measures.

Having shown almost all Mort Meskin pages on Sundays here, when someone online suggested they had found another unknown Meskin story in Standard's Gangworld #5, I had to have a look. At first I agreed, but taking a second look I thought it may be Bernard Baily imitating Meskin's line. It is a hard destinction to make. A couple of years ago, I almost bought an original Meskin page from Heritage, which turned out to be Bailey as well (after I lost the bid). On The Digital Comics Museum and the Grand Comic Book Base, they follow Jim Vadeboncoeur's lead and say it's Jerry Grandenetti. That could be true as well, as Grandenetti at that time could look like anyone.

Ex Marks The Art Spotter

Thursday Story Strip Day.

Ken Quattro once told me that later in the run, the Chicago comic book series Mr. Ex by Ben Whitman was actually drawn by Bernard Baily. When that would have been I don't know, but Baily also took over Vic Jordan for a short period in 1943.

Section B

Thursday Story Strip Day.

Mr. Ex was one of the new strips of the Chicago Tribune Comic Book of the forties (their answer to the succes of comics, just like the Spirit section, which started only months later). It was drawn by Bert Whitman but my friend Ken Quattro thinks Bernard Baily assisted or even took over at some point. Now I usually can pick out Baily by the checkered jacked most of his characters wear, but here there is nothing of the sort. Maybe there may be some in the five new color strips I will ad here as soon as I have cleaned them. So enjoy for now and come back later for more. Tere are also a couple when you follow the link.

Wartime Adventures

Saturday Leftover Day.

I have shown a complete sequence of Elmer Wexler's Vic Jordan in a previous post. This remarkable action strip, which ran in the early forties in the leftwing PS Newspaper and select others is worthy of a colection, if only for the fact that it features a hero saving a group of war prisoners from a French concentration camp in 1941. After Wexler left the strip, it was first continued by Paul Norris, who would later make a name for himself as the artist on Brick Bradford. Norris was a notable artist, one of the few who seems to have changed his stylistic preference from Alex Raymond (on Jungle Jim) to Milton Caniff (on Bradford). Here he is committed to neither and produced a nice atmospheric strip. After he left, the work was taken over by Bernard Baily, an artis with his own long and varied career in comics and newspaper strips. For those interested I recommend Ken Quattro's pieces on The Comics Detective.

I did not collect full runs of either artist and share with you the bits and pieces I have collected through the years.