A LOOK AT TWO GREAT
GOLDEN & SILVER AGES ARTISTS
I need to start this posting off with a little bit of
back-story. I have written and posted numerous times before about how the old
Alan Class Comics were a mainstay in my
childhood reading. Most of the artists I
loved the work of but, for some reason, I got "tickled" by that of
John Forte and Ogden Whitney.
I began trying to find out more about these two artists and,
eventually, in 2004, published this very article on the old Freeservers CBO
which ran alongside the main one.
I then re-posted to the main Word Press CBO. Here I got a tirade of a comment from someone
(I cannot even remember his name now) accusing me of stealing the entire thing
from a magazine published in the US -I think a fanzine but I'd not heard of
it. I suggested that he "wind your neck in" and explained
that I had spoken and written to many people between 1979-2004 trying to gather
more info on Ogden Whitney. I heard no
more.
Someone trying to start a little "internet flame
war" to increase his blog stats? No
idea. Don't care. Or he might well have
been someone who considered the artist his property to research and I've come
across that before.
So, if that person reads this again -feck off. Don't even bother trying to comment or whine
on. All my posts are backed by research
notes and correspondence.
Now, on to what really matters -John Forte and Ogden
Whitney!
*************************************************************
As a comic historian, specialising mainly in British comics,
I have a meagre collection of Class
Comics. These were black and white
reprint comics of between 62-100 pages and published by Alan Class between 1962
to the early 1980s. Class had gotten
agreements to reprint strips from the big boys at Timely/Marvel, ACG, Charlton
and others.
At a time when getting US comics was a little
hit-and-miss,to me,as a kid of the 1960s,these Class Comics were a treasure
trove! I first saw FING FANG FOOM! [wonderfully returned to us recently in
EXILES] and many Kirby and Ditko classics “anyone recall the strip “I
RELEASED SHAGG UPON THE WORLD!”?
There were plenty of MLJ/Archie reprints such as the
adventures of The Fly, Jaguar and so on. But there were various science fiction
and spooky tales added to these issues.
Two artists work struck me as a youngster,though it wasn’t
until the 1980s that I tried to find out more about them -an interest
re-kindled whilst cataloguing the issues I had.
Ogden Whitney and John Forte seemed to have no written history and I
asked any pro artist or writer I met at UK conventions if they knew
anything about them....many returning blank expressions.
No photographs can be found of Whitney, but there is his
self-penned illo for and ACG book. Which I reproduce here!
I learnt that Ogden
had become a comic book artist during the late 1930s and drew for A-1 Comics
and Big Shot Comics. It became quite obvious that fans loved the way Whitney
drew women! So,working on Romantic
Adventures and Wedding Bells was quite natural and I have to admit some of the
work leaves me in awe!
But,Whitney was not just a “good girl” artist;he was
reknowned for his drawings of automobiles as well as work on war strips and for
horror comics such as Adventures Into The Unknown.
Tower Comics also gave Whitney the opportunity to work on
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents NoMan as with the story “The Good Subterranean” [NOMAN
#1, November,1966]. A very distinctive style!
For those interested in Golden Age heroes,Whitney is
probably better known for the character Skyman “the character even made a
cameo in HERBIE #8,1965. For DC in the 1940s he had drawn Sandman and a strip
called “Cotton Carver” but World War II meant “call up”.
All I have managed to find out about Whitney’s war-time is
that he saw service in the Phillipines.
Interestingly enough, in the same outfit was another comics artist and a
person who had worked with Whitney both at DC and the Columbia Comic Group
-Fred Gaurdineer.
Happily,after the war Whitney continued his comic
work,though it has been said that he had often tried -“unsuccessfully- to break
into the more lucrative advertising market. Whether this was purely for the
money or through disenchantment with comics I wouldn’t like to guess.
Luckily, the Editor at the American Comics Group, Richard
E.Hughes, was a former “old-timer” and gave Whitney work. I’ll put my hands up and declare here-and-now
that I know next to nothing about Hughes except that he often gave work to
those considered as “fading comic book artists” -I should draw so well as those
old boys!
Richard E. Hughes introduced a number of characters to
comics such as John Force,Super Katt,The Black Terror and the Fighting
Yank. Hughes created characters under an
amazing number of pseudonyms ;there is even a silly rumour on the internet that
Hughes was Julius Schwartz! And in
Michael Vance’s “Forbidden Adventures: The History Of The American Comics
Group” [page 43] it is stated that Frederick Iger voiced the opinion that
Richard E. Hughes was actually a Leo Rosenbam!
In fact, if I may, I’d disagree as people were still
referring to his widow as Mrs Hughes years later....ahh, what a tangled web
they leave us!
Now, Hughes or Rosenbam, it was as “Shane O’Shea” that he
created a legend. Nay, more than a legend!
This boy..this Herbie!
Herbie Popnecker was
a rotund, basin-haircut, spectacle wearing and lollipop sucking kid! The first
appearance of this youth was in Forbidden Worlds #73 [1958],a science fiction, fantasy
and horror title that,as far as I can tell, had never before featured continuing
characters. Obviously Hughes must have
realised there was something special about Herbie.
The story “Herbie’s
Quiet Saturday Afternoon” was typical ACG fair; Herbie was hated by his peers
because he was over-weight,slow and had an addiction to lollipops.
However,unknown to his school mates and even his family,Herbie had vast and
certainly undefined super powers. During the course of the strip,Herbie used
his powers several times and even foiled an alien invasion -before anyone even
knew there was an alien invasion! By the
end of the story Herbie was back to enduring the taunts of other kids.
Another Herbie story appeared in Forbidden Worlds #94 after
popular feed-back. Then came a third strip in #110. Pretty soon Herbie was appearing in each
issue. It’s rather interesting that
Whitney,said to be a rather “big man”,is said to have based Herbie on his own
appearance as a boy.
In May,1964,Herbie got his own book which ran until #23
[February,1967]. Settings for Herbie adventures and genres included the Wild
West, pirates, science fiction and so on. Then Herbie took the super hero route
and became “The Fat Fury” [very politically incorrect,of course!]. In #14 [January,1966] ACG’s two other
mystical heroes,Nemesis and Magicman guest-starred.
With Herbie gone fans felt disappointed but not long
afterwards ACG ceased publishing. Hughes went to DC to write. Whitney got work at Marvel where he drew
several issues of The Two Gun Kid and some covers for Millie The Model and one
odd collaboration with Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #149,a Nick Fury Agent
Of S.H.I.E.L.D. story. In this Fury
looks exactly like Herbie’s father, Pincus Popnecker -plus eye-patch!
.
But what happened to Whitney who seems to have vanished from
comics in,it seems,the late 1960s?
Hughes widow has told comic enthusiasts that the couple used to
socialise with the Whitneys up until Mrs Anne Whitney died in the late 1960s
[1968?].
There has also been
confirmation of Mrs Hughes’ claim that Whitney had been a functioning
alcoholic, a not completely unknown condition amongst old time comic pros who
spent days in isolation, working late into the night week-after-week trying to
keep up with deadlines. But there is nothing in Whitney’s printed work to show
this.
Whitney apparently ended up in a nursing home after a
nervous breakdown following his wife’s death and the effects of drink and died
of a possible stroke in the early 1970s -possibly 1972?
Alcohol, sadly, as we have read before in cases cited in
Alter Ego magazine, has led to many an untimely death amongst old comic pros.
Perhaps, one day, a comic historian based in New York can do some
in-depth research on Whitney. For
instance, after all these years I have been unable to find out whether the
Whitneys had any children. One source said there was a son and daughter but
another said there were none. If there are any offspring could they add more to
our knowledge?
The other artist, John Forte Jnr I know a lot more
about. Born in 1918, Rockaway, Illinois . In Forte's
case at least we have a photograph that, originally, took me a few years to get
hold of. I've not seen it used elsewhere
so here you go!
Forte started work at Timely in 1941 but also worked for
other companies in the 1940s and 1950s,including ACG horror comics and romance
comics for both Timely and Quality Comics. When DC purchased Quality Comics in
1958,Forte moved along with the company.
Above -I believe the very first Tales Of The Legion Of Super
Heroes story from Adventure Comics 300, 1962.
Artist Al Plastino for many years had to "re-touch" faces in
strips and I believe this is one of those instances!
Forte had pencilled some early Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane stories
and had even inked some Curt Swan pencils -as in “Superboy Meets Supergirl” in
Superboy#80,April,1960. Of course, to
fans of the original -“the genuine"-
Legion Of Super Heroes will be aware that it was with this series that
Forte made his mark.
And as for Adventure Comics 300, well, I have just found a
blog dealing with that issue in detail (better page scans, too!) called Days Of
Adventure
-http://adventurecomicsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/adventure-comics-300-september-1962.html
Forte had made his name drawing those fantastic fun tales
featuring the Bizarro World and moved over to draw the LSH with,as far as I can
tell,Adventure Comics #304,January,1963, And the story “The Stolen Super
Powers”.
Above: Some of Forte's work for Atlas Comics in the 1950s.
And, good lords! There's even a post about Forte and this strip over at Four
Color Shadows!
But suddenly, in 1965, Forte left comics. To many of us this seemed odd but the usual
assumption was that he had moved on to other comics we weren’t getting in the UK or
he had, quite simply, left the industry.
The sad truth was that Forte had left to fight colon cancer.
From what I can uncover, he lost that fight and died in hospital in New York in mid-1966.
I would,if permitted, like to make an appeal here to any of
the old time pros who worked or had contact with Whitney or Forte -even fans
who may have had commissioned sketches drawn by these men.
We would all like to think that those creators who brought
us many hours -many years- of fun and entertainment simply slip into their
sunset years and live on through their work.
For me it was a sad day when I finally learned the truth about Ogden
Whitney and John Forte but at least we still have their fantastic archive of
work to look back on that will go on forever!
And I have JUST found
another blog with an entry on Forte!
Destination Nightmare:
http://creatfeatforever.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/cartoonists-make-better-lovers-john.html
see -good taste does show through
eventually on all things!
But for me, in 2015, it's back to trying to find out more
about British Golden and Silver Age creators we know next to nothing about!
Fin.
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