Friday, January 13, 2012

Orlando Dynamo Story

In the Dan Adkins interview in the Tower Comics issue of Comic Book Artist (#14, July/01), he says that "even Orlando did a story we [Adkins and Wally Wood] inked." The checklist in that issue doesn't reflect that statement; Joe Orlando's name appears only as the co-inker of an early Dick Ayers NoMan story.

I think the Orlando-pencilled story Adkins meant is "The Secret Word Is..." in Dynamo 4 (June/67). Under Wood's and Adkins' inks, I see some Orlando pencils fighting to show through at points in this story.

Dynamo 4 panels: Orlando pencils

In the panels above, note the face of the man next to Dynamo in the first and that of the SPIDER agent in the second. These are the most obvious instances of Orlando pencils. Below are panels that to a lesser degree remind me of his work, although in the second it's not a face but the pose of the man in the suit.

Dynamo 4 panels: more Orlando pencils

Wally Wood's inks can overwhelm another artist's pencils; that consistency, of course, was the point for a while at Tower.

4 comments:

  1. The Spider Agent in panel two is obviously Orlando.
    Good call.

    patrick ford

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  2. Patrick: I didn't see that--thanks for pointing it out.

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  3. Martin,

    The Spider Agent is very similar to a panel Orlando drew of the Owl in Daredevil # 3, so I believe you are correct. Great detective work!

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  4. Nick, I see that Patrick was saying the same thing, now--I thought he meant the man with the cigar in the second tier was a caricature of Orlando added to the pencils by Wood!

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