Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Spyman

How much Jim Steranko contributed to the published stories of the characters he created for the Harvey Thrillers begs two questions: how many scripts did he submit and how many were used? Steranko's scripts on Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, are much more in the Marvel style than anything at Harvey, so although there isn't a lot that lets me say "The Birth of a Hero" is written by Steranko, there's nothing that leads to any other writer.

Spyman 2,3 'Kwhamma'

Look through France Edward Herron's credited work at DC on Blackhawk and Challengers and you'll find "Kwhamma" a lot.

Otto Binder's attributions for the back-up pieces in the Thrillers line seem to have morphed into credits for the main features, but I can't find him on Spyman, for one. I can't even find his style on the Eye Spy backup in #1.

Nick Caputo gives Mike Esposito as a possibility for the inks for the first part of Tuska's story. A CGD guess at the second part's inks is Carl Pfeufer.

I suspect the intro pages on the Thrillers are more likely written by editor Joe Simon than by the main-feature writers.

Spyman

Sept/66 #1  The Birth of a Hero w: Jim Steranko?
   p: George Tuska
Dec/     #2  The Hand Is Quicker Than the Monster w: Ed Herron
   a: Dick Ayers
Feb/67 #3  Death of Spyman w: Herron  a: Bill Draut

Spyman backups

Sept/66 #1  Eye Spy and His Gal Friday...Jane Blond w: Dick Wood??  a: ?
Dec/     #2  You Push a Button [ROBOLINK] w: Otto Binder
   a: Carl Pfeufer
Feb/67 #3  Campy Champ: The Terrific Teen w: Binder  a: Pfeufer

8 comments:

  1. Looking over the Ayers snippet I'm not certain he inked the story. It's possibly the work of Sol Brodsky, but I'd have to look at the entire story to be certain.

    I've added your corrections to the GCD.

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  2. The one or two Tuska faces of Dr. Vane in #2 certainly show that Dick Ayers wasn't left entirely to himself.

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  3. Martin, I'm not sure if you have seen this. I think it's pretty convincing.
    http://www.tcj.com/sterankos-first/

    Patrick Ford

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  4. Patrick, that's a solid look at the question of Steranko's involvement with the art on Glowing Gladiator. Bob Powell's own style in the Sixties is certainly hard to figure out at Marvel, at any rate, what with layout artists and inkers.

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  5. That Glowing Gladiator looks just like Bob Powell. The resemblance to Steranko is remote.

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    Replies
    1. Certainly the presentation pieces look so much more like the Steranko art we're all familiar with than anything in the story itself does.

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  6. HELP: New Years Eve trivia contest: What was the name of the Evil organization that Spyman & Liberty opposed in Spyman #1-2-3?

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  7. From the memory of their leader on a Spyman cover costumed with an eyeball for a helmet, Cyclops.

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