Some
time in the future I hope to concentrate a few posts on the Harvey
Thrillers, but at the moment I want to mention one story of interest.
In
Unearthly Spectaculars
3 (March/67) the story "Rent-a-Hero from Miracles
Inc." carries on the Miracles Inc. feature from issue 2, and with a
completely different writer-artist team (in issue 2 that "team" was
pretty much Wallace Wood).
The Harvey Thrillers line in the mid-Sixties was edited by Joe Simon,
who called in a rosterful of people, many of whom had worked for him
before as well as some new ones. His writers on the various features
included Dick Wood,
Otto Binder, France Herron, D. J. Arneson, and Jim Steranko.
But "Rent-a-Hero" stands out as the only story I've recognized at
Harvey as written by Joe Simon himself. I had to look ahead to his work
at DC in the Seventies to find a starting point in creating a list of
his scripting characteristics; at Harvey in this period, and in the
earlier Sixties and the Fifties there, as well as at Archie
and Prize and Crestwood, it looks like he was busy enough editing that
he relied on writers including Jack Kirby, Jack Oleck, Carl Wessler,
Bob Powell, and so on.
As far as the art on this story goes—I can relate to
convincing oneself
of seeing the work of an artist who isn't there, but I'm going to
suggest that that's exactly what's happening when "Rent-a-Hero" is
attributed to Joe Orlando. It's certainly easy to see why it is: folks
are working backward from Orlando's credited work at Warren
and DC from this period.
I would have thought his use of ghosts in those years is notorious by
now, but I hope eventually it will sink in.
I can't make out a hint of Orlando on this story. Jerry Grandenetti
pencilled it. Period. Is he being inked by someone else? If so, it
doesn't much look like Joe Orlando. The latter did work for Simon
earlier, but I don't see his art anywhere at Harvey.
