In 1948-49
as Timely started moving away from superheroes, their new
crime and horror books had talky scripts and bland art; many of the
artists have gone unidentified for the better part of seventy years,
and may never be known.
Among the artists are some just starting out, who haven't developed the
styles we recognize from the Marvel Age. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo has
tracked
Gene Colan's Timely work, for instance, to the artist's first
stories, by working backwards
month by month from his earliest signed work later in the
Fifties—Colan's style is just the tiniest bit different a
month before, and just a tiny bit more different the month before that,
until at last it would be just about unrecognizable around
1948 if one didn't follow it step by step through the increments of
change.
But Don Perlin's style seems to have sprung forth fully grown, as if
from the brow of Zeus. This page is from "He Dreamt of Doom." So far
I've
looked at only the first two years of the
crime books; they're something of a chore to go through before the
scripts and arts become more appealing.
The Grand Comics Database has Perlin doing two one-page pieces in
Western Winners
6 (Aug/49), but there I must confess I can't see him. When most of the
artists
start signing their work, Perlin does too; for instance, he has a story
in
Marvel Tales
110 (Dec/52) signed with inker Abe Simons.
UPDATE: Per Doc V.'s comment, I've dropped the other two stories ("Her Night of Peril" in
Lawbreakers Always Lose 8 and "The Witch's Son" in
Marvel Tales 96) that I'd listed here originally. I let myself see something Perlinesque in one or two panels in those, but I think "He Dreamt of Doom" shows Perlin in every panel.
early
Don
Perlin at Timely:
All
True Crime Cases
| Sept/49 |
35 |
He Dreamt of Doom |
