Number 1383: The not altogether-horrible Hillman horrors

Hillman Periodicals, publishers of Airboy Comics and other titles, had no horror comics in their line. But Airboy was known to battle some ghoulish foes, and because horror comics were popular in the early fifties some of the elements in that comic skewed toward the horror genre.

To wit, the non-Airboy contents of Airboy Comics Vol. 9 #5, from 1952. The stories are short, and all have some horror to them.

Gerald McCann,* was a fine artist moonlighting in comic books. His moody, dark style fits “The Wolf Boy of Krakow” very well. Ernie Schroeder did the Heap story, as well as the cover illustration from the tale. The Heap was a character like the later Swamp Thing and Man-Thing, inspired by Theodore Sturgeon’s 1940 short-story, “It!” Heap was a peripatetic, shambling mute who went from one town to another, involving himself in various horror scenarios. The tone of the series reminds me of Dick Briefer’s last and more serious incarnation of his Frankenstein character, seen in The Monster of Frankenstein. Last, longtime comic artist and journeyman Bill Ely* drew “The Crown of Coort,” which features a Lovecraftian monster and a classic last panel.

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*More McCann and Ely here. Just click the pictures.

Number 1227: “I was a prisoner of Captain Kidd!”

September 19th is “Talk Like a Pirate Day” and I will have a pirate story for you that day. I also have a pirate story for you today. I guess pirates are on my mind this week.

Bill Ely did the excellent art on this story from DC's My Greatest Adventure #11 (1956). I've featured Ely before, and I'll give you a link after reminding you that Ely was a very early comic book pioneer, and drew all through the Golden Age of comics. He then drew for DC for several years, into the 1960s. He is one of those journeymen who do not get the recognition they deserve from fans. Look at this story, his drawing, the detail, the panel composition. It all points to him being one of the top illustrative artists in the comics. And yet under-appreciated by comics fans. I'd like to help change that.

There's more DC work by Ely in Pappy's #772.

Number 942


Bill Ely's tough guys


Bill Ely was an artist who kept busy from the earliest days of comics until at least the 1960s, when he was drawing Rip Hunter, Time Master for DC. I presented some short stories from House Of Secrets by Ely last July in Pappy's #772.

"Beowolf" is from Famous Funnies' Conquest, a reprint of a 1953 one-shot comic, the reprint dated Spring 1955. Bill Ely's contribution was the unusual 7-page version of "Beowolf" (also known as Beowulf). It's been over 40 years since I was a college student and had an exposure to "Beowulf," the epic poem, but I don't remember the monster Grendel being a dinosaur. It's an interesting interpretation, anyway.

Another example of Ely's work is this 1948 "Iron Man" strip, which as you've already noticed, is not the Marvel Comics Iron Man, but an undercover policeman who beats the crap out of crooks. The story is the backup strip in Dell Comics' Dick Tracy Monthly, from 1948. I showed three more stories, including another Iron Man story by Ely, in Pappy's #695.

Number 772


"B" is for...Bill Ely's House of Secrets


The next to last in Pappy's lame-o Plan B theme this week. Check out Sunday's blog.

Longtime comic artist Bill Ely did these well-drawn stories for DC's House of Secrets in the late 1950s. I've shown art by Ely before, a cartoonist from the earliest days of the comics, who did a lot of work for DC in the days when artists were more anonymous. After looking at his work for a while I've noticed the way he drew eyes, and mentioned before they remind me of eyes drawn by the better known George Evans.

Ely was a true professional. I first noticed his work in the 1960s. Unlike most of DC's artists of the '60s, before credits in comics became common, Ely signed a lot of his stories.

"The 20th Century Nero" is from HOS #5, July-August, 1957; "The Diamond Hands Of the Sun God" is from HOS #8, January-February, 1958; "The Face In the Mist" is from HOS #13, October, 1958.

Here's more Ely, from Pappy's #695.