Dan Gormley in Four Color!

Dan Gormley was a principal artist for Dell's Four Color during the 1940s and 50s; and certainly one of the unsung names that made that historic comic so superb. He has become better known in recent years for providing a great deal of the artwork on John Stanley's take on Bushmiller's Nancy; but his best stuff came when working in his own highly individual style - usually on various Walter Lantz creations (like here with Oswald the Rabbit). This is from Four Color No. 183, March 1948; and Gormley did all the pages as well as this super cover.

More work from Gormley. These next two, one-color pages are from the front and back inside covers. These one-color inside covers (sometimes done in black and white as well) are one of my favorite features from this era of Four Color. I often wonder how many kids tried their hand at drawing for the first time, staring at the seductive lines of these inside covers.

The Roman Holidays in "The Man Tamer"

The artist for this story, Jack Manning, was completely unknown to me until I stumbled upon this comic in a recent buying binge. Manning, who died in 1986, had an impressive resume of work; drawing funny animal comics for Dell for about 20 years. He also animated for Hanna-Barbera from 1959 to 1967.

The Roman Holidays was a short lived Hanna-Barbera cartoon (13 episodes), turned into an even shorter lived comic book from Gold Key (4 issues). Taking a page from both the Flintstones and the Jetsons, The Roman Holidays were a nuclear family set in another time period - in this case Ancient Rome. This comes from The Roman HolidaysNo. 4, November 1973.

The Pie-Face Prince and Chauncey Chirp!

More George Carlson and his best remembered comic book creation, The Pie-Face Prince of Old Pretzelburg. Carlson always gave the young prince a healthy dose of mischief bordering on pure anarchy. Both stories today are from Jingle Jangle Comics No. 14, April 1945.

This Chauncey Chirp story is by Dave Tendlar. Like so many comic book artists of the era, Tendlar was primarily known as an animator. He animated and directed cartoons for Fleischer, Famous, Terrytoons, and Hanna-Barbera. Here we find a nice, round style with some sweet, easily-overlooked draftsmanship. Note the old fellow fishing on pages two and three.