Today we have the masterful work of Mr. Al Hubbard in two Andy Hardy stories from Four Color No. 389, April 1952. What I love most about the following pages is Hubbard's astonishing feel for character. With Hubbard, every character is given a unique life - they move and act differently from one another, have different weight and balance. And what facial expressions! Hubbard did all the artwork for the following, pencils and inks. After the stories, I'll wrap the post up with two black & white inside covers (Lordy Lou, what inking!), and a stunner of a back cover - all at no extra charge!
"Lordy Lou", is right! What fantastic art! I am a HUGE AH fan, and I had no idea this work existed!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this may be some of his best work, and when you consider the body of his work, that's sayin' something!
Bill: I agree, this is some fantastic stuff. All with that trademark Hubbard line. And so much of it! I was so excited to find this.
ReplyDeleteSo nice. Especially the B&W pages at the end. I'm starting to think that comics just look better sans color...or maybe just when the inking is this good.
ReplyDeleteDavid: I've often had the same thought. Particularly now-days when the coloring is simply too overpowering it marginalizes the draftsmanship, both pencils and inks, all together.
ReplyDeleteBut when comics are colored correctly, as so many of the Dell Four colors were,it can really add to the art. Very little of "correct" coloring today, though. It doesn't compliment the art so much as blot it out.
Interesting how there's no mention of MGM on the cover or in the copyright. The Andy Hardy series was done at this time except for one later film in 1958, so did Western think that MGM wouldn't bother them or did they have a license agreement?
ReplyDeleteAlso note that the likenesses of the AH cast (Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, etc.) are not used here.
ReplyDeleteYou just made an instant Hubbard fan for life with this post. What a natural storyteller. You nailed it Mykal in your preface. Each panel flows into the next so smooth & seemingly effortless. Their is great work ethic & discipline behind these aesthetic images !
ReplyDeleteLysdexicuss: I've spent the last couple of days trying to imitate his inking with a brush. It's beyond hopeless, of course.
ReplyDeleteHey Mykal! I can't click & enlarge any of these pages. I'd like to be able to print them up, so I can keep copies in my archives (aka: Piles o' crap). Is this a problem with my computer machine, or something on your end?
ReplyDeleteThanks in advance.
Hey, Bill: With Blogger's new "Lightbox" slideshow feature the best way to view single, enlargable images (In Internet Explorer) is to right click on an image before doing a left click (which puts the images in Lightbox) and then chose one of the "open image" options ("open image in new window," "Open image" - whatever). The image will then appear in the traditional single image display. With IE, that is the only chance one has to enlarge images.
ReplyDeletePlease let me know if this does the trick.
I really like the new lightbox feature, but wouldn't use it if there was no way to get the full image. As far as internet browser options go, Google Chrome offers more ways to get to an enlargeable image than does IE, at least for now.
Bill: Make that "Open Link in New Window," etc. (Not "Open Image . . . ).
ReplyDeleteThese comics are sooo hilarious!:D Andy is a very cool character; the art style is very similar to that of the Archie comics.
ReplyDelete