Here's another strip where the writer's style is so distinctive his
identity just leaped out at me. Ken Fitch uses "Aiy-y-y-y" in any number
of the
stories in Brown Shoe Company's 7-issue Adventures of Robin
Hood giveaway. This page is from the first story in #5, "How
Will Stutely Walked into the Hands of the Sheriff's Men." Another clue
to Fitch, seen on other pages, is his putting dialog in the captions
every so often, in addition to balloons.
I entered the Robin Hood stories' artists because I've seen the
attributions reversed:
Ray Willner pencils and Reed Crandall inks (Willner signed most of
these, with Crandall ghosting). You may recall years ago how Crandall
and
George Evans art (at Dell and Gilberton, for instance) was IDed as
Evans pencils and Crandall inks; but the inker isn't the one who lays
out the panels and the characters' poses (and the way Crandall has
people pose is, in a word, distinctive).
A few Robin Hood stories
at Brown are attributed to Crandall only, pencils and inks, but he has
a story
in a 1955 issue of the publisher's
Buster Brown Comic Book,
#41, for comparison--and there his inks look just like his inks at EC,
Warren, and so on. I find the inking on these Robin Hood
stories consistent throughout, which is to say Willner's.
The
inside front cover featurettes in #2 and 3 and all the covers are, I
think, Wilner's pencils as well as inks; or at least I don't see
Crandall's pencils on them.
Adventures of Robin Hood
| c. 1956 |
1-7 |
Robin Hood stories |
w: Ken Fitch p: Reed Crandall i:
Ray Willner |
| |
|
Little John stories |
w: Fitch |
