Category: Cartooning

Wiseman’s Radio Menace

One of my favorite comic books as a kid was Dennis the Menace. I had a favorite Dennis artist, but I didn’t know his name was Al Wiseman until I was an adult. With the exception of a couple knobs for dials, this is an accurate drawing by Wiseman of a 1924 RCA Radiola AR-812.

The AR-812 is significant, because it was the first set available commercially to include the invention that made radio broadcasting a practical medium — Edwin Armstrong’s Superheterodyne circuit.

Getting an Inkling

Joe felt his inking style meshed best with John Buscema’s pencil art, and I agree with him about that. Joe always said that he considered Buscema to be the finest illustrator working in comics, while Jack Kirby was the greatest comic book artist. It’s an important distinction.

Joe’s work finishing Jack’s art on The Fantastic Four represented only about five years of his professional life, but they were extremely important years, which was why Stan wanted Joe on the book. Because of Kirby’s enduring legacy as a creative force, Joe’s FF comics are his most recognized period, and with that in mind here is a page of art from a few issues into Joe’s run on the FF…

… and a page from a few issues before the end, when Jack left Marvel.

Of particular interest to me about these pages is that issue #46 was drawn with an image size of 12″x18″, and the image from issue #100 is 10″x15″. When the drawing paper got smaller, Kirby often drew only four panels per page, but these pages are exceptions. The large art has four panels, and the smaller art has nine panels.

Looking back at his early FF issues, Joe said that he put too much of his own style on Kirby’s faces. I made a point of telling Joe that his “friendly faces” were exactly what made Kirby’s “scary art” attractive to me, as a sensitive 10-year-old kid.

Mighty Young Joe

I’ve been trying to work through my thoughts and feelings about Joe Sinnott, but I haven’t made much progress. Although Joe’s passing was not due to the coronavirus, I feel the crisis had an indirect effect, because he couldn’t have visitors. Joe wasn’t able to see his family and friends, and Joe had a lot of friends and fans. I was proud and happy to have been one of them.

Joe was buried yesterday with military honors, following a private service with his family. There will be a future public event celebrating Joe’s life, if the pandemic ever releases its grip. Marvel Comics has published a remembrance of Joe at this link.