Monday, July 02, 2012

STRANGE TALES #93


Here is the cover to STRANGE TALES #93. Despite the obvious hand of Ditko on this one, I never liked this cover. I never liked it even when I first saw it when I was a kid of about seven years old. It's just terribly bland and was not at all like the dynamic covers generally produced for these monster books by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

I'm not even sure of the authorship of the art. Ditko definitely did the finishes, but it could have been over Kirby layouts, or pencils by Dick Ayers, or Paul Reinman. It's very hard to say. It just doesn't look like something Ditko would have concocted on his own unless he was rushed by a looming deadline or instructed specifically to create such an image.

Ditko inks, for sure. But pencils could have been by any of the guys at Marvel then, up to and including Ditko. One of the most lackluster covers from this period at Marvel.

5 comments:

Gregory Feeley said...

Look at the woman, especially her feet. Kirby pencils.

James Robert Smith said...

Yep. Kirby, for sure.

Anonymous said...

Bob, it's here.

bit.ly/t9LII

-Lee

Kirk G - The Thrifty Rocketeer said...

I'm wondering if this story was inspired by the classic Twilight Zone story about being trapped in the department store at night and having the manikins close in on Ann Francis. Don't recall the name of it, but I suspect the pay off might be the same. Did you read it?

James Robert Smith said...

Most of the horror and sf stories published at Marvel in those days were just nabbed from ideas published in the classic pulps and anthologies of the day. (With occasional riffs on teleplays.)