Monday, January 31, 2011

Is This By Dan Gordon?

Update: In comments it's suggested that this might be by a different comics great, Jack Bradbury.

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There have been some good posts on cartoonist Dan Gordon lately, including this one from John Kricfalusi and this one from Thad K. Having seen those, I'm wondering if this could be another Dan Gordon story.

It's from Little Archie # 5, an issue that used a number of artists (including Bill Vigoda) to do the half of the stories that Bob Bolling wasn't doing himself, and there's this one four-page story that looks very different from the rest of the comic -- and is much more exuberant and cartoony than the Bolling or Vigoda material. Dan Gordon was very briefly at MLJ/Archie working on Super Duck -- also in a different style from anyone else. This might be his tryout on "Little Archie"; it might not be him, but adjusting for the difference in house style, it could have come from the guy who did "Cookie" and most famously "SuperKatt". Take a look:



Whoever it is, it might have been nice if he had stuck around on this title. I'm a big Bob Bolling fan, but pure comedy isn't really his thing; even his slapstick stories have a subdued, melancholy feel to them. Supplementing his work with a more laugh-out-loud funny cartoonist would have been an ideal arrangement. Instead the other artists (some of whom are very hard to identify) left the title by # 8 and it became entirely shared between Bolling and Dexter Taylor.

2 comments:

J Lee said...

The faces have a little bit of a Famous Studios/Harvey Comics vibe to them. Could be Gordon, or possibly one of Famous' artists moolighting for Team Archie.

ramapith said...

I believe this is Jack Bradbury's work (best known for '40s funny animals and '50s Disney). In fact—I'm 99% sure of it, especially given Reggie's desperate expressions on the last page.

Let's see if Joe Torcivia agrees—he's more a Bradbury expert than any others I know.