Back in the day, I was not overly fond of Dell Comics, as a lot of their art seemed to be anonymous hackwork. Or so I thought as a kid. But the recent posting of issues of
Gene Autry's Champion (a comic about a horse, a dog, and a kid, with no sign of Gene Autry in its pages at all) has made me reconsider my sweeping judgment. Take issue #11, with two lengthy stories by the same artist. I don't know who the artist is (maybe JVJ can tell us), but I'm knocked out by his style. It has the economy of Alex Toth, combined with the crisp penwork of, say, E. Raymond Kinstler, and best of all a fantastic grasp of horses and dogs in action. As usual, it is all buried beneath Dell's coloring and printing, but the inside back cover of each issue has a page of the story in pure B&W, where you can really see the artist's chops.
I'm not saying that this stuff is the best comic art ever - there's every sign that these pages were knocked out at some speed - but the result is nevertheless extremely stylish and charming.
I think this is one of those cases of an unsung comic that had a hidden gem within it.
Check 'em out and see what you think...
http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=903