Agreed that there's some decent work in the series. I'd submit, though, that anyone who considers A.W. Nugent to be a big name is by definition a "specialist" (the guy doesn't even get his own Wikipedia page.)
I'm thinking of names you could toss out on a Comics Journal message board and get more than a blank stare, or that would make the e-mail blurb at Heritage Auctions.
Personally, my favorite of the bunch is the funny animal work of Ellis Chambers. The stories themselves range from inane to not-quite-inane, but I just like the rakish air he always brings to his drawings. I also have a soft spot for Howard Larsen, whose figures have a kind of blunt Beanie Babies look around the edges. And yeah, "The Debunker" is one in a million--I think I prefer not knowing anything about him so I can make up stories about him in my head. Right now I have him as quite a bit older than the comic-book-artist generation of the '40s, an alcoholic, and a somewhat cranky guy, (although I no doubt get that from the fact that he specialized in those "everything you know is wrong" true-fact features).
And I'll be doing whatever I can to bring the artistic stylings of Herman C. Browner to the attention of the discerning public.