Paging Mr. Risk!

[Count Otto Black]

I'm planning to create quite an ambitious webcomic using rearranged GA artwork, and I've decided to use as one of my recurring characters an obscure private detective called Mr. Risk - picture attached in case you don't know him. Unfortunately his comic only seems to have run for two issues. If he's to be a major character in my strip, I'll need more pictures of him, so can anybody tell me if he appeared in any comics other than the one with his name on the cover?

Also, are there any other characters drawn by the same artist (who doesn't seem to be named anywhere in these two comics) or in a similar style who look enough like Mr. Risk for me to use them as the same guy? Apart from being dark-haired, terribly serious, and usually wearing a blue suit, his main distinguishing characteristic is that he's constantly either smoking a pipe or waving one randomly about as a strange substitute for a gun - I think that's what I like about him.

On a related note, the late British comedian and TV show host Bob Monkhouse did in his youth show show considerable talent as a comic-book illustrator. I'm not sure if this would have been in the fifties or the sixties, but if any comics on this site feature his artwork I'd be interested to have them pointed out. They'd probably have been printed in the UK, but the subject-matter was the usual superhero space-opera stuff, with some curious twists - I remember seeing a page from one of his strips in which some very naughty imagery indeed had been smuggled in disguised as space-monsters!

[Roygbiv666]

Give this a try:

http://www.comics.org/character/name/mr.%20risk/sort/chrono/

[mr_goldenage (RIP)]

Mr. Risk was a back up feature in Super Mystery Comics. Check the GCD for his appearances.

Mr_Goldenage

[JVJ (RIP)]

Also, are there any other characters drawn by the same artist (who doesn't seem to be named anywhere in these two comics) or in a similar style who look enough like Mr. Risk for me to use them as the same guy? Apart from being dark-haired, terribly serious, and usually wearing a blue suit, his main distinguishing characteristic is that he's constantly either smoking a pipe or waving one randomly about as a strange substitute for a gun - I think that's what I like about him.

That artist is John Buscema, COB, and you might find similar characters by him at Our/Orbit in their crime and, surprise, romance comics.

(|:{>

[crashryan]

Regarding Bob Monkhouse: Denis Gifford wrote a book called "Super Duper Supermen" which dealt with early home-grown British comics. It had several samples of Monkhouse's work. I have a copy somewhere; I'll try to find it.

I think it's cool that a TV celebrity should have started out as a comics artist. Heck, I think it's cool when anyone started out as a comics artists.

It does remind me though of a time a number of years ago when a series of misunderstandings led comics fans to believe that actor Martin Landau and 50s comics artist Ken Landau were the same person. Once established the legend endured for a long time.

[tilliban]

ACE publishing later on gave him his own book, mon!
I scanned both issues, they are here:
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=806

Jim indentified the artists, see them here:
http://www.comics.org/series/19859/

[Count Otto Black]

Thanks, guys - that's very helpful indeed! As soon as I saw that "Mr. Risk" comic, I knew I wanted to make extensive use of this peculiarly deadpan character with his ever-present pipe. But I assumed that somebody this obscure - heck, he doesn't even have a wikipedia page! - who only got to star in two issues of his own comic probably didn't appear anywhere else. I hoped you might be able to tell me about a few backup strips and maybe double the number of images I had. Instead, there turns out to be all this material scattered throughout many different titles, which means I can turn him into the hero of the entire story, or at least the first act (I have no idea how long it'll eventually be).

And an extra thank you to JVJ for identifying the artist as John Buscema. It'll be very useful to have plenty of other strips about unrelated characters and/or in other genres but drawn in exactly the same style. The fact that Buscema drew romance as well as hard-boiled tough-guy action is particularly useful. It means that the unflappable hero can have a running gag whereby everyone around him, especially the women, massively overreacts to absolutely everything, and because all the artwork's by the same guy it'll look as though the panels were drawn that way in the first place.

crashryan, "Super Duper Supermen" rings a bell. It's a long time since I saw those Bob Monkhouse strips, but they were in a compilation volume, and I think it may have been that very one, unless my memory's playing tricks, and the title only sounds familiar because it's a line from the Spike Jones song "In Der Führer's Face". If I remember correctly, there's a strip called "Tornado On The Atom Planet" featuring monsters which - well, let's just say that you'd have to be very young indeed not to spot something odd and rather rude about them...

[JVJ (RIP)]

You're welcome. Just to be clear, the Buscema identification was for the image you posted on your first inquiry. Many artists drew the feature from 1942 through 1951 or so. I believe that most (if not all) appearances after that were reprints? The Grand Comics Database, which Roy extracted that information from, gives reprint information and artist information when known. Buscema only did three or four strips, if memory serves - which it often doesn't.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[narfstar]

You may want to check out Detective Sergeant Mark Fabian in The Informer and After Dark. I believe all appearances in all 8 issues were by Mike Sekowsky. Not the same deadpan and Mr. Risk but might be something you would enjoy.

[Count Otto Black]

Again, thanks to everyone for the feedback! I'm afraid I won't be revealing what I intend to do with these images for a while, but not because there's anything dubious about the project. I just want to have the entire first chapter ready before I start posting, so that I'll be way ahead of myself and there'll always be a page ready to post on schedule without me struggling to botch something together at the last minute. Though before the site goes up, I'll probably post some teaser images somewhere on this forum so that you can see exactly what I'm doing, and maybe suggest forgotten GA characters who might fit in nicely.

By the way, I've finally figured out what it was that bugged me about Mr. Risk. His motives are as far as I know a mystery, since I've yet to read a comic that gives him any backstory, or indeed any frontstory, such as a first name. But he's a handsome if rather grim dark-haired man who obsessively fights crime using his extensive unarmed combat skills even though he obviously doesn't need the money, since he usually gives his fees to charity, yet he can still afford at least two apartments, one of which appears to be a luxurious mansion. And he has a peculiar aversion to using guns, even though he constantly has to fight people who don't mind using them at all.

Clearly, behind that obvious pseudonym, "Mr. Risk" is Bruce Wayne, and these are his adventures in a parallel universe in which that bat didn't fly through his window at the crucial moment. Look at the very early Batman stories - there are even one or two panels in which Bruce Wayne smokes a pipe! He probably gave it up because Batman with a pipe in his mouth would have crossed the line between scary and silly.