Hi All,
I found Colossus Comics so charming and imaginative that I was inspired to do some digging to see if I could find more by, and about, Bernie Wiest, the artist who snuck his signature into a panel on the last page of that boldly drawn Colossus a.d. 2640 lead story. Those modulating panel sizes throughout the 13-page layout were quite unusual for the time, but still effective. (Wiest also signs an illustration that accompanies the two-page text story.)
I also thought that Wiest might have drawn two, perhaps three, of the issue's other stories: the Lum Sims "Ghost of Buzzard Mounting," where the artist ('Nard) has signed a panel of the last page;
the Ruggey story, the Hitler satire that closes the issue, which is signed "Lincoln Maher" in the first panel;
and the Tulpa of Tsang, which shows some similarities in the cartoony faces and hands, but is otherwise crudely or hastily done, though I found the Tulpa him(it?)self interesting and the story's mix of whimsy and the grotesque very entertaining and better than the issue's straightly drawn adventure stories.
duckduckgo helped me find a touching obituary for a grandmother, Sim Wiest, who was preceded in death by a husband Bernard (called Bernie), an artist in many media:
http://jmahorney.blogspot.com/2009/01/sim-wiest-1917-2009.htmlI wrote this grandson, Jeff Mahorney, and he confirmed that Colossus Comics #1 did seem to contain stories drawn by his grandfather Bernie. Jeff put me in direct contact with his mother, Penny Wiest Augustine (), who kindly sent me the following biography and photos of her father:
"Bernie was my dad. He was born in 1919 (I think) and lived in Chicago. He graduated from the Chicago Art Institute then went into the Army and was stationed in Ft Custer in Michigan for the war...illustrating all kinds of posters (I'll attach a pix of him). I do remember him talking about illustrating a comic book and drawing a comic strip before the war.
After the war, he and my mom (she was in the WACS at Ft Custer) settled in New Orleans. He worked for two different ad agencies, then made schlock drive-in movies with a producer friend, then had a commercial animation studio in our home (and acted in little theater and he and my mom had their own Punch and Judy show) then was an animator for Boeing, then "retired" to painting (primarily miniatures). Unfortunately he died in 1999...just as he was getting very excited about computer animation.
I think that all of the things you found are his. Although the Wiest signature with the lines for E and S were not ones I've seen before, I know the signature on his work changed over the years. Anything with "Nard" is definitely his because he used that during the war. The last comic with the name Lincoln is the only one I'm not 100% sure about (neither Lincoln or Maher is a family name). However the hands on the guy with the green cap...especially in the second to last panel...are definitely Dad's style.
Thank you for finding his early artwork and sharing it with Jeff and me.
If you have any other questions or find anything else, please let us know."
I have since asked Penny to look at other stories and credits in Colossus and have also sent her the links to that earlier Sun Publications comic, Sun Fun Komiks, which apparently includes work by "Lincoln Maher," though scans of Maher's pages are unavailable.
I've further requested more details about Bernie's other works, comics and otherwise.
imdb.com has a "Bernard Weist" credit for a New Orleans-produced 1958 Shadow movie, The Invisible Avenger, a low-budget production that might have been a pilot for a proposed-but-never-realized Shadow TV series.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051783/?ref_=nm_flmg_set_1http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051783/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_smI do hope that we can learn more about this talented early comic book maker and his later works, but Penny has given me permission to post this info -- and her email address -- now.
Enjoy and thanks for all the free comics!
CB