SCIENCE COMICS (1940) #3
CGC NM: 9.4
(Stock Image)
SOLD ON: Thursday, 06/15/2017 2:26 PM
$18,277
Sold For
18
Bids
PUBLISHER: Fox
COMMENTS: ow/white pgs; 1 of 2! Larson copy
classic Lou Fine cover; rare!
Jon Berk Collection
Highest Graded
Read Description ▼
classic Lou Fine cover; rare!
Jon Berk Collection
Highest Graded
DESCRIPTION
ow/white pgs; 1 of 2! Larson copy
classic Lou Fine cover; rare!
Jon Berk Collection
Highest GradedEarly comics were hit and miss, with heroes getting renamed, redressed, rethought, and sometimes outright stolen from other companies as publishers desperately raced to meet deadlines and feed a voraciously hungry new readership. In the case of Science Comics' Dynamo, he was originally named Electro, then, probably due to some arcane copyright issue or maybe just panic on the part of Fox's editorial staff, he was rechristened with his new, more recognizable name. Not that any of that matters -- what matters, really, are the gleefully insane sci-fi covers that the character was slapped onto to grab the still-sizable pulp adventure market.
In this case, the reliable Lou Fine, surely one of the Golden Age's preeminent cover artists, was tapped to draft an image sure to capture the eyes and dimes of harried readers rushing past newsstands at rush hour. It's truly remarkable how Fine's classy and supple lines are applied to this lurid, lunatic scene, raising an otherwise garish tableaux to a level of perverse genius. The layout, also, is classical pulp cover, with the damsel in distress neatly foregrounded to attract the Dads, while the bat-crazy space dude in back is given plenty of room to show off his considerable anatomy, all the better to entrap young and impressionable lads still swooning over Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Want proof this sort of thing works? Well, we're still talking about it now, aren't we?Tied for highest graded, this copy comes from the Larson pedigree, one of the first great comics pedigrees, still revered by discerning collectors for its astonishing breadth of rare and obscure comics, many of which were kept in improbably high grades.
Overstreet Guide 2016 NM- (9.2) value = $4,500.
We realize many of you would like to bid on this auction lot, so for this listing, ComicConnect.com offers a 6 month, interest free, time payment plan with a 20% non-refundable deposit. Time Payments invoices can only be paid by cash, check, money order or wire transfer. LEARN MORE
Artists Information
Louis Kenneth Fine was born in New York. He studied at the Grand Central Art School and Pratt Institute. He was partially crippled by childhood polio and longed to be an illustrator. Among his major influences were Dean Cornwell, J.C. Leyendecker, and Heinrich Kley. Fine joined the Eisner-Iger comic shop in 1938 and soon was drawing for the Fiction House and Fox lines on such features as 'Wilton of the West', 'The Count of Monte Cristo', and 'The Flame'. Within a short time he became one of their best artists. He drew parts of the 'Jumbo' and 'Sheena' comics, and he also produced several adventure comics. Between 1939 and 1943, he worked for the Arnold's Quality Comics group. He produced 'Black Condor', 'Stormy Foster' and several issues of 'Uncle Sam'. From early on, Fine's specialty was covers, and he turned out dozens of them. Lou Fine left the comic book industry in 1944 and moved into drawing Sunday advertising strips for the funnies. On his advertising work, he cooperated extensively with Don Komisarow. Together, they created characters like 'Charlie McCarthy' and 'Mr. Coffee Nerves' for Chase and Sanborn Coffee, and 'Sam Spade' for Wildroot Cream Oil. They also made 'The Thropp Family' for Liberty magazine, using the combined signature of Donlou (scripts by Lawrence Lariar). Next, Fine drew two newspaper strips, 'Adam Ames', and 'Peter Scratch', about a tough private eye who lived with his mother. Fine died in 1971 and according to Will Eisner, he was one of the greatest draftsmen ever.
George Tuska who used a variety of pen names including Carl Larson, was an American comic book and newspaper comic strip artist best known for his 1940s work on various Captain Marvel titles and the crime fiction series Crime Does Not Pay and for his 1960s work illustrating Iron Man and other Marvel Comics characters. He also drew the DC Comics newspaper comic strip The World's Greatest Superheroes from 1978–1982.
Richard "Dick" Briefer (January 9, 1915 – December 1980) was an American comic-book artist best known for his various adaptations, including humorous ones, of the Frankenstein monster.
classic Lou Fine cover; rare!
Jon Berk Collection
Highest GradedEarly comics were hit and miss, with heroes getting renamed, redressed, rethought, and sometimes outright stolen from other companies as publishers desperately raced to meet deadlines and feed a voraciously hungry new readership. In the case of Science Comics' Dynamo, he was originally named Electro, then, probably due to some arcane copyright issue or maybe just panic on the part of Fox's editorial staff, he was rechristened with his new, more recognizable name. Not that any of that matters -- what matters, really, are the gleefully insane sci-fi covers that the character was slapped onto to grab the still-sizable pulp adventure market.
In this case, the reliable Lou Fine, surely one of the Golden Age's preeminent cover artists, was tapped to draft an image sure to capture the eyes and dimes of harried readers rushing past newsstands at rush hour. It's truly remarkable how Fine's classy and supple lines are applied to this lurid, lunatic scene, raising an otherwise garish tableaux to a level of perverse genius. The layout, also, is classical pulp cover, with the damsel in distress neatly foregrounded to attract the Dads, while the bat-crazy space dude in back is given plenty of room to show off his considerable anatomy, all the better to entrap young and impressionable lads still swooning over Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Want proof this sort of thing works? Well, we're still talking about it now, aren't we?Tied for highest graded, this copy comes from the Larson pedigree, one of the first great comics pedigrees, still revered by discerning collectors for its astonishing breadth of rare and obscure comics, many of which were kept in improbably high grades.
Overstreet Guide 2016 NM- (9.2) value = $4,500.
We realize many of you would like to bid on this auction lot, so for this listing, ComicConnect.com offers a 6 month, interest free, time payment plan with a 20% non-refundable deposit. Time Payments invoices can only be paid by cash, check, money order or wire transfer. LEARN MORE
Artists Information
Louis Kenneth Fine was born in New York. He studied at the Grand Central Art School and Pratt Institute. He was partially crippled by childhood polio and longed to be an illustrator. Among his major influences were Dean Cornwell, J.C. Leyendecker, and Heinrich Kley. Fine joined the Eisner-Iger comic shop in 1938 and soon was drawing for the Fiction House and Fox lines on such features as 'Wilton of the West', 'The Count of Monte Cristo', and 'The Flame'. Within a short time he became one of their best artists. He drew parts of the 'Jumbo' and 'Sheena' comics, and he also produced several adventure comics. Between 1939 and 1943, he worked for the Arnold's Quality Comics group. He produced 'Black Condor', 'Stormy Foster' and several issues of 'Uncle Sam'. From early on, Fine's specialty was covers, and he turned out dozens of them. Lou Fine left the comic book industry in 1944 and moved into drawing Sunday advertising strips for the funnies. On his advertising work, he cooperated extensively with Don Komisarow. Together, they created characters like 'Charlie McCarthy' and 'Mr. Coffee Nerves' for Chase and Sanborn Coffee, and 'Sam Spade' for Wildroot Cream Oil. They also made 'The Thropp Family' for Liberty magazine, using the combined signature of Donlou (scripts by Lawrence Lariar). Next, Fine drew two newspaper strips, 'Adam Ames', and 'Peter Scratch', about a tough private eye who lived with his mother. Fine died in 1971 and according to Will Eisner, he was one of the greatest draftsmen ever.
George Tuska who used a variety of pen names including Carl Larson, was an American comic book and newspaper comic strip artist best known for his 1940s work on various Captain Marvel titles and the crime fiction series Crime Does Not Pay and for his 1960s work illustrating Iron Man and other Marvel Comics characters. He also drew the DC Comics newspaper comic strip The World's Greatest Superheroes from 1978–1982.
Richard "Dick" Briefer (January 9, 1915 – December 1980) was an American comic-book artist best known for his various adaptations, including humorous ones, of the Frankenstein monster.