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cream/off white pages
Classic Ekgren cover; Kubert art
There is not a lot known about the cover artist. William Ekgren came in to contact with Arthur St. John and Marion McDermott of St. John Publishing while painting in a Greenwich village market in New York. They purchased the publishing rights to Ekgren’s paintings for $100 each. Matt Baker was the art director for St. John Publishing back then, you have to think he had a hand in selecting the pictures for use as a comic cover. They returned the paintings to William Ekgren when they had been copied and he then presumably sold them off with the rest of his paintings. I wonder where they are now? And that folks that is pretty much it in terms of William Ekgren’s contribution to our comic hobby. Three paintings that were used as comic covers on three comics. This being one of them of course. There is a lot more to the man and his work and his story is quite fascinating. He apparently did not know that his work was revered in comic form when "comic detective" Ken Quattro first contacted him in Sweden 8-10 years ago (at the tender age of 88).
One of my favorite 1950s covers. The level of detail is unreal. It reminds me of the maze books I had as a kid-Vincent Zurzolo


Artist Information

Joe Kubert (Sept. 18, 1926 - Aug. 12, 2012) began his career at the age of 13. He was also an art teacher and founder of The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the characters like Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, Tor, Son of Sinbad and the Viking Prince.