John Severin, 1921 - 2012

Veteran comic book artist John Severin died on February 12 at the age of 90. Severin worked for just about every comic publisher and drew comics in just about any genre. His gritty and realistic style made him especially suited to war and western comics such as EC's legendary Frontline Combat and western titles like Marvel's Kid Colt Outlaw. He was one of the original artists for Mad and enjoyed a long career working for Cracked magazine.

John Severin was an extremely skilled and consistent artist, and has left with a wonderful legacy of beautifully rendered artwork.

Below is a moodily colored (probably by his sister Marie) collaboration with Will Elder from Frontline Combat #8 (September 1952.

Below that is some more samples of Severin's work.



















Annie Oakley #11, June 1956.




Tomb of Dracula #2, May 1972.






Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos Annual #6, August 1970.





Cracked #111, September 1973.




Unknown, scanned from Dark Age artzine, 1982.




Lord of the Rings illustration, scanned from Trumpet #12, 1981.





"Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Witchcraft," Creepy #10, August 1966.

Russ Heath: "Periscope Quaterback!"

Here is a nice Russ Heath story: "Periscope Quarterback!" from G.I. Combat #63, September 1958.

Russ Heath Interview, 1973

Russ Heath interview from Comic Art News and Reviews, October 1973.















G.I. Combat #97, January 1963.

War Wednesday

All-American Men of War #94, December 1962. Cover art by Russ Heath.




Our Army at War #60, July 1957. Cover art by Jerry Grandenetti.




Atomic War!, November 1952.




Frontline Combat #13, July 1952. Cover art by Wally Wood. This is one of my favorite EC covers.




Wary Soldiers by Saul Tepper.




The Wounded Soldier by Stanley Borack.

Our (Revolutionary) Army at War

I always really liked this cover by Bernie Krigstein for Our Army at War #13, August 1953. I would have liked to see more non-WWII covers for that comic.

Russ Heath!

Our Army At War #246, 1972.




Our Army At War #243, 1971.




Our Army At War #225, 1970.




Our Army At War #89, cover recreation, 2010.

Our Army at War

Here's some pre-Sgt. Rock issues of Our Army at War.




Our Army at War #4, November 1952. Cover art by Irv Novick.




Our Army at War #14, September 1953. Cover art by Jerry Grandenetti.




Our Army at War #15, October 1953. Cover art by Irv Novick.




Our Army at War #28, November 1954. Cover art by Jerry Grandenetti.




Our Army at War #29, December 1954. Cover art by Irv Novick.




Our Army at War #30, January 1955. Cover art by Jerry Grandenetti.

Atom-Age Combat!

Here are the covers for the first three issues of what I'm sure is a wonderful comic called Atom-Age Combat. These issues were published by St. John Publishing in 1952. I particularly like the submarine cover for issue #2.











Update: Thanks to a helpful comment from JRSM, I've learned all five issues of Atom-Age Combat are available for download here.

Kubert & Heath: War Comics!

Well, with Memorial Day coming up here in the U.S., I started thinking about war comics. And when you think about war comics, you end up thinking about Sgt. Rock. And when you think about Sgt. Rock, you have to think about Joe Kubert and Russ Heath. Of course the Heath cover is great. The Kubert art spans 1961 to 1982. I don't know if I can think of another comic book artist who was so consistently good over such a long period of time. (And Kubert was doing good stuff before 1961 and after 1982)



Our Army at War #182, July 1967. Cover art by Russ Heath.




Our Army at War #107, June 1961. Cover art by Joe Kubert.




Our Army at War #136, November 1963. Cover art by Joe Kubert.




Our Army at War #222, August 1970. Cover art by Joe Kubert.




Original art by Joe Kubert for DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #18, 1982.