Art by Virgil Finlay

The Comics of Virgil Finlay – Part Two

Bottom portion drawn by Virgil Finlay

If you missed Part One…

The comics of Virgil Finlay show an artist who is trying out the new popular medium of comics. He started with two page splash pages called “Just Imagine” but these weren’t the only pieces Finlay did. Every so often he got to work on a cover or draw an actual story strip. Usually the story features space or futuristic machines, two things Finlay had plenty of experience with.

“Columbus of Space” (Real Fact Comics #6, January-February 1947) gave Virgil his first chance to try inking someone else’s pencils. Unlike magazine illustration, comics are more of an assembly line with various people working on one story. This one was written by Jack Schiff, George Kashdan and Bernie Breslauer with pencils by Howard Sherman.

 

“The Cardiff Giant” (Real Fact Comics #7, March-April 1947) was written by Jack Schiff, Mort Weisinger and Bernie Breslauer with pencils by Howard Sherman.

With the last two comics, Finlay did a good job of inking, but somehow having someone else’s pencils reduces the usual “Finlay-ness” of the strips. You will see what I mean as the comics that came after these two were done exclusively by VF.

“Operation Luna” (Real Fact Comics #8, May-June 1947) was again written by Jack Schiff, Mort Weisinger and Bernie Breslauer but Virgil got to pencil and ink.

“Lucky Accident” (Real Fact Comics #8, May-June 1947) had the same team as the other story from this issue.

“A Message to the Future” (Real Fact Comics #10, September-October 1947) the writer is not known but Virgil did all the art.

A bit of an anomaly is “The Mad Planet” (Mystery in Space #19, April-May 1954) which appeared seven years later. It was written by Sid Gerson. The year 1954 is significant in that it was the year that Weird Tales stopped publishing like so many other Pulps. The whole comic looks like a Finlay illustration come to life. I can only wish he had done more like “The Mad Planet”. It is a final Finlay comic treat before he left the field of comics.

Virgil Finlay would live until 1971. From 1954 to the 1970s, he continued to illustrate Science Fiction books and magazines. Shortly after his death there was an explosion of appreciation for his work. He was one of the true masters of Pulp SF art.

Clifford D. Simak’s “Jackpot” from Galaxy, October 1956

 

Like space adventure then check it out!

1 Comment Posted

  1. Thanks for the ‘A Message to the Future’.
    The guys at the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair Facebook page should like it.

Comments are closed.