Graham Ingels, Matt Baker, & Reed Crandall: Will Eisner Hall of Fame Inductees
Graham “Ghastly” Ingels, the noted and famed EC horror comics artist, is inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame as a Judges’ Selection. Berni Wrightson, co-creator and first artist of The Swamp Thing, accepts the award for Graham and tells a great story about discovering the man whose illustrations inspired many horror comics careers.
Matt Baker is known for many things, but the two that always stand out are these: he was the first major African American comic book artist, and he was widely considered to be a master of “Good Girl Art.” Calvin Reid, of Publishers Weekly’s Comics Week, accepts the award in Matt’s honor. His official Eisner Award biography reads:
“Baker started his career in the Iger Studio, working on titles for Fox, Fiction House, and Quality. He later went on to work for St. John and Atlas, as well as drawing the Flamingo newspaper strip. Although he drew a variety of western, romance, and adventure titles, he is best remembered for his work on the Phantom Lady series. Baker was the artist on the arguably first graphic novel, It Rhymes with Lust, by Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller. Unfortunately, his career ended abruptly in 1959, when he died at the young age of 37.”
Reed Crandall drew for Treasure Chest Comics, Creepy, and Eerie among many others. He was an artist in both the Golden and Silver ages of comics. I wish I could tell you who accepted the award on his behalf, but the presenter was mumbling and, on top of that, I’m having trouble getting past the accent. So blame us both for dropping the ball on this one. Reed Crandall’s official Eisner bio reads:
“Reed Crandall (1917-1982) started with the Eisner/Iger Studio, where he worked primarily on titles for Quality Comics, including Hit, Crack, Smash, and Uncle Sam (which became Blackhawk), where he drew such features as “The Ray,” “Dollman,” and “Firebrand,” as well as some terrific covers. When Quality scaled down their line, Crandall began doing work at EC. He drew everything from science fiction to suspense to horror. When EC folded comics production in 1955/56, he did occasional work for Atlas/Marvel and Classics Illustrated. In 1960 he landed a contract with Treasure Chest Comics and drew stories for them for twelve years. Then in 1964 he began working for Warren and delivered some of the best work of his career for Creepy and Eerie. His last contribution to comics was published in 1973.”
The Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductions roll on after the jump with one of the most heartfelt and emotional speeches ever given at the Eisner Awards.
Jerry Iger & Russ Heath: Will Eisner Hall of Fame Inductees
Jerry Iger Accepting the award for Mr. Iger was an artist who never had formal training, but that didn’t stop him from carving out a career that spanned several decades before leaving the comics industry for other opportunities. Murphy Anderson. Murphy shares a story about how Jerry Iger helped him get his start in comics.
“Jerry Iger (1903-1990) had no formal art training, but in 1925 he broke into the field as a news cartoonist for the New York American. In the early 1930s, he was involved in the creation of such features as The Flamingo and Inspector Dayton for Editors Press Service. He soon became one of the first people involved in the comic book business, founding his own Phoenix Features Syndicate. His strips “Bobby,” “Peewee,” and “Happy Daze,” published in Famous Funnies, are among the first ever produced especially for comic books. Iger was the editor of Wow! What a Magazine in 1936 and published the first work of Bob Kane, Dick Briefer, and Will Eisner. With Eisner, he formed the S.M. Iger Studios in 1937, which eventually became known as the Eisner-Iger Shop. Under Iger’s guidance, the shop produced a large amount of comic books, for which Iger often provided the scripts. Titles included Jumbo, Jungle, Planet, and Wings for Fiction House, and series like “Shark Brodie,” “Neon,” “Firebrand,’ and “Sheena.” When Eisner left in 1939, the studios continued as the Iger Shop. A true comics factory, the studios worked for such companies as Fox, Quality, Harvey, Holyoke, MLJ, Crown, EC, and Farrell. He closed his studio in 1955 and went to work as an advertising artist, teacher, and editorial director at Ajax.”
Russ Heath, who is still with us and accepts his own award here (very cool) was an artist in both the Golden and Silver age of comics. His work was perhaps best known for the westerns Arizona Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and Kid Colt Outlaw*. He is also a noted war comics artist. I know him best as the guy who drew the movie adaptation of The Rocketeer, but that’s because I’m just a young punk. Russ’s official Eisner biography is below:
“Born in New York in 1926, Russ Heath joined Timely in 1946, where he began drawing for several different genres but particularly westerns, including Arizona Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and Kid Colt Outlaw. Heath went on to draw science fiction stories for Avon, romance stories for Lev Gleason, and Plastic Man for Quality. In the early 1950s, he worked on such EC titles as Mad and Frontline Combat for editor Harvey Kurtzman, with whom he also worked on Trump. During the 1950s, he worked for DC/National, where he drew for the full range of adventure features, such as “Golden Gladiator” and “Robin Hood” in Brave and the Bold. But he was particularly noted for drawing war titles such as Sea Devils, Our Army at War (Sgt. Rock), and G.I. Combat (”The Haunted Tank”). From 1981 to 1984, he worked on a revived version of The Lone Ranger for the New York Times Syndicate. In 1991 he drew the official adaptation of the movie version of The Rocketeer. Since then, Heath has spent most of his time in the animation industry.”
*Apparently, kids were really dangerous in the Wild West.
