Golden Age horror from A.C. Hollingsworth

The hidden side of DC

Most aficinados know that even in the Golden Age, what we now think of as DC was actually two sister companies, National (Superman, Batman) and All American (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash) and that many of the other Golden and Silver Age characters we associate with DC were published by other companies including Quality (Blackhawk, Plastic Man), Fawcett (Captain Marvel) and Charlton (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle).

Less well known are the companies that DC partnered with and or operated, for lack of a better word, covertly. The folks at DC Comics Artists have handy section listing the examples. Here are some examples.

Many of the titles had a harder edge than those that carried the DC logo.

Noted artist Alvin Hollingsworth was a regular on Beware.

The title was also notable for crediting artists and writers. And yes, that's the same Harry Harrison who created the science fiction hero the Stainless Steel Rat.

This one was penciled by the great pulp cover artist H. J. Ward.

The Stanhill line specialized in good girl art and may have been intended for PX sales.

One more from A.C. Hollingsworth

Golden Age horror from A.C. Hollingsworth

Post-code, I'm afraid but still beautifully drawn.

From Mysterious Stories number 3

Comics and Fine Art

There is a tendency to place comics creators of the Golden and Silver Age somewhere between folk artists and idiot savants, now and then managing something of real originality and value largely due to their complete ignorance of the way art is supposed to look. Call it the Fletcher Hanks model.

But for every Hanks there were any number of artists who were highly literate about the visual arts. Here's what the great Golden Age artist Mort Meskin said about the role of cinema in the field:

"Citizen Kane (1941) influenced us a great deal, all of us. We were very excited about it and spent quite a bit of time discussing it, employing its elements in our work. There was a contest as to who saw it the most times"

Some, like A.C. Hollingsworth even went on to great success in the world of fine art.

Which leads me to this wonderful piece from perhaps the best scholarly comics blog, the Comics Detective, about the blogger's search for the artist behind an extraordinary set of expressionist covers in the Fifties. Definitely worth a look:


With special thanks to Frank M. Young.

"Phantom of Phillip Hawks"

This stylish story (and memorable cover) come from A.C. Hollingsworth, one of the few African-Americans working in comics in the Golden Age. He was a classmate of Kubert's and may have started in the field at an even earlier age. He eventually left comics and went into fine art where he did very well. (Among other places, ou can find his art in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum)