Feast your eyes upon the following rather splendid comic covers and pay little heed to the words that follow for they will most probably only confuse you.
This isn’t the first issue of Dell Comics Space Man but rather issue 1253 of Dell’s Four Color Comics. Don’t let the title at the top mislead you although you may care to know that issue 9 of Space Man looked almost exactly like this being a reprint published some 8 years after the preceding issue.
So this is the first actual issue of the Space Man comic but its better known as issue 2. But you may want to bear in mind that the very final issue of Space Man; issue 10 looked almost identical as it too was also a straight reprint.
Issue 3 (Cover art by John Schoenherr)
Issue 4 (Kelly Freas - ?)
Issue 5 (Richard Powers - ?)
Issue 6
Issue 7
And Issue 8 which brought the whole series to an end in 1964....except for the next two issues, the previously stated reprints that resurfaced the following decade.
I’m informed that the interior strip, in both story and art, is nothing to get too nostalgic about, being described by one modern day reviewer as little more than product to occupy shelf space but still; how fantastic are the covers and how sad is it that I can’t track down a credit for them.
Updated and with many thanks to Ian Schoenherr and Beamjockey
John Schoenherr for issue 3
Kelly Freas for issue 4
Richard Powers for issue 5
Steve
I think issue 3 looks a whole lot like it was painted by Kelly Freas. Which makes me wonder whether he had a hand in some of the others.
ReplyDeletethanks for that,beamjockey. I'll try and check that out and report back
ReplyDeleteI just found some financial records which indicate that my dad - John Schoenherr - was hired to do one of the covers in Feb. 1962 - and I'm 99 percent sure it was Issue #3 "Into the Cold and Endless Space..." He was very much under the influence of the other greats at that time - Freas, Powers, et al. -so it's sometimes hard to tell them apart, but the rendering of the forms and the color scheme feels right.
ReplyDeleteWhat an absolute treat, thank you so much for that, Ian. 99% is more thn good enough for me. I'll update the blog.
ReplyDeleteOkay, then. I'm glad to be corrected. But issue 4 has gotta be Freas. (I think.)The red coral on the left, and details of the creature's fur and uniform, convince me.
ReplyDeleteIssue 5 has plant-like things in the foreground, and a shimmering multicolored aurora-like background, that kinda suggest Richard Powers.
You've a keener eye than me for this sort of thing, Beamjockey. I've updated the blog to reflect your thoughts and thanks for the interest
ReplyDeleteThe covers were the best part of this series. Obviously the first issue ( a dell 4 color one shot) sed a pre-existing painting that has nothing to do with the story.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this info. I came across issues 3 and 4 a couple of years ago and grabbed them up for my collection due to the fantastic cover art. I've never actually opened them to read them. Yesterday I came across the four color comics #1253 and immediately grabbed it up for my collection. Now to find the rest of the series...
ReplyDeletenice to to know the the cover art has lost none of its magic
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