Bill Draut is an artist who I first chanced upon in an early issue of Teen Titans, and I became a fan from the very beginning. The thing about Draut's work is the way it's all so clean and unaffected, like someone who knows their job so well they make hard things look easy. That's what I think about Draut, an artist who is rarely mentioned in the pantheons of dandy artists, but was again a guy who cranked it out with regularity and solid consistency. Draut worked in the Simon-Kirby stable and they didn't employ people who didn't get it done. Later he was mainstay at Harvey and even did some comic trip work, but it's his late Silver and Bronze Age DC work that made me a lifetime fan. Bill Draut drew comics which were to be read, not stared at, but after you'd read it, you could just stare at a master's craft .
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Excellent choice. Shamefully I had forgotten about Drauts work despite being a fan of his work at the time the problem was I rarely found much of his work in the comics I bought at the time. I only managed to pick up about 15 comics with his art mostly from House of Mystery/ Secrets and a couple from Plop. I will need to look for more of his work (especially those Teen Titans issues as I wasn't aware he drew that) Everything I have of his is top drawer.
ReplyDeleteDraut was one of DC's hidden delights, hidden plain sight never discussed but generating amazing storytelling.
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Wholeheartedly agree. I was a fan if Draut's without knowing it, having had an issue of Unearthly Spectaculars starring Jack Quick Frost since I was a kid. Loved it, but didn't realise who the artist was until a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteI only got that comic several years ago, those were stories and characters who deserve some sort of revival. What the hell, everything else has been risen from the long box graveyard.
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