Schlomo Raven Day!

Tom Sutton was born on today's date in 1937. He was a potent artist for Charlton Comics in the early 70's on their many ghost books and at Warren Magazines as well.  He shifted over to DC and Marvel doing some great inking but then turning his attention to sci-fi series such as Star Trek. 

Way back in 1976 comics came in relatively few formats. At the time prices for the regular comic book pamphlet was rising ever few months, since cutting pages had finally reached a nadir. The publishers played around with some different things, but by and large the basic comic held sway over the market. Then one day Fiction Illustrated appeared. It was a digest-sized comic, square-bound. It wasn't exactly like other comics in that it cost a cool dollar and seemed to be targeted to an older crowd. It had my attention. It was produced by Byron Preiss who had already launched Weird Heroes, a paperback series which attempted to revive the action and adventure of the classic pulps, but with a modern twist. Much of that same vibe is here in the first installment of Fiction Illustrated, a slap-happy collection called Schlomo Raven. 

Preiss himself is the writer of this tome, but it is the artistry of Tom Sutton which sets it apart for me. Sutton was a comic artist who worked a great deal for Marvel when I was just starting to collect, but he  had also worked for DC and Warren and at this time focused much of his attention on weird stories for Charlton Comics. Sutton was the first artist to illustrate the luscious lines of Vampirella. In Schlomo Raven Sutton is channeling his love of classic MAD comics from the days of Kurtzman and Elder. 

The two stories here are wild farces featuring the diminutive "Public Detective" Schlomo Raven. The first is the most successful and is titled "The Farx Job". This story revolves around the supposed kidnapping of the famous "Farx Brothers" ("Grippo, Heepo,Choocho, and Zeepo"), who were film comedians. Schlomo is brought into the case and the trail takes him to the home of various versions of famous Hollywood celebs such as "Bela Bugosi", "Martin Barloff", "Maria Astoria", and "Bumphrey Hogart". It's a hectic race to the conclusion and a fun read. 

Less entertaining is "Rosebug" which puts Schlomo squarely in the center of a national chase for spies in the theater and brings him cheek to cheek with the equally tiny Orsini Wells. Wells is producing a play titled "The American" which is a theatrical variation of Citizen Kane from our universe. There are plots within plots and mountains of exposition. This makes reading "Rosebug" more of a task than a joy unfortunately. 

Fiction Illustrated was a worthy experiment. It would last for four issues. The second one was a science fiction yarn called Starfawn showcasing the art of Stephen Fabian. The third was Chandler in a noir adventure titled "Red Tide" by Jim Steranko. The fourth had art by Ralph Reese and featured The Son of Sherlock Holmes. 

But that's not all. 

I likely said this before, but alas it remains true -- Tom Sutton is one of the most underrated artists of his generation. The Yoe Books publication Tom Sutton's Creepy Things gives us a nifty insight into one of the finest stylists of the Bronze Age of comics. Sutton's career in comics was an off and on again affair for many years before he finally began to submit work to Warren Magazines. There Nicola Cuti became aware of him since he illustrated some of Cuti's scripts and when Charlton needed talent during the expansion of the early 70's he tagged Sutton and the "Bear" as Cuti called him found a home.

(Tom Sutton's first Charlton cover art -- not included in this collection.)

This volume showcases many of Sutton's outstanding covers for the little Derby company, notorious for its small by reliable payments and also some of his best stories. Some are written by the old pro Joe Gill and many are penned by Cuti. But more than a few of these are written and drawn by Sutton himself. Among them are masterpieces like "Terrible Teddy" and "Bones" from Ghost Manor, "Journey to Lost Rlaak" from Haunted Love, "Grave Story" from Midnight Tales, "Subway Stop" from Haunted, "The Game Keeper" from Ghostly Haunts, "The Kukulkaton" from Monster Hunters, "The Well" from Creepy Things, and "Through a Glass Darkly" from Ghostly Tales. Many of the stories were written by Cuti and drawn by Sutton for Midnight Tales, the stellar anthology overseen by Wayne Howard -- among those are "Lost in Transit", "The Kilgore Monster", "Goo", and "The Tower Maiden". And there are more stories such as "The Weirdest Character I've Ever Known", "Mother's Boy", and "Where's Cyrus Bull?" written by Joe Gill. Great stuff.

(Sutton in the Charlton years.)

The volume also features a number of pages derived from original artwork from the collections of editor Michael Ambrose (of Charlton Spotlight fame and a friend of the Dojo in times past) and Bryan Fowler. These pages really allow you to see with startling clarity the potency of Sutton's art. This volume is a gem for any Charlton fan and a must for any fan of Tom Sutton.

Here are most of some great Sutton covers featured in this tome.

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