Black Magic Day!

Jerry Grandenetti was born on tomorrow's date in 1926. He was an assistant to Will Eisner in the Golden Age and worked on many series. He shifted over to DC and Warren doing some fantastic work the war books and mystery tales as well. I personally think he's the best black and white artist I've ever seen. 

I don't know exactly when I became a Jerry Grandenetti fan, but it might 've been when I got a gander at these delightful covers he produced for DC's reprint Black Magic comic book fromt he early 70's. Grandenetti was partnering regularly with Joe Simon at the time, working on such projects as Prez and The Green Team. So when it was time to give the Simon and Jack Kirby classics from the old Prize Comics series, it was Grandenetti who generated seven new covers for the nine issue run. (For the record, Joe Simon drew another and a classic Simon and Kirby original was used for another.) Here are they are in all their glorious weirdness.

(Joe Simon)

(Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Original)

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Take That, Adolph!

Adolph Hitler! The name still resonates in the culture, a single man who has become the very symbol of unblinking hatred. Adolph Hitler became for the World War II generation an icon against which every atom was put to the wheel against his brutal aggression. The way in which his name is still evoked with such relative ease makes me wonder sometime if people don't miss the nostalgic glow of presumed simpler times when enemies were easy to identify and against which they were eager to rally their will.

Of course, those years were far more complicated, but having a shared mission is something that can give a fragmented society its identity and mission for good or ill. But we forget that was the very thing Hitler was so very good at too; it's a dangerous game to play. We must be careful not to fall into those nationalistic traps ourselves, nor should we imagine for a moment our modern sophistication makes us immune. We sure haven't proved we are any smarter than the folks who fell under Hitler's evil spell. 

Here are fifty comic book covers from across the decades which showcase the terrible and sometimes terrifying image of the Hitler and in some instances his Axis allies Mussolini and Hirohito. Some of the images challenge our modern morality, but alas they are at least understandable if not justifiable given the tenor of the times. 

Hitler and the Holocaust he instigated and inspired must never be forgotten, nor should we allow history to be revised to make that horror other than what it was -- mankind at its most savage. We are still that animal after all, and we must always strive to rise above those twisted passions which can consume us if we do not follow our better angels. 

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