E.C. Stoner—The Forgotten Trailblazer
In A Timely Fashion (Above left:) This black-&-white image of the “Breeze Barton” splash from Daring Mystery Comics #3 (April 1940) was provided to Ken Q. by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. Pencils by Jack Binder; inks by E.C. Stoner. To view this page in color, pick up a copy of Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Daring Mystery, Vol. 1. (Somehow, Marvel left the word “Comics” out of the hardcover’s title.) Stoner is also credited by that book’s art-identifiers as inking Binder’s “Breeze” tale in DMC #5, but not in #4; those are the only three issues in which that hero appeared. Chances are that, when this story was produced, Great Britain and France had only recently declared war on Nazi Germany; note that, presciently, the unknown scripter has the war still going on in 1945. (Above right:) Stoner is credited with inking Binder’s pencils on “Flexo the Rubber Man” in the first two issues of Timely’s Mystic Comics; and with #3 (June 1940), seen here, he seems to have penciled that feature and left the inking to other Binder shop hands. Repro’d from Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Mystic Comics, Vol. 1, not from the original mag. [©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc.]
direction of designer Paul Perhune, Stoner was probably one of the artists involved with the creation of the huge (160' x 40') diorama in the “Railroads at Work” exhibit. During this time, he also illustrated a children’s book for young Fair-goers entitled Seeing the World’s Fair.
The time required for these projects likely accounts for the gap between Stoner’s first comic work and his starting his comic career in earnest when he emerges as a member of the Harry “A” Chesler
Here Comes The Sun, Man! (Left:) “Ajax the Sun Man,” drawn by Stoner, appeared in issues of Street & Smith’s Doc Savage Comics between 1940 and 1943. Jack Binder is credited with art on some “Ajax” stories; his brother Otto, just then becoming a top “Captain Marvel” scribe at Fawcett after years of writing pulp sciencefiction, reportedly scripted “Ajax” in 1941-42. This splash page is from Doc Savage Comics #3 (Feb. 1941).. [©2013 the respective copyright holders.]
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