Reed Crandall: Illustrator of the Comics
CHAPTER SEVEN
Faces, Forms, and Figures
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own. His posturing, faces, figures, hands, feet, hairstyles, animals, drapery, trees, and shadows all became identifiable and distinctive trademarks of a “Reed Crandall job.” There was nothing else quite like it in comics and no mistaking his work when one saw it. Unless another artist had flat-out swiped one of his figures or an image of some kind from one of his stories (which did happen often), one knew it was his work.
uring the 1940s, hundreds of artists toiled in the comics field, each producing their own brand of storytelling and comic panel art. Some of their work appeared detailed and smooth in their approach to drawing and inking, while others followed a more crude or simple path of rendering images. Most artists, whether liked or disliked by the public, had a recognizable style of art with which readers identified and remembered from issue to issue, or company to company (depending on how frequently that artist moved around to other publishers).
Unfortunately, during the 1940s, most people never realized who Reed Crandall was because he almost never signed his art. What they did know — and came to respect — was that this particular artist had an aesthetic quality of realism that many artists could not capture. His figure-work was so precise that it nearly always portrayed a true element of gravity and weight, with reflected shadows from the figures, objects, or backgrounds he was drawing. Faces were usually handsome or pretty, unless the script specifically called for something less. Reed drew comics like filmmakers made movies. The more difficult the angle, the more challenged Reed was to create it. In spite of how fast Reed was able to turn
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby became well known for an over-exaggerated, in-your-face form of energetic art that jumped and leaped almost three-dimensionally off the pages of any story or cover they produced. Lou Fine became one of the most respected names in comics for his fine-line detail, fluid renderings of figures, and ability to draw unusual faces. From almost the very beginning, Crandall’s work in the industry had characteristics that were unmistakably his
Above: Will Eisner brought one of the great American icons to four-color comics by introducing Uncle Sam in July, 1940, in the first issue of National Comics. Reed’s first story from National #25, October, 1942, pits Uncle Sam and his boy sidekick, Buddy, up against Nazi saboteurs who plan to blow up the Panama Canal. Next page: One of Reed’s most famous patriotic covers showed up on National Comics #26, November, 1942.
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