Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

No.63 Reed Crandall

Reed Crandall was certainly one of the more accomplished golden age artists who became one of the touchstones of fandom – often working alongside or taking over from higher profile artists such as Lou Fine, Crandall nevertheless had a dynamism and instinctive storytelling ability that could rival most of the greats.… Words: Andrew Colman…

Getting his start at the Eisner / Iger Studio, Crandall’s earliest work was at Fiction House, where he quickly proved that he had a virtuoso talent, illustrating covers and doing celebrated work on the publisher’s jungle and adventure titles. From there he moved to Quality Comics, the publisher with whom he is perhaps best remembered for, where he worked on Hit Comics (notably producing a horror story featuring an old witch, the template for what would come later at E.C.), Doll Man, Smash Comics, and Police Comics, where he co-created supporting character Firebrand. For almost a decade he worked on his key character Blackhawk in the pages of the character’s own title as well as Military Comics and Modern Comics. As super-heroes declined in the late 1940s, Crandall moved on to crime books for Quality such as the reformatted Police Comics and Ken Shannon.

Despite being Quality publisher Busy Arnold’s go-to artist, the pair fell out in the early 50s. He quickly found a new calling at E.C. Comics in 1953, rubbing shoulders with other legends while drawing numerous stories in his brief period there across all genres, in particular crime, horror and science-fiction. After E.C. Comics collapsed due to the senate hearings and strictly-enforced comics code, Crandall freelanced at Atlas and Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated series before joining Warren’s E.C. style roster of magazines in the early 60s, and later on in the early 70s he did some work for DC’s burgeoning mystery line (again, heavily influenced by E.C.) on titles such as Weird War Tales.

If there is one thing that can be said about Crandall, it’s that his work, from day one, was always of a very high standard, his time at Quality and E.C. producing many classic tales and covers that are all highly prized by fans, his artwork always clean, emotive, and beautifully structured and framed. No question he belongs on this list.

Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-100/

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-101/