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

No.69 Al Feldstein

One of the industry’s most beloved figures, Al Feldstein was by any metric a cornerstone of the medium who brought so much to the table throughout his lengthy career at EC and Mad Magazine. Although known as much for being a writer and editor, and not considered by fandom to be a superstar artist (at least compared to his EC colleagues) Feldstein was nevertheless a great illustrator, whose remarkably versatile and adaptable style, regardless of genre, was immediately recognisable. Words: Andrew Colman…

Feldstein got his start in comics as a “gofer” for the Iger Studio, when he was still at school. Before long he graduated to producing artwork, first as a background artist and then as a penciller / inker. His first work was at Fiction House, where he worked as a freelancer, before he was put in contact with binge / purge publisher Victor Fox. Feldstein worked for Fox Features after their main raft of artists, including Lou Fine, had moved on, in the mid-1940s. Rewriting scripts and producing stories on his own, Feldstein served his apprenticeship at Fox, the highlights of his tenure there being the Sunny and Junior titles – two teen humour / GGA books that saw the recognizable Feldstein style developing. By 1948 Feldstein, who had never enjoyed working for Fox due to his wayward business practices, had learned that the publisher was in dire financial straits, and proceeded to look elsewhere for work. He quickly found a young Bill Gaines, who had just taken over his late father’s company, Educational Comics. The stage was set for what turned out to be a decades-long partnership, beginning with the rise of EC Comics.

Within two years at E.C., Feldstein effectively became its beating heart. Having been brought in by Bill Gaines as an artist, by 1950 and the inception of the publisher’s famed “New Trend” line of books, he had been promoted to writer / editor, bringing in established writers, along with Harlan Ellison and (in a roundabout way!) Ray Bradbury. The line of books in question that he edited were Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Shock Suspenstories, Crime Suspenstories, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy (the war books, Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales, as well as Mad, were edited by Harvey Kurtzman). All of them featured work by the best and most influential artists of the era, who were, due to Feldstein, promoted in the books as a special feature – one could say that this is where comic fandom began. By the early 1950s Feldstein’s art was focused almost exclusively on covers, and despite not officially being on the pre-eminent roster of artists, there was no doubt he could hold his own in any genre – his covers for Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Shock Suspenstories, Haunt of Fear, the Tales of Terror annuals etc. were superb examples that veered from humorous to solemn to terrifying, with all unmistakably featuring his style.

Under (mostly) Feldstein’s auspices, E.C.’s content was cutting edge, tackling (amongst the more straightforward horror) real world issues in Shock Suspenstories and the unalloyed savagery of war in Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. No other publisher at that time could match them, while the visceral stories in their line-up attracted the wrong attention from politicians spearheading anti-comics witchhunts. The “New Trend” books ceased by 1954, with the following, code-friendly “New Direction” titles lasting for five issues or so before the publisher was bitterly forced to close for good. Gaines carried on with Mad in a new magazine format (to escape the newly enforced comics code) while Feldstein went to work for rival publisher Atlas. However Mad Editor Harvey Kurtzman left the title after a year over a royalties dispute with Gaines. Feldstein quickly stepped in as editor, a position he would remain in for almost three decades, assembling the “usual gang of idiots” – a retinue of the best cartoonists, artists and writers who would make Mad the most successful magazine of the 60s and 70s.

There’s no question that in terms of importance to the industry, Al Feldstein would be in anyone’s top 20. As it stands, he was also an excellent individualist artist whose work remains familiar to fandom after so many decades. One of the greats.

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.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

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