Introducing the first space shamus with his own title...
...illustrated by no less than comics legends Joe Orlando and Wally Wood!
"Some day" may be a lot sooner than you think, Teena!
The series opener from Avon's Space Detective #1 (1951) was written by Walter Gibson, the primary writer of The Shadow pulp novel series under the name "Maxwell Grant", and illustrated by Joe Orlando and Wally Wood, but who did what is open to speculation as both artists would do both penciling and inking on pages as they worked on them together as shown in this illustration by Wally Wood...
 |
| Joe Orlando (l) and Wally Wood (r) working on a page. |
Orlando was the first of many Wood assistants who would go on to work independently in the comics industry.
Others include Dan Adkins, Larry Hama, Ralph Reese, Wayne Howard, Paul Kirchner, and Russ Jones.
Wood himself started out as an assistant to both Will Eisner (The Spirit) and George Wunder (Terry and the Pirates) before striking out on his own.
So Wally was well aware of the value, both to the established artist and the young up-and-comers, of using (and training) assistants, and continued the practice for the rest of his career.
The Space Detective story continues tomorrow at our "brother" blog Crime and Punishment™ and concludes back here on Saturday.
