Imitation Wood/Davis-Shirl the Jungle Girl
Lennard Grahn from Copenhagen sent along this story suspecting that it might be by Wallace Wood. I don't blame him for thinking that. It isn't but some parts of it are a darn good imitation so I thought I'd share it here anyway! Other parts of it strongly resemble Jack Davis work. As near as I can tell, the story, SHIRL THE JUNGLE GIRL, is fairly obscure, having been reprinted in at least one of Bill Black's JUNGLE GIRLS anthologies but otherwise ignored. Part of the reason for this is that it originally appeared as the back-up in HARVEY HITS # 1 starring THE PHANTOM. The actual artist is Howard Nostrand who was known to imitate Wood and Jack Davis in Harvey's short-lived MAD rip-off, FLIP, in 1954. It's my theory, then, that SHIRL was leftover FLIP inventory simply being used up in 1957. Still, a fun, silly story clearly inspired by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood.
Lennard Grahn from Copenhagen sent along this story suspecting that it might be by Wallace Wood. I don't blame him for thinking that. It isn't but some parts of it are a darn good imitation so I thought I'd share it here anyway! Other parts of it strongly resemble Jack Davis work. As near as I can tell, the story, SHIRL THE JUNGLE GIRL, is fairly obscure, having been reprinted in at least one of Bill Black's JUNGLE GIRLS anthologies but otherwise ignored. Part of the reason for this is that it originally appeared as the back-up in HARVEY HITS # 1 starring THE PHANTOM. The actual artist is Howard Nostrand who was known to imitate Wood and Jack Davis in Harvey's short-lived MAD rip-off, FLIP, in 1954. It's my theory, then, that SHIRL was leftover FLIP inventory simply being used up in 1957. Still, a fun, silly story clearly inspired by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood.
Whoa! fascinating "detective work" you've done on this.
ReplyDeleteIt actually looks a little like Bill Elder too. Most weird. Like a greatest hits of the early MAD.
ReplyDeleteCould this be the work of Howard Nostrand?
ReplyDeleteNick Caputo
After looking at this site:
ReplyDeletehttp://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/08/howard-nostrand-knew-jack.html
I'm pretty sure this is Howard Nostrand channeling Davis and Wood.
Nick Caputo
Today's Comic Book Artists could learn a Thing or 2 from This Story when Re-Inventing the Jungle Girl Genre
ReplyDelete