In a time when fine artists were more likely to thumb their
noses at comics than take jobs drawing them, Reed Crandall was happy to get the
work. The fine sense of form and movement that informed his elegant and
eclectic paintings, sculptures, and illustrations served him well when drafting
Captain America, Blackhawk, and Doll Man to make ends meet. While his early
work was usually anonymous, he began to make a name for himself when he started
receiving his due credit while working for E.C. Comics, depicting some of the
company’s most memorable crypt tales, such as “Carrion Death” and “Only Skin
Deep”.
Reed Crandall’s art was exceptional, but based on Roger
Hill’s new illustrated biography Reed
Crandall: Illustrator of the Comics, the man may have been a bit of a blank
slate. Hill describes the varied beats of Crandall’s history, but only the most
essential ones of the man’s life get a mention, and Crandall’s personality
remains frustratingly aloof. On occasion, a friend or acquaintance briefly
describes Crandall as nice, humble, and a bit insecure about his work while
dwelling on his art in far greater detail. The fixation on his work implies
there wasn’t much to the man when he wasn’t at the drafting table. That could
have been the case, but I doubt most people can be reduced so glibly. This also
leaves Hill’s text a bit lacking in substance since so much of it is spent
synopsizing plots of comics Crandall illustrated or describing Crandall’s
artwork (textually, the book is more satisfying as a history of the early
comics industry than a biography). The copious color and B&W illustrations
included in this volume—which includes both Crandall’s comics work and his fine
arts work— speak much louder about the artist’s talent. A flawless counterfeit
of a King of Hearts card will make you gasp when you realize Crandall created
it when he was only ten years old. That the man was such a master of his medium
may overshadow his inner self in Reed
Crandall: Illustrator of the Comics, but his mastery also makes the book a
constant marvel to gaze at.
