Author: [Original Comic Art] Bob Webb and The Iger Studio
Title: Fangs of the Wolf Woman" * Complete Nine-Page Story from STRANGE MYSTERIES No. 1"
Place Published:
Publisher:[Superior]
Date Published: [1951]
Description: Original art from the Iger Studio for "Fangs of the Wolf Woman." Complete nine-page story, unsigned but unmistakably by Robert "Bob" Webb (with the possible assistance of unknown Iger Shop talent), published in Superior's Strange Mysteries #1 (September 1951). Black ink over graphite on the Iger Studio's custom Bristol board measuring 13" x 21", with occasional white paint touch-ups, "OLF" (from "WOLF") in the story title is a paste-over, tape offsetting to top margin of each page, occasional fingermarks and smudges to margins, a few pinholes to margins, overall very good or better condition.A wonderful nine-pager by Iger Studio stalwart Bob Webb, whose trademark admixture of banality and brutality gives his Jack Kamen-meets-Matt Baker art style a bizarre dream-like quality, perfectly emblematic of Superior's oddball horror aesthetic. Webb was an early mentor of Al Feldstein's when young Feldstein worked at the Iger Shop, and Feldstein fanatics will recognize hints of his stylistic tics in Webb's work on this story – in particular, Webb's "ladder"-like crosshatching, which he used to depict fabric folds (and which he may have picked up from Will Eisner) became a hallmark of Feldstein's style.

This story, in which O.S.S. operative Major Cranston accepts orders from Washington D.C. to penetrate the Iron Curtain, combines Cold War paranoia with terror of a more primal sort. The Major falls in with a team of anti-Red rebels from Transylvania, only to find that the Romanian freedom fighters are, in fact, flesh-hungry werewolves. The fact that America's allies are portrayed as being more monstrous (literally) than our Red enemies is a strangely subversive touch, but the story's attempts at political sophistication are undermined by the writer's habit of confusing Hungarians with Romanians. In any case, Bob Webb, whose style is at once pleasantly bland and surprisingly spicy, like the funnybook equivalent of a good pepper jack cheese, is in top form in this wild yarn, with throat rippings, plentiful pulchritude panels, and a wolf-woman catching a silver bullet right in her furry face.______________________________________________________________

A limited edition of ten hardcover catalogues is available, in addition to a few dozen softcovers. Fun reference, great keepsake, fully illustrated, chockablock with obscure facts, gags, bon mots. Softcovers are $40, deluxe hardcovers with dust jackets and limitation plates are $200. These books always go fast so don't delay. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Summer 2024 Comic Book sale. Top prices for Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age, original art and ephemera. Find out why PBA is the new fan-fave of funnybook fiends. "This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books... Priceless." – R. Crumb. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.

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