The Mystery of the Matt Baker Art in Sweethearts #27, Up for Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: charlton, Matt Baker, Romance Comics

With his inside work at St. John halted, romance comics legend Matt Baker tried out a quantity of different publishers together with Charlton.

As we have not too long ago famous, 1953’s Sweethearts #119, with its Marilyn Monroe cowl, is the most sought-after situation of that title from the Fawcett period of the sequence.  By the finish of that 12 months, Fawcett had bought all its comedian ebook titles “except the Marvels” to Charlton, the place Sweethearts and others continued.  Through a sequence of different comics trade circumstances, this quickly gave rise to a narrative from the most well-known romance artist in American comics historical past, Matt Baker, in Sweethearts #27 at the finish of 1954.

Why did Baker produce a single story for this widespread romance sequence throughout this era? It would seem that he was testing the market in response to St. John slicing off his inside story assignments in early 1954.  As might be seen through an examination of quite a few factors of the St. John publishing timeline, it is clear that Archer St. John was extraordinarily risk-averse relating to his horror, crime, and romance comedian books, and it is obvious that the 1954 Senate Subcommittee hearings made him extraordinarily cautious about shifting ahead in these areas.  Baker’s inside work from St. John dried up in early 1954, as many of these sequence went to reprints with new Baker covers.  Baker’s common inker Ray Osrin instantly began getting work at Charlton through then-editor/packager Al Fago, however it seems that Baker determined to play the discipline whereas persevering with to get cowl assignments from St. John.  Over the subsequent few months, Baker’s work appeared in comics from publishers together with DC Comics, Marvel, Dell, Quality Comics, and Charlton.  He reunited along with his common inker Ray Osrin for that Charlton story in Sweethearts #27 in late 1954.

On August 13, 1955, St. John Publications proprietor Archer St. John was discovered useless in the condo of a former Powers mannequin, with the NY Daily News proclaiming, “A couple of shadowy West Side characters, a man and a woman, suspected of feeding dope pills to magazine publisher Archer St. John, were being hunted last night by detectives investigating St. John’s mysterious death in the penthouse apartment of a former Powers model.”

The firm got here beneath the management of Archer’s son, Michael St. John, with the assist of St. John Publications normal supervisor Richard E. Decker. But the publishing timeline signifies that Archer St. John had determined to wind down the St. John romance line solely previous to his demise. The final points of Diary Secrets, Cinderella Love, and Going Steady all hit the newsstand earlier than Archer St. John died.  Teen-Age Romances #45, the title’s closing situation with a copyright / on-sale date of October 1, 1955 had a canopy that was virtually actually assigned to Baker earlier than Archer St. John’s demise. The whole romance line contents had consisted of reprints with new covers since June 1954, as did Authentic Police Cases and not less than some of the relaxation of the non-humor line. It’s fairly clear that in the wake of the 1954 Senate Subcommittee hearings that lined the comedian ebook trade, St. John determined to proceed with warning.

With his St. John cowl assignments now gone in addition the earlier demise of his inside assignments, it is clear that Baker made his selections. After testing the market over the prior few months, Baker would go on to provide most of his comics work for Quality Comics and Marvel throughout a lot of this later half of his profession, although he would once more do vital work for Charlton through Vince Colletta shortly earlier than his demise in 1959.  But Sweethearts #27, with a canopy that Charlton appears to have acquired from Victor Fox or maybe Jerry Iger, symbolizes a turning level in the profession of American comics’ most essential comedian ebook romance artist.  There’s a duplicate of this underappreciated Matt Baker gem up for public sale in the 2024 February 29 – March 1 Golden Age Romance Featuring Fox Comics & Comic Art Showcase Auction #40258.

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