Number 2319: Red Reed in the Americas

Red Reed had a short career in comic books, two issues of Silver Streak Comics. This is the second part of a serial cut short, and the reason I chose it is for the Bill Everett artwork.

Everett is one of my all-time favorite comic artists, and what I am looking at when I read the story are the action-packed panels and Everett’s storytelling abilities. Having looked at what seems to me to have been untold thousands of pages of comic book stories I have come to a conclusion about the golden age: about half of the artist were just not that good, especially to modern readers. That art is more of what I refer to as “serviceable.” It filled pages. It was an anomaly to have talented artists like Everett because most comic books of that time (approximately 1939-42) show a mishmash of artistic abilities.

Everett was born into a financially successful family, but when he started his artistic career he had trouble getting started until he got into comic books. He must’ve liked it, because he went back to it when he was discharged after World War II.

This story is from Silver Streak Comics #21 (1942).

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