Number 2019: Kubert: the Nose knows

Joe Kubert was very young when he drew “The Man With the Amazing Nose” for Flash Comics #70 (1946). He was born August, 1926, so I figure he was 19 when he drew this story. He used a technique in some of the panels I haven’t seen before. Some of the figures’ lower bodies are outlined (see the teaser panel above), with no detail, just color fill-in. Hmmm. It’s a bit too technique-y, if you know what I mean. Even the callow Kubert was good enough he did not need to resort to such tricks.

Gardner Fox, credited by the GCD for writing the story, resorted to a trick I also have not seen before, having a perfume-smelling character (“Proboscis Jones”) take on different personalities through sense of smell. (The kids who read the story and opened a dictionary learned a word, “proboscis.”)*

I am bothered by the false advertising represented by the cover. I got excited seeing a gorilla in boxing regalia, only to find out it was a symbolic cover. That would have been an editorial decision. As we know, the powers-that-be at DC Comics knew even then that putting an ape or gorilla on a cover meant higher sales. Oh well...good early Kubert cover art, anyway, even if I turned up my proboscis at such base deception.

*KIDS! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Do not try sniffing gasoline as Hawkman has Proboscis Jones do at the end of the story. As an Internet site warns us: Gasoline contains methane and benzene, which are dangerous hydrocarbons. Can do harm to your lungs when inhaling fumes.

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