Comic Book Creator #39 August 2025 (magazine review).
This issue of ‘Comic Book Creator’ is labelled as the ‘Thomas Yeates’ issue, although there are also mostly many 2- and 4-page articles surrounding it, so I will pick what I think stands out.
Although I never really read ‘Ronnie Rich’, his main artist was Warren Kremer (1921-2003), who also drew ‘Casper the Ghost’ and drew most of Harvey Comics’ covers, as writer Mark Arnold goes over his history. In later life, he and some of the other artists worked on Marvel’s ‘Star Comics’, and he was one of the artists Marie Severin was impressed by his work.
Writer/editor Jon B. Cooke looks over the work of Errol D. McCarthy, who designed the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ for Mattel. Although I have no love of the characters, had the licensing been possible, He-Man might well have been Conan. McCarthy also does some brilliant spoofs, and his take on the Robin costume literally takes the beak.
Cooke also interviews comic book writer Gregory Potter about how his career fizzled out despite a promising start at Warren magazines and later moving onto DC Comics with ‘Jemm, Son Of Saturn’ and the revised ‘Wonder Woman’ after ‘Crisis’. If anything, it proved the point that at the time you had to live in New York to have a career in comic books. When you consider his ideas were liked but pushed aside, it becomes a shame.
I like surprises. Cooke’s first part of an interview with cartoonist Steve Willis gives a detailed part of his early history, which provides an insight into Americana of the 1950s-1970s. It also gives some insight into the artist mindset where art is really all they’re good at. That isn’t true of all artists, but none of us appear to be that good at sport except maybe Frazetta. The desire to draw all the time does seem to be compulsive when young, as we ironed out our techniques.
The biggest part of this issue is devoted to comic book artist Thomas Yeates, who admits his best subject was art, but it took a while for his reading ability to catch up. It has become a common theme over ‘Comic Book Artist’ that many young people who are perpetually drawing are the ones who find a career in the medium. Over the course of the interview, conducted by Cooke, I think the only one of his works I’ve read was ‘TimeSpirits’ and his work in Batman # 300, which a lot of artists did work for at the time. Yeats has done a lot of work over the years and has an amazing network of other artists whom he helps or who have helped him when it comes to deadlines. Considering his meandering lifestyle, Yeates has managed to pull off a remarkable career, and this interview is well worth a read.
A heavy but fulfilling read.
GF Willmetts
December 2025
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82-page illustrated magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 401-783-1689. Directly from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US).
Check out the websites www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_132&products_id=1826.
