DON RICO/
1912-1985

Esoteric Atlas

Courtesy:  http://www.comicartville.com/esotericatlas.htm

©2002
by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo

Of all the short-run titles that Timely/Atlas tried out in the 1950's, one of the most unique was in the tiny genre of "religious comics".

In 1953, editor-in-chief Stan Lee threw yet another series onto the stands, increasing Timely's ever-burgeoning line-up (the industry leader by sheer volume) yet again. Issue #1 of a new title called BIBLE TALES FOR YOUNG FOLK debuted with an Aug/53 cover date, squeezed onto the racks between the July debuts of "LORNA THE JUNGLE QUEEN", "HOMER HOOPER", "WENDY PARKER" and the Sept/53 debuts of "SPEED CARTER SPACEMAN" and "THE MONKEY AND THE BEAR". The series lasted only 5 issues and the title changed to BIBLE TALES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE for the last 2 issues.

As for the content, during this 5 issue excursion into biblical history we find one of the most "artist dense" religious runs in comic book history. It seems that 2 names had a large part in putting this series together, at least to launch it. Jerry Robinson was the main cover artist, drawing at least 4 of the 5 covers as well as 1- page features on the inside front/back covers. He also got the series off to it's start by a 5-page intro illustrating "In The beginning..." [Genesis 1,2,3].

Don Rico, a writer/artist who had worked at Timely from as far back as 1943 (on Captain America, Human Torch, Blonde Phantom, The Destroyer, among others), was by the 1950's abandoning the drawing board to concentrate solely on writing. Rico was one of 5 "main" scripters for what we now call the Atlas line, the others being Hank Chapman, Carl Wessler, Paul S. Newman and Stan Lee himself. Rico more likely than not also had editorial control over the books he was writing as there was no way Stan Lee could edit the entire line. Al Jaffee had similar control over his "Patsy Walker" group of teen books. Rico may or may not have scripted these bible stories (there are no scripting credits) but I'd guess he did. He also picked up the pencil again and contributed illustrations to the inside back cover and back cover of the first issue.

So what were the contents? The stories ran the gamut of tales and parables found in both the new and old testaments and the artistic line-up was simply incredible.

Here are some highlights:

Issue #1 (Aug/53)

Robinson's artwork is gorgeous on not only covers to issues #2,3,4 and 5, but also on his take on Genesis 1,2,3. He had a much larger career with Stan Lee than most people actually realize, drawing some of the lines grittiest crime and war stories in 1951-52 and some of their best romance tales as late as 1956.

Sam Kweskin, known more for his early 1970's Marvel work, actually was a fine artist with a dark, brooding style. The majority of his Atlas career took place in 1953 only. He later had a short tenure as a medical illustrator.

Joe Sinnott needs no introduction other than that before he became the peerless inker of Jack Kirby he was a veteran of well over 10 years of pencilling his own work in every genre there is.

Fred Kida in the 1950's was another Atlas mainstay who is best known from that time as a western artist, following Joe Maneely and John Severin on RINGO KID.



 

Last updated on 12/17/2007