The Quest Continues

As I've been going through the revised books, compiling the artwork together, and studying the different styles of the illustrations, I've also been searching high and low through the internet for any kind of clues about who drew the pictures.

The base assumption throughout the internet, and on every site with otherwise relevant information, is that an artist was commissioned to paint the cover art, and threw in the internal illustrations. For the initial run of original texts, this was undoubtably the case. Many of the early illustrations are signed, and when not, easily identified by the style. For the first 33 titles in the series, this meant producing a cover image, and a frontispiece.

The covers and frontispieces for the first fourteen books were done as paintings, with a full color printing of the cover image made for the dust jacket, and a black ink halftone used for the coated stock of frontispiece. Beginning in 1936, the frontispieces were created as black line art and reproduced on plain paper, like the text. Revised frontispieces were drawn in this style to replace the halftone images in 1944 and 45, and all subsequent internal artwork was done as line art on plain paper.

Some of these replacement frontispieces were not made by the same artist as the cover in use for that title, but if you look at who painted the covers for those two years during which they were replaced... you find Stricker and Scott. It's very likely that the practice of having the cover artist provide the frontispiece continued through 1949 and title #28, The Sign of the Crooked Arrow. Numbers 27 and 28 were both produced and signed by Russell Tandy. The covers for numbers 29-31 were painted by William S. Gillies, but the frontispieces are another story, as are the first two Rudy Nappi covers for numbers 32-33.

There is no credit on the frontispiece artwork for #29, The Secret of the Lost Tunnel, and #30, The Wailing Siren Mystery. They both look to be drawn by the same hand, and logic would presume that it was Gillies himself. It's hard to say for certain from looking at them. The covers seem very different - flat and two dimensional, like cut-outs set up in a diorama, then photographed. The colors are cartoonish, but I think the reality is that photographs were staged, then the covers painted from them. There is a realism in the features that make them look like they were painted from photos.

Curiously, the frontispieces for The Secret of Wildcat Swamp (Gillies) and The Crisscross Shadow (Nappi) are both drawn and signed by Roy Pellington. There is no signature for the frontispiece used in the original text printing of The Yellow Feather Mystery, and it's hard to be certain who drew it. It is similar in ways to the Pellington art, but also looks like it could be Nappi.

From this point on in the series, it becomes difficult to identify the illustrator with any certainty. Nappi is responsible for all the covers going forward in the series, and all but three of the covers for the revised texts of the books. Yet there are at least three distinctive styles used in the books produced in the 1960s and 70s, with George Wilson responsible for almost half of the titles.

The last seven titles published before they began the revisions in earnest are hard to label. I would say that #37-40 were drawn by Nappi, but the others differ too much to classify. #34 and #35 are similar to #33, but clearly different, as evidenced by these two strikingly similar images of Joe slugging a villain.

The image on the left is from #34, The Hooded Hawk Mystery. The image on the right is from #35, The Clue in the Embers. In the latter, Joe is a little boy. Some of the poses in the Hawk artwork reminds me of Nappi, but his covers feature iconic representations of Frank and Joe, and these drawings seem very different. The other possibility is that the artist was instructed to make the brothers more boyish from one book to the next.

The other oddball title here is #36, The Secret of Pirate's Hill. Nappi painted the cover, but certainly did not draw the internal art. Compare Frank and Joe in the image to the right with the artwork above, or any of the painted covers... They are done by a separate artists. Fortunately, all of the internal illustrations appear to have been done by the same artist, and the frontispiece is signed!

Unfortunately, the signature doesn't seem to reveal itself very clearly, as seen on the left. The author of #36 was John Almquist, which is tantalizingly close to the signature, but doesn't appear to be it, just the same. It appears to end in "-oyler", but the initial letters are written over each other making it difficult to separate them unless you have some names to consider.

So, I've been searching for information on who the Stratemeyer Syndicate used for illustrators. In the process of doing this, I found a copy of the decision rendered in the 1980 lawsuit between Grosset & Dunlap and the parent company of Simon & Schuster over who held the right to print old and new titles. In it, the judge mentions that Grosset & Dunlap contracted the illustrators for the internal art, but that didn't grant them joint copyright over the books since they weren't essential to the story. Apparently, the Syndicate gave them direction on what they wanted for the art, but Grosset & Dunlap commissioned and included the artwork as part of the printing process. That was new to me, will require a different tack to track down names for the artists.

George Wilson

Just a quick note today, but I was able to find a link to a biography of George Wilson, illustrator, and wanted to reference it briefly. For about a year, I've felt confident in saying that George Wilson was one of the primary illustrators of late 60s and early 70s Hardy Boys titles. This was based on two elements exclusively, that these drawings are clearly distinctive of being drawn by a single hand, and secondly on the evidence of the UK site (hardyboys.co.uk) that mentions George Wilson as the credited artist for the frontispiece of the UK imprint of Secret of the Lost Tunnel.

In other words, it was largely circumstantial that George Wilson was the artist, but equally unquestioned which illustrations were his. Today I ran across a biography entry on George Wilson that features two telling bits of evidence that the information I've been believing is accurate. Namely, George Wilson is "made illustrations for romance and wild west paperbacks, including book series like 'The Hardy Boys'."

What a feeling to have researched and found a name, grouped titles by matching the style of the artwork, and finding a corroborating acknowledgment that the linking of the two is accurate and justified. The second bit of interesting info was one of the samples of Wilson's artwork. In it, Tim Robinson is featured, looking very much like the iconic style of Joe Hardy that makes sorting out which Hardy Boys titles are illustrated by Wilson so easy.

For comparison, I used the frontispiece from Secret of the Lost Tunnel, which seems to be the only known illustration credited to George Wilson (in the UK imprint). I think the similarity is remarkable, and spot on. There are other instances where Joe is drawn even more like this image of Tim Robinson, but I wanted to use the credited illustration to strengthen the connection I'm trying to make. Joe really has a distinctive look in Wilson's drawings.

Artist Unknown

Divide and Conquer
I've been going through the scans I made of all the internal artwork from the revised texts of The Hardy Boys and trying to separate them into styles. I've classified six styles, although there seems to be evidence that at least three of them might be the same artist. I've labeled them styles A-F, with style A as Rudy Nappi. Style B also seems to be Nappi, but there are some changes with it that gave me reason to classify it separately. Mostly, this is a looser line style that might just come from working more quickly.

Style C is clearly the work of a different artist, and distinctive enough to group together as the work of a single artist. According to a UK website (hardyboys.co.uk), George Wilson was the artist for the imprint of book #29, The Secret of the Lost Tunnel. Wilson has a distinctive look for Joe and Frank that makes grouping these titles together as style C very easy.

Style D was an unknown artist, and I lumped #38, The Mystery at Devil's Paw and #52 The Shattered Helmet under them. This caused me a lot of angst as I studied them, but more on this later in the article.

Style E is another unknown artist, and only applies to #53, The Clue of the Hissing Serpent. What is interesting about these is that they are clearly drawn in high 70s fashion, with large square pockets and long hair. Published in 1974, they are remarkably prescient of the TV show that went on the air in 1977, with Frank, Joe and Chet all looking like Parker Stevenson and Shawn Cassidy. I also find it striking how much they resemble the iconic, classic look of Frank and Joe. My gut is that these were drawn by Rudy Nappi, and with only one book to produce artwork for that year, didn't need to be rushed.

Style F is another distinctive style, and the work of another unknown artist. These are awful in my opinion. They are stark and angular with buttons for facial features, and disproportionate angles and perspectives. There is little about them I find appealing.

Looking Closer
Style D gave me a great headache. In particular, book #52 bothered me. I'd see elements of style E in some of the images, and similarities with book #38 in others. Part of how I separated these by styles was to look at which books were produced in each year from 1959 through 1979. The covers were all done by Rudy Nappi, and I think he was also producing the internal art as well, continuing a long-standing tradition.

Beginning in 1961, revised versions of the early books were released alongside the new titles. In 1961, there was one revision, but 1962 had three, 1963 one, 1964 saw three. 1965 had three, 1966 saw 5 in addition to the new title, and 1967 another two.

Most of these revised texts feature art that I would classify as style B. They look like Nappi, but they also look hastily drawn. Given the volume of artwork required (the original versions only featured a frontispiece, but the revised editions featured five additional drawings within the body of the text), it is easy to understand why they look rushed.

Style D was given to the year 1973, with the new title #52 The Shattered Helmet and the revision of #38 The Mystery at Devil's Paw. These show a clear break from the style of George Wilson and style C. Book #52, as I said earlier, gave me headaches. Look at these two examples from that book and I think you'll understand.

 

The airport image has odd angular postures, little facial features and just overall sketchy detail. It looks like a rough bit of line art that never got fleshed out. Contrast that with the image of Frank and Joe studying film over Butler's shoulder. Care has been taken to flesh out the figures, there is a lot of detail in the facial features, and a relaxed, casual comfort in their posing.

I couldn't decide how to classify them, largely due to these two images. Finally, it struck me that they must not be done by the same artist. That had never occurred to me before, that illustrations within a single title might be done by two different artists. Frankly, I think the image on the right is Rudy Nappi, and feel that this book can be reclassified as style E (maybe B - E is still unique in ways, but I think more in the medium used than a different artist). The answer seems to be that the airport image was either commissioned separately, or more likely, commissioned as a last minute replacement from another artist. I'm inclined to suspect that the artist of the airport image is likely the unknown artist of style F.

This made me wonder if #38 was really a separate style, or if it could be reclassified as well. So I opened them up in Photoshop to look more closely.

The Eureka moment
Looking at the last image in #38, I was wondering if it could be the same artist as that of the airport image. There was a sketchy angularity in each that jarred with my senses. But when I glanced down, I noticed initials in the corner! "A.O." was there in the corner. It was a wonderful moment! Style D was a distinct style, and furthermore, none of the other revised artwork was connected with those initials. I eagerly checked the other images in the book for the initials, and there they were. I was no closer to knowing who A.O. was, but it was something to start with.

Anticipating a deeper perusal of the UK site again to try finding any reference to an A.O., I looked at the next image. This one had a name, "A. ORBAAN"! My heart leapt in my chest. I don't know how I've missed it all this time, but there it was as clear as day. A quick internet search lists Albert F. Orbaan as an American artist and illustrator (1914-1983).

This made my day. I've been struggling and researching artists, trying to pin down who actually drew these illustrations, and finding nothing. Almost every site you visit lists Nappi as the de facto artist - he painted the covers, so he must have drawn the illustrations. It is thrilling to have found an answer, even if it is just one.

Here is the frontispiece from book #38 The Mystery at Devil's Paw with the artist's signature. Also, if you check out the image on the right, you'll notice that the original image was drawn with the car being forced off the road to the left, but the image was flipped so it was going off the right shoulder. Here's a hint... the artist's name gives it away (Albert Orbaan).