The All-Flash Art Mystery

I need some help solving what could best be described as a "Golden Age art mystery".

See, years ago I bought a copy of the Flash 100 Page Spectacular (1973), which reprinted several old Flash tales. One of those reprints was "The Campaign Against the Flash, from All-Flash #13 (1943). On the opening page  of that story was this stunning black and white illustration of Jay Garrick, the first man to call himself the Flash (click on the image to enlarge).

Obviously meant to look like a real magazine's cover photo, the Flash portrait was created using a very methodical technique called "stippling", which uses thousands of ink dots to simulate a face's subtle contours and shadowing. The denser the spacing of the dots, the darker the tone.

Now, here's where the mystery comes in.  The story's artwork is officially attributed to a gentleman named Everett E. Hibbard, one of the primary Flash artists throughout the 1940's (whose corner signature can be seen above). However, as you can see from Hibbard's interior Flash art (left) and the orbiting faces above, the stipple portrait seems to be at a much higher level of artistic ability. Of course, it's certainly possible Hibbard illustrated the portrait....but in my opinion, not likely.

So...do any of my fellow Flash fans have any insights into this mysterious illustration? Did Hibbard draw the Flash portrait after all...or was it done by someone else?

Comments

[John Nowak]

Yeah, there is a pretty amazing difference between the two art samples, and my first guess would be that they were done by different people.

But then again, it's hard to imagine that Richard Burton in a good movie was the same Richard Burton who appeared in numerous bad movies. Some people do wildly inconsistent work.

[Tony Nichols]

It is entirely plausible that it is the same artist. The stippling technique is not very hard, mostly because it's so SLOW. Cartooning is using the least possible lines to create the desired image. Stippling is the opposite. Use as much time and dots you need to EVENTUALLY arrive at a "photorealistic" image. In high school and art school, the least talented people (some with NO talent) were capable of doing great stuff with this method.

[Jesse]

I also suspect Hibbard did it himself. A few points:

As an artist myself, there are hundreds of different styles it's possible to work in (part of art training in school is trying a lot of them to see which you like best) ... but only a few lend themselves to comics work, especially at the speed and page rate demanded back then. If the artist saw a rare opportunity to insert a fun experiment in a different style, he would have taken it - showing off, in a sense.

And as a professional illustrator, he probably had experience with different styles, as clients have different demands.

Personally, I have a great ability to draw from life. But I can't come up with things off the top of my head. If you asked me to draw a picture of the Flash, it would look clunky. If you posed someone in front of me, it would look great.

The shading on the portrait here definitely looks like it could have been based on a magazine photo.