{"id":36060,"date":"2026-07-28T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=36060"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:30:18","slug":"black-light-the-world-of-l-b-cole-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/07\/28\/black-light-the-world-of-l-b-cole-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Leonard Brandt Cole <\/strong>with an introduction by Bill Schelly<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-762-8 (TPB\/ Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. <\/em><\/p>\n

The early days of the US comic book industry were a whirlwind of spectacular exuberance and the front covers of the gaudy pamphlets that endlessly proliferated were all crafted to scream \u201cPick Me! Pick Me!\u201d from within a sea of similar sights. As such, that first visual contact was crucial to success and one of the greatest artists ever to mesmerise kids out of their hard-earned dimes was Leonard Brandt Cole (28th<\/sup> August 1918 – December 5th<\/sup> 1995) who had a master designer\u2019s knack for combining captivating ideas and imagery with eye-popping style and technique.<\/p>\n

Although he also illustrated quite a few interior strips (for Holyoke, Ajax, Farrel & Gilberton), Cole\u2019s true gift and passion was devising attention-grabbing cover images rendered in what he called \u201cposter colors\u201d. Whether on Horror, Superhero, Science Fiction, Sports, Humour, Crime, War, Western, Rugged Adventure, Jungle, Romance or even Funny Animal titles, his stellar, absorbing art was instantly recognisable and in great part defines the Golden Age of Comics for us today…<\/p>\n

His influence doesn\u2019t end there, however. A shrewd businessman and editor, Cole started his own studio-shop to manufacture stories for assorted companies. parlayed it into a publishing company (initially by buying existing properties from client Novelty Press in 1949) and then diversifying through his Star Comics line into genre novels, prose-pulps, puzzle-books and general magazine periodicals. Frequently he would combine his electric primary colours over a black background adding instant extra punch to his renditions of masked champions, soaring spaceships, macabre monsters and a legion of damsels in love or distress…<\/p>\n

Before joining the nascent comics industry in the early 1940s, Cole\u2019s background was in science and printing. He studied veterinary science (and held a doctorate in Anatomy and Physiology from the University of Berlin) but was working as a lithographic Art Director when he made the seemingly sideways transition into illustration and comics.<\/p>\n

Incredibly this colossal (272 pages, at 337x235mm), durably Flexibound compendium was his first major retrospective, bringing together a multitude of his most impressive works in one immense, colourful and informative volume\/package.
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\nThe astounding career of a comic book Renaissance man is covered in fascinating detail in \u2018Comics by Design – the Weird Worlds of L.B. Cole\u2019<\/em> by pre-eminent historian of the medium Bill Schelly, whose appreciation \u2018Fever Dreams in Four-Color Form\u2019<\/em> is followed by his erudite biography and timeline of the artist, divided into four discrete periods. Each section is augmented by photos, covers, original artwork and even comics extracts – ranging from panels and splash pages to complete stories (such as Paul Revere Jr. and all on one page!<\/em>) – covered in lavish detail via \u2018Into Comics\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Cole as Publisher\u2019<\/em> whilst \u2018Out of Comics\u2019<\/em> focuses on his later move into commercial art, education and illustration.
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\nIn the 1980s Cole was rediscovered by comics fandom and achieved minor celebrity status through appearances at conventions. \u2018Art Among the Junk\u2019<\/em> covers this period up until his death when he began recreating his iconic covers as privately commissioned paintings for modern collectors.<\/p>\n

The true wonder of this glorious phantasmagorical collection follows in \u2018The Comics Covers of L.B. Cole\u2019<\/em>, showcasing long runs of the artist\u2019s stunning covers – nearly 350 eye-popping poster images – from such evocative titles as 4Most<\/strong>; All-Famous Police Cases<\/strong>; Blue Bolt<\/strong>; Captain Aero<\/strong>; Cat-Man Comics<\/strong>; Classics Illustrated<\/strong>, Contact Comics<\/strong>; Confessions of Love<\/strong>; Criminals on the Run<\/strong>; Dick Tracy<\/strong>; Flight Comics<\/strong>; Frisky Animals<\/strong>; Ghostly Weird Stories<\/strong>; Killers<\/strong>; Jeep Comics<\/strong>; Mask<\/strong>; Popular Teen-Agers<\/strong>; Power<\/strong> Comics<\/strong>; Ship Ahoy<\/strong>; Shocking Mystery Cases<\/strong>; Spook<\/strong>; Sport Thrills<\/strong>; Startling Terror Tales<\/strong>; Suspense Comics<\/strong>; Target Comics<\/strong>; Terrors of the Jungle<\/strong>; Top Love<\/strong>; Toy Town<\/strong>; Western Crime Cases<\/strong>; White Rider and Super Horse<\/strong> and many more…
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\nThe pictorial feast doesn\u2019t end there though as \u2018Further Works\u2019<\/em> gathers a host of his non-comics covers including books like The Greatest Prison Breaks of All Time<\/strong>, Murders I\u2019ve Seen<\/strong>, Raging Passions<\/strong> and Love Hungry<\/strong>, as well as magazine covers for joke periodicals like Wit and Wisdom<\/strong>, Sporting Dogs<\/strong> and World Rod and Gun<\/strong>; \u201cGentleman\u2019s\u201d publications and \u201csweat mags\u201d such as Man\u2019s True Action<\/strong>, Man\u2019s Daring Adventures<\/strong> and Epic (Stories of True Action)<\/strong> also feature: augmented by articles, working sketches and original drawings and paintings. There\u2019s even a selection of his superb animal studies, anatomical and medical textbook illustrations, plus private commissions, recreations and unpublished or unfinished works…<\/p>\n

Black Light<\/strong> is a vast and stunning treasury of fantastic imagery from a bygone age by a master of visual communication that no fan of popular art could fail to appreciate, but for comics lovers it\u2019s something else too: a seductive gateway to astounding worlds of imagination and breathless nostalgia impossible to resist.
\nBlack Light: The World of L.B. Cole \u00a9 2015 Fantagraphics Books. All comics, artwork, photos, illustrations and intellectual properties \u00a9 2015 the respective copyright holder. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1917 Jack Kirby<\/strong> was born. End Of…<\/p>\n

Also on this day in 1917 Italian co-creator of Tex Willer<\/strong> Aurelio Galleppini<\/strong> arrived; followed in by artist Dell Barras<\/strong> in 1957 and French creator Joann Sfar<\/strong> (Dungeon<\/strong>, The Rabbi\u2019s Cat<\/strong>, The Little Vampire<\/strong>) in 1971.<\/p>\n

Political commentator and Happy Hooligan<\/strong> creator Frederick Burr Opper<\/strong> (also Alphonse and Gaston<\/strong>, And Her Name Was Maud<\/strong>, Howsan Lott<\/em>, Our Antediluvian Ancestors<\/em>) died in 1937, a departure date shared with controversial Belgian cartoonist\/author Willy Vandersteen<\/strong> (Spike and Suz<\/em>y) in 1990 and prolific Dutch fantasy comics creator Bert Bus<\/strong> (Olaf Noord<\/em>, Skokan, Een Slimmeling Uit Het Jaar Nul<\/em>, Cliff Rendall<\/em><\/strong>, Lance Barton<\/em><\/strong>) in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Leonard Brandt Cole with an introduction by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-60699-762-8 (TPB\/ Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. The early days of the US comic book industry were a whirlwind of spectacular exuberance and the front covers of the gaudy pamphlets that endlessly proliferated were all … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[81,119,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-books","category-comicsacademic","category-historical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9nC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36067,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36060\/revisions\/36067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}