Bob Powell (né Stanley Robert Pawlowski; October 6, 1916 – October 1, 1967) was an American comic book artist known for his work during the 1930–1940s Golden Age of comic books, including on the features "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" and "Mr. Mystic". He received a belated credit in 1999 for co-writing the debut of the popular feature "Blackhawk". Powell also did the pencil art for the bubble gum trading card series Mars Attacks. He officially changed his name to S. Robert Powell in 1943.
Biography
Early life and career
Raised in Buffalo, New York, Bob Powell in the 1930s moved to Manhattan, New York City, where he studied art at Pratt Institute. Like many comics artists of the time, he found work at Eisner & Iger, one of the most prominent "packagers" who supplied complete comic books to publishers testing the emerging medium. Powell's first published comic-book art is tentatively identified as the uncredited three-page story "A Letter of Introduction", featuring the famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, in Fiction House's Jumbo Comics #2 (Oct. 1938). Another of his earliest works, under the pseudonym Arthur Dean, was penciling the adventure feature "Dr. Fung" in Fox Feature Syndicate's Wonder Comics #1 (May 1939) and subsequently.
Powell also did early work for Fox's Wonderworld Comics and Mystery Men Comics; Fiction House's Planet Comics, where his strips included "Gale Allen and the Women's Space Battalion"; Harvey Comics' Speed Comics, for which he wrote and drew the feature "Ted Parrish", (pencilling at least once under the pseudonym Bob Stanley); Timely Comics' one-shot Tough Kid Squad Comics; Quality Comics' Crack Comics (where he pencilled as Terence McAully), Hit Comics (as Stanley Charlot), Military Comics (where he signed his pencils for the "Loops and Banks" aviation strip as Bud Ernest), Smash Comics (as Powell Roberts), and Feature Comics. Other pseudonyms included Rex Smith and W. Morgan Thomas, as well as Buck Stanley, S. T. Anley, and Major Ralston.
Sheena and superheroes
As part of the Eisner & Iger studio, Powell drew many of the earliest adventures of the jungle-queen Sheena in Jumbo Comics. Later, after Will Eisner split off to form his own studio in an arrangement with Quality publisher Everett M. "Busy" Arnold — bringing Powell, Nick Cardy, Chuck Cuidera, Lou Fine and others with him — Powell pitched in to co-write the premiere of "Blackhawk," created by Eisner and Cuidera, in Military Comics #1 (Aug. 1941). Powell remained uncredited until Eisner and Cuidera, in a 1999 panel, discussed his contribution.
Eisner in 2005 recalled his studio as "a friendly shop, and I guess I was the same age as the youngest guys there. We all got along. The only ones who ever got into a hassle were George Tuska and Bob Powell. Powell was kind of a wiseguy and made remarks about other people in the shop. One day, George had enough of it, got up, and punched out Bob Powell". Eisner on another occasion said his partnership with Everett M. "Busy" Arnold created tensions when Arnold wanted to hire Powell separately:
Artist Nick Cardy, a colleague at the Eisner studio, said Powell "came in later when I was doing [the 'Spirit Section' feature] 'Lady Luck'. He was sitting behind me. He would help a kid around the block — tell a newcomer to take it easy and that sort of thing".
Powell became particularly known for his "good girl art" in Magazine Enterprises' Cave Girl, and in Fiction House's Jungle Comics, where he worked on early Sheena stories and later on the zebra-bikini'd jungle adventuress Camilla.
In the realm of superhero comics, Powell co-created the patriotic character personifying the Spirit of '76, in Harvey's Pocket Comics #1 (Aug. 1941). It would become a long-running feature in Harvey's Green Hornet Comics. Powell also penciled a Golden Age Captain America story, "The Sorcerer's Sinister Secret", in Timely's All Winners Comics #4 (Spring 1942), and pencilled a chapter of the historic All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946). He drew the backup feature "Mr. Mystic" in Eisner's "The Spirit Section", a 16-page comic-book insert for Sunday newspapers, from the feature's inception in 1940 until Powell entered the U.S. Air Force for his World War II military service in 1943, the same year he officially changed his name to S. Robert Powell.
As comics historian and critic Tom Heintjes wrote,