1950 Oct Tom Mix in Master Comics 118 (p 47)

1950 Oct Tom Mix in Master Comics 118 (p 47)
By Carl Pfeufer (1910-1980) and John Jordan (dates unknown)
13 x 18 in, ink over graphite on art board
Coppola Collection

One page from the 9-page Tom Mix adventure titled “The Twin Oaks Mystery” that appeared in the October 1950 issue (#118) of Master Comics.

The noteworthy character here is artist Carl Pfeufer. Pfeufer’s first confirmed Sub-Mariner art, for Marvel Comics’ 1940s forerunner, Timely Comics, was the 12-page story “Fingers of Death” in Marvel Mystery Comics #32 (June 1942), though Pfeufer may have inked over character-creator Bill Everett’s pencil art, or even supplied some penciling himself, as early as the Sub-Mariner story in The Human Torch #6 (Winter 1941). Working initially through the studio Funnies, Inc., one of the comic-book “packagers” of the time that supplied features and complete comic books to publishers testing the waters of the new medium, Pfeufer drew the aquatic antihero in Marvel Mystery Comics, Sub-Mariner Comics (beginning with #6, Summer 1942), All Winners Comics, All Select Comics, and at least one issue of Captain America Comics.

As comics historian and one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas described, “When Bill Everett joined the army in 1942, his major successor as Sub-Mariner artist was Carl Pfeufer. Pfeufer soon evolved Namor’s musculature and vaguely triangular head to almost grotesque proportions, but basically filled Bill’s shoes admirably.”

When work dissipated at Timely in 1946, Pfeufer began drawing for Fawcett Comics, illustrating such features as “Mr. Scarlet” and “Commando Yank” in Wow Comics. Then, with inker John Jordan, Pfeufer began a four-and-a-half-year stint penciling the licensed Western character Tom Mix in Master Comics #97-122 and 124–133, the final issue (Nov. 1948 – April 1953), as well as very occasionally in other Fawcett titles. Comics historian R. C. Harvey opined of Pfeufer’s “Tom Mix” art, “For continuous, dynamic action sequences, Pfeufer simply cannot be surpassed.”