Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Avon Publications, golden age, The Saint

Leslie Charteris and the Many Artists of Avon's The Saint, at Auction

Leslie Charteris gave Avon Publications detailed feedback on the look he wanted for The Saint comic book series in the late 1940s.

Avon Publications' Joseph Myers had been in the business of publishing paperback editions of Leslie Charteris's highly successful The Saint book series for years when he wrote Charteris about the idea of a comic book featuring the character in 1944.  While Myers, mindful of wartime paper regulations, pitched the title as a potential quarterly in 1944, it appears that Charteris preferred to wait until it could be published monthly.  But significant newsprint shortages continued after the war, perhaps accounting for the mid-1947 launch date of Avon's The Saint comic book a year and a half after wartime paper restrictions had ended. The title never did make it to the planned monthly release schedule.  That was just the beginning of what seems to have been a somewhat problematic production for the series, which might explain why the series cycled through several cover artists before settling on using previously-approved painted artwork from Avon's The Saint paperbacks.  There's a copy of The Saint #3 with cover by Allen Ulmer, issue #5 with cover by Walter Johnson, and issue #6 with cover by Frank Sieminsky up for auction in the 2023 May 14-16 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122320 at Heritage Auctions.

Letters and other info in The Saint, A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television of Leslie Charteris' Robin Hood of Modern Crime, Simon Templar, 1928-1992 suggests that Charteris did not have approval over the finished comic books of this Avon series.  Putting the correspondence dates on a timeline implies that he was given proofs just as the issue was going to press, and he would provide feedback in regards to his preferences for future issues from these proofs.  It appears that Charteris gave detailed feedback on the dialog and artwork of each issue (plot synopses were provided farther in advance)  He may have approved individual artists or character styles based on samples. Comments from Charteris regarding the stature and glamour of the Saint and his female companions vs other characters seem to have been common in the early going.

By 1947, Charteris was also getting a The Saint comic strip underway with the New York Herald-Tribune, and his detailed feedback to artist Lew Schwartz regarding what seems to have been early samples or character designs for the strip led to a contentious exchange.  In response to a late-1947 missive from artist Schwartz (who was drawing Batman for DC Comics around this same time), Charteris responded (in part):

I'm sorry that you react so violently to criticism, but I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to the idea at least until you are generally accepted as the dean of comic strip artists. In fact, it may still go on after that, if I can judge from my own experience, since I still get plenty of criticism from many quarters.

It's rather silly of you to maintain that you will draw hands as you goddam please, because you won't.

Anyone with experience in producing licensed comic books will tell you that such contention between licensor and publisher is far from uncommon.  Both parties want to get it right and have specific but sometimes conflicting ideas on how that should be accomplished.  The reality of licensed comic books is that work sometimes has multiple hands involved, goes through multiple revisions, or that artists are sometimes compelled to stray from their usual style of drawing hands (or faces, or what have you).  Sometimes, a publisher is forced to cast a wide net to find a style that the licensor will like, and that seems to have been the case here.

The mystery behind the issue #4 cover gets a lot of attention for this series, but there's a bunch of other nice issues as well.  There's a copy of The Saint #3 with cover by Allen Ulmer, issue #5 with cover by Walter Johnson, and issue #6 with cover by Frank Sieminsky up for auction in the 2023 May 14-16 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122320 at Heritage Auctions. If you've never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.

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