Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Heritage Sponsored, Marvel Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: fiction house, George Tuska

The Golden Age Great Who Returned, George Tuska, in Fight Comics #4

George Tuska was a comic artist best known for Golden Age work, who returned to comics in the sixties to co-create Luke Cage and Moondragon.

Published Mon, 02 Oct 2023 05:27:07 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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George Tuska was a comic book creator best known for his 1940s work on Captain Marvel, and Crime Does Not Pay, as well as being an early artist on Iron Man in the sixties. He also drew the DC Comics newspaper comic strip The World's Greatest Superheroes from 1978–1982. And has left a legacy in the modern Marvel Universe, as the co-creator of Luke Cage, Black Goliath, Shanna The She-Devil, Moondragon, and Darkstar. But his career was fully formed forty years before that and when he started working for Marvel in the sixties, with Tales of Suspense #58, the comic included a special introduction by Stan Lee, hailing the return of Tuska as Golden Age great.

After attending the National Academy of Design, George Tuska began working for comic book packagers Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. He drew a lot of work for Fiction House, such as the South Sea adventure feature Shark Brodie under the pen name of George Aksut, and the investigative feature Hooks Devlin, both for Fight Comics. And a copy of such is up for auction from Heritage Auctions from 1940, Fight Comics #4.

With a Shark Brodie story by Tuska, writing and drawing as George Aksut, in which "Fritz tricks Brodie into boxing with a kangaroo. Brodie knocks Stubby's and Fritz's heads together for getting him in the fight and takes their winnings".

As well as an Oran: The Champ story, about a Tarzan-like character who fought in boxing rings, after training against jungle animals, with Tuska's art uncredited, only the writer Hugh Bartlett…

…for some reason in this issue, George Tuska was only drawing comics about people fighting wild animals.

Fight Comics #4 (Fiction House, 1940) Condition: VG-. Lou Fine cover. George Tuska and Klaus Nordling art. Spine roll, spine split 3.75" up from the bottom, and the bottom staple is detached. Overstreet 2023 VG 4.0 value = $296.