Matt Baker Archives

John rebounds up for auction in the 2022 August 11 The Matt Baker Showcase Auction #40190 at Heritage Auctions. All-Picture All-True Love Story #2 (St John, 1952), All-True All-Picture Police Cases #2 (St John, 1952). As told in a 1999 issue of Comic Book Marketplace, All-Picture All-True Love Story #2 came to the attention of the collecting community[...]

John realized they needed a different tactic.  With the final issue of Nightmare, they went in a more classic horror-suspense direction with the title and its covers: Matt Baker to the rescue.  The final issue of Nightmare looks more like a 1950s horror movie still than it does a comic book cover of the same[...]

Giant Comics Editions #12 Diary Secrets features one of the most iconic and infamous covers in comics history.  The Overstreet Price Guide has had it at the top of their list of top ten most valuable romance comic books for a long time.  And really, one can think of a list of perhaps hundreds of[...]

Matt Baker embarked on what is perhaps the most important part of his career in mid-1948 with St John Publications.  The cover of Crime Reporter #2 was the first St John work by Baker to hit the newsstand, with a June 26, 1948, on sale date (per Library of Congress copyright records).  This was followed[...]

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, and that might help explain the mystery behind the cover of The Saint #4.  There's a copy of The Saint #4 (Avon, 1948) Condition: VG/FN up[...]

Beginning with issues cover-dated September 1945, Matt Baker's output for Fiction House dropped dramatically.  Whereas he had been contributing to nearly 40 interior pages of comic book art per month (pencils and/or inks) over the prior three months, that number dropped to an average of 14 pages per month in the months that followed.  The[...]

John Publications launched to take advantage of the crime comics boom of that pre-Code era.  The series is best remembered today for its Matt Baker covers on issues #2-3, and aside from the covers, is composed entirely of reprints from Chesler comic book material with some of the better-known characters renamed.  Lucky Coyne from Red[...]

The short-lived title Seven Seas Comics published by Samuel "Jerry" Iger's own Universal Phoenix Feature company might be considered a turning point or level-up of sorts in the context of Matt Baker's career The series began about a year and a half after his comics debut on Sheena in Jumbo Comics, and his style had[...]

 There's a Kid Kane story that is classic Matt Baker, a wonderfully strange feature story called The Atomic Blondshell by Jack Kamen (probably) and others from Iger Studio, and a memorably unusual cover featuring the character Lucky Wings (the Atomic Blondshell in this story) being threatened by an atomic energy projector.  A wonderfully weird comic[...]

Most of Matt Baker's earliest comic book work was for publisher Fiction House via the Iger Studio.  But despite contributing work to about 130 issues from the publisher on titles including Jumbo Comics, Wings Comics, and Fight Comics among others, Baker apparently did no covers for the publisher (according to GCD data).  The publisher did[...]

The name Matt Baker has become synonymous with beautiful women in comic book art, so it's fitting that his likely first work was on iconic jungle girl Sheena in Jumbo Comics from Fiction House.  Between the period in 1944 that he worked on that 12-page Sheena, Queen of the Jungle story for Jumbo Comics #69[...]

Matt Baker's cover for Cinderella Love #25 (St John, cover-dated December 1954) is considered among his best pieces of cover artwork, and it's easy to see why.  A festive, celebratory theme, a budding romance in the background, and a beautiful woman in the foreground who clearly has something on her mind.  Like much of Baker's[...]

Ace Magazines' Baffling Mysteries series during the Pre-Code Horror comic book era of the early 1950s had a spectacular run of covers.

The publication of today's Marvel's Voices: Pride 2022 #1 establishes the Matt Baker House as an LGBTQIA+ Youth Centre, located in Queens, New York Matt Baker was a Golden Age comic book creator, working in the forties and fifties on comic boo strips such as Phantom Lady One of the first African-American artists to find[...]

After a seven-issue start as a funny animal title, Victor Fox company Fox Features Syndicate transformed its All Top Comics series into the kind of content it has become best known for to collectors in the decades since.  The title is best remembered today for its jungle girl-centric content featuring the likes of Rulah and[...]

Issue for issue, Fox Features Syndicate's 1947-1949 run of the title Phantom Lady is one of the most sought after titles in American vintage comics history.  It's 12 issues of gorgeously delineated covers and art from Matt Baker, Jack Kamen, and others.  Countless articles have been written about Baker and his talents — his sure-handed[...]

Jungle Girl comics can be expensive -- but we found a few from Heritage that'll get your collection started without breaking the bank!

In fact, one of the most famous pieces of good girl art can be found on Phantom Lady #17, drawn by the legendary Matt Baker — one of the few African American artists during World War 2, who is rightfully being celebrated now (though he should have been celebrated back then as well). The character, created by[...]

There's a lot one could say about artist Matt Baker He is absolutely a pioneer in the comic industry, being the first known African American comic book artist to find success in the industry Born December 10, 1921 in North Carolina, he moved to Pittsburgh, PA with his family at a young age After high[...]

It showcases the work of Matt Baker, the first black man to work in the industry, Zelda "Jackie" Ormes the first black female comic artist and Orrin C Evans, the first black comic publisher. Baker was hired in the 1940s by Eisner & Iger Studios, an all-white firm at the time and went on to work[...]