Today in Comics History, April 15: Happy birthday, Jerry Grandenetti!

Born on this day in 1926: comic book artist, and advertising art exec Jerry Grandenetti! He was a member of the Eisner Studio; in the 1950s Grandenetti was penciling The Spirit as a ghost-artist, under Eisner's byline.

Before that, however, Eisner drew Grandenetti and letterer Abe Kanegson into the strip as the criminal trio Bellows, Dapperish, and Slippery Eall. The boys are back in town! I mean jail. (L-R in the panel: Grandenetti as Dapperish, Kanegson as Bellows, and Eisner as Slippery Eall.



from The Spirit (1980 series) #25 (Kitchen Sink, November 1986); reprinting "A River of Crime" (aka "Slippery Eall") from The Spirit (Register and Tribune Syndicate, November 30th, 1947); script, pencils, and inks by Will Eisner; additional inks by Jerry Grandenetti; letters by Abe Kanegson



This terrible trio (I just *bet* they some kinda name like that for themselves!) pop up again just before Christmas.



from The Spirit (1980 series) #25 (Kitchen Sink, November 1986); reprinting "Snow" from The Spirit (Register and Tribune Syndicate, December 14, 1947); script, pencils, and inks by Will Eisner; additional inks by Jerry Grandenetti; letters by Abe Kanegson
They try to cut a deal with Commissioner Dolan to bring in a smuggler that The Spirit doesn't seem to be able to touch. "It takes a crook to catch a crook," as the old saying goes, and the boys are back (on) the town!



Using a snowman trick learned from Ebony, the three actually manage to recover the jewels!


...but some sticky fingers lands them a return, and they're in the jailhouse, now.

The Boys Are Back...in Jail. Aw man, they can't win.


Following the Eisner studio, Grandenetti's early comic book work was at Fiction House, American Comics Group and Lev Gleason (among others) before he moved on to a long and prestigious career at DC Comics, where he drew a large number of their non-superhero comics: All-Star Western, Gang Busters, Strange Adventures, House of Mystery and more, but especially on their war titles like All-American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces, and Star Spangled War Stories. At DC, he was the co-creator of Prez, the Green Team, and Mlle. Marie!

Here's another appearance of "Jerry Grandenetti" in a comic book. This character is very definitely not the artist but was almost certainly named after him! He's one of the notorious Grandenetti crime brothers, and roving journalist Clark Kent whoops, I mean Earl Crawford, professional Clark Kent impersonator (see comments), is hunting them down for an investigative story!


from "The Man Who Stalked the Spectre" in Adventure Comics #435 (DC, September 1974); script by Michael Fleisher; script continuity by Russell Carley; pencils, inks, and letters by Jim Aparo; colors by John Albano (?)
He's teamed up with police detective Jim Corrigan, whose name may ring a bell to you and me but at this point in time is unknown to Clark Earl. You're on a colission course with wackiness, Clark Earl!


Mind you, this is a pretty shocking Spectre story! This is the one where he turns one of the Grandenetti brothers into wood and then slices him up with a chain saw.


The brother we're concerned with, Jerry Grandenetti, takes great pleasure in mowing down police officers and innocent buystanders as well. After this story was published, the real Jerry Grandenetti sued DC for every penny and won ownership of the company. That's why it's now called GC Comics and all the artists got hefty royalities and character ownership from that day onwards.


What terrible other-worldly vengeance does the Spectre wreak upon the vicious Jerry? Oh, y;know, the usual. Freezes him to death in a block of ice. Man, Spectre, that's cold. (runs off stage before the rotten vegetables can pelt me)



In any case, a very happy birthday, real Jerry Grandenetti!