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Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour
In the early 1940s, Matt Baker became one of the earliest African-American comic book artists. But it wasn’t the color of his skin which made him such a significant figure in the history of the medium—it was his innate ability to draw gorgeous, exciting women and handsome, dynamic men in a fluid, graceful style. Imagine Dave Stevens or Adam Hughes working in the ’40s, drawing a new story every month, and you’ll have a good idea of Matt Baker’s place in the industry throughout his career. Yet few of today’s comic book fans know of the artist or his work, because he died in 1959 at the young age of 38, just as the Silver Age of Comics was blossoming and bringing in a new generation of readers. Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour (192-page hardcover with 96 pages of full-color), edited by Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington, presents an impressive career cut tragically short. It features a wealth of essays; interviews with Baker’s friends, family, and co-workers; and a treasure trove of his finest artwork, including several complete stories, at last giving the wonderfully talented artist his full due. (NOTE: Contains mild nudity, to present a representative sample of his career. MATURE READERS ONLY.)
192 pages, Hardcover
First published May 10, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 23, 2016
A few rather superficial and fanboy-ish articles; an annotated index of Baker's professional work; a bunch of less than insightful interviews with offspring and former colleagues, etc. The best part are the Phantom Lady samples, though I wish there were more of them. Plus a few complete romance stories would be nice, considering it is the genre Baker is best known for.
May 31, 2016
I have known of Matt Baker and his work for decades but before reading this book, I knew nothing about the man. Yes, I knew he was African-American, which was a rarity during the Golden Age, but to be homosexual as well was revelatory. His work is head and shoulders above most of his peers. Sadly, heatt disease robbed us of him way too soon.
Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington do a fine archaeological job, assembling the best possible biography of a man whose contemporaries are largely gone and records were virtually non-existent. If there are any quibbles is with some of the organization but that is more than made up for with a wealth of art from across his career.
Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington do a fine archaeological job, assembling the best possible biography of a man whose contemporaries are largely gone and records were virtually non-existent. If there are any quibbles is with some of the organization but that is more than made up for with a wealth of art from across his career.
June 16, 2020
Considering how little we actually know about Matt Baker, this was wonderful! Of all the golden age cartoonists, he may be my absolute favourite.
February 5, 2020
Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour is a biographical graphic novel written by the team of Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington and illustrated by Matt Baker. This graphic novel depict the life of little known comic book artist in the 1940s and 50s.
Clarence Matthew Baker was an American comic book artist and illustrator, best known for drawing early comics' heroines such as the costumed crimefighter Phantom Lady, and romance comics. Active in the 1940s and 1950s Golden Age of comic books, he is the first known African-American artist to find success in the comic-book industry.
Never heard of Matt Baker, but I recognized his work. He specialized in Good Girl Art which flourished in the late forties/early fifties and focused on heroines who were strong but also gorgeous which is reminiscent of WWII pin-ups.
Baker, initially working for a comics shop known as the Iger Studio, drew a variety of spunky heroines. This graphic novel includes sample stories from this period, including two featuring a scantily clad crime-fighter known as the Phantom Lady. If the stories ultimately prove slight, the art is anything but. Baker had a knack for rendering his leggy characters with a sensual naturalness that was unmatched by any other artist of his day.
There are several reasons and factors that Baker is not better known. Firstly, the comic industry back then weren't concern about giving credit. Furthermore, Baker himself also had several personal strikes against him in the early days of the industry: an introvert who was one of the few black artists in early comics, he also appears to have been homosexual. Regardless, despite being relatively unknown, he had inspired many.
Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour is written and constructed moderately well. Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington, structure their appreciation by opening with a quartet of color stories: two featuring the vigilante Phantom Lady, two centered on more comic dames like waitress Ginger Maguire, a former ferry pilot in the Pacific theatre who gets demoted to waitress serving mustard to the better class of pilots.
An opening essay by Alberto Becattini provides a chronological overview of the man's career with appreciative commentary by some of the artists who worked with him in the forties comics shops. A series of reminiscences with family, friends, and colleagues follows, the volume concluding with three more reprinted stories, two of which are presented as the original pencil and ink pages.
All in all, Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour is an interesting biography graphic novel about a lesser known comic book artist – Matt Baker.
Clarence Matthew Baker was an American comic book artist and illustrator, best known for drawing early comics' heroines such as the costumed crimefighter Phantom Lady, and romance comics. Active in the 1940s and 1950s Golden Age of comic books, he is the first known African-American artist to find success in the comic-book industry.
Never heard of Matt Baker, but I recognized his work. He specialized in Good Girl Art which flourished in the late forties/early fifties and focused on heroines who were strong but also gorgeous which is reminiscent of WWII pin-ups.
Baker, initially working for a comics shop known as the Iger Studio, drew a variety of spunky heroines. This graphic novel includes sample stories from this period, including two featuring a scantily clad crime-fighter known as the Phantom Lady. If the stories ultimately prove slight, the art is anything but. Baker had a knack for rendering his leggy characters with a sensual naturalness that was unmatched by any other artist of his day.
There are several reasons and factors that Baker is not better known. Firstly, the comic industry back then weren't concern about giving credit. Furthermore, Baker himself also had several personal strikes against him in the early days of the industry: an introvert who was one of the few black artists in early comics, he also appears to have been homosexual. Regardless, despite being relatively unknown, he had inspired many.
Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour is written and constructed moderately well. Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington, structure their appreciation by opening with a quartet of color stories: two featuring the vigilante Phantom Lady, two centered on more comic dames like waitress Ginger Maguire, a former ferry pilot in the Pacific theatre who gets demoted to waitress serving mustard to the better class of pilots.
An opening essay by Alberto Becattini provides a chronological overview of the man's career with appreciative commentary by some of the artists who worked with him in the forties comics shops. A series of reminiscences with family, friends, and colleagues follows, the volume concluding with three more reprinted stories, two of which are presented as the original pencil and ink pages.
All in all, Matt Baker: The Art of Glamour is an interesting biography graphic novel about a lesser known comic book artist – Matt Baker.
February 24, 2022
A really well researched and lavishly illustrated biography of one of the underappreciated genius illustrators of the Golden Age of comics. Matt Baker was a prolific and gifted artist who influenced the entire industry, and he consistently drew some of the most beautiful women ever to appear on a comics page.
I knew that Baker was one of the first Black comics artists to work in mainstream (ie: basically exclusively white-dominated) comics. Until reading this book, I didn’t realize that he was also probably gay. One of his closest friends in the industry was absolutely convinced of it, a few others thought so as well, and several others responded with the sort of awkward non-denial denials that you get from folks of the Greatest Generation when asked about that subject.
More than once, his peers made the point that, like Jackie Robinson, Matt Baker succeeded because he was just that much better than everyone else. And they’re right, to a point. He was the real deal, and in a business where you lived and died by your ability to stand out on a newsstand, Baker’s talent was simply undeniable.
But that’s not the whole story. When the industry took a downturn in the late 50’s, other white artists were able to catch on somewhere, or move into commercial illustration or advertising. Baker didn’t have those opportunities. Some of his last comics work was done for Vince Fucking Colletta, who took advantage of Baker’s situation and paid him a fraction of his worth, because Colletta was the worst thing to happen to comics.
Baker died young, not even 40 years old, from a congenital heart defect he developed after a bout of rheumatic fever as a child. He died just as DC Comics was rolling out their Silver Age heroes, only two years before Marvel Comics debuted. There’s an alternate reality where a healthy Matt Baker winds up on the Mount Rushmore of Silver Age comics artists alongside Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood. But at least in this one, we’ve got this very lovingly crafted passion project to remember a truly groundbreaking artist by.
I knew that Baker was one of the first Black comics artists to work in mainstream (ie: basically exclusively white-dominated) comics. Until reading this book, I didn’t realize that he was also probably gay. One of his closest friends in the industry was absolutely convinced of it, a few others thought so as well, and several others responded with the sort of awkward non-denial denials that you get from folks of the Greatest Generation when asked about that subject.
More than once, his peers made the point that, like Jackie Robinson, Matt Baker succeeded because he was just that much better than everyone else. And they’re right, to a point. He was the real deal, and in a business where you lived and died by your ability to stand out on a newsstand, Baker’s talent was simply undeniable.
But that’s not the whole story. When the industry took a downturn in the late 50’s, other white artists were able to catch on somewhere, or move into commercial illustration or advertising. Baker didn’t have those opportunities. Some of his last comics work was done for Vince Fucking Colletta, who took advantage of Baker’s situation and paid him a fraction of his worth, because Colletta was the worst thing to happen to comics.
Baker died young, not even 40 years old, from a congenital heart defect he developed after a bout of rheumatic fever as a child. He died just as DC Comics was rolling out their Silver Age heroes, only two years before Marvel Comics debuted. There’s an alternate reality where a healthy Matt Baker winds up on the Mount Rushmore of Silver Age comics artists alongside Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood. But at least in this one, we’ve got this very lovingly crafted passion project to remember a truly groundbreaking artist by.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews