Matt Baker Archives

As we've recently noted, 1953's Sweethearts #119, with its Marilyn Monroe cover, is the most sought-after issue of that title from the Fawcett era of the series.  By the end of that year, Fawcett had sold all its comic book titles "except the Marvels" to Charlton, where Sweethearts and others continued.  Through a series of[...]

Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions. Girls' Love Stories #40 (DC Comics, 1956). Romance titles are often underappreciated by collectors, and typically contain work by some of the greats of the era in question.  The issues of Girls' Love Stories on offer in this listing include work by Matt Baker, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, John Romita,[...]

Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions. #42 (Atlas, 1955) The series featured a number of familiar stand-out Marvel artists of the era, along with a few surprises.  John Romita, Jay Scott Pike, Mike Sekowsky, Russ Heath, and Jack Kirby were all contributors to issues available here.  Romance and good girl comics legend Matt Baker contributed to[...]

Jumbo Comics #69 is widely considered as containing the first published comic book artwork from legendary artist Matt Baker.  An artist whose name has become synonymous with beautiful women in comic book art, this issue would contain two stories that Baker contributed to, Sheena and Sky Girl.  While Baker's contributions to the iconic jungle girl[...]

Lily Renée's spectacular Werewolf Hunter from Rangers Comics makes some appearances here. In addition to Maurice Whitman, a premiere Fiction House cover-artist who is deserving of much more credit than he has received, the title features work from notables such as Matt Baker, Jack Abel, Jack Kamen, Lily Renée,  and perhaps even Will Eisner[...]

Robert Webb wrote and drew the lead strip, Viper Gods of Vengeance Veldt, as well as Hawk strip, The Return of Captain Claw, with Sky Girl from Matt Baker and Diogenes from Jack Kamen Heritage Auctions has a copy of Jumbo Comics #102 up for auction right now Take a look and see how high[...]

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.   The character created by Will Eisner, Jerry Iger, and Mort Meskin in late 1937 had become one of the most popular[...]

John comic book cover attributed to Matt Baker by a very wide margin Somewhat famously, it also seems to be a different take on his cover for Wartime Romances #17 from 1953.  Part of the end-game St John Publishing comic book era that was packaged by Al Fago, Secrets of True Love #1, Atom-Age Combat[...]

John realized they needed a different tactic. With the final issue of Nightmare, they went in a more classic horror-suspense direction with the series covers: Matt Baker to the rescue.  Loosely based on the interior story The Devil from the Deep and with sea monsters clearly inspired by Creature from the Black Lagoon, the final issue[...]

John appears to have been preparing his company to roll with the changing tides of 1954 and beyond. While a Matt Baker cover paired with at least one interior feature by Baker proved a potent excellent formula at St John throughout much of his tenure there, his covers from 1954-1955 are unique.  In keeping with St[...]

1 Hero,"  but with no apparent editorial changes — yet.  More importantly, Zoot Comics #7 featured a radical change from kid's humor comic to Good Girl title, with the debut of Rulah, Jungle Goddess by Matt Baker in an interior story, and a Jack Kamen Rulah cover. Within five months, Fox transformed a line entirely composed[...]

An artist who became legendary for his cover artwork in particular, Matt Baker had only done six of them before his first South Sea Girl cover, on Seven Seas Comics #3.  What's more, this piece is his first true Good Girl cover, on a series that very likely helped raise his profile in the comic[...]

Although the title seems unusual to us today, Seven Seas Comics was inspired by the South Sea Island films of the 1930s-1940s.  Movies featuring a beautiful sarong-wearing South Sea Island girl were practically their own genre in the decade leading up to the debut of Matt Baker's South Sea Girl in Seven Seas Comics[...]

John, ending with two Matt Baker covers on the title.  There's a copy of one of these, Romantic Marriage #23 (St John, 1954) Condition: VG+ up for auction in the 2023 August 17 The Matt Baker Comics & Comic Art Showcase Auction #40233. Romantic Marriage #23 (St John, 1954) Despite its apparent success at Ziff-Davis, it seems that[...]

John's Blue Ribbon Comics can be considered a test bed ahead of a series launch, perhaps something along the lines of the DC Comics' title Showcase.   Two of these test issues feature Matt Baker covers, and there's a Blue Ribbon Comics #2 Diary Secrets Condition: FN and Blue Ribbon Comics #4 (MLJ, 1940) Condition: Apparent[...]

That issue's Mountain Dew Murder centers around exactly that. The Mountain Dew Murder story in this issue was drawn by artist Antonio Canale.  Matt Baker's cover this issue is very loosely inspired by Murder, Inc.'s #1 Boy, a story drawn by Gene Colan.  A rarity for Authentic Police Cases in that it features a well-known real-life gangster,[...]

John during this era, with a large number of Matt Baker covers and stories throughout the run.  The short Pictorial Confessions run has become somewhat overlooked by comparison.  An interesting historical moment in the romance comics of the era, the debut issue featured the classic one-two punch of a Matt Baker cover paired with a[...]

John.  It initially took over the Ziff-Davis numbering, with issues #12-14 having painted covers from unused Ziff-Davis inventory.  Matt Baker's first cover for the series is on Cinderella Love #15.  The series then pauses and returns five months later with Cinderella Love #25, taking over the numbering from the series Romantic Marriage (another Ziff-Davis acquisition). Baker's[...]

John comic book, starting in 1948 and ending with the arrival of the Comics Code.  That's largely because of the talents of Matt Baker, whose first work on this title is the cover of Authentic Police Cases #6.  A highly regarded and important Baker cover with inks by Ray Osrin, there's an Authentic Police Cases[...]

Much more often than not, Matt Baker's covers for St John Publications were reflective of one of the interior stories of the issue in question, and even when they weren't, the mismatch can often be traced to an editorial mix-up.  But on St John's giant editions, such coordination was sometimes impossible since those issues were[...]

Matt Baker and writer Dana Dutch might be the best creative team doing romance comics at the peak of the form during the Pre-Code era.  As quoted in the book Romance Without Tears, St John editor Irwin Stein told historian  John Benson that "they used other writers only because Dutch could not supply enough scripts." [...]

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[...]

Farrell Publication's Voodoo Annual #1 is a comic book that Pre-Code Horror collectors rarely want to part with, and it's easy to see why.  It's a scarce 100-page giant squarebound edition comic book that includes Matt Baker art from the height of the notoriously-difficult Pre-Code era.  Although the title is part of publisher Farrell Publications[...]

Legendary artist Matt Baker edged into contributing to the Quality Comics romance line at a pivotal moment in his career.  Most of his comic book output had been for publisher St John Publications 1949-1955, but his assignments for St John took an abrupt dip in early 1954.  It's likely that in the wake of the[...]

Marines taking part in more traditional war stories.  While the title became perhaps best known for its covers which were a combination of war themes and damsels in distress, the interior stories came to encompass a much wider range of stories during the WWII era and beyond.  Features like Werewolf Hunter by Lily Renée, Glory[...]

It Rhymes With Lust is the first original American graphic novel in every definition that counts.  Written by the man who would go on to create Doom Patrol, Deadman and Guardians Of The Galaxy, Arnold Drake as well as Leslie Waller using the combined pseudonym Drake Waller, with black-and-white art by Matt Baker and Ray[...]

Legendary artist Matt Baker edged into contributing to the Quality Comics romance line at a pivotal moment in his career.  Most of his comic book output had been for publisher St John Publications 1949-1955, but his assignments for St John took an abrupt dip in early 1954.  It's likely that in the wake of the[...]

John comic book cover attributed to Matt Baker by a very wide margin.  And somewhat famously, it seems to be a different take on his cover for Wartime Romances #17 from 1953.  Aside from the mystery behind it, Secrets of True Love #1 is an incredibly rare comic book, and this Secrets of True Love[...]

If there's such a thing as an underappreciated Matt Baker-related series, St John's Authentic Police Cases might just be it.  While many collectors focus on Baker's romance from the St John era, and deservedly so, there are quite a few seemingly overlooked Baker covers in the Authentic Police Cases run.  This series lasted 1948-1955 for[...]

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[...]