Archives - The Life of Matt Baker

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Matt Baker Intro

0:57slash podcast hello your friendly neighborhood host jt wheatley backing in for another episode of history comics podcast this time we'll be covering the life of matt baker the best artist of the golden age like all mediums throughout the ages comic books are no different in that it featured talented creators from all races only for those to suffer from racist practices to keep them from fully realizing their talent let alone be recognized a notable one was matt baker a brilliant golden age artist who was so talented at drawing beautiful women that no less than frederick warvern

1:30targeted his art as over sexualizing them nevertheless despite an industry that was still mostly white baker's talent left a legacy that can still be felt today with many considering one of the best romance artists of the genre matt baker was born on december 10th 1921 in forsyth county north carolina as clarence matthew baker his family later moved to pittsburgh as a young boy baker developed a weak heart from suffering from rheumatoidism fever which also prevented him from going into sports or serving the military does he turn to his addiction of the drawing board after graduating from high

2:04school in 1940 baker left pittsburgh for washington dc to work for the government however his ambition to draw led to going to new york and take classes at the cooper union for art art training reportedly his favorite artists were andrew loomis will eisner reed crandall and lude fine after graduating baker went to the jerry eiger studio the comic book packager that's produced features to be published in comic books in 1944 getting a job with a simple color sketch of a beautiful girl which got him started out as a background artist his style his talent soon became

2:37apparent especially in drawing beautiful women matt baker's first documented work was in jumbo comics number 69 november of 1944 at fiction house in which he penciled and inked a 12-page story of sheena queen of the jungle soon he was the resident artist on sky girl in jumbo comics about a beautiful fairy pilot ginger mcguire serving in world war ii in a specific theater by jumbo comics number 87 on may of 1946 the series had become a comedy strip which sky girl no longer allowed to fly now working as a

3:07waitress of course whether a pilot or waitress baker's always managed to draw sky girl showing off her legs reportedly modeling her overall look after the actress and sheridan matt baker's last story on sky girl was in august 1948 issue of jumbo comics but it was this run that made him one of the premier good girl artists in the industry at the time while working matt baker's pencils were often inked by alice feldstein later becoming the famous at the ec comics and mad magazine who stated he kept to himself mostly to the racism while while crediting baker with learning a lot about art from him

3:42another notable work that matt baker did was tiger girl with alex bloom for three and a half years which ran in fiction houses fight comics about a blonde adventurer and assistant adela who fought who fought with a magical amulet during this he managed to shine his own name as his style greatly progressed especially in depicting animals which wasn't as good at first unlike his women later matt baker did camilla with a roof and rush and jungle comics number 69 of september 1945 which went from being about a viking queen to a zebra skin with a blonde mane in june jungle comics

4:17number 27 of march 1942 also a fiction house matt baker did the skull squad and wing comics about a multinational raf squadron the boxing strip ko kirby and fight comics and glory forbes and ranger comics about a charming but half-witted girl who keeps finding herself in dangerous predicaments outside of fiction house matt baker did the wonder boy for quality comics about a teenage superhero and the ace of the newsreels from crown comics from 1945 to 1947 about a dauntless cameraman ace williams and his naturally beautiful assistant foggy bottoms at crown matt baker would sign his initials mb

4:52which appeared in crown comics number seven november of 1946 it was in crown comics number three september 1945 that matt baker probably created or at least co-created the first black superhero in voodah a tarzan-like hero who at least appeared black in the interior art though he was colored white on the cover and in later installments other comics matt baker did was atomic comic atomic comics number two to four in 1946 but inspector dating stories at green publishing and kid kane about a boxer movie star and sometimes crime fighter

5:24at gilberton he did an adaptation of the 1869 novel lauren doone by richard d blackmore for classics illustrated about the love affair between a farmer and outlaw's daughter the 48 page story made up classic comics number 32 in december of 1946 and will be reprinted several times over the years most significant it will be matt baker's only official credit at eiger's studio and his first foray to the romance genre which would soon dominate next matt baker did the seven

5:55seas stories with eiger under his their new comic book publishing outfit universal phoenix leader enterprises which published three stories bobby comics slick chick and seven seas comics the latter ran for the longest for six issues april of 1946 to 1947 and in them matt baker penciled south sea girl with manning lee stokes about alani an exotic beauty and adventurer he also did tugboat tussie with alex bloom for seven seas comics as well and cinderella for steinway's hall tiny tale book next and what matt baker is probably most famous for and sadly infamous for he did the phantom lady in 1946

6:32for fox feature syndicate a revival of the 1941 character from quality comics about sandra knight the socialite daughter of a u.s senator who moonlight as a crime fighter though in a rather skimpy outfit didn't even have a mask she was originally created by alfred pd and made her debut in police comics number one august of 1941 which also featured the debut of plastic man and the human bomb after quality stopped publishing the character eiger studios believe they still own the right her rights and reassigned her to fox feature syndicate debuting in the phantom lady number 13 taking over the

7:04numbering of the then what a life comics with matt baker redesigning her costume changing the colors from red to blue while showing off more cleavage in a shorter skirt fox would publish the series until issue number 23 in april of 1949 with the character also appearing in all top comics number 8 to 17 with baker also providing the art this would be a prime target for frederick wolvern the author of the seduction the innocent book in 1954 which blamed comics for juvenile delinquency even reproducing matt baker's memorable cover of the phantom lady number 17 april 1948

7:38in it with the caption sexual stimulation by combining the headlights with sadistic sadist dreams of tying up a woman fox feature syndicate would eventually go bankrupt with as is moving on to different studios as for the phantom lady she would bounce around the numerous studios from ajax to charlton before finally landing at dc and her character has appeared in on the cw arrow verse shows in the batman brave and the bold most significantly alan moore used the phantom lady as the chief inspiration for the character of

8:09silk spectra and his classic the watchman matt baker of course we move on to other projects in 1947 matt baker left igra studios go freelance working for fiction house directly on stories like camilla and mist of the moon and planet comics he soon built the reputation of being talented but late which he blamed on his poor heart but was still the most successful black artist of the golden age a rarity for the time baker especially signed in the romance genre his ability to draw beautiful women and would soon be considered one of the greats in 1948 matt baker worked at fawcett for one time with

8:42don winslow number 64 and also worked for a ds in the 1940s it was once believed he worked for ace comics but that was probably his friend frank guisco in his personal life matt baker was known for being handsome and finely dressed spending a good deal of his income on nice clothes more than a few of his colleagues believe matt baker was gay if not at least bisexual as his nephew matt d baker just described him as being a ladies man at st john publishing matt baker did such books as the northwest mountains number one

9:14october of 1948 and crime reporters number two along with teenage romances another example was cinderella love number 25 cover in december of 1954 most significantly matt baker contributed to one of the earliest graphic novels with it rhymes with lust in 1950 which also features the debut of arnold drake as a comic book writer teaming with les waller under the collective pseudonym of drake waller many consider this 128 page book to be one of the first graphic novels with 126 pages by matt baker and

9:44ray orson done on crafton's double-toned paper allowing him to create great shading and background effects the story was about russ mason owner of mason mines incorporated in copper town and uh and the male journalist hal weber who was torn between russ and her stepdaughter aubrey mason the idea behind the book was to latch on to the growing mass market the paperback medium to who did that to produce digest-sized comic books for audiences it will be a perfect year for this new form of comic book as saint john also produced published the

10:15case of the winking buddha while dell published the digest-sized titles under its uh told and pictured series twice loved and four frightened women it sadly didn't catch on but it rhymes with what is considered a masterpiece today especially due to baker and orson's art though less than 100 copies of the original printing are known to exist thankfully it has since been reprinted by dark course in 2007 soon matt baker despite this uh failure would be made art director at saint john's next matt baker made his made a try at a newspaper strip with flamingo with a roof roche from 1953 to

10:4954 for by phoenix features this counted as his official strip debut as with south sea girls matt baker didn't sign his name the first strip of flamingo ran on february 11 1952 about the adventures of a beautiful gypsy dancer from lingo throughout europe by june 23rd of 1952 baker was both penciling and inking the strip however matt baker would leave the strip after six months moving on to new covers with interior art for saint john's as he was of course now the art director complete with office states at 545 fifth avenue by 1955 baker had contributed 219 covers for saint john's comics

11:26all which bore his signature ranging from teenage romances true love pictorial and cinderella love a particular note was the cover of nightmare number 13 in august of 1954 which depicted strange green sea plant girls with baker delivering a nice mix of horror and sexuality however saint john was soon collapsed in 1954 as the company invested heavily in the 3d comics fad at the time which initially boom but quickly faded away baker's last romance stories appeared in teenage temptations number eight and true love pictorial number 11 on june of 1954 he would continue to work at saint john's for another

12:01another year but only on a freelance basis with comics on the downturn in the 1950s baker found himself scrounging for assignments fiction house went defunct due to the cca and thus baker had to adapt to new genres he found himself drawing mga's lassie best best based on the popular dog movies with the comics issues number 20 to 22 in 19 in the late 1954 though he hated it preferring to draw beautiful women over dogs this he did for western printing slash dell along with which he also did a 35 page

12:35adaptation of king richard and the and the crusades based on the film starring rex harrison and virginia mayo which appeared in four color comics number 588 that october other freelance work that matt baker did was for atlas marvel quality and harvey doing westerns like quick trigger western and romances like love confessions and first love illustrated he also did covers for the manhunt mystery magazine and female news for nugget for and arnold comics which he uh dreamed up and with incident to become a

13:06precursor for playboy magazine in 1959 matt baker is producing art for charlton and atlas marvel working for uh vinnie coletta's studio at 22 journal square in new jersey city new jersey coletta uh inked baker's pencils while baker also ghost pencil for coletta who at this point had given up penciling to the vote to full-time to inking together baker had a long run of my own romance in atlas along with working on the spirits of the unexplored worlds at charlton matt baker wasn't was known for using a great real

13:37remember reference material and he loved comics work as much as he did advertising making 35 to 40 dollars a page matt baker's last published work would be strange suspense stories number 47 on the may of 1960 as he died at the age of 37 from a heart attack on august 11 1959 as a result of his constantly weak heart he was survived by his family notably his half brother fred robinson and his nephew matt d baker who had their own art careers and has since become uh caretakers of matt baker's artistic legacy which

14:09includes a brilliant career in comics despite racial prejudice matt baker managed to be one of the best artists in the romance genre drawing some of the most beautiful women ever on the comics page and even made art director of saint john's one of the premier publishers at the time as a result he was inducted post-sominiously into the will eisner comic book hall of fame in 2009 and continues to be rediscovered today as not just one of the best black artists in comic books but one of the best artists period

Favorite Comic

14:33i would like to thank the chief source of this episode matt baker the art of glamour edited by jimma mosh and eric nolan-wivington an excellent biography of the artist complete with numerous interviews from his colleagues and great representatives art and comic book stories a must read for any comic fan and now it is may 7th 2026 time for the favorite comic of the week dc sonic the hedgehog the metal

15:12legion uh number one by uh ian flynn and adam bryce thomas which is a great new crossover series which became for the original one stepped in where the sonic universe uh universe and the dc universe are mixed are teaming up to go up against lex lufer and dr eggman who have decided to team themselves which consequences of both the universes this is a great fun series with the influence having a lot of fun just pairing up the different dc and sonic characters together naturally sonic and the flask get paired up but also you see batman the shadow of the hedgehog superman and knuckles supergirl has a

15:46hilarious inner counter with cream and cheese by the way some of these characters i'm not i'm not familiar with i'm not as big as a sonic as i am with um like gordon natural dc and of course i'm more of a nintendo guy than a genesis guy but hey uh sonic sonic's still pretty cool character and technically he's a nintendo character too now because you can play old sega games on the nintendo switch so hey we know who won that war but uh yeah but just a lot of fun great and also great art by uh price who does a really great job like mixing both here it has a nice cartoony style when it comes to the sonic

16:18characters but a little bit more grounded realistic style that with the dc characters that which mixes them perfectly make it for just a fun read the kind of stuff you just love with comic books just just a lot of fun and uh yeah so definitely check that out and uh with that oh also uh one more thing i completed the uh daredevil born again season two um series uh today uh not as good the the first season and then probably not as good as the overall the netflix season but still a lot of fun easter eggs some classic characters can make a comeback kind of a weird ending but it does set for a cool

16:52situation for season three which hopefully we'll be getting but uh yeah we'll see where that goes but definitely check it out if you have a disney plus description it's easy it's still one of the best uh mcu products still put out there with some of the best acting and writing you'll probably ever see and then charlie cox and mr nother does kill it as daredevil and the kingpin and to the point where they're the voices i hear now when i read the when i read the comic books they're that they're that good but they definitely check that out and uh till then uh join me again next week for likely another episode of the archives but uh till then go enjoy some good comic book and yeah

17:22definitely check out those uh dc uh son of the hedgehog crossover books because they're just a lot of fun