E. C. Stoner

Elmer Cecil Stoner (October 20, 1897 – December 16, 1969) was an American comics artist and commercial illustrator. Stoner was one of the first African-American comic book artists, and is believed to have created the iconic Mr. Peanut mascot. He produced pencil art for the first issue of Detective Comics, published by National Comics Publications (the company that later became DC Comics), and worked for a variety of other golden age companies such as Timely Comics, Street & Smith, EC Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Dell Comics. Near the end of his life, Stoner was also a spokesman for Gordon's Gin.

This article is about the American illustrator and comics artist. For the British theoretical physicist, see Edmund Clifton Stoner.

E.C. Stoner
A photo of Stoner from his time as a spokesperson for Gordon's Gin
Born
Elmer Cecil Stoner

(1897-10-20)October 20, 1897
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
DiedDecember 16, 1969(1969-12-16) (aged 72)
New York, New York
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
AwardsArtist Laureate of Pennsylvania
Outstanding Son of Pennsylvania (1950)
Prix de Rome
From Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Packard Prize
Cresson Traveling Scholarship
The first commercial version of Mr. Peanut created by E. C. Stoner from the competition entry of 14-year-old Antonio Gentile in 1916.

Early life

Stoner was born on October 20, 1897, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Mary Alice and George W. Stoner. His mother was a pianist, and his father a church sexton at the local St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.[1] Stoner was the eldest of the family's three children, though there were two that had died earlier. Stoner left school at 11, as was the custom in coal towns like Wilkes-Barre, but instead went to work at a Woolworth's as a stocker at the behest of founder Fred Morgan Kirby, who attended the church where Stoner's father worked. While working at Woolworth's, Stoner began to learn sign-painting, lettering, and advertising, and soon began to work as a freelance artist in the Wilkes-Barre area.[2]

Creation of Mr. Peanut, first marriage, move to Harlem

The Planters company sponsored a contest in 1916 to create a mascot, which 14-year old Antonio Gentile won.[3] According to the company website, the drawing was "enhanced" by a "professional illustrator," who added the top hat, monocle, and cane.[4] While Planters never revealed the identity of the artist who made a new version of Gentile's design. Stoner's widow Henriette noted the creation of Mr. Peanut as one of Stoner's accomplishments when submitting a questionnaire for Who's Who of American Comic Books.[4]

Stoner registered in 1918 for the draft, but was not called to service due to being in school. Stoner attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, supposedly also sponsored by Kirby.[2] While at the school, he earned a number of awards, including the school's Packard Prize (awarded for best sketches of animals at the Philadelphia Zoo), a Cresson Traveling Scholarship, and a Prix de Rome.[1][5]

Stoner married his first wife Vivienne in 1922 and moved to Harlem, where his work was featured in a "Negro artist" exhibition at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library. According to the head librarian, his work was "splendidly planned and executed."[4] The couple later moved to Greenwich Village so that Vivienne could open a gift shop, and they became "part of a tight-knit circle of African-Americans. . .and hobnobbed with the intellectual elite of the community."[4]

Stoner and Vivienne divorced sometime before 1927.[4]

Magazine and comic book work

Stoner's first major illustrative work, a children's book named Mic Mac on the Track, debuted in 1930. During this time, Stoner worked at Tower Magazines, a women-and-children-oriented series of magazines that was distributed at Woolworth's stores. This company folded in 1935, leading Stoner to freelance and begin to transition into comic art. Stoner's first foray into comics was a story in Detective Comics #1, Speed Saunders and the River Patrol, introducing the character Cyril "Speed" Saunders. Sources disagree about whether Stoner wrote or drew the story, and comic historians Don Markstein and Kevin Burton Smith note that since Stoner's tenure on the character was so brief (he left after the first issue), that Gardner Fox had potentially created the character.[6][7]

Shop work

After working on Detective Comics, Stoner moved between multiple comics "shops," or small workshops where artists would produce art and send it to a publisher. According to Ken Quattro, working in shops ''offered a secondary bonus for Stoner, as it provided a buffer between him and the publisher should they be reluctant to employ a black man,"[4] as Stoner was one of the first prominent black cartoonists, followed closely by Matt Baker and Alvin Hollingsworth.[4] Between 1940 and 1944, Stoner worked for Timely Comics, where he inked some early Breeze Barton stories, at Fawcett Comics where he worked on Spy Smasher, and at Street & Smith where he worked on Ajax the Sun Man, a minor feature in Street and Smith's Doc Savage comic.[8] At Dell, Stoner mainly worked as a cover artist, drawing covers for anthology titles Popular and The Funnies, the latter of which prominently featured the character Phantasmo, Dell's first original superhero feature, in his "clean-lined, if awkward style."[4][9] However, he also pencilled some stories in Dell Comics's War Heroes and War Comics series.[4][5] Stoner was also briefly employed by Parents Magazine, working on their long-running educational True Comics series from 1941 to 1942.[5]

Stoner also worked on the relaunched Blue Beetle title for Fox Comics near the end of World War II, providing either cover or interior work for issues #31 to #45.[4] One of his more unique projects was as an artist for The Challenger, a publication from Protestant Digest and their interfaith committee that served to counteract fascist and antisemitic propaganda.[10][11]

He also created the three-issue comics series Blackstone, Master Magician in 1946 for Vital Publications, which was later revived for a single issue by EC Comics (1947) followed by three issues at Timely Comics (1948).[12] Despite its short run, the EC revival was adapted into a radio drama series, Blackstone, the Magic Detective, which ran from 1948 to 1950. After the conclusion of the comic series, Stoner illustrated at least 1 souvenir program for Harry Blackstone Sr., the namesake of the series.[4]

After the war, Stoner briefly worked on another Vital comic title, and left comics between 1951 and 1952 due to a judge refusing his request to have another Vital comic series he drew, Rick Kane, Space Marshal, stopped from publication. Stoner maintained that Vital continuing to produce the title amounted to a violation of his contract. His last known work was an educational comic titled Deadline: The Story Behind The Headline.[4]

In his history of the American anti-comics movement, The Ten-Cent Plague, writer David Hajdu included Stoner on a list of comics creators who never worked in comics again after the virulent criticism of comics in the early-to-mid 1950s.[13]

Personal life and death

Outside of comics, Stoner was an "accomplished pianist" and patron of the arts, and also owned the apartment building in which he lived, at 228 W. 13th Street.[1][4][14] According to an article in the Daily Worker, Stoner spent time entertaining United Service Organizations (USO) personnel and providing them with drawing lessons, in addition to "occasionally [giving] art lectures as a means of improving Negro-white relations."[4] In the late 1960s, Stoner was one of several prominent African-Americans featured in a series of ads for Gordon's Gin.[1]

Stoner died on December 16, 1969, and had a private funeral.[15]

Style and reception

As a classically-trained illustrator who transitioned into comic art in the middle of his life, Stoner's comic art was sometimes criticized for not matching up with other artists of the time, as relayed by Ken Quattro: "...Stoner’s work was not in the league of Eisner or Kirby or Fine. He was, after all, a middle-aged fine artist, who had only worked in advertising and magazine illustration, trying to make the jarring transition to comic books. The techniques and requirements of sequential storytelling were new to him and it was apparent."[4]

Ron Goulart criticised Stoner's work in his Great History of Comic Books, "Stoner's drawing is the visual equivalent of fingernails scraped across a slate, and whenever he had a chance to botch the perspective, the composition, or even the inking, he did so with brio."[16]

Works
A page bearing Stoner's signature from the December 1942 issue of Dell's War Comics
List of comics drawn by Stoner[5]
Company Title Tenure Ref
Syndicated Rick Kane, Space Marshall 1951 [17]
National Comics Publications Speed Saunders (in Detective Comics) 1937 [18]
Dell Comics Popular Comics 1940–1943 [19]
Dell Comics Martan the Marvel Man 1939–1941 [20]
Dell Comics Phantasmo (in The Funnies and Large Feature Comic) 1940–1942 [21][22]
Dell Comics War Comics/War Stories 1942–1944 [23][24]
Dell Comics War Heroes 1942–1944 [25][26]
EC Comics Blackstone 1947 [27]
Fox Comics Blue Beetle 1943–1945 [28][29]
Fox Comics Bouncer 1943–1945 [30][31]
Fox Comics Green Mask 1944–1946 [32][33]
Interfaith Publications The Challenger 1945 [11]
Timely Comics Breeze Barton (in Daring Mystery Comics) 1940 [34]
Timely Comics Flexo (in Mystic Comics) 1940 [35]
Street & Smith Ajax the Sun Man (in Doc Savage) 1941 [8]
Street & Smith Blackstone Master Magician Comics (Vital Publications) 1946 [36]
Street & Smith Iron Munro in (Shadow Comics) 1940–1941 [37]

References
  1. "30 Jul 1966, Page 4". The Pittsburgh Courier. Retrieved 2018-08-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. David Saunders (2009), E. C. Stoner, Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists
  3. "The father of Mr. Peanut". The Suffolk News-Herald. 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  4. Ken Quattro (5 April 2010), E. C. Stoner: The Forgotten Trailblazer, The Comics Detective
  5. "Who's Who bio". www.bailsprojects.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  6. Markstein, Donald D. "Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Speed Saunders". www.toonopedia.com. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  7. "Speed Saunders". www.thrillingdetective.com. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  8. "GCD :: Issue :: Doc Savage Comics #v1#3 [3]". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  9. Thomas, Roy (2018-02-21). Alter Ego #151. TwoMorrows Publishing.
  10. Heritage Comics Dallas Signature Auction Catalog. Heritage Capital Corporation. July 2006. ISBN 9781599670638.
  11. "GCD :: Issue :: The Challenger #[1]". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  12. "E.C. Stoner". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  13. Hajdu, David (2008). The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. New York: Macmillan. p. 349.
  14. "Building Plans -- Manhattan". The New York Times. 19 February 1947.
  15. "Deaths". The New York Times. 16 December 1969.
  16. Ron Goulart (1986), Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books, p. 27, ISBN 9780809250455
  17. "GCD :: Issue :: Alter Ego #118". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  18. "GCD :: Issue :: Detective Comics #1". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  19. "GCD :: Issue :: Popular Comics #88". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  20. "GCD :: Issue :: Popular Comics #68". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  21. "GCD :: Issue :: The Funnies #45". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  22. Stoner's art ran from Funnies #45 to 63.
  23. "GCD :: Issue :: War Stories #5". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  24. Stoner drew the Night Devils feature, as well as other minor features, from #4 to 8.
  25. "GCD :: Issue :: War Heroes #2". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  26. Stoner's art ran from #2 to #8.
  27. "GCD :: Issue :: Blackstone #1". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  28. "GCD :: Issue :: Blue Beetle #31". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  29. Stoner's art ran from approximately #31 to #45.
  30. "GCD :: Issue :: The Bouncer #[10]". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  31. Stoner's art ran in #10 and #12-14.
  32. "GCD :: Series :: The Green Mask". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  33. Stoner's art ran from #11 to #17.
  34. "GCD :: Issue :: Daring Mystery Comics #3". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  35. "GCD :: Issue :: Mystic Comics #1". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  36. "GCD :: Series :: Blackstone Master Magician Comics". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  37. "GCD :: Issue :: Shadow Comics #v1#3 [3]". www.comics.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.

Further reading
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