Number 197


The Face gets in their faces!


I've always thought that superheroes looked sort of dorky in their costumes. I'm the one comic book fan who thinks that, though, because to superhero fans often it's the costume that makes the hero, not the other way around. The Face had just a Halloween mask to slap on when he was daring to do that derring-do he done. Apparently he had Batman's logic: "Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot, and I'll frighten them by becoming a bat…or better yet, a silly green face!"

But, in these comics, at that time, with Mart Bailey's artwork, it all seemed to fit. This is the first story from The Face #2. The Face was a two-fisted war correspondent who fought America's enemies with his typewriter as Tony Trent, and with his fists as The Face. Besides appearing in Big Shot Comics, The Face also appeared in his own book for two issues during the war years, 1942 and 1943. He reappeared in 1948 and 1949 for issues #3 and #4 under his civilian name, Tony Trent, The Face.

I'm prone to think of stuff like this: how much did artist Mart Bailey influence artist Ogden Whitney, or was it the other way around? Mart Bailey did the feature, "The Face," for Big Shot Comics, and Whitney* did "Skyman." Their artwork and their approach to illustration seem to come out of the same school. They are both solid artists without a lot of flair. Their pictures tell the story without using a lot of flashy technique to distract from the narrative.

In the latter years of Big Shot Comics, Bailey was listed as art editor. I have seen his work in early 1950s issues of Treasure Chest, the comic book sold to Catholic school children. According to the biographies I've read, he had a career until he was mugged in the 1960s. The crime apparently ended his career, but I have no other details.

*Click on the link for Ogden Whitney at the bottom of this page for more Whitney-work.