Old Cap Hawkins ((Blue Bolt Comics #v2#11, April 1942)
Henry Carl Kiefer was an American comic book artist, best known for his work on the early 'Classics Illustrated' issues. Kiefer studied at the Julian Atelier in Paris, France. After his studies, he began illustrating for pulp magazines. From the mid-1930 throughout the 1940s he has been working as a comic book artist through studio's like Chesler, Funnies Inc., Iger, Majestic Studios and Sangor. In 1935, Kiefer started illustrating for National/DC's 'Famous Poems Pictured', 'Just Suppose' and 'Wing Brady', while also drawing 'Oliver Twist' and 'James Watt' for Centaur and 'Sub Saunders' for Fox Comics.
By the early 1940s he was present in Fiction House comic books, drawing features like 'Parachute Patrol', 'Spurt Hammond' and especially 'Wambi'. He drew 'Liberty Lads' for Harvey Comics and 'Lion Boy' for Quality, while doing back-up comics like 'Old Cap Hawkins' Tales' and 'Fearless Fellers' for Novelty Comics. Kiefer was a regular on titles like 'Real Heroes' and 'True Comics' for Parents' Magazine Press.
From the mid-1940s he was present in Better's 'It Really Happended' and 'Real Life Comics', Consolidated's 'Key Comics' and 'Musical Key Series' and Eastern's 'Heroic Comics' and 'New Heroic Comics'. He illustrated 'The Arabian Nights' for Feature's Treasure Comics title, and also contributed to this company's 'Junior Rangers' title. He did Shakespeare adaptations for D.S. Publishing, 'Steel Fist' for Rural Home, and was present in EC's pre-Trend titles 'Crime Patrol', 'Gunfighter', 'Saddle Justice' and 'War Against Crime'.
From 1947 until 1953, Kiefer worked on Gilberton's 'Classics Illustrated' series, doing most of the artwork of the early issues. Kiefer adapted several literary classics to comic book format, including '20,000 Leagues under the Sea', 'Around the World in 80 Days', 'Jane Eyre', 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'A Christmas Carol'. Many of his issues were redrawn by other artists for the reprints, however. Kiefer's final comic book work included western stories for Youthful Magazines and crime features for Trojan Comics. He died in 1957.
