Worst Professional Comic Art Ever??

Here we have SECRET AGENT x-9 from the King Comics FLASH GORDON series of the mid-sixties. This was a five part story that started out with a script by Archie Goodwin and art by Al Williamson. King Features apparently liked their work so much that they moved the team to the newspaper strip which, although renamed SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN, they continued to do successfully for many years.

The second chapter had art by rather pedestrian but obviously at least professional hands. Tony Tallarico? Manny Stallman?Chapter three, although uncredited, looks to me to be the work of just deceased Ric Estrada. Then we get to chapters four and five--the WORST so-called professional art that I have EVER seen in a comic book! GCD offers not even a guess as to who this artist might be and Goodwin's name seems no longer associated either. Additional searches found tons of interesting info on the character, the newspaper strip, the creators (x-9 was created by Dashiell Hammett!) but absolutely nothing on this obscure back-up series.

So who drew this? There's some obvious photo reference and some not horrible backgrounds but the figure work seems, for the most part, the work of a teenage amateur. It would be okay if this was in an early fanzine but this is the FLASH GORDON run notable for splendid art by Al Williamson, Reed Crandall and reprints by Alex Raymond and Mac Raboy! The contrast makes this look even worse! Clearly the artist has problems with humans and how to configure them as well as major issues with lighting, storytelling techniques and detail work! On the plus side, there are moments at least that show obvious effort in shading. X-9, himself, portrayed in newspapers for decades (both before and after this) as tall with hawk-like features, here seems sometimes short and built like a boxer.

Note the panel where the text says he grabs a spear and a shield. It looks more like the spear is falling on him and he's blocking it with the shield! Later when the spear is thrown at the computer, it's literally drawn as just a straight line! Oh, and don;t even get me started on the look of that "computer!"

UPDATE (6-10): My original posting of this speculated that it might be early work from Rich Buckler whose first credited work appears just a few issues later. Mr. Buckler kindly wrote to clarify that it was not him. Does anyone have any better ideas as to who drew these SECRET AGENT x-9 strips?