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A Month in the Life of the Comics
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670 posts in this topic

Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders # 14 is one of my favorite covers from the Atom Age. I have a HG copy I bought from Motor City 10 years ago, and never realized that Schomburg did the pencils, but looking at it, it makes sense. Did he do anything else for ME? Scrooge, good job posting the decap page - if that doesn't convince horror collectors the book belongs in their collection, I don't know what will. The great thing about the book, is that it doesn't seem hard to find - even in HG - there is probably a copy on ebay right now. Keep those posts coming - I may have to rethink the whole collecting by date idea - anyone know if there is anything prohibitively expensive cover dated July 1959? Or maybe I should just look for books date-stamped with that month.

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Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders # 14 is one of my favorite covers from the Atom Age. I have a HG copy I bought from Motor City 10 years ago, and never realized that Schomburg did the pencils, but looking at it, it makes sense. Did he do anything else for ME? Scrooge, good job posting the decap page - if that doesn't convince horror collectors the book belongs in their collection, I don't know what will. The great thing about the book, is that it doesn't seem hard to find - even in HG - there is probably a copy on ebay right now. Keep those posts coming - I may have to rethink the whole collecting by date idea - anyone know if there is anything prohibitively expensive cover dated July 1959? Or maybe I should just look for books date-stamped with that month.

 

I've not heard of any other Schomburg covers for ME -- I'd want 'em if there were any, that's for certain. This book is generally available in a VF, usually with a 50 oro stamp on it. Getting it much better than that is not easy.

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# 23

 

Boy Comics # 75 - Bought from ? at last year's Chicago con.

 

753123-Boy75s.jpg

 

Content:

 

The Space Platform by Norman Maurer 10 pgs

Atom Bullets by William Overgard 8 pgs

Loot in the Library by ? 2 pgs starring the Little Wise Guys Text feature

Vacation Jitters by Norman Maurer (?) 6 pgs

 

These credits are no thanks to the GCD. Indeed, it is surprising that the last story is tentatively IDed Maurer when it is clearly signed in the third panel by Hi Mankin. Remember always to take GCD IDs with a grain of salt.

 

Where to start on this one? Boy Comics also called Boy Illustories was a long running title that ended with issue 112. Our hero is "Chuck Chandler [who] was a young military cadet during World War II. His father was a reporter who had spoken out against the Germans in newsreels, acting as the "only official source of information from the lost country, France!", informing the people of America of what the Nazis were doing at the request of the President. An eye-witness to the invasion, he had returned to the States, leaving his wife Joan, Chuck's mother, to follow him a week later. But the night he was to make another broadcast damning the teutonic aggression, he was confronted by the Gestapo agent Iron Jaw, who tried to intimidate him so that he would alter the speech he was due to make. Iron Jaw, so named because a resistance bomb had blown the lower half of his face off, to be replaced by a steel prosthetic, pointed out that they had captured Joan, and would torture him if he did not read a version of the speech the Nazis had prepared.

 

But the intrepid reporter, torn by the dilemma, decided that his wife would not want him to give way to this blackmail, and told the truth anyway. It cost him his life, as Iron Jaw was waiting in the wings, and shot him dead. Chuck, back at Custer Military Academy, is stunned when he hears the news. He rushed to the hospital, taking no time to change from his hockey uniform which he had been wearing, instead wrapping the blue military school cape round his shoulders to keep him warm. He arrived to be told that his father had an excellent chance of recovery, and the doctor sent him to walk around the grounds while the operation was carried out to save him. But just after Chuck left, Iron Jaw entered the ward and overpowered the Doctor. Taking over the operation, he murders the reporter by cutting one of his main arteries.

 

Chuck followed his father's last wish and set off to Paris to rescue his mother, armed with a description of Iron Jaw furnished to him by a nurse. Intercepted by Nazis when he landed in a neutral Portuguese port, he swiftly deals with them, and managed to get a message to his mother to meet with him on a ship heading back to America. The two are reunited, but that night their clipper is sunk by a U-Boat. Chuck managed to find his injured mother floating among the wreckage, but realising she needed immediate medical attention, had no choice but to call to the Germans for aid. They agree to help, but then fire on the two swimmers as soon as they are close enough. Chuck suffers a glancing shot across his forehead, causing him to lose his hold on his mother and on consciousness, and the injured woman drowns. Rescued by an American airforce plane sometime later, Chuck returns to the States and vows vengeance on the Germans: "I swear it!! By all that's right to avenge their deaths! I'll fight terror with terror! They'll pay and pay and pay!" Adopting the outfit he had worn the night of his father's death, Chuck became Crimebuster, scourge of the Nazis. He swiftly gained a sidekick of sorts, in the form of his pet monkey Squeeks, and eventually managed to kill Iron Jaw, avenging his parents. He continued to fight the good fight even after the war ended, eventually dropping the cape and replacing the shorts with slacks after a girlfriend refused to be seen with him while he wore the ridiculous costume."

 

Well considering the events, he could be mad at the germans! In fact, "it took Crimebuster 12 issues before he caught up with and eliminated Iron Jaw, in Boy Comics #15."

 

The Iron Jaw in this issue is the same gestapo agent who came "back in #60 (December, 1950), and went back to bedevilling C.B. at frequent intervals.

 

But by then, C.B. was scarcely a superhero anymore. As the genre fell out of favor with the comics reading public, his adventures took on human interest overtones. Once again, readers were able to see that he had a life at school, tho since World War II was over, it was no longer a military academy but a regular high school called Curtis. There was still room for Iron Jaw, but not for long, as the heroics were being phased out."

 

As for the artist line-up, let me concentrate on Hi Mankin. We already saw Overgard as the co-creator of Black Diamond and Norman Maurer will be seen again in Daredevil. There is plenty of information about Maurer and I already took so much room with the origin of CB that I'll put it all off until then.

 

Hi Mankin (1926-1978) "went to work for Jerry Siegel while still only a youngster of 15! He stayed with Jerry's family and attended Cleveland High School all day while trying to ink Superman stories at night. The pressures of life in a strange city, high school and work all at the same time, plus the resentment of the other artists in the Shuster studio caused him to quit after only one month. He remembers working on one long Superman story during this time, which is as yet unidentified. Mankin later went on to a career in animation (including Johnny Quest) and drew Johnny Quick and Gangbusters for DC as well as the Roy Rogers comic strip and Crimebuster and Daredevil for Lev Gleason, all in the fifties."

 

Actually, the above is short-changing him as far as his strip work because it seems that Hi was very busy all the time as suggested by this strip-only credit list:

asst cs "Smilin' Jack," 1942

asst cs "Briging Up Father," 1943,1959-64

(animation in-betweens MGM, 1947-1949)

asst cs "The American Adventure," 1949

asst cs "Dotty Dripple," 1949

asst cs "Bugs Bunny," 1950-1951 (daily)

art cs "Roy Rogers," 1953-1958 (daily)

asst cs "Buz Sawyer," 1959 (Sun.)

and then he turned to animation

animation - Cambria Studios, 1959-1964

layout - Hanna-Barbera Studios, 1964-1967

 

Alex Toth credits him for the hiring of Doug Wildey to work on Johnny Quest as per this quote:

"Doug Wildey's "Jonny Quest" was in work and about to change TV/Animation for a very long time, it's effect still evident -I'd hired Doug for "Angel at Cambria during my art directing of the first series-brought him out from Arizona, put him up at my home his first week or so, til he found his own place to bring his wife and kids to live in, from Tucson-the hiring almost didn't happen, but Hi Mankin urged me to do so-despite my fears that Doug's reliance on photoswipes in his comic strip/book work would be a disadvantage in the studio when/where we all had to make it up/brain it out/imagine it-and draw it, cold!"

 

Story-wise, it is no doubt the work of Biro who scripted the book for its entire run. If there was any doubt, I scanned a page from the first story that is as text heavy as only Biro could create them! You should note that the book is tightly edited as each of the three stories segue into the other, which could not be practically done by a writer / editor to coordinate the work.

 

Maurer Story

 

753123-Boy75Story1s.jpg

 

Text heavy Biro -script

 

753123-Boy75Story1Pages.jpg

 

Overgard Story

 

753123-Boy75Story2s.jpg

 

Hi Mankin Story

 

753123-Boy75Story3s.jpg

 

Note the nice contrast of the cartoonish pet sidekick to the realistic CB and landscape

 

753123-Boy75Story3Pages.jpg

 

Pet Sidekick Trivia: Eventually, Squeeks got his own comic. He behaved just like any other funny animal for five issues, October 1953 through June 1954.

 

753123-Squeeks1.jpg

 

Concept Stealing (?) Trivia: Most of us would remember that there was another Iron Jaw as per this cover of issue # 1.

 

753123-IronJawAtlas1.jpg

753123-IronJawAtlas1.jpg.ffaf6d92e09641c0bec0f2a6ec2dab1c.jpg

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# 24

 

Boy meets Girl # 21 - Bought from Basement Comics

 

753460-BoyMeetsGirl21s.jpg

 

Content:

 

I hated the man I love by R. Atkinson 7 pgs [signed]

Danger Point! by ? 6 pgs

Unfinished week-end by ? 7 pgs

False Honeymoon by ? 6 pgs

 

Well, folks, it had to start. I have many romance comics and we somehow avoided all of them until today. Sadly, I can't claim this is one of the best offering of the genre so there goes my goal to sway the hobby's mind to give a chance to these comics.

 

Nonetheless, this will not prevent me from making an entry of it, especially since against all odds for romance work, the first story is signed and by no other than R. Atkinson, read Ruth Atkinson (Ford). A brief bio from Comiclopedia tells us that:

 

"Ruth Atkinson was one of the many female comic artists who worked for publisher Fiction House, where she drew 'Skull Squad' and 'Wing Tips'. She became the company's art director, a job which she quit because it did not leave her time to draw. She became a freelancer, launching the first issues of 'Millie the Model' and 'Patsy Walker' for comic book editor Stan Lee. By the end of the 1940s, Ruth Atkinson also drew romance comics, such as 'How Did He Propose?' for Lover's Lane. She left the comics field to get married and have children."

 

which is doing her career a disservice considering how important Millie and Patsy were for Timely / Atlas in terms of overall output. Plus, this puts her working with Stan because as Doc V. tells us: "MILLIE THE MODEL, TESSIE THE TYPIST and NELLIE THE NURSE were, at the very least, co-created by Stan. Their #1 issues featured covers by Mike Sekowsky. MILLIE THE MODEL and PATSY WALKER were inaugurated with artwork by Ruth Atkinson, an artist whose style would be the template for all Millie and Patsy Walker artists to follow." Trina Robbins places more importance to this early work on Timely characters in her short obit for Ruth:

 

"Ruth Atkinson Ford died of cancer June 1st [1997]. According to Trina Robbins, Ford was one of the earliest female cartoonists to work in comic books.

Ford began working for Fiction House in 1943, at a time when they had more women drawing for them than other comic book publisher. She became the company's art director and roomed with Lily Renee, their star woman artist.

Art directing left her too little time for actual drawing and she left Fiction House to freelance. Her earliest work was for Timely's (now Marvel) most famous and longest lasting girl comics characters. She drew the first issue of Millie the Model in 1945 and most of the first two years of Patsy Walker.

By the late '40s and through the early '50s, Ford was drawing for the Lev Gleason romance comics. Gone were the perky teen-age comics of earlier day, enjoyed by both girls and boys, for the heavier romance themes that only girls seemed to be able to stomach."

 

Did you notice the comment about Fiction House having more women drawing than other publsihers. That is confirmed in this interview excerpt with Murphy Anderson:

 

"Q: When you were working for the big comics studios, you said you had an office and a desk?

MA: Yeah, when I started at Fiction House they had offices where the "three sixes" are. If you know New York at all, that's where DC was located for many years.

Q: Most of those people working in those offices at the time were men; there were very few women

MA: No, just the opposite! When I started there they were all ladies, practically. There were only two or three males in there.

Q: What were the ladies doing? Comic books?

MA: Oh yeah, oh yeah. There was Fran Hopper, she did a number of adventure stories for Planet Comics and all over. Lilly Renée who did their lead feature for Planet Comics. Oh, Ruth McCully was a letterer. Ruth Atkinson was an artist who worked there. Her brother happened to be a very prominent jockey; he was one of the top jockeys in the country at the time. And Marcia Snyder, she did a very heavy adventure-type of material.

Q: Was that because it was around the war years?

MA: Oh sure, it was war time. There was a shortage of anyone to do the stuff. How do you think a 17-year-old kid could walk in and get a job?"

 

Story page from Ruth:

 

753460-BoyMeetsGirl21Story1Pages.jpg

 

Splash for the cover story (Oddly this is the last story in the book)

 

753460-BoyMeetsGirlStory4s.jpg

 

Series Trivia: The series would change name before ending to become Boy Loves Girl (and as Scott Shaw! points out, there is some internal logic that Love arrives after they meet). Here's a cover example for the book after the title change. I always wondered why they use a baseball stitch for this dress though 893whatthe.gif

 

753460-BoylovesGirl29.jpg

753460-BoylovesGirl29.jpg.0de89084fc30a356693ff124e7747497.jpg

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Well, it seems you're safe from DC's point of view as you can see at DC Indices July 1959. I would also look at the June books for bi-monthlies such as B&B which has a Viking Prince story.

 

As for Atlas, you'd have to pick some ToS, JiM, ST and World of Fantasy. Some of these books are actually in the 10-centers thread in the Silver forum. Looks to be a perfect month to look at. Nothing out of whack and you can always concentrate on hero, pre-hero books only anyway.

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# 25

 

Buzzy # 48 - eBay purchase

 

754003-Buzzy48s.jpg

 

Content:

 

4 6-pagers, 1 3-pager and misc.

 

An early column for tomorrow as I'll have a bear of a long day.

 

Again, thank you to the Comiclopedia for an overview of Buzzy's career:

 

"As the early 1940s segued into the mid-'40s, American comic book publishers were finding their superheroes, which had been so profitable just a couple of years earlier, starting to fall out of public favor. One of the responses at DC Comics was to gather a lot of the funny guys they'd been using for back-page fillers into an antholgy of their own. All Funny Comics debuted with a cover date of Winter, 1943-44, and contained Dover & Clover (from More Fun Comics, where Green Arrow was usually the cover feature), Penniless Palmer (from Star Spangled Comics, where The Guardian was on the cover) and Genius Jones (from Adventure Comics, which starred The Sandman), along with a few new features like Hayfoot Henry and Two-Gun Percy. Most of those start-ups were quickly forgotten, but one of them, Buzzy, was still in print well into the next decade.

 

Buzzy Brown represented a genre that had been part of the general comics scene since Harold Teen but was just starting to achieve prominence in comic books. But he wasn't a clone of Archie, who was quickly becoming the template on whom stars of teenage humor comic books are generally based. Buzzy was a musician, a horn blower of the "hep cat" school, tho that term was already starting to seem a tiny bit quaint. His five-piece combo, in which his best pal, Bink, played saxophone, drove at least as many early stories as his rivalry with Wolfert the Wolf for the affections of Susie Gruff, the deficiencies of the broken-down old jalopy he drove, or the rest of his typical teenage adventures in and around the town of Cupcake Center.

 

It isn't known who wrote the first Buzzy story, but Alvin Schwartz (creator of Bizarro) began scripting the feature early on, and he set the tone for it; including introducing the music theme. The artist was George Storm, whose comic book work ranges from Bugs Bunny to The Hangman. Both continued to chronicle Buzzy's adventures for years. With Schwartz's amusing and sometimes idiosyncratic stories and Storm's unusual and dynamic artwork, he was the only character to go from All Funny Comics to his own title. "The rib-tickling misadventures of America's favorite teenster" (as the cover blurb put it) started with a cover date of Winter, 1944-45. It was the first of DC's teen humor comics, which soon came to include Scribbly and Leave It to Binky.

 

The Buzzy title continued long after the demise of All Funny (which bit the dust after only 23 issues, and anyway, he was only in the first four), but its distinctly individual qualities were toned down after a few years — in fact, the covers started looking more Archie-like only a dozen or so issues into its run (which is also about when the word "teenster" stopped appearing on them). The music theme was de-emphasized, eventually disappearing. In 1948, Schwartz left to concentrate exclusively on the Superman newspaper comic; and with the 29th issue (Jan-Feb, 1950), Storm moved on as well. His replacement was Graham Place, a competent artist but lacking Storm's flair. After that, Buzzy was just another teenager in a market rife with them.

 

But he persevered. DC continued to publish Buzzy until #77 (October, 1958), tho it took a full year after #76 for the final issue to stagger onto the stands. Buzzy has been in comic book limbo ever since."

 

Alvin is of course still with us and writes his semi-regular column After the Golden Age over at World Famous Comics. In particular, he addressed the early Buzzy in his August 5, 2002 column. In particular, he highlights the talent of Stan Kaye. Here is the first paragraph:

 

"In one of my earlier columns, I wrote about DC's teenage strip, Buzzy and how I enjoyed doing it far beyond the many superhero strips (what Whit Ellsworth called "the big stuff") DC produced, especially, of course, Batman and Superman. And even though I've written a rather big novel examining the complexities of my relationship with Batman and Superman, there was a unique connection between Buzzy and my prepubescent years in the Cincinnati suburb of Avondale. I even pointed to Avondale as establishing the quintessential reality of Norman Rockwell's art which so many critics have claimed was unreal and sentimental."

 

I don't know who did the art for this issue but according to the information above, Graham Place would have at least worked on issues around this one. Place is more remembered for his work in animation that spanned 4 decades from the thirties to the sixties as shown in this abbreviated credit list:

 

" Place, Graham (1903-1981)

Animator: FLEISCHER 34-42 (Popeye 37-38 [i Likes Babies and Infinks 37, The Football Toucher-Downer 37, The Jeep 38], Color Classic 38 [Hunky and Spunky 6/38, All’s Fair at the Fair 8/38, The Playful Polar Bears 10/38], Betty Boop 39 [Rhythm on the Reservation], Gulliver’s Travels 39, Stone Age 40 [Granite Hotel], Superman 41-42 [superman 41, The Bulleteers 42]); FAMOUS 42-45 (Superman 42-43 [showdown 42, The Japoteurs 42], Popeye 43-46 [Happy Birthdaze 7/43, The Marry-Go-Round 12/43, Mess Production 8/45, House Trick 11/45, The Fistic Mystic 11/46], Noveltoon 44 [Cilly Goose 44, Gabriel Chuch Kitten 12/44], Little Lulu 44-46 [Hullaba-Lulu 2/44, Lucky Lulu 6/44, I’m Just Curious 9/44, Magicalulu 3/45, Man’s Pest Friend 11/45, Chick and Double Chick 8/46], Buzzy the Crow 47 [The Stupidstitious Cat]); PARAMOUNT 60 (Modern Madcap 60 [bouncing Benny]); HAL SEEGER c66 (Batfink 66-67)"

 

Of interest is his work on the Fleischer's Superman cartoons. I should also mention that he worked with Otto Feuer (recall him from the Animal Antic write-up) on the Milton the Monster series that aired on ABC. Moreover, he is listed as writer on the Hullaba-Lulu cartoon. I had not known until now that Little Lulu starred in her own cartoons. A complete list along with links to some frames can be found here. [Warning: the page will load the Little Lulu theme song] This is the part satisfying about finally putting these together: new discoveries (at least to me).

 

Here are a couple of pages:

 

754003-Buzzy48Story2s.jpg

 

Buzzy's musical talents are displayed here (as if there was remembrance of his early incarnation)

 

754003-Buzzy48Story4s.jpg

 

Also, in case any of you are looking for a job, here's how to be a successful interviewee.

 

754003-Buzzy48JobHunting1s.jpg

 

754003-Buzzy48JobHunting2s.jpg

 

Board Trivia: Recall that Buzzy 70 was one of the last comics that eluded Ian, so I thought we could show it again here.

 

754003-Buzzy70.jpg

 

Collection Trivia: This issue does not rightfully belong in the collection. This is the 1953 issue. The 1952 issue is issue 42. This goes to show how difficult sometimes it is to determine when issues were published, especially for such titles. However, the cover does sport an image of Jerry Lewis and since visitors loooove to tease me every time they notice Jerry is on the cover of one of the comics in my collection, I'll stick with it.

754003-Buzzy70.jpg.edd476fe5e12537e4a8caf868167df11.jpg

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Well, it seems you're safe from DC's point of view as you can see at DC Indices July 1959. I would also look at the June books for bi-monthlies such as B&B which has a Viking Prince story.

 

As for Atlas, you'd have to pick some ToS, JiM, ST and World of Fantasy. Some of these books are actually in the 10-centers thread in the Silver forum. Looks to be a perfect month to look at. Nothing out of whack and you can always concentrate on hero, pre-hero books only anyway.

 

Thanks Scrooge- great link - the Our Army at War #84 cover is probably worth picking up on it's own merits -- If I do something like this, it would probably be in a couple years after I've picked up other stuff I'm looking for. And I'd probably start with books I like to begin with, like pre-hero Marvel ( I might even have 1 or 2 already - I should check), and I already have Action 254 (for the bizarro story). I also like the idea of collecting what would have been on the newstand when I was born - a slightly trickier proposition as I'm not sure if all publishers post-dated in the same way. I do know that it would involve buying Showcase #22 - as I had a copy when I was a teenager with a late July date written on the cover.

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Pinch hitting for Scrooge, here's the Baffling #7 for March 1952. I didn't recognize any artist in leafing through the issue, and, after checking GCD, it looks like they didn't either. They surmise Sekowsky on one story, but I can't see it. It's possible the artist was doing some swiping of Sekowsky because a few panels have the feel of Sekowsky, but way too many don't. I see some possibilities of Lou Cameron, as if he was touching up or working quickly. Again, nothing certain. Lou's involvement seems more likely as he was a mainstay at Ace, doing his best work for them.

 

A Game With Lucifer 7pgs

Baffling Mystery #5 1 pg

Scourge of the Kentucky Hills 7pgs

Baffling Mystery #5 1 pg

Back From an Unhallowed Grave

Mummy's Curse 2pg (text)

Terror Beneath the Tides 7pgs

 

755849-Baffling7.jpg

755849-Baffling7.jpg.72f126bc60dcd670cbd73be4f65ff74a.jpg

Edited by adamstrange
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# 26

 

Candy # 26 - Bought as a VG+ from Metro

 

755890-Candy26s.jpg

 

Content:

Candy Story 1 by ? 7 pgs

Will Bragg by ? 4 pgs

Candy Story 2 by ? 4 pgs

Candy Story 3 by ? 5 pgs

Candy Story 4 by ? 5 pgs

Candy Story 5 by ? 5 pgs

 

The last comic profiled featured Buzzy, America's Favorite Teen-Ager and today we see Candy, America's Favorite Teen-Age Girl. Remember that Archie was not to be confused because he was only America's Typical Teen-Ager.

 

As much as Candy was America's Favorite, she is not comic historians' favorite character. I was not able to turn up any information as to who worked on this title even though, if I had a choice, I'd take these artists over the ones in Buzzy any day of the year. I liked best the art on the Will Bragg story. All I can do today is to show you the inside of Candy and wonder if ever Buzzy and Candy met once DC acquired Quality's line. Who knows if they didn't meet up once both titled were cancelled?

 

Story 1 Splash

 

755890-Candy26Story1s.jpg

 

Will Bragg Story Splash

 

755890-Candy26Story2s.jpg

 

Story 4 Splash

 

755890-Candy26Story3s.jpg

 

P.S.: Adam, thank you for the feature on Baffling. Always ready to help out with your amazing books. I almost bought a copy at the last Mid-Ohio con but ended up spending the money on my Strange Worlds # 6.

 

Also, interestingly after you and Tim discussed the possibility of a running feature on art ID, I saw this email from Roy Thomas, sent last Monday:

 

"I should have my head examined for suggesting this, with the backlog of material I have to squeeze into ALTER EGO, but if someone's interested sometime in doing a piece on ID-ing art styles (with examples), perhaps with emphasis on Timely/Atlas, I'd love to do it, in one part or serialized. I'd like Craig Delich to do one, too, since Jerry Bails demurred. Now if someone could only convince Martin O'Hearn to write about ID-ing writers!

 

Roy"

 

So ... if those that can do answer this call, it is possible that the features you suggested to Gary for CBM can become reality in AE at some point. Yeaaah.

755890-Candy26Story3s.jpg.0c528f78a66e8e085328d5d6555d41f4.jpg

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# 26

 

P.S.: Adam, thank you for the feature on Baffling. Always ready to help out with your amazing books. I almost bought a copy at the last Mid-Ohio con but ended up spending the money on my Strange Worlds # 6.

 

Also, interestingly after you and Tim discussed the possibility of a running feature on art ID, I saw this email from Roy Thomas, sent last Monday:

 

"I should have my head examined for suggesting this, with the backlog of material I have to squeeze into ALTER EGO, but if someone's interested sometime in doing a piece on ID-ing art styles (with examples), perhaps with emphasis on Timely/Atlas, I'd love to do it, in one part or serialized. I'd like Craig Delich to do one, too, since Jerry Bails demurred. Now if someone could only convince Martin O'Hearn to write about ID-ing writers!

 

Roy"

 

So ... if those that can do answer this call, it is possible that the features you suggested to Gary for CBM can become reality in AE at some point. Yeaaah.

 

893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

I hope someone would do the series, though I don't think my schedule would allow it in the near term. I would certainly be happy to help in the writing or research, which would be less demanding on my time.

 

Dr. Vasallo would be an excellent candidate for Atlas, although Vadeboncoeur would be the best. Both of them have a large set of reference copies, which I don't, but which would be needed to do this for the Alter Ego audience. (I consider the Alter Ego crowd as more specialized than the CBM crowd -- demanding a more extensively researched article.) In addition to comics, I would like to have access to original art or photo-copies of original art (e.g. CAPA-Alpha issues) to assist with providing illustrations for the articles.

 

What I really enjoy is learning about the artists that I believe produce the highest caliber of work. If you're going to write an article about id'ing art for a publisher, then you're looking at artists that, in many cases, I have little interest in. The kind of study that I enjoy is to look at the career of exceptional artists to understand their body of work across time and across companies. I find it fascinating in seeing how their styles evolved, who influenced them, and the little experiments they tried.

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# 27

 

Captain and the Kids # 25 - Bought as a VG from Mile High

 

756787-CaptainandtheKids25s.jpg

 

Content: See scans

 

We all have seen these characters in the past but what you may not know is the following, from Comiclopedia, the entry for the series creator:

 

"Rudolph Dirks was born in Germany. At the age of seven, he moved with his parents to Chicago. By 1894, he was already selling his comics to Judge and Life magazine. He was employed by the New York Journal in 1897. His editor asked him to create a strip that could compete with the popularity of 'The Yellow Kid' by Outcault, which was published in a rival newspaper, The New York World. Dirks came up with 'The Katzenjammer Kids'. In 1912, when he wanted to go to Europe to devote himself to painting, his strip was taken from him. After a famous court battle, he regained the right to draw his characters, but the use of the title remained the sole right of the newspaper. This battle became a precedent for many cartoonists in trouble with their newspaper or syndicate.

 

Dirks then resumed the strip under the title of 'Hans und Fritz' (later: 'The Captain and the Kids'), which he drew for The New York World. He retired in 1958, leaving the strip to his son John. 'The Katzenjammer Kids' in the New York Journal was assigned to Harold H. Knerr, and often imitated and plagiarized since. Dirks died in 1968, at 91 years of age."

 

A slightly more extensive synopsis about the break is available on Toonopedia. What I didn't fully grasp until I read the Katzenjammer Kids entry in The Comics by Coulton Waugh is that when the struggle for control happened the strip had already been ongoing for 15 years - 1897 to 1912! Actually the syndicate would have allowed Dirks to go on his 1-year break on the condition he did build one year's worth of inventory for the strip and Dirks did work up to 6 months ahead before packing and leaving and the struggle for control started then.

 

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Strips adds that "Katzenjammer Kids" in german slang of the time meant "the hangover kids". Now, even as a child reading this strip, I never cared for the kids and always sided with the poor Captain (as much of a boor he is). Reading these over, I still find no sympathy for these kids who are maliciously troublesome (not à la H,D&L who don't necessarily want to get on the wrong side of Donald but end there because it's so easy to peeve Donald).

 

As far as longevity in strip, this is another lengthy example. Consider that the Katzenjammer Kids are still running at the King Features Syndicate for a total of 1897 - 2005 = 108 years and The Captain and the Kids ran from 1915 to 1979 or 64 years for a combined life of 172 years worth of strips! (assuming they went uninterrupted) As such they are also one of the most reprinted strip in comics, for more information on their comic book life, look here and for a cover gallery, look there and finally for all things Katzies, look here.

 

Here are two two-page sequence from the book:

 

756787-CaptainandtheKids25Page1s.jpg

756787-CaptainandtheKids25Page2s.jpg

 

On this second one, notice the header for the comic states Sparkle Comics, showing these are recycled pages that UFS didn't bother to clean up. In addition, I had to show you this sequence for the traditional spanking of the Kids after the prank spelled trouble for the Captain (who is not married to Mama so is saddled with these two brats not of his own and still he's stayed for over 100 years)

 

756787-CaptainandtheKids25Page3s.jpg

756787-CaptainandtheKids25Page4s.jpg

 

Collection Trivia: This book is from the Ronny Garcia collection as clearly seen on this white cover. I have at least 3 more books from this "pedigree" tongue.gif all purchased from Chuck at different times.

 

P.S.: Adam, I know what you are saying about different audiences to CBM and AE. I was willing to stick with CBM (and I have bought all issues) through the worst of it and it did improve after a while under Russ (+ I personally don't mind articles about strips so I wasn't upset from the get-go) but the straw that broke the camel's back was the feature on Norman Saunders where NONE of the illustrations were labeled, meaning tough luck if you wanted to find any of those pulps if you did not know. Now that was unacceptable and unforgivable. I have heard people on these boards getting "tired" of AE because of the long interviews with "marginal" artists from the late 40s and 50s and now that they said it I can see that (I don't mind as I probably have a book with their work in my collection) but I would invite anyone feeling that way to pick back up an early copy of the newest volume of AE or even when it was on the back of CBA to see how improved the magazine is (I think) from just a few years back.

 

P.P.S.: No feature for a few days but I will then be back with the Big Red Cheese.

756787-CaptainandtheKids25Page4s.jpg.5440532d6ed19dcbc1372f65ebb3f51b.jpg

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P.S.: Adam, I know what you are saying about different audiences to CBM and AE. I was willing to stick with CBM (and I have bought all issues) through the worst of it and it did improve after a while under Russ (+ I personally don't mind articles about strips so I wasn't upset from the get-go) but the straw that broke the camel's back was the feature on Norman Saunders where NONE of the illustrations were labeled, meaning tough luck if you wanted to find any of those pulps if you did not know. Now that was unacceptable and unforgivable. I have heard people on these boards getting "tired" of AE because of the long interviews with "marginal" artists from the late 40s and 50s and now that they said it I can see that (I don't mind as I probably have a book with their work in my collection) but I would invite anyone feeling that way to pick back up an early copy of the newest volume of AE or even when it was on the back of CBA to see how improved the magazine is (I think) from just a few years back.

 

I still enjoy Alter Ego, and I don't mind reading articles about the minor guys as I think that we should collect their stories before it is too late. If we had Alter Ego and CBM going during the 80s... Also, some of the "minor" artists are quite wonderful. I really enjoyed reading about the Italian connection to Fiction House as I had admired a few stories by a terrific artist in Wings but was completely unable to pinpoint who he was. His work is sort of a cross between Rafael Astarita and Frank Frazetta, but didn't really fit either of those two. It was quite a revelation to learn that several artists in Italy were drawing American comics back in the 1940s.

 

My point about being reluctant to write about the minor artists is not about reading them, but about writing about them. Eighty percent of writing is the the research and the thought -- and I doubt I have it in me to give that kind of effort for artists that, for me, don't have a lot going on.

 

Scrooge: Another nifty post. I think it's safe to say that the racial stereotypes in the art would prevent that from ever being re-printed.

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# 28

 

Captain Marvel Adventures # 130 - eBay purchase

 

761658-CM130s.jpg

 

Content: (w/ credits from the GCD)

 

Double Doom by CC Beck and Costanza(?) inks 8 pgs

The Innocent Panic by Al Liederman(?) 4 pgs

The Famine Foiler by CC Beck 6 pgs

The Mysterious Invisible Monster by CC Beck 7 pgs

All CM scripts by Otto Binder.

 

Far be it from me that I try to enlighten this audience about the Big Red Cheese. So much has been written about him that he needs no introduction and I will never be as articulate as others have been in the past. Let me simply direct those that wish in the right direction:

 

The Toonopedia entry is here and the Comiclopedia entry for Beck is here. And finally, for all things CM and Marvel family including a nicely illustrated Who's Who, please visit the Marvel Family Web.

 

I would like to recommend highly Worlds of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder which I just now see is SOLD OUT according to Bill Schelly's web site. But as those who know know we can always rely on Bud Plant to have the book still available at his site. Grab it while you still can. I don't always agree with Bud's recommendations but I also whole-heartedly recommend this book (a far more captivating read than Julius Schwartz's Man of Two Worlds).

 

Now onto the stories:

 

Story 1: Double Doom - Nice gimmick in that Sivana's role is reversed. As King Kull is using his Dwindling Ray to shrink the Earth to a crushable size, he interrupts Sivana that is menacing to dumb the whole planet with his Mute Ray. Oh boy, CM has to face two simultaneous menaces! But fret not because Sivana realizes that he has to save the Earth from the Menace that wants to Destroy it in order to become himself the Menace that wants to Rule it. There ensues a battle between our two villains to which CM is nothing but a witness ready to sweep up after their battle. Good fun

 

Splash and a page

 

761658-CM130Story1s.jpg

 

761658-CM130Story1Pages.jpg

 

Story 2: The Famine Foiler - Zany story with a nice underlying message. On an outing with Doc Quartz, Billy discovers a valley where inhabitants are starving to death. Nonplussed, the Doc whips up the Famine Foiler that creates sausages from rocks. But, the rocks are not nutritious even though they fill the starved inhabitants. Once the truth is discovered, the villagers turn on the inventor and lynch him with a rope made of sausage links. Then comes CM to the rescue, he saves the Doc and realizes that the sausages are actually perfect fertilizers that help regrow the barren valley. Problem solved (with many shades of the giving a fish versus teaching to fish paradigm)

 

Splash

 

761658-CM130Story2s.jpg

 

Story 3: The Mysterious Invisible Monster - the weakest of the three. An invisible monster wreaks havoc on the beach Billy is taking his vacation. All kinds of suspicion about the nature of the beast are put to rest once CM, after spray-painting the creature, uncovers an invisible viking ship that had been cursed never to be seen again.

 

Splash

 

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# 29

 

Captain Steve Savage # 4 - Bought from ? at last year's Chicago con

 

762379-CptSS4s.jpg

 

Content:

 

Actual Title: Captain Steve Savage fights the Red Raiders from Siang-Po!

Cover by Everett Raymond Kinstler

Inside Cover by Louis Ravielli

Main Story Chapter 1 - No Title 6 pgs

Main Story Chapter 2 - Attack from the North 6 pgs

Main Story Chapter 3 - Showdown! 7 pgs (All by same unIDed artist)

Operation Hero! by ? 8 pgs

 

Today we are back to War, the Korea War to be specific with Captain Steve Savage leading a grab attack on an airfield across three chapters for a 19 pages story. The tone of these stories, again, varies from Fawcett's tone and Atlas' tone. Avon was clearly "on the side of the war" or at least presenting us with a hero-soldier ready and willing to participate in the action (and not in a detached fashion as the Fawcett's soldiers were, see the Battle Stories write-up).

 

Since we will again see Kinstler before this is done, let's talk about Louis Ravielli. From Doc V.'s article about Bible Tales for the Young Folk ,

 

"Louis Ravielli[,] in the continued vein of Anderson, Tumlinson and Lawrence, [...] was a fine illustrator who did the majority of his work for Avon publishing from 1950-54. His Atlas stories excel in depicting "period" pieces both in this bible story and in his myriad of war stories for titles like BATTLE where he illustrated "The Battle Of Waterloo" in 1954. He also was a wonderful pulp artist and can be found in Street and Smith pulps around 1953."

 

The only other information I found was that he provided 68 illustrations for the book Best in Magic by Bruce Elliott in 1956. I suspect that it is the same Bruce Elliott who wrote some (least appreciated) Shadow pulps in the late 40's - See the other thread about the Shadow. You never know how people in this field are going to be connected.

 

This comic actually had the "honor" of an Oddball Comic treatment by Scott Shaw! with heavy emphasis in the first sequence. What Scott blankly missed is to pay attention to the final story.

 

Operation Hero! focuses on the story of why the Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division for heroism in Goville, France. What Shaw! missed is that there was and still is a Walter D. Ehlers who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Here's Walt in 1944:

 

762379-WalterEhlers_MedalofHonor.jpg

 

His award citation can be seen here and his personal story, including the fact that his brother Roland was also on Omaha beach on D-Day but sadly died during the landing operations, is detailed here. Once you read both the citation and the story, it is clear the writer read the citation as the story proceed following the series of event leading up to the heroism Walt displayed. Comics with relevance. It also accentuates the afore-mentioned emphasis the Avon editorial staff brought to these war books.

 

Onto to the art:

 

762379-CptSS4Story1s.jpg

 

Some racial stereotyping within the traditional dog-fighting sequence

 

762379-CptSS4Story1Pages.jpg

 

Giving it to the enemy

 

762379-CptSS4Story3Pages.jpg

 

Artist's version of the D-Day landing in the final story

 

762379-CptSS4Story4Pages.jpg

 

The Ehlers brothers in uniform

 

762379-ehlers_brothersuniformed.jpg

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foreheadslap.gif For how long today's post is I forgot to include the inside cover scan. Here we go:

 

762791-CptSS4InsideCovers.jpg

 

Another superb posting! A little art, a little history what's not to like?

 

This Ravielli page is wonderful -- nicest work that I've seen by him.

 

How did you come up with the Scott Shaw link? Are you googling or just a visitor to his site and spotted the issue?

 

I hope you are saving these posts as you could use them in your own blog or website.

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# 30

 

Cisco Kid # 8 - Bought as a VG from Southern California Comics

 

763150-CiscoKid8s.jpg

 

Content:

 

Cover Painting by Ernest Nordli

The Bad Men of Blue Moon Ridge by Bob Jenney 16 pgs

The Treasure Map to Trouble by Bob Jenney 16 pgs

 

Surprisingly this is the first Dell we run across. It is surprising because 1) Dell is the third most frequent publisher this month and 2) I am only missing the Bozo to have all the Dells I need. As per usual, you get your 10 cents worth of story and art with a Dell: 2 long 16 pages stories, stories that flow fairly well (even though I'd say the same plot would take about 5 or 6 pages in an Atlas book).

 

Soooo the Cisco Kid, who is it? Well, The Scoop did most of the work for me as per their July 19, 2002 column:

 

"The Cisco Kid

Did you Know...?, Scoop, Friday, July 19, 2002

 

Short stories, radio programs, television shows, comic books . . . there are few media that The Cisco Kid and his mustachioed sidekick Pancho haven't infiltrated through the years. First introduced by O. Henry in his short story The Caballero's Way in the early 1900's, the two pals have been fighting injustice all over the Old West ever since. The radio program aired from 1942 to 1956 on Mutual, and between 1950 and 1956, The Cisco Kid television show was syndicated by the Frederic Ziv Company - starring Duncan Renaldo and Lee Carrillo. What made this program so extraordinary - at least from the technical side - was that it was filmed in color, despite the fact that there were no color television sets yet. Ziv had a hunch that color television was on its way, and made sure he was prepared.

 

Today, Cisco Kid collectibles run the range from toy rings to records to combs and shoehorns - and a magnificent run of color comics from Dell publishing - all of which provide yet another example of a simpler era in American history."

 

Thanks to the Old Corral , we also learn that the 'Cisco Kid' character is based on O. Henry's "Heart of the West" book of Western short stories, published in 1907, which was in turn based on legends around Austin, Texas of gambler and gunman Ben Thompson. Moreover, the Cisco Kid ended appearing in 23 movies played respectively by Warner Baxter (3 films), Cesar Romero (6 films), Gilbert Roland (6 films), and Duncan Renaldo (8 films). Yes, the Cisco Kid was the Joker a couple of decades later! You can check Cesar Romero's long list of credits at IMDB.

 

As for Bob Jenney, despite a career running from the 30's to the 80's (assistant on Bringing up Father in 1982) that included some Children's book illustration, I could find very little about him.

 

On the other hand, Ernest Nordli,

 

763150-ErnestNordli.jpg

 

our cover illustrator worked mainly in animation including being art director on Fantasia and Dumbo among others. His entire credits are again on IMDB. As for comic book work, he only worked on covers for Dell on Tonto, Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger (comics #s42, 50, 52, 53, 56, 59, 60 signed). This cover is pretty faithful to the screen image of the Cisco Kid as portayed in this shot by Duncan Renaldo:

 

763150-CiscoKidDuncanRenaldo.jpg

 

Here are the splashes and one additional interior art page

 

763150-CiscoKid8Story1s.jpg

 

763150-CiscoKid8Story2s.jpg

 

763150-CiscoKid8Story2Pages.jpg

 

P.S.: Any one can explain whence came the stamp on this comic. I have seen it on other copies and looks to me to be Norwegian (or at least Scandinavian) currency stamp. Am I right? Anyone can confirm / infirm that this comic travelled a long way from home before coming back?

763150-CiscoKid8Story2Pages.jpg.82ceb0f30110ff7a3de5d37e91828b99.jpg

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P.S.: Any one can explain whence came the stamp on this comic. I have seen it on other copies and looks to me to be Norwegian (or at least Scandinavian) currency stamp. Am I right? Anyone can confirm / infirm that this comic travelled a long way from home before coming back?

 

You'll see this on the Bobby Benson 14 -- which, as we know, was from this same month.

You finally got me off my duff to look this one up on google and Ore. is the abbreviation for the Swedish krona.

 

Speculation: Maybe a shipment of comics from this month was never sent to the country? Or it was returned, stored somewhere and later sold to a comics dealer? It's interesting that you have a typical US distributor mark and the 50 Ore.

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