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

# 97

 

Jiggs and Maggie # 21 - Bought from BedRock City

 

949268-JiggsAndMaggie21.jpg

 

Content:

Bringing up Father in What's Cooking by ? 6 pgs

Bringing up Father in Music Hath Charm by ? 5 pgs

B-979 - Half-Pint Hogan in Birds of a Feather by ? 4 pgs

Bringing up Father in "Stormy Weather!" by ? 4 pgs

Bringing up Father in Man About Town by ? 4 pgs

 

Here's the history of the Bringing up Father strip as per the Toonopedia :

 

"When cartoonist George McManus was a boy, in St. Louis of the 1890s, he saw a play entitled The Rising Generation, about an Irish family's difficulty coping with sudden riches. He remembered it years later, when trying to come up with a theme for his new King Features comic strip. On January 12, 1913, he debuted Bringing Up Father, about an Irishman named Jiggs, who doesn't understand why his ascension to wealth means he can't hang out with his friends, and his nagging, social-climbing wife, Maggie.

 

The strip was an instant hit, possibly because of its combination of an appealing cast of characters with a unique look of art-nouveau splendor. It inspired reprint books, several films, and a stage play. Perhaps its most unusual spin-off was done by restaurateur James Moore, whose eatery was one of McManus's favorites, and who was convinced he was the inspiration for Jiggs's friend, tavern keeper Dinty Moore. He changed the name of his establishment to "Dinty Moore's", and made a fortune from the connection to the popular comic. Later, the name was applied to a line of canned foods.

 

Like most popular King Features strips of the time, Bringing Up Father was adapted into animation during the 19-teens. The series ran less than a dozen cartoons, which came out from 1916-18 from Pathé Film Exchange. There was also a live-action silent comedy based on the characters, produced by MGM, which came out on March 17, 1928. J. Farrell MacDonald played Jiggs, Polly Moran played Maggie and Jules Cowles played Dinty Moore. Another live-action series ran from 1946-50, and starred Joe Yule and Renie Riano, with Tim Ryan as Dinty.

 

Jiggs and Maggie were never great comic book stars. There were some reprint books published by Cupples & Leon between 1919 and '34. They appeared in a few mid-1930s issues of King Comics, alongside Popeye, Mandrake the Magician, and other King Features stars. There were a couple of oneshots from Dell Comics in the 1940s and a brief bimonthly series from Harvey in the '50s. But none of those really took off.

 

Before McManus died, in 1954, Bringing Up Father made him two fortunes (the first was lost in the 1929 stock market crash). By that time, Jiggs's Irishness had faded — the new generation saw him as just a rich guy that liked to hang out with a regular crowd.

 

After McManus's death, the strip continued under other artists, but its popularity waned. The memory remains, however, and that's why Bringing Up Father was one of 20 strips, including The Yellow Kid and The Katzenjammer Kids, appearing in the 1995 "Comic Strip Classics" series of U.S. postage stamps.

 

The strip survived for decades under a succession of artists, the last of whom was Frank Johnson (Boner's Ark). An attempt was made to adhere to the surface elements of McManus's style, but without his artistry and design sense, it was like an empty shell. Finally, it gave up the ghost. The last one appeared on May 28, 2000. By that time, it had become the longest-running daily strip in the world."

 

Coulton Waugh's The Comics provides these observations about this celebrated strip:

 

""Bringing up Father" was, for the comics fans of 1913, a pre-view of the coming flood of man and wife strips; and it had no small part in releasing this flood. But Jiggs and Maggie are not purely typical American husband and wige in the sense of Toots and Casper, Mr. and Mrs., or Blondie and Dagwood. These latter are possessed of modest working incomes; they are little people. The theme of the Jiggs and Maggie saga [...] is that money has flooded a simple Irish workman's life in amounts large enough to satisfy any dream - and while this brings out all the Maggie in Maggie, it also brings out all the Jiggs in Jiggs - this Jiggishness being the really attractive feature of the strip, ameliorating, to some degree, the fights and brawls, the unpleasant picture of marriage which it portrays. As Maggie scrambles furiously to the top rung on the ladder, Jiggs looks wistfully at the bottom and makes pathetic attempts to return to it.

 

[...] There is peculiar artistry about "Bringing up Father." It is easy, entertaining to look at. All the characters are quietly funny; they are all truly drawn. The layout, the pattern of the strip is remarkable. It stands sharply out among the confused styles of many modern strips with a refreshing simplicity. Finely arranged blacks, uncluttered backgrounds, which are still full of telling detail; beautiful line, as clean as a telephone wire after a thunderstorm, and always humor - even the ostentatious vases and rugs in Maggie's house are funny."

 

First Story "Splash"

 

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First Story Page

 

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Second Story "Splash"

 

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Second Story Page

 

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# 98

 

Joe Yank # 5 (First Issue) - Bought from ??

 

949922-JoeYank5s.jpg

 

Content:

Cover by Art Saaf

B 1009 - Joe Yank in Black Market Mary by Art Saaf ? 8 pgs

B 1012 - Goldbrick Gribble in Terrible Tank Trap by John Celardo 3 pgs

B 1008 - Joe Yank in Korean Jackpot by ? 7 pgs

B 1006 - Pinhead Perkins, PFC in Pardon my Brass by Dan DeCarlo ? 6 pgs

B 1010 - Joe Yank in Operation Kimchi by ? 5 pgs

 

Let's start with some information about the title. As stated by Scott Shaw!, "JOE YANK is a genuine oddity -- a wartime comic that intentionally combines lighthearted military humor with the bloody death and destruction of the Korean War!" The series had a nice run for the time period and was blessed with a great line-up of artists: Toth, Severin/Elder, DeCarlo, Andru, Roy, Celardo, Saaf and others known to have worked on this series. Yet, there are even more good artists working for Standard at the time, people such as: Cardy, Anderson, Moreira, ...

 

From the Seduction of the Innocent series by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. , we see how difficult exhuming artist and company data can be, especially for questions regarding the inner workings of Standard Comics: "Take the simple question of who was 'on staff' at Standard during the 1952 - 1954 period? Richard Halequa tells me the art drawn by Mike Sekowsky has a 'staff' stamp on the bottom and that Nick Cardy doesn't. Ergo, Sekowsky was staff, Cardy wasn't. But let's step back a bit and look at the rest of the picture. Sekowsky's work can be found elsewhere (Atlas, St. John, Fawcett, Sterling, etc.) for the entire '52 - '54 period except for the five months of Nov. '53 to March '54; while Nick Cardy appears nowhere at Standard from 1952 to Oct. of 1953. So, was Sekowsky a 'staff' artist who freelanced elsewhere? Was Cardy a freelancer who worked only at Standard? Did Sekowsky replace Cardy as a staff member? Take your pick. The point I want to make is that, even though we don't have data on every comic published, the new data we do get doesn't supersede the old data. It must be added to it in such a way that it all makes sense. Before Richard found this art, it seemed obvious that, staff-wise, Cardy was in, Sekowsky out. Now, who knows? More often than not, new data = new questions!"

 

Let shine the light on Art Saaf - The bio information comes from www.artsaaf.com.

 

ART1945.gif

 

"Youth and Education, Depression and Pre-WWII

Art (or "Artie") Saaf was born on December 4, 1921 in a cold-water flat’s "hall" room in Brooklyn, New York City. The family home was located at 234 Reid Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district between Hancock and Jefferson streets. His mother Anna was of Swedish ancestry and his father Hermann was of German ancestry, and "Artie" had a brother and two sisters.

 

He fondly remembers the location of the police and fire departments on Quincy Street. Yet he doesn't like to remember being bedridden at 4 years old with rheumatic fever for almost half a year before partially recovering. Artie’s mother, in a separate statement, said his father "Hermann was a bakery delivery carriage-driver for Manhattan Pie Company using a horse named ‘Tony.’ …. Arthur had a bike and it was stolen….It was made up from all picked up parts into a great bike….Arthur picked up newspapers with a home made wagon made from carriage parts. We got 5-10 cents a hundred pounds."

 

During grade school at P.S. 26, his first introduction to art and drawing was in the second grade completing a class project of "Animals in the Field." He also read the comics of Roy Crane’s "Captain Easy." He attended Alexander Hamilton High School, graduating in the upper third of his class.

 

In the 30’s after finishing his Public schooling, his first job was a "Page" (message) boy in Wall Street, and then at the Stock Exchange Desk where he proof-read bonds for the American Bank Note Company on Beaver Street. This was during the depression, yet the task was so important that he received, for that time, the princely sum of $12.50 per week.

 

During his youth, he developed his art skills on his own and started working in comics in 1938. He built his own drawing table from instructions in a Mechanics’ Illustrated magazine.

 

World War II

 

Up to and including the beginning of the War, the comic industry was centered totally in New York City at the Comic Studio, run by Will Eisner. There were no fully original stories being written and comics were created primarily by re-doing the old and by using cutouts and re-written copy. Now, the industry had a new market because the service members needed entertainment that they could easily obtain and carry with them. The industry created the "new comic book," with stories that had a beginning, middle, and an end. Artie remembers the Orson Welles movie "Citizen Kane" as having a great effect on Comics due to its composition and Roy Crane introducing four-color comics.

 

Artie attended the Pratt Institute from January 1941 to April 1942, his major being Pictorial Illustration. He also attended the School of Arts and Mechanics for 1 year and the Art Students League for 2 ½ years. The instructor he most remembers was Mr. Trafton at the School of Arts and Mechanics, "and," he recalls, "a good one, I might add".

 

During the War, he was working on stories such as Kaanga, Camilla, Fight and Sheena and working at Wings Comics and McFadden Publishing. He also went to work at Fiction House at 8th and 34th streets in NYC owned by a southern family from Atlanta, Georgia. The demand for good artists, thanks to the reception by the troops, increased quickly. He freelanced at night "ghosting" (which is doing the artwork of a strip that someone else got credit for) characters such as on the newspaper daily strip "Hap Hopper," by the well-known Washington correspondent, Drew Pearson.

 

Artie continually "walked" the new studios, showing his samples and becoming increasingly known as an excellent talent, doing "lettering" and "still and figure" work in most of the new studios.

 

Post-War 1940’s thru 1960’s

 

When the war ended, there was a slowdown in the industry. Still, Artie was able to obtain work at such firms as "Timely Comics," "Dell Comics", and doing work on the new "Archie" type comics and autobiographical comics such as "The Clown of Baseball".

 

In 1954, Artie went to work for the Kudner Agency as Assistant TV Art director, creating the "storyboards" for the commercials on "The Jackie Gleason Show." In 1956, he did work for the Dancer, Fitzgerald, and Sample Agency as a TV art director.

 

In 1958-59, Artie left the Agencies to work on his own as a freelancer because, he said, "the pace was too fast, and I wanted time to think about what I was doing." From 1959 through the late 60’s he did his work for such agencies as Donahue and Coe; D’Arcy; Benton and Bowles; McConnell-Eastman-Canada; Dancer Fitzgerald and Sample; and Thompson-Koch. His TV visual and storyboard work were primarily ads and included: Post Cereals; Crest; Zest; Liquid Prell; Personna; Parliament cigarettes; Yuban; Maxwell House; Life Savers; Cue toothpaste; Texaco; Minute Rice (Canada); Royal Crown Cola. All the while he was still doing his comic work!

 

Post 1970

 

Though he did comic work intermittently up to the late 1980’s Artie did other work, such as illustrations for "Highlights for Children" magazine. He's written and illustrated columns for newspapers and magazines concerning the outdoors and worked with the Audubon society and Game Commission in his state on conservation-related topics. He's done advisory work to High School Conferences on careers for budding artists. He's created artwork about local historic sites in his neighborhood while continuing to create works for his family and friends. But he most enjoys his garden and the company of his grandchildren. His favorite color is Turquoise. And his favorite baseball team is of course the "Yankee's".

 

First Story Splash

 

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First Story Page - Since Saaf was a Toth protégé, there is a strong Toth look to this page.

 

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Celardo Story Page

 

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Third Story Splash

 

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Third Story Page

 

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DeCarlo Splash

 

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DeCarlo Page

 

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Fifth Story Page

 

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# 99

 

Johnny Mack Brown # 9 - Bought from ??

 

955411-JohnnyMackBrown9.jpg

 

Content:

Johnny Mack Brown in The Ghost Stagecoach by Jesse Marsh 16 pgs

Johnny Mack Brown in The Town that Disappeared by ? 6 pgs

The Dead Man's Hand by ? 6 pgs

 

As usual for Dell cowboy comics, there's a photo back cover (clearly showing an older Johnny Mack Brown)

 

955411-JohnnyMackBrown9BCs.jpg

 

Here's the bio for Johnny Mack Brown from The Old Corral -

 

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"John Mack Brown was a real southerner, born in Dothan, Alabama on September 1, 1904 to John Henry Brown and Hattie (McGillivray) Brown. They had nine children: Harry was the first, JMB was the second, Tolbert was third, fourth was William Wallace (Billy), and then came Fred, Louise, Elsa, Doris and David.

 

At an early age, he became interested in hunting and fishing as well as playing high school sports. Brown graduated from Dothan High School in 1922. He was an All-American running back on the University of Alabama football team, and scored two of their three touchdowns in a winning effort against the favored Washington Huskies in the 1926 Rose Bowl. [Eventually, Johnny Mack Brown was inducted in both the Rose Bowl and College Football Halls of Fame. Three of his brothers also played for the tide].

 

955411-JohnnyMackBrownFootballStar.jpg

 

After graduation, he tried his hand at coaching for a short time. He went to Hollywood and began doing bit parts around 1927 in silents. A good looking gent, Brown became a fairly successful leading man at MGM for nearly five years, appearing opposite such famous actresses as Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. Brown's first major cowboy role was portraying the titled gunslinger in MGM's BILLY THE KID (1930), which was directed by King Vidor, and included Wallace Beery as Sheriff Pat Garrett.

 

Apparently Brown's slow, southern drawl caused some problems when talkies arrived, and MGM opted not to renew his contract. Having been a star at MGM, he was able to land some roles at other studios during the next four or five years.

 

His first starring cliffhanger was for producer Nat Levine and his Mascot serial factory in FIGHTING WITH KIT CARSON (Mascot, 1933). However, his other filmwork during this period was generally in non-cowboy roles such as BELLE OF THE NINETIES (Paramount, 1934), starring Mae West. By the mid 1930s, Johnny Mack Brown needed some help, and it would arrive in the form of A. William Hackel, the Poverty Row producer and owner of little Supreme Pictures.

 

Johnny Mack Brown and his wife Connie became part of 'Hollywood society'. They purchased a home in Beverly Hills which included a pool and tennis court; a very good horseman, Johnny played polo on the weekends; and their friends included many of Tinseltown's biggest names such as Jeannette MacDonald, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Spencer Tracy, more.

 

Bob Steele began his lengthy working relationship with A. W. Hackel and his Supreme Pictures company in a group of eight inexpensive oaters which were released in 1934-1935. For the 1935-1936 release season, the Steele series continued ... and Hackel also signed Johnny Mack Brown for eight.

 

955411-JohnnyMackBrownWildWestDays.jpg

 

A bit of good luck occurred for Steele, Brown and Hackel. Republic Pictures had been formed in 1935 with the merger/consolidation of Mascot Pictures, Monogram Pictures, Consolidated Film Laboratories, and more. The new startup company needed some westerns to distribute, and they reached agreement with Hackel for new Brown and Steele adventures which would carry the Republic Pictures logo. This gave a career boost to both Brown and Steele.

 

In summary, the Brown/Hackel relationship totaled 16 films --- 8 under Supreme Pictures for 1935-1936 and 8 for Republic during 1936-1937.JMB also worked at various small and large production outfits, and some of his other films from this period include BORN TO THE WEST (aka HELL TOWN) (Paramount, 1937), with John Wayne, and WELLS FARGO (Paramount, 1937) with Joel McCrea.

 

The Hackel westerns and Universal serials had one major impact --- Johnny Mack Brown was on the screen a lot! And that translated into fan acceptance and popularity. As a result, he was given an opportunity to star in a new series at Universal.

 

The priority and value of B westerns at Universal had ebbed and flowed with their financial success or problems during the 1930s. Early in that decade, the studio was home to some high quality sagebrush yarns with Tom Mix, Ken Maynard and Buck Jones. Around 1937, Universal decided to begin a singing cowboy series, and Bob Baker became their new range star. But there were problems, and Brown was brought in to shore up the series. Baker was demoted to second-lead and Fuzzy Knight became the comedic member of the new trio. After a half dozen films, Baker wound up looking for work elsewhere, and Brown was promoted to Universal's new solo hero.

 

During the World War II years, Universal was going through another shift in priorities and their horror production unit was given new life. Little Monogram Pictures had brought out the Rough Riders series in 1941-1942, which starred old timers Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton. But Jones had been killed in the November, 1942 Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, and Colonel Tim McCoy was called back to Army duty for WW2. Scott R. Dunlap, Monogram's production boss, needed a quick replacement for the Rough Riders ... someone who was already a recognized star and had a box office following.

 

955411-JohnnyMackBrownHorseGallop.jpg

 

And so, Johnny Mack Brown signed with Monogram Pictures and he would remain on their payroll for about ten years. In 1943, the last of Brown's Universal films were in theaters. At the same time, his initial Monogram entries were being released. The decision to hire Brown turned out to be correct and timely, as the veteran cowboy star would become even more important to Monogram. Their other trio series, the Range Busters, concluded filming in late 1942, with the last film in the series hitting the silver screen in early 1943. Monogram really needed Johnny Mack.

 

As with many of the old cowboy stars, he did make guest/cameo appearances in a few later westerns, such as THE BOUNTY KILLER (1965), REQUIEM FOR A GUNFIGHTER (1965) and APACHE UPRISING (1966). During his later years, Brown had some financial difficulties and sold the Beverly Hills home. Johnny Mack Brown passed away November 14, 1974 due to a heart condition.

 

Johnny Mack Brown made about 165 films during a Hollywood career that spanned about 25 years (stretched to nearly 40 years if you include the guest appearance roles noted above). His western films and serials total about 120, and over half of these were at Monogram. Folks that I've interviewed, as well as comments from others in many articles and books, note that Johnny Mack Brown was simply a nice person to work with ... and a true "southern gentleman"."

 

"Johnny Mack Brown Comics

 

Johnny Mack Brown's first comic book appearance coincided with Tim McCoy's last appearance in Tim McCoy Western Movie Stories #21, dated August 1949 and published by Charlton Comics. Johnny's own series began in March 1950 as part of Dell Publishing's Four Color anthology series, and continued until February 1959. There were a total of 22 issues in that period, all with photo covers (and as in the comic issues on the right, at least some had photo back covers as well).

 

Johnny also appeared in the first 21 issues of the Dell Giant Series Western Roundup beginning in June 1952 which featured Johnny along with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Wild Bill Elliott and Rex Allen. All [the first] 9 covers have photo head shots of all 5 stars with Roy's and Gene's always slightly larger than the others.

 

Johnny's first and only other comics appearance insofar as I can tell was in 1939 in issues 4, 5 and 6 of National Periodicals short-lived (6 issues) Movie Comics. They contain a 3-part adaption of the serial THE OREGON TRAIL."

 

As for the artist on the first story, it was Jesse Marsh. Until I read up on Jesse, I didn't realise how early on he had passed on. I was quite surprised. Here's the bio information from The Jesse Marsh Site -

 

"Jesse Mace Marsh was born in Florence, Alabama, on July 27, 1915, in the Shoals section of the Tennessee River. Situated in the northwest corner of Alabama, close to both Tennessee and Mississippi, it's an area rich in Civil War history.

 

955411-JesseMarshPhoto.jpg

 

He and his twin sister were the middle children in a family of seven, headed by their father, a small time building contractor. Young Jesse’s interest in drawing showed itself at a very early age, around 3, and he applied himself daily.

 

The family moved to California in 1931, when he was 16 years old, to the general Los Angeles area, living in Long Beach and then Pamona, before settling in Monrovia. All the while, he drew every day, spending endless hours improving himself, and educating himself at public libraries studying art books, and visiting art galleries around Los Angeles, imitating, learning, developing.

 

Entirely a self-taught artist, he certainly impressed someone: in 1939, at age 24, Disney Studios hired him, starting off as a breakdown animator, and then as story man, working on Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940).

 

In 1942, at the beginning of the U.S. involvement in WW2, he went into the military service, assigned to the Army Air Force as a radar man. After some months of basic training and honing his specialty, he was sent to the European theater. While serving in Anzio, Italy, he was seriously wounded by a mortar shell as he was stringing communication lines on the battlefield. His wounds required a long recuperation at the Huntington Library estate in San Marino, California.

 

He returned to the Disney Studio at the end of the war, as story man and also as storyboard artist on Pluto shorts ("Canine Casanova," 1945, "Pluto's Kid Brother," 1946, "In Dutch," 1946), a Donald Duck short ("Lighthouse Keeping," 1946), Make Mine Music (1946), and on "Johnny Appleseed" and "Little Toot" (Melody Time, 1948).

 

His colleagues considered him a talented draftsman, and enjoyed his sense of humor ("...He used to decorate the doors of our studios with huge color nudes drawn on wrapping paper. He was very good!"...Marc Davis).

 

In addition to these and other projects at the Walt Disney Studios, Mr. Marsh headed a crew animating the classic novel, Don Quixote, in 1946, the second of four doomed attempts by the Disney Studios (the most recent effort, in 1998, was by the Brizzi brothers, Gaetan and Paul, who labored long and hard on brilliant artwork). This time they worked to bring the Richard Strauss musical tone poem of the novel to the screen. Mr. Marsh and his crew prepared hundreds of pen and ink and watercolor cartoons, creating enough storyboards for an entire film. It was for naught. This effort, too, was shelved.

 

It's evident that the men and women at the Walt Disney Studios, Mr. Marsh included, were an intelligent lot and were keenly knowledgeable of the fine arts and contemporary art movements, their work being highly influenced by Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Cezanne, and Dalí, mentioning just a few from a long list. These young artists were eager to apply new artwork, and get away from what they viewed as the “classic animation” of Snow White and Pinocchio, wanting to incorporate new ideas, new styles developed from contemporary art. They finally got their chance...viewing some the brilliant scenes in animations like Fantasia shows their success. “But many of the earliest and boldest stylistic innovations were restricted to films that remained uncompleted.

 

The desire to reflect the look of modern fine art is particularly evident in the preliminary sketches for ‘One More Spring’ by Tom Oreb and Jesse Marsh. The angular, somewhat distorted figures are modeled after the figures of Picasso (and, in a few places, Rousseau and Dalí), including a nude painted by a slovenly artist.” [The Disney That Never Was]

 

In 1945, still at Walt Disney, he started doing some free lance work for Western Printing and Lithography. As Western had acquired the publishing rights to the Walt Disney characters (and most other major movie studios’ characters), there was almost daily contact between Western and Disney. Brought in by art editor Carl Buettner, Mr. Marsh was about to embark on a whole new career.

 

Many former co-workers had gone down this road, including Paul “The Other Mouse Man” Murry, Carl Barks, who left Disney in 1942, joining Western soon after (chicken farming just didn‘t bring him the wealth he’d hoped), and Morris “Moe” Gollub, who would again work with Mr. Marsh, illustrating the covers to TARZAN #8 through #12 (AND, those fantastic back covers of the African warriors!), and painting many of the later covers; superb work, especially the annuals.

 

Jesse Marsh’s first assignment was a GENE AUTRY comic book, Dell Four Color #66, GENE AUTRY “The Trail of Terror,” followed, in the same year, by Dell Four Color #75, GENE AUTRY AND THE WILDCAT, and Dell Four Color #93 GENE AUTRY “The Bandit of Black Rock,” and somewhere in there, a GENE AUTRY BLB book. Dell Four Color #100 GENE AUTRY came early in 1946.

 

With these successful one-shots, Western Publishing asked him to start a series for them that same year. Dell GENE AUTRY #1 was released (May/June 1946). The first ten issues were published bimonthly, but strong sales soon dictated a monthly schedule and he continued the series through #40 (June 1950).

 

Also in 1946, Western decided to do try a TARZAN comic book, one that had original art, not Sunday strip reprints, and they chose Mr. Marsh. The Dell Four Color #134, "Tarzan and the Devil Ogre," came out in February, 1947. There soon followed Dell Four Color #161, "Tarzan and the Fires of Tohr," in August, 1947. Both one-shots were penned by Robert P. Thompson (Mr. Marsh's long association with Gaylord DuBois would begin soon) who had been working with ERB material for quite a while, including radio scripts.

 

With an ever increasing workload, Jesse Marsh finally left Disney Studios in 1947, joining Western full-time and quickly becoming their most utilized in-house artist. TARZAN was started in the one-shot series, GENE AUTRY was up and running, he was doing ROY ROGERS Better Little Books, and in time, he began illustrating March of Comics issues and also other Whitman Better Little Books (TARZAN and additional GENE AUTRY titles).

 

The TARZAN comics, too, proved successful, and Western offered Mr. Marsh his second series. Dell TARZAN #1 was published in January-February 1948, again written by Robert P. Thompson. Gaylord DuBois teamed up with Mr. Marsh with issue no. 2, and their long collaboration began. Jesse Marsh penciled, inked, and lettered all the early issues and he would continue on this series for an additional 152 issues, with Mr. DuBois writing most of the stories. What a team! Soon there were TARZAN annuals, TARZAN March of Comics issues, plus many other hero comics, promotional comics, coloring books, newspaper strips, covers, backup stories, and juvenile books.

 

Once he was settled in at Western Printing, Mr. Marsh, as Carl Barks had also done, set up a studio in his own home, working there, rather than commuting 40 miles to the cramped quarters Western Printing had in L.A. Mr. Marsh shared a home with his parents, whom he cared for in their old age. After their passing, he lived there alone. His art studio was a small room, full of brushes, paper, ink and pens, and his drawing table at which he stood. Reading the -script, he would quickly pencil in his layout, and then, as quickly, do the inking. If his work gave him any trouble, if it wasn’t what he wanted, he would most often throw the page away and start over rather than try to change what he had done.

 

It was curious that this artist, so highly talented and productive, would almost never look at his finished work in comic book form, or any one else’s for that matter. When he was developing his comic book style, he looked at various comics on the market, liked what he saw in Milton Caniff’s style, and incorporated it into his. He rarely looked at any comics again. He didn’t care about them. He did the artwork, sent it in, and that was the end of it.

 

Jesse Marsh had many passions, among them: art, fine books, and cars. He painted canvases in whatever spare time he had (at heart, he was painter), and also acquired art books to continue his education. He collected many other books, especially books on the subjects in his comics, books that he used as references, his windows on the world, amassing a large African art and societies collection (some speculate he had more than 2000 volumes!), and books on archaeology, all of which is so evident in his comics, from the architecture of lost cities to the costumes and cultural behaviors of his African characters. C. E. Cazedessus writes that his extensive collection contained a rare Bible which was of interest to the Library of Congress.

 

Russ Manning and Alex Toth both tell of his love of cars...fast cars, exotic cars; he was an enthusiast and a collector, showing up at the Beverly Hills Western office in many different cars, often once a month!

 

Jesse Marsh’s humor is prevalent throughout his works: the caricatured faces and bodies of the “common man,“ particularly in his Western comics; the exaggerated, comedic look of pain, shock, horror, or surprise of some characters, human and animal; jotting his own name, or a part of it, on tree trunks and grave markers, etc. He also included friends and family in his artwork, probably more often then we'll know. Through Russ Manning we learn that a woman Mr. Marsh was dating, named Sybil, was used as a model for a character in GENE AUTRY #34 (December 1949). She is drawn quite beautifully, as are many of the women in his works. Mr. Manning also reveals that the likeness of the wonderfully eccentric TARZAN comic book character, Doctor Alexander MacWhirtle, was based on Mr. Marsh's father!!

 

Throughout his life, Jesse Marsh maintained constant contact with his old friends from the Disney Studio days. He was also a strong family man and must have remained close to his siblings and their families, many of whom probably lived in the neighboring areas. As he approached middle age, however, he was reluctant to enter into new relationships. Alex Toth, working for Western in the late ’50s, tried a number of times to get together with Jesse Marsh outside of work, inviting him over for lunch or dinner with his wife and himself at their home. Mr. Marsh, initially accepting, would postpone and eventually cancelled.

 

In 1965, Jesse Marsh's illness forced him to slow his artwork production dramatically, and he finished his last TARZAN comic that year, issue #153, published October 1965, having drawn, inked, and lettered this series continuously for nigh 20 years! He retired, far too late, to devote himself to painting, his true love, and to write (he had submitted a book to Dell Publishing), but the diabetes that had been taking his eyesight, finally claimed him. He died on April 28, 1966, and was buried at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego County, California. He was only 50 years old."

 

Overall Jesse Marsh was associated with Johnny Mack Brown on Johnny Mack Brown #2 through #7, #9 (1951 to 1952) as well as Four Color # 618 and # 645(1955).

 

Jesse Marsh Splash

 

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Jesse Marsh Page

 

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Second Story Splash

 

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Second Story Page

 

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# 100

 

Journey into Fear # 6 - eBay Purchase

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6s.jpg

 

Content;

Partners in Blood by ? 9 pgs

Tomb for Two by ? 6 pgs

Ghost Clinic - The Case of the Fiery Spirit by ? 2 pgs text

Die, My Darling by ? 8 pgs

The Rose of Doom! by ? 7 pgs

 

Today, I turn to Tales Too Terrible To Tell # 6 to help with the coverage of Superior horror in general and Journey into Fear in particular:

 

"Superior – Superior’s cover format is very standard. Almost without fail, each cover features a cover scene depicting one or two people (always one being a woman) menaced by an evil creature. Inserted onto the cover is a box containing the titles of the four stories contained within. This formula is almost never broken. These title boxes are always accurate. Readers may want to compare this with similar boxes on Story horror comics which are almost invariably wrong!

 

[...] One thing I have to give Superior (or more properly, the Iger Studio) is the originality of their scripts. While they aren’t always the most profound stories in the world, the plots are usually quite novel and their unfolding is quite hard to anticipate. In this respect, Superior stories are frequently much more unpredictable than, for example, those of EC. EC stories may be much better written and they pay a great deal more attention to character description and motivation, but the outcome of many Superior stories are often quite unforeseeable: sometimes almost random in their evolution. While the bad guy usually does get punished at the end of a Superior tale, this rule is violated frequently enough to make it quite interesting. What’s really intriguing is that often the good guys get “punished” also – and the reader can rarely tell in advance if the helpless “victims” are going to survive any of the very sinister activities in which they find themselves immersed. Many a Superior story ends with the death of everybody! Justice usually triumphs but often there’s nobody around to enjoy the just results!

 

Journey into Fear – Superior’s head office was in Toronto, Ontario. However, the company did maintain some kind of editorial presence in New York, since the company solicited “real ghost stories” from readers, asking them to send such yarns to “Dr. Shade’s Ghost Clinic.” This solicitation appeared in Superior’s first comics: Journey into Fear #1-4. The invitation was never printed in the other titles. Furthermore, Superior either didn’t receive any interesting responses or decided to drop the reader-participation program since the Ghost Clinic was later replaced with standard text pieces and no letters from readers ever appeared in any Superior horror comics. Thus ended Superior’s attempt to interact with its large readership. This indicates that after the first four issues of Journey into Fear, the company’s approach to composing horror comics settled down into a format which remained very much the same for the rest of the company’s history. After Journey into Fear was cancelled in September 1954, its first three issues of the title were recycled, covers and all, as reprint material for the remaining two titles, whose last three installments, running into January 1955, were composed entirely of such reprints.

 

[...] Journey into Fear # 6 contains a particularly nice story, Partners in Blood, with a vampiric theme. Professor Martin and his niece Rose decide to visit a supposedly haunted castle along the Rhine: Vampire Schloss is its name and the locals go out of their way to warn the couple about the castle’s dangerous reputation.

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story1s.jpg

 

Of course, they ignore them! The story moves along at a fast pace: female vampire bites Rose,

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story1Page1s.jpg

 

Martin kills vampire, Rose kills Martin now that she’s a vampire, Rose goes off with the hunchback Tor, who has captured her now undead heart. However, in a desperate attempt to punish the bad guys, the writer concluded the story by having Tor fall off he castle ramparts while carrying Rose over their medieval “threshold”!

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story1Page2s.jpg

 

Whatta ending! Superior stories typically have the bad guys getting it in the end but usually the punishment is meted out a bit more adeptly than this.

 

Tomb for Two Last Page

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story2Pages.jpg

 

Die, My Darling "Splash" Page - GCD Synopsis: A witch doctor curses Maxwell Harley. Once back in the U.S.A., Maxwell starts shrinking. His wife rigs a large dummy and he hides in the head of it. Maxwell kills his wife and her lover but grows again and is arrested.

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story3s.jpg

 

Die, My Darling Page

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story3Pages.jpg

 

The Rose of Doom! Splash Page

 

958626-JourneyintoFear6Story4s.jpg

 

P.S.: Ping

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# 101

 

Journey into Unknown Worlds # 9 - eBay Purchase

 

958931-JourneyintoUnknownWorlds9s.jpg

 

Content:

Cover by Carl Burgos?

- - The People Who Couldn't Exist by Mike Sekowsky / Chris Rule? 6 pgs

9324 - The Spaceman by Allen Bellman? 4 pgs

9481 - Don't Kill Me Twice! by Werner Roth? 6 pgs

9207 - "Beyond Time!" by Pete Morisi 3 pgs

9384 - The Four Walls by Joe Sinnott 4 pgs

 

 

This is such a FUN book that I will let it speak for itself for this entry.

 

People Who Couldn't Exist Splash page

 

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People Who Couldn't Exist Page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnkownWorlds9Story1Page1s.jpg

 

People Who Couldn't Exist Last page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnkownWorlds9Story1Pages.jpg

 

The Spaceman Splash Page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnknownWorlds9Story2s.jpg

 

The Spaceman Last Page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnknownWorlds9Story2Pages.jpg

 

Don't Kill Me Twice! Splash page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnknownWorlds9Story3s.jpg

 

Don't Kill Me Twice! next page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnknownWorlds9Story3Pages.jpg

 

"Beyond Time!" Splash page

 

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"Beyond Time!" next page

 

958931-JourneyintoUnknownWorlds9Story4Pages.jpg

 

The Four Walls Splash page

 

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The Four Walls Last page

 

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# 102

 

Jumbo # 157 - eBay Purchase

 

965440-JumboComics157s.jpg

 

Content: [iDs from the GCD]

Cover by Maurice Whitman(?)

Sheena in Cave of the Golden Skull by Robert Webb 9 pgs

Ghost Gallery by Jack Kamen 5 pgs

The Hawk of the Seas by Robert Webb 4 pgs

Long Bow by Robert Webb 4 pgs

Space Scout by Tom D'Adamo 4 pgs

 

Let me borrow from the CGC Newsletter the words of Michelle Nolan about collecting Jungle and Jumbo -

 

"By the time the queen and king of the Golden Age comic book jungles had taken their final swings on those oh-so-improbable vines, only Superman and Batman had appeared during more consecutive months among characters created for American comic books.

 

Sheena appeared in all 167 issues of Jumbo Comics (1938-53) and Kaanga in all 163 issues of Jungle Comics (1940-54), giving those classic Fiction House titles two of the most enduring characters of the Golden Age.

 

Today, Will Eisner's and Jerry Iger's Sheena, originally created as an English newspaper strip, is by far the better known of the two characters. Sheena emerged as the star of two syndicated television series nearly half a century apart, not to mention a movie distribution three decades after she last appeared.

 

Ironically, Kaanga was clearly a Tarzan knockoff, yet the so-called Jungle Lord dominated the potted-palm comic book scene long before Tarzan earned his own regularly published Dell comic book. That occurred nearly half a century after Tarzan first appeared on the pulp magazine scene in 1912.

 

For some reason, though, the Kaanga-like character Ki-Gor was a huge hit in the Fiction House pulps, but Sheena barely made a blip on the pulp scene, especially considering her impact on the comics. Ki-Gor appeared in 59 consecutive quarterly issues of Jungle Stories (from Winter 1938-39 to Spring 1954), but Sheena's only pulp stories were published in a one-shot Sheena pulp in 1951 (three stories) and in the final issues of Jungle Stories.

 

When looking over the history of Jumbo and Jungle, there's no question that Jumbo is the more collectible comic, especially since this anthology of original strips went through several distinct phases.

 

Jumbo #1-8 (September 1938 to June/July 1939) were oversized 10½-inch by 14½-inch experiments, all in black and white, looking much like DC's New Fun Comics #1-6 of 1936. If you can acquire even one issue of the first eight Jumbos in any complete condition, consider yourself fortunate, since all eight are among the scarcest of Golden Age comics.

 

Sheena didn't take over Jumbo's cover on a regular basis until #17 (July 1940) and immediately made the title one of the most distinctive looking and original of the early Golden Age. A flood of jungle queen imitations didn't hit the stands in their own titles until after the super heroes began their gradual decline following World War II.

 

Jumbo's interiors didn't vary much throughout the 1940s, what with the familiar likes of The Hawk, ZX-5, Stuart Taylor and Inspector Dayton, all of which appeared in the first 63 issues (the last 68-pager was #51). The one "different" feature, Lightning, was different only for Fiction House, which produced only a handful of genuine super heroes.

 

Lightning made one of the strangest debuts in history — he appeared in full super heroic regalia on the cover of #14, yet did not appear inside until his 8-page back-of-the-book debut in #15 (May 1940). His only other full-fledged cover appearance was #16, making that issue a "must" if you want a representative collection of what made early Fiction House comics absolute standouts on the newsstands. Lightning lasted through #41 (July 1942) as the company's longest-running costume hero. The long-running Ghost Gallery replaced Lightning in #42 and never left the title. Another long-running strip, Sky Girl, debuted in #68 (October 1944) and ran through #130 (except #79), with almost all stories done by Matt Baker, giving Baker completists quite a financial challenge, if not rarities to chase. Every comic convention seems to have several issues of Jumbo.

 

Sheena appeared in two stories (a total of 20 pages in each issue) of Jumbo #141-149, which were the last 52-page issues. Jumbo dropped to 36 pages (including covers) with #150. What makes Jumbo #151-167 worth collecting are covers by Maurice Whitman, who began drawing most of them with #146 and composed strikingly different horror covers for #151-167 when the publishers decided Sheena was no longer a cover draw. The versatile, under-rated Whitman drew dozens of Fiction House covers in the 1950-54 period, no doubt keeping several titles alive until the publisher was on its last legs.

 

Jungle was unique with regard to genre — as was the sister title Planet — when #1 (January 1940) appeared, part of a deluge of new titles from numerous publishers in the first half of 1940, the first year comics really became a cultural phenomenon. But other than some marvelous early covers by several talented artists, Jungle quickly became repetitive and remained that way throughout the run. Camilla, Wambi, Tabu, Simba the Lion, Fantomah, Captain Terry Thunder — all were well drawn but none were especially memorable.

 

Jungle's last 68-pager was #41 (May 1943) and its final 52-pager was #139 (July 1951). Sheena appeared in a 12-page story in #158 (Spring 1953), immediately following the demise of Jumbo. Tiger Girl appeared in 5- or 6-page stories in #152-163 (except #158) while shifting over from Fight Comics after her last appearance in #81. Just as he did with Jumbo, Maurice Whitman turned in striking covers for Jungle beginning with #132.

 

Unless you're a completist, your best bet with Fiction House is to check both the covers and interiors of any issues of Jumbo or Jungle that tickle your fancy or meet your price point. Most of the artists who worked between 1940 and 1954 were competent at worst and wonderfully dynamic at best. If you can acquire a couple dozen copies of each, you can call yourself the owner of a truly representative collection."

 

If you want to see a nice grouping of Jungle girl OA please visit this Jungle Gallery.

 

Sheena Splash Page

 

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Sheena Page

 

965440-Jumbo157Story1Pages.jpg

 

Ghost Gallery Splash Page

 

965440-Jumbo157Story2s.jpg

 

Hawk Splash Page

 

965440-Jumbo157Story3s.jpg

 

Long Bow Page

 

965440-Jumbo157Story4Pages.jpg

 

Space Scout Page - Weird Space Monkey Appearance!

 

965440-Jumbo157Story5Page1s.jpg

 

Space Scout Next Page

 

965440-Jumbo157Story5Page2s.jpg

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# 103

 

Jungle Thrills # 16 - eBay Purchase from Bruce at Quasar

 

967582-JungleThrills16s.jpg

 

Contents:

Cover by L.B. Cole

Rulah in Jungle Murder in Duplicate by ? 8 pgs

Jo-Jo Congo King in Kingdom of Unseen Terror! by ? 7 pgs

Jack Kent, Lock Expert by ? 4 pgs

Phantom Lady in The Substitute Cinderella! by Matt Baker (?) 10 pgs

 

As usual for Star behind this brand new Cole cover are hidden reprints. This time the reprints (both Rulah and Phantom Lady) are from Fox's All Top # 15 as seen by rjpb's copy below -

 

alltop15fc.jpg

 

Let's focus quickly on the opening act - Rulah. Most pages from this story in Jungle Thrills are available online at this Rulah Page. The site also provides some background information on the character:

 

"Fox'y Jungle Girl

 

Rulah was Fox's answer to Sheena. She was everything Sheena was and more, except blonde. She was a heroine in most issues and was the dominant character. One of the biggest differences between Sheena and Rulah was that Rulah relied more on dumb luck than actual skill to survive. This made for comical story lines and plenty of opportunity to exploit everything exploitable. The dagger was her weapon of choice. Still not sure what type of animal print is on her costume? I have been told it is giraffe but in other appearances it looks quite different. Rulah also has a pet panther named Saber.

 

Rulah appeared in a number of comic titles including All Top, Zoot, Terror in the Jungle, Jungle Thrills and her self titled comic. Several of these other titles are reprint stories. Her first appearance was in Zoot #7 in June of 1947. Her infamous comics were used in SOTI four times and in POP once. Congratulations Rulah and Fox, in the less than 30 comics you out did both Jumbo and Jungle Comics combined.

 

A very knowledgeable fan(Dagar) passed on the origins of Rulah to me. I took at as a direct quote.

 

As for Rulah's real name, take your pick: She was introduced as "Jane Dodge" in Zoot #7 and I don't think any mention was made of it again until Rulah #20 where it's given as "Joan Grayson"! As for her origin, it says here "Jane was a bored American girl" with "no home... no family... just money and a yen for adventure". While flying solo one day, she crashes into the African jungle. This of course tears her clothes to shreds ("Tsk, tsk! I'm like Eve in the Garden! What'll I do for clothes?"). Fortunately her plane beaned a giraffe on the way down (it's lying dead in the next panel with it's tongue hanging out), so Jane wisely skins it to make a bikini. She saves a native tribe from the trickery of an evil white villainess named Nurla, and the natives are very grateful ("We acclaim you! You rule us!"). But first she has to prove herself in combat, so the natives unleash a starving leopard at her ("Death Match. One must die. You or hungry cat..."). Jane gets slashed up pretty badly (lacerations on her arms and legs, with blood drops spilling out), but eventually kills the cat with her knife. Having proven herself, the natives name her Rulah the Jungle Goddess ("We will serve you forever!"), and Jane decides to stay because she likes the attention ("A Goddess, eh?... I like it!").

 

The "Joan Grayson" reference in Rulah #20 is from a cool story called "The Twisted Fates". It seems Rulah had a fiancé back in civilian life, but the poor guy's had amnesia for the past two years. He recovers and reads an old newspaper (Headline: "SOCIETY AVIATRIX MISSING ON DARING AFRICAN FLIGHT!") and sets out to see if she's still alive. Naturally, they both end up being captured by another treacherous evil white woman in command of a bunch of dumb natives. Joan/Jane/Rulah has changed some in two years ("Still think I'd make a good wife, Tim?", she asks as she strangles a ferocious panther with her chains), and the story ends with Rulah waving good-bye to him ("It is better this way. He finally realized I belong here... I could never forsake my jungle! Good-bye, Timothy Pointer!"). “

 

It should be noted that Jungle Thrills was part of the 3-D experiment for Star -"Star Publications produced three technically uneven 3-D comic books in the realistic style. Their titles were Jungle Thrills, Western Fighters and Indian Warriors. Jungle Thrills contains adventures of Jungle Jo and Jungle Lil. In addition, Star produced one funny animal title, Pidgy and the Magic Glasses. The registration separating the red and green images in these books varies from page to page. These 3-D comic books do, however, feature excellent covers by L. B. Cole simulating the 3-D effect." Any of our 3-D collectors have scans of these?

 

What was more interesting to me is the mention again of PoP. While SOTI is the book most collectors focus on, little is said of the actual content of Parade of Pleasure. Here is some information I found this afternoon. The book is actually -

 

Parade of Pleasure : a study of popular iconography in the

U.S.A. / Geoffrey A. Wagner. -- New York : Library

Publishers, 1955. -- 192 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

1. Motion-pictures--Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Comic

books, strips, etc.--Moral and ethical aspects. 3.

Literature, Immoral. I. Wagner, Geoffrey Atheling.

 

So notice that the author took a swat at more than the comics. Yet the page numbers for the chapters are Movies: The Art of Getting Tough p. 19, Comics: The Curse of the Kids p. 71, Pin-ups: The 'Proper' Art p. 115 and finally Take Hold on Hell: Teevee and Others p. 155. This shows that extensive attention is devoted to comics. Fortunately, my local library has a copy so I was able to spend 30 minutes checking out the content and here are some quote directly from the book:

 

"My own reading of such comic-books was done during the latter half of 1952 and the beginning of 1953 when, as the saying goes, the heat was on." This explains why even though the book has a pub date of 1955, most books are from the 1952 vintage.

 

To give you a general flavor of the content, here are some various quotes relating to Crime comics.

 

"All-True Crime # 49 contains 13 kilings by criminals (excluding the "group slaughter" of an exploded aircraft) as against four by the police, two of which are indirect ..."

 

"In Crime Never Wins # 3 [...] I counted 137 separate pictures of successful crime as against 9 of retribution and justice."

 

"In Wings Comics # 115, [...] in the last picture of one story a girl, who has been proved right, turns to her boy friend and says, "Speaking of rewards, Mister - Bend over!" Now I'd like to know if anyone here owns that one comic. I'd love to see that panel!

 

"Wonder Woman possesses [...] 'the drum-majorette patriotism of the star-spangled panties and spread-eagled breasts!" 893applaud-thumb.gif

 

Finally, here's the mention of Jungle Thrills # 16 -

 

"However, the physical proportions and lack of warm clothing of the Wonder Woman heroine are obviously designed to catch the male eye and draw in the adult buyer. For all the girls, who are generally engaged in attacking Red Indians, African Negroes [sic], gorillas, leopards, and the wicked queens of jungle tribes, are equipped with a Bikini uniform of some animal skin. In fact, in Jungle Thrills # 16, I actually came across a derisive reference to the new look made by one of the heroine's henchwomen, herself got up (or down) in the briefest of shorts and bra. The most popular heroine of all is apparently Sheena, a herculean blonde with hair to the waist, whose uniform is a leopard-skin swimsuit cut high at the thigh, and who wears large earrings, bangles on her wrists and ankles, and two gold bands about her biceps (jewellery is 'in' this year). Sheena regularly goes through all hell and back."

 

Rulah Story Page

 

967582-JungleThrills16Story1Pages.jpg

 

Jo-Jo Page

 

967582-JungleThrills16Story2Pages.jpg

 

Third Story Page

 

967582-JungleThrills16Story3s.jpg

 

Phantom Lady Splash

 

967582-JungleThrills16Story4s.jpg

 

Phantom Lady Page

 

967582-JungleThrills16Story4Pages.jpg

 

P.S.: Ego boosting time. If you've been following / reading / looking at the thread, please say hi hi.gif

967582-JungleThrills16Story4Pages.jpg.00506a9547cfdf9b4c81ba8d3175c56e.jpg

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I love that line about Sheena regularly goes through all sorts of hell and back. Seems like POP is a good read--not too dry or shrill.

 

I think everyone reading this thread should resolve to bring one new board member to the thread. I'll PM a couple of my board friends about it this weekend.

 

Marc

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"In Wings Comics # 115, [...] in the last picture of one story a girl, who has been proved right, turns to her boy friend and says, "Speaking of rewards, Mister - Bend over!" Now I'd like to know if anyone here owns that one comic. I'd love to see that panel!

 

Kakapo PMed me with the information that Ted at Superworld has this book in inventory. I emailed Ted yesterday to see if he could scan the page for me / us. I received the scan this morning. thumbsup2.gif to Ted.

 

Here's the complete last page to that story - gossip.gif I didn't know 'chutes came with built-in bras.

 

969882-Wings115s.jpg

 

And here's a close-up of the final panel -

 

969882-Wings115Panels.jpg

 

Does anyone know if that particular expression had another particular meaning in the 50's? I found nothing of value in the online Webster. Maybe SHead can help us out.

969882-Wings115Panels.jpg.69deaaf0f0e062907b22a586caee5b1f.jpg

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# 104

 

Junior Funnies # 13 - Bought from Motor City Comics

 

988322-JuniorFunnies13s.jpg

 

Content: Now that's a cover asking for desecration. Should I use it to create a puzzle as encouraged?

Subtitle - Tiny Tot Stories, Puzzles and Games

Daisy and her Pups in "Safari Daze" 5 pgs

Henry 4 pgs

Katzenjammer Kids 2 pgs

Daisy and Cookie in "Not Every Four-legged Animal Pays Interest" 1 pg

Daisy in "Fishing Game" 2 pgs

Daisy in "Tall Timber" 1 pg

Katzenjammer Kids 2 pgs

Popeye 4 pgs

Colonel Potterby and the Duchess 1 pg

Little King by Otto Soglow 1 pg

Felix the Cat 1 pg

 

Back from a hiatus, let me put up two books today. First is this King Feature game book really. There are appearances from many features from the King stables with at least one tot activity per page. I loved doing these kind of games as a kid. Not much else to mention about this book so let me show you a few pages.

 

Daisy Maze in the Safari Daze sequence -

 

988322-JuniorFunnies13Page2s.jpg

 

Yeahh, a Paper Pop-Gun - Fun any time around the office -

 

988322-JuniorFunnies13Page1s.jpg

 

Here's the Felix one page gag and notice at the bottom Joe Sarno's stamp. Does anyone know if Joe would stamp books to mark them as being part of his inventory? Gary, do you know? At any rate, I only discovered the stamp as I was going through the book lately and I like it as it had to the historical context of the collection. I was fortunate to meet Joe for the first time at this year's Chicago Forum Dinner -

 

988322-JuniorFunnies13Page3s.jpg

 

# 105

 

Junior Hopp # 1 - Bought from Mile High Comics

 

988322-JuniorHopp1s.jpg

 

Content -

Subtitle - The Keenest Teen in Town

Intro Page with the cast 1 pg

Junior Hopp in "...And he's stuck with i!" by ? 5 pgs

Junior Hopp in "Potions of Love" by ? 6 pgs

Junior Hopp Club News 1 pg

Gramps in "Bandaging Words" by ? 3 pgs

Highvale, USA 2 pgs text

Junior Hopp in "Mower Power to you" by ? 6 pgs

Chuck in "Chuck has he Ants-er" by ? 5 pgs

 

Junior Hopp didn't last long, just 3 issues. Considering the contents, I am not convinced that Archie wouldn't have something to do with the suspension of publication of Junior Hopp as the imitation is quite pointedly clear. We know that Dave Berg did at least one cover for the series but I don't see his hand in this issue. For cheesecake's sake, here's the cover to # 3 - Yum! -

 

988322-JuniorHopp3s.jpg

 

For lack of other insight, let's discuss for a spell the publisher. This book is listed in the indicia as published by SPM. ""S.P.M." are the initials of Stanley P. Morse. His name, in abbreviated form, is the root of the Stanmor brand and Gillmor is a combination drawn from Morse and managing editor Raymond Gill. (From TTTT # 9)".

 

"During the horror boom, Stanley P. Morse acquired the single most important element of comics publishing at the time--a distribution contract--and used it to market comics under a wide variety of names: Stanmor, Aragon, Key, Gillmor, mr. publications, S.P.M., Media Comics (not to be confused with Comic Media), and probably others. His titles often changed publisher from one issue to the next as he dodged creditors or changed partners, and would sometimes have cover art taken from a story in a different issue as deadlines were missed. If he came up a story short he would simply reprint something. If he couldn't get an artist for a particular slot, he'd have his editor cut up and rearrange the art from an old story to make a new one. Anyone who thought men like Bill Gaines gave comics a bad reputation had never met Stanley Morse. Naturally, he published horror comics, including some of the grossest and most vile. (edited from The Other Guys: Pre-Code Horror Comics.)"

 

"The hypothesis for the web of corporate names is that pre-code horror publishers were afraid of public outcry about the suitability of their magazines for the kids who were buying them. Presumably, the publishers reasoned that if a comic book got into trouble because of a story with excessive gore, they could fold one title (along with its corporation) and the rest of the line would be unaffected. (From TTTT # 9)"

 

Robert Beerbohm also mentions Morse in connection with Mainline Comics and EC through their distribution contract with Leader News in which Stanley Morse had a close relationship. Morse stands as an semi-important individual worthy of more research.

 

Here's the Intro Page to the cast of character in Junior Hopp. I'll leave it to you to make the connection with the Archie cast -

 

988322-JuniorHopp1IntroPages.jpg

 

I found this dialogue hilarious somehow - "How come she isn't being flagged crazy.gif, fagged blush.gif, dragged 893naughty-thumb.gif and shagged 893whatthe.gif by Lester?"

 

988322-JuniorHopp1Story2s.jpg

 

How many people do you think are still waiting for their pin?

 

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A well deserved punishment for Junior -

 

988322-JuniorHopp1Story4s.jpg

 

Final parting shot - the Back Cover Diet Chewing Gum ad -

 

988322-JuniorHopp1BCs.jpg

988322-JuniorHopp1BCs.jpg.11868ecec78eccfe60da64fcb40f9031.jpg

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And here's a close-up of the final panel -

 

969882-Wings115Panels.jpg

 

Does anyone know if that particular expression had another particular meaning in the 50's? I found nothing of value in the online Webster. Maybe SHead can help us out.

 

Maybe this was originally supposed to be a story in All-Top? confused-smiley-013.gif

 

poke2.gif

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# 106

 

Kaanga # 11 - eBay Purchase

 

990762-Kaanga12s.jpg

 

Content:

Cover by Maurice Whitman

Kaanga in Claws of the Roaring Congo by ? 8 pgs

Kaanga by ? 6 pgs

Jungle Girl by ? 4 pgs

Kaanga by ? 8 pgs

 

Here we find again the enigmatic Maurice Whitman on the cover and some other unidentified artists on the interior art chores. It would be hard to make an educated guess for me as Kaanga has been drawn by so many different hands.

 

There is not much love for Kaanga himself despite his long-term success in the comics. The spotlight has more often than not been aimed at Sheena who I would like to describe as his co-studio female counterpart or even for that matter on Ann, his wife.

 

Kaanga, the Jungle Lord of the Congo first appeared in Jungle Comics # 1 - [scan courtesy of the GCD] -

 

161_4_001.jpg

 

"Ironically, Kaanga [who] was clearly a Tarzan knockoff dominated the potted-palm comic book scene long before Tarzan earned his own regularly published Dell comic book. That occurred nearly half a century after Tarzan first appeared on the pulp magazine scene in 1912.

 

For some reason, though, the Kaanga-like character Ki-Gor was a huge hit in the Fiction House pulps, but Sheena barely made a blip on the pulp scene, especially considering her impact on the comics. Ki-Gor appeared in 59 consecutive quarterly issues of Jungle Stories (from Winter 1938-39 to Spring 1954), but Sheena's only pulp stories were published in a one-shot Sheena pulp in 1951 (three stories) and in the final issues of Jungle Stories." (Michele Nolan).

 

The boy who would grow up to be known as Kaänga, Lord of the Jungle (and whose real name is never revealed) was the only survivor of an expedition exploring the remoter parts of the Congo. While the rest of the group was attacked and slain, the youth escaped, running away into the wilds, where he was eventually taken in by a tribe of ape-men, forgetting all he knew of the “white man’s ways and talk". Like all such orphans, he grew up to be a master of the jungle, eventually meeting and marrying a female explorer (Ann Mason), and having several adventures fighting for good against everything from bad animals to dinosaurs to witch doctors to Germans.

 

As put on art4comics, "[t]here are two primary roles that the Jungle Girls played in these comics, both were equally as common.

 

The first of these was pioneered by Jane, the damsel in distress always being captured and tied up. The victim Jungle Girl is a very common theme and these Jungle Girls were invariably paired with a some Jungle hero (otherwise the series would have lasted one issue). Ann of Jungle Comics and her hero Kaanga are probably the best example of this. A quick look any Jungle comics cover or Kaanga story says it all. Tanee, JoJo's mate was another good example.

 

The second role commonly played was that of the heroine. Sheena is a good example of this as she was usually the hero rescuing her hapless mate. Not to say that Sheena did not get tied up a lot (she did) but that she would usually be the one to escape and save the day. There were several different approaches to this. Sheena was a proud and strong figure whereas Rulah comically bungled her way through many an adventure.

 

Some of the Jungle Girls would interchange this role depending on whether it was a solo adventure or there was a man around. As pointed out to me by another fan, Shanna is a good example of this. Very independent and strong except when Ka-zar was around, then she immediately fell into the role of victim."

 

You will find a complete Kaanga story on the same website at Art4Comics Jungle Story.

 

On a final etymological note, kaanga is a Swahili word / root with the following meanings -

 

kaanga , pl makaanga { English: branch bearing fruit } noun

 

-kaanga { English: bake, fry, roast, stew } verb

 

Claws of the Roaring Congo Splash -

 

990762-Kaanga12Story1s.jpg

 

Claws of the Roaring Congo Page where Ann is proving herself not to be in such distress - Also notice the leopard tail panel separation -

 

990762-Kaanga12Story1Pages.jpg

 

Second Kaanga Story Page -

 

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Jungle Girl Story Page -

 

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Third Kaanga Story Splash -

 

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# 107

 

Justice Comics # 26 - Bought from ?

 

1000766-Justice26s.jpg

 

Content -

Cover by Chris Rule (?)

9334 - The Night of June 12th by Tony DiPreta 7 pgs

9515 - Murderer's Oath 2 pgs text

9298 - The Man they Couldn't Kill by ? 6 pgs

9201 - Routine Investigation by ? 5 pgs

9291 - No Place to Hide! by Vern Henkel 5 pgs

 

Since this is an Atlas book, we need to start with a little history of the book itself. The numbering on Justice Comics took over from Wacky Duck in the Fall of 1947 with issue # 7 and kept that numbering until # 9 (or 3) and continued with # 4 for a long time. This is the long-running title for Crime for Atlas. Justice continued under this title until # 52 in March 1955 when the title is renamed a very similar Tales of Justice and continued on its regular schedule until issue # 67 in September 1957.

 

We have already seen some of Tony DiPreta's work for Atlas among other publishers. DiPreta was remember in and out of strip assignment at the time until he landed long-running stints on second tier strips. Roy Thomas tells me they have an interview with DiPreta in the can and he is just waiting for the proper time to run it in Alter Ego.

 

Henkel, however, has already been featured in AE, specifically in issue # 48 of May 2005. Henkel's comic book career is actually fairly typical of artists of his generation. Let me cliffnotes his bio from the interview so you can see his comic path.

 

Vern Henkel was born in Lancaster, PA, on November 27, 1917 and still lives there. He bought comics while growing up, remembering such titles as Famous Funnies.

 

He cracked the comic market at 20 when he started to work for Quality Comics. Henkel was actually working from PA, mailing in his jobs and therefore had more involvement with writing the scripts of his features and would only come to New York every 3 months to check in with the offices.

 

Henkel stopped working for Quality in 1946 at which time he picked up more commercial art assignments as his breadwinner, but still continued to turn stories for a variety of outfits - Timely, Lev Gleason, ME, ...even though his association with Timely was the longest as he turned in his first job in 1946 and worked there until 1954. Henkel was assigned regularly to certain books such as Casey, Crime Photographer and Rocky Jorden - Private Eye. After 1954 / 1955, Vern drifted away from comic, continuing a career in illustration doing many jobs be it for advertising, coloring books or film strips.

 

DiPreta Splash - Note that the cover dates the story in 1945 while the splash places it in 1947 -

 

1000766-Justice26Story1s.jpg

 

Second Story Splash - Notice the Robert Mitchum look-alike hoodlum in the final panel -

 

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Third Story Page -

 

1000766-Justice26Story3Pages.jpg

 

Henkel Splash - I find that there are similarity in Henkel and Keller design-sense -

 

1000766-Justice26Story4s.jpg

 

P.S.: I know Justice comes before Ka'a'nga but I simply jumped too fast. There is still Justice Traps the Guilty before we resume the Ks.

1000766-Justice26Story4s.jpg.5751a2b3c59b7e76968acfd71447842f.jpg

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969882-Wings115Panels.jpg

 

Does anyone know if that particular expression had another particular meaning in the 50's? I found nothing of value in the online Webster. Maybe SHead can help us out.

 

I assume it relates to spanking. Were you thinking of something else blush.gif27_laughing.gif

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Does anyone know if that particular expression had another particular meaning in the 50's? I found nothing of value in the online Webster. Maybe SHead can help us out.

 

I assume it relates to spanking. Were you thinking of something else blush.gif27_laughing.gif

 

Without being funny, I really don't know what to make of it? Gotta be the English as a second language thing kicking in. I have a weak historical evolution of the language detector. Heck you should have seen the reaction of the first person I said "Jolly good" to with a straight face in the US or sprinkling my speech with words such as to skulk, swath, obsfucate, sheath (sp?). Needless to say in Oklahoma, that marks you clearly as a "for'ner" (read foreigner). Plus, with a slight vowel pronunciation problem, you can imagine the reaction of people when I said "focus" 893whatthe.gif

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Does anyone know if that particular expression had another particular meaning in the 50's? I found nothing of value in the online Webster. Maybe SHead can help us out.

 

I assume it relates to spanking. Were you thinking of something else blush.gif27_laughing.gif

 

Without being funny, I really don't know what to make of it? Gotta be the English as a second language thing kicking in. I have a weak historical evolution of the language detector. Heck you should have seen the reaction of the first person I said "Jolly good" to with a straight face in the US or sprinkling my speech with words such as to skulk, swath, obsfucate, sheath (sp?). Needless to say in Oklahoma, that marks you clearly as a "for'ner" (read foreigner). Plus, with a slight vowel pronunciation problem, you can imagine the reaction of people when I said "focus" 893whatthe.gif

 

Dude, I was so tempted to write a lame893censored-thumb.gif reply using those words but I just couldn't go and do that. You know, most Americans don't understand how incredibly difficult English is. Seems like we come up with a new word everyday to describe something, then it gets another meanding as well resulting in layers and layers of semantics. Oh yeah, bend over in that context could mean spanking but it could refer to anal sex too, just in case your language detector didn't have that listed.

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C'mon guys, she just means bend over and give me a kiss!

 

You're reading into it WAAAY too much! foreheadslap.gif

 

Boy and my dirty mind was running away with that one. Man, just goes to show you how bad comic dialogue can get. I feel so ashamed.

 

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