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Karloff, Dell, TV horror and more.....
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Started by 1950's war comics,

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1950's war comics

1950's war comics

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A few months ago, a site presented a stirring history of the little-known comic book version of The Van Dyke Show published in the sixties by Gold Key Comics. Some of you have written in to ask me about some of the other comics Gold Key did based on popular TV shows so in the coming weeks, I'll try to present some of them here. The two featured above all lasted one issue apiece.

In the case of Gilligan's Island, this was probably due to the show being cancelled. The last episode of the TV program (before it achieved eternal life in syndication) aired in August of 1967. The comic book came out the previous June…so I'm guessing Gold Key purchased the rights late the previous year, put an issue into work around February and then heard that the show would not be getting a fourth season, so they aborted the comic book. The story inside ("The Castaway Cookbook") was about Mr. Howell getting bored with the food on the island. In the tale, he announced a contest — one million dollars to whichever of the others could cook up the best dish. Naturally, they all went scampering to win. Gilligan found some tasty plants on the far side of the island and whipped up a stew…without realizing that the plants were a rare breed that had very odd side effects, transforming everyone the way Red Kryptonite used to change Superman. The story was silly but then so was the TV show, and the comic was nicely drawn by Warren Tufts, who was best known for his work on the newspaper strip, Casey Ruggles. (He later drew the Gomer Pylecomic book for Gold Key, which I'll feature here in a few days.)

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1950's war comics

1950's war comics

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The one issue of The Odd Couple was prepared out of Gold Key's New York office. There is no official record of the writer but the artwork was obviously done by Sal Trapani, who earlier had done the Get Smart and Hogan's Heroes comics for Dell. The story was very clever but apparently when Neil Simon heard about this, he had his lawyers inform Paramount Television that they did not have the right to turn Oscar and Felix into comic book characters. Kind of a shame, really. The story in this issue — "Murray's Manhunt" — was a good one. The Odd Couple's pal, Murray the Cop, hasn't arrested a real criminal in something like ten years and a new Sergeant orders him to make a bust or get into a new line of work. Oscar and Felix try to help him but one investigation after another goes wrong. Finally, he manages to break up a bookmaking ring and arrests his first actual criminal in quite some time…Oscar Madison!

That's it for this time. In the future, I'll be showcasing more obscure Gold Key comic book versions of great TV shows. If you have any requests, send 'em in.

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tv horror

tv horror

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33 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

The one issue of The Odd Couple was prepared out of Gold Key's New York office. There is no official record of the writer but the artwork was obviously done by Sal Trapani, who earlier had done the Get Smart and Hogan's Heroes comics for Dell. The story was very clever but apparently when Neil Simon heard about this, he had his lawyers inform Paramount Television that they did not have the right to turn Oscar and Felix into comic book characters. Kind of a shame, really. The story in this issue — "Murray's Manhunt" — was a good one. The Odd Couple's pal, Murray the Cop, hasn't arrested a real criminal in something like ten years and a new Sergeant orders him to make a bust or get into a new line of work. Oscar and Felix try to help him but one investigation after another goes wrong. Finally, he manages to break up a bookmaking ring and arrests his first actual criminal in quite some time…Oscar Madison!

That's it for this time. In the future, I'll be showcasing more obscure Gold Key comic book versions of great TV shows. If you have any requests, send 'em in.

I'll be looking forward to them as I've enjoyed reading your posts so far.:golfclap:

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2 hours ago, tv horror said:

I always loved the covers that appeared (ghosts) on the Grimm's ghost story line, I especially enjoyed their portrait painting style. 

yes those covers are so well done ! i still don't know how an artist could draw such a nice cover like those in less than 8 hours ?? 

i just checked some eBay prices and Grimms Ghost Stories go for dirt cheap these days.. 

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