Scrooge

Shouldn't it be: "Luk, one of ze gargoyles is missing?" ?

# 83

Henry Aldrich # 10 - Bought from ?

Content:

Cover by ?

Henry Aldrich in "Milton is Dead!" by Bill Williams 12 pgs

Henry Aldrich by ? 14 pgs

Homer by ? 6 pgs

Let me also show the back cover one-page gag by Bill Williams.

Now, here's a little background on Henry and the Aldrich Family from this site:

"The quintessential teenager of the 1940s, Henry Alrich was born on the Broadway stage in 1937. He reached his widest audience through radio, a string of "B" movies, and a television series. Henry Aldrich, who was likable, clean-cut, and monumentally prone to mishap, influenced a whole generation of teen characters on the radio, in movies, and even in comic books.

Bobby Ellis, Barbara Robbins, House Jamison, June Dayton

While college youths had become popular culture stereotypes in the 1920s, high school kids didn't really get that much notice until a decade later. Swing music and the jitterbug craze helped put them on the map. Writer Clifford Goldsmith introduced Henry Aldrich in his play What A Life! According to radio historian John Dunning, Goldsmith "was virtually penniless and making his living on the high school lecture circuit when he wrote the play." In 1938, the then immensely popular crooner Rudy Vallee invited Goldsmith to write some skits about the Aldrich Family for his weekly radio variety show. Next came a similar invitation from Kate Smith's variety show, and by the autumn of 1939 The Aldrich Family was a regular weekly radio program, sponsored by Jell-O on NBC.

The family lived in a typical small town and consisted of Henry, his parents, and his older sister Mary. His high school pal Homer was underfoot virtually all of the time. The opening of the show became one of the best known, and most quoted, in radio. Henry's long-suffering mom would call him—"Henry, Henry Aldrich!"—and he'd reply, in his harried adolescent croak, "Coming, Mother!" Ezra Stone, who had created the role on the stage, was the first radio Henry, with Jackie Kelk as Homer. House Jameson, who also played the radio detective known as the Crime Doctor, was the head of the household.

Jackie Kelk and Ezra Stone

The show, though it touched on real family situations, was played for rather broad comedy. Preoccupied with girls, cars, and school, Henry saw no reason why he shouldn't have all the rights and perks of the adult he felt he'd be any day now. His anxious and elaborate schemes and his frequent dreams of glory led him into all sorts of unforeseen complications. His parents, of course, rarely understood him, and often acted as though he might have contracted some rare disease that caused him to run amok on occasion, or behaved as if he might even be an alien invader masquerading as their son.

Paramount Pictures turned Goldsmith's play into a movie in 1939, casting Jackie Cooper as Henry. The -script was by Charles Brackett and writer-director Billy Wilder, whose several brilliant creations included the same year's Ninotchka for Garbo. Cooper appeared in the second film in the series in 1941, with Eddie Bracken as his sidekick, and then turned the role over to Jimmy Lydon. Less handsome and gawkier than Cooper, Lydon made nine Henry Aldrich films. John Litel, who'd also been girl detective Nancy Drew's screen father, was Sam Aldrich, and Olive Blakeney was Henry's mom. She later became Lydon's off-screen mother-in-law.

Henry and his kin were early arrivals on television, with The Aldrich Family premiering on NBC on October 2, 1949. An actor named Robert Casey was the first of five juveniles who took turns enacting the role of Henry Aldrich. Jackie Kelk moved from radio to TV to play Homer, and House Jameson returned to repeat Sam Aldrich. Three actresses portrayed Mrs. Aldrich: Lois Wilson (1949, 1951), Nancy Carroll (1950-51), and Barbara Robbins (1952-53). Jean Muir, a movie actress in the 1930s and 1940s, had been scheduled to take over the part in 1950, but because of her liberal sympathies she found herself listed in Red Channels, the right-wing publication dedicated to rooting out alleged Communist sympathizers from the entertainment business. Muir was blacklisted by the sponsor and the network and never got the chance to say, "Henry, Henry Aldrich!"

The Aldrich Family remained on radio and television until 1953, when Henry stepped aside to make way for a new breed of teenage stereotypes."

We should note that some of the people associated with the show had successful post-Henry career in Hollywood / TV as seen by the fact that even though "the program lasted until 1953, but in 1951 (apparently seeing the “writing on the wall”) Stone left the show to begin a career as a Television director, one day leading such shows as Petticoat Juction, Lost in Space, and The Munsters. Later in life, Stone became a “director” of another sort, as head of the David Library of the American Revolution. But even as the illustrious chief of the David Library, Stone could still get his voice “up” on demand, into the crackling adolescent tones young Henry, echoing a bygone era. In 1993 Stone was inducted into the Old Time Radio Hall of Fame, and one year later died in an automobile accident.

After the close of radio’s Aldrich Family, writer/creator Clifford Goldsmith also found much demand for his talents in television. His mark can be seen on many shows of the 50’s and 60’s, including such classics as Dennis the Menace, Leave it to Beaver, Petticoat Junction, and The Donna Reed Show. “

I won't get into Bill Williams' career here because we have many board members more competent on this topic than I am and they can pitch in if they want (CBGuy? maybe). I read online somewhere that John Stanley wrote some early scripts for Henry Aldrich. Could our Stanley experts confirm this (Bob?)?

Williams Story Splash

Williams Story Page

Second Story Splash - Is this also Bill Williams (unsigned this time)?

Second Story Page

Homer Story Splash

P.S.: Jack, here are the Radium (and Lead) and Selenium Flash Gordon Panels. As before, you can get the Sundays' dates from the file name.

Jack and the gang,

thank you for your interest. Here are some panels from Flash Gordon for an entry on Radium. Some more on the way: 1 more Radium entry and one for Selenium as soon as Photoshop does not crash on me in the next few days. Enjoy.

dated from 8/26/1934. Dated Edited.

# 82

Henry # 24 - Bought from ?

Content

Henry Peeks into the Future by ? 16 pgs

Henry in Builkding up for a Let-Down! by ? 10 pgs

Little Guy "Gives a Painter the Brush" by ? 6 pgs

I am again indebted to Don Markstein from the Toonopedia for the following write-up about Henry:

"Henry, title character of the long-running feature created by cartoonist Carl Anderson, is, like Popeye, Hagar the Horrible and Bugs Bunny, one of those rare toons who are recognized even in silhouette, the world over. And he got that way without being the subject of a major motion picture or TV series, without his comic strip being carried in thousands of newspapers — and almost without uttering a single word!

Lack of speech is not the only way in which the character resembles an infant. He's bald and has a round little belly. His limbs are thick and stubby. With brows halfway up his ample forehead, he appears wide-eyed and alert, taking in everything he can of the world around him, just like an intelligent, curious baby. Only his upright stance and his inflated size distinguish him from a newborn.

[Here's how Coulton Waugh describes Henry: "an odd, mishappen child with high, bald skull, long pipestem neck, potbelly and dumpy, sturdy legs."]

Anderson had a long career in cartooning before Henry — in fact, he went back to the days when a line drawing was the only way to get a picture into a newspaper. He worked for both the Pulitzer and the Hearst papers during the early days of comics, as well as freelancing for such magazines as Judge, Puck and Collier's. He was 67 years old when, in its March 19, 1932 issue, The Saturday Evening Post ran the first Henry panel — and it's only for that one feature that he's remembered today.

Henry quickly became an every-week feature, eventually running in the coveted back page position — the spot that was later occupied by Marge Buell's Little Lulu, and still later by Ted Key's Hazel. After his first few appearances, Anderson hit upon the schtick of rendering him mute. His supporting characters were reasonably verbal; and he didn't maintain silence in the comic book version (or in his single animated outing, a Max Fleischer cartoon in which he met Betty Boop), but in magazines and newspaper strips, the character did not speak.

Naturally, Henry had international appeal — just like Ferd'nand, The Little King and other pantomimes (or near-ones); so the feature was immediately picked up in many overseas venues. In 1934, a German magazine ran a page of Anderson's cartoons under the title Henry, der Amerikanischer Lausbub ("Henry, the American Rascal"), and that's where William Randolph Hearst happened to run across it.

Always on the lookout for good cartoons for his King Features Syndicate, Hearst tracked Anderson down to his Wisconsin home and signed him up. Henry began as a daily strip on December 17, 1934, and has been running ever since. The Sunday began on March 10, 1935. The strip's circulation is down in recent years (it's now distributed to only about 75 newspapers), and it's been doing nothing but reprint Anderson's old work for nearly 20 years — but it's still hanging on.

Henry's first foray into comic books came in 1935, when David McKay Publications put out a 10x10-inch oneshot reprinting his daily strips. More than a decade later, Dell Comics devoted a couple of issues of its Four Color series to Henry — #s 122 (1946) and 155 (1947). The title went into regular publication with a March, 1948 cover date, first coming out quarterly but quickly graduating to bimonthly. The Dell version, which used longer stories and a speaking version of the title character but was hard to distinguish art-wise from the newspaper strip, continued until 1961. Dell published a total of 67 issues.

In 1942, Anderson's arthritis made it necessary for him to retire from active cartooning. He passed the daily strip on to John Liney and the Sunday to Don Trachte, both of whom wrote and drew the character for decades, in both newspapers and comic books. Anderson died in 1948 at the age of 83. [Note that Don Trachte died earlier this year on 4/5/2005 at the age of 89, his birthdate being 21/5/1915. Trachte was also a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and served as a lieutenant in the Army in WWII.]

Other artists handled Henry in the decades before it went into reruns. But everyone who has ever done the feature has used the bold-stroked, minimalist style Anderson created, which communicates to the very young as clearly as it does to adults. In his lifetime, Anderson took satisfaction in letters from young readers who were glad to have a feature they could read so easily. That hasn't changed; and as long as Henry remains on the comics page, the likelihood is, it never will."

First Story Splash

First Story Page

First Story Next Page

Second Story Splash

Second Story Page

Yes.

# 81

Heckle and Jeckle # 3 - Bought at SD Con

Content:

Little Roquefort in Surprise for Percy by ? 1 pg

Heckle and Jeckle in Home Sweet Home by Connie Rasinski 8 pgs

Heckle and Jeckle in The Bad Actor by ? 4 pgs

Dinky Duck in High Society by ? 4 pgs

Heckle and Jeckle in The Phoney Crime by ? 8 pgs

Sourpuss in The Super-Cleaner by ? 1 pg

Dingbat in Dinner Party by Art Bartlett (?) 4 pgs [story signed but last name not legible]

Heckle and Jeckle in Dimwit does the Job by ? 1 pg

Chesty in Artist Model by ? 1 pg

Continuing our tour of the TerryToon (started with Dinky Duck and which will continue later with Mighty Mouse and the more generic Paul Terry's Comics title), today will focus on Heckle and Jeckle. From the Toonopedia, we learn that:

"Terrytoons owner Paul Terry considered the Heckle & Jeckle series of cartoons the best his studio ever made. That may be, but considering the esteem in which Terrytoons are held, it's no great honor.

It was Terry's idea to create twin characters, identical in both design and movement — an idea which, amazingly enough, had never before been fully exploited in animation. It had been done in comics, from Rube Goldberg's Mike & Ike to Henry Boltinoff's Dover & Clover, but in cartoons, this pair preceded Warner's Goofy Gophers; and Disney's Chip 'n' Dale were far from completely identical) There were only two differences between Heckle and Jeckle: the first letters of their names, and the fact that voice actor Dayton Allen provided them with different accents — although which was British and which was Brooklynese, nobody seems to know.

Whichever was who, they made their debut in The Talking Magpies (1946), directed by Mannie Davis (where, incidentally, they were cast as husband and wife), and that title became their nickname. Their calm assumption of victory against any foe, reminiscent of Bugs Bunny, combined with their virulently aggressive nature, reminiscent of Woody Woodpecker, made their series one of Terrytoons' two most popular (the other being Mighty Mouse).

That same year, Heckle & Jeckle began appearing in Terrytoons Comics, which at that time was published by the company that would later become Marvel. Since then, they have been published sporadically in comics from a half-dozen different publishers. Their most recent appearance in that medium was in 1987.

In 1955, Terry sold his studio to CBS and retired, which surprised and angered his long-time employees. He died in 1971. CBS brought Gene Deitch (whose other credits include Gerald McBoing-Boing and Tom & Jerry) in as studio head. The first thing Deitch did was to scrap all of Terrytoons' ongoing characters and start over with new ones, such as Tom Terrific and Sidney the Elephant.

Three years later, Deitch was gone, and some of the old characters were back for a brief encore — but with budgets even lower than they'd been when Terry was running the studio. Heckle & Jeckle proved unable to survive in this altered environment. The series sputtered, sometimes going years between entries. Their last cartoon was Messed-Up Movie Makers (1966).

CBS exploited its Terrytoons properties for years. Heckle & Jeckle had their own show in 1955 and shared one with Mighty Mouse in 1979. Additionally, they appeared as part of Terrytoons cartoon packages that aired on many local stations.

But these venues became sparser as time went on, and by the late 1980s dried up altogether. Heckle & Jeckle, along with all of their Terrytoons contemporaries except Mighty Mouse, have been absent from the airways for years."

Today's artist is Connie (Conrad) Rasinski (1907 - 1965). Connie was an old hand at the TerryToons studio. His toonography is very extensive as he is given credits on no less than 195 cartoons ranging from 1937 to 1965. In addition to his cartoon work, he did a lot of comic work including on the early Mighty Mouse books. Here's a style sheet drawn by Connie of Heckle and Jeckle as reproduced in Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic book:

In addition Maltin expands on the remarks from Don Markstein as to the personalities of our Talking Magpies:

"Heckle and Jeckle have several traits in common with Bugs Bunny. Nothing seems to faze them, and they survive risky encounters with enemies secure in the knowledge that everything will turn in their favor. Their saucy attitude extends to calling their adversaries names like "chum." And best of all, they express complete awareness of their pen-and-ink existence. In the Lion Hunt, Heckle (Or is it Jeckle? The two were never differentiated.) persuades his pal to go on a safari, and within an instant a car, then a boat, materialize under their feet to transport them to the jungle. "My," says Jeckle (or is it Heckle?), "Things happen quickly in a cartoon, don't they?"

Home Sweet Home Page by Connie Rasinski

Home Sweet Home Next Page by Connie Rasinski

The Bad Actor Splash

The Bad Actor Next Page

The Phoney Crime Page

The Phoney Crime Next Page

# 80

Heart Throbs # 9 - Bought from Motor City

Content:

I Hated Men! by ? 9 pgs

Mother's Boy by ? 6 pgs

They Called me a Poor Sport! by ? 8 pgs

Blonde Heartbreaker by ? 7 pgs

The title ran under Quality for 47 issues before being picked up by DC for anothe 100 issues. There is nothing unusual about this issue. It is a typical Quality job with as always slightly above average clean art with adequate stories confirming Quality's presence in the market as a major minor company.

I seem to remember that I have seen the cover picture of this issue on another romance comic from the same period but, of course, I never made a note of which. I would welcome anyone reminding me which it is. In the hope of finding it again, I use what I love about the Gerber books: the second volume index by names. Here are the covers in which Robert Mitchum appeared:

Famous Star # 6 with who seems to be also Jane Russell

Heart Throbs # 9 with Jane Russell

Intimate Love # 10 with Jane Russell

Love Confessions # 9 with Jane Russell [Notice a pattern]

and finally Gerner places him in an issue of Sweet Sixteen.

None match my recollection unfortunately + Gerber might also be missing another appearance on a western? Was there an El Dorado comic when Mitchum played with John Wayne?

I checked if Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum worked a lot together, but it appears that they only co-stared twice. First in His Kind of Woman in 1951 (along with Vincent Price and Tim Holt) and a year later in Macao in 1952, a feature better remembered in which "A sultry night club singer, a man who has also traveled to many exotic ports and a salesman meet aboard ship on the 45-mile trip from Hong Kong to Macao. The singer is quickly hired by an American expatriate who runs the biggest casino in Macao and has a thriving business in converting hot jewels into cash. Her new boss thinks one of her traveling companions is a cop. One is -- but not the one the boss suspects."

The bit about the sultry lady acting as a fence reminds me of what Burma's occupation is the first time Pat Ryan and Terry Lee meets her.

Anyway, enough filling. Here are the splashes in order.

First Story Splash

Second Story Splash

Third Story Splash

Fourth Story Splash

# 79

Headline Comics # 52 - eBay purchase

Content:

Cover by Marvin Stein

The Hideout Racket! by Marvin Stein 10 pgs

Voyage of Vengeance! by ? 5 pgs

You only Die Once! by ? 7 pgs

Coffin for a Killer! by ? 7 pgs

Marvin Stein will obviously be our artist of choice for today but, unfortunately, information on Stein is only found tangentially. I was able to find reference to Marvin through his relationship with either Kirby, Meskin, or Premiani, all of whom were involved in the S&K studio of the early 50s.

Let me try to piece the information I found. Marvin Stein was born in 1925. From remembrance of Al Williamson, we can place him in New York at 20 as Al said: " We were all crazy about that [s&K] stuff. I know Wally liked Jack's work very, very much. Marvin Stein liked Jack's work very much. Marvin was a good friend; I met him back in 1945 when he was going to the Saturday morning sketch class at Hogarth's. He wound up working with Jack Kirby. He was a great fan of Jack's work. I remember going up to their studio when they did Prize Comics, to see Marvin. I met Jack probably 25 times, and every time I met him, he never recognized me; he didn't remember me. (laughter) He was in a world of his own."

As a matter of fact, the GCD gives his first credits at Quality a year prior in 1944 on such titles as Smash, Military and Police Comics.

Interestingly, Ayers's memory of Stein at the Hogarth school is slightly different because says: "And, also, Marvin Stein taught there. He was Joe Shuster's top honcho of the studio. It was Marvin, really, who did all the work and he passed on everything. He gave out the assignments and Joe would come in, maybe once or twice a week. And then there was Ernie Bache, who was in my class; we had dinner together, and I would go down to the studio to visit him. And the next thing I knew, I was drawing. So I started out penciling. That would be the end of October, November 1947." whereby Stein is seen teaching just 2 years later. What Ayers is mentioning here is that (and the GCD is omitting this work) Marvin Stein was Shuster's primary assistant during the early Superboy days. His inks are apparent in most of the More Fun run, especially number 105. In issue 107's "Crimes on Delivery" written by Don Cameron, Stein seems to have done all the artwork. Stein left Shuster shortly after this and went over to Simon and Kirby's outfit where he inked a lot of Jack Kirby's major work through out the fifties, including the earliest Challengers of the Unknown stories and samples for Kirby's newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force."

Indeed, thereafter Stein's credit primarily show up in Prize's books from crime to western to romance but he still picked up the odd freelance assignments from Ziff-Davis or Atlas.

It is during his time at Crestwood that Stein met Premiani as per this extract from a feature on Meskin.net: "Crestwood, the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby run studio, then brought Premiani on board. There he left an impression on a young Marvin Stein, "Bruno was a nice guy. I didn’t know him very well, but whenever he came to Crestwood we would chat about the comic book field. He loved the medium but couldn’t afford to stay in it. [He] couldn’t make the big bucks." Premiani was a generation ahead of most of the artists working at the studio," Bruno would do occasional work for Crestwood. Fantastic artist (realistic). Taught me how to rule straight lines with a brush. It certainly made the work go a lot faster! Bruno was an Argentine professor. I guess he taught art in some college down there.”

Stein spent a lot of time in his career inking but, (as mentioned in the Top 20 Inkers' website) "unfortunately, due to the lack of credits, many inkers of the Golden Age are largely forgotten. Those that are remembered have an output that is difficult, if not impossible to pin down. Men like Marvin Stein, Chic Stone and George Papp probably inked thousands of pages during those years, most of which are unidentified except by difficult research, hazy guesswork and tricky memories."

The last significant assignments I could track Stein on were first assists on Steve Canyon in 1962 and finally assists on McGurk's Mob from 1965 to 1968, a strip with which I must admit I am not familiar.

Does anyone know if Marvin is still alive? He would be 80.

Stein's Splash

Second Story Splash

Third Story Splash

Fourth Story Splash

Dope Teen-Age Menace "Ad" - Poor Sanders

Finally, Stein will always be remembered from this cover and the trivia associated

From left to right, the usual suspects are:

Letterer Ben Oda, Joe Simon, Joe Genalo (Production Man), Mort Meskin and Jack Kirby

An update on the 50 Ore books. A dealer in Chicago, after I pointed out to him a book in his inventory with the same stamp, told me that his belief on the matter is that someone did buy a warehouse of the stuff in Scandinavia somewhere and because of the size and nature of the inventory has decided to periodically (every 5 or so years) to repatriate a "container" of the books and start selling them.

Meanwhile, here's from today's mail - A Kida cover

Awesome cover. Romita correct?

Yup, it's signed by the bottom right octopus. Nice book

# 78

Haunt of Fear # 11 - Bought at this past Chicago Con

Content:

Cover by Graham Ingels

Ooze in the Cellar? by Graham Ingels 8 pgs

The Acid Test! by Jack Kamen 7 pgs

Extermination by George Roussos 6 pgs

Ear Today ... Gone Tomorrow! by Jack Davis 7 pgs

Today, we will concentrate on the E.C. Artist of the Issue - Jack Kamen as seen on the inside front cover of the book:

Here's a short list of Kamen's pre-EC work:

Avon

Saint #1 (1947), cover and art

Fiction House

Cowgirl Romances #1 (1950), art

Fight Comics #48-71,76-79 (1947-49) art; (Capt. Fight pirate stories in Fight Comics.)

Jumbo Comics #90-162 (1946-1951), art (drawing ZX-5 and Ghost Gallery in Jumbo)

Fox

All-Great #13 (1947), cover

Blue Beetle #47-54 (1946-47) cover, #47,50-51,53,55-57 (1946-48) art

Jo-Jo Congo King #7-29 (1947-9), art in many issues

My Secret Love #24 (1949), art

Rulah Jungle Goddess #17-19, 21-22, (1948) cover

Superior

Brenda Starr #2,4,14 (1948)

Also you should check out Jack Kamen's interview on the Comic Zone at this link.

Ingels Splash

Ingels Page

Kamen Page - See injury to the eye and more! panel

Kamen Page - See the result of the Acid Test and the revenge

Roussos Page

For comparison, let me pull back a Panel from Roussos story in Crime must Lose and the ID is easier once we compare both pages.

Davis Page

Update: Remember in Black Diamond Western that the Black Diamond's horse name is Reliapon and that it was determined by a reader's contest. Last week, on eBay, there was an auction for this item: a ad card for that same contest that also listed other Lev Gleason's titles:

This thread seems to have a bit of a DC bias (fine by me!) but that said, anyone interested in seeing some old pre and early code Atlas? In addition to filling up on DC war, my side project has been to get all the vicious Russ Heath Atlas War covers. Rare, but soooooo satisfying.

Shep,

yeah this thread is concentrated on the DCs and it might have been the intent of it; however, more of those "older" 10 cents War covers can be found in the Gold Forum in such threads as:

Best War Covers for War centric covers

In the Shadow of the Atomic Age for anything non-horror

and even in The Undead Thread: Pre-Code Horror for horror covers

and all the pinned threads about Horror, Timelys and miscellaneous GA books.

Great books! You don't see that #142 very often.

Yup, and that's why this one went for a nice price last week:

eBay Auction Link for 'Tec 142

# 77

Ha Ha Comics # 82 - eBay Purchase

Content:

Anthony and Cleopatra by ? 6 pgs

Hopalong Hoppity by ? 3 pgs

Li'l Sharpy by ? 1 pg

Izzy and Dizzy by ? 8 pgs

Robespierre by ? 7 pgs

This is a nice continuation of our discussion of Funny Animals and of the Sangor shop.

The Jack Bradbury Checklist does not indicate any of his work in this issue but he had worked on such features as "Doc" E.Z. Duzit, The Hepcats and Humphrey Hummingbird for this publication.

Michael Vance in Forbidden Adventures describes this series as follows:

"Ha Ha and Giggle were anthology titles that targeted a young audience who were read to by adults, older friends, or siblings, or were just beginning to read themselves. Features changed with each issue, but talking animals dominated the books. The stories were simple with a single theme and employed mostly visual humor. Human faces were rare."

Here's more recollection from Jim Davis about the West Coast Sangor shop operations:

"Sangor liked his [Ken Hultgren] and offered him a guaranteed $250 a week for 10 pages per week complete. Ken and his wife Martha wrote the stories he illustrated. I tried to get Sangor to publish a couple of titles that would use Ken's stuff exclusively, but Hughes apparently chose to jumble everything together in Ha Ha and Giggle ... the good, the bad, and the indifferent.

Sangor was in it for the money and didn't know the difference. All of us here were kind of frowned on both Ha Ha and Giggle because Hughes would make a jumble of New York City work and work from here. They didn't equate. The stuff from here, uniformly, was better. So, we got our noses out of joint, to a degree, by the nature of those books.

Disney trained his people very well. We used to, at the studio's expense. attend classes to teach us the fundamentals of drawing. And that was the difference between the West Coast guys, who got that kind of training either from Disney or on their own, versus the Eastern guys, who were equally talented, but didn't have the training."

Now, you will notice on the indicia, that even though the cover clearly states ACG that the publisher is Creston out of St Louis, Missouri with editorial offices, the ACG offices, run by Editor Richard Hughes and Business Manager Frederick H. Iger in New York City, NY (For that matter, Forbidden Worlds was published by Preferred Publications out of Buffalo, NY with the same ACG editorial offices). The reason for this heralds back to the early 40's, as Davis again reminisces:

"Donenfeld and Sangor were about the same age and enjoyed each other's company. No doubt, Sangor's relationship with Pines [Ned Pines of Pines / Nedor / Better was married to Nora Sangor Pines, B. W. Sangor's daughter] stimulated his interest in comics, but it was Donenfeld ... that provided Sangor with a distribution outlet for Sangor's magazines. As I recall, Pines released through the American News Corporation, and that avenue wasn't open to Sangor.

Donenfeld came up from the streets of New York City. But they traveled about a lot ... Donenfeld keeping in close touch with his news distributors in every city, and Sangor searching out newsprint to print comics. During the early 1940s, newsprint paper was a black market item, but Sangor found enough to meet his needs, and I'm sure Harry Donenfeld told him where to look."

Now, one of those places were as follows:

"[...] Sangor struck a co-ownership deal with Gerald and Andrew Albert, who had published several science-fiction pulp magazines before World War II. [...] Their pre-war paper allotment made publishing possible for Sangor, who had no paper allotment. Using his shop of writers and artists allowed Sangor and the Alberts to begin publishing under the name Creston in 1943. Their first two titles were Ha Ha and Giggle comics, co-owned by Gerald and Andrew Albert. [...] Creston was named after the street where Gerald Albert lived."

Relationships were even tighter because, if you look back up you'll see the Business Manager was Frederick Iger of whom we know:

"Iger's first connection to Sangor and eventually to ACG started with his relationship to Sangor's friend, Harry Donenfeld. From around 1939 to 1941, Iger worked briefly at National / DC comics with Bob Maxwell, the producer of the radio shows "Hop Horrigan" and "Superman." Born on July 12, 1922, Iger became an apprentice at about 15 or 16 years of age, learning the radio end of Donenfeld's publishing empire until he went into the army. On leaving military service, Iger invested with Sangor through Donenfeld's offices, forming the B&I Corporation that published several titles under ACG's corporate umbrella."

But more telling are Kurt Schaffenberger's recollections that:

"When I got to ACG, Fred Iger was the owner and publisher. Fred was the son-in-law of Harry Donenfeld, owner and publisher of DC; and as Harry already had his son Irwin, working at DC, Harry bought ACG for Fred as a wedding present and to keep peace in the family."

Anthony and Cleopatra's Splash

Anthony and Cleopatra's next page

Hopalong Hoppity

Izzy and Dizzy's Splash

Robespierre Page

Nice House Ad for The Kilroys

From WDCS 44 - May 1944 - The Mad Chemist

BTW, were there no Charlton funny animal books in 1952?

Nope, Charltons were not numerous:

Cowboy Western Comics

Crime and Justice

Hot Rods and Racing Cars

Lawbreakers

Thing!

and that's it. You see the Thing! very often, followed by Cowboy Western then Hot Rods then Crime and Justice and Lawbreakers FWIW.

Let us know what you thought of the funny animals you pick up. The next topic we should take on are the Teen books as some are quite well written and very enjoyable.

I've been getting interested in some of the offbeat funny animal titles lately.

 

I know you're a Barks fan, Scrooge, and nothing can compete with that... but have you seen anything you liked in the more oddball animal books you've acquired?

VG+, I am no expert and I hope others jump in to help but let's get started with a list:

Title Publisher

Giggle Comics ACG

Ha Ha Comics ACG

Super Duck Comics Archie

Peter Rabbit Avon

Andy Panda Dell

Donald Duck Dell

Porky Pig Dell

Uncle Scrooge Dell

Krazy Kat Dell

Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies Dell

Pogo Possum Dell

Tom and Jerry Comics Dell

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories Dell

Fawcett's Funny Animals Fawcett

Animal Antics National

Comic Cavalcade National

Flippity & Flop National

Fox and the Crow National

Funny Stuff National

Hollywood Funny Folks National

Leading Screen Comics National

Peter Porkchops National

Real Screen Comics National

Marmaduke Mouse Quality

Adventures of Mighty Mouse St John

Dinky Duck St John

Heckle and Jeckle St John

Mighty Mouse St John

Paul Terry's Comics St John

Coo Coo Comics Standard

Goofy Comics Standard

Happy Rabbit Standard

Supermouse Standard

Willie the Penguin Standard

Frisky Animals Star

Holiday Comics Star

Felix the Cat Toby

Overall I would eliminate from our list the output of ACG, Archie, Star and Standard to the exclusion of Supermouse from Standard which I like. I cannot yet comment on Marmaduke Mouse nor on Fawcett's Funny Animals (and the opinion on this title would probably vary from its early days to its later days).

As for St John, I would single out Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle as the most enjoyable characters. Be careful that the art on Mighty Mouse can widely vary. As for Felix the Cat, well ... Felix has always been a favorite of mine but I can see that he is an acquired taste. I would like to hear what others might think. Peter Rabbitt was above average as far as enjoyment but this might be due to the fact that I have an all Frank Carin issue.

Within the Dells, here's my ranking:

Uncle Scrooge

Donald Duck

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories

Andy Panda

Tom and Jerry Comics

Porky Pig

Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies

Pogo Possum (I know, I know lotsa youse will disagree!)

I do have most of the DCs but somehow they don't grab me as well, possibly because these characters are not "celebrities" as the Dells were and so lack of familiarity sadly automatically downgrades them. I need to look at them over in order to get a better picture of what DC was offering.

So in all:

Happy surprises: Supermouse, Mighty Mouse and Andy Panda

Confirmations: Felix, Scrooge, Donald

On the bubble: Heckle and Jeckle and Happy Rabbit

from WDCS 43 - April 1944 - Bath Time

Where do I vote for this to be the Thread of the Month?

# 76

Great Lover Romances # 3 - Bought from Basement Comics

Content:

I found Love in a Taxi by ? 6 pgs

Dr. Anthony King, Hollywood Psychiatrist in Too Fat for Love by Myron Fass 8 pgs

Powerhouse of Deceit! by ? 7 pgs

"I just Love Acting!" by ? 6 pgs

This is another Toby Press book featuring the artistry of Myron Fass who later would work for Toby's entry in the Horror genre: Tales of Horror with issue # 1 debuting in June 1952. Prior to that, Myron's work appeared at Fox, Avon and Youthful and later would show up at Trojan and Lev Gleason (in Black Diamond Western). All the while, his worked also appeared regularly at Atlas, with his earlier credit being for Crime Can't Win and Crime Exposed in February 1951. He worked for Atlas until Mid-1954.

Myron Fass is better known for the trashy mags he put out later in life in the 1970's. According to biographical information compiled here [Warning: Trashy 1970's magazine covers loading in this link]:

"Myron (born March 29, 1926) grew up in Brownsville, a section of Brooklyn, NY, his father was an orthodox Jewish immigrant that worked in the sewers of N.Y.C. for the WPA (Work Projects Administration).

Myron first gained attention with his drawing skills early on, but during WWII his talent and “ideas” got him Public Relations jobs. After the war––starting about 1948 until the Comics Code Authority was implimented in 1955––Myron Fass got work drawing pre-code western, crime, horror, romance and jungle girl comics, illustrating many of the covers, as well as stories. Companies such as Atlas, Trojan, Gleason, Toby, and others paid for his artwork to use in diverse titles like Tales of Horror, Adventures Into Terror, Astonishing, Uncanny Tales, Great Lover Romances, Black Diamond Western, Crime Smashers, Western Crime Busters, Atomic Spy Cases, etc. It was after the Comics Code Authority took effect in the mid-fifties that Myron started his publishing odyssey.

He was greatly influenced and inspired by Mad’s William M. Gaines and his maverick approach to publishing, particularly the fact that Gaines had turned Mad into a magazine format in 1955 to escape the control of the newly formed Comics Code Authority.

This led Myron to find backing for Lunatickle, the “Lunatic’s Home Companion,” which was one of the earliest Mad imitators and Myron was its editor. Other contributors included Joe Kubert, Russ Heath and Theodore S. Hecht (who was later the editor for Stanley Publications horror story mags Adventures In Horror and Horror Stories). Lunatickle’s first satire filled issue was published in 1956 by Whitestone Publishing, a subsidiary of Fawcett Publishing. Whitestone also published the scandal and satire mags Cockeyed, SHHH, Cuckoo, and Exposed which was their longest running title. Myron said of Lunatickle “(it) sold a million first issue, was dead by the third.” The third issue never materialized, only two issues were published. Myron used the "Cockeyed" theme again in 1976 with his anti-Nixon statement, Nixon Cockeyed, which contained doctored photos that put Nixon's head on other bodies for a humorus look at "Tricky ."

[...] Myron Fass never rejected his origin in sleazy pulp magazines, in fact he saw it as a living, while at the same time turning them into an art form. The formula for Myron seemed to be cheesecake, gore, horror, shock, and opportunism, printed on the cheapest newsprint available--and it worked! Utilizing a combination of young writers and artists, fresh out college, and some of his immediate family, Fass published multitudes of pulp mags which put plenty of money into his pockets. Myron has correctly referred to his magazines as “Masterpieces on cheap paper.”

Myron published Shock Tales in January 1959, riding on the coat tails of the new monster mag, Famous Monsters of Filmland, although Shock Tales wasn’t about films and it didn’t utilize film stills. In fact it was rumored that some of the staff posed in the horror photos used. Shock Tales contents were slightly geared toward a more adult audience as was Thriller also published by Tempest Publications later in 1962. Tempest Publications would again be used as the publisher for the sixties pin-up girlie mags Pic, Buccaneer, Poorboy, Jaguar, etc.

Fass failed to enter the comic book business in 1966 in an ill attempt with Carl Burgos, the Marvel artist, to reinvent Captain Marvel. M. F. Enterprises published five issues before calling it quits after bad sales and bad reviews by Capt. Marvel fans."

Fass is probably best (or is that worst) remembered for this last-cited attempt. That ill-fated venture is mentioned below in the recent article about Carl Burgos in AE

and here's another shot of the hero in action against some potato-men as relayed by Scott Shaw!

First Story Splash

Fass Story Splash - our heroine before

Fass Story Page - our heroine after

Fourth Story Splash - I find this image whimsical with the girls fighting to attract attention away from the heist. I like the expressions on the faces in the crowd as well as the allure of the crooks walking out of the bank.

Fourth Story Page - Notice how the artist really is only drawing the same woman twice!!

Also inside where this one-page featured about the Duke. What I found surprising was the title - Paging John Wayne. I would have thought the expression more recent. It is not surprising to find such a page in a Toby book as they did features about stars frequently.

Finally, here are some advice for teens you know:

For you to better see, that schedule is:

1. 9 hours of sleep

2. 6 hours of school

3. 2 hours for chores and jobs at home

4. 2 hours for meals (including have an ice cream with good goo as the caption mentions)

5. 2 hours for play

6. 3 hours for extras

P.S.: Myron had a brother who did also briefly work for Atlas: Al Fass. It is always amazing how many times related people worked in the industry. I can think quickly of: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber (brothers), Carmine and Jimmy Infantino (brothers), Myron and Al Fass (brothers), Chuck Mazoujian and Art Pinajian (cousins), John Romita Sr. and Jr. (father / son), Joe, Andy and Adam Kubert (father / sons), Dan and Sy Barry (brothers), Alex and Toni Blum (father / daughter), Mort and Brian Walker (father / son), Bill and ? Keane (father / son), Dirk and Chris Browne (father / son), Alex and ? Raymond (brothers), Chic and ? Young (father / son), and I am probably forgetting some obvious ones ...

P.S.--is it some kind of karma thing that Percy Pig et al must die (be cancelled) to create a metaphorical spot for Uncle Scrooge #1?

Marc,

your post reminded me that Percy Pig was not Scrooge's true competition as there were many ducks in the comics scene. A quick run down from memory includes:

Buck Duck from Timely / Atlas

Super Duck from MLJ / Archie

Lucky Duck from Standard

Dizzy Duck from Standard

Dippy Duck from ??

Dinky Duck from St John

Hucky Duck from Standard in Barnyard Comics

and probably more if we look hard enough

Kwak

P.S.: I sure also wish I had access to Dan Stevenson's complete database!

Besides the horror Adventures Into the Unknown issues (#51-59), ACG also had some Romance 3-D issues, and Romance/Comedy ("Cookie" was the name I think.)

The Romance titles receiving the 3D treatment were Confessions of the Lovelorn and Romantic Adventures.

The Humor titles were Cookie and The Kilroys and finally there was also Commander Battle and the Atomic Submarine.

# 75

Goofy Comics # 48 - Bought at a Chicago Con.

Content: [Note: This is the last issue of this series]

Goofy Gander & Wally Wolf in The Cave of Winds by ? 16 pgs

Percy Pig in All at Sea by ? 6 pgs

Wally Wolf in Setting up in the World by ? 2 pgs

Lucky Duck in Wild Prodigy by Jack Bradbury 5 pgs

The series is not covered in the GCD. I lucked into the ID through sheer memory as I recalled Alberto Becattini's interview with Jack Bradbury in CBM 103 - June 2003 along with Bradbury's checklist. Memory served me well as the Lucky Duck story is indeed attributed to Jack. It's a great interview as Bradbury sounds very good at 88 but, sadly, he died shortly (May 15th, 2004) after the interview / article. Here's an obit from the Big Cartoon Forum that covers Jack's entire career:

"Animator and prolific comic book artist John Morin "Jack" Bradbury, who worked on features for Walt Disney Studios and shorts for Friz Freleng's unit at Warner Brothers, died Saturday at 89.

Credited variously as "John Bradbury" and "Jack Bradbury" in animated films, he had battled renal failure for months, said comic and cartoon writer-historian Mark Evanier.

He was one of the animators responsible for the segment "The Pastoral Symphony" in 1940's Fantasia. In Pinocchio, released the same year, he is credited for having been responsible for the "Nest and Flowers on Pinocchio's Nose."

Bradbury was also among the animators of Bambi (1942), as well as the Oscar-winning 1938 Disney short Ferdinand The Bull (1938).

At Warner Bros., he animated the Merrie Melodies Jack-Wabbit And The Beanstalk (1943), along with Stage Door Cartoon and Meatless Flyday (both 1944).

Born in Seattle on December 27, 1914, Bradbury joined Disney in 1934 as an uncredited in-betweener on several cartoons, soon becoming a full animator. He had several major scenes in feature projects, including the Pegasus family landing on water in Fantasia, Figaro walking across Gepetto's bed in Pinocchio and the stag fight in Bambi.

After leaving Disney, he embarked on a cartoon in print comics. He drew Bugs Bunny cartoons for a short time at Warner Brothers, joining Western Publishing in 1947 and illustrating Disney comics.

His hundreds of children's books included the famous (and best-selling) Little Golden Books. He also worked on most of the Western Publishing comic books appearing under the Dell and Gold Key imprints.

The main artist in Pluto stories, he drew nearly every Disney character during his career at Western. However, Disney was not the only studio to provide characters for his pen. Bradbury also drew comic stories with Warner Bros. characters (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig), as well as characters from Walter Lantz (Andy Panda and Charlie Chicken, Oswald the Rabbit, Chilly Willy), MGM (Big Pike and Little Tyke), and Bob Clampett (Beany and Cecil). In addition, he illustrated Professor Putter for Western in the early 1960s.

Bradbury was noted for his funny animal comics, also drawing them for ACG/Creston, Nedor/Standard, Rural Home, DC and A.C.E. Characters included Spencer Spook and Hucky Duck for Ha-Ha Comics, Giggle Comics and others.

Eye problems and personal matters forced Bradbury to curtail his drawing after around 1970, but he continued to work intermittently for the Disney folks, mostly consulting and occasionally drawing for merchandise, especially coloring books."

Being most remembered obviously for his well-recognized work on some of Disney's most famous features, Bradbury did draw over 5,900 pages of comic! The reason Jack moved from Disney to Warner is that Jack participated in the infamous Disney's union strike of 1941 which lead to his dismissal. Before going to work for Warner, Bradbury spent nine months painting Liberty Ships in the shipyards in San Pedro.

Of interest to us today is his beginnings with Sangor / ACG / Standard. Quoting from the CBM interview which included this illo:

"[...] In 1943, one of the animators I knew [...], Gil Turner, introduced me to Jim Davis, a friend for whom he was doing some comic-book work in his spare time. These comic books consisted of animated animal characters, done very much like those we'd been doing at the studios. Ken Hultgren was also working for Davis at that time, at home. Jim represented Sangor Publications (a.k.a. Editorial Art Syndicate or Cinema Comics), a New York concern run by Ben W. Sangor and Richard Hughes which packaged comic-book titles for various publishers, including Creston (a.k.a. American Comics Group), Standard, and National / DC. Sangor and Hughes had their own artists in New York - mainly animators from the Paramount / Famous Studios like Dan Gordon - whereas Jim was in charge of the West Coast branch, buying stories and artwork done by Hollywood animation artists and writers.

[...] We were doing strips for such titles as Ha Ha, Giggle, Coo Coo and Happy, published by the American Comic Group, in which both Sangor and Hughes had an interest, and by Standard, who bought the stories from Sangor.

[...] sometime in 1948, the bottom fell out of the independent comic book business amd our work for Sangor came to a rather abrupt end. Jim Davis had been doing the Fox and Crow comic himself for about three years for DC / National comics, and still had that to do, but the rest of us were now basically out of work. Luckily, Lynn Karp and I were told that Standard Publications wanted us to do some work for them.

[later, Bradbury talks about his transition to Western Publishing (under the Dell imprint) in these terms] Yet the thought of doing work for Western was not too enticing, as I would no longer have the freedom I'd had when working for Sangor. It meant using stories from their story men, plus drawing an eight-panel page (for Sangor we had only six panels per page), and having to bear down and draw all Disney characters. Not to mention the pay, as they offered about $18 a page, drawing and inking - a far cry from the $25 a page we had been getting at Sangor's."

First Story Splash

First Story Page

Second Story Splash

Bradbury Story Splash

Bradbury Story Last Page

Still, the blacks on this cover are incredible. What do you think kept this one below a FN/VF?

I got this presidential comic in the mail today. Reagan is headlining with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis! Reagan story by Kiefer and Martin / Lewis story by Ledoux. Oh and ignore the ULC rip... What's not to love about Movie Love.