Scrooge

Why wait! Just go to the DC Indices. I already pointed you to the Plastic Man page. It seems that they start around 30 and do continue for a while. I'd say 53 but after a certain point (before 53) they already incorporate a Reds / Spy component alternating with Horror.

# 35 Crime and Punishment # 48 - Bought from Tomorrow's Treasures Content: Murder at the Masquerade by A.M.William(?) 7 pgs Henry Darpis - Public Enemy no.1 by ? 8 pgs Caught in a Web by Di Preta 6 pgs Death on Wheels by Fred Guardiner (Sic) 5 pgs And yes as the masthead states, it is "A Thrill a Minute". A few things to note on this. First, it is always nice to look at a Lev Gleason book because the stories tend to be signed so we know who worked on the pages. Second, the cover is not "signed" per se when in general Charlie Biro did the covers but I am guessing that the name of the Band CB was Charlie's way to sign this cover and I have a further hunch that the seating band members could very well be Charlie and Bob (or Lev possibly). I don't have my copy of the recent and excellent coverage of Lev Gleason in CBM to check with the pictures but that's a possibility. I am fairly sure we will see Tony Di Preta again so let me concentrate of Fred Guardineer today. A few bio facts from the Comiclopedia: "Fred Guardineer was born in Albany, New York. After acquiring his fine arts degree in 1935, he went to New York City and drew for several pulp magazines before joining the Harry "A" Chesler shop in 1936. There he drew adventure features for the Chesler books, such as 'Lobo' and 'Dan Hastings', before beginning his freelance comic book career in 1938. Guardineer worked for Centaur (between 1937 and 1939), National (1937 - 1940, working on the 'Zatara', 'Pep Morgan', and 'Speed Sanders' strips and covers), Marvel (1941), Quality (1941 - 1944, working on the 'Tor', 'Merlin', 'Quicksilver', and 'Marksman' strips), Hillman (1946 - 1947), Eastern, Pines, Gleason (1946 - 1953, working mostly on crime stories), and for Me (1952 - 1955, on 'Durango Kid'). Fred Guardineer retired from comics in 1955, at the age of 42, and became a government employee. He moved to San Ramon, California, where he died in 2002." Fred is probably best remembered for his work on Zatara and the covers he did for DC at that time period such as this Action 16 . I'll let others post their copies if they want. Ron Goulart describes Guardineer's art as drawn "in a flat, strongly outlined style and (he) treated each panel as part of the overall design of the page. He favored bright, basic colors. The witches, warlocks, monsters, and madmen he drew for features like Zatara had individuality, and his damsels in distress were pretty and distinctively dressed." AE 10 had an interview with Fred and, more recently, the latest issue of Comic Art Magazine profiles Fred's journal from 1935-1936. Onto all four splash pages: Masquerade story Henry Darpis didn't turn up on any Yahoo! nor Google search Di Preta story Guardineer's race story

Something different and more recent. Do anyone know about similar books released in the US? Any info will be appreciated. This book is pocket size, not comic book size.

Aaah, traveling pets:

# 34 Crack Western # 77 - Bought from Tomorrow's Treasures Content: Arizona Raines in Comanche Terror! by Reed Crandall 9 pgs Two-Gun Lil by Pete Morisi [?] 5 pgs Bob Allen, Frontier Marshal in The Black Gun Gang by ? 7 pgs The Whip by ? 7 pgs The obvious star of this book is Reed Crandall whom we already saw in Blackhawk but decided to concentrate on Bill Ward. Even though, we'll meet Reed again (at least in Police Comics), it is time to give him his dues. As per this Comic Art & Graphix Gallery biography: "Reed Crandall was born in Winslow, Indiana on February 22, 1917. His career in art started at the age of four when he wowed his parents with some of his earliest drawings. In 1935 he recieved an art scholarship at the Cleveland School of Art in northeast Ohio. After graduating, he moved to New York at the invitation of a publisher of children's books, but after illustrating just one cover, Reed left the company. He then went to work for the NEA Syndicate as an editorial cartoonist before finally landing a job at the Eisner-Iger shop on Manhattan's east side. At this time he worked alongside such greats as Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Paul Gustavson, Alex Kotsky, & Fred Gardineer. Eisner & Fine, through the distinct quality & innovative style of their illustrations were revolutionizing the comic art form, and working alongside them, Reed's work bloomed into maturity within an imperceptively short period. It was said that his art was so good and respected at the shop that the other artists would stop work to watch Reed & look at his pages. Finally Iger told him to stop bringing his work into the office. Almost all of his output at this time went to the Quality Comics Group which published such titles as Hit, Crack, Smash, Military (later Modern) and Uncle Sam which later became Blackhawk Comics. In the beginning, one of his chores was inking Lou Fines wonderful Military Comics covers. After a few issues of that, Everett M. (Busy) Arnold, the publisher of Quality saw his beautiful fine-lined renderings, he reportedly hired hem exclusively, and Reed took over the reigns of penciling & Chuck Cuidera (& probably others) inked over Reed's work. Some of the features he drew included the Ray, Firebrand, Hercules, Uncle Sam, Dollman & the Blackhawks. Those fantastic group shots of the Blackhawks ficghtings hordes of villains are breath-taking. Before long Reed was illustrating all of the Blackhawk & Dollman stories, which he continued to draw for almost fifteen years, with a short hiatus from 1942-44 during which time he served in the Army Air Force, where he picked up the neccessary knowledge to draw the great militaria that was neccesary to the Blackhawk series. Over the course of those years, the stories & art of these books became a reflection of the social & real world fears of Americans. From the Nazi & Yellow threat theme of the second World War years thru the late forties Crime comic era and into the Red Menace & Horror themes of the early fifties. When Quality scaled down their line, Reed began doing work over at EC. The artist he worked alongside here are some of the most revered names in the business. Greats like Frazetta, Williamson, Ingels, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis and the heaven-blessed Wally Wood were just some of them. The genre's he drew for crossed from SF to Suspenstory to Horror, but some think his best work here were his Piracy comic covers, two of which were homages (or swipes) of famous Howard Pyle paintings from his "Book of Pirates". When EC & Quality both folded comic production in 1955/56, Reed did occasional work for Atlas/Marvel, Classics Illustrated (Gilberton) and shortly after Buster Brown shoestores, who issued their own monthly giveaway comic book. The Interplanetary Police feature Reed drew in collaboration with Ray Willner was science fiction at it's best. In 1960 he landed a contract with Treasure Chest Comics & drew stories for them for twelve years doing stories & covers as often as twice a month for the bi-weekly comic. Then in 1964 he increased his workload further & we began to be treated to some the best work of his career. Warren Publishing, the publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland - one of the most influential magazines of this hobby & many others- was about to begin with a line of horro comic titles in magazine format. The resultant titles, Creepy, Eerie, Blazing Combat & later Vampirella; were resurrections of the EC Comics horror & war titles of the fifties. Part of this resurection neccesitated the assemblage of the former's artistic alumnis. At Warren his talent had come to it's epoch, and Reed's exquisite illustrations for his gothic horror & historic war stories were poetry on paper. Whereas in the forties he employed the liberal usage of india ink to blacken open areas to negative space, to achieve the shaded effect he simply (?) would pen hundreds of small parallel lines into the panel's spaces. The effort was, like one of his early characters at Quality, "Herculean". Also in 1964, Reed through his friend Al Williamson, acquired work at Canaveral Press where he drew bookplates & covers for the Edgar Rice Burrough's characters "John Carter" and the legendary "Tarzan". Unfortunately, Canaveral folded before Reed's entire output for them was published & many great pieces were left to languish in the pages of fan publications. A little while later, after Williamson left the King "Flash Gordon" comic, he drew several issues of the title. Unfortunately, by the late sixties his work began to show the effects of years of alchohol abuse & Reed's age until finally his illustrations of the anatomical form, which was once his greatest strength, slowly took on the deformed look of less talented artists, and finally in 1973 his last contribution to comics was published in Creepy #54 (This Graveyard is Not Deserted). And his long and illustrious career in comics, which had spanned more than thirty years, had ended. In 1974, Reed began working as a janitor & night watchman with Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas. After suffering a stroke in 1975, he settled into a rest home for the elderly where he spent the next seven years until a massive coronary ended his life on September 13, 1982." If you wonder how early Reed's talent developed, check this out: According to this article Reed painted those in 1933 at the young age of 15 or 16. Then three years he, ironically for this column, switched medium and left us this (as per this article): Also of interest, the Arizona Raines feature debuted as Arizona Ames in CRACK WESTERN #63 (1949) but was forced to change his name almost immediately (effective with #66), presumably because famed Western novelist Zane Grey already had a character by that name. Under his revised name, Arizona continued through CRACK #84 (1953). He had a horse named Thunder and a kid sidekick named Spurs. Spurs' horse was Calico. Art on the strip was primarily by the renowned Reed Crandall though Paul Gustavson contributed some stories, as well. According to the Obscure DCU Guide, "Two-Gun Lil appeared in CRACK WESTERN #63-84. She was Lillian Peters and frequently joined forces with her Uncle Mike Peters (no relation to the editorial/MOTHER GOOSE & GRIM cartoonist). Art on the strip was by Pete Morisi, perhaps best known as PAM on Charlton's Thunderbolt series in the 1960s." Question of the day: according to the splash below, is this Morisi at work here? (I feel it could be as per Lil's face and the hand at the bottom left foreground in the opening panel as well as the wood grain on the bar. Am I way off here?) Oh I am also open for suggestions about Bob Allen and The Whip's artists. Arizona Raines Two-Gun Lil Bob Allen, Frontier Marshall The Whip (Notice the nice bill on the back wall of the saloon)

I am torn. I still can't decide whom I prefer: Doris or the soldier's regular girl. Blame it on the great Quality artists to make this a tough choice! Should we set a poll? Have no fear Silver that you are in company of people who relish these postings. Please we need more Romance

Huh ... what can I say - WOW. No kidding, it is very interesting you have the various stages of production for the book I just happened to post (which is not an obvious choice). We make a great team at that. Was this sheer luck or do you have more of this stuff? Oh, and by all means, please post a scan of your copy when you can. I'd wager that your copy doesn't have rusty staples like mine.

Re Big Town - if anyone cared, they could also go back to the A Month in the Life thread entry for Big Town At this point, this thread needs to get away from the Supers and get back to what it needs, a good ol' western book. Focus folks, focus... This one is 1951.

# 33 Coo Coo Comics # 61 - Bought from Metro Content: Supermouse in Calling Father Time 14 pgs Happy Rabbit 1/2 pg Wally Wolf in Grunts and Groans 2 pgs Custer Crocodile in Catsup with his Sleep 1 pg Butch and Buttercup in Knock Wood! 5 pgs Freddy Frog in Big Business 1 pg Coo Coo in Birds of a Feather 6 pgs Clearly, the star of this comic is Supermouse. Fortunately for me, the Toonopedia comes to my rescue again because otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell you much about this comic. So, with rightful credits, the Toonopedia informs us that "during the early 1940s, comic book racks were rife with superheroes. But only a few stalwarts managed to survive beyond 1950. These included the biggest names — names such as Plastic Man … Captain Marvel … The Justice Society of America … Supermouse (aka "The Big Cheese") … who may have been a mere funny animal, but he was the longest-running comic book star the publishing empire of Ned Pines ever had. Pines was one of many pulp magazine publishers who got into comic books the minute they saw what success DC Comics was having with Superman. Like most, he entered the field with a bunch of anthology titles anchored by superheroes, such as Exciting Comics (where The Black Terror was the star), Startling Comics (Fighting Yank) and Thrilling Comics (Doc Strange, no relation). Also like most, he started diversifying the minute it began to look like the public might be getting tired of that genre. In 1942 and '43, he introduced a couple of humor titles for kids, Happy Comics and Coo Coo Comics. It was in the first issue of the latter (October, 1942) that Supermouse made his debut. October, 1942 was also the month Terrytoons introduced an animated character named Super Mouse. Terrytoons mogul Paul Terry retroactively changed the name of his to Mighty Mouse, to avoid publicizing someone else's character. Between them, these mice were the first two ongoing funny animal superheroes (tho Bugs Bunny had previously been "Super-Duper Rabbit" in a oneshot story in the Looney Tunes comic book). Since normal publishing lead times caused comic books to appear on the stands a couple of months before their cover dates, the edge goes to this one as the very first to appear before the public — the precursor to DC's Terrific Whatzit, Marvel's Super Rabbit, Fox's Cosmo Cat, and all the rest. Some people say the two super-powered rodents were connected, based on information leakage from Terry's studio to that of Ben Sangor, which packaged comics for Pines. Others say there wasn't. Among the latter is cartoonist Kin Platt, who created the one in comic books, tho it's true he'd worked for Terrytoons in the past. In any case, the name was the only possible connection, as they were two entirely different characters. Soupie (as Supermouse was often addressed) was one of the few married funny animals, as well as one of the few married superheroes. His wife's name was Mabel. He also had a nephew named Roscoe. His arch-enemy was Terrible Tom, a cat. He got his super powers by eating super cheese (which was made from the milk of a super cow); and quite a few stories, especially in the early days, revolved around others either depriving him of his stash or making use of it themselves. And never mind the fact that super cheese, like the substances ingested by Atomic Mouse, Atom the Cat and many other superheroes both smooth-skinned and furry, was what we would nowadays call a drug. Supermouse went on to become either the most successful funny animal superhero ever to come out of comic books or the second-most, depending on whether or not Super Goof's secret identity as Disney's Goofy disqualifies him as a native-born comic book character. Tho the Coo Coo title fell by the wayside in 1952, he'd gotten his own comic in '48, and kept it until Fall, 1958. It ended only when the publishing company itself (which had gone by the names Standard, Better, Nedor and several others over the years) folded. Among the writers and artists to work on the character were Dan Gordon (creator of The Flintstones), Richard Hughes (creator of Herbie) and Gene Fawcette (who had credits at Quality Comics, Dell and many other publishers). In the years since, there have been a few unauthorized reprints of Supermouse, and a handful of stories can be found here and there on the Internet. It isn't even clear who, if anyone, owns the rights to the old Standard/Pines/Nedor characters. Still, as the spiritual ancestor of Captain Carrot, The Amazing Spider-Ham, Courageous Cat and all the rest, he has a permanent place in cartoon history." Speaking of a handful of stories found on the Internet, you can read the very first Supermouse story here and another one here and yet another here. For today, all is left is to show 3 pages of Supermouse and get a glimpse at Coo Coo who gave the book its name. P.S.: My wife tends to prefer simple covers to busy covers (à la Atlas multi-preview-panels or à la copy-heavy Lev Gleason).

Tim, you forgot that part of Adam's penance will be to ship all his Infantino covers to me! Kidding aside, you never stop Adam, do you? Another gorgeous copy.

# 32 Comics on Parade # 82 - Antique Store purchase Content: Undated Strip reprints As usual, the most informative site is Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Here's the entry: "Like Snuffy Smith, Captain Easy, Steve Roper and many other comics stars, Nancy started out as a bit player and wound up taking over the series. Fritzi Ritz was a typical 1920s strip about a pretty girl, in the tradition of Cliff Sterrett's Positive Polly and Martin Branner's Winnie Winkle. It was created in 1922 by cartoonist Larry Whittington, and taken over in 1925 by 20-year-old Ernie Bushmiller. (Bushmiller's later claim of having created Fritzi is absolutely false.) Bushmiller's bold, clear art style, combined with his ability to construct a type of gag that appealed to a very broad audience, brought the strip to new heights of popularity — and his introduction of Fritzi's niece, Nancy, in 1933, carried it higher yet. Two important developments occurred in 1938. Sluggo Smith, Nancy's friend from the "wrong side of the tracks", was introduced in January; and later that year, Aunt Fritzi's name was dropped from the title of the daily strip, which continued as Nancy. At the same time, Bushmiller's Sunday page underwent a similar change. Formerly, half of it had been devoted to Fritzi and the other half to her boyfriend, Phil Fumble. Phil's half was taken over by Nancy. Years later, when newspaper space became tighter and cartoonists were no longer allowed whole pages to themselves, Fritzi's half disappeared, and the transformation was complete. Fritzi Ritz was a bit player where she had formerly been the star. In 1936, United Feature Syndicate, which distributed the strip, launched Tip Top Comics, where Fritzi's and Nancy's strips were reprinted alongside Li'l Abner, Ella Cinders, The Captain & the Kids, and other United Feature stars. Through two changes of publisher (to St. John in 1955 and Dell in 1957), the title lasted until 1961. United's Sparkler Comics, which started in 1940, had a similar line-up and publishing history — but there, when St. John took over the publishing, most of the features were dropped and the title was changed to Nancy & Sluggo. Fritzi, Nancy and Phil also appeared in United Comics during the early 1950s. When Dell took over the Nancy & Sluggo title, they assigned it to cartoonist John Stanley, whose decades of work on Little Lulu is highly regarded by today's comics aficionados. During Stanley's tenure, which lasted until the early 1960s, two characters were introduced — Sluggo's crabby neighbor, Mr. McOnion; and the little girl who lives in a haunted house, Oona Goosepimple. Oona, in particular, proved a memorable addition to the cast, despite the fact that neither she nor McOnion ever appeared outside of Stanley's comics. Nancy & Sluggo was discontinued in 1963, and Nancy never again appeared in comic books. Nancy had two very brief and undistinguished careers as an animated character. In 1942, she became the only outside character ever licensed by Terrytoons, the studio that produced Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle. Only two cartoons came out, and they're virtually forgotten today. And in 1971, an Archie TV show used Nancy in one of its segments — rotating with The Captain & the Kids, Broom-Hilda, Smokey Stover, and other comic strip characters. These cartoons were reprised in 1978, under the title Fabulous Funnies. Nancy's only recent foray outside of newspaper strips was onto a U.S. postage stamp. In 1995, she, along with The Katzenjammer Kids, Prince Valiant, Brenda Starr and several others, was part of the "Comic Strip Classics" series of commemoratives. Toward the end of his life, Bushmiller relied more and more on his assistants, Al Plastino (best known for his work on Superman in the 1950s and '60s, and for ghosting Ferd'nand in the '70s and '80s) and Will Johnson. He died in 1982, and the strip was taken over by Mark Lansky. Lansky died in 1983, and Jerry Scott became Nancy's writer/artist. Scott completely revamped the strip, giving it both a more modern look and a sassier brand of humor. This seems not to have been very popular with the readers. When he left in 1995 to concentrate on Baby Blues (which he does with Rick Kirkman), the new team, Guy and Brad Gilchrist, drew their inspiration straight from Bushmiller — even to the point of re-using many of the earlier cartoonist's gags. Although a few modern cartoonists, such as Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), cite Bushmiller's iconic style and communicative abilities as an inspiration — and although he did win the 1976 Reuben Award — Nancy's creator has enjoyed very little critical acclaim. But his work has always been immensely popular with the general public." As usual, some interesting insights and some surprising names showing up, especially John Stanley's and Al Plastino's. Looking around, you will realize that the perception on Bushmiller is mixed as in the above final paragraph. On one extreme are Scott McCloud's caustic comments: "[...]an approach so formulaic as to become the very definition of the "gag-strip"; a sense of humor so obscure, so mute, so without malice as to allow faithful readers to march through whole decades of art and story without ever once cracking a smile." In the middle is a more professional examination by R. C. Harvey in Children of the Yellow Kid where Harvey states that "Simingly a "kid strip," Nancy is actually a daily exercise in cartooning humor. Bushmiller always blended pictures and words for the comedy; indeed, most of his gags seem to spring from ingenious use of props, and almost none derive at all from the characters (who are, perforce, virtually without personality)." And in 1947, at the other end, Coulton Waugh saw "Bushmiller [as] a very talented cartoonist, with a dry, economical style, an uncluttered art sense refreshing to see; there are no scratchy pen thistles to hurt your eyes in his work. It is also comic work, pure but by no means simple [and forceful]". No amount of disagreement has stopped Nancy from still being published after 83 years (from the first Fritzi Ritz) or 72 years (since Nancy's first appeareance) or 67 years (since the strip changed name). The strip is carried by United Media as drawn by the Gilchrist Studios who run an all-about Nancy page here. Let me give you two gags from this issue.

# 31 Classics Illustrated HRN 93 - Bought from Southern California Comics Content: Cover by H.C. Kiefer Pudd'nhead Wilson by H.C. Kiefer Twain Biography 1 pg Stories from the World of Sports - "With an Assist from Mother Nature" 1 pg Stories of Early America - "The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga" 1 pg American Presidents - "An Incident in the Life of George Washington" 1 pg I fear that I will have to plug another book for this feature. In fact, I am posting two pages (hopefully readable) about H.C. Kiefer from William B. Jones, Jr.'s Classics Illustrateed, A cultural history with illustrations. I give you here the Amazon Link so you can see the book. This book should be available at your local library and I suggest you check it out. It is definitely worth a look (if not a purchase) for everyone. Notice the Ames Ware's review on Amazon that I reproduce here: "This is a SUPERB book, which covers probably the least known of all the comic book genre...and yet a comic book product that people who might never have purchased another type of comic, are aware of...Classics Illustrated. Since I know the author personally, I am in the position of knowing the tremendous amount of research that went into the making of this marvelous book...all the interviews with people who were vitally involved with the production of these amazing long lived comics. And as co-editor of the 4 volume Who's Who of American Comic Books, I am delighted to say much new information about the artists and adapters is brought to life by author Jones. Interviews with Lou Cameron, Rudy Palais, the widow of Louis Zansky, the recently departed and wonderful George Evans and many other artists of the 40's and 50's make for wonderful reading . And the tributes to lesser known ones like Alex Blum, Henry Kiefer, Robert Hayward Webb, plus giants like Matt Baker, Reed Crandall and many more, make this wonderful book a must for all who love to read the real story behind the one comic book product that almost everybody knew about. And even though the "text was the thing" this book shows in great and interesting detail why the artists who worked on the Classics Illustrateds helped to make that true for readers of all ages!" The book is heavily illustrated which was one of the main attractions for me in addition to the complete detailed listing with credits of each issue. Here are two main pages about Kiefer who did the art on this book: Once you consider that Classics showcased the artistry of (in no particular order) Palais, Orlando, LB Cole, Cameron, Evans, Saunders, Costanza, Tallarico, Sekowsky, Sparling, Battefield, Tartaglione, Morrow, Premiani, Kirby, Perlin, Severin, Crandall, Williamson & Torres & Krenkel, Ingels, Streeter, Schaffenberger, ... everyone should be able to find a copy of the series of interest. We still have to be honest and realize these creators probably didn't turn in their best efforts for Gilberton, it is still a cheap way to build a portfolio of some great artists. Splash page listing the cast of characters Life in the plantation down south The big reveal thanks to the brand new science of fingerprinting Inside front cover with it Who Am I feature and preview of next month new issue P.S.: Have to go back out of town. Will be back in a few days.

Adam, wow, talkative today. Thanks for the insights. Yes, I still can't figure out that stamp. I have books priced in Lira but I won them on eBay from an Italian dealer so those I can explain but these I am not quite sure. I would understand Deutschemark stamps as the US always has had bases in Germany but Sweden? Any one else knows? VG+? Re: Nordli. I have to go run errands but exactly when did Dell establish their West Coast office. I thought it was later than this. Of course, this is assuming Nordli was in CA then. I guess we could look over his credits, see who he was working in animation for in 1950-1951 and cross-reference the location of that studio. Re: Captain Marvel. The first two are as fun as they look. Again as I mentioned the last one really is weak. It was a fun read, the way King Kull and Sivana bantered and mostly took CM out of the first story. Re: Coloring. It's funny you mention that since on one page in the CM, King Kull is left completely uncolored! Adam, what do you think of the choice of Green for the "BOOM" sound. Weird hey. Maybe the colorist paid attention to the fact that the bombs (that are hanging from trees as booby-trap) the soldiers exploded were fragmentation and napalm bombs and colored accordingly? Still does not explain the person in foreground on top tier right panel. Oh well, we know they are going to be garrish anyway. Re: Google. Nope, I am a Yahooer. Strangely I feel I have better control of my searches using Yahoo! than Google. Must be force of habit. The results I get are more targeted to what I am looking for on Yahoo! I did read the Oddball comics assidiously for a while, printing them daily but the feature lost my interest after a while once the books were no longer truly Oddball.

# 30 Cisco Kid # 8 - Bought as a VG from Southern California Comics Content: Cover Painting by Ernest Nordli The Bad Men of Blue Moon Ridge by Bob Jenney 16 pgs The Treasure Map to Trouble by Bob Jenney 16 pgs Surprisingly this is the first Dell we run across. It is surprising because 1) Dell is the third most frequent publisher this month and 2) I am only missing the Bozo to have all the Dells I need. As per usual, you get your 10 cents worth of story and art with a Dell: 2 long 16 pages stories, stories that flow fairly well (even though I'd say the same plot would take about 5 or 6 pages in an Atlas book). Soooo the Cisco Kid, who is it? Well, The Scoop did most of the work for me as per their July 19, 2002 column: "The Cisco Kid Did you Know...?, Scoop, Friday, July 19, 2002 Short stories, radio programs, television shows, comic books . . . there are few media that The Cisco Kid and his mustachioed sidekick Pancho haven't infiltrated through the years. First introduced by O. Henry in his short story The Caballero's Way in the early 1900's, the two pals have been fighting injustice all over the Old West ever since. The radio program aired from 1942 to 1956 on Mutual, and between 1950 and 1956, The Cisco Kid television show was syndicated by the Frederic Ziv Company - starring Duncan Renaldo and Lee Carrillo. What made this program so extraordinary - at least from the technical side - was that it was filmed in color, despite the fact that there were no color television sets yet. Ziv had a hunch that color television was on its way, and made sure he was prepared. Today, Cisco Kid collectibles run the range from toy rings to records to combs and shoehorns - and a magnificent run of color comics from Dell publishing - all of which provide yet another example of a simpler era in American history." Thanks to the Old Corral , we also learn that the 'Cisco Kid' character is based on O. Henry's "Heart of the West" book of Western short stories, published in 1907, which was in turn based on legends around Austin, Texas of gambler and gunman Ben Thompson. Moreover, the Cisco Kid ended appearing in 23 movies played respectively by Warner Baxter (3 films), Cesar Romero (6 films), Gilbert Roland (6 films), and Duncan Renaldo (8 films). Yes, the Cisco Kid was the Joker a couple of decades later! You can check Cesar Romero's long list of credits at IMDB. As for Bob Jenney, despite a career running from the 30's to the 80's (assistant on Bringing up Father in 1982) that included some Children's book illustration, I could find very little about him. On the other hand, Ernest Nordli, our cover illustrator worked mainly in animation including being art director on Fantasia and Dumbo among others. His entire credits are again on IMDB. As for comic book work, he only worked on covers for Dell on Tonto, Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger (comics #s42, 50, 52, 53, 56, 59, 60 signed). This cover is pretty faithful to the screen image of the Cisco Kid as portayed in this shot by Duncan Renaldo: Here are the splashes and one additional interior art page P.S.: Any one can explain whence came the stamp on this comic. I have seen it on other copies and looks to me to be Norwegian (or at least Scandinavian) currency stamp. Am I right? Anyone can confirm / infirm that this comic travelled a long way from home before coming back?

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

Ditto from me. I had never seen a copy of My Greatest Adventure before those posted in this thread including yours but I like them. I prefer my adventure to be straight and not super-heroic these days. Thanks for posting those.

# 29 Captain Steve Savage # 4 - Bought from ? at last year's Chicago con Content: Actual Title: Captain Steve Savage fights the Red Raiders from Siang-Po! Cover by Everett Raymond Kinstler Inside Cover by Louis Ravielli Main Story Chapter 1 - No Title 6 pgs Main Story Chapter 2 - Attack from the North 6 pgs Main Story Chapter 3 - Showdown! 7 pgs (All by same unIDed artist) Operation Hero! by ? 8 pgs Today we are back to War, the Korea War to be specific with Captain Steve Savage leading a grab attack on an airfield across three chapters for a 19 pages story. The tone of these stories, again, varies from Fawcett's tone and Atlas' tone. Avon was clearly "on the side of the war" or at least presenting us with a hero-soldier ready and willing to participate in the action (and not in a detached fashion as the Fawcett's soldiers were, see the Battle Stories write-up). Since we will again see Kinstler before this is done, let's talk about Louis Ravielli. From Doc V.'s article about Bible Tales for the Young Folk , "Louis Ravielli[,] in the continued vein of Anderson, Tumlinson and Lawrence, [...] was a fine illustrator who did the majority of his work for Avon publishing from 1950-54. His Atlas stories excel in depicting "period" pieces both in this bible story and in his myriad of war stories for titles like BATTLE where he illustrated "The Battle Of Waterloo" in 1954. He also was a wonderful pulp artist and can be found in Street and Smith pulps around 1953." The only other information I found was that he provided 68 illustrations for the book Best in Magic by Bruce Elliott in 1956. I suspect that it is the same Bruce Elliott who wrote some (least appreciated) Shadow pulps in the late 40's - See the other thread about the Shadow. You never know how people in this field are going to be connected. This comic actually had the "honor" of an Oddball Comic treatment by Scott Shaw! with heavy emphasis in the first sequence. What Scott blankly missed is to pay attention to the final story. Operation Hero! focuses on the story of why the Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division for heroism in Goville, France. What Shaw! missed is that there was and still is a Walter D. Ehlers who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Here's Walt in 1944: His award citation can be seen here and his personal story, including the fact that his brother Roland was also on Omaha beach on D-Day but sadly died during the landing operations, is detailed here. Once you read both the citation and the story, it is clear the writer read the citation as the story proceed following the series of event leading up to the heroism Walt displayed. Comics with relevance. It also accentuates the afore-mentioned emphasis the Avon editorial staff brought to these war books. Onto to the art: Some racial stereotyping within the traditional dog-fighting sequence Giving it to the enemy Artist's version of the D-Day landing in the final story The Ehlers brothers in uniform

# 28 Captain Marvel Adventures # 130 - eBay purchase Content: (w/ credits from the GCD) Double Doom by CC Beck and Costanza(?) inks 8 pgs The Innocent Panic by Al Liederman(?) 4 pgs The Famine Foiler by CC Beck 6 pgs The Mysterious Invisible Monster by CC Beck 7 pgs All CM scripts by Otto Binder. Far be it from me that I try to enlighten this audience about the Big Red Cheese. So much has been written about him that he needs no introduction and I will never be as articulate as others have been in the past. Let me simply direct those that wish in the right direction: The Toonopedia entry is here and the Comiclopedia entry for Beck is here. And finally, for all things CM and Marvel family including a nicely illustrated Who's Who, please visit the Marvel Family Web. I would like to recommend highly Worlds of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder which I just now see is SOLD OUT according to Bill Schelly's web site. But as those who know know we can always rely on Bud Plant to have the book still available at his site. Grab it while you still can. I don't always agree with Bud's recommendations but I also whole-heartedly recommend this book (a far more captivating read than Julius Schwartz's Man of Two Worlds). Now onto the stories: Story 1: Double Doom - Nice gimmick in that Sivana's role is reversed. As King Kull is using his Dwindling Ray to shrink the Earth to a crushable size, he interrupts Sivana that is menacing to dumb the whole planet with his Mute Ray. Oh boy, CM has to face two simultaneous menaces! But fret not because Sivana realizes that he has to save the Earth from the Menace that wants to Destroy it in order to become himself the Menace that wants to Rule it. There ensues a battle between our two villains to which CM is nothing but a witness ready to sweep up after their battle. Good fun Splash and a page Story 2: The Famine Foiler - Zany story with a nice underlying message. On an outing with Doc Quartz, Billy discovers a valley where inhabitants are starving to death. Nonplussed, the Doc whips up the Famine Foiler that creates sausages from rocks. But, the rocks are not nutritious even though they fill the starved inhabitants. Once the truth is discovered, the villagers turn on the inventor and lynch him with a rope made of sausage links. Then comes CM to the rescue, he saves the Doc and realizes that the sausages are actually perfect fertilizers that help regrow the barren valley. Problem solved (with many shades of the giving a fish versus teaching to fish paradigm) Splash Story 3: The Mysterious Invisible Monster - the weakest of the three. An invisible monster wreaks havoc on the beach Billy is taking his vacation. All kinds of suspicion about the nature of the beast are put to rest once CM, after spray-painting the creature, uncovers an invisible viking ship that had been cursed never to be seen again. Splash

# 27 Captain and the Kids # 25 - Bought as a VG from Mile High Content: See scans We all have seen these characters in the past but what you may not know is the following, from Comiclopedia, the entry for the series creator: "Rudolph Dirks was born in Germany. At the age of seven, he moved with his parents to Chicago. By 1894, he was already selling his comics to Judge and Life magazine. He was employed by the New York Journal in 1897. His editor asked him to create a strip that could compete with the popularity of 'The Yellow Kid' by Outcault, which was published in a rival newspaper, The New York World. Dirks came up with 'The Katzenjammer Kids'. In 1912, when he wanted to go to Europe to devote himself to painting, his strip was taken from him. After a famous court battle, he regained the right to draw his characters, but the use of the title remained the sole right of the newspaper. This battle became a precedent for many cartoonists in trouble with their newspaper or syndicate. Dirks then resumed the strip under the title of 'Hans und Fritz' (later: 'The Captain and the Kids'), which he drew for The New York World. He retired in 1958, leaving the strip to his son John. 'The Katzenjammer Kids' in the New York Journal was assigned to Harold H. Knerr, and often imitated and plagiarized since. Dirks died in 1968, at 91 years of age." A slightly more extensive synopsis about the break is available on Toonopedia. What I didn't fully grasp until I read the Katzenjammer Kids entry in The Comics by Coulton Waugh is that when the struggle for control happened the strip had already been ongoing for 15 years - 1897 to 1912! Actually the syndicate would have allowed Dirks to go on his 1-year break on the condition he did build one year's worth of inventory for the strip and Dirks did work up to 6 months ahead before packing and leaving and the struggle for control started then. The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Strips adds that "Katzenjammer Kids" in german slang of the time meant "the hangover kids". Now, even as a child reading this strip, I never cared for the kids and always sided with the poor Captain (as much of a boor he is). Reading these over, I still find no sympathy for these kids who are maliciously troublesome (not à la H,D&L who don't necessarily want to get on the wrong side of Donald but end there because it's so easy to peeve Donald). As far as longevity in strip, this is another lengthy example. Consider that the Katzenjammer Kids are still running at the King Features Syndicate for a total of 1897 - 2005 = 108 years and The Captain and the Kids ran from 1915 to 1979 or 64 years for a combined life of 172 years worth of strips! (assuming they went uninterrupted) As such they are also one of the most reprinted strip in comics, for more information on their comic book life, look here and for a cover gallery, look there and finally for all things Katzies, look here. Here are two two-page sequence from the book: On this second one, notice the header for the comic states Sparkle Comics, showing these are recycled pages that UFS didn't bother to clean up. In addition, I had to show you this sequence for the traditional spanking of the Kids after the prank spelled trouble for the Captain (who is not married to Mama so is saddled with these two brats not of his own and still he's stayed for over 100 years) Collection Trivia: This book is from the Ronny Garcia collection as clearly seen on this white cover. I have at least 3 more books from this "pedigree" all purchased from Chuck at different times. P.S.: Adam, I know what you are saying about different audiences to CBM and AE. I was willing to stick with CBM (and I have bought all issues) through the worst of it and it did improve after a while under Russ (+ I personally don't mind articles about strips so I wasn't upset from the get-go) but the straw that broke the camel's back was the feature on Norman Saunders where NONE of the illustrations were labeled, meaning tough luck if you wanted to find any of those pulps if you did not know. Now that was unacceptable and unforgivable. I have heard people on these boards getting "tired" of AE because of the long interviews with "marginal" artists from the late 40s and 50s and now that they said it I can see that (I don't mind as I probably have a book with their work in my collection) but I would invite anyone feeling that way to pick back up an early copy of the newest volume of AE or even when it was on the back of CBA to see how improved the magazine is (I think) from just a few years back. P.P.S.: No feature for a few days but I will then be back with the Big Red Cheese.

Simply Positively Stunning This one is also on my patriotic list as well as a few other looney tunes: 18, 20 which are respectively April and June 1942 (that is they bookend the WDCS you just posted) and 33.

Thank you . I had only seen the small version in the Gerber. I have the Looney Tunes carrying the same letter but have not picked up this one yet.

Those are amazing copies of # 22. I also like patriotic covers. I'd have many requests for scans but I'll stick to just one. Anyone has a scan of a nice copy of # 58 = V. 5 # 10 - July 45 issue. That would be greatly appreciated.

# 26 Candy # 26 - Bought as a VG+ from Metro Content: Candy Story 1 by ? 7 pgs Will Bragg by ? 4 pgs Candy Story 2 by ? 4 pgs Candy Story 3 by ? 5 pgs Candy Story 4 by ? 5 pgs Candy Story 5 by ? 5 pgs The last comic profiled featured Buzzy, America's Favorite Teen-Ager and today we see Candy, America's Favorite Teen-Age Girl. Remember that Archie was not to be confused because he was only America's Typical Teen-Ager. As much as Candy was America's Favorite, she is not comic historians' favorite character. I was not able to turn up any information as to who worked on this title even though, if I had a choice, I'd take these artists over the ones in Buzzy any day of the year. I liked best the art on the Will Bragg story. All I can do today is to show you the inside of Candy and wonder if ever Buzzy and Candy met once DC acquired Quality's line. Who knows if they didn't meet up once both titled were cancelled? Story 1 Splash Will Bragg Story Splash Story 4 Splash P.S.: Adam, thank you for the feature on Baffling. Always ready to help out with your amazing books. I almost bought a copy at the last Mid-Ohio con but ended up spending the money on my Strange Worlds # 6. Also, interestingly after you and Tim discussed the possibility of a running feature on art ID, I saw this email from Roy Thomas, sent last Monday: "I should have my head examined for suggesting this, with the backlog of material I have to squeeze into ALTER EGO, but if someone's interested sometime in doing a piece on ID-ing art styles (with examples), perhaps with emphasis on Timely/Atlas, I'd love to do it, in one part or serialized. I'd like Craig Delich to do one, too, since Jerry Bails demurred. Now if someone could only convince Martin O'Hearn to write about ID-ing writers! Roy" So ... if those that can do answer this call, it is possible that the features you suggested to Gary for CBM can become reality in AE at some point. Yeaaah.

3 books for the collection always make for a good week The Spirit # 1 Fiction House Justice Traps the Guilty # 36 Prize Journey into Unknown Worlds # 9 Atlas

There's an Atlas title with this type of cover,too. I 'll have to dredge it up.... Are you thinking of Spellbound 2?