Scrooge

# 59 Felix the Cat # 29 - San Diego Con purchase Content: Felix Books an Act by ? 12 pgs Nick's Knacks by ? 2 pgs Joe Blow by ? 3 pgs Felix Goes West by ? 11 pgs Let me invoke the Toonopedia first, where we learn about Felix's multi-media career: "Felix the Cat was animation's first superstar, far eclipsing Farmer Alfalfa, Bobby Bumps, Col. Heeza Liar and other ongoing cartoon characters of earlier years. From the moment Felix first appeared, in Feline Follies (1919), he was a hit — even tho he hadn't yet been given his name. In that film and his second, Musical Mews, he was called "Master Tom". It was only in the third, Adventures of Felix (1919) that he received his permanent name — and his long, long career was off. From Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic, here's the Cat's studio: According to the credits, Pat Sullivan, owner of the studio, was the guiding genius behind Felix — but in reality, the cartoons were the work of a young animator named Otto Messmer, who produced the entire four-minute debut all by himself, working at home on a freelance basis. Felix's success was a direct result of Messmer's great ability to create sight gags, and to express a character's personality through his own unique way of moving. Dozens of silent Felix cartoons were made, with increasing sophistication as the 1920s wore on. Again in Maltin's book, here's an early version of the Cat from some promo material: When the talkies came in, Felix was quickly eclipsed by Disney's Mickey Mouse, who had made an early and successful transition to sound. The last silent Felix cartoon was the appropriately-titled The Last Life (1928). The Sullivan Studio, which never did embrace the new technology, went into decline. When Sullivan died, in 1933, it closed its doors. Messmer left animation to concentrate on comic strips about Felix, which he had started in 1923 (and which lasted until 1966). Felix made a brief return to animation in 1936, when the Van Bueren Studio bought rights to the character. But the charm of the Messmer years was not recaptured, and the series ended after only three cartoons. In 1960, Felix was revived once more, this time on TV, by producer Joe Oriolo. Oriolo, whose credits include Casper the Friendly Ghost and The Mighty Hercules, had worked as Messmer's assistant during the 1950s, and had taken over the Felix newspaper strip from him in 1954. It was this series that introduced Felix's now-famous "bag of tricks" — as well as the dastardly Professor, who coveted it. Voice actor Jack Mercer, whose best-known role was Popeye the Sailor, provided most of the voices in this series. Meanwhile, Messmer's comics — first in the form of a newspaper strip distributed by King Features Syndicate and later, in 1943, as a regularly-published comic book — displayed his visual imagination and solid design sense to great effect, which is why the Messmer-drawn issues are highly prized by modern collectors. The comic book, which was published first by Dell Comics, then Toby Press, and finally Harvey Comics, ended in 1961. Dell started a new series a year later, but it lasted only 12 issues. Gladstone Comics published a thick album in 1991, reprinting Messmer's comic book art; and Fantagraphics did another album in '96, this one reprinting his newspaper comics from the 1920s. From 1991-93, Harvey Comics reprinted some of Messmer's stories in comic book form, but with very poor printing. Later in the '90s, the Oriolo family put out new, non-reprinted ones, with better production values. In recent years, Felix has turned up occasionally in a new cartoon or comic strip — sometimes, unexpectedly enough, as a co-star with Betty Boop. The most recent was a Saturday morning animated series, which ran from 1995-97. Unlike his contemporaries, animation's first break-out star has a lot of life still in him." So while Pat Sullivan was credited, Otto Messmer was the true originator of this cat: (courtesy of Fantagraphics and Steve Stiles) "Otto Messmer was born August 16, 1892 in West Hoboken (now Union City) New Jersey, and educated at Holy Family Parochial School and the Thomas School of Art. His parents cultivated his early interest in vaudeville and show business." (Fantagraphics) "Messmer began his commercial art career with a work-study program illustrating fashion catalogs but became interested in cartooning, especially animated cartooning, when he happened to see Windsor (Little Nemo) McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur vaudeville act in New York one day in 1912. Fascinated by this combination of live action and animation, Messmer began submitting his own strips to newspapers, and by 1915 began attempting to get work as a set painter at film studios (fortunately, the film industry hadn't made its mass-exodus to California yet). An executive at Universal liked the young artist's work and signed him on to make a test film. Being totally inexperienced, Messmer nonetheless managed to put together a crude short called Motor Mike. While never released, his first attempt resulted in getting work with an established cartoonist, "Hi" Mayer, who taught him the ropes of peg board and cel registration techniques necessary in those early days of crude animation. After helping Mayer on Travels With Teddy, an animated short based on Mayer's friend Teddy Roosevelt, Messmer sought out additional work with Pat Sullivan, who had set up his own studio and produced a number of shorts, including Twenty Thousand Laughs Under the Sea, a satire to be released with the second film version of the Jules Verne classic (1916). As with Disney and Ub Iwerks, Sullivan became more engrossed with the business end of running a studio, while Messmer handled the creative chores." (Steve Stiles) "[...] created Felix The Cat for Pat Sullivan Studios in 1919. Messmer was to direct all Felix episodes through 1931 and was lead animator on all the cartoons produced by the studio. He was responsible for most of the work on the Felix comic strip from 1923 through 1954. In addition to his work on Felix he also worked for years with Douglas Leigh, the "Lamplighter of Broadway", where he was the lead animator on the large "moving" electric signs above Times Square in New York City." (Fantagraphics) Messmer (left) discussed with Don Leigh a storyboard for a giant animated electric sign "Throughout the 1940's and 50's he continued to produce new Felix comic book material for Dell, Toby Press and Harvey Comics. Joe Oriolo , Messmer's assistant for many years, took over control of the character in 1955. In the 1960's the efforts of Oriolo and fandom in general resulted in the shy Messmer's public admission that he was the creator of Felix (not Pat Sullivan). he grew to enjoy the publicity, and retired in 1973. Messmer passed away October 18, 1983, at last recognized for his fine work and essential position in animation and pop-culture history." (Fantagraphics) Finally, here's little bio for Joe Oriolo who was also co-creator of Casper! "Joe Oriolo - Born February 21, 1913 in Union City NJ. Graduated Union Hill High & Cooper Union . His first job in the art field was as a Show Card Writer for Sears Roebuck. He was the Top Animator for Max Fleisher. While at Fleisher studios he worked on "Superman,” “Popeye,” and "Gulliver's Travels” as well as doing high priority films for the Government. Joe created "Casper the Friendly Ghost" and was responsible for opening one of the earliest commercial TV studios in 1945, Felix the Cat Studios. Joe Oriolo produced 260 "Felix” cartoons for TV and also produced 130 "Mighty Hercules” films for TV. Joe's son, Don Oriolo, carries on Oriolo film studios today." Finally for more of all things Felix, please visit this Felix the Cat Fan Site. First Story Pages A few pages later, Felix escapes the Martians. I appreciate the layout decided on to make the most of this sequence. What I remember of Felix from childhood is the zaniness of the sequences as seen here where there is an outwordly quality to the chain of events. I care more for it as an adult than I did as a child where I was more attracted to say Lucky Luke (a cartoon western hero) than to Felix and his strange adventures. Second Story Pages

I agree. That WW 3 cover is something else. I don't have the WW Archives but if it illustrates a story inside I'd be curious to know what it's about. Plus the production guy went along with it and added the nice touch of tilting the 10 ¢ price. A very cool batch.

IMHO, the Daredevil cover is better. "Sock the Razzies" with the target heads of our usual trio of baddies AND there is that Mickey plush toy on the floor + the puck(is that what you'd call it) zinging up above the title head. Even though plenty is going on it is still quite clear. Good stuff all around. Thanks for sharing.

No one has any more Planets to share? I seriously doubt that's the case. So, getting down on my knees, pleeeeaaase more Planets. Here's hoping this one starts a trend

# 58 Famous Gangsters # 3 - Lucky Luciano - Bought from Tomorrow's Treasures Content: Let's do this differently today as I'll try to weave the splashes with some historical background. "Avon Periodicals had a number of crime books to its name, though a number were one-shots. Famous Gangsters, Murderous Gangsters, Parole Breakers, Behind Prison Bars, Police Line-Up, Prison Break, and Gangsters and Gun Molls were all published between 1951 and 1952. These better-than-average books contained art by Wally Wood, Everett Kinstler, Syd Shores, Joe Kubert and Mort Lawrence. Avon thumbed its nose at Dr. Wertham when it published Reform School Girl under its Realistic Banner. “The graphic story of boys and girls running wild in the violence-ridden slums of today” said the blurb over the title. The picture and title were lifted from an Avon pocket book published in 1948." There was a copy of this book in the Church collection which apparently is in VF+ (as per Arty and Rob). Cover - OS only tells us it is a replica of Avon Paperback # 66. According to Lupoff in The Great American Paperback, the cover artist is Paul Stahr. Here's a scan of the original paperback which shows more of the painting. Paul Stahr (1883 - 1953) Confortable with everything from comedy to crime, Stahr had long running associations with the pulps (especially Argosy) and the weekly comics (notably Life); also work for Collier's, Munsey, Saturday Evening Post, Judge, American Magazine, People's Home Journal. Responsible for a number of book covers for authors like Mrs. Wilson Woodrow, W. R Burnett (Little Cesar), Leslie Charteris (The Saint), Abraham Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep). Lucky Luciano and Murder Inc. - The comic concentrates on the early "career" of Lucky (sans Lansky, Costello and Siegle) and the goings-on in Chicago gangland (Actually, having read some mob history for this entry, I am interested in reading again the Shadow early novel Gangdom's Doom because a lot of the themes are very very very similar). "Charlie Lucky Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in a small town outside Palermo, Sicily, Lercara Friddi, November 27, 1897. His parents moved into the Lower East Side on Fourteenth Street of Manhattan where Luciano attended school for a brief time. He tried his hand a honest living delivering hats for a Jewish merchant named Max Goodman. Although his parents were very loving towards him, his brothers and sisters, Luciano found comfort with Goodman. Giving him a good job and showing him how a middle-income family lived as opposed to his lower-income family, Goodman opened Luciano's eyes to a whole different side to life -- a prosperous life. Goodman also opened a door for him that stuck with Luciano for the rest of his life: the ability to make money with a legal front. Luciano started delivering dope for a local pusher when he was eighteen, hiding the heroine in the hat bans of deliveries he was making for Goodman. Luciano was soon arrested and sent to Hampton Farms, a state facility for youths. After being released from prison, Luciano decided to change his first name to Charlie because he felt that Salvatore, or "Sal" was a girls name, and having been in prison, Luciano had earned the right to be tough. Soon Luciano would take up with the Five Points gang where he would meet a slew of future crime bosses: Jonny Torrio, Al Capone, Frankie Yale. Because Luciano had kept the code of silence during his trial and prison sentence, the Five Pointers would take to him quickly, realizing his ability for leadership and organization." Some background on Chicago's mob organization: "Having murdered his boss "Big Jim" Colosimo, Torrio was in a position not only to take over the Chicago Outfit, but to seize control of all the gangs throughout the city. But his Chicago Crime Syndicate did not go unopposed, and Dean O'Banion's Northsiders would be a constant thorn in his side. In the aftermath of Colosimo’s death, Torrio became Chicago’s most powerful crime boss. He had dreams of organizing a national crime syndicate taking in all the major gangsters across the country. The first step towards achieving this goal was to organise the Chicago criminals. At a summit meeting, he divided Chicago into several territories, each one belonging to one of the major players in the city. He brought home the point that violence and reprisals damaged everyone’s business and drew too much police attention. If they all respected each other’s territories and kept the peace, they would all prosper. Having said that, he made it clear that the other gangsters would have to "rent" these territories by paying a percentage of their profits to him and that failure to do so would result in war. Most of the hoodlums present were in no position to argue. The largest territory belonged to Torrio and consisted of "the Loop" in the city centre and the South Side. The Northside belonged to Dean O’Banion’s gang. The Genna family controlled Little Italy in the Southwest and Edward "Spike" O’Donnell claimed the "Kerry Patch" South of Torrio’s turf. Joe Saltis and Frank McErlane ruled the docklands while Terry Druggan and Frankie Lake dominated the Westside. Further West, William "Klondike" O’ Donnell established his region and Roger Touhy took the suburbs around the city." After a string of murders inside the organization: "The following day, Torrio and Anna returned home from a shopping trip in a Lincoln car borrowed from one of Torrio’s men, Jack Guzack. Their driver was one of Capone’s chauffeurs, Robert Barton. As they were unloading shopping, a black limousine pulled up and four men opened fire with two .45 pistols, a 12 gauge shotgun and a Thompson sub-machine gun. They riddled the car with bullets, hitting both Barton’s legs. When they noticed that Torrio was not in the car two men jumped out of the limo and fired, hitting Johnny 4 times in the chest, neck, right arm and groin. The family dog was killed by a stray bullet. One of the men put a pistol to Torrio’s temple and pulled the trigger, only to find he was out of ammo. The limo driver blew the horn and the assailants jumped back inside to make their getaway. Al Capone organized a private room at the hospital and surrounded it with bodyguards. Al even slept beside Torrio’s bed with a loaded revolver. Torrio made a very quick recovery and was able to serve his 9-month sentence in Waukegan Prison. The warden had been bribed into giving the mobster a bullet proof cell with two armed guards outside at all times. The cell contained an easy chair and a radio, and Torrio was the only prisoner allowed to hang pictures on his wall. He also had a comfortable down mattress to replace the standard lumpy flock mattresses that other convicts slept on. A Northside gangster named George "Bugs" Moran was arrested for the attempted murder of Torrio after a 13 year-old boy identified him as the man who put a gun to Torrio’s temple. Despite Moran’s airtight alibi, many believe that he and Hymie Weiss were the two men who jumped out of the limousine and that Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci was the driver. But Charlie "Lucky" Luciano put forward another theory in his memoirs. Luciano was a member of the Five Points Gang at the same time as Capone and Torrio. Luciano blames Al Capone for the murder attempt saying that Capone wanted to take over his boss’ empire. According to Luciano, everyone in the New York underworld believed that Capone faithful Leonard "Neddles" Gianola lead the hit team." One of the players in this story is: "Vincent Drucci (? - April 4th, 1927), born Victor D'Ambrosio, mafia figure from Chicago prohibition era. Member of the North Side gang of Chicago and associate of Bugs Moran, Earl 'Hymie' Weiss, and Dean O'Bannion. Drucci was involved with the attempted murder of both Al Capone and Johnny Torrio in the turf wars of the 1920's. Drucci was shot in an altercation with a Chicago policeman in 1927. He has the ignoble distinction of being one of the few gangsters to be killed by law enforcement." Once Torrio was dead, Capone was left free to rule Chicago, with Frank Nitti as his second-in-command: The Enforcer Too bad the moll's nose was lost in the production process Here's how the Enforcer's career ended. "Nitti got into trouble again in 1943 when he was indicted for extorting the major movie studios in Hollywood in what came to be called the Hollywood Extortion Case. Nitti masterminded a plot with several other mobsters where they gained control of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Then, the heat was turned on the Hollywood movie studios. If they didn't pay up, their stage hands and other workers could be used against them to ruin them. Warner Bros paid, RKO paid, MGM and Fox paid. Everyone was paying up and the whole set-up looked set to be a big money earner for the Mob. That was until a Chicago news reporter began asking questions when he saw Willie Bioff, one of the Mobs men in the union, at a big Hollywood party. The reporter was Westbrook Pegler, a nationally syndicated reporter. He recognized Bioff as a one time pimp from Chicago and wondered why he was moving in such high society circles. When he found out what a big man Bioff had become, he began to look into it. It was soon discovered that Bioff still owed Illinois state for a conviction for pandering. He was arrested and jailed for six months. After his release, he was indicted again along with the other Mob man in IATSE, George E. Browne, for the extortion of the movie theaters. They had to appear before a Federal Grand Jury in New York and were questioned about their association with the Mob. Bioff and Browne were both found guilty but rather than do hard time, they decided to rat on their Mob controllers. As a result, indictments were brought against Frank Nitti, Paul Ricca and others. They were all called to stand trial later that year in New York. indicted members of the case about his bad handling of the whole affair. Bioff and Browne should never have been allowed to A meeting was called at Frank Nitti's house in Riverside after the arraignment and Nitti was attacked by the other testify. He was told by Paul Ricca to be a 'stand-up guy' and take the rap for all of them since Bioff and Browne were his guys and so his responsibility. Nitti disagreed with Ricca and argued back that they all shared the responsibility for the whole fiasco and then ordered them all to leave. Essentially, Nitti had now broken the Mafia code of honor by not taking the heat for his failures. Nitti had previously done 18 months in jail on an income tax evasion charge and did not want to spend another day in a 9 by 6 cell. He was acutely claustrophobic and the thought made him unstable. The day after the argument with Ricca, on March 19th, 1943, Nitti went for a walk near the railway tracks near his home, across from the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, and blew his brains out with a pistol. The resulting trial in New York found all the defendants guilty and sentenced them all to ten years." I left the last one alone as I already packed the entry this time and have already mentioned the O'Donnells. Also, while unIDed, wouldn't some of you agree with me that this art is familiar? Any suggestions?

I can handler spoilers on this one. What is "Jelly Death" about? And does it involve peanut butter? The story chronicle's the fate of someone who enrolls in the "Jelly of the Month" club. It turned out to be a pretty good story, mostly for the art which looks like Bob Powell. A scientist (ironically named Larson) comes up with a formula for activating protoplasm, basically creating life. Lots of hypo panels. The problem of course is that the blobs take on unexpected forms & act out in typical blob anti-social behavior; one of which is a giant spider that kills a reporter with a nice neck bite. Larson soon becomes the enemy of the townsfolk, and so he decides to turn the blob on them. I won't "give away" the rest, but it's pretty predictable..... Powell? Hypodermics? Protoplasm? Giant biting spiders? Predictable or not, it sounds like a keeper to me! No kidding. I'd better hurry and get that one (trying not to be too old hat but it's a 3/52 book) as it sounds swell.

143, I am sure you noticed that both the Millie and the Margie gags work around the "And how!" reaction. So .. in the spirit of the cover repeats in the Jungle / Jumbo and other Fiction House books, let me show these two: So here we have one Jaffee Patsy and one Vigoda Wilbur with the same gag. Yes so what. Well. folks, remember that my books are all from the same month so these two were out at the SAME time which makes me go either or (think - the layout is the same). They are from 2 different publishers. A testament to what all teen artists have been saying that they had 3 stories they repeated ad-nauseum

A perfect book for your 1000th post and here's for you. Looking forward to your next 1000 posts. P.S.: I read your anwers in the 10-centers thread and am letting them digest before asking follow-up. Hopefully other people like Aman will join. I think it is a very interesting topic (probably because I know so little about it)

Adam, I tend to not often quote full scans but the parallells between these two are noteworthy. This is one of my all-time favorite Jungle covers. I think the similarities are "remarkable", in the classic sense of the word. I'll raise you one (scan courtesy of the GCD). No feline but same poses.

Here's another De Carlo Millie to help this thread.

Adam, I'm glad you decided to post the back cover as well on the Charlie Chan. How's the interior art on these. The GCD says art by Sid Greene. I am not familiar with him. What else has he worked I should know of? Also, you should be one to know: does the industry or major publishers see a progression in the art from the early fifties to the late fifties, from the pre-code to the post-code. With some publishers going the way of the dodo around the introduction of the code for whatever reason (code effect or not), I'd think top companies would have better pick at top artists. Any noticeable effect? Anyone? I know the early fifties art rather well by now but the late fifties are a mystery to me.

Thanks for the encouragement rjpb. Here are the few Ds I still need. I already have all the Es.

Yeahh! I sure am glad I called on you FD. You came through with flying colors. It was nice to see the late run horror issues. I don't mean to be silly but the one in your 8000th post has quite a bit of a rip on the lower left hand corner. What do you think it'll grade at since you want to get it slabbed? Let me put another one up

Jumbo 99 is a good cover. I wonder what's the story with the chained skeleton that ape is lugging around! Here's a Sheena: I hope we see Donut's copies again. What do you say FD?

Great Planet! More Planet folks, please. Jef, could you answer a question for me? My eyes are failing me but does it seem that their beaming eyes are natural / organic or does it seem they have mechanical implants? Couldn't clearly see from the scan. Thanks.

Did you notice that they spared us from seeing her aged sister in bikini. Whew. Smart guys. Also, wanted to say I had never seen the Ace book you put up after the Bobby Benson. Thanks for showing it. Any idea of the cover artist? Paull, do you know how the interiors to Blue Bolt 112 are? Thanks.

# 57 Exciting Romances # 7 - bought from Doug Sulipa Content: Korean Girl by ? 11 pgs The Show-Off by ? 8 pgs A Last Betrayal by ? 10 pgs To be frank, there is next to nothing exciting about Exciting Romances but undaunted let me pad this entry in bullet point format: * compared to other comics profiled, these stories are given more time to develop and build as we get 3 stories of 8 or more pages for a strong % of story to pages. * often I played the What Could Have Been game. OS states that there is some Powell art in issues after this one and some Swayze art in issues before this one. Oh, what could have been! * the series sported mostly photo covers and one of the cover features was none other than Zorro on the cover of Issue # 12 as you can check here and if you go to the main page you'll know everything Guy Williams there is. * if you were curious of how many of these have been CGCed, well the answer is none BUT there are for the entire series 3 9.4s (# 1, 9 and 11), 2 9.2s (# 6 and 8), 1 9.0 (# 1) and 1 6.5 (yet another # 1).[Thanks to Greg a.k.a. ValiantMan for making my searches easy as evidenced here] * The title ran for a total of 12 issue from 1949 to Jan. 1953 accounting for about 0.2% of all Romance comics published. This data is courtesy of my Romance reference page as provided by Dan Stevenson who counts 1,856 Romance comics published. On to the pages, with a slight detour by the Inside Cover advertising nicely another Fawcett Romance title: Romantic Story (Tape isn't Resto right!) First Story Splash Let me transcribe one of the dialogs: "You were lonely, Tom ... away from home, don't you see? That's why you turned to her! But she's out of our lives! I made her see she was an intruder ... that she didn't belong here!" Strong sentiment expressed here. First Story Page Let me transcribe one of the dialogs: "I am grateful she did! All has turned out well after all! You kept your promise to my father, Tom! Now, I shall go to school here and learn! One day I shall return to my land... young people will be needed to help!" Now this wouldn't have struck me had I not already focused on Fawcett's editorial stance in the War books. The same sentiments are expressed in this Romance comic in the line. This is a reflection of the attention to detail and outlook of this outfit. These tidbits are a nice payoff to putting the thread together. Second Story Splash - Urrgh - First the lettering is awful and then this artist canNOT draw a person in clothing. I won't show you the rest of the pages but every one looks like they are walking around wearing tents in a windstorm. Third Story Splash

Aren't there fullbacks in "football" (soccer). Aren't they built similarly to the Shield? Oopps, probably. I just never learned the English names for soccer field positions. To me players are milieu de terrain, liberaux (sp?), attaquants, ... So please excuse my unwillingness to learn these. I should but I really don't care about soccer. But let's return to Golden Age comics.

Adam, yup. You pretty summed up what I meant by torso / belly as not being Novick. Now, if you could refrain from using cultural-centric denominations like fullback, we'd be ok. Would that make him # 10 in rugby? Or # 8?. Just teasing, I know what a fullback is (but apparently the Broncos need to see many to realize they already have enough people ready to play from the backfield).

Well, we could always trust the GCD that states this is Bob Montana 143, this is a great cover and I agree about the Simon comment early. The main figure is very dynamic. I agree it is probably by Sahle but neither the Gerber nor the OS want to commit to that attribution. It certainly doesn't look like either Montana or Novick and if it is Sahle, it is not typical Sahle work. I am even starting to wonder if it is Novick inked by someone else, a theory I am not too found of either as those inks would be be overpowering Novick at too large of an extent to give this theory much legs (which is an area I am looking at particularly on the cover as well as the torso and "belly" of the Shield - doesn't look like Novick; yet the capes on the other heroes could be Novick). Arggh I give up. I would enjoy hearing other people's comment on this. Shield? Anyone? Anyway, thanks for posting this vaulting good cover.

# 56 Ellery Queen # 1 - eBay purchase Content: Cover by Norman Saunders The Corpse that killed! by ? 10 pgs The Chain-letter Murders by ? 14 pgs Slippery Slim in The Hopeless Diamond by ? 3 pgs We've already discussed Norm Saunders and his comic work. While we can't discuss the artists for these stories, let me fill the entry with first an overview of Ellery Queen as a series and then everything (and more) you wanted to know about Ellery Queen's incarnations in funny books. First from this site some pertinent excerpts about Ellery Queen: "Ellery Queen is the pen name of cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee who had originally been named Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky, respectively. Under the name Ellery Queen, they wrote a series of novels, short stories and radio plays in which mysteries are solved by a character named Ellery Queen who writes mysteries about a detective named Ellery Queen. Typically, Frederic Dannay plotted the EQ books, and Manfred Lee wrote them from Dannay's outline. Over the years a number of other writers wrote novels under the Queen name, generally with some collaboration by Manfred Lee. Except for the series of juvenile mysteries written as by Ellery Queen, Jr., I found these novels to be of inferior quality and won't discuss any of them here. Frederick Dannay founded and for many years edited Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, encouraging many new writers who were published for the first time in EQMM. He also was a prominent mystery anthologist. The first Ellery Queen mystery was The Roman Hat Mystery (1929). It was written as an entry in a contest sponsored by a publisher. It won Dannay and Lee first place, but the promised prize was not forthcoming. Its subsequent publication, however, started them on a long and profitable career. This novel introduces their series detective, Ellery Queen, the intellectual son of Inspector Richard Queen, the NYPDs top investigator. Ellery is a pince-nez wearing, young man of athletic build but with the manner of an aesthete. At times he can be a quite irritating stuffed shirt, but the relationship between the younger and elder Queen is appealing and was one of the strengths of the series, and about the only part that made its way into the various movies portraying Ellery Queen. The influence of S. S. Van Dine is clear in this and the other early EQ novels. [...] The most critically praised of the EQ novels is Calamity Town (1942). The character of EQ, as presented in this novel, had undergone considerable development from the earliest novels in which he was presented as an emotionally detached "pure reasoner." He had become more fallible and more emotionally involved with the people he met in his cases. In this novel more than any other, he agonizes over the consequences of his investigations and he suffers personal emotional loss. I would never suggest that Dannay and Lee had achieved the sort of characterization to be found in the writings of a novelist such as Ann Tyler or Donna Tartt, but for mysteries of their era Calamity Town is a surprisingly sophisticated novel of setting and character. No longer the dilletante dabbler of the first novels, EQ is portrayed in Calamity Town as a serious writer committed to honing his skills. Because his next novel will be set in a typical small town, city-dwelling EQ plans to live incognito (as "Ellery Smith") in such a town for the next six months, while researching the setting and producing s first draft of his novel. Thus, the town of Wrightsville, New York, makes the first of its appearances in an EQ story. The portrait of Wrightsville is vivid and has depth, making it a virtual character in this and the subsequent Wrightsville stories. [...] Dannay and Lee, writing under the name Barnaby Ross, created a new detective in The Tragedy of X (1932), The Tragedy of Y (1932), The Tragedy of Z (1933), and Drury Lane's Last Case (1933). Their new detective, retired Shakespearean actor Drury Lane, like Ellery Queen (or Philo Vance) before him, is an amateur detective of genius who works closely with the police. None of the four is one of my favorites. I had high expectations for The Tragedy of X, which presents a challenging puzzle with a man murdered on a crowded streetcar, yet no witness can tell the police anything useful about the who or how of the crime. But I found the story to be boring and the solution improbable. I got only a few chapters into The Tragedy of Y before giving it up as a waste of time. I have been told that the last two are the best, but that doesn't impress me as saying much, so I have never read them." You will find more at the site, including the synopsis of significant books in the series. Another source provides us with a complete play by play of the history of Ellery Queen in our medium stopping the coverage at the 60's for our purposes (Note: Scans of covers are available at the referenced site). I bolded the reference to the Ziff Davis version. "In a sense, the few Ellery Queen comics that were published compliment the radioseries the most. It was the 40s that saw the bloom of this medium. At first glance perfect fit for the detective stories. But alas a truly successful product never reached the audiences. Lee and Dannay provided material for a series of Ellery Queen comic books.But the precise extent of this remains speculation. Ellery Queen probably first appeared in nine four-page comic, an adaptation of the radioscript "The Secret Partner" (08-27-39) in The Gulf Funny Weekly Issue 366 dated April 26, 1940, distributed by gas stations on successive Sundays during May and June of 1940. Nowadays rare and as one may think expensive! In this series clues were 'given away' rather than concealing them by placing a star in the panel containing the all important clue. It is also during this time (April) Gulf Oil assumed sponsorship of the radioshow. Each week's episode was flanked by an advertisement for the CBS radio show. "The Adventure of the Secret Partner" concluded with the June 28,1940 issue (N°374). Artists and writer are unknown, it's clearly not done by the regular crew possibly Bill Ely. We said 'probably first' because in those days it was common to distribute a comic well before it's cover date to guarantee more time on the shelves. Around the same time Ellery made it into another comic...

Actually most comic dealer and eBay seller would rather call / advertise that one as Bondage. It's funny it's the second time today I see this cover as I had discovered this site with a gallery of all comics classified as bondage in the Overstreet. I thought people might like the link. Sorry for the high-jack.

# 55 Eerie # 5 - eBay purchase Content: [Art ID from a message on the Timely / Atlas mailing list] Cover - Wally Wood I painted only Terror! by Doug Wildey, inked by Vince Alascia 6 pgs (also listed in this Misc. 50's Wildey work Index Master of the Cats by ? 6 pgs The Knife of Jack the Ripper! by Edwin Goldfarb and Bob Baer (signed) 6 pgs Operation Horror! by ? 6 pgs Skywald would reprint a lot of the Avon Eerie stories as you can judge by this <a href=" http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/The%20Complete%20Skywald%20Checklist.htm]reprint</a> list. Thankfully for me, Ed(win) Goldfarb has been a recent subject of discussion on the Timely / Atlas mailing list (as a continuation of a discussion of Edmond Good who share the same 4 initial EdGo). In addition to his Atlas work, his other publisher work was listed including this Eerie 5 story inked by Bob Baer. Goldfarb tended not to sign his work unless he was inked by Baer (remember Ayers versus Ayers only signatures). Included was attribution for the other story to Doug Wildey with Vince Alascia on inks. Let's concentrate on Doug Wildey for today. The Comiclopedia tells us that: "Doug Wildey was born on May 2, 1922 in Yonkers, New York. He taught himself to draw. In 1949 he had his first professional publication, 'Buffalo Bill', and in the following ten years he freelanced for a variety of comic book publishers. From 1954 until 1957, he made 'The Outlaw Kid', which became a popular feature. After that series, he drew 'The Saint' newspaper strip until 1962. Wildey then started producing several animated series for television: 'Planet of the Apes', 'Jana of the Jungle', and 'Godzilla', among others. His most famous cartoon was the adventure series 'Jonny Quest'. In the 1970s he returned to comic books, where he worked on the strips 'Eddie Race', 'Jonah Hex', 'Sgt. Rock' and his own western, 'Rio'." Let's hear from Ken Quattro about his early career (I'll cut the coverage at 1960, you can read more if you follow the link): "He's been described as independent, outspoken, irascible and sometimes "blunt to the point of rudeness," so it should come as no surprise that Doug Wildey also took great pride in the fact that he was a self-taught artist. The Yonkers, New York native learned his art as many did, by studying the masters of the adventure comic strips form: Foster, Caniff, Raymond and Sickles. Like most able-bodied young American men of his generation, Wildey served in the military during World War II. It was while he was stationed at Barber's Point Naval Air in Hawaii that Wildey began his art career with his brief service as the cartoonist on the base paper. Wildey became a professional with the work he did for Street and Smith publications. In his official, hand-written bio, which he prepared for the 1965 National Cartoonist Society Album, Wildey states that he started with Street and Smith in 19471. That date may have been an error on his part, since his earliest substantiated work was 1949. Various sources name Buffalo Bill Picture Stories #1 (June-July, 1949) as his first work. However, further research has located an earlier comic, Top Secret #9 (May-June, 1949), with Wildey art. This comic carries a house ad for the upcoming Buffalo Bill comic on its inside front cover, lending credence to its earlier appearance. Wildey's work on this first story,"Queen in Jeopardy", was nondescript and bears the crudeness typical of a young artist. The queen of the title bears a passing resemblance to Caniff's Dragon Lady, while the tilted angle of the splash may be a nod in Eisner's direction. However, Wildey seems more at ease drawing Westerns in the Buffalo Bill comic. For the first time, he gets to illustrate a genre that he would return to throughout his career. Wildey's amateurish artwork in the two stories he illustrates in this comic benefits greatly from the enthusiastic pacing of the action taking place in the panels. And whatever his human anatomy lacked, his representation of horses was solid and assured. Perhaps since he was already in his late-20's when he began drawing professionally, Wildey's art improved quickly. By 1953, when he drew this story in Daring Love #17 (April, 1953), Wildey had refined his human characterizations dramatically, to the point that he was illustrating stories based on actual persons. Ralph Flanagan, a real-life bandleader of the time, was the hero of the story. Wildey draws a credible likeness of Flanagan, based upon the photo displayed on the comic's cover. Wildey was known for his huge "morgue" file of photo references. He became so adept at depicting actual people, that it becomes an ancillary enjoyment trying to identify the celebrities cameo appearances in his artwork. One bit of information about this story in Daring Love #17 that makes it unique, is that Wildey apparently did not ink it. It is somewhat amazing, but with few exceptions, Wildey inked virtually every page that he penciled. There is one notable exception to this that will be discussed later on, but it is a telling commentary on his commitment to his art that he generally crafted the entire work. Wildey made the rounds of the 1950's comic publishers: Fawcett, Cross, Master, St. John, Youthful, etc. Indeed, he once recollected that he worked for every publisher except E.C., "the good one." 2 The bulk of Wildey's early artwork, prior to 1960, was for Atlas, the predecessor to Marvel Comics. He began work there in 1954 and illustrated virtually every genre they then published: fantasy, horror, crime, romance, and especially, Westerns. Most noteworthy of his work in this genre was his take on the classic Western anti-hero, The Outlaw Kid. In concept, it was typical of all the Stan Lee-created Kids (Colt, Rawhide, Two-Gun, Ringo, etc.). What set it apart was Wildey's art. Remembering it later, with tongue-in-cheek, Wildey stated, "…all I did was take every cornball singing cowboy movie that I'd ever seen and take one piece of equipment off each of these cowboys and put them on the guy."3 Whatever the inspiration, The Outlaw Kid was a monthly opportunity for Wildey to hone and develop his burgeoning art skills. Using Outlaw Kid #11 (May, 1956) as an example of his work well into the series, the influence of cinema on his work is evident. Though he may have had this influence all along, now it is readily apparent, with panels staged like film scenes. The characters have a realistic, illustrative look to them, and the celebrity cameos begin to appear. Most significantly, his artwork finally had the consistent luster of professionalism. Wildey varied his inking from the fine stroke of an etching, to the bold use of solid blacks to attain dramatic chiaroscuro effects. Unfortunately, the muddy printing process used in these comics obscures the beauty of the original art. A representative page of original art, from Wyatt Earp #28 (April, 1960), contains a virtual primer of early Wildey artwork. A Gary Cooper look-alike dominates the top left panel, the striking blacks of the night scenes, the almost-delicate pen strokes and brushwork. And, of course, could he ever draw horses. In 1952, Wildey moved his family (wife Ellen and daughters Debbie and Lee) west to Tucson, Arizona. Apparently, this move had some effect upon his artwork. In a recent email to me, artist Ayers noted that Wildey's Western backgrounds were generally of the American Southwest. Further, Ayers revealed the previously mentioned exception to Wildey's go-it-alone approach to art. The New York Herald Tribune Syndicate offered Wildey the opportunity, in 1959, to take over "The Saint" comic strip drawing duties from Bob Lubbers. Apparently, the speed required of producing both a daily and Sunday strip, as well as some comic book work, proved to be too much for Wildey. As Ayers wrote," Doug had me ink some of his "The Saint" daily strips back in "58 or "59. We'd meet in a local parking lot to trade penciled strips and inked strips." Now onto the art. Let's start with the inside cover acting as a ToC Wildey / Alascia Splash Second Story Splash Goldfarb / Baer Splash Goldfarb / Baer Page Fourth Story Splash

Here's another # 1 issue - Junior Hopp - Imagine bumping into you! Oddly, I can't help thinking the guy on the cover is what Stan Lee was in his younger days. Do I need therapy at this point? 143 - That was a nice Gay comics. Are all other covers as good? Plus a request: anyone has some Hedy Devine / Hedy of Hollywood covers to share?

# 54 Doll Man # 38 - Bought at last year's Chicago Con Content: [Art ID courtesy of the GCD] Cover by Bill Quackenbush Doll Man in The Druid Death by Chic Stone (?) 10 pgs Torchy in The Sea Cruise Gig by Gill Fox 5 pgs Doll Man in House of Vampires by Chic Stone (?) 8 pgs Doll Man in The Voodoo Master by Chic Stone (?) 7 pgs Even though I was tempted to cite the Toonopedia again here, I have found another source for a short article on the career of Doll Man from Steve Stiles at his website. The title of the piece is A Big Little Star, Quality Comics' Doll Man - A look at "The World's Mightiest Mite." "His name was Darrell Dane and, by an immense effort of will, this easy-going research scientist could compress his molecular structure until he transformed himself into a miniature human being, all of six inches in height. It doesn't sound like a very promising premise for a super-hero, one of the crowd that could "bend steel with his bare hands" and out-race a speeding bullet, but Doll Man outlasted most of his fellow super-heroic crime fighters, stretching out his career for 14 years, debuting before another vertically-challenged crime fighter, National Comics' Al Pratt (The Atom) by a few months and DC's Atom (Ray Palmer) by 22 years. Darrel got his start as a "half-pint" (his words) in Quality Comics' Feature Comics #27 (December 1939), a comic so rare that collector's prices range from $300 to ten times that amount for a copy in good condition. And small wonder, considering that Doll Man got his start scripted by Will (The Spirit) Eisner and illustrated by Lou Fine. Will Eisner's story has been retold in the comics press many times, but Lou Fine may be unfamiliar to some, having passed on in 1971. Born in Brooklyn in 1915, like many another artist, the young man learned to draw as the result of a long illness - in his case polio. After joining the Eisner-Jerry Iger shop, he won immediate praise from his contemporaries for his exquisite draftsmanship and ability to accurately portray the human body in motion. Prolific and creative, his work appeared in Fiction House's Jumbo and Sheena Comics as well as Quality's Smash, Hit, Uncle Sam, Police, and Blackhawk Comics, and Fine is perhaps best known for a character of his own creation, The Ray (Smash Comics #14 - #22). Fine's art on Doll Man ensured the new feature's success, propelling "The World's Mightiest Mite" to stardom and a magazine of his own. Of Fine, who often drew under the pen name "E. Lectron," Eisner has said that the artist was "the epitome of the honest draftsman. His work was in the style of the old classic heroic painters and sculptors." After his tenure in comics Fine left the field and spent the next 25 years as a commercial artist and magazine illustrator. Doll Man graduated to his own series and eventually a sidekick, Doll Girl. All in all, Quality Comics was a fitting place for Fine and lived up to its name. Founded by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold in 1939, the new imprint line launched Feature Comics #21 (formerly Feature Funnies, purchased from Harry "A" Chesler) in June 1939, which was followed by Smash Comics (August 1939) and Crack Comics (May 1940). By 1944 the company had expanded to ten titles. Thanks to Arnold's good reputation as a fair publisher who paid good rates, the company had little trouble attracting the cream of the industry. In addition to Eisner and Fine, other creators to work for Quality were Reed Crandall (Blackhawk) and Jack Cole (Plastic Man). Like many other comics publishers on the dawn of the Golden Age (1940), "Busy" Arnold wanted as many super heroes as he could get. Eisner obliged by coming up with the Doll Man concept, a costume design, and an origin story for Fine to begin with. Some have said that Eisner's inspiration for his diminutive character might have been the Lilliputians from Max Fleischer's 1939 feature-length cartoon Gulliver's Travels. Unlike Jonathan Swift's characters, born that size, Eisner's Darrell Dane acquired his new stature by ingesting some chemicals in order to rescue his girlfriend, Martha Roberts. Able to expand or contract by an act of will, Dane had the advantage of stealth, able to hide in pockets, purses, and even pie pans. As for transportation, the scientist relied on roller skates, car bumpers, and birds (during wartime the patriotic Dane frequently traveled via an American Bald Eagle). Later Dane acquired a small "Dollplane,"(disguised as a model airplane in his study) and towards the end of his long comic book career, he came to depend on a canine steed, Elmo the Wonder Dog. Martha Roberts, Darrell's fiancée and a resistance fighter during the war years, was regularly featured in the series as his research assistant, and eventually took the shrinking formula herself, becoming Doll Girl in December 1951. She helped Dane tackle villains like the Vulture, the Undertaker, the Phantom Duelist, the Phantom Killer, Tom Thumb, and the Black Gondolier (who made his getaways in a gondola). Doll Man survived longer than many other superheroes, until 1953. After Fine left Doll Man, other artists handled the character, including Mort Leav, John Cassone (who drew the first issue of Doll Man), John Spranger, and Al Bryant. Most agree that the only artist who measured up to Fine's work on the feature was Reed Crandall, who also worked on Blackhawk (turning the comic into a classic collector's item, with some issues valued at as much as $2600) and later went on to become a leading artist for more highly collectible titles at E.C. Comics. Crandall drew Doll Man for a year, from 1942 to 1943, and the series' writer Bill Woolfolk commented that Crandall was "the out-and-out best artist I knew at the time. I don't know anybody who drew more dimensional figures with more realism than he did." The world's smallest super hero enjoyed a 10-year, 112 issue run in Feature Comics, which folded in October 1949. His comic, Doll Man, was finally discontinued in 1953, after 47 issues. The diminutive Darrell Dane had outlasted Captain America, Flash, Green Lantern, the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and a host of other powerhouses, perhaps proving the old adage, "great things come in small packages." As for the artist feature today, we are going to concentrate on the tentative ID of Chic Stone (Gill Fox has been interviewed many times and we may yet run into his work again). If anyway can help confirm the art ID, please chime in. According to the Comiclopedia, "Chic Stone (4/1/1923 - 2000, USA) had his apprenticeship in the Eisner-Iger studios in the late 1930s. He worked for Fawcett's 'Captain Marvel' in the early 1940s and then worked for most of the major comic book agencies. He was an inker of Jack Kirby's work for many years, and he did such titles as 'Fantastic Four', 'X-Men' and 'Thor'. He left the comics field during the 1950s and became the art director of such magazines as True Experience and The American Salesman. He also worked for the Gray Advertising Agency and the Filmack Studios, doing storyboards for commercials. During the 1980s, he drew a comics with the several 'Archie' characters, such as 'Mr. Weatherbee'." I think it is unfortunate that Chic left us this early in life. I wish he'd been subject to a career-covering interview with Jim Amash (but who knows, maybe he was and Roy is still sitting on it. Does anyone knows if Chic was interviewed in the CJ at length beyond his work on Kirby?) Final question: Who in blazes is this Bill Quackenbush IDed as the cover artist? First Story Splash Torchy Story Splash Third Story Splash - Note how our discussion in another thread about the change in content in the Plastic Man book during this time period is actually endemic of the Quality line as the three Doll Man stories reflect pre-code horror proclivities in story lines from the mystical with the Druids, the magical with these Vampires and the fantastic with the next story on Voodoo. Fourth Story Splash