Scrooge

# 47

Dale Evans # 22 - eBay purchase

Content: (with Credits as per the GCD)

The Challenge of the Cheyenne Princess by Jim McArdle 8 pgs

Sierra Smith in The Double who almost Died by Allen Ulmer 8 pgs

Pal's Last Ride by Jim McArdle 8 pgs

While the official site for Dale Evans and Roy Rogers is here and a biography of Dale is there on the official site. I prefer the Old Corral presentation with its illustrations. The Old Corral text tells us that:

"Frances Octavia Smith was born October 31, 1912 in Texas. But there's a bit of confusion or mystery with this, and I asked Bobby Copeland for some further info. Bobby writes: "although Dale has always claimed, and her mother told her, that she was born Frances Octavia Smith on October 31, her birth certificate lists her birth date as October 30, and her name as Lucille Wood Smith. As a youngster she loved cowboys and her favorite was Tom Mix."

She began her career vocalizing on the radio in the late 1930s as well as being the resident songbird with a couple of big bands ... and she adopted the name of Dale Evans. Dale also had a child and was on her third marriage. Her radio work included a season as the featured vocalist on the popular THE CHASE AND SANBORN HOUR (which starred Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy). She was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox, but all she got were bit parts, and her contract option wasn't renewed.

Herbert Yates, the boss at Republic Pictures, signed her to a term player contract and these agreements ran from April, 1943 through December, 1947. In her early Republic contract days, Dale got some screen work including IN OLD OKLAHOMA (Republic, 1943), which starred John Wayne.

The story goes that Yates was much impressed with the broadway musical Oklahoma, and made the decision to enhance the Roy Rogers' westerns with lavish musical numbers ... basically a lot of singin' and dancin'. The first film pairing of Roy and Dale was THE COWBOY AND THE SENORITA (Republic, 1944), and their last was PALS OF THE GOLDEN WEST (Republic, 1951). PALS was also Roy's finale at Republic.

Roy and Dale clicked on screen and off. In many of their film collaborations, Dale played a heroine who was feisty, hot-headed, and independent. And quite often during the early reels, she was cantankerous and abusive to poor ol' Roy. She was definitely not the typical sagebrush heroine who had a few lines and was a passive figure in the background. Dale's roles in the Rogers' films were often that of an author, newspaper writer, or the usual "gal/relative from back East who comes West". Some examples of the comedic hijinks and interplay between the two follow:

In SAN FERNANDO VALLEY (Republic, 1944), Roy is almost run over by a car driven by Dale. The pair wind up getting arrested and spend some time behind bars of a prison wagon. And Roy gets Dale to agree to a date, but when he arrives to pick her up, down comes a bucket of water that was set by Dale. In ALONG THE NAVAJO TRAIL (Republic, 1945), Roy has to rescue Dale from a dunking in a lake. In RAINBOW OVER TEXAS (Republic, 1946), Dale gets pitched off a boat, makes it to shore, dons some men's clothing, and hides out in a railroad car where she is found by her idol, radio and recording star Roy Rogers. In ROLL ON TEXAS MOON (Republic, 1946), Dale is in the water again, this time due to a car mishap, and Roy has to rescue her.

Dale and Roy were married on December 31, 1947. Roy's wife Arline (not Arlene with an e) had passed away a year earlier. Dale was married in 1937 and divorced in 1946 from Republic musical director Robert Dale Butts.

From 1944-1951, Roy and Dale appeared together in 29 films --- there was a yearlong break when Dale had a baby. (Want more info on the specific films and film titles in which Dale starred with Roy? Click HERE for the filmography on Roy Rogers, and look under the column marked Leading Lady.)

And when Roy exited Republic in 1951, he and Dale went into television with their THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, and the popular series ran on NBC from 1952-1957 before going into reruns and syndication. Dale also played herself during several years of the radio THE ROY ROGERS SHOW which was broadcast from 1944-1955 on NBC and Mutual (as best I can recall, songstress Pat Friday played Dale during some of the radio show run). Of course, there were all kinds of products carrying Roy and Dale's name and likeness. And they both had comic book series. Dale's movie career lasted about ten years and about 45 films, most of which were for Republic. Of these, 30 were westerns.

In real life, Roy and Dale wrote songs, created their own Museum in Victorville, California, adopted and raised a bunch of children, were most vocal about their Christian beliefs, and supported many charitable causes. But there were some difficult times, including the death of several of their children. Dale is also a prolific author, and probably her most remembered novel is Angel Unaware, the best seller which was about their daughter Robin. Their theme song "Happy Trails to You", was composed by Dale.

Overall, a classy lady ... and a classy couple that were appropriately billed as "The King of the Cowboys" and "Queen of the West".

Dale Evans passed away on February 7, 2001."

Dale's adventures lasted in DC for only 24 issues, all of which are on display here at Mike's Amazing World of DC website. The DC run stopped in 1952 and Dale went on to comic adventures for Dell. It appears contemporaneous (more or less) to the start of their show on NBC and probably a lot of contracts were renegotiated and Dell was willing to pay more.

As for our artists, they were completely unknown to me in the sense I had never even heard their names. Here's what the Internet tells us about

Jim McArdle from the Comic Strip Project:

McArdle, Jim

b. (1899)

st. Fordham Univ., ASL, NAD

staff - Brooklyn Eagle

cs "Dr. Bobbs," 1940-1952

cs "Davy Crockett," 1952-1959

d. Feb. 11, 1960

As per the GCD, his career in comics starts in 1948 with Dale Evans and once the series stops, he moves over and works first in the War books: Star Spangled War Stories and Our Army at War, has quite a bit of Tomahawk work for a series of "The Legend of ..." stories, and occasionally works in Mr. District Attorney, Gang Busters, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Tales of the Unexpected until he dies young at 61. Interestingly, he is of an older generation and apparently came to the comics via the newspaper world.

Allen Ulmer bio found online on here at a gallery site, hence the flavor of this write-up.

"Allen Ulmer (1922 - 1990)

Born and educated in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Allen Ulmer started drawing at an early age. He he has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Art Students League in New York.

After graduating high school he moved to New York , where his talents

earned him almost immediate success in the art field. Mr. Ulmer's

professional career began in the field of Magazine Illustration. Ulmer was soon Illustrating such popular magazine and newspaper features as The Shadow, The Green Hornet, The Saint, Tarzan, and others. These early original illustrations are in some world wide collections.

Mr. Ulmer turned to Fine Arts in the late 1950's. His great love fro realism too him from Oils to Watercolor and Egg Tempera. Many of his paintings are in private collections, Libraries and Educational Institutions. He has had many successful on man shows and won numerous awards for watercolor and tempera mediums.

In the 1960's, after a successful Commercial art career in Illustrating, he turned to fine art. Soon watercolor became his favorite medium, He now devotes his full time to painting. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club and the Huntington Art League

Many of his early illustrations are prized by collections today. He is listed with the best illustrators of his time in the who's who of A.A.S.I."

As per the GCD (if the Al Ulmer credits are for the same artist), Al worked extensively for Holyoke on Catman and Captain Aero comics and also worked for Hillman on Air Fighters, Clue eventually finding his way to DC and Dale Evans. This is a time I wish I had a subscription to the Who's Who so I wouldn't miss some credits between 1944 and 1948.

First Story Splash

Second Story Page

Third Story Spash

# 46

Blondie # 16 - Bought from Mile High - Part of the Ronny Garcia Collection

Content - Let me show you the ToC

I have already profiled this strip when I showed the Blondie comic. At that time, I concentrated on the history of the strip, referring you its Toonopedia entry and highlighting the strip's creators and contributors over the years. Today, let me talk more (or at least let others talk) about why the strip was and still is popular. Coulton Waugh in his 1947 book The Comics declared it the Number 1 Strip for the following reasons:

"Blondie’s eminence over other […] strips is probably due to a few very simple factors:

1. She is prettier and cuter than other strip heroines, yet she’s no sloe-eyed vixen. With all her sex, she’s “good”, and so are the gags.

2. Dagwood is young, which makes the whole marriage more romantic. He may be dumb, but he’s a “good skate.” The fact that he isn’t too strong or clever makes us feel better about ourselves. If a Blondie goes for Dagwood, just think what we rate. If he were Tarzan, we’d be left out.

3. There’s romance in the house. Compared with the back-biting Gumps, or eternally nagging squabbles of Mr. and Mrs. Cute, homy things happen, such as the making of enormous “icebox sandwiches,” following some midnight bout with a teething baby. (They are becoming embedded in the language as “Dagwoods.”)

4. The truth and brightness of the small Bumstead clan also helps, for Baby Dumpling was followed by Cookie, an equally famous toddler, and there is a hilarious dog Daisy, and a raft of hilarious pups.

5. When the boys came home and married, there were millions more Blondies and Dagwoods to experiment with the fascinations and frustrations of life in a cottage built for two or more. These are days when the young husband is apt to roll up his sleeves and help with the dishes, which is exactly what Dagwood would do, or at least what Blondie would expect him to do. This pair reflects the lives of a large group of people at the present time, which is proved by the fact that when newsprint paper was made available after the war, and news comics came into existence, it was “Blondie” which most of the newcomers tried to imitate.

Yes, it’s not a bad strip to have on display as the favorite. It shows that in their hearts people enshrine sweet and normal things: youth, romance, home, and babies yelling for milk."

We learn from R.C. Harvey about Baby Dumpling in his Children of the Yellow Kid:

"In 1934, the Bumstead had a baby; christened Alexander (after Flash Gordon cartoonist Alex Raymond, who had assisted on Blondie the preceding year), the boy was called Baby Dumpling, and his arrival sparked another leap in circulation. (Tragically, Young's first-born, Wayne, died of jaundice in 1937, in the midst of Baby Dumpling's popularity; a sorrowing Young and his wife took a year-long sabbatical in Europe to recover, while the strip was continued by his assistant, Raymond's brother Jim, who drew the strip until he died in 1981.)"

Before moving on today's comics scans, let me show you two older strips depicted in Harvey's book to show you the strip's look evolution:

December 7, 1930 (I had to play with the scans to make them, hopefully, readable)

December 5, 1937

First story Splash

Dagwood doing home repairs

Dagwood prepping a Dagwood

Dream sequence as Dagwood escapes through the laundry chute

Thanks Adam, I had never seen as large a scan of this book before nor have I seen it in person. It is up on eBay regularly so it's not that rare but generally since Guide is so high the opening bid is unrealistic. Now that I can see, I like the cover even more. I had never really noticed the caravane of UFOs in the background nor had I ever paid attention to the embossing on the main figure's belt-buckle. Yes, I'll be glad to have it in the collection some day.

Easy post today. Here are the C I still need. Not pictured here is Combat Kelly # 3.

# 45

Crime Suspenstories # 9 - Bought from Tomorrow's Treasures

Content:

Understudy to a Corpse by Johnny Craig 8 pgs

Medicine by Jack Kamen 7 pgs

Cut! by Jack Davis 6 pgs

A Tree Grows in Borneo by Ghastly Ingels 7pgs

It is not easy for me to sit down and plan this one out as so much is known and has been written about EC and its gang and I would only been duplicating common knowledge but I'll try.

We'll focus on our cover artist today: Johnny Craig (on far left). Here's where we see the limitation of the Comiclopedia as their entry is this paltry:

"Johnny Craig joined EC Comics in 1947 after attending the Art Students League. At first he worked on the Love comics ('Modern Love' - a moon, a girl... Romance); later he did the lead stories on 'The Vault of Horror'. Unlike other E.C. artists, Craig not only drew but also scripted his own stories and soon he was in charge of the whole comic book. His style of artwork was clean and uncluttered, and gave the stories a spine-chilling Hitchcock-style atmosphere. Many of his covers for 'The Vault of Horror' were very controversial at the time.

Johnny Craig died 13 September 2001, aged 75."

For a more detailed overview of Craig's life, I would recommend jumping over to Mark Evanier's site where he keeps his Craig obit up. Here's an excerpt about Craig and pencilling:

"From all accounts, Johnny Craig was a slow, meticulous craftsman. "Jack Davis was our fastest artist and Johnny was our slowest," Bill Gaines once recalled. "This was not to say Johnny also wasn't our best, or one of our best, but we couldn't always get a story out of him for every book and I regretted when we had to go to press without a Craig story in there somewhere."

Craig once explained his problem: "I had no formal art training...no art training in any real sense. I learned to draw by trial-and-error, and I continued to work the same way. I was never satisfied by the first version I did, or the second, and often not the third. I'd draw things over and over, roughing them out, correcting them until I got them close to the way I wanted. I usually wasn't satisfied with what I ended up handing in, either, but I had to hand something in."

It was frustrating for the EC crew and for Craig himself, but readers loved his work, especially his covers. "He did some of our best covers," Gaines recalled. "Including the infamous severed head cover, which may be the most famous cover ever in comics, and certainly the only one ever to be the focus of an inquiry before the United States Senate."

so this would explain that in final analysis, as Evanier again states:

"In a career that spanned roughly four decades, Mr. Craig favored us with fewer than 150 stories, most of them no longer than 7 or 8 pages.

That such a relatively small body of work has been so influential and well-remembered is testimony to his skill. He was an enormous favorite of virtually everyone who encountered his wonderful, unassuming imagination."

Incidentally, Mark Evanier also mention an EC book in yesterday's blog (you might have to scroll down): Foul Play! with a Craig image.

The book sounds interesting and I'd gladly listen to any opinions about it.

On the lighter side,

For a few more of these which I couldn't upload here, please go here.

Craig Page

Kamen Splash

Davis Splash

Ingels Splash

Since people don't mind the PWCs, here's the first American Eagle. There are "better" covers in this series but I don't have all of them. Could anyone please post a copy of 102?

# 44

Crime Must Pay the Penalty # 24 - eBay purchase

Content:

Strange Fate of Alibi Mike by ? 8 pgs

"This is Big Mouth Speaking!" by ? 7 pgs

Terry Foley - Colossus of Crime by ? 7 pgs

The Nine Lives of King Crown by ? 8 pgs

Notice that there is a logic to these write-ups. Yesterday Crime must Lose! and obviously it must be followed that Crime Must Pay the Penalty once it lost.

Considering that Ace (or Ace Magazines) published comics for 16 years from 1940 to 1956, I have read (and could find) very little about this outfit. Certainly, the 50's output was not much to recommend as you will see with these pages and few would claim their pre-code horror are a sight to marvel at but if you've kept track of Jon and Adam's posting elsewhere, they put out cool books in the 40's.

In contrast to EC's 9 books for this month (one of which we will see tomorrow), Ace had 10:

Baffling Mysteries

Beyond

Crime Must Pay the Penalty

Glamorous Romance

Hand of Fate

Love at First Sight

Love Experiences

Real Love

Ten-Story Love

Web of Mystery

thereby putting out 4 horror, 1 crime and 5 romance books.

For little more about Crime Must Pay the Penalty, you can browse this way where we see that:

"Crime Must Pay the Penalty started out by retelling true stories of gangsters and other criminals. These early stories are lurid and terrible. Eventually it moved on to more modern material. The later stories still claim to be based on actual events. This is hard to confirm or deny, but one suspects that the later and better issues are pure fiction.

Crime Must Pay the Penalty is a transformed version of the super-hero comic book, Four Favorites. When super-heroes lost their popularity in the later 1940s, many such comics were converted over to genre material, such as Westerns. The first issue of the new crime format continued the numbering of Four Favorites, and was #33 (February 1948). The next (and second) issue was then labeled #2 (June 1948). The new magazine ran through #48 (January 1956). The last two issues simply had the title Penalty. The logo of the comic had long featured the word "Penalty" in vastly bigger letters than the rest of the phrase "Crime Must Pay the", so this is not that much of a change."

I would also explore the main page at that site for links to many similar articles across all genres. This is where I gathered a lot of the Big Town material. Also this is where I found the information I just posted in the Comics go to War thread. All well worth a look.

Story 1 Splash

Story 2 Splash

Story 3 Page

Story 4 Splash

P.S.: Adam, I found an old post in the Atlas group from Doc V. agreeing with your opinion about the Roussos story. It is Roussos, scripted by Carl Wessler.

From Adam's compiled list

Here's a list based on the posts in the thread plus some additions that I thought of.

 

Concentration Camp (cover and interior): "Real Life" #3 Jan 1942 (Nedor)

I've just found another site to help us in this inventory. This is only one piece of the puzzle but the site does provide an "index to some comic book stories offering political and social commentary." I didn't have time to look too deep into it but at least there appears to be an earlier mention of concentration camp (to be confirmed that it is what we are looking for) as seen in:

Star Spangled Comics

1 (October 1941) The Bund Saboteurs - anti-Nazi Bunds in US

2 (November 1941) Vortex of Doom - anti-slum lord

3 (December 1941) Mission to Germany - anti-Nazi, concentration camp (my emphasis)

I don't have a Star Spangled Comics 3 (nor 2 nor 1) so if someone on the boards could look this up in their copy that's be great. Hope this helps you Mark. Oh and you can always crack open that Rockford copy of # 1 listed on your site to read all about saboteurs

Adam,

thanks for sharing these again. And you're right the proof looks better than my copy would let on. I still need that 86. What do you think of the coloring choices on the warrior's leggings though? Oh and I do like the cover to the 117 but remember that I was following the Everett Mystic.

GP, nice Everett cover on that Mystic.

It had to happen eventually. I present to you American Eagle versus an american eagle. Not the best cover but I like bald eagles.

Thanks for the kind words Sal. If I can have every or any comic fan at least to give a looksy at these 50's books, I am happy.

I should point out to everyone that the Lambiek site is what I refer to when I say Comiclopedia if I wasn't clear about it before. I try as best I can to cite my sources so as not people to think I plagiarize.

As Sal mentions, while not always a thorough resource, it is at times the only source of information about some of the artists whose artwork is displayed in my books.

# 43

Crime Must Lose # 11 - Bought from Southern California Comics

Content:

Mob Rule by Tony DiPreta 8 pgs

Not Dead Enough by ? 4 pgs

The Man in the Lake by ? 5 pgs

Man Hunt by Jack Keller 6 pgs

Yes, another Atlas crime book but let's cheer up as it is the last (at least for now). You'll notice that it is again the same crew on this book: DiPreta and Keller. In all honesty, while Keller wasn't out to wow you (and as Romita, Sr. once said "I could have used the Keller method and put smoke in the panel" when describing a scene a scripter (Stan) packed with a complete battlefield, reflecting that Jack could take shortcuts), he is the most consistent artist in this batch (and his style is clean).

However, our focus today is Tony DiPreta who, according to the Comiclopedia, "[w]hile still at school, Tony Di Preta started out as a letterer on Lyman Young's 'Tim Tyler's Luck'. Afterwards, he took art courses at the universities of Columbia and Connecticut. He worked on several series, like 'Doll Man' (1941), 'Airboy' (1943) and 'Daredevil' (from 1942). In 1949 he became an assistant to Lank Leonard on 'Mickey Finn'. After working with Leonard for ten years he took over the 'Joe Palooka' series. Di Preta illustrated this series until the final episode in 1984. The next year he succeeded Marvin Bradley on the daily 'Rex Morgan' comic."

Note that since Tony has retired as per this syndicate announcement:

"May 25, 2000 - Readers can expect a bold, new look to Rex Morgan, M.D in the weeks to come. After drawing the famous comic strip for more than 15 years, artist Tony DiPreta has decided to retire. Beginning with the June 19 release, the new artist for Rex Morgan, M.D will be Graham Nolan. He will work with writer Woody Wilson on the strip, which is syndicated by King Features to more than 300 newspapers.

"Tony DiPreta has done a great job on Rex Morgan. In selecting Graham Nolan to pick up the artist's reins on the strip, I was impressed by how well he captured the crisp, realistic drawing style that first made soap opera strips a daily reading habit for so many fans," says King Features editor-in-chief Jay Kennedy."

If you sit down and do the math, Tony's strip longevity can only be praised. You'll note that this makes 25 years on Joe Palooka - 1959 to 1984 and then 16 years on Rex Morgan - 1984 - 2000 when he retired at age 79. So far, I am not counting his prior assist on other strips such as over 15 years on Mickey Finn for a total of 25 + 15 + 16 = 56 years in syndication!

Tony's association with Lank Leonard and the Mickey Finn and Joe Palooka strips is recollected in AE 43's interview with Morris Weiss who, after turning down drawing the strip, wrote Joe Palooka for DiPetra from 1961 to 1973.

DiPetra Splash

Unknown Splash

Unknown Splash (even though I'd been darned if we didn't see this guy here before)

Keller Splash

Another Airboy for the night. Watch out for those bullets!

Once it is attached, click on the attachment to copy the URL of the image, then go back, Click on Edit and in your message body, you can add an Instant UBB Code: Choose Image and paste the link in the pop-up dialog which I just did and your pic will appear in your message's body.

# 42

Crime Exposed # 11 - Bought from Southern California Comics

Content:

Too Rotten to Live by Jerry Robinson 7 pgs

Temptation by Jay Scott Pike 5 pgs

One More Haul by Al Eadeh 5 pgs

Member of the Mob by Jack Keller 6 pgs

Yet another Atlas crime book with, by now, some of our regulars: Robinson, Keller and some newcomers to this thread: Al Eadeh and Jay Scott Pike.

Eadeh has credits for Atlas across literally all genres from mid-1951 to as late as late 1958 (but I did not check if these were inventory stories being milked out or newly produced stories). Considering how particular Al's last name is, he should be easy to find online but no cigar, no information was available.

I felt more confident in finding information about J. Scott Pike. After all, Pike has worked steadily for Atlas from a decade from early 1951 to 1960; as well as being recognized for work for other publishers, as evidenced by his board-famous cover for Dolphin that pops up regularly here. Yet, there was a dearth of knowledge on online with this paltry write-up of interest:

"When the A. Fox calendar company needed an artist to complete the last two years of Art Frahm's "panties-falling-down" series, they turned to Jay Scott Pike. Among the memorable images he created for Fox are a gas station scene (above right) and, as the last in this important series, a picture set on a construction site entitled Dog Tied (above left).

Pike was born in Philadelpheia in 1924. He enrolled at the Art Students League in New York at the age of sixteen and, after service in the Marines, resumed his art studies at the Parsons School of Design, Syracuse University, and the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Besides sexy pin-ups, he has painted award-winning illustrations for magazines and comic books as well as advertisements for major corporate clients like Proctor and Gamble, Pepsi, General Mills, Ford, Borden's, and Trans World Airlines.

Near the close of his commercial career, Pike turned to painting canvases of sensuous fine-art nudes. His exquisite pencil drawings of nudes first appeared in the Playboy clubs before being published as limited-edition graphics. In recent years, he has accepted many portrait commissions."

which does not concentrate on his comic book work. Is Pike still alive? and, if so, I hope he'll soon be a subject of a comic career interview AE style.

To round out today's entry, I'll give Atlas crime titles the same treatment their war titles received as regards to their longevity or lack thereof as we will see immediately:

Title Month Year Month Year

All True Crime Cases Fall 1947 September 1952

Amazing Detective Cases November 1950 September 1952

Crime Can't Win September 1950 September 1952

Crime Cases August 1950 July 1952

Crime Exposed December 1950 June 1952

Crime Must Lose! October 1950 April 1952

Justice Comics September 1947 March 1955

Hopefully the formatting stays. It is striking that most of these titles died around the same time: September 1952. Of these 7 titles, only one survived past the Fall of 1952. I am now curious to see if it was the same for other publishers. I don't imagine this is the result of the investigations or of the code disallowing the use of the word crime in a comic title (as it is one similarity of these books) because 1) it doesn't fit the timeline and 2) Atlas continued to publish many horror books at the same time. Interesting.

Here are the stories' splashes

Robinson

Pike

Eadeh

Keller

Jon,

while I can't help you with the Pep 30, I can thank you for the reply.

You might not want to hear this but since you mentioned the Mooney art on the Ace books, do you have a few more you could show us? I think you might have posted one before but I am certainly not very familiar with which books you are talking about. And if you are taking requests, how about a few Tarzan cover early Tip Tops (13, 16, 32, 34, ...)?

I'm happy to hear the hobby still has you chasing after some copies. Good luck looking.

A simple and probably my last contribution to this thread. Pardon my borrowed scan as this book ended on eBay tonight unbid on at $10. Nothing dramatic as a cover but has a clear Morphine mention

Adam,

thanks for the thoughts about your approach to collecting. I had originally thought of jumping by decades, i.e. July '42, March '52, March '62, June'72 but it really won't work for me. July '42 books hold either no attractions to me or they are simply too expensive for my budget. I have no connection with the title published in March '62 as I never was much of a DC person (sorry but in France growing up only Marvel were reprinted so I grew up a Marvel zombie) and most of the June '72 books are "dreck" in my opinion (I have over 60 of them currently so I did sample enough to form an opinion) so you might have it right for me to jump by a single calendar year would be an option I should consider. I had never thought of that before.

Adam,

I simply went to the back of Volume 2 and the last series (Zoot) is listed with the reference # 2240-Issue Number meaning that there was 2240 different titles illustrated in the Gerbers, starting at 1-issue Number for the A-1 series. I took this to say that Gerber illustrated / catalogued 2,240 individual series.

# 41

Bozo # 4 - Donated courtesy of HouseofComics.com. Thank you for this last Dell

Content

Inside Cover - 1 page gag

Bozo and the big balloon by ? 15 pgs

Bozo (No title) by ? 15 pgs

Inside Back Cover - 1 page gag

Back Cover - 1 page gag

You always get your money's worth with Dell.

Now, to admit that all this time when I saw the tagline Bozo The Capitol Clown I thought Capitol as in Washington DC but huhu not so as recorded in the Toonopedia:

"Bozo the Clown didn't start out as a cartoon character. He began in a series of book and record sets, designed so kids could listen to a story and read it at the same time — which was not only fun for them, it also helped nurture their reading skills. The first of them was Bozo at the Circus, issued in 1946 by Capitol Records. It was highly innovative, very popular and much imitated, and it made a good deal of money for the character's creator, writer/producer Alan W. Livingston.

No, it wasn't Bozo that was highly innovative. He was just a clown, a guy who dresses funny and acts goofy (in fact, the first actor to do his voice and portray him in promotional appearances was Pinto Colvig, who also played Disney's Goofy), and this particular one was in fact designed as a composite of several previous clowns. The innovation was in the format — no such book and record set had ever been made before.

The clown rode his innovative format to stardom. In 1949, with his first record still on Billboard magazine's best-selling kids' records chart, Los Angeles TV station KTTV launched a half-hour series titled Bozo's Circus. This series lasted only a year, but it was followed immediately by a 13-episode syndicated version. From there, Bozo went on to a sporadic but persistent presence on TV up to the mid-1950s.

Dell Comics experimented with a Bozo the Clown comic book in 1950, devoting Four Color Comics #295 (July) to him. He got a quarterly title of his own a year later, and that series lasted until 1954. Dell ran a second Bozo series 1962-63.

In 1956, Larry Harmon (one of several actors who had played Bozo in one venue or another), along with several partners, bought most rights to the character (excluding the recordings that had originally launched him — he got that, and bought out his partners, in 1971), and used him in another innovative concept. All over America, by that time, TV stations were running kids' shows, broadcast live, in which a local actor would do skits, introduce reruns of old theatrical cartoons, and interact with a live audience of local kids. Harmon franchised the concept, using Bozo. By 1959, several stations were running that sort of show, but with the local actor wearing a "Bozo the Clown" costume. Among the more notable actors to play Bozo that way were Willard Scott (who also portrayed Ronald MacDonald and is now a member of the Today Show cast) and Vance Colvig (son of the man who first played Bozo).

Among the cartoons shown there were 20 five-minute shorts made in 1958 by Jayark Films, in which Bozo was the star. Harmon did his voice in this series. 84 more were added to the mix in 1959, and another 52 in 1962.

By far, the most successful of the franchised Bozos was that of Chicago station WGN, where Bozo was played for more than two decades by Bob Bell. "Bozo" became Bell's nickname, in fact, and he kept it for the rest of his life. It was his version of Bozo that inspired Dan Castellaneta in the creation of Krusty the Clown's voice on The Simpsons. The WGN version introduced several new supporting characters in comedy skits, and some of these found their way into Bozo coloring books in the '60s. The waiting list for seats in the audience grew to ten years, and would have gone higher if the company hadn't stopped accepting them. When it again started taking reservations, five years' worth were snapped up in five hours, with calls being attempted at a peak rate of 120,000 per minute.

Meanwhile, one by one, the other Bozo shows were dropping off. By the 1980s, Chicago's was the only one left. Bell retired in 1984 and was succeeded by Joey D'Auria, who kept the role until the show ended. The last episode, titled "Bozo: 40 Years of Fun!", aired on WGN as a prime-time special on July 14, 2001.

Bozo will be remembered a very long time, and not just as a slang expression for someone with no brains. (That use preceded the clown, but was undoubtedly made more popular by him.) When we think of fictional characters named Bozo, we don't think of Bozo the Bear or Bozo the Robot, both of which enjoyed modest success in their times. The only one we think of today is Bozo the Clown."

Actually, in this story, the more intriguing character is Vance "Pinto" Colvig for whom George Pappas provided an in-depth bio on IMDb so much so that I cannot dare copy all of it here but give you excerpts and let those who wish explore the link. Pinto's career was ecclectic as "[he was] incredibly gifted in music, art and mime, [...] spoke to different generations in different roles: as a child clown playing a squeaky clarinet, as a full-fledged circus clown under the big top, as a newspaper cartoonist, as a film animator, as a mimic and sound effects wizard, and as the voice of dozens of well-known characters on film, records, radio and television."

Particularly, after a career as a pioneer animator, "Disney, who was making "Mickey Mouse" and "Silly Symphony" cartoons, signed Pinto to a contract in 1930. Pinto worked on stories, co-wrote songs such as the lyrics to "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" and was the original voice of animated characters such as Goofy and Pluto, Grumpy and Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and the Practical Pig in "Three Little Pigs." Disney cartoonists copied many of Pinto's facial expressions while drawing animal characters for the cartoons. He left Disney in 1937 following a fallout with Walt and Disney proceeded to reuse his old voice tracks. Meanwhile, Pinto freelanced voices and sound effects for Warner Bros. cartoons, sang for some of the Munchkins during Dorothy's arrival scenes in MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939), and also joined Max Fleischer Studios in Miami, where he did the voice of Gabby in Gulliver's Travels (1939) and the blustering of Bluto in "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons. He returned to Disney in 1941 and continued to freelance for them and on radio programs for others. He was the original Maxwell automobile on Jack Benny's show, the hiccupping horse for Dennis Day, and a variety of voices for "Amos `n Andy." His live radio experience and contacts introduced him to the recording industry. He did several albums before encountering one of his best-known characters, Bozo the Clown."

Posthumously, "in 1993, the Walt Disney Company honored Pinto Colvig as a "Disney Legend." On May 28, 2004, he was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee, Wisconsin." As a side note, when Pinto was inducted in the Clown Hall of Fame, Larry Harmon who had been erroneously inducted as Bozo's creator was taken off the wall.

I had the chance to purchase Bozo before and never did and I can vouch that I regret I waited until HoC's kind gift. My reluctance stemmed from the splash panel to the first story that never engaged me to spend the money for the book. See for yourself:

Having read the book this afternoon, I was a fool. The stories are fun adventure type and not slapstick. They work well given the length provided of 15 pages each and the art is pleasant and some times detailed as I will try to show you below. I am actually wishing I'd know the artist on these stories.

Bozo, with the aid of the giant balloon is accidentally flown to somewhere in Africa with the robber that was eying the circus take. After some tense moments during the first meeting with the natives, it turns out Bozo and the local Chief are old acquaintances. Moreover, we are shown an industrious side of the local populace as evidence by the coconut monopoly mentioned and the fact that Bozo goes back home in the chief's private plane.

Second story Splash

Nice page at sea

Nice page in the jungle

Re: Guardineer. While the figures are not easily recognizable as Guardineer's and are not the best on that page, I thought that apart from the first panel on the bottom tier with the character on the right side of the panel blocking the flow, the page layout was rather good and leading the story well (better than Fuje on that first page). Of course, this being a Lev Gleason book, every characters ought to be hunchbacks with all the copy on top of their heads. Considering this I thought Guardineer (being no Krigstein . Sorry couldn't resist but here I remembered your comments about Krigstein fighting Feldstein about copy placement) did okay.

Feverishly scanning at this time to put up the Bozo write-up as the book did come in the mail today.

Adam:

 

What makes you think I am still listening to you, you defensive Krigstein booster. Your parallel with Orson Welles has validity and we probably should not value quantity versus quality when it comes to art. But in keeping with Tim's (?) discussion in the General section about celebrating journeymen versus celebrating true masters in the industry, I am in the camp that because Krigstein's output was limited, one still has to wonder what, and more importantly if, higher peaks Bernard would have achieved had he stayed in the industry. A question for the ages that will never be answered. (Same with Frazetta, his later work, as praised as it is, is no indication as to how successful he could have continued to be at story-telling). Instead of recalling Welles, I liken the situation to James Dean, Natalie Wood or other such interpretors (for lack of a good US creator example in mind right now) because Welles could have had a longer career but never achieved Citizen Kane's heights again (remember The Long, Hot Summer). I will not take anything away from Krigstein's achievements but I weigh longevity and quality together (see Barks, Eisner, ...). Not arguing here but discussing this with you helps clarify my thoughts.

 

Re: Ruben Moriera is the predominant cover artist on MGA and there is much to appreciate in his cover and stories. I have the original art to a splash of his from the 50s.

 

The OA, is this anything you could actually show us? (or even a scan / picture of the printed page to this OA)

 

The Krigstein debate might be worthy of a thread at some point as I don't think his merits vis-a-vis Eisner/Barks (and others) can be examined fairly without having a longer discussion. (I'm not knocking either of those 2 guys as they are among the top of the field -- I've read and loved almost every Barks story and at least 60% of all of Eisner's output).

 

Original Art: I'm assuming at some point we'll have a thread about that and then I can try and post. (Don't start one! I'm in no hurry as I don't have a digital camera.)

 

P.S. I'm not that excited about the Natalie Wood/James Dean analogy as I don't think they were particularly revolutionary. Welles, in an artistic sense, was. If you feel that I'm over-reaching in comparing Krigstein to Welles, I would feel better with a suggestion of somewhat innovative auteur as opposed to pretty-faced actors. (But then maybe now you think I'm knocking Natalie/James!)

Adam,

1) I am all in agreement about the need for a longer discussion about Krigstein vs. Barks / Eisner. Having never been artistically trained, I am stirring the pot (never really liked this expression) to draw posters out to correct and to educate me. This is my sole purpose and baiting you generally draws insightful remarks that I relish because, thanks to you, I am getting a deeper understanding of the medium and a knowledge of which aspects to consider when discussing this field.

2) Not gonna start on OA thread. No worries there.

3) Note that in my original post I did admit that the Dean / Wood analogy was not to my liking. Here's quoting myself, acknowledging that Dean / Wood were "interpretors (for lack of a good US creator example in mind right now)" and then pointing out that my argument would be stronger should I find the name of an apt creator / author. So who died young after a very promising start of a career? Let me think some more on this unless some else can pitch in a name.

So from what comic issue would the panels be?

Adam:

What makes you think I am still listening to you, you defensive Krigstein booster. Your parallel with Orson Welles has validity and we probably should not value quantity versus quality when it comes to art. But in keeping with Tim's (?) discussion in the General section about celebrating journeymen versus celebrating true masters in the industry, I am in the camp that because Krigstein's output was limited, one still has to wonder what, and more importantly if, higher peaks Bernard would have achieved had he stayed in the industry. A question for the ages that will never be answered. (Same with Frazetta, his later work, as praised as it is, is no indication as to how successful he could have continued to be at story-telling). Instead of recalling Welles, I liken the situation to James Dean, Natalie Wood or other such interpretors (for lack of a good US creator example in mind right now) because Welles could have had a longer career but never achieved Citizen Kane's heights again (remember The Long, Hot Summer). I will not take anything away from Krigstein's achievements but I weigh longevity and quality together (see Barks, Eisner, ...). Not arguing here but discussing this with you helps clarify my thoughts.

Re: Ruben Moriera is the predominant cover artist on MGA and there is much to appreciate in his cover and stories. I have the original art to a splash of his from the 50s.

The OA, is this anything you could actually show us? (or even a scan / picture of the printed page to this OA)

If my mind wasn't so focused on the word comics and the usual format, I would have known what you are talking about. Yes, I vaguely seem to remember seeing some similar back home with Malabar (probably a translation of a US character to reflect local foreign market). How many of these are estimated to exist or is there enough research on them you know exactly how large the set is? We want to know because that's the kind of mostly useless facts we all relish here.

Oh and now I understand your avatar after seeing it for well over a year!

22,000 - Now how do you propose I break the news to my wife? Well, really I would probably go for matching the count of 2,240 from the Gerbers which is not unrealistic + I would be just short of 20% of the way once I am done with March '52 books (which btw should freak every one out to consider that of all series in the Gerber a full fifth where on the stand AT THE SAME TIME in 1952; goes to show you the "bubble" of publishing that took place then, we are at the heights of the multiplicity of genres coming to market in order to cling on to sales as they are starting to slow (shades of the months with the most IPOs during the stock market bubble were towards the end of the run-up in valuation)) I could actually pick and choose the covers I'd like to buy.

So Ghoul, another question for you: how did you determine which issue of each series to purchase?

143,

yes, that's what I was looking for. Thanks for discussing. Oh and I understand that there's always more hence why the question was first directed at Jon because, as you point out, his collection has such breadth in the areas we know are of particular interest to him.

I like the attention to details we all have about estimated times to completion. I know when I started my March '52 goal I told my wife I would give myself 10 years to complete so I would know to be patient. So far, 3 years 10 months into it, I have exactly 250 of the 420 books I estimate I need (soon 251 with a Bozo on the way) or about 60% of them (even though value-wise I put that at slightly below 50%). If you do complete the collection in 2 to 3 years, how long would it have actually taken you to complete the set?