Are there any surprises left in Golden Age Comics

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Sharpshooter-migration · January 17, 2009

I would suspect we might see other estate sales involving the paper ephemera of artists; including their journals of work performed for a variety of publishers.

If only someone had kept a diary! That would be quite a find.

Yes, diaries would be best. Paper ephemera like payroll books, editor's notebooks, and the day-to-day correspondence of editors and publishers of GA comics would be quite a historical find. Not only would unknown artists be revealed, but the writers as well, many of whom may have been women.

In the GCD I often find credit alterations noted with " . . . based upon the editorial notebooks of Julius Swartz" or " . . . Giordano"

The Connecticut Historical Society recently obtained the payroll and cost logs of Eastern Color Printing....which includes material it published for comicbook companies from the 1930s and payment for specific titles

Now that's what I'm talking about. There's a book waiting to written by whomever wants to wade through all those documents for a year. If I lived close by, I'd do it.

Oh, and probably another year tracking down some of the people mentioned in the documents. Those that are still alive, or their families if they aren't, for clarification and elaboration.

*paull* · January 17, 2009

Jay Disbrow did an excellent book on the Eisner/Iger studio, but unfortunately it doesn't include much information about the later Iger era when they were producing the work for Farrell/Ajax. This era is almost completely undocumented, and a lot of the artists are unknown. I have never seen an interior page from any of the Farrell/Ajax books and no covers for any of the horror titles, although some of the same artists did work for Superior, and a lot of those interior stories exist.

markseifert · January 17, 2009

The Connecticut Historical Society recently obtained the payroll and cost logs of Eastern Color Printing....which includes material it published for comicbook companies from the 1930s and payment for specific titles

Oh! Now THAT'S interesting. Would it be possible for someone to look into the Marvel Comics #1 October / November mystery?

That aside, can/will the records be made public or put online, or is it considered confidential information?

craig yoe · January 18, 2009

I see my book has been mentioned in this thread so I hope you don't mind me re-posting some info from another board/thread that mentioned it, too....

"Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster" won't be out till April 1, but Abrams, the publisher, WILL be flying in, maybe, 75 advance copies. A bookplate signed by Stan Lee and myself will be tipped in. A bunch of these special copies will be for office use, the press, gifts for buyers at book chains, executives at Abrams, VIPs, etc. But, a very few remaining copies will be at the Abrams booth at the New York Comic Con and ***WARNING*** ...WILL. GO. FAST!!!

--Craig Yoe

P.S. There's a preview of the book at secret-identity.net

Thanks!

Edited January 18, 2009 by craig yoe

jbcomicbox · January 18, 2009

The Connecticut Historical Society recently obtained the payroll and cost logs of Eastern Color Printing....which includes material it published for comicbook companies from the 1930s and payment for specific titles

Oh! Now THAT'S interesting. Would it be possible for someone to look into the Marvel Comics #1 October / November mystery?

That aside, can/will the records be made public or put online, or is it considered confidential information?

There are several ledgers, but many years are missing. It is fairly generalized (unfortunately)...cost into production etc. Also covers some of their other work obviously.

50YrsCollctngCmcs · January 18, 2009

I woner if Geoff Jones would be interested in researching those records, he put a lot of time into research for his DC book. Didn't Max Gaines get started with Eastern as a salesman?

I believe I met Iger as a kid at one of Seuling's shows in New York. A short guy as I recall, I think I might have got an autograph.

TomG · January 18, 2009

The Connecticut Historical Society recently obtained the payroll and cost logs of Eastern Color Printing....which includes material it published for comicbook companies from the 1930s and payment for specific titles

Oh! Now THAT'S interesting. Would it be possible for someone to look into the Marvel Comics #1 October / November mystery?

:whistle:

ciorac · January 18, 2009

I see my book has been mentioned in this thread so I hope you don't mind me re-posting some info from another board/thread that mentioned it, too....

"Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster" won't be out till April 1, but Abrams, the publisher, WILL be flying in, maybe, 75 advance copies. A bookplate signed by Stan Lee and myself will be tipped in. A bunch of these special copies will be for office use, the press, gifts for buyers at book chains, executives at Abrams, VIPs, etc. But, a very few remaining copies will be at the Abrams booth at the New York Comic Con and ***WARNING*** ...WILL. GO. FAST!!!

--Craig Yoe

P.S. There's a preview of the book at secret-identity.net

Thanks!

Thanks for the information Craig. I'm looking forward to getting a copy (thumbs u

craig yoe · January 18, 2009

ciorac, thanks to YOU!

i think the fact that the revelation that the artist creator of golden age (and beyond) comic books, joe shuster, had a post-superman, beautifully drawn, major body of work similar in subject matter and style to comic books (and with a comics story as part of it) that was virtually unknown, will be of great interest to the folks here on this thread and board. of course, the main difference is that this work is sexualized/s&m (though not really that far afield from the content in some of the crime, horror and even superhero comics at the time). and wait till you read the surprising, crazy, dramatic back story!

i hope that when "secret identity: the fetish art of superman's co-creator joe shuster" gets out someone here will start a post about it. i'm gonna be fascinated to know what you guys, who i admire greatly for your enthusiasm, knowledge and collections, think.

i love the community and focus of this message board though i'm usually just a lurker.

Edited January 18, 2009 by craig yoe

rjpb · January 19, 2009

Love the Arf books Craig - keep 'em coming!

Bronty · January 19, 2009

I don't think there's a ton of stuff left to figure out of significance, but there's always something. It blows my mind that we JUST RECENTLY figured out that Flanagan drew some of DC's first covers. You'd think that would have been found out 40 years ago!

Electricmastro · July 25, 2020

On 1/17/2009 at 2:05 PM, Sharpshooter-migration said:

Yes, diaries would be best. Paper ephemera like payroll books, editor's notebooks, and the day-to-day correspondence of editors and publishers of GA comics would be quite a historical find. Not only would unknown artists be revealed, but the writers as well, many of whom may have been women.

In the GCD I often find credit alterations noted with " . . . based upon the editorial notebooks of Julius Swartz" or " . . . Giordano"

One such discovery I found was Jane Krom Grammer‘s art for Dotty in Street and Smith’s Supersnipe Comics from 1945-1947, which wasn’t publicly found out until 2019: