Supercool Atomic Age Comic Book and Record Set (by Noel Sickles?) 1 1

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On 8/25/2022 at 12:52 PM, Book Guy said:

A copy is available on ABE by Ground Zero Books. Here's there descriptive text:

Wraps. Condition: Good. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Format is approximately 7.25 inches by 9.75 inches. Cover has wear. RARE surviving copy. "Industrial" comic book. Mr. M. Philip Copp, a commercial artist-turned-agent-turned-publisher, a Connecticut sailing man from the Ivy League (well, he attended both Princeton and Yale), who set out, quixotically, to win over the leaders of the American Establishment for the "juvenile delinquency"-inducing medium they were, at that very moment, condemning-- comic books. According to a Sept. 1956 profile of "industrial comics," which anointed Mr. Copp as the go-to guy for American Business Interests' comic needs, TAR, which was "largely devoted to the peacetime uses of the atom," was designed as a resource for those "interested in learning something about the fundamentals of atomic life." More than a year in the making, Copp farmed out the creation of the book to "no fewer than eleven free-lance artists and four writers. Oliver Townsend, a one-time aide to Gordon Dean (ex-Chairman of The Atomic Energy Commission) is credited with the "basic text," and Life's science editor Warren Young turned in the final --script. TAR was the brainchild of John Hay Hopkins, the chairman of Groton-based Electric Boat, a WWII submarine manufacturer, which, under Hopkins' leadership, became General Dynamics. Hopkins turned General Dynamics from a shipbuilder to a diversified one-stop-shop for the Cold Warrior, and the atom was a major part of GD's offering. It built the Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, and launched its General Atomic Division in 1955.

 

That ABE seller is quoting without attribution from a blog, and the blog got its info from a NYT article that I referenced earlier in this thread which had a pic of Copp and Sam Citron reviewing the original art for page 30 of the comic.  Copp was a self-promoter trying to carve out a niche doing comics for corporations. I think the "11 artists" assertion was puffery as the largest number of artists normally used to produce most single-story comics back then was three or four (penciller, inker, colorist, and sometimes a cover artist - but not here).  As I look at this comic, I see at most two hands, and probably only one penciller.  So I don't take the statement in the article as authoritative.  The actual quote in the NYT is also equivocal, stating that Copp farmed out the work to "no fewer than eleven free-lance artists and four writers. (The artists and writers are frequently replaced until the combination jells.)"  Sounds to me like the reference to 11 artists was just an interview process at best, not final production work.

 

 

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Only 3 copies on the census, this my no. 2 graded copy: