Last of the Spinner Rack Junkies
Hosted by yer pal and funny book chum, Chance Fiveash
2 stories drawn by HARRY LUCEY (1st story)
2 PETE MORISI stories (1st story)
2 DICK BRIEFER stories (click here to jump to 2nd story)
Entire 1st issue of Kookie by JOHN STANLEY and BILL WILLIAMS (35 pages)
2 stories by JOHN STANLEY and BILL WILLIAMS
WALT AND SKEEZIX: An Appreciation
Bill
Williams and John Stanley Cover Galleries
Dunc &
Loo 1-8
Kookie 1-2
JUNE 7, 2007
No new updates, but I just received the newest issue of BIG FUN (#5) in the mail and I wanted to give it a plug here because I have a feeling it passed a lot of people by. The first 4 issues were magazine sized and distributed through the direct market (well, 1-3 were anyway). All 4 issues were top notch productions that reprinted Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy as well as Scorchy Smith. The newest issue is quite a departure from the first four. As good as the previous issues were, they don't hold a candle to this new oversized full color beauty. It reprints in full color the full size LANCE Sunday strip by Warren (Casey Ruggles) Tufts from 1955-1957, as well as the few Lance dailies that were produced. This is a THICK book printed on off white paper so the colors aren't too garish. And what magnificent colors there are too! I can't really explain how wonderful this book is, the pics on the American Comic Archive website really doesn't do the book justice. The one drawback is the price, which is $45 + shipping. Once you hold the book in your hands though, you'll be glad you parted with that hard earned cash! Instructions on how to order the book as well as example can be found here.
MAY 9, 2007
Okay, after almost a year, I've finally posted new material. A lot of you who may be familiar with Lady Luck by Klaus Nordling probably know it as a 4 page feature that appeared in the Spirit section in the 40's. But there was more. When SMASH COMICS ended it's decade long run with issue 85 in 1949 (which starred the Jack Cole feature Midnight), LADY LUCK picked up it's numbering with issue 86. It had a run of five issues before finally being laid to rest. All 5 issues were drawn by Nordling and featured 2 longer stories (usually 9 to 11 pages long) featuring Lady Luck and a short story featuring the supporting character, The Count. The story I've posted on this site is the first Lady Luck story from the first issue (#86). As far as I'm aware, none of these stories have ever been reprinted, so I hope you enjoy it!
Next up is an 8 page Scribbly story by cartooning genius Sheldon Mayer. You know, his fluid line and slapstick storytelling just oooozzeesss cartooning. He is, to me, the ultimate cartoonist. It seems to pour out of him with such ease, as if his brush were an extra appendage attached to his body. It just happens. I love his work and only hope one day that DC comics decides to take a chance on a Scribbly or Sugar and Spike collection.
Finally, there is a 14 page Jack Kirby story that may or may not have been inked by Simon. It sure is a beauty though! It's from YOUNG ROMANCE #18, the early days when the title was really kicking things right. Lot's of jazz scenes with nary a black person in sight..sigh...let's not and say we did, ok?
MARCH 31, 2007
Well well well. It HAS been a while. I can't say I'm quite back, but...I'm back a little. The reason for my long absence is two fold. Last year I started an art teaching gig in Athens at a middle school (actually it's in Danielsville, but we live in Athens) which seriously cut down my time for these extra curricular activities...and my scanner is being a jerk. It'll only scan one or two things at a time before I have to reboot my computer and start the entire process over. It hasn't been worth it. The good news is I scanned half a LADY LUCK comic story by Klaus Nordling, the bad news is I haven't scanned the other half...booo. Eventually though. In the meantime, I've posted the BOODY ROGERS article that appeared in THE COMICS JOURNAL #275 last year. Writing really isn't my forte (I'm good with creative writing but not research), so I hope you don't cringe too much while reading it. Anyway, it's my spring break here, so I'll try to get something scanned and posted for you restless devils. Promise.
MAY 28, 2006
I've been in a noir frame of mind lately, re-watching some of my favorite crime/noir films from the 1930's-1950's and lovin' every minute of it. Fox's video division have released a ton of noir films on DVD recently and Warner Bros. have released 2 box sets called FILM NOIR with a third on the way. Warner Bros. have also released a great GANGSTERS boxed set with another called TOUGH GUYS due soon (lot's of Cagney!). Anyway, I thought I'd continue the theme by posting a couple of private dick comics from the early 50's that reflected the movie and paperback trends of the time.
The first one is DYNAMITE #8 published by a small company called Comic Media in 1954. Issues 3-9 were all pre-code and featured the tough as nails private eye, Johnny Dynamite. The character was created by William Waugh and Pete Morisi and was heavily influenced by Mike Hammer, created by Mickey Spillane (himself a comic book writer early in his career). The early stories were written by Waugh and drawn by Morisi with Morisi handling both chores later on. Morisi's art bears a strong resemblance to George Tuska with a tip o' the hat to Alex Toth. His art can be a bit stiff at times, but it's very effective in these moody and boiled hard as an egg stories. I love this panel:
Beautifully drawn. Doesn't Johnny remind you of a certain sometimes-film-noir star John Garfield? Hmmm. By the way, you may be more familiar with Pete Morisi's later comic book work in the 60's and 70's with Charlton comics as P.A.M. By this time he was a police officer in New York and didn't want them to know he was also moonlighting as a comic book artist! His two major creations at Charlton were Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt and The Vengeance Squad.
The other comic is SAM HILL #6 from 1952. This comic was published by a company called Close-up, which was actually Archie Comics. It's beautifully drawn by Archie Comics artist Harry Lucey (playing it straight here). Sam Hill is a private eye as well, but not nearly as hard boiled as Johnny D. He wears a bowtie for cryin' out loud! Harry Lucey was as great a straight artist as he was a humor artist, and his girls always rock! Check out this great action panel:
Enjoy!
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Now for some sad news, cartoonist Alex Toth passed away yesterday morning after being ill for some time. Toth was a fantastic artist and designer. He was sometimes referred to as the artists artist because he was so admired by his peers for his superior craftsmanship and design sense and the fact that he was never a fan favorite (probably because he was never really associated with a certain character). I don't really have anything to add that hasn't been said better elsewhere, but I encourage you to seek out the work of this great artist if you're unfamiliar with his work. You can start by checking out the two stories I've posted on this site. I'm going to try to get around to posting something else by him soon.
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This Saturday my wife and I were in Athens and I picked up the new Fantagraphics book Walt Kelly's Our Gang vol.1. It collects the "Our Gang" stories from issues 1-8 of the comic book Our Gang. I highly recommend this book. The actual comics are scanned from the original comic pages instead of the "bleaching" process so popular with DC Comics Archive line. The scans are cleaned up nicely with attractive bright colors. It sports a Jeff Smith cover that I happen to like with an overall attractive design. It's reasonably priced at $12.95, although Amazon has it for a measly $9.97! You can sample one of the stories right here on this site (from issue #3), just look in the column to your right.
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Now for the "Let's You and Him Fight" Dept.: Fantagraphics has announced that they will be reprinting the complete E.C. Segar Popeye comic strips, the first volume is scheduled to appear in September. Some of you may remember that they've already reprinted them once in the late 80's, but they've long since fallen out of print and demand a hefty dollar on the secondary market. I should know, I sold my set a couple of years ago to help finance a trip to New York. I always hated that I got rid of them, but now they're back and better than ever. Each volume will reprint dailies and Sundays in an oversized hardcover, and unlike last time, the Sunday's will now be printed in color! A thread on the TCJ board can be found here. Kim Thompson posts:
"Six volumes, hardcover. Same size, more or less, as the original Fanta books from long ago (the big Sunday ones). Each book contains half dailies (six to a page) and half Sundays (in color), except for the first which is 3/4 dailies (because Popeye was a co-star in the dailies for more than a year before he showed up in the Thimble Theatre Sundays). Dailies in the front of the book, Sundays in the back (since there is no cross-continuity.) One every six months. We've got all the Sundays for the first volume scanned and are working our way through the dailies even as I speak. Introduction and annotations by Bill Blackbeard. A later book will contain a non-strip Segar POPEYE sequence that so far as I know has never been reprinted."
APRIL 20,
2006
Ahh, love is in the air here at the Spinner Rack. We have a humdinger of a story for you called "Teen-age Widow!" penciled by none other than Jack "King" Kirby! This was the lead story from the March 1953 issue (#43) of YOUNG LOVE published by Crestwood. Notice I said "penciled" by Kirby. Jack hardly ever inked his own work, and I'm fairly certain that his partner Joe Simon didn't ink it either. It could have been George Roussos or any number of artists they had on staff at the time (or freelancers they used regularly). Either way, it's still a great pre-code story before romance comics became lame. And dig that great photo cover, smoke 'em up Joe!
I finally got my hands on a copy of The Comics Journal #275 and the Boody Rogers scans turned out great, the best I've seen in the Journal yet. My 3 page bio of Rogers turned out nice as well, they illustrated the article with the three Rogers covers I provided for them. I do want to make a mention that issue 277 of the Journal is going to contain comics by Billy DeBeck of Barney Google fame. DeBeck is a brilliant cartoonist that I hope to spotlight soon on this site. I have an old Cupples and Leon reprint from 1924 that I want to scan and post.
I also want to point out a couple of cool websites. The first is a blog called Arf Lovers Blog! by the author of the book Modern Arf, Craig Yoe. Lot's of cool images and info about classic cartoonists. The other site is called ReFrederator: The Free Daily Cartoon Podcast. It posts cartoons from the golden age of animation that have fallen into the public domain. All of these can be found on cheap public domain DVD's at Wal-Mart and other places, but you can watch them for free!
APRIL 12, 2006
Sorry I haven't posted new funnies for a while, life and all that jazz, y'know? Anyhow, I just wanted to alert everyone (all 3 of you) that the new issue THE COMICS JOURNAL (#275) went on sale today and it contains 35 or so pages of Boody Rogers comics from my collection as well as a little intro written by me. I haven't actually seen a copy yet, but I'll bet those full color comics look spiffy sandwiched in between all that black Times New Roman font on those white pages! Here's the cover:
FEBRUARY 19, 2006
I hope you've enjoyed the two LADY LUCK stories written and drawn by Klaus Nordling that I've posted in the past. If you have then you're in for a treat. I just posted the first story from THE BARKER issue #11 published in the Spring of 1949. This story, as was the entire issue, was drawn (and most likely written) by Nordling. After Lady Luck, this was Nordling's most popular character. The Barker appeared in 15 issues of his own title as well as being the lead feature in NATIONAL COMICS from #42 through the final issue, #75. His first appearance was drawn by the one and only Jack Cole. After that it was Nordling's character for pretty much the entire run with Gil Fox helping out here and there. The strip revolved around the cast of Colonel Lane's Mammoth Circus. The Barker of the title was Carnie Calahan, and you would suspect, he was the main character. Other feature players were Colonel Lane the circus owner, Lena the fat lady, Spudo the man with four arms (and usually had a solo story in every issue of The Barker), Midge the midget, and Tiny the strong man. The stories are forgotten gems of the golden age and certainly deserve a wider audience and long deserved recognition.
Next up are two stories from CREEPY #95 published in February 1978. Both are fun little stories with fantastic art by John Severin and Bernie Wrightson. The Severin story reads like the first chapter of a longer story. I wonder if it was pitched to the publisher as such? The Wrightson story may have been his last full story for the publisher. Anyway, I hope you get a kick out them!
FEBRUARY 14, 2006
For those of you out there whom Cupid's arrow seems to have missed, I give you these moldy old comic stories to keep you warm on this Valentines Day! Ain't love grand?
First up are two Frankenstein stories by DICK BRIEFER from Frankenstein #32, published by Crestwood/Prize in August of 1954. Two Pre-Code horror gems from the maestro of the genre (he was a maestro of the humor genre as well, using the same character! But that's another story for another day). The title only lasted one more issue before it was cancelled due to the looming shadow of The Comics Code. Ol' Franky was a simple peaceful monster, that is, as long as you didn't try to hurt him, then he would kill you. Sweet pre-code death. Dick Briefer is one of the many forgotten artists of the golden age. A great writer as well as artist, he stuck with the Frankenstein character for 15 years (starting in PRIZE COMICS #7 June 1941), starting off as a horror character, then changing it to a humor feature and back to a horror feature. Here's a great panel from the first story:
Next up is yet another great Midnight story by Jack Cole. This time it's from his later period (my favorite period). It's amazing flipping through these old issues of SMASH toward the end of the run. You have these great Cole Midnight stories and the fantastic Lady Luck stories by Klaus Nordling, and then there's everything else. It's such a drastic contrast to the other artists, whose artwork had become stiff and lifeless. Cole and Nordling had continued to grow throughout the forties, but most of the other Quality artist became stale and predictable, even Lou Fine. It's not that it's bad art, it's just not interesting.
The last story is the LADY LUCK reprint from The Spirit Section that appeared in SMASH #70 by Klaus Nordling. Nordling is another one of those forgotten artists, he also happens to be one of my favorites. He usual wrote the stories he drew as well as for other artists. He wrote and helped draw some of the post-war Spirit stories by Will Eisner. You'll definitely see more Nordling stories in the future.
JANUARY 4, 2006
The Spinner Rack makes the Fred Hembeck Show! Head on over to the IGN website and check it out! While you're at it, check out Fred's website and his always entertaining blog, Fred Sez!
Late in the day update: A 5 page Jack Cole MIDNIGHT story has just been added. This is early Cole. He was still experimenting with splash page layouts at this point. Good stuff. Check it out.
DECEMBER 30, 2005
I'm proud to announce the First Ever Spinner Rack Annual Year End Best of Comic Related Books Top Ten List (whew!).
THE SPINNER RACK’S TOP 10 COMIC RELATED BOOKS OF 2005
By the way, if you like my site, drop me a line and let me know. I love hearing from you guys, whether it's constructive criticism or you just want to say you dug the comics. If you send me your best of 2005 list I'll post those too! It's good to have variety!
One more thing...
HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
DECEMBER 29, 2005
I have just spent the last few hours scanning, straightening, cropping, cleaning, saving and posting a ton of new funnies for the site. Trust me, it’s as boring and tedious as it sounds. I’m trying to make up for lost time, plus I’ll be starting back to work when the new school year starts and I won’t have as much time to spend on extra activities such as this.
The first thing I want to mention is a second HENRY ALDRICH story from issue #7 has been posted. If you’ve already read the first 9 pages and want to skip ahead to the second story you can click here to go to page 10.
One of the largest projects I’ve ever taken on has to be this next book. I have posted the entire 1st issue of KOOKIE written by JOHN STANLEY and drawn by BILL WILLIAMS. It was published by Dell in February of 1962. If you’re familiar with Dell’s comic books at all you’ll know that, unlike other publishers, they never carried advertising in their books. It was all comics from front to back cover. Kookie only lasted 2 issues, and it’s a shame because it’s a hilarious send-up of the beat culture that seemed to be popular in the late 50’s and early 60’s before the beats morphed into hippies in the late 60’s. The beats (or beatniks) are treated here as they were in TV and FILMS of that era, coffee drinking poetry reading nutheads. No wonder Jack Kerouac drank himself to death. I actually hadn’t read the comic in a few years and was pleasantly surprised at how sophisticated the dialogue was (think Preston Sturges writing comics instead of films). I can’t imagine many kids finding the short 4 pager “The Yea Sayers” very interesting or funny. Also, check out the last panel on page 14 and tell me Stanley didn’t have his finger on the pulse of American pop culture, “Okay! But rock and roll is the folk music of the future!” Dylan? Byrds? Jefferson Airplane? Indeed.
The last two stories are a bit of a departure for the Spinner Rack. I have a soft spot in my heart for 60’s and 70’s B&W horror magazines and thought I would share a few stories from time to time. Most of the time the art will be the showcase, but the stories are fun and more often than not, goofy. The first story is a beautiful 6 page JEFF JONES story from PSYCHO #9 published by Skywald in November 1972. It was supposed to have been part of a Science Fiction magazine that Skywald was going to publish but nixed. It’s adapted from a short story by Larry Niven (which I’ve never read) called “All the Ways and Means to Die”. The script is good enough, but that art…sweet Moses it’s breathtaking. That was the problem with Jones comic work, his art always promised more than the lackluster scripts he was given could deliver.
The last story is a fun little gem from CREEPY #114 published by Warren in January 1980. It was written by the always entertaining ARCHIE GOODWIN and that master of chiaroscuro ALEX TOTH. This is a “late period” Toth job and was, in fact, the last penciling job he did for Warren (Torpedo and Bravo for Adventure don’t count, they were reprints from jobs done for European publishers) but NOT the last art job. He did a few inking gigs that were really fabulous. I’ll have to post those at some point. Take a look at how his style had really become stripped down to the basics at this stage in his career. Compare this job to the 1952 JOE YANK story I posted a few months back and you can really see the evolution. It looks as if he only used a pen a large marker to ink the 1980 story (although, Sy Barry inked the 1952 story). Perfect compositions as usual.
The last thing I want to do is plug a book that I received in the mail today. It’s called BUZ SAWYER- THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC written and drawn by Roy Crane. It’s published by Manuscript press who also publishes COMICS REVUE, a monthly magazine that reprints classic comic strips. The book starts with the first daily strip from 1943 and continues until December 30th, 1944. Just like he did with WASH TUBBS & CAPTAIN EASY (his first and most well remembered strip from 1924-1943), Crane injects fast paced adventure and humor into the strip from the get go. Since it is a World war II strip (at this point), there are a lot of unflattering Japanese caricatures and racial slurs (lots of “Japs this” and “Japs that”…and a few “monkey” references) that can be unsettling at times, but such is Crane’s mastery of the medium that I can overlook such things and chalk it up to the times in which the strip was created. Patriotism can have quite a hypnotic effect. I hate to say it, but I have been reading comics from this era since I was a kid back in the early 80’s, so I’ve become quite accustom to seeing such images so the shock has worn off long ago. The book is definitely worth your $25. You can buy it from Bud Plant here.
DECEMBER 24, 2005
If you look to your immediate left you'll find a 9 page story from HENRY ALDRICH #7 written by John Stanley with art by Bill Williams from 1951. Enjoy!
DECEMBER 19, 2005
Well well well, would you look at that. Only a day after I gift you with a wonderful Sheldon Mayer story, I'm back again with a 9 page Sparky Watts story by none other than Mister BOODY ROGERS! You lucky devils. Consider it my Christmas gift to all of you! I have a couple of HENRY ALDRICH stories by John Stanley and Bill Williams that I've scanned, but I still have to clean them up and post them. You may see them within the next couple of days.
DECEMBER 18, 2005
*harhuhuh* (clearing throat)...well now, where were we. I have to apologize for the loooong delay in adding new stuff to the site but...actually I have no excuse. Chalk it up to pure laziness. There you go. So on with the show! And what a show it is my friends! Today I bring you an 11 page SCRIBBLY story by the much heralded but barely reprinted SHELDON MAYER. Most of you may be familiar with his late 50's and 60's comic book, SUGAR & SPIKE, but Scribbly may be a bit of a head scratcher to a lot of you. Scribbly was Sheldon Mayer's kinda' sorta' autobiographical strip of a boy who wanted to be a famous cartoonist. The strip actually started at Dell Publishing in one of their early comic books in the late 30's. When Mayer became editor at All-American he took his creation with him and the strip began appearing in ALL-AMERICAN COMICS. After a few years as head editor Mayer got the itch to cartoon again and so he gave up his editorial job and went back to full time cartooning. He returned to his creation SCRIBBLY, which ended up lasting 15 issues. There has never been a Scribbly story reprinted from any of these 15 issues so raise your hands and rejoice for this 11 page gem. There have been a few (very few) early Scribbly stories reprinted over the years that are worth tracking down. A nice helping of stories from All-American Comics were reprinted in THE SMITHSONIAN BOOK OF COMIC-BOOK COMICS. It's been out of print for years but should be easy to find on ebay fairly inexpensive. Another story can be found in DC RARITIES ARCHIVES vol.1 and I think there is a story in COMIC CAVALCADE ARCHIVES vol.1, both books are in print and can be found online easily.
JULY 18, 2005
Well, it appears I made a mistake with the NEMO compilation. It's a "best of", not a complete reprinting as I previously stated. Oh well, at least there will be some Little Nemo strips in print. That's better than nothing. Next time, I'll keep my mouth shut before I get more info on a subject. It's a good year for Winsor McCay fans. Checker Publishing keeps chugging along with their The Early works Of Winsor McCay (5 volumes so far), plus the two books I mentioned below. There's also a definitive Winsor McCay DVD compiling all of his existing animation. It's been out a few years, but for those who may be new to McCay, here's a link.
JULY 18, 2005
I would like to bring a couple of books to your attention that may have otherwise slipped under the radar. The first is a new collection of LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND 1905-1914 strips by Winsor McCay. This is purely speculation, but it looks to be a reprint of the Taschen book from 2000 which in turn used the same material Fantagraphics previously used in their 6 volume set . This is fantastic news since those books have great reproduction value. It looks to be around a $100, which is still a bargain considering it covers 1905-1914, but the Taschen book was only $40! Of course Taschen can afford to sell it so low. I was made aware of this book here.
Speaking of McCay, John Canemakers book Winsor McCay: His Life and Art is coming back into print as well. Since I've never seen the book, I can't say much about it. I know Canemaker is pretty knowledgeable in the field of older animation so it should be a good read and a nice companion to the Nemo strip book. Link here.
One more book I want to recommend, which I'm currently in the process of reading, is Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution by his son Richard Fleischer. From what I've had a chance to read so far, it gives a lot of new information about Fleischer that I was previously unfamiliar with. You can buy it at Amazon.
While you're at it, buy some of these Fleischer cartoons on DVD: This is the best POPEYE collection besides the Thunderbean version, which doesn't seem to be listed on Amazon anymore. SOMEWHERE IN DREAMLAND has recently been brought back into print. This DVD contains a great print of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (1939), the Fleischers first feature film. Here is the ONLY place you will find a DVD copy of their second and far superior film HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN (1941) (originally titled Mr. Bug Goes to Town). As for BETTY BOOP cartoons, your best bet is to try ebay, there are a lot of "bootleg" DVD compilations out there with great picture quality. There's also a two DVD BETTY BOOP set available at BEST BUY for the low price of around $6.00 that used quality prints as it's source material. Also, Ray Pointers website, Inkwell Images has a lot of great early animation compilations for sale, including early Fleischer shorts. And lastly, Bosko has produced the best Fleischer SUPERMAN DVD on the market. Good stuff all around.
JULY 10, 2005
I just added 11 more pages from DUNC AND LOO #5. For those that have already read the first 13 pages, you can link here to skip to page 14. Now for the:
AH, HA! I KNEW IT! DEPT.- Craig yoe writes:
"Love your site. You certainly have consummate taste, Kelly, Stanley, Cole...and the World's Greatest Cartoonist, Boody Rogers. I have it on pretty good authority that the first few Henry Aldrich stories were by Stanley. Both John Stanley and Bill Williams were friends of mine and both told me those were Stanley scripts. Horse's mouths and all..."
So there you go. We can now add the early HENRY ALDRICH stories to the John Stanley list. Now don't you wish you would have read that 27 page story when I had it posted? For shame...
Before I go, I also want to recommend the new book by Craig Yoe (who wrote the above letter), MODERN ARF. I haven't had a chance to purchase it yet, but the samples on his site are interesting as is the entire subject of the book "The unholy marriage of Art and Comics". And remember, if ever in doubt, remember the words of a wise old sage, "Don't ask! Just buy!. 'nuff said.
JULY 4, 2005
ADDED: the first 13 pages of DUNC AND LOO #5 written by JOHN STANLEY and drawn by BILL WILLIAMS. I have 11 more pages from this issue to post but it will be a day or two before I can get around to it. In the meantime, enjoy the two stories presented to you herein.
You know, it may be sacrilege to say, but I think I may enjoy Stanley's 60's work more than his earlier LITTLE LULU stories. Did I just say that out loud? Mountains crumble...
JULY 3, 2005
Starting now any new additions to the site will be featured in the left column (your left, not the computers) and all archived stories will be placed in the right column. As you can see, there is a 10 page Walt Kelly goody for your enjoyment as well as an appreciation of the new D & Q book WALT AND SKEEZIX BOOK 1: 1921 and 1922 which I HIGHLY recommend. It is, without a doubt, the "must have" book of the year. Do yourself a favor a pick it up.
About the OUR GANG Walt Kelly story. Being it was only the third story in an impressive 55 story run, Kelly hadn't hit his stride yet on the strip, but it's still fun none the less. I may post later stories, but in the meantime you can buy the newest issue of THE COMICS JOURNAL (#268) which reprints 3 stories from issues 18, 19 and 40. Again, any racial stereotypes must be placed within the context of the times.
APRIL 5, 2005
Well, I just finished typing a long message about the new stories I'm posting as well as recommendations, but I was kicked off of FrontPage before I could save it...and now it's gone. So this will be brief.
- I am removing the 27 page HENRY ALDRICH story. It doesn't seem to be popular and it's taking up too much space anyway.
-I've added a 7 page MORT MESKIN story from Justice Traps the Guilty #21 published by Headline in 1950.
-Also added is a 6 page JOHN SEVERIN story from Prize Comics Western #101 published in 1953. Severin was the main artist on this title for a few years, drawing the American Eagle strip. The earlier issues were inked by Will Elder, who was inking Severins work at E.C. at the same time.
-Speaking of Severin and Elder, I've also posted an 8 page Joe Yank story drawn by them in JOE YANK #6 published in 1952. It's a far cry from the Kurtzman written war stories they were drawing for E.C at the same time.
I would also like to recommend two recently published books, both E.C. comics related. The first is called FOUL PLAY! by Grant Geissman. The book is devoted to the artists of E.C. and is jam packed with full color art on every page. There is a section for each artist with a biography of the artist as well as an E.C. story drawn by them. Also of interest is an unpublished Al Williamson Picto-Fiction story. The book can be found in most major bookstores or through Amazon.
The other book is actually a fanzine called SQUA-TRONT #11. Squa-Tront is a very sporadically published 'zine devoted to the old 50's E.C. comics and E.C. related material. This issue is devoted to JOHN SEVERIN, whom I consider one of the best comic artists around. If your not hip, get hip. The 'zine can be ordered directly from Fantagraphics at http://www.fantagraphics.com/
MAY 5, 2005
ADDED: Here we go again. This time we have an 11 page Jack Cole Midnight story from SMASH COMICS #75 as well as a Klaus Nordling 4 page Lady Luck story from the same issue. Astute eyes will notice a significant change in Cole's style from this 1948 story as opposed to the 1942 story that was posted on April 19th. Cole had shaken off the Eisner/Fine influence by this time and had settled into a more mature style. The Klaus Nordling Lady Luck story is a reprint from the SPIRIT SECTION. Nordling drew the feature for a few years as well as The Barker feature in NATIONAL COMICS and the BARKER comic. Nordling is a wonderful cartoonist who deserves much more attention than he's been given.
While I've got you here, I'd like to point out a Yahoo group devoted to Will Eisner's P.S. Magazine that I mentioned a few days ago. I haven't checked it out yet, but I've been told it reprints quite a bit of material.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WillEisnersPS-Mag/
APRIL 26, 2005
ADDED: In the column to your right is a 27 page story from HENRY ALDRICH #4 from Jan.-Mar. 1951. The story, in fact the entire series that lasted 22 issues, was drawn by Bill Williams. The writer was....maybe John Stanley. It feels like a Stanley script to me, but who knows? Do you? Michael Barrier seems to think so, but I received this e-mail from (unnamed unless otherwise specified) on 4/17:
"About Henry Aldrich...the John Stanley "scholars" at the Stanley yahoo group believe that Stanley had no involvement with Aldrich. (I've never seen an issue myself) You may have some other definite info on this, but I just thought I'd let you know. I'd still love to see the Williams art of course."
The early issues read like Stanley to me, but not the latter issues. Another thing, Henry Aldrich was based on the movies, radio show and TV. series of the same name, and I've never seen/heard any of these. I don't know how closely the characters or storytelling style of the comic correlate with the other media.
I personally enjoy the series, not only for the art, but the scripts are enjoyable as well. If you have any thoughts on the matter, let me know.
APRIL 25, 2005
Well, I just finished reading the Will Eisner issue of The Comics Journal (issue 267) and even though I can't say I learned anything new about the man that I already didn't know, I did enjoy it. I'm glad it exists for those who know nothing or very little about Eisner but the most important aspect of it, to me, was the comic section that reprinted pages from Eisner's P.M. (Preventative Maintenance) Monthly that he created for the military during his "lost years" from the late 40's to 1972. Very little of this part of his career has been reprinted and, to my knowledge, not such a huge chunk at one time. You can buy the issue from the publisher here.
APRIL 25, 2005
Fixed the feedback section today. If you have any comments about the site, good or bad, let me know.
APRIL 19, 2005
I just added a 9 page Midnight story written and drawn by Jack Cole from Smash Comics #36 from October 1942. It looks a little pixaly (is that a word? doubt it), but it's still a great example of Cole's early work. The Midnight stories aren't as entertaining as his Plastic Man work, but it's still miles ahead most everything else that was being published at the time. I'd say his only rival in the crimefighting genre was Will Eisner. Enjoy.
APRIL 19, 2005
I received an e-mail today from Ken Quattro regarding my question about the inker to the JOE YANK #5 Alex Toth story. I had guessed it was Sy Barry and as it turns out, that was correct. Here's what he said:
Hi Chance,
I happened upon your site and I like it! You asked for an ID for the inker of the Toth 'Joe Yank' story. Your guess was correct, it was Sy Barry. And if you are looking for THE best Toth checklist ever, try to locate a copy of Comic Book Artist #11 (Jan. 2001). It is the Toth issue and it has the classic Jim Vadeboncoeur checklist of darn near everything Toth ever touched. Good luck with the site.
Thanks for the information Ken. The issue of Comic Book Artist that was mentioned in the letter is actually one of the checklists I have but can't find at the moment. It really is the best Toth checklist available. That particular issue also devotes the entire second half of the magazine to Sheldon Mayer. The interviews with Mayer's two children is fascinating reading in itself. I also want to mention Ken's website, www.comicartville.com. I haven't had time to view much of it yet, but from what little I've viewed so far, it looks fun. Of interest to classic comic readers, plus loads of original art for sale by the artists of yesteryear.
APRIL 16, 2005
I just added an entire 18 page story by John Stanley from the pages of THIRTEEN published by Dell in August-October 1963. This time around Stanley provides the art as well as the script. Stanley's usual style was to draw precise layouts (almost finished drawings) for the artists to follow, much like Harvey Kurtzman did for his collaborators at E.C. comics (and beyond). This gave the writer a much greater control of the way the finished story would turn out. That's one reason why Stanley and Kurtzman stand out among the pack of comic creators from the so-called Golden Age of comics. They were artists who wrote for other artists. It didn't hurt that they were masters of visual storytelling either.
Stanley's two most well known collaborators were Irving Trip on Little Lulu and Bill Williams on Dunc & Loo and Kookie. But he also drew a few titles over the years as well. In the early 60's when Dell comics split from Western publishing (which then started the Gold Key label) and took pretty much all of Dell's titles from them, Stanley started many new series for the label. The one that lasted the longest and one in which he drew as well as wrote was a title called THIRTEEN. Stanley didn't actually start drawing it until it's third issue, but he stayed on it until issue 25 (it lasted 29 issues, but the last 4 issues reprinted the first 4 issues of the series). It's main cast was Val and Judy, two best friends (until it came to boys), who were around the age thirteen I presume, and Val's next door neighbor Billy. Most of the action took place in a non-descript small town and it's neighborhoods (much like his Little Lulu stories). As with a lot of Stanley's works, emotions ran high (as you can well imagine with thirteen year old girls) and the quality of the writing was top notch. A mention must be made about the art. Never one to put in a line when it wasn't absolutely necessary, Stanley would rely on a few brush strokes to get his point across. This economy of line was very effective in moving the story along quickly, which worked perfectly with the fast pace of his scripts.
APRIL 15, 2005
ADDED: In the left column you will find an 8 page Joe Yank story by Alex Toth from the first issue of JOE YANK. The number on the cover say's issue 5, but that was the number the title started with. A lot of comics that Standard Comics published were started with the fifth issue to avoid certain postal costs from what I understand. This particular issue was published in 1952 during the time of the Korean War. The entire 12 issue run was a strange mix of war comics and humor, with a healthy dose racist slurs spread throughout. When the soldiers refer to the Koreans as "gooks", it certainly makes you wince. But, it was a different time and when reading these older comics you have to place them in the historical context in which they were created.
But enough about the downside. Let's look at the bright side of the story. This is an excellent example of Toth's storytelling abilities at a productive time in his career. He did a lot of his best work at Standard Comics in the early to mid-fifties. He was so influential at the company, that you can see his style being imitated by many of the artists working there. Most of the time he was either inked by Mike Peppe' or himself, but the inks in this story seems to have a softer line than either Peppe' or Toth himself ever worked with. Perhaps it was Sy Barry, who inked quite a bit of his work previously at National (DC). Whoever it was, it turned out magnificently.
(I actually have 2 different Toth checklists somewhere but I can't seem to find them. If anyone has a checklist and it lists an inker for this story, please e-mail me and let me know)
APRIL 15, 2005
ADDED: In the left column you will find a DUNC & LOO and KOOKIE cover gallery.
APRIL 14, 2005
Click on the LITTLE ARCHIE comic in the right column for an interview with Little Archie writer/artist Bob Bolling.
APRIL 9, 2005
Okay, I just added a 10 page story from DUNC & LOO #6 along with a 4 pager from that same issue. It was published by Dell Comics in 1963. DUNC & LOO lasted for only 8 issues and was written by John Stanley and drawn by Bill Williams. These two gentlemen collaborated on three titles that I'm aware of and all three are fantastic. There was HENRY ALDRICH (which was based on the movies, radio show, and T.V series of the same name in the late 40's and early 50's), KOOKIE and, of course, DUNC & LOO. There have been a few words written about John Stanley here and there, but I have had absolutely NO luck digging up anything about Bill Williams. I love his work, there's a manic energy that leaps through the pages of DUNC & LOO as the characters are usually screaming, running or jumping around. It has it's quiet moments as well, but they're usually just a build up to the inevitable hilarious volcano of comedy that erupts from the pages. I can't say enough about Stanley's scripts either, the man knew funny, and he could draw great too!
If anyone has ANY info on Bill Williams, please contact me.
APRIL 8, 2005
The first of, hopefully, many public domain comic book stories by artists that I admire has been added to the site. Just click on the DUDLEY image to the right. Dudley was published by Feature publications (also known as Prize Comics) in late 1949 to early 1950 and only lasted 3 issues. It was written and drawn by Boody Rogers who was best known for the comic strip, and later on, comic book, Sparky Watts. Early in his career he was an assistant to Zack Mosely on his comic strip SMILIN' JACK and his influence is evident in Rogers wonderfully odd drawing style. This 7 page story came from DUDLEY #3. In the future I'll add even more Boody Rogers comics to this site. The next one will most likely be BABE. But before that, DUNC & LOO by John Stanley and Bill Williams will be next up!
24 pages of JOHN STANLEY & BILL WILLIAMS
Two JOHN
STANLEY and BILL WILLIAMS Comic stories
A short interview with BOB BOLLING
JACK COLE 11 page story and KLAUS NORDLING 4 page story
