Timely-Atlas-Comics

OT : Peanuts - A Comic Book History

2012-01-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

I'm extremely happy to present this blog's first Off Topic post. While they will be far and few between, I always wanted to consolidate past articles I've written into one permanent place, regardless of their content.

With that in mind, I now present an article I wrote back in 1997 for the Comics Buyers Guide 1. For the last 7 years it was hosted on my pal Ken Quattro's Comicartville site, a haven for wonderful comic-related articles that pre-dated the more recent blog era. I'm extremely appreciative to Ken for providing the space to me for all those years. With the recent announcement of "new" Peanuts comics being released by KaBOOM! Studios, I thought this a perfect time to dust this article off once again. I'm leaving the main text of the article intact, only making a handful of updated credits. I will use many more examples of artwork than we were able to use in the past, though.

KaBOOM Peanuts #1 (Jan/12)

So without further ado, I present :

(original logo created by Ken Quattro)

2003 introduction :

"This article below originally appeared in the November 28, 1997 issue (#1254) of the COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE on the occasion of Charles M. Schulz's 75th birthday. It was fandom's first attempt to collate all the information together about the comic book appearances of Schulz's Peanuts characters and I've left it as it was originally published except for the updated material where mentioned."

Dr. Michael J. Vassallo

Comics Buyer's Guide #1254 (November 28, 1997)

When Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Li'l Folks was finally accepted by United Features Syndicate, re-christened Peanuts and debuted in seven newspapers on October 2, 1950, little did he realize that from such humble beginnings would mushroom worldwide popularity and prominence over the next 50 years. Peaking in the 1960's, this wonderfully endearing slice of Americana has become an institution continuing to delight us to this date. Peanuts can honestly claim the title of the worlds most successful comic strip, producing characters that will remain on the American landscape quite possibly forever.

Much has been written about this strip: Precocious children interacting in a world where adults are never seen, the underlying level of pathos of its main hero Charlie Brown, and most phenomenally, the growth from a minor role to eventual stardom by his dog Snoopy. "Peanuts" is the template for all modern child-star comic strips that followed, up to and including today's precocious wonderkid, the almost equally phenomenal strip, the late and terribly missed, Calvin and Hobbes.

With all that said, and all that has been written about its place in comic strip history, I've seen little or no mention about Peanuts appearances in comic books.

A period of intense research has produced the following information. The earliest comic book appearances of Peanuts have a somewhat cloudy chronology and there has long been some question to its origins as I've found many factual data errors and omissions in the annual Overstreet Price Guide. Based on this fact, Overstreet mentioned appearances will be accepted but confirmation will await further discovery as I continue to locate a few remaining books. The information that follows is as up-to-date as possible.

Peanuts has been published in 4 major comic book waves summarized below :

1) United Feature Syndicate

(U.F.S.) (1952-1954), which published a line of comics including TIP TOP, TIP TOPPER, UNITED COMICS, FRITZI RITZ, SPARKLER COMICS, SPARKLE COMICS and PEANUTS (a Comics On Parade one-shot). These were United Feature Syndicate newspaper strip reprints of early 1950's newspaper comic strips.

2) St. John (1955-1957), after a 7 month hiatus, followed when U.F.S. ceased publishing and continued with TIP TOP and FRITZI RITZ. These appear to be Fritzi Ritz and Nancy & Sluggo reprints from earlier U.F.S. issues.

3) Western, under its Dell imprint (1957-1962), after another hiatus, began the third wave with NANCY (Sept/57), then continued withTIP TOP (Nov/57), FRITZI RITZ (Dec/57), FOUR COLOR (1958), and finally PEANUTS (1960 ). This is all new material created exclusively for the comic books.

4) Western under its Gold Key imprint (1962-1964), which continued the numbering from the Dell title NANCY & SLUGGO and a new, re-numbered PEANUTS. Notable of these issues is the fact that they are primarily re-packaged Dell reprints.

The history:

"Peanuts" characters quietly made their comic book debut simultaneously in the Mar/Apr, 1952 issues of TIP TOP COMICS #173 and UNITED COMICS #21. These appearances were not mentioned in Overstreet back in 1997 and discovered by myself. Timeline research, through an exhaustive search of all United Features Syndicate contemporaneous titles and issues, has placed TIP TOP COMICS #173 and UNITED COMICS #21 as the earliest "Peanuts" appearances, chronologically pre-dating all other appearances.

United Comics #21 (Mar-Apr/52) Peanuts debut

Tip Top Comics #173 (Mar-Apr/52) Peanuts debut

TIP TOP COMICS was a long running title stretching back to 1936 and lasting 225 issues to 1961. United Feature Syndicate published #1 -188, St John published #189-210, and the last 15 issues 211-225, (1958-61) were published by Dell, featuring new story art "not" by Charles Schulz. I will explain this shortly. This title over its history featured Hal Foster's "Tarzan", "Li'l Abner", "Fritzi Ritz", "Nancy", "The Captain and the Kids", "Peanuts", and historically speaking, the first published art of Jack Davis (#32, Dec/38, a Buffalo Bob's Cartoon Contest winner, age 12) and first comic work by Harvey Kurtzman (#36, Apr/39 ).

The Peanuts appearance history in TIP TOP COMICS begins haphazardly. I've established #173 as co-debut and confirmed that #174-183 do not feature Peanuts. #184-188 do feature Peanuts and complete United Features Syndicate's run of the title, including adorable covers to #185-188. St. John's entire Tip Top run features Peanuts from #189-210 and Dell's run from 211-225 likewise.

The St. John material is reprinted from earlier United Features Syndicate Tip Top issues.

Issue #173 consisted of two 4-panel, half-page daily strip gags, but by #185, along with being cover featured, Peanuts inside received four full pages of daily and/or Sunday strip reprints.

Tip Top Comics #185 (Mar-Apr/54)

Tip Top Comics #186 (May-June/54)

Tip Top Comics #187 (July-Aug54)

Tip Top Comics #188 (Sept-Oct/54)

UNITED COMICS (starring Fritzi Ritz) and FRITZI RITZ were two intertwined titles that presented comic strip characters owned by United Feature Syndicate, most notably Ernie Bushmiller's Fritzi Ritz, a leggy "good-girl art" humor character who happened to be the aunt of Nancy of Nancy and Sluggo fame.

UNITED COMICS was published in its entirety by United Feature Syndicate while FRITZI RITZ had #1-36 published by United Features Syndicate, #37-55 by St. John, and # 56-59 by Dell. The exact publishing chronology of these two titles, with their Peanuts appearances, is the following:

UNITED COMICS Vol 1, #1 (Aug/40) [one-shot]

FRITZI RITZ #1-7 (1948-49) Pre-dates Peanuts

UNITED COMICS #8-26 (1950-53) Peanuts in #21-23,25,26

FRITZI RITZ #27-59 (1953-58) Peanuts in UFS #27-33, St. John #37-49, Dell #57-59

The Overstreet Guide misses UNITED COMICS Peanuts appearances in issue #21 to this day (15 years after this article first saw print). The St. John issues are reprinted material from earlier United Features Syndicate United Comics and Fritzi Ritz issues. Dell Fritzi Ritz #56 is the only Dell issue missing Peanuts.

The Dell issues #57,58,& 59, contrary to all the earlier issues, and similar to the Dell TIP TOP issues mentioned above, have new material exclusively created for comic books. Again, story art is not by Charles Schulz. Each of these issues have a single 4-page story.

United Comics #1 (Aug/40) one-shot (pre-dates Peanuts)

Fritzi Ritz #44 (July/56) [St. John] (Peanuts)

As can be seen above in the St. John Fritzi Ritz #44 (July/56), contemporary racial stereotyping can be found even in post-code comics aimed at the youngest segment of the comic reading audience.

Historically, collectors looking for Peanuts in comic books faced an arduous task as the feature appeared haphazardly without any real pattern or sequence.

The next title where Peanuts appeared was TIP TOPPER COMICS, published by United Feature Syndicate and running 28 issues from 1949-54, comprising more United Feature Syndicate newspaper comic strip characters including Li'l Abner, Abbie & Slats,Fritzi Ritz, Curley Kayoe and Peanuts in issues #16-22, 24-28. The Peanuts are newspaper strip reprints and are 4-panel dailys and/or Sundays over two pages.

Tip Topper #2 (Dec-Jan/50) pre-dates Peanuts

Tip Topper #1 (Oct-Nov/49) pre-dates Peanuts

Tip Topper #26 (Dec-Jan/54) Peanuts

Tip Topper #27 (Feb-Mar/54) Peanuts

There are a couple of additional Peanuts strip appearances. United Features Syndicate's Sparkle Comics ran 33 issues from 1948 to 1954. The very last issue, #33 (Feb-Mar/54) had Peanuts. Could there be Peanuts is earlier issues not known about? I think yes as I've not looked in all the issues.

Sparkle Comics #33 (Feb-Mar/54) Peanuts

Sparkle Comics #33 Peanuts p.2

Sparkle Comics #33 Peanuts p.1

United Features Syndicate's Sparkler Comics ran two volumes. The first volume ran only two issues in 1940. Volume two ran 120 issues to cover date Oct-Nov/54. Two issues are known to contain Peanuts, #115 (Jan-Feb/54) and #120, (Oct-Nov/54). There could be others.

Sparkler Comics #115 (Jan-Feb/54) "Peanuts"

Sparkler Comics #120 (Oct-Nov/54) "Peanuts"

Nancy and Sluggo had two separate runs. The first ran #16 (#1) - 23 from 1949 to 1954 by United Features Syndicate. The second continued the numbering from Sparkler Comics above running from #121-145, published by St. John. Issue #142 (Mar/55) contains Peanuts. As with Sparkler Comics and Sparkle Comics above, there could be additional Peanuts here in issues not seen.

Nancy will continue being published by Dell starting with #146 (Sept/57) to #173, then changes back to Nancy and Sluggo #174 to #187 (Apr/62) and then published by Gold Key #188-192. All these issues have new Peanuts material created especially for the comic books not by Charles Schulz, with "one" exception I will show below.

Nancy and Sluggo #142 (Mar/57) "Peanuts"

And finally, finishing out the early United Features Syndicate and St. John reprints of Peanuts newspaper strips is a real unique one-shot simply titled PEANUTS, although the indicia states Peanuts No.1, Comics on Parade. The date of this book appears to be from 1953-54 and contained strip reprints such as Willie, Ferdinand, and Strange As It Seems, as well as the earliest Peanuts strip reprints I've ever seen in a comic book, from the dawn of the strip perhaps in late 1950, early 1951.The material is copyrighted up to 1953 by United Feature Syndicate. My guess is that it just pre-dated TIP TOP #184 and FRITZI RITZ #32 (both Jan/Feb, 1954) and followed TIP TOPPER #26 Dec/Jan, 1953, the final TIP TOPPER appearance. Any other suggestions are welcome. The cover below is a rarely seen slice of Peanuts wonderment by Charles M. Schulz.

Peanuts No.1 (1953?-54?) cover by Charles M. Schulz

The Dell era :

When Dell took over publishing NANCY COMICS in 1957 from St. John, Peanuts appeared in the entire run from #146-187 (1957-62), with Gold Key publishing the last five issues #188-192 (1962-63). These Dell issues again, with a single exception, were not drawn by Charles Schulz. All consisted of four-page, self- contained gag stories.

As mentioned above, NANCY COMICS began as SPARKLER COMICS, running120 issues from 1941-55. It featured the first appearance of "Sparkman" as well as more United Feature Syndicate characters such as Burne Hogarth's Tarzan, The Captain and the Kids, Ella Cinders, Danny Dingle, Frankie Doodle, Abbie and Slats, Broncho Bill, Li'l Abner, Fearless Fosdick and Nancy by Ernie Bushmiller. The title became NANCY with issue #121 in 1955, occasionally titled NANCY & SLUGGO throughout the run.

Nancy #146 (Sept/57) "Peanuts"

Researching this article made it obvious, as mentioned, that the long multi-paged "Peanuts" stories found in the Dell issues of FOUR COLOR, PEANUTS, NANCY, TIP TOP & FRITZI RITZ (as well as the reprinted Gold Key stories) had been drawn by someone other than "ol Sparky" himself, Peanuts creater Charles M. Schulz. Upon reviewing these stories one could see this, as some stories have backgrounds that don't appear as if drawn by Schulz. Also, occasionally actions and dialogue in these extended stories appear slightly "out of character" if you will, compared to their newspaper counterparts.

I've always been under the impression that Charles M. Schulz always drew and directly supervised all aspects of his strip and characters, so this was something of a surprise. From a variety of sources, I learned that these DELL issues were produced by a crew of artists working for Schulz and who did advertising artwork for him. The main artist was Dale Hale. This information has been confirmed for me by the late comic strip art collector/historian/agent Mark J. Cohen, who was gracious enough to ask Charles M. Schulz over dinner about his contribution to those Dell issues. Mr. Schulz enumerated that he did the very first one himself with Jim Sasseville doing the next few and Dale Hale doing all the rest. In fact, Sasseville was working with Schulz between 1957 and 1959 on a single-panel sports cartoon feature titled "It's Only a Game" that ran three times a week. It was cancelled after 63 weeks in 1959.

Schulz's claim to have drawn the first issue was not clear to me. Chronologically, NANCY #146 (Sept/57) is the first Dell appearance of Peanuts. The first FOUR COLOR Peanuts issue,#878, appeared cover dated in 1958. Going back to examine all these issues one at a time has led me to believe that Schulz was right on the money. NANCY #146 really looks like Schulz's work. #147 definitely is not Schulz but #148 may be . Nothing else . FOUR COLOR #878 (1958) likewise is not, nor are any other Dell or Gold Key issues.

Of major note also is that much of the non-Peanuts material in Nancy was written by John Stanley, who also introduced Oona Goosepimple into the series.

Peanuts in Nancy #146 (Sept/57) p.1 of 4 ; Art by Charles M. Schulz

Timely artist David Gantz has related in a recent interview that he wrote one Dell issue for Schulz (see ALTER EGO #13, Mar/02). Gantz's memory is spotty here as he incorrectly mentions Schulz doing all the rest himself. Additionally, continued research by Derrick Bang has revealed that Jim Sasseville was actually the first artist to follow Schulz on the DELL issues, and drew the Peanuts stories in NANCY #149-168, FRITZI RITZ #57-59, TIP TOP #211-215 as well as FOUR COLOR #878 and parts of #969 (see the Feb 8, 2002 issue of CBG for full details). Bang also postulates Tony Pocrnick, a Schulz associate, possibly following Dale Hale on a handful of late Dell issues. Note also that Dale Hale, who did the bulk of the Dell run, was interviewed by Nat Gertler in HOGAN'S ALLEY #8 (Fall/2000) where he relates even more details about his contributions to the Dell Peanuts appearances : http://www.aaugh.com/guide/ldale.htm

All new data on the early Peanuts appearances have been uncovered and tallied at Nat Gertler's wonderful AAUGH.com website on our Peanuts Stories in Comic Books page : http://www.aaugh.com/guide/pcb.htm

(With the more recent addition to the list of NANCY #142 and SPARKLE COMICS # 33 and SPARKLER #115 and 120).

After a seeming Schulz drawn test-run in NANCY #146, Dell releases a series of three Peanuts issues in their Four-Color series. They are #878, #969 and #1015. These will immediately be followed by the continuation of the series now called PEANUTS and numbered #4-13 (1960-62)

All these covers are beautiful wonderlands of intense and bright colored backgrounds with large signed simple Schulz drawings of Charlie Brown and Snoopy on every cover. I once owned a copy of the debut 4-color issue below that someone had drawn glasses and an angry face over Charlie Brown in ballpoint ink. It scared the hell out of my then 3 year old daughter Michelle who adored the Peanuts characters in their animated cartoons on television! Now 20, she still remembers it!

Four Color #878 (Peanuts #1) (1958)

Four Color #969 (Peanuts #2) (1958)

Four Color #1015 (Peanuts #3) (Aug-Oct/59)

Peanuts #4 (Feb-Mar/60)

Peanuts #5 (May-July/60)

Peanuts #6 (Aug-Oct/60)

Peanuts #7 (Nov-Jan/61)

Peanuts #8 (Feb-Apr/61)

Peanuts #9 (May-July/61)

Peanuts #10 (Oct/61)

Peanuts #11 (Nov-Jan/62)

Peanuts #12 (Feb-Apr/62)

Peanuts #13 (May-July/62)

The stories in these issues vary in length , some up to 8 pages long. A peculiar anomoly should be noted about PEANUTS issues #4-13. The back covers seem to exist in two variants. One is simply a full page advertisement for candy, breakfast cereal or children's toy, but the other is a full page Peanuts gag strip similar to those found on the inside front or inside back covers. Both variants are of the same printing. This was a common occurrence in all Dell issues published from mid 1956 on. Not having both types to compare, I don't know whether the Peanuts back cover actually has an additional page of Peanuts material or not. I'll post what I have and if anyone can compare to theirs and give me feedback, I'd appreciate it greatly.

Four Color #878 (Peanuts #1) (1958) [back cover]

Four Color #979 (Peanuts #2) (1958) [back cover]

Four Color #1015 (Peanuts #3) (Aug-Oct/59) [back cover]

Peanuts #4 (Feb-Apr/60) [back cover]

Peanuts #8 (Feb-Apr/61) [back cover]

Ok, it's not Peanuts but I love old cereal ads! Anybody remember what Twinkles tasted like?

Peanuts #9 (May-July/61) [back cover]

And remember when kids could buy BB rifles through the mail from a comic book ad?

Peanuts #10 (Oct/61) [back cover]

Peanuts #13 (May-July/62) [back cover]

The Dell issues of Tip Top Comics ran 19 issues from #211 (Nov/Jan/58) to #225 (May-July/61) before the axe fell. The entire run consisted of just three main features : Nancy & Sluggo, Peanuts and The Captain and the Kids. Peanuts was usually an 8 page story in the middle of the book. All the covers were vignette covers so Peanuts appeared on all 19 covers as one of three small cover depictions per issue.

Here is the debut Dell Tip Top issue, #211 (Nov-Jan/58) :

Tip Top Comics #211 (Nov-Jan/58) ; "Peanuts"

Followed by the last issue of this long-running comic book series, #225 (May-July/61) :

Tip Top Comics #225 (May-July/61)

I'm also going to present "all" the cropped Peanuts cover scenes from all 19 Dell Tip Top issues:

Tip Top #211

Tip Top #212

Tip Top #213

Tip Top #214

Tip Top #215

Tip Top #216

Tip Top #217

Tip Top #218

Tip Top #219

Tip Top #220

Tip Top #221

Tip Top #222

Tip Top #223

Tip Top #224

Tip Top #225

The final Dell title to examine is the 4 issue run of Fritzi Ritz, #56 (Dec-Feb/58) to #59 (Sept-Nov/58). Peanuts can be found in #57,58,59 and run a total of one 4-page story per issue.

Fritzi Ritz #56 (Dec-Feb/58) ; no Peanuts

Fritzi Ritz #57 (Mar-May/58) ; "Peanuts"

Fritzi Ritz #57 (June-Aug/58) ; "Peanuts"

Fritzi Ritz #59 (Sept-Nov/58) ; "Peanuts"

Gold Key :

The final "Peanuts" comic book appearances are the 4-issue Gold Key run titled PEANUTS (1963-64) which overlaps and outlasts the last 5 issues of NANCY and SLUGGO #188- 192 (1962-63).

The Gold Key PEANUTS issues are nothing more than reprints of the first four issues published by Dell, Four Color #'s 878, 969, 1015 and PEANUTS #4, minus the Nancy and Sluggo story. I suspect the Nancy and Sluggo issues are reprints also.

One nice feature of the Gold Key PEANUTS (1-4) and NANCY and SLUGGO (188-192) issues are the fact that the back covers are pin-ups of the front covers minus the title and copy, which gives these books a very neat "wrap-around cover" appearance. John Stanley scripted the Nancy stories and we will see the appearance of Stanley's Oona Goosepimple in the Gold Key issues below. The artwork is Dan Gormley.

Peanuts #1 (Gold Key) (May/63)

Peanuts #2 (Gold Key) (Aug/63)

Peanuts #3 (Gold Key) (Nov/63)

Peanuts #4 (Gold Key) (Feb/64)

Nancy and Sluggo #188 (Gold Key) (May/63)

Nancy and Sluggo #189 (Gold Key) (Oct/62)

Nancy and Sluggo #190 (Gold Key) (Apr/63)

Nancy and Sluggo #191 (Gold Key) (July/63)

Nancy and Sluggo #192 (Gold Key) (Oct/63)

I'm betting there are still some Peanuts appearances to be found in United Features Syndicate and St. John issues of titles like Nancy, Sparkler Comics and Sparkle Comics, but for the most part, 99% of it is now accounted for. If anyone notices any errors or has any additions, please let me know.

Lastly, while this piece is a tribute and study of Peanuts appearances in comic books, we've actually seen just as much artwork by the workhorse of United Features Syndicate's comic books, the great Ernie Bushmiller, long-running artist on Fritzi Ritz, and the creator of her niece Nancy, who eventually eclipsed the elder in fame and popularity.

Back in UNITED COMICS #1 one-shot (Aug/40) there was a page devoted to Bushmiller, which I'll present here at the end. Now we know who Fritzi Ritzi's long-suffering boyfriend Phil Fumble was patterned after!

United Comics #1 (one-shot) (Aug/40)

TOTAL PEANUTS COMIC BOOK APPEARANCES

(1952-64) 152 issues

UNITED COMICS 21,22,23,24,25,26 1952 6 issues
TIP TOP 173,184-225 1952-61 43 issues
TIP TOPPER 16-22,24-28 1952-54 12 issues
FRITZI RITZ 27-33, 37-49,57-59 1953-58 23 issues
PEANUTS 1 1953/54 ? 1 issue
SPARKLE COMICS 33 1954 1 issue
SPARKLER 115,120 1954 2 issues
NANCY 142,146-192 1957-63 48 issues
FOUR COLOR 878,969,1015 1958-59 3 issues
PEANUTS 4-13 1960-62 10 issues
PEANUTS 1-4 1963-64 4 issues

EARLY PEANUTS APPEARANCES CHRONOLOGY (1952-54) :

(United Feature Syndicate)

TIP TOP #173 (Mar/Apr) 1952, UNITED COMICS #21 (Mar/Apr) 1952

TIP TOPPER #16 (Apr/May) 1952

UNITED COMICS #22 (May/June) 1952

TIP TOPPER #17 (June/July) 1952

UNITED COMICS #23 (July/Aug) 1952

TIP TOPPER #18 (Aug/Sept) 1952

UNITED COMICS #24 (Sept/Oct) 1952

TIP TOPPER #19 (Oct/Nov) 1952

UNITED COMICS #25 (Nov/Dec) 1952

TIP TOPPER #20 (Dec/Jan) 1952/53

UNITED COMICS #26 (Jan/Feb) 1953

TIP TOPPER #21 (Feb/Mar) 1953

FRITZI RITZ #27 (Mar/Apr) 1953

TIP TOPPER #22 (Apr/May) 1953

FRITZI RITZ #28 (May/June) 1953

FRITZI RITZ #29 (July/Aug) 1953

TIP TOPPER #24 (Aug/Sept) 1953

FRITZI RITZ #30 (Sept/Oct) 1953

TIP TOPPER #25 (Oct/Nov) 1953

FRITZI RITZ #31 (Nov/Dec) 1953

PEANUTS (one-shot) #1 ??????? 1953/54

TIP TOPPER #26 (Dec/Jan) 1953/54

FRITZI RITZ #32 (Jan/Feb) 1954, TIP TOP #184 (Jan/Feb), SPARKLER #115 (Jan/Feb)

TIP TOPPER #27 (Feb/Mar) 1954, SPARKLE #33 (Feb/Mar) 1954

FRITZI RITZ #33 (Mar/Apr) 1954, TIP TOP #185 (Mar/Apr) 1954

TIP TOPPER #28 (Apr/May) 1954

TIP TOP #186 (May/June) 1954

TIP TOP #187 (July/Aug) 1954

TIP TOP #188 (Sept/Oct) 1954

SPARKLER COMICS #120 (Oct/Nov) 1954

SOURCES :

All images above are scanned from my own personal collection except for : Tip Top #186, Nancy and Sluggo #142, Sparkler Comics #115, #120.
Peanuts Stories in Comic Books by Nat Gertler and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo : http://aaugh.com/guide/pcb.htm
An Interview with Dale Hale : http://aaugh.com/guide/ldale.htm
Nancy and Sluggo #142 cover image is from the GCD : http://www.comics.org/
Sparkler Comics #115, 120 cover image is from http://www.comicvine.com

FOOTNOTES:

Vassallo, Michael J., Peanuts: A Comic Book History, Comics Buyer's Guide #1254, November 28, 1997, Krause Publications, Inc., Pages 60-62.

USA COMICS Vol 2 Golden-Age Masterworks

2012-01-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

Last week saw the release of Marvel Masterworks Golden Age USA Comics Volume 2, comprising of beautifully restored copies of issues #5-8. These are some of the scarcest Timely super hero comics in existence, material almost no one has had the privilege of reading or studying before. In fact, the reason it took almost 4 years between volumes 1 and 2 was the fact that original low grade copies for use as source material could not be acquired for years.

With this long sought after material finally in print, I'm a bit dismayed at the lack of "chatter" on the various message boards, especially the Masterworks message board, where this material was anticipated for quite a long time. So I'm hoping to get the enthusiasm going as the only way more of this material will get printed is if folks show interest and buy it. I'm going to present the contents of the 4 issues with representative samples of the better-known features (or features that personally piqued my interest). I'm not going to give away the cow here. If what you see is of interest, "buy it"! The cost of these gorgeous volumes aren't cheap but compared to "ever" being able to hold an original, they are practically free.

And you can get them at a nice discount by clicking here:

USA Comics Vol 2 discounted!

That said, the issues are a cornucopia of known features, one-shots and has-beens, all wrapped around the theme of the second world war, including often xenophobic depictions of the Axis powers protagonists, depictions in line with all avenues of then current popular culture. These were strict war-era comic books awash in wartime propaganda.

I wrote the introduction to this volume, five pages of credit discussions and historical context. My compatriots Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., Hames Ware and I systematically deconstructed the art, running it through our encyclopedic knowledge of wartime comic artists and came up with the most accurate indexing of the four issue's contents to date. Is everything known? No. It's the best we could do and I think we did a decent job.

My approach to these articles has always been to slant them towards the creators, both known and unknown, with as much context as I can muster. I wrote the introduction to the first volume in 2007 also. That release is better known in Masterworks circles as the Masterworks with the microscopic font size, requiring anyone over the age of fifty to go for a magnifying glass to read it properly.

The editorship of the first three issues fall under the domain of Stan Lee, while issue #8 (May/43) falls under the domain of Vince Fago, corralled by Lee and Goodman to replace Lee while Stan was in the service. According to Vince, the position was always Stan's to return to.

USA COMICS #5 (Summer/42)

The first issue in this volume is USA Comics #5 (Summer/42), an issue sporting 10 different new features as all from the previous 4 issues are jettisoned.

The cover above depicts a great action shot of the Victory Boys giving Adolf Hitler a boot to the face (as a contrast to Captain America giving Hitler a fist to the face on the cover of issue #1 of Cap's own book). By virtue of a best guess, the artist looks to be Al Gabriele. It's not set in stone.

Here is full line-up for issue #5:

Victory Boys

Black Widow

"Hills of Horror" (non-character adventure story)

The Fighting Hobo

The Blue Blade

"Dead Man's Warning" (text story)

Roko The Amazing

Gypo The Gypsy Giant and Bobby

Sergeant Dix

Patent Pending

The American Avenger

Highlights include :

Victory Boys. The Victory Boys are the cover feature with a blurb "Introducing the Victory Boys" plastered right under the "A" of USA Comics. Here's the problem. This is the second and final installment of the series, not the first story. How do we know? The first story began concurrently in Comedy Comics #10 (June/42), giving the entire backstory to the group: The Victory Boys were a group of kids whose parents were killed by the Nazis, banded together to fight for the Allies. They wore no unfiorms and the story gives the impression 100% that it is the debut story. In USA Comics #5 the kids now have uniforms and actually do battle (all by themselves) with Adolf Hitler, Emporer Hirohito and Benito Mussolini! Yet the cover screams "Introducing the Victory Boys".

So what happened? My feeling is that the feature was conceived, possibly earlier, by Ernie Hart as a non-hero war-time, slightly humorous feature. Then a story without a home, it was used to fill out the new Comedy Comics title which initially was a dumping ground for adventures without a title after the cancellation of earlier titles like Daring Mystery Comics. Perhaps when USA Comics sales lagged, the entire line-up was tossed and all new features tried. A second story, possibly penciled or partially drawn was quickly finished with help and rushed into USA as a hero feature (putting them in uniform). Or.... maybe Victory Boys was considered to get its own title with the cover to USA #5 as the debut cover (and then the idea shelved). Or not. I don't know, but it's fun to speculate as I liked the feature a great deal and wish Ernie Hart was given the chance to fill an entire issue of its own title.

While the large, leering, skull-like image of Adolf Hitler on the splash looks like it could be the work of Al Avison, Ernie Hart is the principal artist here and his initials "EHH" (Ernest Huntley Hart) can be spotted on the license plate on page 2, panel 8.

Hart may not be totally alone and George Klein is definitely the main inker. Hart is the solo artist in Comedy Comics #10 and by this final installment, several hands pitch in.

Mike Sekowsky and George Klein do a fantastic job on The Black Widow, one of my favorite early Timely features, (previously seen in Mystic Comics #4,5,& 7, making a final appearance in All Select Comics #1, Fall/43, in a story gorgeously drawn by Stan Drake.) Sekowsky/Klein was a beautiful and common art team at Timely, also found on The Whizzer in All-Winners Comics #3 (Winter 41/42), Father Time in Captain America Comics #11 (Feb/42), as well as on a ton of humor features in humor titles like Terrytoons, Krazy Komics and Joker Comics.

The Fighting Hobo is by Malcolm Kindale and is a silly little feature about a tramp hero. This is a different hobo from Ed Winiarski's The Vagabond found in previous USA Comics issues 2,3,& 4, which was transferred to Young Allies #4 (Summer/42) this very month! (And then on to the Homer feature in Krazy Komics). My question is "why" the need for a new tramp hero when we already had a perfectly serviceable one the previous past three issues? Was there a perceived demand for tramp heroes that I don't know about? Malcolm Kindale may be the artist on Hercules in Mystic Comics #4.

Roko The Amazing was a very pretty strip drawn by Jack Alderman. The only problem was that the idea was already taken! Lon Craig, a 16 year old art student , yells "Illium!" to change into the adult Roko the Amazing. Gee...sound familiar??

Gypo the Gypsy Giant is another one-shot interesting to me only because I think I've deduced the art as by Ed Winiarski with (or inked) by Don Rico. What makes me think this could be Ed Winiarski? The old lady with the glasses in panel 3 is a caricature of Winiarski as drawn by himself in a score of Timely funny animal stories.

Ed Winiarski caricature in "Gypo"

Ed Winiarski by Ed Winiarski in KRAZY KOMICS #7 (Apr/43)

The American Avenger is notable for having been penciled by Vince Alascia, something I've never seen before. George Klein is inking this and the effect is a very nice art job. Unfortunately, this is the first and only appearance of the Avenger.

Left out in my coverage of #5 above are :

"Hills of Horror", a non-character adventure story primarily drawn by Don Rico.

The Blue Blade, a silly, ridiculous concept of a Musketeer fighting the Axis, this is a concurrent continuation of The Fourth Musketeer from Comedy Comics #10. The art is unknown but wild speculation is that this could be an early appearance of Carmine Infantino and/or even Gil Kane. Hmm.

Sergeant Dix, the sole continuation of an earlier feature (Corporal Dix) in this title although he was promoted from Corporal to Sergeant. The artwork is unknown.

Patent Pending, a one-page humor filler by Lou Paige.

USA COMICS #6 (Dec/42)

USA Comics #6 (Dec/42) does away with a format of one-shot characters and brings in Timely's best selling hero Captain America to now anchor the book. What looks like an Alex Schomburg cover has Cap bursting onto the scene of a Nazi torture chamber and saving a ready-to-be-brutalized Bucky! Jeez! Look at that contraption! On geared wheels, no less!

The line-up for issue #6:

Captain America

"Terror Squad" (non-character adventure story)

The Destroyer

"Death in the Coral Sea" (non-character adventure story)

"Look Out For Spies!" (text story)

Jeep Jones

The Whizzer

Sergeant Dix

Jap-Buster Johnson

Cap's lead story, "The Ghost's Gaze of Death!" (15 pages) is seemingly by Al Avison and Syd Shores, with George Klein thrown into the inking mix also. There may even be additional hand as I can swear I'm seeing Ernie Hart in a panel or two.

"Terror Squad" is a non-character war-adventure story with unidentified, but very distinctive artwork.

The Destroyer, penciled by Bob Oksner, comes over from Mystic Comics. While never a Timely heavyweight, The Destroyer did have 41 appearances throughout the golden-age in 9 "different" titles.

"Death in the Coral Sea" is another non-character war-adventure story with a guess as Louis Ferstadt on the pencil art.

Jeep Jones is a military-themed humor strip with artwork by Chic Stone, of all people. Think George Baker's Sad Sack, debuting in Yank, The Army Weekly this very year and you will understand where this feature is coming from. Stone worked out of the Jacquet shop and also drew an installment of the Li'll Abner knock-off Eustice Hayseed that ran for years in Joker Comics (issue #7, Feb/43). Eustice Hayseed holds the distinction of possibly having more different artists than any other Timely feature, ranging from Gar Dean, Ed Robbins, Chic Stone, Mike Roy, Gus Schrotter, to Joe Sulman and several unknowns!

The Whizzer is back in this title drawn by Louis Ferstadt, last seen in issues 1,2, and 4, and the only exactly-titled same feature from the first 4 issues ever brought back. (Recall Corporal Dix became Sergeant Dix .. same feature, different title, albeit slightly). Unfortunately, racial stereotypes of the era are in force as the Whizzer's sidekick "Slow-Motion Jones" is introduced and depicted in a manner unacceptable from today's standpoint.

Not unlike Will Eisner's "Ebony" in The Spirit, this is once again an unfortunate reflection of the time and common across the entire popular culture spectrum, including theatrical animated cartoons:

Warner Bros. Title Cards

The promoted Sergeant Dix follows with a script by Roy Garn and artwork by Frank Borth

The last major feature of the issue is the debut installment of Timely's most notorious wartime serial, Jap-Buster Johnson. The debut artist on this feature was Dennis Neville, the artist who earlier was also working at National on titles like Flash, Hawkman , and as part of the Shuster shop, on Superman. I'm not going to make excuses for the editorial content of this feature but the strip was clearly inspired by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the actual story, after the death of his friend during a Japanese air attack, pilot Doug Johnson makes a vow to "bust the Japs" and goes off to fight them single-handedly.

Jap-Buster Johnson had several different artists and writers over the course of its 18 installment run in several different titles (All Select Comics, Complete Comics, Kid Komics and USA Comics). Writers include Otto Binder, Mickey Spillane and even novelist Patricia Highsmith. Artists include Dennis Neville, Jimmy Thompson and Allen Bellman. In fact, Bellman clearly remembered his work on the feature. I interviewed Allen Bellman in 2001 (published in Alter-Ego #32, 2004) and he recalled walking into Stan Lee's office to get a script (he was given a Jap-Buster Johnson script) and being introduced by Stan to the writer who had just dropped it off. The writer, with a crew cut and in an army uniform, was Mickey Spillane, freelancing for Timely and Stan Lee while in the service.

With 70 years hindsight, Jap-Buster Johnson reflected America's intense hostility with the Japanese enemy. I can give it a pass as a cultural artifact of wartime propaganda along with a score of Alex Schomburg covers depicting the Axis enemies in an exaggerated fashion (again, as did theatrical animated cartoons of the era).

Wartime Warner Bros. Title Cards:

USA COMICS #7 (Mar/43)

USA Comics #7 line-up:

Captain America

Captain Daring and his Sky Sharks

Marvel Boy

"I Hate Women" (text story)

Disk-Eyes the Detective

The Secret Stamp

Jeep Jones

Jap-Buster Johnson

Issue #7, sporting a magnificent Alex Schomburg cover, leads off with a long 20 page Captain America story, battling the Nazi villain The Eraser. This is a diverse hands job with my eyes seeing Syd Shores, Mike Sekowsky, George Klein and Ernie Hart.

Next is a treat as we get to see Alex Schomburg draw an interior story for a change, Captain Daring and his Sky Sharks. This is not the same Captain Daring character from Daring Mystery Comics #7-8 but

rather a hot-shot fly-boy in a war setting.

But here is some further strangeness. Not only has the above "Captain Daring and his Sky Sharks" taken on the Captain Daring name of a previous character, This new Captain Daring is nothing more than a name change of the old "G-Man Don Gorman" from Daring Mystery Comics #4 (May/40)!!

Daring Mystery Comics #4 (May/40)

The question now is whether it's the same artist or not. We conjectured back then that "G-Man Don Gorman" could be Gus Ricca but now we can compare the Alex Schomburg story to this and see what shakes out. My opinion? It's definitely not a story done at the same time with the same artist and held over in inventory for 3 years. The story panel layouts are completely different, each one typical of the year it was published. So I'm just unsure at this point in time. I don't know what Alex Schomburg would look like as a sequential artist in 1940. Here he is as a "pulp" artist in 1939 (and trust me when I say that this was the most mild illustration I could find. Just wait until you see what I've turned up for this book)

pulp illustrations (click here)

Detective Short Stories (June/39) page 6

And strangely enough, the next feature is another take on an old one-shot character, this time Marvel Boy! This is his second and final appearance after a two and a half year hiatus since the Simon & Kirby debut in Daring Mystery Comics #6 (Sept/40). But rather than a continuation, this is essentially a re-boot and no way near as interesting as the former. Bob Oksner is likely the pencil artist and rather than a sci-fi strip, Marvel Boy is now a mystical strip with the hero fighting the Nazis. I have no idea why this strip even exists.

So what the heck is going on? Was Timely desperate enough for new features that it would just dust off older one-shots with cool names and re-boot them for an audience that wouldn't recall the originals? There is a good chance that is exactly what they were doing. If the Jacquet shop was still turning out the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch "but" Martin Goodman was still committed to weaning off Funnies Inc. and not wanting them to come up with any new characters, in a pinch, (and desperate for material to fill anthology books) the order could have come down to just re-vamp a few old has-beens!

Disk-Eyes the Detective is classic Basil Wolverton, seen already in this title on Rockman in issues #1 & 2. Secret Stamp is here on loan from Captain America. (not shown)

Jeep Jones returns again by Chic Stone, this time with a full signature!

And the issue ends with another installment of Jap-Buster Johnson by Dennis Neville..

USA COMICS #8 (May/43)

USA Comics #8 (May/43) starts off with another killer Alex Schomburg cover.

The line-up:

Captain America

The Destroyer

Jeep Jones

Jap-Buster Johnson

"Two Hundred to One"

"Shot in the Back" (text story)

The Whizzer

The Secret Stamp

Sergeant Dix

Captain America leads off once again and this time the wonder is whether we're seeing the nascent Carmine Infantino or Gil Kane in this story to some degree amongst other hands and inkers.

Now comes something that is really puzzling to me. In issue #6 we saw a Destroyer story that we said was penciled by Bob Oksner. After skipping #7, the Destroyer is back with a story that we again are saying was penciled by Bob Oksner. But this time something else is added into the mix......

Do you see the leering hooded specter at the upper right corner? I'm be damned if that isn't Al Bellman. Among Bellman aficionados (of which I'm the most ardent), the looming, leering hooded skeletal specter is a notable trademark. Here is the cropped specter and several further examples. What do you think? And if Bellman is here, it's quite possible he's in USA Comics #6 also. One thing to remember is Allen Bellman broke in as a background artist assisting Syd Shores on Captain America. The date of his debut is the Fall of 1942, and according to Bellman himself, Columbus day! This USA #8 story is cover dated May/43 meaning it was on the stands approximately in February. Further, the material could have been prepared an additional 3 months before that, taking it to November of 1942. That perfectly aligns with Bellman still working as a background artist while he got his feet wet and lends credence to the idea that Bellman added the skeletal specter in the "background"!

USA Comics #8

Mystic #3

Sports Action #10

Suspense #14

Jeep Jones is next with Stone's signature now shortened to "Chic" in a way that exactly matches the signature "Chic" on Eustice Hayseed in Joker Comics #7 (Feb/43), corroborating that credit nicely.

Dennis Neville returns on Jap-Buster Johnson, this time with "Jap-Buster" in a Japanese style letter font :

Bob Oksner (with Al Bellman? Now I'm starting to merge the two!) follows on "Two Hundred to One", a non-character war-adventure story. The Whizzer by Louis Ferstadt and the Secret Stamp, perhaps penciled by Oksner, are next.

The final feature is Sergeant Dix once again and I figure I'll show at least "one" splash of that feature. This time the art is by Edward Ryan.

And there you have it! The extremely scarce USA Comics #5,6,7,8 beautifully restored for posterity!

Jerry Robinson & Joe Simon

2011-12-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

When Jerry Robinson passed away last week on Dec 8th I began to organize a discussion about the Timely portion of his career. I have some wonderful photos and video I took of Jerry and Joe Simon during the New York Comicon in 2010 and wanted to supplement the piece with those.

Unfortunately, that post never got underway and now today, December 15th, comes the sad news that Joe Simon has "also" passed on. I now realize what I captured last year is simply priceless.

Both creators are due their own blog posts in the future. Today I want to just show them together, two giants of the industry and the medium, both there at the very beginning and fortunate enough to live long, happy lives, seeing their creations, co-creations and their very artform flourish 70 years into a new century and beyond. Their talents have saturated popular culture, the silver screen and the very consciousness of the entertainment world.

So today I'm putting aside the data and statistics, just preferring to be an ordinary fan, thankful for what they gave us.

Some background....

Joe Simon:

The very first time I met Joe Simon was back in 1990. I was attending a Fred Greenberg show in New York and Joe was set up in the corner near the entrance with his son Jim, selling just published copies of the first printing of The Comic Book Makers.

Now I attended those shows on a monthly basis and it was rare to have any guests whatsoever at those small affairs but somehow Joe was there! I went over, introduced myself and bought a copy of the book which Joe signed to me. I then spent about 20 minutes chatting about Timely, Jack Kirby, all kinds of stuff, and noticed that for the most part, I was the only one (outside of a handful of other fans) who even realized who was in their midst!

My recollection is that Joe didn't make too many con appearances but once again I saw him at a show on April 3, 2004. Here he is at his table with Vanguard publisher and pal J. David Spurlock.

Joe Simon with J. David Spurlock

Knowing he'd be there, and attending with Nick Caputo, I brought with me several copies of Martin Goodman's Red Circle pulps and detective magazines from 1940 and 1941 to show him. Joe was the art director on Goodman's detective magazine line for a 13 month period from cover date Nov/40 to Dec/41 and select issues sported art by Simon, Jack Kirby and other moonlighting Timely artists. [A fuller accounting will be in my upcoming book]

National Detective Cases Vol 1, #1 (Mar/41)

Simon & Kirby had also contributed a slew of illustrations to several pulps. I brought the Nov/40 issue of Marvel Stories and I wanted to see what Joe recalled about that period.

Vol 2, #3 (Nov/40), cover by J.W. Scott

Here is a short video clip taken while Joe signed the pulp above:

But that wasn't all. Joe was to give a panel discussion that day moderated by Spurlock. The panel rooms were in the basement of the hotel and we made our way with Joe down the large escalator to the ground floor, looking for the elevator to the basement. Guess what? The elevator was out of order! The only way down were two very long flights of steep stairs. Folks were very angry over this development and the panel was in immediate danger of being cancelled as Joe, then about 91 years old, was not expected to walk down two long flights of stone stairs.

With chaos about to ensue, I asked Joe whether he thought he could make it down if two people helped him. Joe's answer was "Easy!", so Nick Caputo and I got on both sides of him for support and slowly we walked him down the stairs one slow step at a time. The panel was a hit with Joe telling stories and answering questions. Then we reversed the process and walked him right back upstairs!

Joe Simon and me on April 3, 2004

Jerry Robinson:

I met Jerry Robinson for the first time in 1999. He was going to be at a New York show so I took the opportunity to photocopy every story he had ever done for Timely, secure it into a bound volume, and present it to him, hoping to glean some recollections. Jerry was very happy to see the stories and immediately called over a young woman with him at his table, Marisa Furtado, a Brazilian documentary maker visiting New York to gather interviews and background for a documentary on Jerry ultimately to be titled Jerry Robinson em Profissao Cartunista - A Vida Apos Batman, or roughly translated from Portuguese, Jerry Robinson : Professional Cartoonist - Life After Batman.

Directed by Marisa Furtado and Paulo Serran, it traces Jerry's life and career from comic books to political cartoons and beyond. Interviews seen run from Stan Lee, Carmine Infantino and Mark Evanier (filmed at the 2000 White Plains Convention, I believe) to Jules Feiffer and many, many others. Jerry is interviewed extensively and older vintage interviews are also shown as well as tons of vintage photos from comics history.

Marisa was extremely happy to see so much rare Robinson material all in one place and asked me to make cleaner copies and send them to her in Brazil. From a comic book standpoint, what I had showed her was quite literally what Jerry did "after Batman"! It's quite funny to see how she animated, yes "animated", photocopied panels from my Robinson Timely crime comics! The effect is akin to the Marvel Superhero animated cartoons of 1966. While I don't know when the documentary debuted, I did receive a copy of it from Marisa. The interviews are in English with Portuguese subtitles and the narration is in Portuguese with English sub-titles! It really is a great film filled with vintage creators, all coming together to honor Jerry.

Here below is a 4 minute clip about the documentary from Youtube. At 1:57 you can see one of my actual photocopies being animated after an intro by Stan Lee:

Which brings us to 2010. Let me set this up correctly....

On Saturday, October 9, 2010, I attended the New York Comicon with my friends Barry Pearl, Nick Caputo, John Caputo and Mike DeLisa.

Nick Caputo, Mike Delisa, Barry Pearl

We made the usual rounds, saw and talked to Irwin Hasen, there promoting his documentary Irwin: A New York Story. I always want to pick the brain and memories of golden-age artists whenever there's a chance so I presented him with a complete set of his Ferret stories from the early issues of Marvel Mystery Comics, stories he hadn't seen in decades. Hasen related that he'd done these stories as a freelancer through the Lloyd Jacquet shop and never actually been on staff at the shop.

Irwin Hasen (on the right)

Next I spent some time talking to Al Jaffee, promoting his new biography Al Jaffee's Mad Life.

Al Jaffee

Syd Shores' daughter Nancy was also at the show and I introduced Nancy to Al, knowing Al was an old colleague and friend of Syd's while on the staff at Timely. Nancy and I then spent time talking to Stan Goldberg for a while, another friend of Syd's, before saying our goodbyes and parting.

Stan Goldberg and Nancy Shores

Here is photo from 2009 of Nancy with her dad's old boss!

A Simon & Shores reunion! (February, 2009)

I then stopped by Jerry Robinson's table and chatted a bit about his new biography, Jerry Robinson - Ambassador of Comics. I had done a small bit of Timely Comics help in both Jerry's and Jaffee's books above, and was thrilled they were finally in print.

I had one last stop to make. Across the aisle from Jerry Robinson was Joe Simon, holding court among piles of the just released Simon and Kirby Superheroes, a massive tome of some of the greatest hero comics of all time.

I spotted Harry Mendryk and we spoke a bit about the book, how great it looked and how I was looking forward to all the subsequent volumes in the series. I also commented to Harry, Nick and Barry about what a great time Joe Simon seemed to be having. He was greeting guests, shaking hands, posing for photos and signing copies of the S&K volume with the vitality of a man 30 years younger. He was then currently 97!

As the end of the show loomed, I approached Joe with my freshly purchased copy and Joe was more than happy to sign it for me. I slid the book across the table and he opened it up, uncapping a pen.

Just then there was a commotion as a small scooter approached Joe's table. It was Jerry Robinson. Jerry proceeded to get out of his conveyance and carefully made his way through a narrow space between tables, greeting Joe with a big hug.

Jerry greeting Joe

He then sat down next to Joe and they chatted as I used two hands to simultaneously photograph, videotape with a camcorder and even take video clips with a digital camera.

Below are two short video clips from that day. One captures Jerry arriving and greeting Joe. The other has them briefly chatting and comparing their relative ages! Sorry about the quality, this was not recorded in HD video.

At some point Jerry looked down at my book and asked Joe whether he was going to sign it. Joe placed his signature on the first page and passed the book over to Jerry, who added his own signature above Joe's.

Jerry watching Joe sign his name

Joe passing the pen to Jerry

Jerry looking at the page

Jerry adding his signature to the book

I was in awe. Two of the grandmasters of the medium had converged on my book and I realized that what I had witnessed was something very special.

A photo of Joe and Jerry about to sign my book can be found in Joe's recent autobiography, Joe Simon - My Life in Comics.

Fourteen months later, both have left us.

One last moment from 2008. Goodbye Jerry and Joe! Forever in our hearts.

SOURCES:

All photographic images (except Nancy Shores with Joe Simon and 2008 image above) and video copyright Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
Last photo above from Allen Bellman via Nancy Shores

Best Western

2011-12-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

There are many secrets in the history of Marvel Comics. Last post I mentioned an upcoming book by myself and Blake Bell that will show many of the rarely seen hidden Timely gems lost to history and buried in the non-comics publications of Martin Goodman's publishing line.

http://www.facebook.com/SecretHistoryOfMarvelComics

http://blakebellnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/putting-together-secret-history-of_19.html

As a long time collector and researcher of Martin Goodman's pulp and magazine line, I've been accumulating items and data for quite a while. As part of the research involve in such a project, a massive study of Goodman's pulp empire produced some revelations that I've already shown in previous posts. Now an additional item I will share here as it dovetails nicely once again with the comic book line. 1

Back in January I did a post on the cross-format interweaving of publishing histories of Complete Detective (pulp), Complete Detective Cases (magazine) and Amazing Detective Cases (magazine & comic book):

http://timely-atlas-comics.blogspot.com/2011/01/amazing-detective-cases.html

I showed that the pulp Complete Detective ran six issues from Vol 1, #1 (May/38) to Vol 1, #6 (Oct/39) before changing to the true-crime magazine Complete Detective Cases Vol 2, #1 (Dec/39).

Vol 2, #1 (Dec/39)

Vol 1, #1 (May/38) (Norman Saunders art)

I likewise showed that the true crime magazine Amazing Detective Cases suspended publication with Vol 10, #2 (July/50) and continued as a comic book from issues #3 (Nov/50) through #14 (Sept/52), before resuming as a true-crime magazine with Vol 10, #3 (Winter/53).

Vol 10, #2 (July/50)

#3 (Nov/50)

At the end of the blog post, my pal Tom Lammers left a comment speculating about the strange numbering of the Best Western comic book, wondering if the answer had to do with a pulp antecedent. Another reader correctly mentioned that there was also a same named Goodman pulp.

Time-lining the entirety of Martin Goodman's pulp output does in fact shed some light on this question. Final answers are another matter!

So here is the background....

Best Western Magazine was the fifth western pulp title in Goodman's pulp line, debuting with Vol 1, #1 (Sept/35) and published under the Goodman publishing name Western Fiction Publishing Co., Inc. The cover artwork is by the most prolific Goodman cover painter of all, J.W. Scott (John Walter Scott, 1907-1987), and interior illustrations are by the most prolific Goodman "western" pulp interior illustrator, Lorence F. Bjorklund (L.F. Bjorklund, 1913-1978) [One report has his birth year as 1911].

Vol 1, #1 (Sept/35) (J.W. Scott cover)

L.F. Bjorklund BEST WESTERN Vol 1, #1 (Sept35) p.4

The title would progress bi-monthly, then quarterly throughout the 1930's and into the 1940's (sometimes dropping the word "magazine" to only Best Western) until Vol 4, #9 (Feb/42), where the publishing company changed to Interstate Publishing Corp. It would take another 20 months for the next two issues to appear, Vol 4, #10 (Oct/43) and Vol 4, #11 (Jan/44). At this point the title is seemingly cancelled along with 99% of Goodman's pulp line. Only Complete Western Book Magazine, Goodman's earliest and most prolific pulp title line, continued on through this dead pulp period of 1944, 1945 and the nearly dead year of 1946.

Here are some additional cover scans of issues through this period from my collection:

Vol 2, #4 (Mar/37) (J.W. Scott cover)

Notice above the earliest version of Goodman's "Red Circle" logo in the lower right corner, literally a red "spot".

Vol 3, #6 (Apr/39) (J.W. Scott cover)

Vol 4, #4 (July/40) (J.W. Scott cover)

Vol 4, #9 (Feb/42) (J.W. Scott cover)

After a nearly 4 year hiatus, the title returns as Best Western Novels (along with a newly revived Goodman pulp line) with Vol 5, #1 (Nov/47) and 6 additional issues appear up through Vol 5, #7 (Mar/49).

Vol 5, #5 (Nov/48)

The title then appears to die again. Or does it?

In 1949, completely out of the blue, two issues of a Best Western "comic book" appear, Vol 1, #58 (June/49) and Vol 1, #59 (Aug/49), both likewise published by Interstate Publishing Corp. and putting a two-issue comic book coda onto the end of the Timely-era Best Western pulp run. Both issues below sport the circular "Marvel Comic" logo that is nothing more than a reverse version of the classic "Red Circle" pulp colophon.

#58 (June/49) (Syd Shores w/? cover art)

The cover to issue #58 (June/49) looks like a diverse hands job. I see Syd Shores, especially in the face of Two-Gun Kid, but as Jim Vadeboncoeur notes, the figures are beefier than Shores usually renders. John Buscema could also be here. Inside are 3 stories featuring 3 different western characters, drawn by a who's who royalty of artists. Filtered through the the Timely shop inkers and piecemeal production methods, most of the art is uninspiring and far from the best work of these great artists, although both Severin and Heath are in the infancy of their careers

First is a 12 page Two-Gun Kid story where the kid seems primarily penciled by Shores. I think I see John Severin here also on a few pages as well as other hands like John Buscema and even Gene Colan. A real Timely jam job using a quartet of future Marvel greats! Severin then pencils a 9 page Black Rider story next. This is followed by Russ Heath on Kid Colt Outlaw.

#5106 Shores, Severin, et al Two-Gun Kid "The Million Dollar Train Robbery!" 12 pages

#5212 Severin/? Black Rider "Blood on the Range!" 9 pages
#5282 Heath/Heath Kid Colt Outlaw "The Wicked Wedding!" 4 pages

#5106 BEST WESTERN #58 (June49) p.1
(Shores, Buscema, Severin, Colan, ?)

#5212 BEST WESTERN #58 (June49) p.1 (Severin)

#5282 BEST WESTERN #58 (June49) p.1 (Heath)

#59 (Aug/49) (John Severin cover - his "first", as per Severin)

Issue #59's cover is by John Severin and Severin identified it as his very first. Russ Heath leads off with a 10 page Kid Colt Outlaw story. The Black Rider artist is Severin with an inker and Shores and Severin take the Two-Gun Kid story. The one-page filler "Scrap Book of the West", according to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., could possibly be Mario De Marco, a noted western filler artist who drew westerns for Charlton and fact fillers for Treasure Chest.

#5065 Heath Kid Colt Outlaw "The Mystery of the Mad Monk!" 10p.
#5131 Mario De Marco (?) Feature: Scrapbook of the West 1p.

#5587 Severin/? Black Rider "The Black Rider Strikes!" 5p.
#5372 Shores w/Severin Two-Gun Kid "The Secret of the Valley of Fear!" 8p.

#5065 BEST WESTERN #59 (Aug49) p.1 (Heath)

#5131 BEST WESTERN #59 (Aug49)
Mario De Marco (?)

#5587 BEST WESTERN #59 (Aug49) p.1
Severin /?

#5587 BEST WESTERN #59 (Aug49) p.1
(Shores w/Severin)

But where did this numbering come from? #58? #59?

The first thought that jumped into my head was that perhaps these were the 58th and 59th issues in the long Best Western publishing run. A quick count of all the pulp issues proves this not so. There had only been 36 previous pulp issues in this title so if anything, these two comic book issues should have been #37 and #38, respectively.

No, there had to be a different explanation, but nothing in the pulps seemed to work out. I next looked back over in the comic book line. Fifteen years ago I time-lined the entirety of Martin Goodman's comic book line from 1939-1969 onto an enormous 10 foot spreadsheet and taped it to a wall. Looking at this huge graph makes it easy to see comic book titles and issues plotted by months and years in an ongoing, mushrooming fashion. Here is a small 5 foot by 5 foot section from an old photo. The yellow line coming down on the right side is the demarcation of the Atlas implosion. The timeline continues for another 5 feet to the right.

Absolutely "nothing" appears to explain Best Western #59. The closest numerical and distance match is the title Terrytoons, which ends its Timely run at #59 (Aug/47) and was published by the sub-company Timely Comics, Inc., nearly two whole years before Best Western #58 appears. It's the closest numerical match, meaning that it's remotely possible Best Western "spun off" the near-last issue of Terrytoons, #57 (June/47). Maybe it was a clerical error not unlike Love Tales #59. Perhaps the Best Western comic book should have been #60 and #61, cleanly following Terrytoons' numbering.

TERRYTOONS #57 (June/47)

So is this cover above the answer to where Best Western #58 derived? I'm extremely doubtful about the whole thing, but it's the only thing I can come up with. I just don't have the answer and perhaps this one will never be solved.

ADDENDA:

Right after this post was put to bed, my pal Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. made a startling revelation that may have solved this mystery! In fact, it's so obvious I cannot believe I didn't consider this as it was right under my nose all along! Right after the last pulp Best Western issue, Vol 5, #7, the first comic book issue is #58. You see it? There is no Vol 5, #8 but Goodman squeezes it to #58! And then, what would have been Vol 5, #9 becomes #59! Can we know for sure? No, but it is absolutely the best possible answer. Martin Goodman loved to frequently launch new titles with "high" numbers, making them look like newsstand veterans as well as fooling the post office looking to collect on the registration of new titles. Usually the high numbers carried on from earlier cancelled comic titles, but as I've shown, once in a while Goodman used cross-format methods. Thanks, Jim!

With that, Best Western #59 now changes to Western Outlaws and Sheriffs #60 (Dec/49) and will run through #73 (June/52) before cancellation. Issue #60 below is best known for containing the very first all Joe Maneely work for Timely/Atlas. But that's a story for another time, namely my Joe Maneely art biography.

We're still not done yet. Starting in early 1951, Goodman once again revives his Best Western pulp, this time allowing it to pick up the numbering Vol 2, #2 (June/51) from the just cancelled Three Western Novels Vol 2, #1 (Dec/50) and likewise picking up its publishing entity, Stadium Publishing Corp.

This 2nd incarnation of Best Western would last 26 issues until Vol 6, #3 (Mar/57). 15 of these covers will be painted by Norman Saunders. Many issues, beginning in1954, sport reprinted stories from as far back as the 1930's, sometimes to the tune of 3 or 4 reprinted stories an issue.

Vol 3, #2 (Nov/52) (Norman Saunders cover art)

Vol 3, #6 (Aug/53) (Norman Saunders cover art)

Vol 4, #6 (Dec/54) (Norman Saunders cover art)

Vol 5, #1 (Mar/55)

Vol 5, #3 (Sept/55) (Norman Saunders cover art)

Vol 6, #1 (Sept/56)

FOOTNOTES / SOURCES:

Vassallo, Michael J., All scans in this blog post sourced from my own private collection.

Surprise Announcement!

2011-11-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

I've something special to announce that should interest all readers here. For those who may have been wondering why there has recently been extended time between blogposts, I have a good excuse. My interest in Martin Goodman's pulps and magazines is well known and I've scoured such publications for years looking for hidden treasures that I just "knew" could be found therein. Well this is the result: