tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post5433042246172237584..comments2023-10-23T12:09:24.592-07:00Comments on Timely-Atlas-Comics: Best WesternDoc V.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06815470072568462626noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-32180355842095710022012-04-17T10:57:05.567-07:002012-04-17T10:57:05.567-07:00Actually, I'll revise that comment. Goodman di...Actually, I'll revise that comment. Goodman did in fact reprint from other sources and got in trouble for it. More details on this to be found in my upcoming book The Secret History of Marvel Comics.<br /><br />http://timely-atlas-comics.blogspot.com/2011/11/surprise-announcement.htmlDoc V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06815470072568462626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-63227968701535225182011-12-20T18:54:12.278-08:002011-12-20T18:54:12.278-08:00Ger, I've a bit more information about FOCUS. ...Ger, I've a bit more information about FOCUS. There seems to have been two different incarnations of the magazine. The first version had Stan Lee as editor. I have Vol 1 #3 (Aug/50) and Vol 1, #4 (Oct/50). These are large bed-sheet sized magazines priced at 25 cents and appears to have been a bi-monthly.<br /><br />I don't know how many issues got out but then there was another Vol 1, #1 (Aug/51) that began as a monthly and then by Vol 3, #8 (June 24, 1953) it became a bi-weekly!<br /><br />This second version was a tiny pocket-sized publication priced at 10 cents. The first 3 issues had no editor listed but then by Vol 1, #4 (Nov/51) Arnold Hano was the editor. By Vol 3, #6 (June/53), the last monthly issue before the change to bi-weekly, James A. Bryans becomes the editor, down from being "Executive Editor" on the masthead the issue before. Again, I'm not sure how long this version lasted, but the latest issue I have is Vol 4, #4 (Feb 17, 1954).Doc V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06815470072568462626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-85230588879822247752011-12-11T15:42:00.580-08:002011-12-11T15:42:00.580-08:00Ger, I've indexed the contents to about 200 Go...Ger, I've indexed the contents to about 200 Goodman pulps so far and not come across and pseudonyms that struck me as by Stan Lee. I've seen him twice in MALE HOME COMPANION (was there ever a second issue? I've never been able to find one!)and also in READ!, both early 1940's publications, but nowhere else. I've heard the same rumor but he never provided examples or corroboration. Just a proclamation, which is not good enough for me.<br /><br />Stan Lee did edit FOCUS MAGAZINE for a time. I know for a certainty he was editor in 1950 but beyond that I don't know any more exact particulars.<br /><br />The Goodman men's sweat magazines and the Humorama digests have already been covered in detail in other recent books. We're shying away from them for this reason. I don't want to waste time duplicating the efforts of others. I'd like to cover the TV magazines but space will be the limiting factor. My real passion is the pulp and detective magazines. There are a lot of Timely era artists who moonlighted in them and the goal is to shed light on this!Doc V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06815470072568462626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-47571007325477212412011-12-11T15:22:32.130-08:002011-12-11T15:22:32.130-08:00HemlockMan, the Timely era of 1949 is not a good p...HemlockMan, the Timely era of 1949 is not a good period to judge the quality of the comic artwork. These stories were done in a shop-like setting, frequently as jam jobs among staffers, with a separation between pencil and ink duties among the artists. It's probably the period of the worst Timely comic art of all time, interesting to me solely as a study in unraveling "who" was actually there and doing "what". <br /><br />Very shortly after this the staff is fired and all the artwork is done freelance, with the result being the quality greatly increases as artists pencil and ink much of their own work. Look at the difference between Everett's Timely romance work and his pre-code horror and Venus work just a short year or two after.<br /><br />Krigstein's work for Atlas suffered from the fact that the stories themselves were absolutely dreadful. The Atlas writers could not get a handle on what to do in the post-code period and the materuial actually got worse as 1955 reached 1957. Krigstein's sole saving grace on these stories was his wonderful experimentation in layouts and panel breakdowns, sometimes taking a drab 4-page story and breaking down a page into slivers of 20 or more panels!Doc V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06815470072568462626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-31534013217339442852011-12-11T15:13:11.256-08:002011-12-11T15:13:11.256-08:00Duane, The first BEST WESTERN pulp issue was all n...Duane, The first BEST WESTERN pulp issue was all new. I don't think Goodman began to reprint, outside of re-using a tiny handful of covers, until the mid 1950's.Doc V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06815470072568462626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-58608998491252629972011-12-11T07:16:10.781-08:002011-12-11T07:16:10.781-08:00It won't come as a surprise that my main quest...It won't come as a surprise that my main question after this magnificent piece conserns Stan Lee. I have long wondered if some of the pseudonyms he mentions using in several interviews would turn up in the pulps. I mean, one of the names he mentions, Neel Nats does turn up on some of his strips. But the others, S. T. Anly and Stan Martin I have never run across. Combined with Mark Fldman's believe that Stan did western stories in the late forties, makes me wonder and hope they ould turn up there. I guess there is no such luck, as you would have mentioned it.<br /><br />On a similar track, I was surprised to find in the recent Stan Lee Universe book that he edited someissues of Foucs. Most of them (as far as I can see from the scanned contents pages on some e-bay sellers offerings) were edited by a guy called Hanlo (the guy who 'stole' Hank Chapman's wife Bonnie). But how many of the five year run of that magazine did Stan Lee edit? And what dit that entail? I hope you will reach the later years of Martin Goodsman's publishing empire and cover magazines such as Focus, Brief, TV People and of course the Humorama line. And what was the connection between Joker the magazine and Joker the comic book?Ger Apeldoornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03633862833036214748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-27052751704299257332011-12-11T04:36:39.053-08:002011-12-11T04:36:39.053-08:00I love the fact that there are guys like you willi...I love the fact that there are guys like you willing to devote so much time and effort into tracking down the causes of the weird numbering systems that were seemingly planted on various comic book titles. Making sense of what seems like so much arbitrary numbering.<br /><br />I'm also impressed with the difference in quality between the comic book art and the pulp art. Both forms held roughly the same position in the mind of the general public: trash. However, pulp covers and pulp interior art when viewed as a whole is far superior in execution, form, and just general artistic value than that of the same in comics. Is it that pulp artists were paid more for their cover and interior work than comic artists, and just willing to put as much effort into the work?<br /><br />It's well known that Bernie Krigstein would not bother to put the effort into work for Goodman that he did for Gaines for the simple reason that Gaines paid so much more. Maybe pulp artists were working on the same bit of reasoning.James Robert Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17281049641681225389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-53871540610702516012011-12-10T13:31:13.380-08:002011-12-10T13:31:13.380-08:00Excellent.
The first cover scan of the Best Weste...Excellent.<br /><br />The first cover scan of the Best Western magazine--was this a reprint mag, or were all the stories new?Duane Spurlockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06102074370101800708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7355407830694029222.post-33185210493845831452011-12-10T09:36:16.909-08:002011-12-10T09:36:16.909-08:00Fascinating narrative -- thanks for piecing this t...Fascinating narrative -- thanks for piecing this together.<br />Mike Wardmagscannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01753073251415624414noreply@blogger.com