Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Woolfolk Records Update 5

Captain Marvel Advs 68 cover
This Captain Marvel story was easy enough to track down—the problem was that I missed posting it to begin with. Three Cap stories in a row in the notebook looked like two, I guess, until I happened to look at the scan again much later and didn't remember dealing with this story.

I haven't seen the issue, but this seems the only place where the Moon Girl story could fit. International Comics didn't even occur to me as a Moon Girl venue when I posted; this was her only appearance in the title.

Readers helped find two of these: darkmark tracked down the Captain Midnight story after I posted it as unknown. SangorShop found the conspiracy of Pontiac story very shortly after I posted; it was reworked to 12 pages in publication, from 15 in script form.

The companies are Fawcett, EC, and Orbit.

May 1945
8 pg  Captain Midnight tunnel of terror
    "Tunnel of Terror" Capt Mid 39, Apr/46
November 1945
Captain Marvel visits Balt. & boy violin prodigy
    "CM Visits Baltimore" CM Advs 68, Dec/46
August 1947
Moon Girl man lives beyond death
    "Beauty and the Beast" International 6, Spr/48
January 1948
15  Western Outlaw conspiracy of Pontiac
12    "The Fighting Westerner" The Westerner 15, Aug/48

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Kirby Analyzes Your Dreams

Strange World of Your Dreams 1--Julie Pendleton
 
The Strange World of Your Dreams is a short-lived companion to Black Magic from Prize; Simon & Kirby are doing romance and crime comics for the company at this time as well. Dream analysis is an esoteric subject indeed (and in my opinion, the longer pieces here that use it in story plots work better than the short analysis-only ones.)

Jack Kirby's distinctive writing style is a little subtler than it will be twenty years in the future, but there's no mistaking him on most of these stories. There are few quoted words, but there are some. He emphasizes words that other writers probably would not, but at this point in his career most notably he emphasize entire sentences—generally final ones in long captions.

In the tiers comparing "Send Us Your Dreams [Julie Pendleton]" (SWOYD 1) and "X-Pit" (Mister Miracle 2, May-June/71, DC), note the triples: It was strange! Unexpected! Humiliating!; Explosion! Shock! Flame! Those were what made me take these as examples, but then I noticed these commas after conjunctions: "And, I thought I liked her!"; Then, the panic of aftermath!

SWOYD 1 tier and Mister Miracle 2 tier
 
If other writers submitted scripts rewritten by Kirby, or coplotted, I don't see any way of telling. Jack Oleck had some scripts published without rewriting at Prize (easier to find in Black Magic); Kirby doesn't script all the S&K stories, just the great majority—other artists' as well as the ones he draws. I'll emphasize that I'm IDing only the final script as used in the comic book.

On the art side, it would take a better eye than mine to point out specifics of Joe Simon's work, if any, here. I'm not very sure of the inks on Kirby's pencils or on Mort Meskin's, but I wonder if George Roussos inks a number of stories.

“The Dreaming Tower” in #1 takes H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Outsider” (uncredited) and makes a rather different story out of it; Lovecraft’s shock ending becomes a throwaway plot point on the comic book story’s second-to-last page.

The Strange World of Your Dreams


Aug/52 #1  I Talked with My Dead Wife w: Jack Kirby  p: Kirby
    You Sent Us This Dream [unnamed] w: Kirby  p: Mort Meskin
    Don't Wake the Sleeper w: Kirby  a: Bill Draut
    Send Us Your Dreams [Julie Pendleton] w: Kirby  p: Kirby
    The Dreaming Tower w: Kirby  p: Meskin
S-O/    #2  The Girl in the Grave w: Kirby  p: Kirby
    You Sent Us This Dream [Betty L.] w: Kirby  a: Bob McCarty
    You Sent Us This Dream [Ellen K.] w: Kirby  p: Kirby
    I Lived 200 Years Ago w: Kirby  p: Meskin
    Send Us Your Dreams [Walter W.] w: Kirby  p: Kirby
    A Dream Saved His Life w: Kirby  a: ?
N-D/    #3  The Woman in the Tower w: Kirby  p: Kirby
    Send Us Your Dreams [Edith Beck] w: Kirby  a: Draut
    Edge of Madness w: Kirby  p: Meskin
    You Sent Us This Dream [Patricia S.] w: Kirby  a: George Roussos
    You Sent Us This Dream [Thomas R.] w: Kirby  p: Kirby  i: Roussos?
    You Sent Us This Dream [John W.] w: Kirby  a: McCarty
J-F/53  #4  Show Us Your Face w: Kirby  p: Meskin
    The Moon and You * w: Jack Oleck?  a: McCarty
    Romance in the Stars * w: ? a: McCarty
    Send Us Your Dreams [many readers] w: Kirby  a: ?
    The Skeleton in Your Closet * w: ? a: McCarty
    You Sent Us This Dream [Paul R.] w: Kirby?  a: ?
    4L-523 w: Oleck?  a: ?
         * Special Horoscope Featurette

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Woolfolk Records 1948/08

William Woolfolk's publishers this month: Orbit, Fawcett, and Quality.

There are two 2-page features indexed in Wanted 18 (I haven't seen the issue)—which of the two is Woolfolk's is anybody's guess.

UPDATE: see darkmark's comment—he found the Monte Hale

Hit 59 cover--Kid Eternity

August 1948 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

15 pg  Death Rides the Silver Trail
14  as Wild Bill Pecos "Death Rides the Silver Trail" The Westerner 18, Feb/49
Ibis Gog and Magog at peace conference
"The Menace of Gog and Magog" Whiz 108, Apr/49
11  Doll Man Darrel Dane gets amnesia
"The Doll Man Loses His Identity" Feature 132, Mar/49
Monte Hale man who hated Indians
"The Man Who Hated Indians" MH Western 35, Apr/49
Captain Marvel god of chance intervenes against Marvel
"CM's Long Chance" CM Advs 95, Apr/49
13  Kid Eternity man gets tomorrow's newspaper
"Tomorrow's Crimes Today" Hit 59, July/49
15  Dead Man's Street 14 pg "Dead Man's Street" Wanted 18, Feb/49
Wanted feature Wanted 18, Feb/49

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Tales of the Greene Freighter

Although in the real world, unlike in Watchmen, superhero comics were not completely replaced by pirate comics, a few publishers did test those waters. Quality's Buccaneers took over the numbering of Kid Eternity with issue 19 and lasted to 27.

Some of Sid Greene's work at Quality has been noted—the Inspector Denver story in Police 104, a romance story here and there—but his only series here that I know of is the second half of Eric Falcon's run in Buccaneers. Falcon was a soldier of fortune in Colonial times; not every adventure involved pirates.

Other artists work on the series in Buccaneers 19-23 before Greene comes aboard. He most likely inks himself in 25 and 26; I didn't even recognize the story in 24 as his until I looked over the series again before writing this post.

Buccaneers 25 Eric Falcon page tiers

Eric Falcon stories drawn by Sid Greene in Buccaneers

Nov/50 #24  An Empire of Pirates w: ?
Jan/51 #25  The Surrender of Eric Falcon w: ? 
Mar/     #26  Bloody Fingers of Fate w: Joe Millard
May/     #27  The Code of Treachery w: ?