Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Woolfolk Records 1952/09

This Magazine Is Haunted 13 -- The Man Who Lost His Head

From William Woolfolk's notebook recording script sales; I've added publication data in bold.

Fawcett and Orbit are his only two publishers again this month. He hasn't been told yet that Captain Marvel Jr.'s book is being cancelled.

September 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

5 pg  The Death Fish an enchanted marlin who hunts fishermen
"Death Fish" This Magazine Is Haunted 14, Dec/53
10  Bill Battle flag of a fighter
"Death Warrant" Bill Battle 4, Apr/53
10  Captain Marvel Jr. country of giant rats
as Captain Marvel "The World of Giant Rats" CM Advs 145, June/53
Captain Marvel Jr. the vampire burglar
as Captain Marvel "CM and the Vampire Burglar" CM Advs 147, Aug/53
Too Smart Killer murderer who traps himself—too clever
"The Too Smart Killer" Wanted 53, Apr/53
Man Who Lost His Head a witch's curse does it
"The Man Who Lost His Head" TMIH 13, Oct/53
Mother Knows Best girl loves radical, has a prim mother
"Don't Change Our Love" Love Diary 35, June/53
10  Captain Marvel Jr. inventions that fail
[unpublished]

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Double Date (Cover Division) with Kathy and Vicki

When Martin Goodman started the new Atlas Comics after having sold Marvel, he wanted books as much like Marvel's as possible. You'd think that would be hard to do with Vicki, which repurposed reprints of Tippy Teen from Tower. But:

Kathy 1 and Vicki 4 covers--kissing booth gag

Kathy 1 (Oct/59) was published by the company going without a cover name between calling itself Atlas and Marvel; Vicki 4 (Aug/75) by Atlas/Seaboard. Both covers were drawn by Stan Goldberg. The question is whether he needed any help for the eight words of dialogue on the Kathy cover if he came up with the situation Marvel-style (as the artist-before-writer method would later be called); on the Vicki one, was he reusing something he'd done all by himself?

Of course in the intervening years at Marvel he could first-hand see Stan Lee recycling story stuff over and over on Millie the Model.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Woolfolk Records 1952/08

Captain Marvel Adventures 146
Fawcett and Orbit buy from William Woolfolk in August. Bill Battle is another try at a new direction for Fawcett, a Korean War Army sergeant. But the end is near for the company's comics line. Note the Captain Marvel Junior stories being turned into Captain Marvel ones after Junior's title finishes with 119.

"The World's Mightiest Circus" seems to be on Otto Binder's records as well as Woolfolk's, judging by his credit for the story in the GCD, but his records were assembled with Jerry Bails after the fact, in the Sixties; his and Jerry Siegel's likewise duplicate each other on some later Superman stories.

"Cult of Blood" was written under the title "Cult of Death" back in April and published under this third name. Woolfolk was paid a lower rate for the rewrite, but that and the original payment added up to quite a bit more than the usual.

August 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

10 pg  Bill Battle meets Iron Pants Crowley—a general as tough as he is
"The Biggest Brass There Is" Master 133, Apr/53
10  Payment in Blood! story of a gangster's moll
"Payment in Blood!" Wanted 52, Feb/53
10  Phantom of Disaster man who sees phantom before disaster strikes
"Phantom of Disaster" This Magazine Is Haunted 10, Apr/53
Captain Marvel Jr. the too lazy genii
"CMJ and the Lazy Genie" CMJ 118, Apr/53
rewrite Cult of Blood 8 pg "Cult of Killers" Wanted 52, Feb/53
Captain Marvel Jr. 4th dimensional elephant
"CMJ and the Fourth Dimensional Elephant" CMJ 119, June/53
Captain Marvel Jr. the superstitious regiment
"CMJ and the Regiment That Was Afraid to Fight" CMJ 119, June/53
Hot Silk! silk hijackers
"Hot Silk" Wanted 52, Feb/53
Captain Marvel Jr. world's greatest circus
as Captain Marvel "CM and the World's Mightiest Circus" CM Advs 146, July/53
Captain Marvel Jr. meets the spider man
as Captain Marvel "CM Fights the Unholy Spider" CM Advs 146, July/53
Captain Marvel Jr. return of the first people
as Captain Marvel "CM Battles Sivana and the First People" CM Advs 146, July/53