Wednesday, May 27, 2015

She Knows What Evil Lurks


I couldn't say who painted the Private Detective Stories May 1941 cover. Three artists at Trojan around this time that I can name are H. J. Ward, Harry Parkhurst, and Allen Anderson.

The cover of the 1977 paperback edition of Charg, Monster is, of course, by Jim Steranko.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Joe Orlando's Girls' Love Stories' Creators

Girls's Love Stories 152 'Laura'

I chose a DC romance comic's run edited by Joe Orlando because he used one writer I can recognize at a glance paging through the comics: Jack Oleck. Another writer surprised me, although he's known to have worked for Orlando in 1969 on House of Mystery—see GLS 146 on the list.

As far as artists go—with the inkers striving to make everything look alike, you could ask ten people and get ten opinions, but here are mine. I will point out that "Laura" in #152 has been attributed to Art Saaf by his son, Steve Saaf per the CGD, but the evidence of the art itself shows that, under Jack Abel's inks, the pencils are by Werner Roth (above). On the other hand, Art Saaf's pencils under Colletta on "The Cheat" in #153 (below) have gone unattributed. "He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not" in #144 mostly looks like Roth, but on page five I see one panel with a close-up I'd otherwise credit to Saaf.


With the new stories hard enough to ID, I've left out the reprints with their slapdash updating obscuring things even further.

Note that the name in the #144 story is not Margaret but Margret; it took me a while to actually see that. I haven't seen issues 148, 154, or 156—romance comics not having been collected as assiduously as superhero ones, there aren't any uninterrupted runs of the DC titles that I can find.

UPDATE: I've added corrections (in bold) from Robin Snyder and SangorShop taken from Joe Orlando's payment records. See the new post for the additions of features like the text pages. Nothing more than the surname Scruggs is known about the artist in #155; a possibility would be Wilson Scruggs of the syndicated strip "The Story of Martha Wayne" (1953-1962).

Girls' Love Stories edited by Joe Orlando

Apr/69 142  Thrill-Chick w: ?  p: Jim Aparo  i: Bill Draut
So Long in Love w: ?  p: Win Mortimer
  i: Nick Cardy
What Should I Do? w: ?  p: Mortimer  i: Cardy
May/     143  Love Today--Cry Tomorrow w: Robert Kanigher
  p: Mortimer  i: Wally Wood
Only Love Can Create w: ?  a: Ernie Colón
Cindy w: ?  p: Mortimer  i: Cardy
Jul/      144  Can Love Last Forever? w: ?  a: John Rosenberger
He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not w: ?  a: Vince Colletta
Memory of Margret w: ?  p: Ric Estrada  i: Colletta
Aug/      145  Tears for Tomorrow w: ?  p: Estrada
  i: George Roussos
My Secret w: John Albano  p: Jay Scott   Pike  i: Colletta
Oct/      146  Abandoned w: ?  p: Tony Abruzzo
  i: Mike Peppe
Which Love Is Mine? w: Otto Binder  a: Rosenberger
Nov/     147  Confessions w: Barbara Friedlander
  a: Rosenberger
The Ugliest Girl in the World w: Friedlander  p: Mortimer
  i: Jack Abel
Will the Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up? w: Jack Miller  p: Estrada
  i: Colletta
Feb/70 149  Forbidden Love w: Friedlander  p: Estrada  i: Abel
For Better or Worse w: Jack Oleck  p: Roth
  i: Colletta
...But Only in My Dreams w: Kanigher  a: Liz Berube
Confessions: Episode Three w: Friedlander
  a: Rosenberger
Apr/     150  Confessions: Episode #4 w: Friedlander
  a: Rosenberger
Her Secret Shame w: ?  a: Abruzzo
  i: Cardy
Wallflower w: Oleck  p: Roth  i: Wood   (some Murphy Anderson?)
May/     151  The Wrong Kind of Love w: Miller  p: Pike  i: Colletta
Love Thief w: Miller  p: Roth  i: Abel
Confessions: Episode 5 w: Friedlander
  a: Rosenberger
July/     152  Laura w: Friedlander
  p: Roth  i: Abel
Confessions: Episode Six w: Friedlander
  a: Rosenberger
The Prettiest Girl in Town, Poor Thing w: Miller  a: George Tuska
Aug/     153  For Love or Money w: Oleck  a: Tony DeZuñiga
The Engagement Ring w: Oleck  a: Don Heck
The Cheat w: Oleck  p: Saaf  i: Colletta
The 3 Faces of Love w: Miller  p: Mike Sekowsky
  i: Dick Giordano
Nov/     155  Will No One Trust Me Again? w: Miller  p: John Calnan
  i: Joe Giella
Scrapbook of Tears w: Friedlander  p: Scruggs  i: Colletta
Feb/71 157  One Husband, Two Loves w: George Kashdan  p: Roth  i: Calnan?
Love Thy Neighbor w: Oleck  a: Saaf
Uptight (cheaters) w: Henry Boltinoff  a: Lee Elias
Uptight (wolf) w: Boltinoff  p: Mortimer  i: Abel
Anatomy of a Romance w: Friedlander  p: Estrada
  i:
DeZuñiga

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Would You Believe Alan Riefe?

Get Smart 5 Quilt While Ahead
I had no idea Alan Riefe wrote for Dell, but the style on Get Smart #3-7 seemed familiar to me what with sound effects like Ker-blammo; finally the penny dropped when it reminded me of Riefe's run on Jerry Lewis at DC and I compared lists.

Riefe goes on to write for paperbacks in the Seventies, some under his own name, some under pseudonyms, and some under house names, on detective and Western series. One earlier comics-related credit is as sole writer on one of those magazines adding funny speech balloons to news and Hollywood photos, 1964-65's three-issue Talking Pictures.

Issues 1-4 are full-length stories. "Quilt While Ahead" is a pun on "Quit While Ahead"; the latter is not the actual title. Dick Giordano is ghosting the pencils on Get Smart 1; Sal Trapani takes the sole signature in the run on that issue (two times if you count #8's reprint). Tony Tallarico does no work on Get Smart.

GET SMART

June/66 #1  The Hairless Hound Caper w: ?  p: Dick Giordano
  i: Sal Trapani
Sept/     #2  The Dumb Bunny w: ?  p: Steve Ditko
  i: Trapani
Nov/     #3  The Nuclear Gumball Caper w: Alan Riefe  p: Ditko
  i: Trapani
Jan/67 #4  The Great Baseball Caper w: Riefe  a: Henry Scarpelli
Mar/     #5  The Great Fly Caper w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
Quilt While Ahead w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
The Double Purpose Porpoise Caper w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
Apr/     #6  The Kookie Kanine Kaper w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
The Captured Copter Caper w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
The Screwball Scooter Caper w: Riefe  a Scarpelli
Aug/     #7  The 4000 Year Old Man Kaper w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
The Airborne Bathysphere Caper w: Riefe  a: Scarpelli
The Infiltration Caper w: Riefe  a Scarpelli

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Who Expected This Artist Here?

Two stories among the Dick Giordano/Vince Colletta ones at early-Sixties Timely-Atlas-Marvel have probably passed as Giordano's pencil work because like his they whisper "Charlton" to the reader's subconscious. For comparison with "No Dates for the Dance," the bottom tier with a typical pose is from the latter company's The Young Doctors 1 (Jan/63), inked by Vince Alascia.


Charles Nicholas otherwise last worked for Timely in the Forties. I don't know if you'd actually call this ghosting for Colletta, considering Dick Giordano got to sign some of his stories in the run. But I doubt editor Stan Lee directly poached Nicholas here. As Mark Evanier has pointed out (concerning Joe Orlando's bringing in Jerry Grandenetti's work), editors were probably just as happy to trust some artists like Orlando and Colletta to do all the work of subcontracting the pencils.

Charles Nicholas pencils, Vince Colletta inks

Love Romances


Sep/60 89  No Dates for the Dance

Teen-Age Romance

Sep/60 77  The Mistake of Mary Dixon