Friday, April 17, 2020

From the Burt Frohman Collection

As a writer Burt Frohman (he was an artist earlier) kept records by filing away his comic-book scripts with copies of the issues they were published in. The Who's Who lists some issue numbers like Strange Tales 22 and Uncanny Tales 12 at Atlas; the Grand Comics Database gives the specific stories for those issues--respectively "What Happened on the Moon?" and "Dead End." The info in both the WW and GCD comes from Frank Motler, who cites the actual comics and scripts from the Frohman collection.

ST 22--'Minutes passed into hours...hours into days'; MA 23--'Seconds ticked away into minutes...minutes into hours'

Among the issues listed in the Who's Who are Atlas's Men's Adventures 22 and 23. Going by "What Happened on the Moon?" (first tier) I was able to pick out one of the MA stories. Compare the captions. I couldn't find a story of his in #22, and wonder if his contribution is the text piece, inasmuch as he did them as well as full-length stories and single-page featurettes--see below.

Scripted by Burt Frohman

Men's Adventures


Sep/53 #23  The Wrong Body

The Burt Frohman collection having been sold off, some comics in it have shown up online, and the scripts included are a part of the cachet, so some pages of them are shown too. davet75 has posted purchases on this message board--scroll down to the Hand of Fate cover. The Indian Braves issues are on eBay; the auction for #1 mentions three scripts but only gives photos of  two.

These series are both from Ace. Editor Alan Sulman changed Frohman's titles, and in fact changed the name of the series hero in the first story in Indian Braves from Lone Eagle to Green Arrowhead; Frohman then used that name in the script for #2.

Scripts Seen Online from the
Burt Frohman Collection

The Hand of Fate


Feb/52 #9  It Is Written: I Die Tomorrow!
Apr/     #10  Bride of the Golden Skull

Indian Braves

Mar/51 #1  Trader in Death
The American Indian: His Customs
[and a third piece in the issue]
May/     #2  Retribution for a Renegade
The American Indian: His Customs #3
The Flaming Stallion [TEXT]

2 comments:

  1. Martin, I just saw this post. I have several of Burt's scripts from that collection, including "The Wrong Body", I believe. Frank Motler may have received the data during a discussion we were having on the old Timely/Atlas list. I have several of his romance and teen scripts also, memory tells me. Anything I can offer?

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  2. Doc, always interested in any rock-solid writer's credits like the scripts themselves.

    I just now, with your comment reminding me of it, tracked down a Frohman script that's been stumping me for a while. The note to the artist stapled to the corner obscured most of the recipient and the title. (It turns out it's not an Atlas assignment.) That gives me my next post!

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