Woolfolk Records 1947/06

Quality, Fawcett, and EC bought this month's stories, although EC cancelled Land of the Lost and Animal Fables before they could print these ones. I believe the LOTL one was drawn and the art exists.

June 1947 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

14 pg	Doll Man	joins the underworld
		"DM Joins the Underworld" DM 16, Spr/48
7	Mary Marvel	triton in the tunnel
		"The Triton and the Tunnel" Marvel Family 19, Jan/48
8	Land of the Lost	Red Lantern's wedding
		[unpublished]
9	Freddy Firefly	Dr. Sleepy new building
		[unpublished]
2	Danny Demon	crime student robs teacher
		[unpublished]
9	Captain Marvel	Marvel Family feud
	as Marvel Family	"The Marvel Family Feud" MF 20, Feb/48
7	Ibis	the gargoyle menace
		"Gargoyle Menace" Whiz 94, Feb/48
13	Kid Eternity	man who lived a million years
		"The Man Who Lived a Million Years" Hit 52, May/48
9	Captain Marvel	Mr. Atom and the comet men
		"Mr. Atom and the Comet Men" CM Advs 81, Feb/48
8	Captain Marvel	the lottery tickets murder
		"Lottery of Death" CM Advs 81, Feb/48

The Unknown Star Trek Artist

After Nevio Zeccara drew the first two issues of Gold Key's Star Trek, Alberto Giolitti took over the art. The studio artists who helped him include Massimo Belardinelli, Giorgio Cambiotti, Mario Pedrazzi, Giovanni Ticci, and Angelo Todaro. I can't tell how much the studio artists contributed, although I think I see different finishes on different issues; the inks on #28 are pretty sparse. Saying that Giolitti pencilled a run of issues and Ticci inked them seems oversimplification to me.

The GCD's attributions of some Giolitti issues' inks to Sal Trapani or Alden McWilliams I'd call mistaken. McWilliams took over as regular artist with #40, after doing #38.

The first nine issues used photo covers; then George Wilson provided paintings for most of the rest, with a number of exceptions. #60 and 61 were line drawings by Mike Roy, and working backwards with an eye on his style (such as in Kirk's face), I'd credit him with the painting on #59, and possibly the cover paintings on #47, 48, and 58. There are covers by other artists as well.

#39 is the issue with the forgotten artist. It contains a mixture of his art and the Giolitti studio's, but I think this page flashing back to the Twentieth Century is all his pencils.

The officer in the first panel and the girl on the left of the third are the most obviously José Delbo's.

As far as I can tell, Delbo in the U.S.A. drew everything but the Enterprise crew figures; Giolitti and company in Italy supplied most of those (and all the inks?). On this next page, Spock and Kirk are Giolitti's, but the other figures are, I think, Delbo's pencils.

I may be off on just how the work was divided, but definitely Delbo contributed to Star Trek 39.

In #36 as well, I think I see some Delbo figures here and there, but they're nowhere near as obvious as in 39.

#39's story was written by Arnold Drake; I'll list the uncredited GK ST writers next week.

Woolfolk Records 1947/05

Fawcett, Timely, Quality, and EC bought this month's stories.

The Greek god of mischief in "Skullface" is a statue named Eloc, although Jack Cole neither wrote nor drew this story.

Tales of Terror! by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman says of Moon Girl that "in a 1955 interview, Bill Gaines recalled that Dorothy Rubichek wrote the earliest stories. Rubichek, incidentally, was the wife of long-time Gaines friend William Woolfolk." (The correct spelling is Roubichek.) Moral: approach publishers' and editors' recollections with caution!

Tales of Terror! credits the Land of the Lost story's author as Isabel Manning Hewson. As creator of the radio show, she got a byline on all the stories, like Bob Kane on Batman.

Where did the Blonde Phantom story appear, if it was cut from 12 pages and published after all?

May 1947 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg	Mary Marvel	her first boy friend
		"MM and the Boy Matador" Marvel Family 18, Dec/47
12	Captain America	the Jester
		"The Menace of Mirth" CA 65, Jan/48
11	Doll Man	Darrel Dane, private dick
		"Darrel Dane, Private Detective" Feature 120, Mar/48
6	Ibis	sword of Genghis Khan
		"The Sword of Genghis Khan" Whiz 93, Jan/48
12	Captain America	splits with Bucky
		"When Friends Turn Foes" CA 65, Jan/48
7	Captain Marvel	inferiority complex
		"CM's Inferiority Complex" CM Advs 80, Jan/48
12	Blonde Phantom	innocent girl in gambling racket
		[unpublished?]
11	Doll Man	the Hag's gun running
		"The Hag" Feature 121, Apr/48
6	Hector the Inspector	haunted house
		[unpublished]
8	Land of the Lost	animated pencils
		"The Pencilvania Pirates" LOTL 9, Spr/48
7	Captain Marvel	meets the weatherman
		"The Weathermen" CM Advs 80, Jan/48
15	Plastic Man	Skullface & Greek god of mischief
		"Skullface" Police 77, Apr/48
12	Sub-Mariner	lost atoll of treasure
		"The Lost Atoll" Marvel Mystery 87, Aug/48
8	Moon Girl	champion lady wrestler
		"Introducing MG and the Prince" MG 1, Fall/47
		also in Happy Houlihans 1, Fall/47 and Animal Fables 7, Nov-Dec/47
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	magic ladder
		"The Magic Ladder" CMJ 57, Jan/48

"Till Death Do Us Part" and the Code

As long as I mentioned "Till Death Do Us Part" from Journey into Mystery 15 (Apr/54—pre-Code) and its reprinting in Vault of Evil 4 (Aug/73—under the Comics Code), I wanted to show the art changes demanded by the Code Authority.

There were none.

That is, there were no art changes—but there were changes. Once the captions on this one tier no longer actually described the art, the Code Authority approved.

Personally, I think the new coloring in the car panel is more emphatic about the violence than the original coloring.

The Comics Code must have been pretty tedious to work under—because it wasn't actually codified. There was a list of prohibitions, but the kicker at the end of the list pretty much read, "Oh, and whatever we at the Code feel doesn't measure up to the spirit of the Code." If you wrote or drew or edited with the list of bullet points tacked up over your desk, you still had no idea if your work would get to the printers without arbitrary alterations.

Certainly there was some dreck before the Code, and some really awful dreck outside it and after it. But how many of Dr. Wertham's preteen serial killers did this relettering save us from?

Woolfolk Records 1947/04

These posts present my transcriptions of William Woolfolk's Golden Age comic book script-writing and -selling records from his handwritten notebook. Donna Woolfolk allowed the pages to be scanned by Marc Svensson. Boldface shows my addition of publication data not in the records.

Stories sold this month to Timely, Quality, Fawcett, EC, and Orbit.

I couldn't tell which Babs story went in which issue of Ozzie & Babs. NON-UPDATE: The Babs stories in both #1 and 2 concern department stores!

April 1947 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg	Human Torch	girl runs a trucking line
		"The Hyena Strikes" HT 30, May/48
11	Doll Man	vs. Polka Dot
		"Polka Dot on the Spot" Feature 117, Dec/47
8	Babs	dep't store
		Ozzie & Babs 1, Dec/47 or 2, Mar/48
11	Doll Man	in a sideshow
		"Mr. Skeleton" Feature 118, Jan/48
5	Hector the Inspector	world's dumbest crook
		"HTI Meets the World's Dumbest Crook" Animal Fables 7, Nov-Dec/47
8	Freddy Firefly	Atomic Bug
		"FF versus Atomic Bug" AF 7, Nov-Dec/47
11	Babs	dress contest
		O&B 1, Dec/47 or 2, Mar/48
11	Doll Man	boy who knew all the answers
		"The Boy Who Knew All the Answers" DM 15, Win/47
12	Captain America	versus the Matador
		"Meet the Matador" CA 65, Jan/48
6	Ibis	the Ibistick fails
		"The Ibistick Fails" Whiz 92, Dec/47
7	Captain Marvel	world's worst actor
		"The World's Worst Actor" CM Advs 79, Dec/47
11	Doll Man	transcontinental railroad
		"The Undertaker" DM 15, Win/47
10	Blonde Phantom	sultan of bankrupt country
		"The Sultan Strikes" BP 16, Win/47-48
6	Juvenile Delinquent	Jay Jostyn
		"Jay Jostyn: Radio's Mr. District Attorney" Wanted 9, Sept-Oct/47
7	Captain Marvel	Minerva's true love
		"Minerva's True Love" CM Advs 79, Dec/47
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	wolf of Wall St.
		"The Wolf of Wall Street" CMJ 55, Nov/47
12	Doll Man	man in iron mask
		"The Man in the Iron Mask" DM 15, Win/47
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	city run by machines
		"The City of Machines" Master 86, Dec/47

"Till Death Do Us Part" 1950s Swipes

Marvel reprinted "Till Death Do Us Part" (Journey into Mystery 15, Apr/54), from its Atlas days, in Vault of Evil 4, Aug/73. Artist Vic Carrabotta signed the splash page. A number of years later, when Eclipse reprinted some stories from Standard in Seduction of the Innocent, I felt I recognized a few panels and eventually matched them up with "Till Death." I found another familiar panel in an EC reprint. Carrabotta's panels come first in each pair below:

On the right: "Grip on Life" art by Alex Toth from The Unseen 13, Nov/53.

On the right: "Your Grave Is Ready" art by Ross Andru from The Unseen 9, Mar/53.

On the bottom: "Atom Bomb!" art by Wally Wood, Two-Fisted Tales 33, May-June/53.

(Toth and Andru were inked here by, respectively, Mike Peppe and Mike Esposito, but the pencillers' layouts were what Carrabotta took.) I wonder how many swipes I've missed in this and other Carrabotta stories, when I happened to chance upon just these three source panels.

By the way: "Till Death Do Us Part" opens with a four-panel tier before the splash panel, and at one point someone says "Ow-w-w!" The unsigned writer is Hank Chapman.

Woolfolk Records 1947/03

March 1947's stories sold to Timely, Fawcett, and Quality; and, I'm pretty sure, Orbit—next month, Woolfolk records a better-described crime story that I could narrow down to a specific issue of Wanted, paid at the same rate as this one.

The Mary Marvel story was cut by a page. UPDATE: I posted it as appearing in MARVEL FAMILY 19 until corrected.

March 1947 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

12 pg	Sub-Mariner	ships of all eras
		"Viking's Vengeance" S-M 24, Win/48
12	Captain Marvel	Mr. Atom
		"CM Meets Mr. Atom" CM Advs 78, Nov/47
11	Doll Man	horse race & boy
		"The Sphinx" Feature 115, Oct/47
8	True Detective Mystery	Wanted
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	man who lived forever
		"The Man Who Lived Forever" CMJ 54, Oct/47
12	Human Torch	thief of Bagdad
		"Terror from Baghdad" Mar Mys 84, Oct/47
8	Blonde Phantom	Frankenstein's castle
		"Horror at Haunted Castle" BP 14, Sum/47
11	Doll Man	crime doctor
		"Elbows" Feature 116, Nov/47
11	Captain Marvel Jr.	phantom canoe
		"The Phantom Canoe" CMJ 56, Dec/47
7	Mary Marvel	enchanted forest
6		"MM in the Enchanted Forest" MM 19, Dec/47
9	Marvel Family	curse on Marvels
		"The Marvel Family Curse" MF 17, Nov/47
9	Ibis	man who escaped from Hell
		"Ibis and the Man who Escaped" Whiz 91, Nov/47