Swan/Burnley on Tommy Tomorrow?

The Who's Who's credits for John Fischetti started out as just "Fischetti" on Tommy Tomorrow, if I remember correctly, but now encompass any number of 1950s series at DC--most of them inking Curt Swan, going by the list's matching up with Swan's series there at the time.

These four stories at the end of Swan's run on Tommy Tomorrow look to be inked by someone else with a heavier brush, and I would think it's Ray Burnley, who was inking Swan on Gangbusters and such. Swan/Burnley would soon be the art team on Jimmy Olsen when that title started up in 1954, and for a number of years.

These tiers from Action 167, 170, and 171 showcase faces finished with a heavier line than I see in the earlier Swan TT stories. What do you think?

Edmond Hamilton wrote almost all the Tommy Tomorrow stories from Action 147 to 175 (158 and 172 I don't think are his) and a few after that, so these four are his scripts.

Curt Swan (p)/Ray Burnley (i)
Tommy Tomorrow in Action Comics

Apr/52	167	The Man Who Stopped Space-Flight
May/	168	The Meteor Mystery
Jul/	170	The Great Brain of Space
Aug/	171	The Phantom Space Ship

Bernstein's Last Run on Crime Does Not Pay (and Bonus Artists)

Finishing up Robert Bernstein's scripts for Crime Does Not Pay; the title ended with #147. (It went under the Comics Code with #143.)

But first: while going over the last issues I made a few artist IDs. When I saw Dick Giordano's earliest stuff at Charlton it seemed to me there was a George Evans influence. Sure enough, a Giordano/Vince Alascia job at Lev Gleason has been miscredited in the Grand Comics Database to Evans--"The Fall of the Saturday Night Gang," shown above. Giordano/Alascia have "Unheeded Warning" in the next issue, CDNP 145, correctly attributed to them, and their story in 146, "The Big Mop-Up," is signed.

A few Crime Does Not Pay artists

Apr/55	144	The Fall of the Saturday Night Gang	p: Dick Giordano
			i: Vince Alascia
May/	145	Cornered: The Furious End of Vic Banner	a: Ed Robbins
July/	147	Mighty Rookie	a: Robbins

Crime Does Not Pay Anthology Stories
1953-55
Written by Robert Bernstein

Feb/53	119	Mad Dog Coll, the Mad Gunman
Mar/	120	The Brady Gang
		Cut Rate Murder
May/	122	Set for the Kill
June/	123	Hymie Weiss, Dynamo of Hate
		"Lucky Joe" Masseria, Bullet Dodger
Aug/	125	The Hair-Raising Career of Massacre Mad Frank Nash
Sep/	126	Killers from the Sticks
		Kill-Crazy Fred "Banjo" Blore
Oct/	127	Dead Man's Revenge
Nov/	128	Chuck Dorset's Rage Against Death
Dec/	129	Bill Flint, the Lone Wolf
Mar/54	132	I Beg Your Pardon
June/	135	The Crook Who Set His Own Trap
Sep/	137	Mike "Straw Hat" Vanek and His Steel Coffin
		The Bloody Saga of the Chetter Brothers
Oct/	138	The Scapegoat
Nov/	139	Eyewitness
		Joe Mosdek, the Master Dealer
		A Cop's Last Fight
Feb/55	142	The Vengeful Big "Truck" Brown
		Nickel Fare to Doom

Angel and the Ape Writers--Including Henry Boltinoff

One point makes it easy to tell E. Nelson Bridwell's scripting on DC's Angel and the Ape. Most of the other writers' ape-speak by Sam Simeon is gibberish, but Bridwell's, beginning with #4, is garbled English. In issue #6 the first story, "The Robbing Robot," is credited on the splash page to John Albano (thus I haven't listed it here). "The Ape of 1,000 Disguises" in the same issue is uncredited. Compare the ape-speak, given with translations. The ape-speak in Showcase #77 is garbled English too, but the sound effects confirm the scripting as Howard Post's.

Angel and the Ape #1 confuses me more each time I look. I would have said Post, perhaps, but the ape-speak is now gibberish.

Henry Boltinoff's writing in #7 is easy to spot when he uses the caption "And..." such as he's used in his page-or-two cartoon features like "Jerry the Jitterbug," where brevity counts. He's the best bet for that issue's other one-pagers that I couldn't be positive enough about to enter here.

I can't tell who plotted a story. In the case of Angel and the Ape #2, which I've left off this list too since it's credited, Sergio Aragonés is in those credits as co-scripter with Bob Oksner, presumably plotter as he's listed first. Showcase #77? Supposedly Nelson Bridwell, supposedly Robert Kanigher, supposedly even Al Jaffee. I'd go with Bridwell from the contemporary On the Drawing Board #67 (June 1968) listing.

Writers:
Angel and the Ape in SHOWCASE

Sep/68

#77

Angel and the Ape

Howard Post

ANGEL AND THE APE

Mar-Apr/69	#3	The Curse of the Avarice Clan	E. Nelson Bridwell
May-June/	#4	Remember the Chow Mein	Bridwell
		The Case of Trouble on the Talk Show	Bridwell
		Cheapskater's Waltz	Bridwell
July-Aug/	#5	Pigeon Mob	John Albano
		Hippie, Hippie, Hooray	Albano
Sep-Oct/	#6	The Ape of 1,000 Disguises   (Would You Believe Four?)	Bridwell

MEET ANGEL

Nov-Dec/69	#7	A Busy Little Aunt	Albano
		Suits Me Fine	Henry Boltinoff
		The Case of the "Inside Job"	Boltinoff
		The Case of the Millionaire Cat	Boltinoff

CDNP: More Bernstein, a Little More Wessler

As of 1950 Carl Wessler's personal records are complete enough to name most of his scripts for Crime Does Not Pay at Lev Gleason, so stories are noted as his on the Grand Comics Database. The source is Robin Snyder's Wessler bibilography in The Comics, compiled from those records. Here I have another couple of his where the records didn't give the titles. "The Last Mile for Tony" contains both an "Ohoo" and an "Owooo" to show Wessler wrote it. I haven't found any Wessler stories on CDNP after mid-'51 that he didn't fully record.

The GCD wonders if "The Rabbit-Punch Murder Case" could be the 9-page 1951 script for Chip Gardner that Wessler records without a title. Here is an example of why I attribute it to Robert Bernstein: "Ieee!"

Crime Does Not Pay Anthology Stories
1951-52
Written by Robert Bernstein

Feb/51	95	Having a Wonderful Crime
May/	98	Shock Treatment
July/	100	The Smell of Death
		Mission: Murder
Aug/	101	Cain versus Abel
		The Case of the Crooked Politician [CHIP GARDNER]
Oct/	103	The Rabbit-Punch Murder Case [CHIP GARDNER]
		The Fruits of Crime
Dec/	105	The Big Cut
Feb/52	107	You Can't Beat the Rackets!
		The State versus "Rock" Madden
Mar/	108	Jim Franton, Bootlegger, versus Bud Rollins, Con-Man
Apr/	109	The Vicious Vendetta Massacre
May/	110	Journey into Horror
		Bootleg "Gold"
July/	112	The Tragic Tale of "Sap" Doretti  (art: Sid Greene)
Oct/	115	Trapped by the Dead
Dec/	117	The End of the Underworld

Written by Carl Wessler

Apr/51	97	The Last Mile for Tony
June/	99	Reprieve Granted--Prisoner Is Dead

Andru & Esposito? (I've Burned Myself on IDing Them Earlier)

I let myself see Ross Andru and Mike Esposito on Dell's Monkees #1 but at least after "Lee" and Mark Evanier correctly suggested Mo Marcus, that led me to more Marcus IDs elsewhere. If anyone has a better idea on this funny animal art than Andru and Esposito, I'd be gratified to hear it.

"Outboxed the Boxer," the first story in Tom Cat #4, April/56--the first issue; yes, Charlton, why do you ask?--is drawn in a style not used in the other stories in that issue or the rest of the 5-issue run. The later issues are by Al Fago, who signs a cover and a story, and perhaps other artists in his style.

With the wildly different, comparatively "realistic" style of this first story, I'd think that it was another one of those examples of Charlton's buying up the inventory of a defunct company, but the writer, whoever it may be--"Ngaaa!" and Kurrash--continues on the feature throughout the run.

I'm guessing Andru and Esposito more by the inks than the pencils. Although this is a comical comic book, the figures aren't in the industry-wide "make it look like Mad but not anything actually like the Mad artists" style that Andru used on Get Lost.

Robert Bernstein Continues on Crime Does Not Pay

Here's Robert Bernstein's next couple of years writing for Crime Does Not Pay for Lev Gleason. I hadn't convinced myself of his writing the Who Dunnit? story in #70 when I did the first list.

CDNP closes out 1950 with #94, but I don't see Bernstein work in those last issues of the year.

As I was looking for Bernstein stories I found a couple by Carl Wessler that didn't get to the CGD from his records. In this tier from "Jack Rosca," note the exclamation that I haven't seen Robert Bernstein ever use.

Crime Does Not Pay Anthology Stories
1949-50
Written by Robert Bernstein

Dec/48	70	Who Dunnit?
Jan/49	71	Hank Charters
Feb/	72	Craig Denby, the Movie-Struck Egomaniac
		Andy Yole
Mar/	73	Dennis Mayhew and Everett Johns
May/	75	Who Dunnit?
June/	76	Clarence Reese, the Hero-Worshipper
		Who Dunnit?
July/	77	Sheriff Ted Benton
Aug/	78	Who Dunnit?
Sep/	79	Spike Spitz
		Who Dunnit?
		Frankie Darrell vs. Lieutenant Jim Scott
Oct/	80	Vince Grey
		The Black Panther Murder Case [WHO DUNNIT?]
Dec/	82	Death in the Hobo Jungle
		Who Dunnit?
Jan/50	83	The Long Manhunt for Les Voyles
Feb/	84	Who Dunnit?
Mar/	85	Police Teamwork and 3 Blind Rats
		Confessions of a Racketeer's Widow
Aug/	90	Over My Dead Body!
		Unexpected Guest
Sep/	91	Murder Plays Hide-and-Seek

Written by Carl Wessler

Sep/49	79	Jack Roscar
Feb/50	84	Death House Blues

Ken Fitch Writes Tony Gay

The early 50s company Star is best known for its covers by co-owner L. B. Cole. On the insides it made do with a lot of reprint material from various publishers, most notably Novelty, from whom it continued some titles and characters. Teen-age model Toni Gay, for instance, is a continuation of Novelty's Toni Gayle girl detective strip.

Star's romance and teen-age books did contain some original material, and every so often in the romance titles Ken Fitch got a scripting credit. So I knew to look for him at Star, and I found him on at least the first two Toni Gay stories. This tier from "The Hoaxed Hoax" shows not only his typical "Aiy-y-y-y-y-y" but the "Eeeeeee" found in some of his romance stories. The artist is Norman Nodel.

On many of the stories in the other strips in School-Day Romances/Popular Teen-Agers--Ginger Snapp/Ginger Bunn/Honey Bunn, Midge Martin, and Eve Adams--I find one writer whom I can't identify who uses the expression "Sufferin' Susie" often.

Ken Fitch Scripts on Toni Gay
in School-Day Romances

Nov-Dec/49	1	The Hoaxed Hoax
Jan-Feb/50	2	Mixed Pix