Dale Evans Writer: Joe Millard

That Joe Millard was the first writer on Sierra Smith back-ups in Dale Evans (see previous post) leads to the fact that he was the first writer on Dale Evans herself. Some quirks shared among the Dale stories and the Sierra story in #1 are "Ulp," "Owoooff," and "Eeeow." "Ub-blub" or a variation is used in both strips (as well as many at Quality)—as shown here from the Sierra story in Dale Evans 7 and her own story, the first  in Dale 4. (I included part of the next panel in the Dale Evans story to show Dale herself, although in long shot and from the back, in the crane cab.) Alex Toth art on Sierra and Jay McArdle art on Dale.

A few decades after Dale Evans Comics was published, Ryerson Johnson recalled that he had written the strip, and thought that he had written the first appearance of the character Uncle Six. But the wheelchair-riding retired sheriff appears in the first story in the first issue, written in Joe Millard's style.

I had thought that the stories identified below with a question mark were Johnson's; they all seemed to match up with the style in some Wyoming Kid stories, another series he worked on. But in Robin Snyder's History of Comics, (Aug/90), the bibiography of Phil Evans' comics work shows stories (no title given) in Dale Evans 8 and 9.

Paul Talbot, in a letter to Grand Comics Database co-founder Bob Klein, recalled writing Dale Evans as well; there does seem to be at least one more writer alongside "?" after Millard leaves. I hope to sort this out in the future!

The comic lasted until #24 (July-Aug/52).

Dale Evans written by Millard and others

S-O/48	#1	Secret of Ghost Town Greed	Millard
		'Readin', Robbin' and Six-Gun 'Rithmetic	Millard
		The Spirit of Annie Oakley	Millard
N-D/	#2	Roughneck Romeos	Millard
		The Evil Eye of Eagle Eye	Millard
		The Rodeo Rat	Millard
J-F/49	#3	Diamonds Ain't Hay	Millard
		The Two-Ton Crime Wave	Millard
		The River of Never-Return	Millard
M-A/	#4	Phantom of Cactus Canyon	Millard
		Mere Slip of the Gun	Millard
		A Dead Man's Life	Millard
M-J/	#5	The Thin Air Disappearances	Millard
		Those Deadly Dreams	Millard
		Dale Evans of the Pony Express	Millard
J-A/	#6	The Horse-Thief Catcher	Millard
		The Alibi Bullet	?
		Riot at Roughhouse Rancho	Millard
S-O/	#7	The Belles of Buffalo Wallow	?
		City of Dreadful Dust	Millard
		Canyon of Disaster	Millard
N-D/	#8	Gobblers and Gold Dust	Millard
		The East Goes West	?
		Oil Is Where You Find It	?
J-F/50	#9	The Ship of the Desert	?
		On the Merry-Go-Round	?
		The Money Tree	?
M-A/	#10	Dale Evans...Mining Engineer	?
		The Senator Goes West	?
		The Prince of Bangistan	Millard
M-J/	#11	Talent Scout for Danger	?
		Bullets and Balloons	?
		The Snow Broncos of Pride Mountain	?
J-A/	#12	The Horse That Forgot to Remember	?
		The State Fair Fraud	Millard
		Fancy Footwork	Millard

Sierra Smith Writer: Joe Millard

Joe Millard was credited with the first Sierra Smith story's script in the reprint in Detective 418 (Dec/71). The style matches up with stories at Fawcett and Quality, most notably the latter company's detective strips like Ken Shannon and T-Man. Pictured are the use of "Ooooo" in both Sierra Smith in Dale Evans 3 and Ken Shannon in Police 104 (Feb/51), and "gumfoot" (for gumshoe) in Sierra in Dale 5 and T-Man in Police 104. Other Millard quirks in the series are "Ulp" in almost every story, "Eeeahh," and "Owoooff."

Coincidentally or not, Alex Toth left Sierra Smith at the same time as Millard; the strip continued (under others including artist Al Ulmer) for the run of the comic, missing #20 and the final issue, #24, as the page count dropped. The Detective reprint credits Frank Giacoia as inker on the first Sierra; some more Sierra stories signed solely by Toth may be inked by others as well.

Although this list merely confirms guesses at the authorship of the Sierra Smith series beyond the first story, it leads into my next post on another Joe Millard series.

Sierra Smith, Western Detective in Dale Evans Comics
written by Joe Millard, pencilled by Alex Toth

S-O/48	#1	The Case of the Terrified Tenderfoot
N-D/	#2	The Case of the Battered Balloonist
J-F/49	#3	The Case of the Perfumed Plunder
M-A/	#4	The Case of the Outlawed Outlaw
M-J/	#5	The Case of the Forgotten Stagecoach
J-A/	#6	Case of the Colossal Fossil
S-O/	#7	Case of the Teetering Tower
N-D/	#8	The Case of the Five-Cent Fortune
J-F/50	#9	The Case of the Haunted Horse
M-A/	#10	The Case of the Oily Worm
M-J/	#11	The Case of the Furious Fiddler

Gil Kane and a Tiny Titan--1948

I'm told it's not news that Gil Kane drew Doll Man, over a decade before he drew the Atom. But I'll say, as I've said about others in earlier posts, that I haven't seen his credit on the Internet for a particular story, in this case "The Noose" in Doll Man 19 (Nov/48). The scripter is William Woolfolk.

In articles about the creation of the Atom, I've seen Doll Man mentioned as an inspiration, but the interviews I've seen haven't mentioned that Kane once drew the character. (So far I haven't run across a second time.)

It looks like the Doll Man figures have been heavily inked or even redrawn to bring them more closely into line with the Quality house style. Think of Jack Kirby's Superman and Olsen faces "corrected" by publisher's decree in his first issues of Jimmy Olsen; Kirby is still credited as penciller. The above page is where Kane's work shows through on most of the figures; on other pages Doll Man is not the only one unrecognizable as being by Kane. The Noose himself is almost always very obviously Kane's.

Writers: Batman 151-163

This is the Batman run that ends when the New Look takes over in #164.

One difference between Bill Finger and Dave Wood in a number of their scripts is that Finger calls Batman the caped crime-fighter and Wood calls him the cowled crime-fighter. Another is that Finger does not use "Great gosh" or "Great grief" as Wood does.

The art on these stories is by Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris, with one exception: Moldoff inks himself on "Bat-Girl—Batwoman II" in #163 (one of Alfred's imaginary stories of the future).

Batman 151-163 Writers

Nov/62	151	Batman's New Secret Identity	Bill Finger
		The Mystery Gadget from the Stars	Jerry Coleman
Dec/	152	Formula for Doom	Finger
		The False Face Society	Finger
		Memorial to an Astronaut	Finger
Feb/63	153	Prisoners of Three Worlds	Finger
Mar/	154	Danger Strikes Four	Finger
		The Amazing Odyssey of Batman and Robin	Finger
		The Strange Experiment of Dr. Dorn	Finger
May/	155	Batman's Psychic Twin	Dave Wood
		The Return of the Penguin	Finger
June/	156	The Secret of the Ant-Man	Finger
		Robin Dies at Dawn	Finger
Aug/	157	The Villain of the Year	Wood
		The Hunt for Batman's Secret Identity	Finger
Sept/	158	Ace—the Super Bat-Hound	Wood
		Secret of the Impossible Perils	Finger
		Batman and Robin—Impostors	Wood
Nov/	159	The Great Clayface-Joker Feud	Finger
		The Boyhood of Bruce Wayne, Jr.	Finger
Dec/	160	The Mystery of Madcap Island	Finger
		The Alien Boss of Gotham City	Wood
Feb/64	161	The New Crimes of the Mad Hatter	Wood
		The Bat-Mite Hero	Wood
Mar/	162	The Batman Creature	Wood
		Robin's New Secret Identity	Wood
May/	163	Bat-Girl—Batwoman II	Finger
		The Joker Jury	Finger

Trapani Ghost: Can You See Who?

It looks like this has been a question mark for 45 years (if not, the attribution hasn't gotten onto the Internet): the penciller under Sal Trapani's inks on Dell's Movie Classic of the John Wayne Western, El Dorado (Oct/67).

Trapani's inks are pretty overwhelming on most of the book; I think it helps to narrow things down to a few panels and sequences, ones where the penciller's style shows through as best it can.

This is not Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Charles Nicholas, Bill Molno, Jack Keller, Wayne Howard, or Jack Abel.

I've left this penciller's name on the comment screen so you can guess the artist with a fresh eye and without the influence of glimpsing my ID.