Woolfolk Records 1948/05

Fawcett, Quality, and Orbit are the familiar publishers here.

Monte Hale stories aren't that easy to track down, with his comics spottily collected or indexed; but this will be one of William Woolfolk's frequent assignments for four years. I did find one of this month's five in Real Western Hero; the unindexed Monte Hale Western 32 came out in the same month. These descriptions don't fit any of the story titles indexed in 31. UPDATE: darkmark IDed two of the Monte Hale stories, #32 having since been indexed on the GCD. I've corrected my transcription of "overage" here, which I'd put down as "average." Now that I've seen the issue itself, I can add the other two stories. "Indian chief" might be better described as "Indian warrior," but a chief is a character in it.

Likewise these Wanted stories fit between known stories in issues 15 and 17. They may have been published under titles other than Woolfolk's. UPDATE: They were. Now that I've seen Wanted 16, I've changed the titles here as the editors did there, and added the text story title.

May 1948 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg	Captain Marvel	the chameleon stone
		"The Chameleon Stone" CM Advs 91, Dec/48
9	Marvel Family	world's greatest magician
		"The World's Greatest Magician" MF 30, Dec/48
14	Doll Man	Undertaker's coffin crimes
		"Coffins for Crime" DM 20, Jan/49
8	Woozy	becomes general of a S. American country
		"Commander in Chief" Plastic Man 15, Jan/49
7	Ibis	the skull of a sorcerer
		"The Skull of Evil" Whiz 105, Jan/49
8	Monte Hale	crooked judge runs town
		"Outlaw Town" Real Western Hero 74, Jan/49
15	The Musical Murders	a mad pianist
		"The Musical Demon" Wanted 16, Nov/48
7	Monte Hale	the overage sheriff
		"The Over Age Sheriff " MH Western 32, Jan/49
7	Monte Hale	outlaw stallion
		"Pardner--Outlaw Stallion" MH Western 32, Jan/49
12	Plastic Man	Beau Brummel
		"Beau Crummel" PM 15, Jan/49
9	Monte Hale	alone with 5 killers
		"Terror Trek" MH Western 32, Jan/49
9	Monte Hale	Indian chief
		"Tribe of the Tomahawk" MH Western 32, Jan/49
10	Double for Death	playwright becomes character he writes about
		"Double for Destiny" Wanted 16, Nov/48
2	fiction	"What Happened to the Cyclops?" [text] Wanted 16, Nov/48

Writers: Aquaman in Adventure 247-284

247 would be an arbitrary start to a run of any comic except Adventure; the significance lies in the Superboy story, of course, not with Aquaman or the other back-ups. A number of my attributions here were circulated through fandom in the Nineties by Rich Morrissey, but on this list I've filled in the gaps in the run.

Jack Miller typically uses the captions Just then..., Before long..., The answer comes the next instant..., and In the next [adjective] instant...; Robert Bernstein typically the caption Moments after... instead of Moments later.... But these are not hard and fast differences, of course; in "The Robinson Crusoe of the Sea" (252) there's a Moments after..., but more clues point to Miller. If so, he happened to use that style of caption once.

"A World without Water" (251), out of all the Aquaman stories, uses the exclamations "Owoofff" and "Eeaahh" (also used in only one Green Arrow story: "The Man Who Hated Arrows" in 249). These are seen throughout the Dale Evans and Sierra Smith stories by Joe Millard, at DC, as well as the myriad of stories he did at Quality. The "Y-i-i-i-i" in both turns up in 250's "The Guinea Pig of the Sea."

All Aquaman art in these Adventure issues is by Ramona Fradon except 284, which is by Jim Mooney.

"How Aquaman Got His Powers" in 260 is the new origin. "The Manhunt on Land" in 267 is the crossover with Green Arrow, the other back-up, also written by Robert Bernstein at the time; the two villains switch land and sea theatres of operation. "The Kid from Atlantis" in 269 introdues Aquaman's new partner, Aqualad.

Aquaman begins appearing in the forerunner to his own book, four Showcase appearances, in the same month as Adventure 280. With 281, the back-up space that held Aquaman and Congorilla stories is devoted to double-length stories of either one, alternating, so Aquaman doesn't appear in 281 or 283. After Adventure 284 his back-up slot moves to Detective and then to World's Finest.

The Superboy story in 280, by the way, "Superboy and the Mermaid from Atlantis" (written by Jerry Siegel), takes two panels to account for the difference between Aquaman's Atlanteans with legs and Lori Lemaris's fishtailed merfolk.

Aquaman in Adventure 247-284 Writers

Apr/58	#247	Aquaman's Super Sea-Squad	Jack Miller
May/	#248	The Traitor of the Seven Seas	Miller
June/	#249	Wanted—Aqua-Crook	Robert Bernstein
July/	#250	The Guinea Pig of the Sea	Joe Millard
Aug/	#251	A World without Water	Millard
Sept/	#252	The Robinson Crusoe of the Sea	Miller
Oct/	#253	The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.	Bernstein
Nov/	#254	The Menace of the Electric Man	Miller
Dec/	#255	Aquaman's Double Trouble	Bernstein
Jan/59	#256	The Ordeal of Aquaman	Bernstein
Feb/	#257	The Imitation Aquaman	Bernstein
Mar/	#258	The Incredible Fish of Doctor Danton	Miller
Apr/	#259	The Octopus Man	Miller
May/	#260	How Aquaman Got His Powers	Bernstein
June/	#261	Aquaman Duels the Animal-Master	Bernstein
July/	#262	The Undersea Hospital	Bernstein
Aug/	#263	The Great Ocean Election	Miller
Sept/	#264	Aquaman and His Sea Police	Bernstein
Oct/	#265	The Secret of the Super-Safe	Bernstein
Nov/	#266	Aquaman Meets Aquagirl	Bernstein
Dec/	#267	The Manhunt on Land	Bernstein
Jan/60	#268	The Adventures of Aquaboy	Bernstein
Feb/	#269	The Kid from Atlantis	Bernstein
Mar/	#270	The Menace of Aqualad	Bernstein
Apr/	#271	The Second Deluge	Bernstein
May/	#272	The Human Flying Fish	Bernstein
June/	#273	Around the World in 80 Hours	Bernstein
July/	#274	Aqua-Queen	Miller
Aug/	#275	The Interplanetary Mission	Bernstein
Sept/	#276	The Aqua-Thief of the Seven Seas	Bernstein
Oct/	#277	The Underwater Olympics	Bernstein
Nov/	#278	Aqualad Goes to School	Bernstein
Dec/	#279	Silly Sailors of the Sea	Bernstein
Jan/61	#280	The Lost Ocean	Bernstein
Mar/	#282	One Hour to Doom	Bernstein
May/	#284	The Charge of Aquaman's Sea Soldiers	Miller

Woolfolk Records 1948/04

 

The scripts William Woolfolk wrote this month were bought by Fawcett, Orbit, and Quality, plus a publisher I hadn't heard he worked for: Prize (content supplied by Simon & Kirby on this title). This would be his sole known story for the company and his first romance story (whose publication data I couldn't track down from his description). In fact, in an interview decades later, he recalled he hadn't worked for Simon & Kirby.

As a sign of where the times are going for superheroes: Real Western Hero has taken over the numbering of Wow Comics, and Monte Hale Western, which will figure in May's listings, has taken over that of Mary Marvel.

April 1948 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg	Captain Marvel	Capt. Marvel's hand commits crime
		"The Hand of Captain Marvel" CM Advs 90, Nov/48
8	Captain Marvel	Titans beneath the sea
		"The Mightiest Sea-Mortal" CM Advs 91, Dec/48
9	Young Romance	spoiled rich girl
		Young Romance
14	Kid Eternity	the living dead
		"Obeah-Brutes" KE 13, Jan/49
7	Ibis	magic tapestry
		"The Tapestry of Terror" Whiz 104, Dec/48
15	True Western	the taming of Tombstone
14	as Wild Bill Pecos	"Terror in Tombstone" The Westerner 16, Oct/48
15	Plastic Man	Plas thinks Woozy a crook
		"Woozy's Reputation" Police 86, Jan/49
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	Sivana Jr.'s dream machine
		"Sivana Jr.'s Dream Machine" Master 98, Dec/48
10	Tom Mix	the crime showboat
9		"The Crime Show Boat" Real Western Hero 73, Dec/48
12	Monte Hale	the hangman's scroll
		"The Hangman's Scroll" RWH 71, Oct/48
9	Captain Marvel	war between the planets
		"The War between the Planets" CM Advs 91, Dec/48

Writers: Batman 141-150

Bill Finger is the main Batman writer at this point, but not the only one. The sound effects Whapp or Whammp, and the spelling "Aaah" instead of "Ahhh," among other indications, show Jerry Coleman scripting. I had assumed Finger wrote all the Bat-Mite stories in Batman and Detective until I saw "Batman and Robin's Magical Powers"; Coleman, as I'd seen earlier, wrote Bat-Mite in a couple of World's Finest team-ups with Mr. Mxyzptlk.

The expression "Jumping Jonah" appears in the three stories I've attributed here to Arnold Drake. See also, among others, the splash page of "Captives of the Alien Hunter" in Challengers of the Unknown 25, April-May/62. The "Ayeee" in "The Deadly Curse of Korabo" is another clue to Drake.

Except for 148/1 and 150/3 (pencils by Jim Mooney and inks by Sheldon Moldoff), art is by Moldoff, penciller, and Moldoff and Charles Paris, inkers on different stories. Dick Dillin pencilled the covers of  143 and 150.

Batman 141-150 Writers

Aug/61	141	The Crimes of the Clockmaster	Jerry Coleman
		The Race of Death	Bill Finger
		Batwoman's Junior Partner	Finger
Sept/	142	Batman's Robot-Guardian	Finger
		The Crimes of the Ancient Mariner	Finger
		Ruler of the Bewitched Valley	Finger
Nov/	143	The Twice-Told Tale of Batman and Robin	Finger
		The Blind Batman	Arnold Drake
		Bat-Hound and the Creature	Finger
Dec/	144	The Alien Feud on Earth	Finger
		The Man Who Played Batman	Drake
		Bat-Mite Meets Bat-Girl	Finger
Feb/62	145	Hunt for Mr. 50	Finger
		The Tiniest Villain in the World	Finger
		The Son of the Joker	Finger
Mar/	146	Batman and Robin's Magical Powers	Coleman
		The Secret of the Leopard Boy	Finger
		The Deadly Curse of Korabo	Drake
May/	147	The Plants of Plunder	Finger
		The Secret of Mystery Island	Finger
		Batman Becomes Bat-Baby	Finger
June/	148	The Alien Force Twins	Coleman
		The Boy Who Was Robin	Finger
		The Joker's Greatest Triumph	Finger
Aug/	149	The Maestro of Crime	Coleman
		The Invaders from the Past	Coleman
		Batman Tunes In on Murder	Coleman
Sept/	150	The Secret behind the Stone Door	Finger
		The Girl Who Stole Batman's Heart	Coleman
		Robin, the Super Boy Wonder	Finger

Woolfolk Records 1948/03

The usual suspects—Fawcett, Timely, Quality, and Orbit—bought from William Woolfolk in March '48. These were his final stories for Timely. Two Blonde Phantom scripts were published in more pages than he submitted them.

The True Crime story noted in January '48 must have been for Wanted (and by the timing, Wanted 14; the title is bimonthly at this point). It was paid at the same page rate as this month's True Crime, and the same as that month's Western Outlaw; after I posted, SangorShop noted that the latter was published in Orbit's companion magazine, The Westerner. I think it pretty safe to say now that all the crime stories Woolfolk has written so far were for Wanted; his rate there stabilized in January.

March 1948 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

9 pg	Marvel Family	Sivana tries to drive Marvel crazy
		"Captain Marvel's Dilemma" MF 28, Oct/48
7	Blonde Phantom	an ambitious orchestra leader
8		"Rhapsody in Death" BP 19, Sept/48
10	Doll Man	crook uses modern witchcraft
		"The Hag" DM 19, Nov/48
15	True Crime	society of Black Hand
		"The Black Hand" Wanted 15, Sept/48
4	Blonde Phantom	vaudeville crime
		"Curtain Call for Crime" Namora 2, Oct/48
6	Ibis	the zoo of men
		"Lo-Kar's Circus" Whiz 103, Nov/48
3	Blonde Phantom	man framed for murder
5		"Justice for Jimmy Sullivan" BP 19, Sept/48
14	Blackhawk	men from the asteroid
		"The Men from the Asteroid" BH 22, Dec/48
5	Blonde Phantom	test pilot loses his nerve
		"The Test of Fear" Sub-Mariner 28, Oct/48
11	Doll Man	crimetown U.S.A.
		"Crimetown, U.S.A." Feature 130, Jan/49
9	Tom Mix	the pony express
		"The Ride to Doom" Real Western Hero 72, Nov/48
8	Captain Marvel	world run by atomic power
		"The World of Mr. Atom" CM Advs 90, Nov/48
11	Doll Man	candid microphone program
		"The Stork" DM 20, Jan/49