Woolfolk records 1950/06

William Woolfolk's two publishers this month: Orbit and Fawcett.

His rate at Orbit has been $10 a page, but as of "Mockery of Love" it's raised to $12.50, his highest outside of promotional comics. He made $1008 on scripts this month; that would be $9800 in 2013 dollars..

In later months in these sales records he notes the love story pages he does for his wife Dorothy as plots. The plots are paid the same page rate as scripts for Orbit.

UPDATE: darkmark found the publication data for "Monte Hale Meets Kid Buzzard."

June 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

9 pg	His Name Is Death	woman learns she is married to a Bluebeard
		"His Name Is Death" Wanted 31, Nov/50
9	Ibis	flame men live at the Earth's center
		"The Flame Men" Whiz 130, Feb/51
10	Mockery of Love	girl seeks love abroad, finds it from home
		"Mockery of Love" Love Diary 10, Nov/50
10	Wild Bill Pecos	battles the water rustlers
		"The Water Rustlers" The Westerner 30, Nov/50
8	Monte Hale	meets Kid Buzzard
		"MH Meets Kid Buzzard" Western Hero 99, Feb/51
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	king of dogs
		"CMJ Battles the King of the Dogs" CMJ 95, Mar/51
8	The Corpse Laughed Last	man thinks to shield his insane wife, but he is the crazy one
		"The Corpse Laughed Last" Wanted 31, Nov/50
9	Wild Bill Pecos	marshal of no-gun town
		"Marshal of No-Gun Town" The Westerner 30, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	the exiled Earth
		"CMJ and the Exiled Earth" CMJ 95, Mar/51
3	pgs of Dorothy's love story	Love Diary
10	Man Who Lost His Face	pretty boy killer gets face of man he has condemned to death
		"The Man Who Lost His Face" Wanted 32, Dec/50

What's Jim Aparo Doing Here?

Jim Aparo looked for a job in comic books at EC in the mid-Fifties, but, unhired, went into commercial art. He drew the short-lived newspaper strip "Stern Wheeler" in 1963, and didn't get into comic books until he landed work at Charlton in 1967.

Or so says the conventional wisdom.

 

This page of early Aparo is relatively crude, but it's obviously his—he's not ghosting pencils under someone else's inks (like Sal Trapani's). If the final panel close-up isn't a giveaway that this is his art, the use of a Craftint-type texture paper in that and earlier panels should identify his style; the trees in the foreground of the tilted fifth panel are another Aparo technique.

This page comes from the story "The Sinister Stone," published by a company Aparo is not known to have worked for, Martin Goodman's Timely-Atlas-Marvel. The comic book is Worlds of Fantasy 11, and the cover date is February 1958.

Hersh and Goldman at Vulcan Comics

There's only one known copy of Vulcan Comics' Magnificent Thrill Comics 10 (Dec/39) in existence, and it's been sealed in a slab since 2000, even though it's in no better than good condition. The print run was pulped, aside from ten copies that made it to the Vulcan offices, and nine of those were thrown out shortly after. The comic was pulled when the Super Sleuth strip by Steve Hersh and Curly Goldman brought undue attention from another company's lawyers.

Magnificent Thrill isn't listed in Overstreet or on the Grand Comics Database, since it, Vulcan, Steve, and Curly are fictional. My novel Kings of the Comic Books reveals some of the secrets behind the early careers of Hersh & Goldman in the beginnings of the Golden Age. Did they become the kings of the comic book creators that Steve felt sure they'd be remembered as?

Kings is available at $2.99 from Amazon for the Kindle, from Barnes & Noble for the Nook, and from Smashwords in multiple formats for other readers. Kindle books can be read on a PC, Mac, Smartphone, or other platform with a free download from Amazon.

Woolfolk Records 1950/05

 

These blog entries present the records William Woolfolk jotted down when he wrote and sold scripts in the Golden Age. Donna Woolfolk let Marc Svensson scan the original notebook; I've transcribed, leaving out the payment info but adding (in bold) the publication info I've tracked down. Woolfolk's publishers for May 1950 scripts were Fawcett and Orbit.

The text story carries William Woolfolk's byline (as must his text for Joe Louis 1), per Fawcett's policy. He had some early bylines as Bill Woolfolk; to find all his known credits listed in the Grand Comics Database you'll have to search under both forms of his name.

May 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

2 pg	Tiger in the Ring	Johnson vs Ketchell
		"Tiger in the Ring" [text] Joe Louis 2, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	good rumor factory
		"The Good Rumor Factory" Marvel Family 53, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	Sir Reginald & the beast man
		"Sir Reginald and the Beastman" MF 55, Jan/51
10	Kiss of Doom	a woman whose touch seems to be death
		"Kiss of Doom" Wanted 30, Oct/50
7	Monte Hale	boy editor of Boot Hill
		"The Boy Editor of Faro City" MH Western 58, Mar/51
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	four lives of Freddy Freeman
		"The Four Lives of Freddy Freeman" CMJ 93, Jan/51
9	Wild Bill Pecos	golden city of Monteado
		"The Golden City of Monteado" The Westerner 28, Sept/50
6	Calamity Kate	meets the Gaucho Kid
		"The Gaucho Kid" The Westerner 28, Sept/50
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	world's mightiest caveboy
		"The World's Mightiest Caveboy" CMJ 92, Dec/50
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	Hiram Boggs, underworld lord
		"The Lord of the Underworld" CMJ 94, Feb/51
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	the lamp of power
		"The Lamp of Power" CMJ 94, Feb/51
10	Wild Bill Pecos	battles Kid Runt
		"WBP Battles Kid Runt" The Westerner 29, Oct/50
9	Ibis	day the sorcerers ruled
		"The Day the Sorcerers Ruled" Whiz 129, Jan/51
8	Wild Bill Pecos	Sheriff Nuggets has to catch Wild Bill
		"Six-Gun Traitor" The Westerner 29, Oct/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	space spy
		"CMJ Battles the Space Spy" CMJ 97, May/51