The Revolutionary War Wheel--Tomahawk 102-118 Writers

In "The Attack of the 'Gator God" Bill Finger reuses not only the War Wheel that he originated in Blackhawk 56 (Sept/52) at Quality; his heroes use pretty much the same method to defeat it (and Tomahawk's is a little more ingenious, as he leaves footprints over the trap).

Most stories from Tomahawk 102 through 118 are drawn by Fred Ray, but for "The Attack of the 'Gator God" in #105 he only pencils; Bob Brown inks the story. Brown draws "Battle Hat" (#101), "The Frontier Frankenstein" (#103), and "The Ghost of Tomahawk" (#104) as well as the covers through #115. Irv Novick draws "The Mad Miser of Carlyle Castle" (#113).A letter column credits Jerry Grandenetti's pencils along with Joe Orlando's inks (credited for the only time in that combination that I'm aware of, after all the ghosting Grandenetti did for Orlando) on "Tomahawk: Guilty of Murder" (#118). Neal Adams draws the covers of #116-118.

The back-up stories not entered here are reprints; in "The League of Tomahawk Haters" in #113 (from #54), Dan Hunter has been minimally redrawn, recolored, and relettered into the young Ranger, Stovepipe.

Tomahawk 102-118
Writers (underlined=credited on story splash or in another issue's letters page)

J-F/66	#102	The Dragon Killers	France Ed Herron
		Bring Back a Prisoner—Alive	Bill Finger
M-A/	#103	The Frontier Frankenstein	Herron
		The Super-Ranger with Nine Lives	Herron
M-J/	#104	The Fearful Freak of Dunham's Dungeon	Herron
		Take Me Alive	Finger
J-A/	#105	The Attack of the 'Gator God	Finger
		Hold That Bridge	Herron
S-O/	#106	The Ghost of Tomahawk	Herron
		One-Man Fort	Herron
N-D/	#107	The Tribe below the Earth	Herron
		Last Stand of the 3-in-1 Ranger	Herron
J-F/67	#108	New Boss for the Rangers	Herron
M-A/	#109	The Caveman Ranger	Finger
		The Toy Tiger	Herron
M-J/	#110	Tomahawk Must Die	Finger
J-A/	#111	Vengeance of the Devil-Dogs	Herron
S-O/	#112	The Rangers vs. Tomahawk	Finger
N-D/	#113	The Mad Miser of Carlyle Castle	George Kashdan
J-F/68	#114	The Terrible Power of Chief Iron-Hands	Carl Wessler
		Traitor of the Totem Pole	Finger
M-A/	#115	The Deadly Flaming Ranger	Wessler
M-J/	#116	The Last Mile of Massacre Trail	Wessler
		The Making of a Hero	Wessler
J-A/	#117	The Rangers' Last Stand	Dave Wood & Murray   Boltinoff
		The Gauntlet of Doom	Wessler
S-O/	#118	Tomahawk: Guilty of Murder	Kashdan
		The Ranger Who Wouldn't Fight	Herron

Splash page credits begin consistently with #119; the one story thereafter presented uncredited (drawn by Frank Thorne) is this one:

M-A/70

#127

Big Anvil's Big Lie

Kashdan

Woolfolk Records 1951/05

Fawcett, Quality, and Orbit, like clockwork, bought and published the stories William Woolfolk wrote this month.

He returns to writing Doll Man; in this story Martha Roberts (a supporting character since the first story) becomes Doll Girl, a role she'll play until the feature ends.

This is Woolfolk's final Wild Bill Pecos story as The Westerner reaches its final issue; it's published a page shorter than the script.

May 1951 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg	Ibis	ghost ship in the Arctic
		"Ibis and the Ghost Ship" Whiz 141, Jan/52
10	Doll Man	meets the Doll Girl
		"Battles the Skull" DM 37, Dec/51
10	Foodini	Foodini's summer hi-jinks
		"Foodini's Summer Hi-jinks" Pinhead and Foodini 3, Nov/51
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	the master of space
		"CMJ Battles the Spacemaster" CMJ 105, Jan/52
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	the invisible guest
		"CMJ and the Invisible Guest" CMJ 105, Jan/52
4	Murder Alibi	alibi witness turns out to be blind
		"Wanted by a Killer: One Witness" Wanted 42, Oct/51
10	Blackhawk	men from the future
		"Men from the Future" BH 47, Dec/51
10	The Beach Mob	Miami Beach gangsters in Chicago
		"The Beach Mob" Wanted 43, Nov/51
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	Sivana Jr. buys Louisiana Territory
		"CMJ and the History Hoax" CMJ 105, Jan/52
7	Blackhawk	the sea monsters
		"The Sea Monsters" BH 47, Dec/51
10	Wild Bill Pecos	dead man's fort
9		"Dead Man's Fort" The Westerner 41, Dec/51

Tomahawk 83-101 Writers

When Murray Boltinoff took over editing Tomahawk he changed the format from three stories per issue to a double-length one and a back-up (with #95 a full-lengther). #83, his first issue, introduces the "G.I.s of 1775," Tomahawk's Rangers, as supporting cast for the lead stories, but through #93 the back-ups still team Tomahawk with his original young partner Dan Hunter. The use of some fantastic elements carries over from Jack Schiff's stewardship.

Boltinoff didn't make any great change in the creative personnel; on this run the feature's mainstay artist Fred Ray drew all but one story, and one-time Tomahawk artist Bob Brown every cover, as well as the lead story in #98 and the backup in #101. Ed Herron and Dave Wood had been sharing the writing chores for a number of years under Schiff.

Boltinoff credits Herron, Ray, and letterer Stan Starkman every so often in the letters columns. The sure sign of Ed Herron's work in the Sixties is the sound effect Kwhamma; note the "a" at the end that the other DC writers at the time don't use. Some lettercol credits for Herron are for individual stories and some are general; he wrote most of this run, but not every single story before Bill Finger's first credit.

Tomahawk 83-101
Writers (underlined=credited on story or in letters page)

N-D/62	#83	20 against the Tribe	France Ed   Herron
		The Mighty Hand of Chief Great Storm	Herron
J-F/63	#84	There's a Coward among the Rangers	Herron
		Miss Liberty's All-Girl Army	Dave Wood
M-A/	#85	The Whispering War	Herron
		The Giant from Inside Earth	Herron
M-J/	#86	The Rangers vs. King Colosso	Herron
		Lord Shilling—Yankee Ally	Herron
J-A/	#87	The Secrets of Sgt. Witch Doctor	Herron
		The Tick Tock Terror	Herron
S-O/	#88	The Rangers Who Held Back the Earth	Herron
		Miss Liberty Rides Again	Herron
N-D/	#89	The Terrible Tree-Man	Herron
		Hold That Bridge	Herron
J-F/64	#90	The Prisoner in the Pit	Herron
		Booby-Trap Town	Herron
M-A/	#91	The Tribe below the Earth	Herron
		The Straw Soldiers of Devil Pass	Herron
M-J/	#92	The Petrified Sentry of Peaceful Valley	Herron
		Target—Tomahawk	Herron
J-A/	#93	The Return of King Colosso	Herron
		Dead Silence	Herron
S-O/	#94	Rip Van Ranger	Herron
		Heartbreak Hill	Herron
N-D/	#95	The Tribe beneath the Sea	Herron
J-F/65	#96	The Ranger Killers	Herron
		The Battle That Never Died	Herron
M-A/	#97	The Prisoner behind the Bull's-Eye	Herron
		Coonskin Lottery	Herron
M-J/	#98	The Pied Piper Rangers	Bill Finger
		The Man in the Muzzle	Herron
J-A/	#99	The Rangers vs. King Cobweb	Herron
		The Battle of Little Ben	Finger
S-O/	#100	The Weird Water-Tomahawk	Herron
		The Ghost of Trigger Hill	Finger
N-D/	#101	Tomahawk, Enemy Spy	Herron
		Battle Hat	Finger

Woolfolk Records 1951/04

Fawcett, Orbit, and Quality, the three you'd expect, bought and published the stories William Woolfolk wrote this month.

Crime Lab is a recurring Wanted feature; this is Woolfolk's only installment.

Showing again how Woolfolk used the idea from an earlier story as a jumping-off point to get a script rolling: Captain Marvel Jr., fought a Zombie Master in a Woolfolk script back in Master 75 (Dec/46), written in August 1945; in very general outline this month's Ibis version follows the same plot—zombie master hiring out zombies—but it's a completely new script. In the same month he wrote a Super Rabbit story about a duplicator machine, but I've seen neither that story nor this month's second Pinhead and Foodini one. And Doll Man fought an Undertaker in Woolfolk stories before Wild Bill Pecos did.

UPDATE: darkmark found the Monte Hale story.

April 1951 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg	Captain Marvel Jr.	queen of witches
		"CMJ Battles the Queen of the Witches" CMJ 104, Dec/51
10	Foodini	talking camel
		"Foodini's Talking Camel" Pinhead and Foodini 4, Jan/52
12	Wild Bill Pecos	meets the Undertaker
		"WBP Meets the Undertaker" The Westerner 40, Oct/51
7	Monte Hale	mystery of the three wills
		"The Mystery of the Three Wills" Western Hero 110, Jan/52
4	This Way—to Death!	underworld finger man—puts finger on himself
		"This Way—to Death!" Wanted 41, Sept/51
2	Private Piney & Miss Fitt	gag stuff
1	Private Piney	"It Pays to Advertise" P & F 3, Nov/51
1	Little Miss Fitt	"Be Prepared" P & F 3, Nov/51
10	Pinhead and Foodini	machine that can duplicate anything
13		"Too Many Pinheads" P & F 3, Nov/51
5	Crime Lab	murderer caught by fact French horn blows offkey when cold
		"The Musical Murder" Wanted 41, Sept/51
8	Blackhawk	invaders from Inferno
		"Weird Invaders from Inferno" BH 47, Dec/51
12	The Real Story of Murder Inc.	Abe Reles & his role in Murder Inc.
10		"Murder Inc." Wanted 42, Oct/51
6	Ibis	the zombie master
		"The Zombie Master" Whiz 140, Dec/51

More Mo Marcus at Dell

It took me three posts in a row (one, two, three) to come to a conclusion on the artist of Dell's The Monkees #1 (if by coming to a conclusion one means agreeing with Mark Evanier's identification of the artist.) It's Mo Marcus. Jerry Marcus later confirmed Mark's ID; Dick Giordano, the artist hired to do that issue, asked Jerry's father to pencil the job for him. José Delbo, of course, drew The Monkees from #2 on.

Who's Minding the Mint? (Aug/67) is Dell's Movie Classic one-shot adapting the film produced by comic book artist and Stooge-in-law Norm Maurer. Its art has been attributed to Delbo and then Henry Scapelli, but the pencils are by Mo Marcus; the skinny, angular limbs are the trademark seen in that first issue of The Monkees. (These are Jim Hutton and Walter Brennan, by the way; Marcus is able to capture their likenesses without the traced still-photo paste-ups that typefied Scarpelli's Dell tie-in work at this point).

The writer escapes me so far. The inker is a question, too. Giordano and company (Sal Trapani and Frank McLaughlin)? On some pages I wonder if I see John Tartaglione's inkwork, but at Dell he pencilled much more often than he inked. The Mo Marcus art that I've seen signed at Charlton was inked by Rocco Mastroserio, so maybe I'm not recognizing Marcus's own inks here.