Thursday, January 30, 2014

Woolfolk Update 8

Crime and Punishment 68 page
More updates to the publication data added to William Woolfolk's script-selling records—the data in bold is what he didn't enter as he recorded the writing and payment months before the stories were published. (With iffy Internet access at the moment, I'm posting here before I update the original posts themselves.)

The Tom Mix wasn't "The Tale of the Lonesome Cowboy" in TM 9, as I'd thought from the description—it's this one.

All the other stories were tracked down by darkmark, and most of them in the last couple of weeks. I'm still not sure how the "barker" I read in Woolfolk's handwriting fits the Golden Arrow elephant story that I haven't seen yet.

The storiues were published by Fawcett, Orbit, and Lev Gleason. This page from "The Gang War Murders" shows Lev Gleason's Deep Dimension 3D substitute ("No glasses needed—Full four colors"), which looks not so much like the 3D movies of the time as the later Cinerascope or Cinerama screen seen from the perspective of  lying on one's side across the theatre seats.

April 1945

5 pg  Golden Arrow elephant barker [?]
"Two Men on an Elephant" GA 3, Win/45
February 1948

Tom Mix desert rat's story
"Bullets Can't Spell" Real Western Hero 71, Oct/48
August 1948

Monte Hale man who hated Indians
"The Man Who Hated Indians" MH Western 35, Apr/49
March 1951

Monte Hale killer's faith in his guns
"The Killer's Faith" Western Hero 109, Dec/51
October 1953

Prescription for Happiness guy wonders if his gal is nagging him
[untitled PFH] Love Diary 43, May/54
December 1953

The Man I Couldn't Trust girl thinks her fiance is faithless
"The Man I Couldn't Trust" L Journal 24, May/54
The Gun Runners man who sells guns to gangland
"The Gang War Murders" Crime and Punishment 68, July/54
April 1954

Bright Lights Gang man organizes crime on Broadway
"Crime Town" Crime and Punishment 70, Dec/54

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Howie Post Returns to Jerry Lewis

When DC summarily let go Arnold Drake with The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #107, the book continued without writers' credits. One of the new writers was the original writer.

Howie Post drew the first four issues of The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The difference in writing style as of #5 leads me to say that long-time writer Cal Howard didn't come aboard until artist Owen Fitzgerald did. Although Post's writing style evolves by the late Sixties, when he has credits like Anthro to compare with, I believe I see enough points in #1-4 to say he wrote as well as drew.

Anthro 2, Jerry Lewis 108 Lion--'Womp'

Nelson Bridwell acknowledged writing the Flash story.

The writer (whom I can't put a name to) who wrote "Jerry-Flavored Ice Cream" wrote pretty much the rest of the run, to #124, the final issue. Others known to have written the feature in these years are Sergio Aragonés and Marv Wolfman (and it's a good bet they only plotted), and Alan Riefe, who otherwise has three DC mystery stories filling out his comics résumé.

Henry Boltinoff (not his brother Murray, the title's editor) wrote most of the 1- and 2-pagers. Possibly he wrote all, but the partial index is of the stories I find definitely in his style. UPDATE: I added the remaining two one-pagers, ones where I didn't think I could pin down Boltinoff's style before. Flipping through World's Finest 109, I found that "A Smashing Good Time" here reuses the plot of the Ollie page there. I'll concede that Boltinoff wrote the lifeguard story for Jerry as well; it's not not in Boltinoff's style.

Whether Bob Oksner inked himself at this point, or an uncredited Tex Blaisdell and others worked on particular issues, is a question I'll leave to the ages.

The Adventures of
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

written and drawn by Howie Post


Jul-Aug/52 #1  [The Moon Rocket]
Sep-Oct/     #2  [In Days of Knights]
Nov-Dec/     #3  [Race Car Drivers]
Jan-Feb/53 #4  [Jerry the Matador]

The Adventures of Jerry Lewis
penciled by Bob Oksner


Sep-Oct/68 #108  The Cons Who Went to Kids' Camp w: Don Segall
Low I.Q. High Snafu w: Segall
Lion Down on the Job w: Post
Nov-Dec/     #109  Hai Stakes and Karate Chops w: Post
Pizza Pie in the Sky w: Post
A Hard, Dazed Knight w: Post
Jan-Feb/69 #110  The Strange Body in the Purple Trunks w: Post
A Real Gone Steer w: Post
By Hook or by Crook w: Post
Mar-Apr/     #111  Jerry Lewis and the Jolly Queen Giant w: Post
[Bellboy] w: Henry Boltinoff
A-Creep in the Deep w: Post
May-Jun/     #112  The Flash Meets Jerry Lewis w: E. Nelson Bridwell
"Wheeler Dealer" Meets "Jalopy Jerk" w: Boltinoff
Jerry-Flavored Ice Cream w: (unIDed Jerry Lewis  writer)

Partial index: further stories
written by Henry Boltinoff


Nov-Dec/69 #115  Dog Tired
Extra-Special Delivery
Jan-Feb/70 #116  The Job That Starts at the Top
May-Jun/     #118  [Gas Station Attendant]
Eat at Your Own Risk
Lifeguard
Jul-Aug/     #119  A Smashing Good Time
May-Jun/71 #124  From Bed to Nurse
A Witch Doctor Who Makes Calls

Friday, January 17, 2014

Woolfolk Records 1951/12


Down with Crime 5

With a small number of scripts written this month, William Woolfolk still sells to the usual three publishers: Fawcett, Orbit, and Quality.

This month and next, some crime stories go to Fawcett as well as Orbit; the former pays $10 a page, the latter $12.50.

UPDATE: darkmark found the Sex Was My Weapon story--under a different title, even pre-code.

December 1951 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

10 pg  No Jail Can Hold Me escape artist
"No Jail Can Hold Me" Down with Crime 5, July/52
Mad Dog Killer trigger happy gunman
"Trigger Happy" Wanted 47, May/52
Doll Man battles the beast man
"The Beast Man" DM 41, Aug/52
10  The Big Pay-Off doctor forced to harbor his fugitive brother
"Waiting for Death" Suspense Detective 3, Oct/52
10  Sex Was My Weapon gal who uses sex to get man she wants
 "I Was Careless with My Kisses" Love Journal 14, June/52

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Woolfolk Records 1951/11

Fawcett, Quality, and Orbit publish these stories.

William Woolfolk branches out into another genre: standalone horror stories—not that his hero stories haven't contained the horror elements the times have called for.

Unknown World 1--The Serpent Queen

Although the first Blackhawk story this month is rejected by Quality, Woolfolk quickly turns it around, reworking it a couple of weeks later into an Ibis story for Fawcett.

November 1951 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

10 pg  Blackhawk swarm of horrors [reject]
Captain Marvel Jr. menace of the miser
"The Menace of the Miser" CMJ 111, July/52
Captain Marvel Jr. back to the days of the Romans
"Battle in the Roman Arena" CMJ 112, Aug/52
Ken Shannon the man from nowhere
"The Man from Nowhere" KS 5, June/52
Ken Shannon doctor of death
"Doctor of Death" KS 5, June/52
10  The Enforcer the story of Nitti, chief torpedo for Capone
"The Enforcer" Wanted 47, May/52
10  Trail of the Serpent! a serpent queen who destroys men
"The Serpent Queen" Unknown World 1, June/52
Ibis the locust god
"The Swarm of Horrors" Whiz 148, Aug/52
Blackhawk golden mummy of doom
"The Golden Mummy" BH 53, June/52
10  Horror-Go-Round a merry go round of monsters
"Horror-Go-Round" Strange Stories from Another World 2, Aug/52
Captain Marvel Jr. the encroaching dimension
"CMJ and Sivana Jr.'s New Dimension" CMJ 112, Aug/52

Friday, January 10, 2014

Mo Marcus at DC: The Ding-a-Lings

Mo Marcus pencilled the first issue of The Monkees at Dell, and the Modkees series in Go-Go at Charlton, so he must have felt right at home with the foursome called The Ding-a-lings at DC. This musical group consisted of three guys and a girl, so of course it was a completely new concept (DC's earlier Maniaks in Showcase being two guys and a girl).

The Ding-a-lings in Debbi's Dates 4

The connection that brought Marcus to Dell was freelancing artist Dick Giordano's asking him to ghost-pencil some full-art jobs assigned Giordano like Monkees 1 and Who's Minding the Mint?; at DC, on the Debbi titles, Giordano was the editor to begin with, so it was a more straightforward assignment.

Around this time Henry Boltinoff was writing teen humor stories longer than his ubiquitous DC cartoon pages, not only for the Ding-a-lings but for Debbi herself as well as Binky and Scooter.

The Ding-a-lings  w: Henry Boltinoff  p: Mo Marcus

in Debbi's Dates


Oct-Nov/69 Swing 'n Slay i: Dick Giordano
Dec-Jan/70 The Record 1st Prize i: Vince Colletta
Feb-Mar/     Fun in the Sun i: Colletta
Apr-May/     Country Cousins i: Colletta

in Date with Debbi

Oct-Nov/72 18  The Phone-ey Audition i: Colletta?

Mo Marcus also pencilled the "Outasite" bottom-third-of the-page cartoons, two in Debbi's Dates 6, and one in Date with Debbi 8 (Mar-Apr/70).