Double Date with Judy and Debbi

Swing with Scooter 20, the Summer 1969 Special, wasn't the only time DC reused story material from A Date with Judy.

They had gone to that well in late 1968 for the first few issues of Date with Debbi. Here, at least, they didn't redraw reprints; they bought new scripts and art, but the scripts were rewrites of 1947-48 Judy stories. Both A Date with Judy 1 and Date with Debbi 1 open with a letter to the reader from the main character, introducing the characters pictured around the page edges: parents, boyfriend, little brother, rival, and Judy/Debbi..

The liberated woman story in Debbi 2 is the one that veers the furthest from the original, but still, the writer obviously saw the emancipated woman Judy story.

Alvin Schwartz was the first writer on A Date with Judy, and wrote her stories cited here; Graham Place drew the originals. I can track one writer on early Date with Debbi stories without being able to put a name to him or her; it doesn't seem to be any of the ones already known on the strip: Henry Boltinoff, Steve Skeates, Barbara Friedlander, or John Albano. Samm Schwartz was the first artist, but even by issue 2 the powers that be decided that some Schwartz faces had to be reinked. By issue 3 new artists began arriving.

DATE WITH DEBBI Stories with
A DATE WITH JUDY Plot Sources

"Detention's the Thing" DWD 1 (Jan-Feb/69)

Story 1, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

"Eeeek—It's a Heap" DWD 1 (Jan-Feb/69)

Story 3, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

"Who's Blue?" DWD 2 (Mar-Apr/69)

Story 4, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

"I'll Be Suing You" DWD 2 (Mar-Apr/69)

Story 2, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

Story 3 (Liberated Woman), DWD 2 (Mar-Apr/69)

Story 2, ADWJ 2 (Dec-Jan/48)

"The Cave-Man Cometh" DWD 3 (May-Jun/69)

Story 2, ADWJ 3 (Feb-Mar/48)

Woolfolk Records 1952/05

William Woolfolk entered the comic book scripts he sold in a notebook that, much later, Donna Woolfolk let Marc Svensson scan (thanks to both of them!). These May 1952 entries sold to Fawcett, Quality, and Orbit.

This month's are Woolfolk's final Blackhawk stories.

May 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

8 pg	Captain Marvel Jr.	Robin Hood days
		"In the Days of Robin Hood" CMJ 118, Apr/53
7	Blackhawk	Guerrilla meeets Blackhawk
		"Guerrilla—the Unknown Hero" BH 61, Feb/53
10	Man Who Broke the Black Hand	"The Man Who Broke the Black Hand" Underworld Crime 7, Sep/53
7	Blackhawk	terror of the Crimson Hoods
		"Terror of the Crimson Hoods" BH 60, Jan/53
10	Killer from the Grave	a dead gangster who comes back from lime pit
	Mausoleum of Weird Crimes	"Make Way for Murder" Wanted 50, Oct/52
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	werewolf of London
		"CMJ and the Werewolf of London" CMJ 117, Feb/53
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	mad Mongol monster
		"CMJ Battles the Mad Mongol Monster" CMJ 115, Nov/52
6	Ibis	the thing from the deep
		"Ibis and the Man-Eater from the Deep" Whiz 154, Apr/53
7	Lady—or the Tigress?	a woman who is both
		"Lady or the Tigress?" This Magazine Is Haunted 9, Feb/53
6	Devil's Mask	if evil, face changes to that of the mask
		"Devil's Mask" TMIH 9, Feb/53
7	Forbidden to Love	modern Romeo & Juliet
		Love Journal

Scooter, Scooter, Scooter (in a Cary Grant Voice)

Swing with Scooter 20 (Aug-Sep/69), the Giant Summer Fun annual, needed reprints, but the title was only three years old. That wasn't a problem; DC had repurposed old stories before—modernizing hairstyles and fashions (Binky, romance stories) or outright turning characters into new ones (Dobie Gillis and Maynard G. Krebs into Windy and Willy).

By this point, though, Scooter had been transformed from the original design ghosted by Jerry Grandenetti in a Joe Orlando look into a more-or-less Bob Montana look, with Henry Scarpelli's full art on covers and his inks over other artists' interior pencils. (The Binky and Debbi titles would soon follow suit.) Anything from five or ten years earlier would have to be redrawn to match the style in Scooter 19 and 21.

But since the point was to save money on "reprints," the bare minimum of revision was called for. That meant some characters were not redrawn. People with Scarpelli's Archie-style heads would interact with Bob Oksner's and Mort Drucker's caricature-realistic folks.

I had no idea at first where the original stories (evidently untitled and so not cross-indexed on the GCD) might be turned up. Then I found that the long-time artist of the radio tie-in A Date with Judy, Graham Place, did most of that title's run but not the last of it. Oksner and Drucker came aboard for the final year (Oksner had been given the cover art assignments on Judy a bit before that). I don't know who was writing the Date with Judy stories in 1960. Cal Howard?

SWING WITH SCOOTER 20 Stories and
Their A DATE WITH JUDY Sources

"If It's Free, I'll Take It"
Story 1, ADWJ 77 (Jun-Jul/60)	a: Bob Oksner
"Sign Here, Please"
Story 3, ADWJ 79 (Oct-Nov/60)	a: Mort Drucker
"Carnival Time"
Story 3, ADWJ 78 (Aug-Sep/60)	a: Drucker
"Cousin Roger's Hang-Up"
Story 2, ADWJ 77 (Jun-Jul/60)	a: Drucker
"Golf Anyone"
Story 3, ADWJ 74 (Dec/59-Jan/60)	a: Graham Place
"Cool Bongos"
Story 3, ADWJ 78 (Aug-Sep/60)	a: Drucker
"Johnny, You Kill Me"
Story 1, ADWJ 76 (Apr-May/60)	a: Drucker

Woolfolk Records 1952/04

Fawcett, Orbit, and Quality.

By "editorial work," I would think Woolfolk means rewriting. "My Cruel Lover" is not a title recorded in earlier months, but other editorial work has been paid at $12.50 a page, and this, like a later Wanted revision that I can recognize as a Woolfolk to begin with (in fact "Cult of Killers"), is paid at $10.

April 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg	Captain Marvel Jr.	the great vacuum
		"CMJ and the Great Vacuum" CMJ 118, Apr/53
8	The Brute I Loved	society gal and steel worker
		"The Brute I Loved" Love Diary 34, Apr/53
7	Doll Man	emerald eye of evil
		"The Emerald Eye of Evil" DM 43, Dec/52
7	Doll Man	Satan's sculptor
		"Satan's Sculptor" DM 43, Dec/52
7	editorial work on "My Cruel Lover"	"My Cruel Lover" L Diary 30, Aug/52
10	Plastic Man	a stairway into madness
		"The Stairway to Madness" PM 39, Jan/53
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	becomes funniest looking boy in world
		"CMJ Becomes the Funniest Looking Boy in the World" CMJ 117, Feb/53
10	Ghost Riders in the Sky	dead sheriff & deputies track down a killer
		"Phantom Riders in the Sky" Strange Stories from Another World 4, Dec/52
6	Ibis	things in the fog
		"The Things in the Fog" Whiz 153, Jan/53
10	Cult of Death	true crime of religious cults
8		"Cult of Killers" Wanted 52, Feb/53
7	Ken Shannon	blood on the ruby necklace
		"Necklace of Blood" KS 9, Feb/53
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	the microscopic space ship
		"CMJ and the Lost Space Ship" CMJ 117, Feb/53
7	Blackhawk	vampire men
		"Vampire Men of Kunwalo" BH 60, Jan/53

Millie the Model by Ken Bald and Pete Riss

The run of early Timely-era Millie the Model available nowadays to consult is incomplete; issue 1 is reportedly by other hands than these (Ruth Atkinson, for one). As of the next issue I've seen after this run, #20 (Oct/49), Stan Lee has a credit line on each story and the art is obviously by Dan DeCarlo; DeCarlo will continue on the feature close to the end of the Fifties, and Lee beyond that. Lee may well have written some of the stories in these earlier issues.

Not only is Ken Bald credited for script and art on the first story page of Millie 9, but the credit is amplified in Stan Lee's book Secrets behind the Comics: Bald wrote and drew all four of the connected stories about a Paris trip, and did so while in Paris.

On Millie 7 you could take the frontispiece crediting Millie art to Ken Bald and Pete Riss as meaning that Bald pencilled and Riss inked. Or, as I have, you could ID the stories drawn in Bald's style as by Bald and the ones in Riss's style as by Riss. The fact that Bald wrote the two drawn in his art style ("Yoicks!" in both of them, the same as in Millie 9) would back up that decision. Bald might have written more stories in #2 than the one I can identify at this time.

Riss gets the sole frontispiece credit for Millie art in #8. His early issues are, in my opinion, some of his best work; obviously he's being influenced by Bald. Compare the Bald page from "Millie's Little Leopard" in Millie 7 with the Riss one from "Seeing Spots" in 12. By the end of 1948 some of Riss's people are back to the skinny scarecrows such as are seen in "A Modern Alice in Wonderland" (Superman 41, July-Aug/46).

I've left off this list backup stories such as Willie, Rusty, and Hedy De Vine, all by other artists.

Millie the Model 2, 7-15

Oct/46	2	[The Blonde Phantom Perfume]	a: Ken Bald
		[Millie the French Model]	a: Bald
		[The New Outfit]	w: Bald  a: Bald
		[Millie on Televison]	a: Bald
		[Millie Goes to Hollywood]	a: Bald
Aug/47	7	Millie's Music Maker	a: Pete Riss
		Millie's Little Leopard	w: Bald  a: Bald
		Millie's Millionaire	a: Riss
		The Perilous Picnic	w: Bald  a: Bald
Oct/	8	Millie Stops the Presses	a: Riss
		The Model of the Golden West	a: Riss
		Millie, the College Cut-Up	a: Riss
		Bathing Suit Blues	a: Riss
Dec/	9	Off to Paris	w: Bald  a: Bald
		Fun in France	w: Bald  a: Bald
		The Contest	w: Bald  a: Bald
		Millie's Mad Whirl	w: Bald  a: Bald
Feb/48	10	She Who Laughs Last	a: Riss
		Hat Box Havoc	a: Riss
		Millie for President	a: Riss
		The Riddle of the Rival	a: Riss
Apr/	11	Just the Type	a: Riss
		College Knowledge	a: Riss
		Babes in the Woods	a: Riss
		Under the Weather	a: Riss
Jun/	12	Millie's Fan Male	a: Riss
		Millie's London Landing	a: Riss
		Flicker, Flicker, Who'll Get Flicker?	a: Riss
		Seeing Spots	a: Riss
Aug/	13	A Peach Makes a Speech	a: Riss
		A Whale of a Sail	a: Riss
		A Look at the Cook	a: Riss
		Her Rent Romance	a: Riss
		Breaking Her Back at the Track	a: Riss
Oct/	14	Oh, You Kid—Nappers!	a: Riss
		Chili Misses the Bus	a: Riss
		Millie Helps Out	a: Riss
		Clothes Conscious	a: Riss
		The Footlight Phony	a: Riss
Dec/	15	Bear Scare	a: Riss
		College Cover Girl	a: Riss
		Scavenger Hunt	a: Riss
		Pretty as a Picture	a: Riss
		Chili Gets Chilled	a: Riss

On this tier by Pete Riss from "She Who Laughs Last" in Millie 10, he indulges in an in-joke diluted by, probably, the use of different inkers at Timely and Quality.