This is no doubt an incomplete list in that there are gaps in the early issues available; I could well have missed any number of first-time stories. What makes it harder is the lack of story titles in the Fifties. If a story seems familiar it has to be tracked down by looking at the comics themselves--and some around 1960 may be familiar because they're the originals for refries published around ten years later. ("Millie's Museum Madness" in 97 is the second of three uses of that story.)
As far as I can tell, Stan Lee reused his own scripts; he didn't dip back into the earliest Millie stories by other writers.
1953-61 stories in Millie the Model
reworking earlier scripts
| May/53 | 42 | [The Scout] (CHILI) |
| from MILLIE 35 Chili story | ||
| Dec/56 | 73 | [Male Model] (CHILI) |
| from MILLIE 32 Chili story | ||
| May/59 | 90 | [No Proposal] |
| from MILLIE 73 1st Millie story | ||
| Jul/60 | 97 | The Other Woman |
| from MILLIE 23 Clicker and the Other Woman | ||
| Millie's Museum Madness | ||
| from MILLIE 35 3rd Millie story | ||
| Sept/ | 98 | It's a Bet, Pet |
| from MILLIE 39 4th 1-page gag | ||
| No Chance to Dance | ||
| from MILLIE 39 1st Millie story | ||
| Jan/61 | 100 | How Millie and Chili Met... |
| from MILLIE 43 1st Millie story | ||
| Mar/ | 101 | [information booth gag] cover |
| from MILLIE 53 cover | ||
| Run, Millie, Run | ||
| from MILLIE 41 1st Millie story | ||
| Let's Look for the Book | ||
| from MILLIE 44 3rd 1-page gag | ||
| The Late Date | ||
| from MILLIE 43 4th 1-page gag | ||
| Come to Baby | ||
| from MILLIE 41 2nd 1-page gag | ||
| May/ | 102 | Fuss in the Bus |
| from MILLIE 32 4th 1-page gag situation |
Martin, Lee also reused scripts (again, slightly revised) in many of the romance and mystery stories of the late 1960s (My Love/Our Love Story/Tower of Shadows/Chamber of Darkness). I'm sure this was also the case with Millie/Chilli and other new material stories from the late 60's-early 70's period, although I don't have many of those books to identify them.
ReplyDeleteOf course there is the question of how this was accomplished, since I doubt Lee kept any scripts. My guess is that Lee gave the artist stats of the story to follow and he then made alterations in the script when he received the art.
At least one of the Tales of the Watcher stories was a reused story.
ReplyDeleteand of course, this was done in other companies as well.
Shucks, ALL of the Tales of the Watcher stories in SILVER SURFER were recyclings of old stories, usually from AMAZING ADULT FANTASY. Mort Weisinger used to do that all the time; the origin of Mon-El was adapted from an earlier story, "Superman's Big Brother". Mort even admitted that more stories would be recycled in a note in a Superman 80 Page Giant. One of the Cat-Man stories in a 1963 DETECTIVE was recycled from an old Catwoman story. It went on more than you'd think.
ReplyDeleteThe ones that struck me at the time in TOS and COD were "The Four-Armed Men" and "The Beast from the Bog." Reprinting the originals at around the same time didn't help disguise the recycling.
ReplyDeleteNick, a third Millie title was started at the same time as CHILI when the feature went Archie-style--MAD ABOUT MILLIE--so they needed plenty of material. The funny thing is that after a while a greater number of original stories were used, as far as I can tell--until the Millie books succumbed to the fate of the romance and mystery titles: reprints.
And, of course, we can point to the Spirit stories from the early Forties that were recycled by Jules Feiffer in the late Forties. Also, Archie Comics does this all the time.
ReplyDelete