Molno on Dell's Superheroes

I'd IDed Bill Ely ghosting pencils for Sal Trapani on Dell's Superheroes #1-2, and my best guess at the time at #3-4 was Bill Fraccio.  In his blog, though, Lee Hartsfeld was tracking down Bill Molno ghosting Trapani, and suggested him as the penciller for Superheroes #3. Lee didn't get to pursue that on his blog before he discontinued it, so I'll back him up with this post and say that Molno ghosted #4 too.

I've repeated my IDs of Ely so these lists cover all the data not on the Grand Comics Database. #3's cover is the only one I 'd commit to Molno on, but I wouldn't be surprised if he and Ely pencilled their respective covers on 1, 2, and 4 too.

The writer looks the same for all four issues. But is it someone whose sole credit is this series or is it one of the usual suspects going for a more "with-it," caption-heavy style (and more in the manner of Bob Haney than Stan Lee)?

Superheroes

Jan/67	1	The Origin of the Fab Four (3 pts)	p: Bill Ely
Apr/	2	The Clowns	p: Ely
		Nutt's Revenge	p: Ely
		Enslaved	p: Ely
May/	3	(cover)	p: Bill Molno
		Meet Coalman	p: Molno
		The Mad Magician	p: Molno
		Nepto of the Reef	p: Molno
June/	4	The Hypno-Trap	p: Molno
		Metamorphosis	p: Molno
		Meet Mr. Mod	p: Molno
		Endsville	p: Molno

8 or 9 Carl Memling Stories on Cowboy Western

This was going to be merely a writer's list post, and yet what should appear but another refry--a script reused with new art. This one may hold a record--the refry appeared a mere two issues after the original, and under the same title. "Cry for Revenge" is slightly rewritten from a standalone in Charton's Cowboy Western 47 to a Golden Arrow series story in #49.

But speaking of the writer's list, there were a few Western comics at Charlton during Carl Memling's tenure, alongside the more numerous weird and crime titles he wrote for. I was reminded of him when I flipped through Cowboy Western 48 and saw a character in the Rip Ryan story say he was "practicin' triggernometry"--a line used ten years later in the first three isssues of Dell's Idaho, one of Memling's credits in the Who's Who. Another sign in "Trigger Bait" of the writer of Idaho is calling guns "smokepoles"--a term Golden Arrow uses, too, in his "Cry for Revenge" story.

Written by Carl Memling:
Cowboy Western

Dec/53	47	Sentence of Death [RIP RYAN]
		The Way of a Killer
		Trail's End
		Cry for Revenge
Spr/54	48	Trigger Bait [RIP RYAN]
		One Horsepower
May/	49	Triple-Test
		The Deadly Wolf-Pack [BLACK JACK]
		Cry for Revenge [GOLDEN ARROW]

Inspiration Before the Giant Turtle Man

Mort Weisinger's reuse of cover images from the Standard pulps, where he had been an editor in the 1940s, has been pointed out often, but I don't know if this one has been. The iconic such swipe is "The Giant Turtle Man" in Jimmy Olsen 52 (June/61), from a Thrilling Wonder Stories cover. Here, from the previous year, is a JO cover (#43, March/60) not using the original pulp cover's design but borrowing a monster design from it. The artist of Startling Stories March 1940 is uncredited. Curt Swan pencilled the JO cover as well as the story, and did the follow-up cover and story in JO 47 (Sep/60) and used the monster as the centerpiece of the cover of 80 Pg. Giant 6 (1965), Superman featuring Fantastic Things and Creatures.

Open the Door Six Times, Then Two More

In my skimming the 1950s DC funny animal titles, a couple of stories with reused scripts jumped out at me, because the originals were so distinctive--they were part of a comic book with a running gag throughout the different strips in the issue.

All the strips in Funny Stuff 25 (Sept/47) are untitled stories. At the end of the first Dodo and the Frog story, the Frog is stuck in the Dodo's closet yelling "Open de door, Dodo!"

("Open the Door, Richard" was a vaudeville routine whose song verion was released as a record in 1946 and got on the Billboard charts in 1947.)

Then in the 3 Mouseketeers story a house is seen in one panel's background with "Open da door, Dodo" coming from it; likewise in the Henry the Laffing Hyena story a similar balloon is making its way under a door. (These could be editorial emendations.) Blackie Bear in his story interacts with the Frog in the closet; so does J. Rufus Lion in his. There's a Dodo and the Frog half-pager with the Frog still in there, and finally the second D&F story gives the situation a punchline.

In Animal Antics 49 (Mar-Apr/54) the Nip and Chip story refries the first of FS 25's D&F stories--never getting to the actual punchline of the entire Frog-in-the-closet saga. Interestingly enough, there's a cameo at Nip's home: the Dodo. The Raccoon Kids story "Boom!" refries the earlier Blackie Bear story, but the house in this version remains the Dodo's--and he's the one in the closet this time. The Professor from the Nutsy Squirrel strip plays the same role in both the Blackie and Raccoon Kids versions.

I don't know who wrote the Funny Stuff stories, and the refries are pretty much that person's work transcribed, but from the tales about editor Larry Nadle, he may well have vouchered DC checks for himself for the "new" scripts.

stories in HOLLYWOOD'S ANIMAL ANTICS 49
reworking earlier scripts

Mar-Apr/54	49	(NIP AND CHIP)
		from FUNNY STUFF 25 1st Dodo and the Frog story
		Boom! (RACCOON KIDS)
		from FUNNY STUFF 25 Blackie Bear story

Rawhide Kid and Wyatt Earp and a Couple of Writers

Here are two Atlas western hero writer's lists--taking up not too much space since there's only one writer on each before Stan Lee takes over (and in fact his Rawhide Kid is the completely new version started with Jack Kirby a couple of years after this one is cancelled). This isn't too surprising; in 1954-58, Joe Gill has ended up the sole Kid Colt writer pre-Lee.

"The Day Marshal Earp Met Annie Oakley" in WE 5 (July/56) guest-stars the Atlas version of Annie from her own comic book--her 1955-56 feature being written solely by Hank Chapman. To bring her a little more in line with the historical Annie and thus further the conceit that this Wyatt Earp comic is "based upon the facts and legends from the career of the amazing life of Wyatt Earp," this is the only time her real name is mentioned.

scripts by Don Rico
in RAWHIDE KID

Mar/55-Sep/57

1-16

all Rawhide Kid scripts

Rawhide Kid script by Rico
in WYATT EARP

Dec/58

20

The Last Outlaw

scripts by Hank Chapman
in WYATT EARP

Nov/55-Feb/58

1-15

all Wyatt Earp scripts

Wyatt Earp script by Chapman
in WILD WESTERN

Jan/56

47

The Lion of Tombstone

Wyatt Earp scripts by Chapman
in GUNSMOKE WESTERN

Jun/56	35	The Terror of Tombstone
Aug/	36	Apaches on the Warpath
Jan/58	44	Apache Trouble

Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy and Mr. Bozo

Both of Dell's titles from Larry Harmon cartoons, after the first issues, are done by the same so far unidentified writer and artist on all the comics stories, including one-pagers and backups. Compare the titles of these stories from the second issue of each: Bozo the Clown #2 (April-June/63), and Laurel and Hardy #2, (March-May/63).

I don't recognize the styles from anything else at Dell--or in fact anywhere--so I suggest that the material was supplied by Larry Harmon's production company.

The first issues Dell evidently did in-house. Tony Tallarico, who had nothing to do with issues 2-4, did the art on Bozo #1--and as happened only occasionally at this point, without Bill Fraccio pencils.

Paul C. Ignizio has cited Laurel and Hardy as one of the titles he wrote for Dell, along with Car 54, Where Are You? and The Twist. If L&H #1 was indeed the only issue done at Dell, it's the one most likely to be his. A point of similarity that jumps out between L&H #1 and Car 54 #3 (Oct/62) is Indians who say "I/Me scalpum!" (I'm still looking over Car 54--I don't think Ignizio wrote every issue.)

BOZO THE CLOWN
(* = single page)

May-June/62	#1	Facts About Clowns [TEXT] *	p, i: Tony Tallarico
		Circus to the Moon	p, i: Tallarico
		The Chimp That Made a Monkey Out of Bozo	p, i: Tallarico
		The Worm That Had the Strangest Tale	p, i: Tallarico
		The Clown in Show Business [TEXT] *	p, i: Tallarico
		Make Up and Costumes of Clowns [TEXT] *	p, i: Tallarico

LAUREL AND HARDY
(* = single page)

Aug-Oct/62	#1	A Record Lunch *	w: Paul C. Ignizio
		The Tourists	w: Ignizio
		Bell of the Brawl *	w: Ignizio
		Hair and There *	w: Ignizio

Paul Gustavson Flits By on Plastic Man

The best place to look in order to identify an artist on a series story is not in the continuing characters, who are expected to be on-model, but with one-time walk-ons. An example is Curt Swan's earliest Superman stories, where Superman himself is comparatively cartoonish in physique to match the contemporary artists' version, but the crowd scene folks are afforded more of Swan's trademark realism.

So here in Plastic Man #41, as Paul Gustavson appears for one issue (except for the Woozy solo story, pencilled by Jack Cole), Plas and Woozy look much as they do every issue, but the gangster that Plas replaces in the page from "Beast," especially in the last panel, and the Rajah in the tier from "Red Wreckers," best show the Gustavson style to me.

It would be a lot easier to tell apart the pencillers if the inking weren't imposing a rather muddy house style on everything. The scripts are by Joe Millard.

Plastic Man Pencilled by Paul Gustavson

May/53	41	The Beast with the Bloody Claws
		The Bounding Bandit
		The Red Wreckers of Rangistan

Kid Colt: The Rest of the Stories

In his 1947 tome Secrets Behind the Comics Stan Lee shows the script layout in use at Timely--panel descriptions down the left-hand side of the page, captions/dialogue down the right hand. It seems like extra work for the writer--figuring out the spacing needed to match up the panels in the two columns--but certainly it would make it easier for the artist and letterer to focus on only what each needs.

It would also make it easier for the editor if he wants to keep the panel descriptions from the original writer but for whatever reason get a second writer to replace the text. According to his records, Paul S. Newman sold "His Brother's Keeper" in Wild Western #8 to Timely. But from the style, Ernie Hart wrote it. I would figure Newman's left-hand side of the script was used and then Hart did a replacement right-hand side. (Occasionally Timely bought scripts for ongoing strips that weren't even "salvaged" like this--a good ten Captain Americas from William Woolfolk, per his records, were paid for but then never published.)

Here's what makes me assign the final script of "His Brother's Keeper" to Hart: "We pick up the trail again" in that story and then in the Ant-Man story "Music to Scream By" in Tales to Astonish 47 (Sep/63), credited as H. E. Huntley. I'd be a touch less than 100% certain only if I ever ran across Newman using the authorial "we" anywhere.

UPDATE: Robin Snyder tells me he's deleting "His Brother's Keeper" from the Newman bibliography, as Paul S. Newman's earliest credits were reconstructed based on having the books in his files (for most of Newman's career, commencing soon after, his records contain much more corroborating material). "He advised me to delete any credit if there was the slightest doubt that it was his. He was aware that some writers also kept records and he preferred to give up any credit if he or I thought it possible he was mistaken."

Kid Colt writers in All Western Winners

Win/48-Apr/49

2-4

Kid Colt stories

E. H. Hart

in Western Winners

June/-Aug/49

5-6

Kid Colt stories

Hart

in Best Western

June/-Aug/49

58-59

Kid Colt stories

Hart

in Wild Western

Nov/48-Jan/49	4-5	Kid Colt stories	Hart
May/	7	The Curse of the Chinese Idol	Hart (credited in sneak)
July/	8	His Brother's Keeper	plot: Paul S. Newman
			dialogue: Hart
Oct/	9	The End of the Trail	Hart
Feb/-Aug/52	20-23	Kid Colt stories	Leon Lazarus
Oct/	24	Whip Savage [2 parts]	Hart
Dec/52-Sep/53	25-29	Kid Colt stories [2 each, 25-26]	Lazarus
Oct/	30	Justice in His Holsters	Hart
Dec/53-Sep/57	31-57	Kid Colt stories	Joe Gill

in Two-Gun Kid

Nov/49	10	The Hunter and the Hunted	Hart
June/54	14	[The New Deputy]	Gill
Aug/	15	The New Sheriff	Lazarus
Sep/54-Feb/55	16-21	Kid Colt stories	Gill

in Two Gun Western

Aug/51-June/52

9-14

Kid Colt stories

Lazarus

in Black Rider

Jan/-Mar/55

26-27

Kid Colt stories

Gill

Joe Shuster Makes an Appearance

After Joe Shuster's last work on Superman and Superboy in 1946, his next comic book appearance that I was aware of was the first Invisible Boy story published by St. John in 1954 (then Bill Molno ghosted for him at Charlton in 1954-55). Here between those appearances is a story and a featurette at Standard. This is Shuster's only work in the run of Popular Romance, but not having the complete collection of Standard romance books (for now, at least, with my Internet access limited in the pandemic) I wonder if he may have some work in other titles there around 1950. Whereas the inks on Invisible Boy remind me of those on some Superman stories, the inks here certainly don't.


Joe Shuster pencils in
Popular Romance

Mar/50	6	A Song in My Heart
		Nora's Notes

The Pre-Lee K.C. Big Three

A month or so ago darkmark asked if I could put a name to the Kid Colt writer who used "I'll cut ya ta doll-rags" in a handful of stories--it's in the Kid's first appearance, in KC 1, as seen here. I couldn't then, but as I've pored over the early Kid Colt, I found that writer--he has a sneak along with artist Russ Heath in a newspaper in the story in Wild Western 7 (May/49). (WW and a number of other titles contain enough Kid Colt stories for yet another post after this one devoted to his own title.)

Ernie Hart (he signed himself E.H. Hart in the Forties) doesn't use the doll-rags expression in that particular story, but it matches up with the style I'd found for many of the early ones. There are a few stories in Kid Colt Outlaw that I can't convince myself yet are Hart's--for instance, "The Giant of the Badlands" in #4 is the only one to use "Sufferin' coyotes"; "Death Waits in the Shadows" in #8 is the only one to use past-tense captions throughout.

The next major writer on the character, Leon Lazarus, is easy to spot when he uses expressions like "By Judas" and "'Sta la vista" but when he doesn't, his style and Joe Gill's are rather similar. However, Lazarus tends to call Kid Colt "the outlaw" in captions whereas Gill generally calls him "the Kid."

As in Gunsmoke Western, when KCO returned after the Atlas Implosion there were enough Joe Gill stories on hand to fill two more issues (75 and 76) before Stan Lee had to take over writing the strip.

Carl Wessler is credited in the Who's Who with stories in 1957 for Kid Colt as well as The Kid from Dodge City, The Kid from Texas, Kid Slade, and the Outlaw Kid, but I believe his stories will turn out to be non-series Western backups in those characters' titles. UPDATE: Robin Snyder tells me that per Wessler's records, he had one story in this title: "This Man Is Wanted," the backup in #76 (Jan/58).

Kid Colt Outlaw writers

Aug/-Dec/48	1-3	all Kid Colt stories	E. H. Hart
Feb/49	4	Six-Gun Deadline	Hart
		Fight or Crawl, Outlaw	Hart
		Bushwhacker's Boomerang	Hart
May/-Nov/	5-7	all Kid Colt stories except text	Hart
Feb/50	8	Ambush in Lone Valley	Hart
May/	9	The Man from Nowhere	Leon Lazarus
		The Meanest Man in the World	Hart
		A Matter of Pride	Lazarus
		Secret of the Hidden Mine	Lazarus
		The Gun-Shy Sheriff	Lazarus
July/	10	all Kid Colt stories	Lazarus
Oct/	11	Captured by Comanches	Lazarus
Jan/51-Aug/53	12-29	all Kid Colt stories	Lazarus
Sep/	30	[The Young Outlaw]	Joe Gill
		[Mission of Vengeance]	Lazarus
		[The Sword of Vengeance]	Lazarus
Oct/	31	all Kid Colt stories	Lazarus
Dec/	32	[A Dangerous Woman]	Gill
		[Peaceful Valley]	Gill
		Death Rides the Stage	Lazarus
Jan/54–Jan/58	33-76	all Kid Colt stories	Gill

Coming On Like Police

This Gangbusters penciller is familiar enough, but the inker isn't anyone I've seen on the title.

And for good reason. "The Cop They Couldn't Lick" isn't from DC's Gangbusters at all but from Quality's Police Comics #102, October 1950. (The last Plastic Man/Spirit issue; this first in a series of miscellaneous police backups got a jump on the switchover in #103 to Ken Shannon, T-Man, and other non-superhero police-type features.)

I actually couldn't tell you who's inking Curt Swan here (or in fact many of the Quality inkers of the period apart from Chuck Cuidera). The writer is Joe Millard. Like Swan's single story (seen so far!) for Atlas, this is the only piece I've found of his at Quality. By the way, compare the date of that Atlas story ("Killer at Large" in Crime Cases #25): November 1950.

From the Burt Frohman Collection

As a writer Burt Frohman (he was an artist earlier) kept records by filing away his comic-book scripts with copies of the issues they were published in. The Who's Who lists some issue numbers like Strange Tales 22 and Uncanny Tales 12 at Atlas; the Grand Comics Database gives the specific stories for those issues--respectively "What Happened on the Moon?" and "Dead End." The info in both the WW and GCD comes from Frank Motler, who cites the actual comics and scripts from the Frohman collection.

Among the issues listed in the Who's Who are Atlas's Men's Adventures 22 and 23. Going by "What Happened on the Moon?" (first tier) I was able to pick out one of the MA stories. Compare the captions. I couldn't find a story of his in #22, and wonder if his contribution is the text piece, inasmuch as he did them as well as full-length stories and single-page featurettes--see below.

Scripted by Burt Frohman

Men's Adventures

Sep/53

#23

The Wrong Body

The Burt Frohman collection having been sold off, some comics in it have shown up online, and the scripts included are a part of the cachet, so some pages of them are shown too. davet75 has posted purchases on this message board--scroll down to the Hand of Fate cover. The Indian Braves issues are on eBay; the auction for #1 mentions three scripts but only gives photos of  two.

These series are both from Ace. Editor Alan Sulman changed Frohman's titles, and in fact changed the name of the series hero in the first story in Indian Braves from Lone Eagle to Green Arrowhead; Frohman then used that name in the script for #2.

Scripts Seen Online from the
Burt Frohman Collection

The Hand of Fate

Feb/52	#9	It Is Written: I Die Tomorrow!
Apr/	#10	Bride of the Golden Skull

Indian Braves

Mar/51	#1	Trader in Death
		The American Indian: His Customs
		[and a third piece in the issue]
May/	#2	Retribution for a Renegade
		The American Indian: His Customs #3
		The Flaming Stallion [TEXT]

A Go-Go Signature Check

For issue #2 of Charlton's mod humor comic Go-Go, the Grand Comics Database gives the writer of the Rotting Stmups and Return to Peculiar Place stories as "Craig Tennis? [as Tennis] (signed)." Which is fine as far as it goes, but the signatures are longer than "Tennis." The Rotting Stumps story is signed "Tennis Senoj" and the Return to Peculiar Place one is signed "Tennis Scarones."

Inasmuch as the only other Craig Tennis credits I know of are on the 1966 graphic novels Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror (Pyramid) and Dracula (Ballantine), I figured "Senoj" in the first signature and in the "ones" part of the second is the packager of the two books, writer-artist Russ Jones. The third signature here is from DC's Mystery in Space 108 (June/66).

I can't see Jones' pencils in these Go-Go stories, so I'd credit him here as a inker. I was going to say co-writer--I would have thought the art on these two stories is completely Henry Scarpelli, the "Scar" part of the second signature although left out of the first. But then I asked myself how the writer would get hold of the art to sign it.

Of the four Scarpelli stories in #1 and 2, there seems to be someone else's pencilling in places at least on the Rotting Stumps story in #1--most notably the faces of the girls in the crowd scenes.

I'm not seeing D. J. Arneson's writing on these early issues. Note that #2's Miss Bikini Luv story is in the past tense, which is not the case in Arneson's stories as "Norm DiPluhm" in the later issues.

New attributions on Charlton's Go-Go #1-2
(underlined = signed)

June/66	1	The Rotting Stumps	p: Henry Scarpelli, and another?
			i: Scarpelli
		Miss Bikini Luv	w: ? (not D. J. Arneson)
		Return to Peculiar Place	w: ? (not Arneson)
			a: Scarpelli
Aug/	2	The Rotting Stumps	w: Craig Tennis
			p: Scarpelli  i: Russ Jones
		Miss Bikini Luv	w: ? (not Arneson)
		Return to Peculiar Place	w: Tennis
			p: Scarpelli  i: Jones

Spy Fighter Written by (Mostly) Robert Bernstein

Clark Mason, Spy Fighter is a feature at Atlas written, all but two stories, by Robert Bernstein, including the origin in issue 1, "The Snake of Saigon," as seen here (art by George Tuska). The "Eaaaa" was my signal to look for other Bernstein mannerisms among the stories. Remember that he was writing Black Rider for Atlas at the time; there he actually got a number of credit lines thanks to artist Jay Scott Pike.

I can ID a few of the backup stories, ones written by main feature writers Bernstein or Hank Chapman. The one art ID I'll put forth is a story by the "Dinosaur Island" Batman artist, Paul Cooper.

Jumping on the war magazine bandwagon for a while, Clark Mason is in uniform as an Army lieutenant and then a captain, in combat in Korea in #9 through #13.

Clark Mason writers in Spy Fighters

Mar/51–Jul/52	1-9	(all Clark Mason stories)	Robert Bernstein
Sep/52	10	P-38	Bernstein
		The Vision	Hank Chapman
		Suicide Flight	Bernstein
Nov/	11	(all Clark Mason stories)	Bernstein
Jan/53	12	The Silent Death	Bernstein
		The Strange Enemy	Chapman
		Captured!	Bernstein
Mar/–Jul/53	13-15	(all Clark Mason stories)	Bernstein

Backup stories in Spy Fighters

Sep/51	4	Deadliest of the Species	pencils: Paul Cooper
Nov/	5	Arsenal for R-Day	wr: Bernstein
Mar/52	7	The Tower of Terror	wr: Bernstein
Sep/	10	Secret Weapon	wr: Bernstein
Nov/	11	The Destroyer	wr: Bernstein
Jan/53	12	The Human Target	wr: Chapman

Morrow After Kirby

Having looked through the Perry Rhodan covers earlier, I didn't make this connection until I was rereading Fantastic Four from the beginning. This Jack Kirby panel is from FF 66 (Sept/67), the first half of the Citadel of Science story that culminated in the revealing of Him. Notice what Gray Morrow used and didn't use in the 1973 A World Gone Mad painting--he incorporated the technician into a shape in the tech.

Oleck and Davis: The Gunsmoke Kid #1 That Never Was

I would think that the Gunsmoke Kid was meant to be an ongoing series like the Kid from Dodge City and the Kid from Texas. Those two had their own 1957 titles that lasted all of two issues apiece; the Gunsmoke Kid didn't even make it as far as a number one issue before the Atlas Implosion struck. His four stories were printed out of inventory two years later in three of the post-Timely, pre-Marvel company's surviving Western titles.

As I was looking through Gunsmoke Western the last time, only one Jack Oleck backup story jumped out at me, but as I was going through Wyatt Earp I did notice his style on the Gunsmoke Kid story, and a closer look at the others showed he'd written all four. These tiers from the origin in WE 25 give us captions with the typical Oleck narration reflecting as much as reporting on past events.

Although Oleck left Atlas as of the Implosion, Davis would return a few times; as it happens, the cover to Gunsmoke Western 54 is a new Kid Colt/Wyatt Earp one by him.

Gunsmoke Kid
Written by Jack Oleck, art by Jack Davis
in Gunsmoke Western

Sep/59	54	When Gunslingers Meet
Nov/	55	Hired Gun

in Wyatt Earp

Oct/59

25

[Origin of the Gunsmoke Kid]

in Kid Colt

Nov/59

87

Secret Weapon