Tuesday, March 24, 2020

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).

Go-Go 2 page and Russ Jones signatures

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 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/     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

6 comments:

  1. Past tense might mean Joe Gill, but I dunno.

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    1. I don't find anything that says that Miss Bikini Luv story isn't his, at any rate. I see Gill suggested as the writer of the Dear Park letters feature early on, and I can't imagine where that came from.

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  2. How's about a writer listing for Kid Colt, Outlaw?

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    1. I'll do one later this month with more of Joe Gill's stories, at least.

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  3. I have been looking for the artist on The Arrow's Bruce Gentry for a long time. The Arrow was a shortlived prepepared tabloid newspaper section, filled with 'new' comic strips, some bought abroad, some hastily slapped together (apparently by Walter Gibson) and some based on old material (like Debbie Dean, now by Fred Bell). There are Bruce Gentry pages as well, not by Ray Bailey. The reason for that is probably that the character had gotten famous for the B-movies that were done at the end of Bailey's run. The not incompatent artist here signs Scap and I have always wondered who he was. Is it a coincidence that his signing Scap is so similar to the Scar here? You can find the whole issue (with Gentry) here: https://allthingsger.blogspot.com/search?q=arrow

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    1. I can't connect any of the signatures or the Bruce Gentry art, but "Scap" was in fact Henry Scarpelli's nickname, as his obituary online notes. In 1953, at 23, he was already in the industry at another syndicate, so his moonlighting on this isn't out of the question.

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