Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Almost Comics--But Not Quite

A Golden All-Star Book from Western (as a Golden Press imprint) is a storybook--prose and illustrations. Online sellers have mistaken it for a comic book--not only is it comic book size in dimensions and number of pages (36 including covers), most of the writers and artists were working at Western's Gold Key comics at the time. The exceptions as far as known credits go: Mary A. Mintz, whose only comic book credit is a story in Spidey Super Stories at Marvel, and Bill Ochs, credited on no comic books. (The Greatest here, by the way, is a novelization of the Muhammad Ali movie.)

Isis, Amazing Spider-Man

These two covers are the only paintings among almost all photo ones (Fat Albert is line art). I couldn't say who the painters are.

A Golden All-Star Book — 1977 — 59¢

6413 WELCOME BACK KOTTER
   w: Arnold Drake  a: Mel Crawford
Kotter for Sale
Wake Me to Say Goodbye
Down on the Farm
6414 STARSKY & HUTCH
   w: George Kashdan  a: Jack Sparling
Brother Avenger
No Time for Crime
A Mixed-Up Murder
6415 DONNIE & MARIE
   w: Wallace I. Green  a: José Delbo
If This Is Tuesday...
Some Vacation!
6416 ISIS
   w: Steve Skeates  a: Sparling
The Discovery
The Bermuda Triangle
Hard Lesson
6417 THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
   w: Mary A. Mintzer  a: Alden McWilliams
The Captive Crowd
Aunt May's Crusade
The Taking of Manhattan Isle!
6418 WELCOME BACK KOTTER
   w: Drake  a: Crawford
The Unteachables
Barbarino's in Love!
Kotter King of Krime
6419 WELCOME BACK KOTTER
   w: Drake  a: Sparling
Julie vs. the Gerbils
"Kotter's Pet"
Dreamboat Woodman
6420 CHARLIE'S ANGELS
   w: Kashdan  a: Sparling
6421 THE GREATEST
   w: Bill Ochs  a: John Celardo
The Greatest
6422 SPACE: 1999
   w: Mintzer  a: Frank Bolle
The Return of the Metamorph
Queen Brain
6423 STARSKY & HUTCH
   w: Kashdan  a: Crawford
6424 DONNIE & MARIE
   w: Gary Poole  a: Delbo
"Someone's Following Us!"
Pranks Aplenty!
Lost and Found
6425 FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS
   w: Drake  cover & a: Winslow Mortimer
The Night We Spent in Spooky House
Save Our Clubhouse
Happy Anniversary

1978 — 69¢

[no #] THE NEW KROFFT SUPERSHOW
   w: Mintzer  a: Mortimer
Wonderbug in Honk Meets a Quack
Kaptain Kool and the Kongs [1-pager]
Bigfoot and Wildboy in The Abominable Snowman
Kaptain Kool and the Kongs [1-pager]
Magic Mongo in The Three Wishes

7 comments:

  1. I wonder why they made a new Spider-Man logo?

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  2. At Gold Key, certainly, for the sake of a house look the art directors came up with new logos much more often than using the properties' existing logos or even fonts. Tarzan, U.N.C.L.E., Doc Savage, Star Trek...

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  3. Thanks for bringing these up! My dad (Arnold Drake) not only loved writing for Gold Key but, as always, loved the artists who brought his words to life. He spoke fondly of Jack Sparling and Winslow Mortimer. I loved reading his scripts, particularly WELCOME BACK KOTTER, which was really funny.

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  4. Loved Arnold's work on STARSTREAM.

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  5. Just scored one of Drake's Kotter books on eBay. Looking forward to reading and writing about it.

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  6. Interestingly enough, Charlton's SICK has an issue (#115) with parodies of three of these series--Kotter, Starsky & Hutch, and Charlie's Angels--the first two written by Arnold Drake and all with art by editor Jack Sparling.

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  7. Someone should publish a BEST OF SICK collection.

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