Sal Trapani Credit Where Due: Nature Boy

After all the times that Sal Trapani was given the attribution for his ghosts' pencils, it's only fair to give him credit for some stories he did ink without being recognized. I'm not sure who did the pencils on "Starvation Valley" in Nature Boy #4. Could Bill Fraccio have done any?

Jerry Siegel has been correctly credited with the John Buscema drawn stories in #3 (the first issue) and #5. The guess at Joe Gill for #4 and one story in #5 happens to have hit the mark, but another writer known to have been at Charlton in the 1950s wasn't considered. That's Ken Fitch, whose "Aiyyy" is seen in his later Dell work such as Space Man.

Nature Boy

Aug/56	4	A World Gone Mad	i: Sal Trapani
		Starvation Valley	p: Molno?  i: Rocke Mastroserio?
		Nature Boy's Private War	i: Trapani
		Peaceful Island	i: Trapani
Feb/57	5	Desert Intrigue	w: Ken Fitch   i: Trapani
		Menace from the Hills	w: Fitch  i: Trapani
		Bringing Up Junior	i: Trapani

Robert Bernstein Starts Out on Crime Does Not Pay

Flipping through Crime Does Not Pay, I'll stop to recheck a story for more Robert Bernstein clues once my eye has been caught by his typical exclamations like "Eeeiii" and "Iiiieee." This tier is from "Bonnie Parker" in #57.

"Ghouls' Gold," possibly Bernstein's first published comic book story, is given a rare credit line. He wrote for CDNP and other titles for the publisher, Lev Gleason, from 1943 to 1955; here's the first part of a listing.

I haven't seen CDNP 46 and 54.

Crime Does Not Pay Anthology Stories
1946-48
Written by Robert Bernstein

Jan/46	43	Ghouls' Gold
Mar/	44	Mrs. Bluebeard
Sep/	47	A Weird Weekend (WHO DUNNIT?)
Nov/	48	The Greedy Gunman
		Mutiny on the Rock
Jan/47	49	Devil's Diary
		Mother of Murderers
		Brother Rats
Mar/	50	The Kill-Crazy Fleagle Brothers
		Danny Iamascia, Dutch Shultz's Triggerman
		The Invisible Killer (WHO DUNNIT?)
May/	51	The Hoover Brothers
		Pretty Boy Floyd, the Two-Faced Terrorr
		Washed in Blood
		Who Dunnit?
July/	53	Carlo Barone, the Murderous Bully
		Dr. Holmes, the Master of Murder Castle
		Death Stalks the Diamond (WHO DUNNIT?)
Sep/	55	Louis Lepke Buchalter
		"Shoe-Box" Annie
Oct/	56	The True Story of Big Mouth Nick Luciano
Nov/	57	Bonnie Parker
		The Wild Spree of the Laughing Sadist--Herman Duker
		Case of the Murdered Bathing Beauty (WHO DUNNIT?)
Dec/	58	Thomas Dun, Single-Handed Killer of Thousands
Jan/48	59	Vic Everhart, the Kill-Crazy Scoundrel
		Alvin Karpis
		Cut Rate Murder
		Financier of Death
Feb/	60	Verne Miller
		Who Dunnit?
		Was She a Monster?
Mar/	61	Clay Fogelman, Meanest Man of Crime
		Who Dunnit?
Apr/	62	William Nevinson, the Terror of the Roads
		William Bonney, Alias Billy the Kid
June/	64	Walter Legenza the Gangster
		Robert James
Aug/	66	The Savage Genna Brothers--Bootleggers
		Dick Richards
		Who Dunnit?
Sep/	67	Once There Were Three Killers from Brooklyn...
		The End of the Deadly O'Malley Gang
Oct/	68	Little Hymie Nabosco
		Belle Shirley, the Angel-Faced She-Devil
Nov/	69	The Gruesome Foursome--Including Emil, the Half-Wit