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]

Carl Memling Suspense Stories

A feature of Charlton's Lawbreakers Suspense Stories and its retitling, Strange Suspense Stories, for awhile was the contest where readers provided a solution to an unfinished story; that synopsis would be scripted and illustrated in a later issue. The odd thing is that Carl Memling scripted five of the solutions but only one of the unfinished story/solution pairs.

"What Was in Sam Dora's Box?" (art by Steve Ditko) recycles a gimmick from an EC story but the pun in the character's name is what's of interest here; compare with the (better) pun for Memling's story "Appointment with Sam Mara" in Dell's Ghost Stories 4 Oct-Dec/63).

Memling's stories may start in #11, which I haven't seen.

Written by Carl Memling:
Lawbreakers Suspense Stories

May/53	12	Breakout
		Murder on Rye
July/	13	Death Raps Twice
		Escape from the Noose
		Change in Script
Sep/	14	Man Overboard
		The Last Drop
		Richard Capp's Solution to "Murder on Rye"
Nov/	15	Out of the Frying Pan

Strange Suspense Stories

Mar/54	17	Beautiful Night for Murder
		10¢ Worth of Doom
May/	18	What Was in Sam Dora's Box?
		Caroline Denver's Solution to "Face to Face"
		Dead Right
Jul/	19	All Burnt Up
Aug/	20	The Payoff
		Donald Coronado's Solution to "Moment of Decision"
Sep/	21	Mary Lou Wachtel's Solution to..."Prize Package"
Nov/	22	Malcolm Hutcher's Solution to..."The Kill"

Space Adventures--Carl Memling and More

Below are listed the stories in Charlton's Space Adventures that I attribute to Carl Memling from the writing style. While looking over the run, I came across some other items of interest.

"The Uncharted Planet" in #6 (May/53) is lifted from A. E. Van Vogt's story "Enchanted Village" in the magazine Other Worlds (July/50). It had already been lifted in Atlas/Marvel's Journey into Unknown Worlds 9 (Feb/52) as "The Four Walls" and would be legitimately adapted in Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction 4 (July/75). The Charlton version is drawn by Art Cappello while the Marvel adaptation's art is by Dick Giordano. (The latter's script is by Don and Maggie Thompson.)

Without the ECs before me but going by memory, I'm going to venture that "Transformation" (art by a younger Dick Giordano) in SA 7 (July/53) lifts one of their stories. From a list of their titles, I'd figure the original for "There'll Be Some Changes Made!" in Weird Science 14 (July-Aug/52). I don't want to ruin the endings; maybe someone with access to both can say yea or nay.

And I can ID one other story's writer in this period. "Jealousy on Kano" in #16 (May/55) is by Ken Fitch ("Aaiiiyyy!"). He wrote some stories for Charlton, and had some published by them out of inventory bought from other publishers; with the art on this one by Bernie Krigstein, I'm going to guess it was done for someone else.

Carl Memling Scripts in
Space Adventures

July/53	7	The Doomed Civilization
Sep/	8	All for Love
Win/54	9	Speed-Up
		A Fistful of Doom
		The Good Old Days
		The Day Fido Sang
Spr/	10	Canterbury's Camera
		Back to Earth
Aug/	12	Too Much to Swallow
		The Morning After

Thank You, Thing: More Memling

The Thing is Charlton's first horror book. They shortly pick up This Magazine Is Haunted from Fawcett, but after that their weird-story titles fall under the Comics Code and can't be called horror.

The Thing starts as a showcase for artists Bob Forgione, John Belfi, and the like, but about two-thirds along in its run becomes more the Charlton we recognize with the coming of Dick Ayers, Bill Molno, and most importantly Steve Ditko. Carl Memling starts writing before the change in the artists' lineup, and from then on has at least one story in every issue through the final one. He may have written more stories than those here, but these are the ones of which I can be positive. There are two Memling tells in the final balloon above.

The Thing
Written by Carl Memling

May/53	8	A Grave Situation
		Death Has Deep Roots
Jul/	9	Mardu's Masterpiece
		The Road to Madness
		Operation Massacre
		The Dead Man's Hand
Sep/	10	Flower of Evil
		Into the Fire
		Death Has Three Fingers
N-D/	11	Hansel and Gretel
		The Glitter of Evil
		Deep Freeze
		Blind Vengeance
Feb/54	12	Melvin Comes Home
Apr/	13	Poor Fish
June/	14	The Evil Eye
		Doom in the Air
		Blind Vengeance
J-A/	15	Day of Reckoning
Sep/	16	Death of a Gambler
		Picture of the Future
		Mental Wizard
		The Crusher
Nov/	17	Bad Blood

More Charlton Crime from Carl Memling

You'd imagine that Charlton's Racket Squad in Action would be the least objectionable of the crime comics, its subject matter being swindles rather than injuries to the eye or Tommy-gun massacres. I'm sure Frederick Wertham considered it a how-to manual, however; and certainly Charlton put out enough other material sitting there smoking and saying, "What are you gonna do? Comics-Code me?"


Walter B. Gibson is listed as assistant editor on issues 1-9. Although so far I've concentrated on finding Carl Memling's stories, it strikes me that Gibson could have written all the stories in #1-7 as well as "The Fake Bond Swindle" in #9.

Carl Memling turns out to be Charlton's main writer from mid-1953 into early 1955 by cover dates. (He’s well-represented in their horror comics too.) There are other writers; in Racket Squad 13, "Malignant Model Agency" and "The Basketball Scandals" are by the same person, whoever that may be. Ken Fitch is known to have written Racket Squad in 1955-56. Joe Gill starts writing for the title in 1956 (it did survive under the Code) and is its sole comics writer by the last issue, #29, in 1958.

Carl Memling Scripts in
Racket Squad in Action

Aug/53	8	In the Driver's Seat
		The Death Notice Racket
		Hush Money
		The Misery Chiselers
Oct/	9	Two Fisted Fix
		Reverse Twist
		Letter Perfect
Jan/54	10	Stamp of Guilt
		A Handful of Aces
		When Two Thieves Meet
		Door to Door Swindle
		The Stradivarius Swindle
M-J/	11	Botticelli of the Bangtails
		Photo Frame-Up
A-S/	12	Robbery by Appointment
		The Ransom Swindle
		Refund Artist
		Protection Game
O-N/	13	Your Money or Your Face!
		Hot Ice
		A Case for the Police
		Free Pick-Up
Jan/55	14	The Big Freeze
		Shakedown
		The Double-Talk-Artists
Mar/	15	Limited Edition
		Blackmail
		Double Trouble

Carl Memling at Charlton--Who Knew?

I was looking for Carl Memling scripts at Timely/Atlas in the Fifties, where he's known to have written for the horror anthologies (I haven't found any of his there yet); but with his style fresh in my mind, when I was merely reading some Fifties Charlton comics and not expecting to recognize writers, I happened across him. A Memling trademark that I've mentioned before is sirens or car engines going "Rowrrrrr."

There are one or two more Crime and Justice scripts that could be Memling's, but I'll err on the side of caution and leave them off for now. I'll get to more titles eventually; he wrote quite a bit in two years or so.

The writers known to have done some work for Charlton in the early-through-mid-Fifties include Walter B. Gibson, Bruce Hamilton, Ken Fitch, Harry Shorten, and Jerry Siegel. Fitch was one writer who, in addition to scripts written directly for Charlton, had work published there out of other companies' bought-out inventories. Joe Gill was writing for Charlton around 1954 but didn't become their house writer, filling almost all the pages, for another few years.

Carl Memling Scripts in
Crime and Justice

July/53	14	Down the Drain
		Three O'Clock Shadow
Sep/	15	Vacation from Violence [MR & MRS CHASE]
		Behind Locked Doors
		Stormy Crossing
		Eye Witness
Nov/	16	Peril on the Pacific [MR & MRS CHASE]
		The Hatchet Is Buried
Feb/54	17	No Way Out
Apr/	18	Killer on the Loose [RADIO PATROL]
		Terror under the Big Top [MR & MRS CHASE]
July/	19	Three's a Mob
Sep/	20	A Deadly Circle [RADIO PATROL]
Nov/	21	The $64,000 Question [MR & MRS CHASE]
		Road Pirates

Two Dell TV Tie-ins

There are a number of early Dell Sixties writers I haven't been able to identify and may never. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are non-comics writers contacted by the "new" company as it split off from Western. Herbert D. Kastle (Brain Boy), Berhardt J. Hurwood (the Dracula Movie Classic), and Burt Hirschfeld (no specifics known) are three writers identified more with paperback work.

Carl Memling's writing I can identify; here are two of his short-run TV tie-ins. He stayed on each twice as long as any of the artists! "Ulppp" as seen in this page from Defenders 2 is a Memlingism.

I can't figure the inker on Mike Sekowsky's pencils in Stoney Burke 1; the inks don't look like Mike Peppe's over Sekowsky as in Man from UNCLE or The Frogmen. I'd show a page but I'm having some problems staying logged in to the public-domain site with the downloads.

The Defenders

Nov/62	#1	The Defenders	w: Carl Memling  a: Frank Springer
Apr/63	#2	Trial by Fury	w: Memling  a: Gerald McCann

Stoney Burke

Aug/63	#1	Big Man, Big Hate	w: Carl Memling  p: Mike Sekowsky
Nov/	#2	Target for a Sniper	w: Memling  a: Jack Sparling

Writers: Ghost Stories 1-10

This is the first half of the run of new material in Dell's Ghost Stories. These issues are reprinted in order as #21-30. All the dates are shown as quarterly on the comics, so my Nov/62 is short for Sept-Nov/62, and so on.

I see three different writers on Ghost Stories 1; "The Monster of Dread End" and "The Black Stallion" are caption-heavy as anything in spots, but "The Werewolf Wasp" and "The Door" don't use a single caption between them. "The Door" moreover uses no sound effects and even makes do with a number of silent panels. I don't think John Stanley scripted the entire issue.

A few years ago, I mistakenly attributed Ghost Stories 2's scripts to Paul S. Newman. His stories appear in the second half of the run.

Ed Robbins drew "Dread End," and two unknown artists did the next two stories in #1. Gerald McCann was artist on "The Black Stallion" and then all stories in issues 2-5; Frank Springer drew #6-10.

The covers on these issues are by a number of painters whom I can't identify.

Ghost Stories 1 Writers

Nov/62	#1	The Monster of Dread End...	John Stanley
		The Werewolf Wasp	"GS 1"
		The Door...	"GS 2"
		The Black Stallion	Stanley

Ghost Stories 2-10 Writer: Carl Memling

June/63	#2	37 Pounds of Devotion...
		Phantom's Best Friend
		The Thousand-Year-Old Bug
		Portrait of...?
Sept/63	#3	An Unforgettable Day
		The Day the Soldiers Ran
		Blood, Sweat and Fear
		When Would Death Come for Daniel Du Prey?
Dec/63	#4	To My Killer with Affection
		Have I Been Here Before?
		The Face in the Picture
		Appointment with Sam Mara
Mar/64	#5	Pelham's Prediction
		Only Pantoro Knew
		The Helping Hand
		Who Was the Stranger?
June/64	#6	Escape Act
		The Last deMaudred
		The Route to...?
		Fight to the Finish
Sept/64	#7	Larger Than Life
		Blood Will Tell
		The Magic Box
		The Death Room
Dec/64	#8	Piece of the Past
		Needed: One Miracle
		A Fistfull of Evil
		Death and Beyond
Mar/65	#9	Smasher of Idols
		Beyond the Call of Duty
		The Death Bone
		The Tale of a Strange Dog
June/65	#10	Image of Evil
		My Uncle Has Green Leaves
		A Terrible Surprise
		The Last Laugh

Ben Casey and Dazzler Writer

I worked out Carl Memling's writing style by finding the writer who worked on both Jungle War Stories and Ghost Stories at Dell; the Who's Who has him listed on those two.

For a doctor series like Dell's Ben Casey TV tie-in, ambulance sirens are just as helpful in determining the writer as the police car sirens in Adam-12. Memling's sirens go "Rowrrr," whereas Paul S. Newman's go "Areeeee," John Warner's "Whee-eee," and Leo Dorfman's "Howwweeee."

The Who's Who lists both Frank McLaughlin and Dick Giordano as Ben Casey inkers. Giordano may be helping on the ones where I see mostly McLaughlin work.

I didn't list the single-page featurettes (they may or may not have been written by Memling), but Norman J. Nodel initialed the inside back cover of #4, "They Were First," as "NJN," as he likewise initialed Bachelor Father and Barbie and Ken pages. Here's a sequence from that issue's Ben Casey story; recall that Nodel drew a certain spy movie adaptation in 1962...

Ben Casey—Written by Carl Memling

July/62	#1	The Man Who Hated the World...	a: Norman Nodel
Oct/62	#2	Bite the Hand...	a: Nodel
Dec/62	#3	The Killing	a: Nodel
Feb/63	#4	Terror at 59 West	a: Nodel
Apr/63	#5	Fight Fire with Ice...	a: Nodel
June/63	#6	Three against Tiberius	a: Gene Colan
Oct/63	#7	One Second...to Disaster	p: John Tartaglione  i: Vince Colletta
Jan/64	#8	You Could Die Laughing	a: Colan
Dec/64	#9	The Troubler Maker	p: Tartaglione  i: Frank McLaughlin
Aug/65	#10	Danger on the Ward	p: Tartaglione  i: McLaughlin

The Dazzler I mentioned in the post title isn't Marvel's Disco Dazzler. The Ben Casey back-up series stars a young intern.

The GCD suggests Vince Colletta as penciller as well as inker on #7's Dazzler story (it certainly isn't Tartaglione), but since I've never seen Colletta's pencils that I know of, I can't say yes or no.

Dr. Dan Dazzler—Written by Carl Memling—in Ben Casey

Oct/62	#2	Dial Emergency...	a: Nodell
Dec/62	#3	Rumble!	a: Nodell
Feb/63	#4	One Heartbeat from Death	a: Nodell
Apr/63	#5	Deadly Playmates	a: Nodell
June/63	#6	Open-Shut Case	a: Colan
Oct/63	#7	9 Lives Has Dr. Dazzler	p: ?  i: Colletta
Jan/64	#8	I Can't Breathe	a: Colan