The Fawcett Movie Adaptation Writers

Otto Binder wrote three of Fawcett's 35 movie comics issues; the series started off written by Joe Millard and then became Leo Dorfman's most notable assignment there.

Here's a page from "Code of the Silver Sage" with Rocky Lane (Motion Picture Comics 102). The clues to lead to Leo Dorfman are "As" and "Just then" in the captions, but the clincher is the use of periods--all of these not exclusive to Dorfman, but used by him much more often than the other writers at Fawcett at the time. "Ivanhoe" and "The Red Badge of Courage" are, as I never tire of pointing out, the "classics in comics" mentioned in an early 70s Superboy text page and taken by fandom at the time as meaning Classics Illustrated.

 

Writers--
Fawcett movie one-shots

1949		Dakota Lil	Joe Millard
1950		Copper Canyon	Millard
		Destination Moon	Otto Binder
		Montana	Millard
		Pioneer Marshal	Millard
		Powder River Rustlers	Millard
		Singing Guns	Millard

Fawcett Movie Comic

1950	7	Gunmen of Abilene	Binder
Dec/	8	King of the Bull Whip	Leo Dorfman
Feb/51	9	The Old Frontier	Dorfman
Apr/	10	The Missourians	Dorfman
May/	11	The Thundering Trail	Dorfman
Aug/	12	Rustlers on Horseback	Dorfman
Oct/	13	Warpath	Dorfman
Dec/	14	The Last Oupost	Dorfman
Feb/52	15	The Man from Planet X	Binder
Apr/	16	Ten Tall Men	Dorfman
June/	17	Rose of Cimarron	Dorfman
Aug/	18	The Brigand	Dorfman
Oct/	19	Carbine Williams	Dorfman
Dec/	20	Ivanhoe	Dorfman

Motion Picture Comics

1950	101	The Vanishing Westerner	Millard
Jan/51	102	Code of the Silver Sage	Dorfman
Mar/	103	Covered Wagon Raid	Dorfman
May/	104	Vigilante Hideout	Dorfman
July/	105	The Red Badge of Courage	Dorfman
Sep/	106	The Texas Rangers	Dorfman
Nov/	107	Frisco Tornado	Dorfman
Jan/52	108	Mask of the Avenger	Dorfman
Mar/	109	Rough Riders of Durango	Dorfman
May/	110	When Worlds Collide	Dorfman
July/	111	The Vanishing Outpost	Dorfman
Sep/	112	Brave Warrior	Dorfman
Nov/	113	Walk East on Beacon	Dorfman
Jan/53	114	Cripple Creek	Dorfman

Weisbecker and Riss at the Movies

Note the distinctive long, square faces in Fawcett's adaptation of the movie "The Missourians."

Somewhere along the line, Clem Weisbecker and Bob Butts have had some work conflated at early Fifties Fawcett, making it difficult to sort out their stories going by their credits in the Who's Who. I finally took a long look at their credited Forties stories at other companies. I believe I can follow the progression of Clem Weisbecker's style on the Black Hood and such to the Fawcett artist with those distinctive faces.

Butts is given "Copper Canyon" in the Who's Who, which is the main point of confusion here, but the actual penciller is Weisbecker. The style matches that on Jackie Robinson at Fawcett at the same time, which the WW gives to Weisbecker and not Butts.

The other problem with "Copper Canyon" is that it's also been attributed entirely to Sheldon Moldoff. I can accept that Moldoff inked it. "Pioneer Marshall" and "The Missourians" are also supposedly entirely by Moldoff, but the inking on those two doesn't overwhelm the Weisbecker pencils.

In many cases on the Fawcett movie adaptations the inker did a lot of the heavy lifting on likenesses. Some didn't. Thus, Pete Riss's issues vary wildly as far as that "overwhelming the pencils" goes; on "Dakota Lil" you have to look twice to find Riss, but on "The Thundering Trail," as seen here, he's easier to spot (although it's been attributed to Stan Campbell).

movie one-shots at Fawcett

1949	nn	Dakota Lil	w: Joe Millard p: Pete Riss
1950	nn	Copper Canyon	w: Millard  p: Clem Weisbecker
			i: Sheldon Moldoff
1950	nn	Pioneer Marshall	w: Millard  p: Weisbecker
			i: Moldoff?
1950	nn	Powder River Rustlers	w: Millard  p: Riss

Fawcett Movie Comic

Apr/51	#10	The Missourians	w: Leo Dorfman  p: Weisbecker
			i: Moldoff?
May/	#11	The Thundering Trail	w: Dorfman  p: Riss

Motion Picture Comics

Nov/51

#107

Frisco Tornado

w: Dorfman  p: Riss

Joe Millard's Love and Jugheads

Quality put out a lot of romance stories, and on a lot of them I have no idea of the writer, but on the short-run western themed Range Romances I was able to ID writer Joe Millard—no stranger to westerns—on a good handful of stories.

On "Kisses of Hate" as seen here he uses "Grawwwk," something you see more often in his Plastic Man than in the typical romance story, but he also uses a term from his other westerns: "jughead" for a horse.

Joe Millard
Range Romances Scripts

Dec/49	1	Petticoat Law
		Outlaw Love
		Tenderfoot Sweetheart
Feb/50	2	Rustled Kisses
		She-Devil Canyon
		Passion for Vengeance
June/	4	Kisses of Hate

Not the Two-Gun Kid

At Quality, Chuck Winter had a four-issue run in Buccaneers, as I posted here. He had twice that in Crack Western on Two-Gun Lil.

On the first four stories I'm taking the Grand Comics Database artist attributions as a start. I think I see three artists among the first four stories (the same one on #64 and 65). Leo Morey is known to have worked on the series, but I can't match him up from his signed stories at ACG a decade later; it may be that he's being inked by other hands here.

Two-Gun Lil in Crack Western

Nov/49	63	She Was Ready	w: Joe Millard  a: Charles    Sultan?
Jan/50	64	The Forbidden Star	w: ?  a: Leo Morey?
Mar/	65	The Dance Hall of Death	w: ?  a: Morey?
May/	66	Even Frontier Terrorists Can Learn	w: ?  a: ?
Jul/	67	Two-Gun Lil Votes against Lynch Law	w: ?  a: Pete Riss
Sep/	68	Two-Gun Lil Conquers Western Crime	w: ?  a: Riss
Nov/	69	Hot-Lead Two-Step	w: Millard  a: Chuck Winter
Jan/51	70	The Taming of Big Bat McGrew	w: Millard  a: Winter
Mar/	71	A Bargain in Bullets	w: Millard  a: Winter
May/	72	The Ghost of Grim Gulch	w: Millard  a: Winter
Jul/	73	Six-Guns from the Sky	w: Millard  a: Winter
Sep/	74	Gun Trouble in Paradise	w: Millard  a: Winter
Nov/	75	The Vultures of Goldhill	w: Millard  a: Winter
Jan/52	76	The End of the Owlhoot Trail	w: Millard  a: Winter
Mar/	77	A Heart as Big as a House	w: ?  a: Pete Morisi
May/	78	Once upon a Time There Were Three Bassett Brothers	w: Robert Bernstein  a:   Morisi
Sep/	80	The Murder on Stage	w: Bernstein  a: Morisi
Nov/	81	The Target Is Two-Gun Lil	w: Bernstein  a: Morisi
Jan/53	82	Target of Hot Lead	w: Bernstein  a: Morisi
Mar/	83	The Fiend in Knee Pants	w: Bernstein  p: John Forte     i: ?
May/	84	The Kissing Monster	w: Bernstein  a: Edmond    Good

Blackhawk Backups 1956

For their final year publishing comic books, Quality dropped the Chop-Chop reprints in Blackhawk as of #95 and instituted a series of aviation backup stories; "Rescue from the Sky" concerns civilian aviation, but after that they're all military-related.

The art credits are straightforward: Sam Citron on all. He was Quality's artist of choice that year on Robin Hood Tales, and inked others into his look on Exploits of Daniel Boone.

The writers are the Blackhawk writers and, in point of fact, the remaining Quality writers. For what it's worth, the Who's Who lists John Broome, of all people, on 1956 Blackhawk backups, but I can't see him on the any of the three I haven't been able to attribute to Bernstein or Millard.

Blackhawk Backups 1956
Art by Sam Citron

Jan/56	96	Rescue from the Sky	w: ?
Feb/	97	War in the Sky	w: Joe Millard
Mar/	98	David and Goliath in the Sky	w: Millard
Apr/	99	Fear and Flight	w: ?
May/	100	The Ghost Plane	w: Robert Bernstein
June/	101	The Incredible Exploits of Baron von Richtofen	w:  ?
July/	102	Critical Target	w: Bernstein
Aug/	103	Fighter for Freedom	w: Bernstein
Sept/	104	Caged	w: Bernstein
Oct/	105	Winged Menace	w: Bernstein
Nov/	106	Sam's Sixth Sense	w: Bernstein
Dec/	107	Red Helicopter Ambush	w: Bernstein

Blackhawk Writers 1956

This will echo the lists for Quality's Exploits of Daniel Boone and Robin Hood Tales in 1956. Joe Millard had been writing for Quality for some time; Robert Bernstein was Quality's final writer before they gave up the ghost in 1956. It's been pointed out that the plot of Blackhawk 101's "The Lost Island" is lifted from Marvel Boy 1's "The Lost World" (Dec/50); but although Bernstein was writing for Timely/Atlas at that point, I can't find his stylistic prints on the Marvel Boy story.

Blackhawk Writers 1956

Jan/56	96	7 Graves for 7 Blackhawks	Joe Millard
		Case of the Missing Blackhawk	Millard
		Doom in the Deep	Millard
Feb/	97	The Horde of the Bat	Millard
		Hitler's Daughter	Millard
		Revolt of the Slave Workers	Millard
Mar/	98	The Phantom Saboteur	Millard
		The Temple of Doom	Millard
		The Black Flag	Millard
Apr/	99	The Queen of Blackhawk Island	Millard
		The War That Never Ended	Robert Bernstein
		The Underground Menace	Bernstein
May/	100	The Delphian Menace	Bernstein
		The Citadel of Hate	?
		The Steel Scorpion	Millard
June/	101	General Steel	Millard
		Satan's Paymaster	Millard
		The Lost Island	Bernstein
July/	102	Master of Mankind	Millard
		The Doom Cloud	Millard
		The Red Professor's Secret	Bernstein
Aug/	103	The Super Race	Bernstein
		The Man Who Stole Tomorrow	Millard
		Menace from the Skies	Bernstein
Sept/	104	Rescue under Fire	Bernstein
		Treachery in the Antarctic	Bernstein
		The Jet Menace	Bernstein
Oct/	105	Nightmare Cruise	Bernstein
		The Red Kamakaze Terror	Bernstein
		The Master of Treachery	Bernstein
Nov/	106	The Flying Tank Platoon	Bernstein
		Stars of Disaster	Bernstein
		The Red Raiders	Bernstein
Dec/	107	The Winged Menace	Bernstein
		Red Timetable of Treachery	Bernstein
		One Minute Till Doom	Bernstein

Bernstein spells "Kamakaze" with an "a" throughout the story in #105, although the cover has it "Kamikaze."

The Western Nighthawk's First Writer

When DC's anthology Western Comics gains a new cover feature with Pow-Wow Smith in #43 (Jan-Feb/1954), Julius Schwartz has become editor. As on his other books he records payments to writers and artists, and he inherits, to some extent, Jack Schiff's payment records for the title; thus there are more extensive Western writer credits in the Grand Comics Database than you might have expected. The surviving records don't, unfortunately, extend all the way back to #1.

Masked and double-identitied Nighthawk took over the slot of the similar Vigilante with #5 (and missed #6). Western 5 came out in the same month as DC's Dale Evans Comics, where writer Joe Millard's best-known DC work, the Sierra Smith back-up strip (not to mention his Dale Evans stories) begins. Millard's run on Nighthawk coincides, as it happens, with Charles Paris's run of pencils and inks on the feature.

The incidence of  "Eeeeow" led me to Millard as the author on these. For another thing, he begins a few balloons per story with "Gulp!", a habit that Gardner Fox and Don Cameron, soon Western's go-to authors, don't have. Millard's exclamatory captions are reminiscent of Otto Binder's.

These are all of Millard's Nighthawk stories. I can see that #13 and 14's are by a single author, although one I can't put a name to; an Alan Brennan is known from the Who's Who to have written Nighthawk in 1950, so take that as you will. In another few issues Cameron and Fox write their first Nighthawks.

Nighthawk in Western Comics
Scripts by Joe Millard
Art by Charles Paris

Sep-Oct/48	#5	The Lair of the Timberwolf
Jan-Feb/49	#7	The Loaded Scales of Justice
Mar-Apr/	#8	Wagon-Wheel War
May-Jun/	#9	The Scattered Clue
Jul-Aug/	#10	Tunnel of Terror
Sep-Oct/	#11	The Terror at Tumble-Down Ranch
Nov-Dec/	#12	One Sheriff Too Many
Jan-Feb/50	#13	There Was a Crooked Man

Robin Hood Tales

Quality's companion title to Exploits of Daniel Boone was Robin Hood Tales—they were not only the company's last major titles at around a year's duration apiece, but each accompanied a number of other companies' late-50s versions of the public-domain heroes on the stands. The two titles shared the writers Joe Millard and Robert Bernstein, as far as I've seen the only two working for Quality by then.

Ogden Whitney not only drew #1's interior Robin Hood stories, he did the cover, a move uncharacteristic for Quality; the other covers are by the expected team of Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera. Whitney was about the only artist who got to sign his work at the company at this point, although over in the romance titles, not here. The artist of #2-6 is the main artist on Daniel Boone: Sam Citron. (Note his typical speed lines as Maid Marian turns her head.) For all the decades in which fandom attributed to Citron much of Pete Riss's work earlier at Quality (he's still given the credit for many of Riss's Superman stories), some of the work he actually did has gone unidentified.

I believe the artist on #2-6's back-up stories is Harry Anderson (as seen in the second tier here, from #2). I'd now ID him on the back-up frontier story in Exploits of Daniel Boone 6 (Sep/56), "War to the Finish."

Robin Hood Tales
#1 a: Ogden Whitney; #2-6 a: Sam Citron

Feb/56	1	The Trapping of Robin Hood	w: Joe Millard
		The Wrath of Robin Hood	w: Millard
		The Black Knight of Castle Fury	w: Millard
Apr/	2	Rescue of Maid Marian	w: Millard
		The Scourge of the Bailiff	w: Robert Bernstein
		The Golden Rain	w: Millard
Jun/	3	The Scroll of Doom	w: Millard
		The Miserly Miller of Mimms	w: Millard
		The Knight in Red Armor	w: Bernstein
Aug/	4	Ambush of the Merry Men	w: Bernstein
		Little John's Peril	w: Bernstein
		An Arsenal of Hate	w: Bernstein
Oct/	5	Menace of the Royal Assassins	w: Bernstein
		The Baron's Tyranny	w: Bernstein
		The Capture of Robin Hood	w: Bernstein
Dec/	6	The Plot to Destroy Robin Hood	w: Bernstein
		The Ransom of Maid Marian	w: Bernstein
		The Knight Who Hated Chivalry	w: Bernstein

Miscellaneous Medieval Stories in
Robin Hood Tales
#1 a: Citron; #2-6 a: Harry Anderson

Feb/56	1	Engines of War	w: ?
Apr/	2	Saracen Ambush	w: ?
Jun/	3	The Recue of King John	w: Millard
Aug/	4	Sir Guy's Worst Fate	w: ?
Oct/	5	The Miser's Secret	w: Bernstein
Dec/	6	Sir Darton's Deal with Doom	w: Bernstein

Blackhawk Writers 1955

The fewest gaps in my writer IDs on Blackhawk at Quality are in 1955-56, the final two years of Quality Comics; those gaps fall in 1956, and I'll try to fill them in the near future.

See if any Dick Wood or Bill Finger flags jump out at you in these tiers from #84's "The End of Blackhawk Island" and "The Race of Doom."

Unless I've missed an anomalous story, by this point Dick Dillin (pencils) and Chuck Cuidera (inks) are doing all the art on Blackhawk, including the covers. The Chop Chop back-ups by other hands are reprints.

Blackhawk Writers 1955

Jan/55	84	The Dreaded Brain Beam	Dick Wood
		The End of Blackhawk Island	Wood
		The Race of Doom	Bill Finger
Feb/	85	The Fiendish Impersonator	Wood
		The Fire-Wheel	Wood
		The Super-Sonic Menace	Wood
Mar/	86	The Human Torpedoes	Wood
		The Weapon for Conquest	Wood
		Suicide Decoy	Wood
Apr/	87	Inferno from the Sky	Wood
		The Sea Wolf	Wood
		The Ordeal of a Blackhawk	Wood
May/	88	Thunder, the Indestructible	Wood
		The Incredible Silencer	Wood
		The Phantom Sniper	Wood
June/	89	The Super Communists	Wood
		The Fight for Survival	Wood
		The Ghost Raiders of the Sky	Wood
July/	90	The Storm King	Wood
		The Bubbles of Doom	Wood
		Villainess Who Smashed the Blackhawk Team	Wood
Aug/	91	Treason in the Underground	Wood
		The Statue That Attacked Blackhawk Island	Wood
		The Steel Colossus	Finger
Sept/	92	Prisoners of the Black Dungeon	Wood
		The World Traitor	Wood
		The Flying Cutlass	Wood
Oct/	93	Garg the Destroyer	Joe Millard
		The Floating Fortress	Wood
		Breaking through the Time Barrier	Wood
Nov/	94	Web of the Black Widow	Millard
		Blind Victory	Millard
		The Prophet of Doom	Millard
Dec/	95	Madame Fury, Queen of Pirates	Millard
		Terra, the Trapper	Millard
		Lhala, Tigress of the Desert	Millard

Mary Marvel's Butler, Amateur Sleuth

In the third Mary Marvel story of her series, "A Telegram to Adventure" (Wow 11, March 10, 1943) the Bromfield butler Jives is introduced (Mary Batson Bromfield and her foster-mother had a different-looking butler called Peeves in the first story). We're told that "Jives is an addict of detective stories! And because of that, his imagination is a little 'overworked'!" When he trails Mary to discover the job she's keeping secret (telegram messenger), he lets a gang think he's English Harry, the slickest crook in the rackets.

The Wayne butler Alfred first appears in Batman 15 (April-May, 1943). Alfred, too, fancies himself a criminologist—on the splash page of "Here Comes Alfred" he's wearing a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker cap. These issues of Batman from DC and Wow from Fawcett would have been in production at about the same time.

Alfred's first story was written by Don Cameron. But Jives's was by Batman co-creator Bill Finger.

This post explains how a particular Captain America story jumped out at me as Finger's. The same writerly trademark is in "Telegram to Adventure": the throat-clearing "Arrumph," a spelling without an initial "H" used by no one else that I know of. As Mary can tell, Jives harrumphs when he lies, and so this becomes a plot point. (Mary winks at the readers with an "Arrumph" herself in the final panel.) When I encountered this I thought "Bill Finger???" only to find that, according to the Who's Who, he was indeed at Fawcett—known to be writing Captain Marvel, at any rate—in 1942-3.

Jives amateur-sleuths again in the next story, "Mary Marvel and the Anxious Auctioneer," (Wow 16, April 7, '43) and this time he wears the deerstalker cap. But here the writer is Joe Millard.

I won't try to guess at the Mary Marvel artists. I suppose Marc Swayze may be in there somewhere, but this is the point at which Fawcett starts using multiple artists in the production-line shop system on some features. That the Mary Marvel figures are by different artists than the secondary figures becomes more and more obvious over the next few issues of Wow.

Exploits of Daniel Boone

When I first looked at Quality's Exploits of Daniel Boone, I could see that the covers were by Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera, and that the writers were the company's mainstays in its final year, Joe Millard and "Q" (whom I now know is Robert Bernstein). I could find John Forte's work on some of the back-up stories, but on the Boone stories themselves I had no idea of the artist.

When I looked at the title again after IDing artists on G.I. Combat, I knew who drew Daniel Boone: Sam Citron. His style at Quality matched up with credited work at ACG in the Sixties.

But when I took a third look, I realized that the artist ID wasn't quite so simple after all. The Boone stories' art in all six issues looked similar because of the inking. The layout of the figures in some stories, though, was more awkward than Citron's usual work.

The penciller on most of issues 3-5 I'd come to recognize on other Quality features like T-Man, and Fawcett's Monte Hale; fittingly enough, Edmond Good was the first artist on DC's frontiersman series, Tomahawk. At times his figures look like Bob Kane's filtered through Sheldon Moldoff's ghosting; usually it's the hand placement that tells, but see the full figure of the farmer in the second panel here from "Master of Magic." The first two stories in issue 5 look different enough that I'd give a very tentative guess at John Daly's pencils.

UPDATE: I thought "War to the Finish" in #6 might be drawn by John Rosenberger, but I believe now that it's by Harry Anderson.

Exploits of Daniel Boone

Nov/55	1	Doom at the Stake	w: Joe Millard  a: Sam Citron
		Raid in the Scioto	w: Millard  a: Citron
		Assault on Boonesborough	w: Millard  a: Citron
Jan/56	2	The Ghost of Dan'l Boone	w: Millard  a: Citron
		Duel at Dawn	w: Millard  a: Citron
		Web of the White Savage	w: Millard  a Citron
Mar/	3	Island of Doom	w: Millard  p: Ed Good  i: Citron
		Rescue from the Redskins	w: Millard  p: Good  i: Citron
		The Honor of Daniel Boone	w: Millard  p: Good  i: Citron
May/	4	Master of Magic	w: Millard  p: Good  i: Citron
		Rendezvous with Disaster	w: Millard  p: Good  i: Citron
		The Pilgrims from Pennsylvania	w: Millard  p: Good  i: Citron
July/	5	Treaty of Doom	w: Robert Bernstein  p: ?
			i: Citron
		The Cunning of Blackfish	w: Bernstein p: ?  i: Citron
		Mission of Peril	w: Bernstein  p: Good  i: Citron
Sept/	6	Menace of the Renegades	w: Bernstein  a: Citron
		Through the Indian Wall	w: Bernstein  a: Citron
		Desperate Mission	w: Bernstein  a: Citron

Miscellaneous Frontier Stories in
Exploits of Daniel Boone

Nov/55	1	How the Cheyennes First Got Guns	w: Millard  a: John Forte
Jan/56	2	Rain of Fire	w: Millard  a: Forte
Mar/	3	The Wizard of the Water	w: Millard  a: Citron
May/	4	Sons of Courage	w: Millard  a: Forte
July/	5	Four-Footed Menace	w: Bernstein  a: ?
Sept/	6	War to the Finish	w: Bernstein
			a: Harry Anderson

Winter Buccaneers

Here, like John Daly, is another Adventure Comics artist (in this case on the Shining Knight) who did some work at Quality in the Fifities. Chuck (or C. A.) Winter worked on a few strips like Hell Diver at the company in the early Forties, then returned late in the decade to do Black X—which has been recognized—and a few other features which have not. I've seen one Quality romance drawn by him, "Ringside Heartbreak" in Heart Throbs 1 (Aug/49), and imagine there are more.

The Spanish Main was a series with no continuing characters in Buccaneers 19-24; I can't tell the artists on the first five stories. Corsair Queen took over the slot with 25 and lasted the three issues to the title's end.

The inking looks different enough from Winter's work at DC (or even on "Ringside Heartbreak"), that I don't think he's inking himself on Buccaneers. The Liberty Belle splash co-credited with writer Don Cameron is from her debut in Boy Commandos 1 (Win/42-43).

Winter's The Spanish Main story in Buccaneers

Nov/50

24

Destruction or Delight

w: ?  p: Chuck Winter

Corsair Queen in Buccaneers

Jan/51	25	The Tigress of the Seas	w: Joe Millard  p: Winter
Mar/	26	King of Corpse Cay	w: Millard  p: Winter
May/	27	The Castle of Greed	w: Millard  p: Winter

Winter had a run of eight stories in a row in another Quality feature around 1951; does anybody riffling through the company's titles for that year pick out that work? I'll post on it later.

G.I. Combat 1-5

G.I. Combat began at Quality. Much later, after DC bought the title, the WWII stories of the Haunted Tank headlined; but in 1952-3 this anthology presented nothing but contemporary Korean War stories.

I can identify the three writers by style but can name only one of them, Joe Millard. "Q" worked on Ken Shannon, T-Man, Blackhawk, Exploits of Daniel Boone, Robin Hood Tales, and Web of Evil—and wrote a couple of stories for Doll Man—from 1951 or '52 to Quality's demise at the end of 1956. "GIC A" I've so far found scripting only on this title. The first story here uses "damn" and "dammit" but that experiment in precode adult-aimed writing ends before the issue and the title get any older. UPDATE: "Q" is Robert Bernstein.

Indexers have reflexively named Chuck Cuidera as Reed Crandall's inker on most of his stories at Quality, no matter the actual style (or the reports of other inkers like Les Zakarin or Sam Burlockoff on some of his strips). In the case of the first G.I. Combat story, however, Crandall's inker is indeed Cuidera. Note the faces of the lieutenant in the top tier panels as examples of Crandall's pencils and the sergeant's face in the bottom tier's middle panel as most obviously Cuidera's inks.

 

My impression is that Pete Morisi and Sam Citron ink themselves on this title, but the difference between John Daly stories' inks at DC and Quality suggests he didn't ink himself at both. After the obscuring inks over Charles Nicholas's pencils in #1, the inking of his stories here is pretty consistent, and so although I've never seen his inks credited later at Charlton or DC, I'll venture that he does ink himself from #2 on.

The cover pencils are by Crandall: #1, 3-5, and Dick Dillin: #2.

G.I. Combat 1-5

Oct/52	1	Beyond the Call of Duty	w: Robert Bernstein
			p: Reed Crandall
			i: Chuck Cuidera
		Killing Pitch	w: "GIC A"  a: Pete Morisi
		The Runt Breaks Through	w: Bernstein  p: Charles Nicholas
		Trumpet of Death	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
Dec/	2	Operation Massacre	w: Bernstein  p: John Daly
		Prison Camp Slaughter	w: Bernstein  a: Morisi
		Behind Enemy Lines	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
		The Human Fly on Heartbreak Hill	w: "GIC A"  a: Nicholas
Feb/53	3	Havoc behind Red Lines	w: Bernstein  p: Daly
		An Indestructible Marine	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
		No Grandstand in Hell	w: Joe Millard  p: Crandall
		Suicide Decoy	w: Bernstein  a: Nicholas
Mar/	4	Bridge to Bloody Hell	w: Millard  p: Dick Dillin
		Vengeance Raid	w: Millard  a: Sam Citron
		The Lieutenant Attacks	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
		One Man Army	w: "GIC A"  p: Crandall
Apr/	5	Vindicated under Fire	w: "GIC A"  p: Dillin
		Glamour Guys of Hell	w: Bernstein  a: ?
		Hell Breaks Loose on Suicide Hill	w: Millard  a: Citron
		Death of a Coward	w: Bernstein  p: Crandall

Tales of the Greene Freighter

Although in the real world, unlike in Watchmen, superhero comics were not completely replaced by pirate comics, a few publishers did test those waters. Quality's Buccaneers took over the numbering of Kid Eternity with issue 19 and lasted to 27.

Some of Sid Greene's work at Quality has been noted—the Inspector Denver story in Police 104, a romance story here and there—but his only series here that I know of is the second half of Eric Falcon's run in Buccaneers. Falcon was a soldier of fortune in Colonial times; not every adventure involved pirates.

Other artists work on the series in Buccaneers 19-23 before Greene comes aboard. He most likely inks himself in 25 and 26; I didn't even recognize the story in 24 as his until I looked over the series again before writing this post.

Eric Falcon stories drawn by Sid Greene in Buccaneers

Nov/50	#24	An Empire of Pirates	w: ?
Jan/51	#25	The Surrender of Eric Falcon	w: ?
Mar/	#26	Bloody Fingers of Fate	w: Joe Millard
May/	#27	The Code of Treachery	w: ?

Ken Shannon and the Aquaman Artist

Private eye Ken Shannon took over Plastic Man's lead slot in Police Comics at the end of 1950 and within the year received his own title as well. I index Ken Shannon in this post; I haven't seen a complete run of the post-Plas Police.

Shannon's main penciller was Reed Crandall. Sam Burlockoff has said he inked Crandall on the feature; Burlockoff's major credit that I know of is early war stuff at DC, but I'm not familiar enough with his style to credit him with particular stories here. Chuck Cuidera has been linked to Crandall here in much the way George Klein was once credited with inking every Superman story Curt Swan ever pencilled, be they inked by Kaye, Moldoff, or Forte if not Klein. I'll just put aside the question of Ken Shannon inkers altogether on this list.

I believe two stories are pencilled by W.G. Hargis, who got to sign a number of his Inspector Denver stories in Police. One story's penciller I can't figure at all.

The penciller just behind Crandall in terms of quantity (counting the appearances of the strip in both Police and KS) has been a mystery. The inking obscured his style as seen earlier at other companies.

I see the work of John Daly. The young man shaking Shannon's hand is the best example of Daly's style in faces, showing through the inking; Ken Shannon himself is inked heavily to match Crandall's face for the character. The next panel's rather stodgy staging of the figures comes closest to the staging on the Aquaman page, the staging that typefies Daly to me.

All ten covers were pencilled, if not inked as well, by Crandall.

The William Woolfolk credits are a sneak preview into his script records for 1951-52. In brief: Woolfolk and Joe Millard share use of the scream "Eeeahhh," but Millard uses his standby "Owoooff" that Woolfolk never does. "Q," a Quality writer of the Fifties I can't yet name, opts for variations of "Urghh" and "Iiieee." UPDATE: "Q" is Robert Bernstein

Ken Shannon 1-10 Writers and Pencillers

Oct/51	#1	The Evil Eye of Count Ducrie	w: Joe Millard p: Reed Crandall
		The Playful Pickpocket	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		The Carrier Pigeon Case	w: Robert Bernstein  p: W.G. Hargis?
Dec/	#2	Cut-Rate Corpses	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		Invitation to a Murder	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		Front Man for Murder	w: Millard  p: Crandall
Feb/52	#3	The Corpse That Wouldn't Sleep	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		The Case of the Butchered Butcher	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		One Day I'll Kill You	w: Millard  p: Crandall
Apr/	#4	Stone Hatchet Murder	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		Stand-In for Murder	w: William Woolfolk p: Crandall
		The Case of the All-Seeing Eye	w: Millard  p: Hargis?
June/	#5	The Case of the Carny KiIler	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		The Man from Nowhere	w: Woolfolk  p: ?
		Doctor of Death	w: Woolfolk  p: John Daly
Aug/	#6	The Vampire Mob	w: Millard  p: Crandall
		Dead Man's Alley	w: Millard  p: Daly
		Dee Dee Can't Be Dead	w: Bernstein  p: Daly
Oct/	#7	The Ugliest Man in the World	w: Bernstein  p: Daly
		Murder on Account	w: Bernstein p: Daly
		Too Many Killers	w: Bernstein p: Daly
Dec/	#8	Mansion of Mangled Men	w: Woolfolk  p: Daly
		The Chinatown Murders	w: Bernstein  p: Daly
		The Doom Express	w: Bernstein  p: Daly
Feb/53	#9	The Flame of Doom	w: Millard  p: Daly
		Necklace of Blood	w: Woolfolk  p: Daly
		Day It Rained Money	w: Millard  p: Daly
Apr/	#10	In the Shadow of the Chair	w: Millard  p: Daly
		Your Money or Your Blood	w: Millard  p: Daly
		[untitled]	w: Bernstein  p: Daly

The back-up feature in 1-9 is Angles O'Day (Not-So-Special Investigator), not only wriiten and drawn but lettered by Jack Cole, and 10 presents a Flatfoot Burns by Al Stahl, the last of that series from Police and The Spirit.

Writers: Aquaman in Adventure 247-284

247 would be an arbitrary start to a run of any comic except Adventure; the significance lies in the Superboy story, of course, not with Aquaman or the other back-ups. A number of my attributions here were circulated through fandom in the Nineties by Rich Morrissey, but on this list I've filled in the gaps in the run.

Jack Miller typically uses the captions Just then..., Before long..., The answer comes the next instant..., and In the next [adjective] instant...; Robert Bernstein typically the caption Moments after... instead of Moments later.... But these are not hard and fast differences, of course; in "The Robinson Crusoe of the Sea" (252) there's a Moments after..., but more clues point to Miller. If so, he happened to use that style of caption once.

"A World without Water" (251), out of all the Aquaman stories, uses the exclamations "Owoofff" and "Eeaahh" (also used in only one Green Arrow story: "The Man Who Hated Arrows" in 249). These are seen throughout the Dale Evans and Sierra Smith stories by Joe Millard, at DC, as well as the myriad of stories he did at Quality. The "Y-i-i-i-i" in both turns up in 250's "The Guinea Pig of the Sea."

All Aquaman art in these Adventure issues is by Ramona Fradon except 284, which is by Jim Mooney.

"How Aquaman Got His Powers" in 260 is the new origin. "The Manhunt on Land" in 267 is the crossover with Green Arrow, the other back-up, also written by Robert Bernstein at the time; the two villains switch land and sea theatres of operation. "The Kid from Atlantis" in 269 introdues Aquaman's new partner, Aqualad.

Aquaman begins appearing in the forerunner to his own book, four Showcase appearances, in the same month as Adventure 280. With 281, the back-up space that held Aquaman and Congorilla stories is devoted to double-length stories of either one, alternating, so Aquaman doesn't appear in 281 or 283. After Adventure 284 his back-up slot moves to Detective and then to World's Finest.

The Superboy story in 280, by the way, "Superboy and the Mermaid from Atlantis" (written by Jerry Siegel), takes two panels to account for the difference between Aquaman's Atlanteans with legs and Lori Lemaris's fishtailed merfolk.

Aquaman in Adventure 247-284 Writers

Apr/58	#247	Aquaman's Super Sea-Squad	Jack Miller
May/	#248	The Traitor of the Seven Seas	Miller
June/	#249	Wanted—Aqua-Crook	Robert Bernstein
July/	#250	The Guinea Pig of the Sea	Joe Millard
Aug/	#251	A World without Water	Millard
Sept/	#252	The Robinson Crusoe of the Sea	Miller
Oct/	#253	The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.	Bernstein
Nov/	#254	The Menace of the Electric Man	Miller
Dec/	#255	Aquaman's Double Trouble	Bernstein
Jan/59	#256	The Ordeal of Aquaman	Bernstein
Feb/	#257	The Imitation Aquaman	Bernstein
Mar/	#258	The Incredible Fish of Doctor Danton	Miller
Apr/	#259	The Octopus Man	Miller
May/	#260	How Aquaman Got His Powers	Bernstein
June/	#261	Aquaman Duels the Animal-Master	Bernstein
July/	#262	The Undersea Hospital	Bernstein
Aug/	#263	The Great Ocean Election	Miller
Sept/	#264	Aquaman and His Sea Police	Bernstein
Oct/	#265	The Secret of the Super-Safe	Bernstein
Nov/	#266	Aquaman Meets Aquagirl	Bernstein
Dec/	#267	The Manhunt on Land	Bernstein
Jan/60	#268	The Adventures of Aquaboy	Bernstein
Feb/	#269	The Kid from Atlantis	Bernstein
Mar/	#270	The Menace of Aqualad	Bernstein
Apr/	#271	The Second Deluge	Bernstein
May/	#272	The Human Flying Fish	Bernstein
June/	#273	Around the World in 80 Hours	Bernstein
July/	#274	Aqua-Queen	Miller
Aug/	#275	The Interplanetary Mission	Bernstein
Sept/	#276	The Aqua-Thief of the Seven Seas	Bernstein
Oct/	#277	The Underwater Olympics	Bernstein
Nov/	#278	Aqualad Goes to School	Bernstein
Dec/	#279	Silly Sailors of the Sea	Bernstein
Jan/61	#280	The Lost Ocean	Bernstein
Mar/	#282	One Hour to Doom	Bernstein
May/	#284	The Charge of Aquaman's Sea Soldiers	Miller