Jack Oleck in Marvel Tales and Journey into Mystery

Jack Oleck's writing style is recognizable in the Had-He-But-Known phrasing on the first page of his first story for Atlas's Journey into Mystery: Monty could still think, then...he could still reason...

The main writer for the Atlas fantasy anthologies by this time is Carl Wessler, with rather more stories than Oleck; Wessler's are known from Robin Snyder's transcribing the writer's records in History of the Comics.

Marvel Tales was cancelled with #159 in the Atlas Implosion in 1957; Journey into Mystery was too, with #47, but was reinstated a year later with a few issues out of inventory (although no Oleck scripts) before the beginning of the proto-Marvel lineup (much more work from Jack Kirby, for one) leading into the monster phase.

Jack Oleck scripts
in Journey into Mystery

Aug/56	#37	The Voice in the Night
Nov/	#40	How Harry Escaped
Dec/	#41	I Switched Bodies
Jan/57	#42	Humans...Keep Out!
Feb/	#43	It's Waiting for Me
Apr/	#45	What Happened to Harrison
May/	#46	Voodoo
June/	#47	Bring Back My Body
		He Sits in the Fog!

in Marvel Tales

July/56	#148	The Despot
Aug/	#149	The Thief
Nov/	#152	When Mongorr Appeared
Dec/	#153	It Can't Be Done!
		The Last Man Alive
Feb/57	#155	Man in a Trance
Mar/	#156	Forbidden...Keep Out!
Apr/	#157	The Man Who Was Replaced
		The Man Who Changed
Aug/	#159	The Last Look

Strange Tales by Jack Oleck

Two captions from "The Last of Mister Grimm" in Strange Tales #48 signal Jack Oleck's style: his version of Had-I-but-known, But he didn't think of that, at first! and one supplementing the description of action with two digressions into moralizing: Cowards die many times...greed is a mighty force!

After the cancellation of everything but MAD at EC in 1956, Oleck continued writing for Prize as he had been, and soon picked up work at Harvey and Timely/Atlas/pre-Marvel. At Atlas he was in on the early issues of new titles like World of Fantasy and World of Suspense. A look at a longer-running title like Strange Tales shows his tenure didn't predate those titles' mid-1956 beginnings.

The Comics Code was a good year old by the time Oleck started at Atlas. The Atlas Implosion took place with #58 (May/57), so as of #59 (Oct/57) scripts and art were out of inventory. The monster phase begins to show with #67 (Feb/59), with artists Jack Kirby and Don Heck becoming regulars, and newly written scripts by mostly Stan Lee and Larry Lieber becoming necessary.

Jack Oleck scripts
in Strange Tales

July/56	#48	The Last of Mister Grimm
Aug/	#49	The Animal
		The Man Who Cried
Dec/	#53	The Man Who Crushed Rocks
Jan/57	#54	Trapped in the Dark
Mar/	#56	Something Is on This Ship!
		Hide-Out
		Nothing Can Stop It
Apr/	#57	You Used to Be Me
		Murder on His Mind
Dec/	#60	Rude Awakening
Feb/58	#61	The Laundry Machines
		The Disappearing Man
		Menace of the Mirror
Apr/	#62	The Invaders
		It Happened That Night
		Alone in the Night
June/	#63	He Never Came Out
Oct/	#65	Afraid to Open the Door

Oleck and Davis: The Gunsmoke Kid #1 That Never Was

I would think that the Gunsmoke Kid was meant to be an ongoing series like the Kid from Dodge City and the Kid from Texas. Those two had their own 1957 titles that lasted all of two issues apiece; the Gunsmoke Kid didn't even make it as far as a number one issue before the Atlas Implosion struck. His four stories were printed out of inventory two years later in three of the post-Timely, pre-Marvel company's surviving Western titles.

As I was looking through Gunsmoke Western the last time, only one Jack Oleck backup story jumped out at me, but as I was going through Wyatt Earp I did notice his style on the Gunsmoke Kid story, and a closer look at the others showed he'd written all four. These tiers from the origin in WE 25 give us captions with the typical Oleck narration reflecting as much as reporting on past events.

Although Oleck left Atlas as of the Implosion, Davis would return a few times; as it happens, the cover to Gunsmoke Western 54 is a new Kid Colt/Wyatt Earp one by him.

Gunsmoke Kid
Written by Jack Oleck, art by Jack Davis
in Gunsmoke Western

Sep/59	54	When Gunslingers Meet
Nov/	55	Hired Gun

in Wyatt Earp

Oct/59

25

[Origin of the Gunsmoke Kid]

in Kid Colt

Nov/59

87

Secret Weapon

Gunsmoke Western's Antedi-Lee-vian Kid Colt Writer

In an interview where Joe Gill was describing how he wrote at such a sustained pace, his example was not any one of the many Charlton characters but Kid Colt at Timely/Atlas. One sign of his scripting is "This was [situation]," as here on the splash of "No Place to Turn," as well as the splash caption of "The Gunhawks of Terror Street" and the first caption after the splash in "Showdown Street."

Jack Oleck Stories in Three Atlas Titles

Writer Jack Oleck came to Atlas right around the time the Comics Code was instituted, in 1955. His output there was steady but not prolific; his average on the fantasy titles wasn't much more than a story an issue.

Here are a couple of the titles that started up at the beginning of the Code era, and one that started later. Around the beginning of 1959 the writing was being turned over to pretty much Larry Lieber (with Stan Lee), leading into the monster era. Oleck had no stories in the newest titles, Strange Worlds or Tale to Astonish, and only this one in Tales of Suspense. World of Suspense ended with #8; World of Fantasy continued to #19 in 1959 with no more from Oleck.

Jack Oleck scripts
in World of Fantasy

Jul/56	#2	One Night
Nov/	#4	The Only Clue
Jan/57	#5	Back to the Lost City
May/	#7	Someone in the Flames
Feb/58	#10	The Secret Men
Jun/	#12	The Next World
Oct/	#14	Lost in the City That Didn't Exist
		The Mole Mystery
Dec/	#15	Mystery of the Mountain
		Strange Doings in Cell 4-B

in World of Suspense

Aug/56	#3	The Man Who Couldn't Be Touched
Oct/	#4	Something Is in This House
Dec/	#5	Menace Below
Feb/57	#6	Come into My Parlor
		Foster's Fear
Apr/	#7	The World's Strangest Crime
		The Lost Island
Jul/	#8	Prisoner of the Ghost Ship

in Tales of Suspense

Jan/59

#1

The Day I Left My Body

Jack Oleck's Western Oeuvre

Jack Oleck did all of one Western story for DC that I can think of, and it was a weird Western. EC had long given up on Westerns by the time he worked for them, and so far I haven't run across any such stories by him at Atlas.

As he was writing weird, crime, and romance for Prize, he did have two distinct blocks of issues on their Prize Western--and almost all on series. In fact, he wrote all of the Preacher and Jeff Baker stories and created the Drifter as well, although I don't think he wrote all of that series' stories.

Oleck's style is most distinctive when he philosophizes in captions in addition to the standard description, as in the first one in the story proper of "Lynch Law." He uses "In the end, __" and "Almost, __" often. To corroborate myself on some of these stories I did look further into his exclamations and sound effects.

Prize Comics Western
Written by Jack Oleck

Jul-Aug/50	82	The Preacher
		Death Draws a Circle [NON-FICTION]
Sep-Oct/	83	The Danger Trail [PREACHER]
Nov-Dec/	84	Lynch Law [PREACHER]
Jan-Feb/51	85	Dead Man's Gold [PREACHER]
Mar-Apr/	86	War Party [JEFF BAKER]
		Range War [PREACHER]
May-Jun/	87	Vengeance Trail [JEFF BAKER]
		The Preacher Goes Home
Jul-Aug/	88	Ambush! [JEFF BAKER]
		Double Trouble [PREACHER]
Sep-Oct/	89	Trouble in Lost Valley [JEFF BAKER]
		Death on the River [PREACHER]
Nov-Dec/	90	Six Gun Law [PREACHER]
Mar-Apr/52	92	Buffalo Stampede [JEFF BAKER]
Nov-Dec/55	114	American Eagle Meets the Maverick
		The Drifter
		American Eagle Discovers a Secret Weapon
Jan-Feb/56	115	Bad Medicine [AMERICAN EAGLE]
		The Drifter Uncovers the Brand of the Outlaw
		American Eagle Arranges a Duel
Sep-Oct/	118	Liberty Belle [AMERICAN EAGLE]
Nov-Dec/	119	American Eagle Battles a Fanged Fury
		The Drifter Stirs Up a Hornet's Nest of Lies, Loot and Lead

Mo Marcus Briefly Visits the House of Secrets

It's easier to find an artist by their work on one-shot secondary characters than on established ones. Thus you don't want to ID the pencils here by looking at House of Secrets host Abel; the soda jerk, in both of his panels, is a typical Mo Marcus character; he looks like he fell lengthwise in a vise.

Most of the framing material in HOS under Dick Giordano's editorship follows a storyline through the introduction, the interludes if any, and into the conclusion of the issue. In #84 the intro leads into the first story but the conclusion follows a different storyline out of the last story. I believe Bill Draut pencilled for himself on the #84 intro. Since he did do full art on most of the HOS frame stories Draut's inking the Marcus conclusion in #84 and the Dick Dillin full frame in #82 does make them look at first glance like his work.

Some Dick Giordano-era House of Secrets attributions

Oct-Nov/69	#82	[frame story]	p: Dick Dillin  i: Bill Draut
		Realer than Real	p: John Celardo  i: Vince Colletta
		Sudden Madness	p: Celardo  i: Celardo? Giordano?
		The Little Old Winemaker	w: D. J. Arneson
Feb-Mar/70	#84	[frame conclusion]	p: Mo Marcus  i: Draut
Dec-Jan/71	#89	Where Dead Men Walk	w: Jack Oleck

Jack Oleck is credited on the Direct Currents page in #89.

Joe Orlando's Girls' Love Stories' Creators

I chose a DC romance comic's run edited by Joe Orlando because he used one writer I can recognize at a glance paging through the comics: Jack Oleck. Another writer surprised me, although he's known to have worked for Orlando in 1969 on House of Mystery—see GLS 146 on the list.

As far as artists go—with the inkers striving to make everything look alike, you could ask ten people and get ten opinions, but here are mine. I will point out that "Laura" in #152 has been attributed to Art Saaf by his son, Steve Saaf per the CGD, but the evidence of the art itself shows that, under Jack Abel's inks, the pencils are by Werner Roth (above). On the other hand, Art Saaf's pencils under Colletta on "The Cheat" in #153 (below) have gone unattributed. "He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not" in #144 mostly looks like Roth, but on page five I see one panel with a close-up I'd otherwise credit to Saaf.

With the new stories hard enough to ID, I've left out the reprints with their slapdash updating obscuring things even further.

Note that the name in the #144 story is not Margaret but Margret; it took me a while to actually see that. I haven't seen issues 148, 154, or 156—romance comics not having been collected as assiduously as superhero ones, there aren't any uninterrupted runs of the DC titles that I can find.

UPDATE: I've added corrections (in bold) from Robin Snyder and SangorShop taken from Joe Orlando's payment records. See the new post for the additions of features like the text pages. Nothing more than the surname Scruggs is known about the artist in #155; a possibility would be Wilson Scruggs of the syndicated strip "The Story of Martha Wayne" (1953-1962).

Girls' Love Stories edited by Joe Orlando

Apr/69	142	Thrill-Chick	w: ?  p: Jim Aparo  i: Bill Draut
		So Long in Love	w: ?  p: Win Mortimer   i: Nick Cardy
		What Should I Do?	w: ?  p: Mortimer  i: Cardy
May/	143	Love Today--Cry Tomorrow	w: Robert Kanigher   p: Mortimer  i: Wally Wood
		Only Love Can Create	w: ?  a: Ernie Colón
		Cindy	w: ?  p: Mortimer  i: Cardy
Jul/	144	Can Love Last Forever?	w: ?  a: John Rosenberger
		He Loves Me...He Loves Me Not	w: ?  a: Vince Colletta
		Memory of Margret	w: ?  p: Ric Estrada  i: Colletta
Aug/	145	Tears for Tomorrow	w: ?  p: Estrada   i: George Roussos
		My Secret	w: John Albano  p: Jay Scott   Pike  i: Colletta
Oct/	146	Abandoned	w: ?  p: Tony Abruzzo   i: Mike Peppe
		Which Love Is Mine?	w: Otto Binder  a: Rosenberger
Nov/	147	Confessions	w: Barbara Friedlander   a: Rosenberger
		The Ugliest Girl in the World	w: Friedlander  p: Mortimer   i: Jack Abel
		Will the Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up?	w: Jack Miller  p: Estrada   i: Colletta
Feb/70	149	Forbidden Love	w: Friedlander  p: Estrada  i: Abel
		For Better or Worse	w: Jack Oleck  p: Roth   i: Colletta
		...But Only in My Dreams	w: Kanigher  a: Liz Berube
		Confessions: Episode Three	w: Friedlander   a: Rosenberger
Apr/	150	Confessions: Episode #4	w: Friedlander   a: Rosenberger
		Her Secret Shame	w: ?  a: Abruzzo   i: Cardy
		Wallflower	w: Oleck  p: Roth  i: Wood   (some Murphy Anderson?)
May/	151	The Wrong Kind of Love	w: Miller  p: Pike  i: Colletta
		Love Thief	w: Miller  p: Roth  i: Abel
		Confessions: Episode 5	w: Friedlander   a: Rosenberger
July/	152	Laura	w: Friedlander   p: Roth  i: Abel
		Confessions: Episode Six	w: Friedlander   a: Rosenberger
		The Prettiest Girl in Town, Poor Thing	w: Miller  a: George Tuska
Aug/	153	For Love or Money	w: Oleck  a: Tony DeZuñiga
		The Engagement Ring	w: Oleck  a: Don Heck
		The Cheat	w: Oleck  p: Saaf  i: Colletta
		The 3 Faces of Love	w: Miller  p: Mike Sekowsky   i: Dick Giordano
Nov/	155	Will No One Trust Me Again?	w: Miller  p: John Calnan   i: Joe Giella
		Scrapbook of Tears	w: Friedlander  p: Scruggs  i: Colletta
Feb/71	157	One Husband, Two Loves	w: George Kashdan  p: Roth  i: Calnan?
		Love Thy Neighbor	w: Oleck  a: Saaf
		Uptight (cheaters)	w: Henry Boltinoff  a: Lee Elias
		Uptight (wolf)	w: Boltinoff  p: Mortimer  i: Abel
		Anatomy of a Romance	w: Friedlander  p: Estrada   i: DeZuñiga

Jack Oleck's Five-Way Revision

Jack Oleck didn't actually sell the same story to five different companies. He sold the same setup and twist ending, though, in these five scripts. A rocket captain is too old to continue in space when split-second decisions have to be made by those with the reflexes of the young. Irony ensues.

A comparison of the stories shows that Oleck wrote each one anew. Even in the final panel where he has to make the same point, he comes close on some but obviously is going from memory and is rephrasing. Although other writers at, for instance, Prize, plagiarized EC scripts, Oleck's style shows up in the newly written work on the Atlas, Prize, and Harvey versions just as well as in the recorded EC and credited DC versions.

The plots vary in places as they make their way to the twist. The Harvey story is only two pages long, so it has to rush right along. Some share a space war setting, and two present flashbacks to the protagonist's father.

The Harvey version kept the story alive in the Sixties too; it was reprinted in Double-Dare Adventures 1 (Dec/66).

Incredible Science Fiction (EC)

Sep-Oct/55

31

Has-Been

a: Wally Wood

Strange Tales (Atlas)

Aug/56

49

The Man Who Cried

a: John Forte

Black Magic (Prize)

Nov-Dec/57

v 6 2

The Old Man

a: Marvin Stein

Black Cat Mystic (Harvey)

Mar/58

62

The Has-Been

a: Doug Wildey

Weird War Tales (DC)

July/74	27	The Veteran	p: Paul Kirchner
			i: Tex Blaisdell

Jack Oleck Dips His Toe in the Charlton Waters

As I was skimming the Fifties Charlton titles for Carl Memling stories, I had Dick Wood's handful jump out at me, since his interjections are so distinctive. Another writer not known to have worked there, whose distinction lies in his captions, got my attention with another four stories. Jack Oleck poses rhetorical questions and otherwise dwells on the characters' bad choices with specific phrases I'll go into in later posts on his work elsewhere.

I was concentrating on the crime and horror/mystery titles, so Oleck may have a few war or romance scripts at Charlton too. All four stories here are drawn by Steve Ditko.

Jack Oleck scripts in Out of This World

Mar/57	3	The Supermen
Jun/	4	Flying Dutchman

in Strange Suspense Stories

May/57	32	A World of His Own
		The Last Laugh