Twilight Zone 11-15 Writers

"Way Out West—On Mars" in Gold Key's Twilight Zone 13 lifts the plot of Ray Bradbury's short story "Mars Is Heaven!"

The art attributions are on the Grand Comics Database. I don't see myself how Reed Crandall's art looks any different on "Way Out West" than on any other story he inked himself; naming Alden McWilliams as inker strikes me as way out of left field. And "Moment of Decision," as I said last week, is pencilled by Jerry Grandenetti, inked by Bill Draut and Joe Orlando.

"TZ 3" is a writer who will show up in later TZ issues and in Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery on more four-page "strange but true" stories.

The Twilight Zone 11-15 Writers

May/65	#11	The Gremlins	Dick Wood
		The Island Vision	Wood
		The Wanted One *	Wood
		(Wanted...Alive!) Doomsday in Dusterville	Wood
		Ghost Ship of the Skies	Wood
		The Vision *	Wood
Aug/65	#12	The Shadow with Claws	Leo Dorfman
		The Revolt of the Machines	Dorfman
		The Voice in the Mist *	Dorfman
		They Dwell among Us	Dorfman
Nov/65	#13	The Man Who Could Read the Future	Wood
		The Man with My Face	Wood
		Way Out West—On Mars	Wood
Feb/66	#14	The Day That Vanished	Wood
		The Death Car	"TZ 3"
		The Lost Genius	Wood
		The Lost Oasis	Dorfman
		A Nightmare Tale *	?
May/66	#15	Moment of Decision	Wood
		Wipe Out the Future	Paul S. Newman
		The Wheel of Light *	Dorfman
		Perfect Preservation	Wood
		The Vision of Mystir	Dorfman
		The Prophet *	?
		(* single-page stories)

Leo Dorfman names a character Mystir at least one more time: in "The Voodoo Doom of Superman" in Action Comics 413 (June/72)--a story for which he was credited only in the letter column in 417.

Joe Orlando's Ghosts on Twilight Zone

Before I get to my next installment of Twilight Zone writers, I want to devote a post to the art: specifically, the art attributed to Joe Orlando.

Jerry Grandenetti pencilled "Moment of Decision" in Twilight Zone 15 (May/66).

Joe Orlando didn't. Grandenetti even lettered the sound effects, as was his habit. The page above was inked by Bill Draut, as you can see from the face in the lower right corner. Joe Orlando inked at least some of the story, as here:

Joe Orlando no more pencilled "Moment of Decision" than Bob Kane did. Grandenetti and Draut ghosted for Orlando for a period, just as, say, Lew Sayre Schwartz and then Sheldon Moldoff did for Kane on Batman. Orlando wasn't even signing or taking a credit line here as at DC or Warren; he was trying to fool only the editors (if he accomplished that much). The readers are under no obligation to deny the evidence of Grandenetti's distinctive style.

Jerry Grandenetti, on the other hand, had nothing to do with "The Lost Genius" in TZ 14 (Feb/66); the GCD correctly attributes the pencils to Orlando, although I'd say someone else inked it.

Twilight Zone (Dell) Writer

Since darkmark got me a look at these issues, I'll backtrack and fill in the pre-Gold Key Twilight Zone. They're published by Dell but produced, like the Gold Key run, by Western Publishing.

They're numbered 1173, 1288 (those two in the Four-Color numbering), then 01-860-207, and 12-860-210. The fourth issue is misnumbered 01-860-210 in the indicia. 01 stands for fifteen cents and 12 for twelve cents; the price on Dells had just dropped back to the industry standard at this point.

George Evans has said that he and Reed Crandall sometimes swapped some pencilling and inking on a story, but here I'm listing the artist I see doing the most on pencils or inks. Hearing that Frank Frazetta inked Evans on the fourth issue, I give him the credit on the stories that look least like Evans' own inks. On "Hard-Luck Harvey," Joe Giella, not known to have worked at Western, is a wild guess on my part; but does this give anyone a feeling of Fifties Strange Adventures/Mystery in Space déjà vu?

The second issue cover painting is by George Wilson. Someone else did the first; and another artist did, I believe, both the third and fourth issue paintings.

The Twilight Zone at Dell—Written by Leo Dorfman

Mar-May/61	(#1)	Specter of Youth	p: Reed Crandall  i: George Evans
		The Phantom Lighthouse	a: Crandall
		Doom by Prediction	a: Crandall
Feb-Apr/62	(#2)	The Bridegroom	a: Evans
		Secret Weapon	a: Evans
		The Joiner	p: Crandall  i: Evans
May-July/62	(#3)	The Man from Nowhere	p: Mike Sekowsky  i: Frank Giacoia
		Beyond the Window	p:  Sekowsky  i: Giacoia
		Hard-Luck Harvey	p: Joe Giella  i: Giacoia
Aug-Oct/62	(#4)	The Ring	p: Evans  i: Frank Frazetta
		The Collector	p: Evans  i: Frazetta
		The Time Machine	a: Evans

Just possibly the fillers (1-pagers except for "Voices" in the second issue, a 2-pager), are by Dorfman, but they're more illustrated text than comics (no dialogue), which makes the style harder to pin down. I believe some issues here, on variants I haven't seen, have additional filler pages in place of back-cover ads.

The Twilight Zone Fillers at Dell—By an Unknown Writer

Mar-May/61	(#1)	Journey into the Twilight Zone	a: Evans
Feb-Apr/62	(#2)	Voices from the Twilight Zone	a: Evans
		Voyage into the Twilight Zone	a: Evans
		Calling the Twilight Zone	a: Evans
May-July/62	(#3)	Luck in the Twilight Zone	p Sekowsky  i: Giacoia?
		Lost in the Twilight Zone	p Sekowsky  i: Giacoia?
Aug-Oct/62	(#4)	Creatures from the Twilight Zone	a: Evans

Twilight Zone 1-10 writers

This list indexes the writers of the first ten Gold Key issues of The Twilight Zone. There were four earlier issues, which I've yet to see, published by Dell in 1961-62; Gold Key restarted the numbering with #1.

Those cited by the Who's Who as writing mystery stories in the early Sixties for Western (which would include the Dell TZs, then Boris Karloff as well as TZ, at Gold Key) include Leo Cheney, Royal Cole, and Marshall McClintock. There are no specific stories they're known to have done, so I can't match up the unknown writers' styles with particular authors.

Technically one story in each issue is not a Twilight Zone; there's no logo, no appearance by Rod Serling, and the copyright owner is Western rather than the TV production company, Cayuga.

A stat of Rod Serling's head was used in any number of stories beginning with the third issue. Above, on the left, is the head's first appearance, in a Mike Sekowsky story—and I don't think the head itself is by Sekowsky—then, on the right, it's definitely a stat in an Alex Toth story. Below are two examples from Frank Thorne stories; in earlier ones, he got to draw Serling.

The art attributions are on the Grand Comics Database.

The Twilight Zone Writers

Nov/62	#1	Perilous Journey	"TZ 1"
		Do Not Touch Exhibit	"TZ 1"
		Voyage to Nowhere	Leo Dorfman
Feb/63	#2	The Lost Colonie	"TZ 2"
		Journey into Jeopardy	Dorfman
		The Ray of Phobos	Dorfman
May/63	#3	The Last Battle	"TZ 2"
		Birds of a Feather	"TZ 2"
		The Queen Is Dead—Long Live the Queen	"TZ 2"
Aug/63	#4	The Secret of the Key	"TZ 2"
		Experiment in Purple	"TZ 2"
		The Captive	"TZ 2"
		The Ordeal of Bluebird 3	"TZ 2"
Nov/63	#5	The Legacy of Hans Burkel	Dorfman
		Poor Little Sylvester	Dorfman
		The Shadow of Fate	Dorfman
		The Fortune Hunters	Dorfman
Feb/64	#6	Captives of the Mirage	Dick Wood
		The Night People of London	Wood
		The Last Sixty Seconds	Wood
May/64	#7	The Shield of Medusa	Wood
		The Menace from Out There	Wood
		The Man Who Haunted Himself	Wood
Aug/64	#8	Hamilton's Creature	Wood
		The Night Striker of Paris	Wood
		Iron Man No. 1	"TZ 2"
Nov/64	#9	The Street Where Evil Dwelt	Wood
		The Doom Days	?
		Creatures on Canvas	Wood
Feb/65	#10	The Bewitching Window	Wood
		Lost Acre	Wood
		The Patient Workers *	Wood
		The Demon Light	Wood
		The Mystic Book	Wood
		The Midas Wheel *	Wood
		(* single-page stories)