Weisbecker Sports and War at Fawcett

On these Clem Weisbecker pencil jobs at Fawcett, my impression is that Sheldon Moldoff inked most of the true-life baseball stories--in Jackie Robinson and Baseball Heroes. This page is from "Jackie Robinson Breaks into the Majors."

One Jackie Robinson story among these issues is by an artist other than Weisbecker--"Jackie Robinson Carries the Pigskin" in #4.

Joe Louis #1 hasn't been scanned and put online yet, so its omission here doesn't mean Weisbecker didn't draw it. There's a bookseller's scan of page 1 that's obviously not by him, but a second look at the indicia shows that it's the Anglo-American version, and Canadian import laws meant they had to get the script redrawn by a Canadian artist. (The Grand Comics Database calls it a "reprint" but "remake" would be the better term.)

Clem Weisbecker pencils
on Fawcett sports and war

JACKIE ROBINSON

1949	(#1)	Jackie Robinson, Baseball Hero
Jul/50	#2	Jackie Robinson's First World Series
		Jackie Robinson and the Stolen Home Run
		Jackie Robinson and the Golden Cup
Sep/	#3	Jackie Robinson Breaks into the Majors
		Jackie Robinson Battles the Teen-Age Terror
		Jackie Robinson Rides the Whirlwind
Nov/	#4	Jackie Robinson Wins the Battling Crown
		Jackie Robinson and the Human Cat
1951	#5	Jackie Robinson and the Crucial Series
		Jackie Robinson and the Rookie on Trial
		Jackie Robinson, All American
1952	#6	Famous Plays by Jackie Robinson, Baseball Hero

JOE LOUIS

Nov/50

#2

Joe Louis, Champion of Champions

BASEBALL HEROES

1952

nn

The True Story of Baseball's Hall of Fame

BOB SWIFT, BOY SPORTSMAN

1951	#1	Bob Swift and the Big Horn Bonanza
		Bob Swift and the King of the Lake
July/	#2	Tiger on a Bait Rod
		The Thrill Killers of the North
Sep/	#3	Fishing in Another World
		Bear Tracks to Danger
Nov/	#4	Sahib's Sacrifice
		Cannibal Trout
Jan/52	#5	Sun, Surf and Stripers
		Bob Swift and the Spotted Killer

BILL BATTLE, THE ONE MAN ARMY

Oct/52	#1	I'm the Best There Is
		A Snowball in Hades
Dec/	#2	Six Feet Under
		Strictly a Southpaw
Feb/53	#3	Human Bazooka
		Death Takes a Furlough
Apr/	#4	Death Warrant
		It Ain't Always Hell

MASTER COMICS

Apr/53

#133

The Biggest Brass There Is [BILL BATTLE]

BATTLE STORIES

May/52	#3	Wanted: One MIG-15
Sep/	#5	They've Got to Kill Me!

SOLDIER COMICS

Mar/52	#2	No More Noise from Snafu
Sep/53	#11	Long Time No Sea! [BILL BATTLE]

Clem's Cap

Clem Weisbecker's handful of stories on Captain America are important because, of course, Captain America, and because they're a link between his earlier work at MLJ and later at Fawcett. (Another link is his late-Forties stories in Crime Must Pay the Penalty, at Ace, which have already been identified by James Vadeboncoeur, Jr.)

The page above is from "Scarface and the Script of Death." Some issues in this timeframe are online only as scans of old microfiche rather than of the actual comics, and the fuzziness makes it difficult to scrutinize the art. Inherent in the comics themselves is the number of different inkers. So Weisbecker may have more Cap stories, but these are the ones I can be sure enough of to list now, and not take another few weeks vacillating over some of the other stories.

Clem Weisbecker pencils on
CAPTAIN AMERICA

Nov/45	#50	The Walking Dead
Jan/46	#52	The Case of the Telepathic Typewriter
Feb/	#53	The Robe of Evil
		Murder Etched in Stone
Mar/	#54	Scarface and the Script of Death
Apr/	#55	The Hands of Sensitivo

on Captain America in
ALL SELECT

Sum/46

#10

Crime Takes a Cruise

Two Who Drew Lance O'Casey and One Who Didn't

After a 49-issue absence from Whiz Comics Lance O'Casey returns with #103 and art by Louis Cazeneuve, recognizable from his work on Boy Commandos, Seven Soldiers of Victory, and so on at DC. There's another artist, whom I can't ID, and the next along is Clem Weisbecker, whose Fawcett movie comics I listed in my previous post. The run from #132 to the end, #155, is said to include Charles Tomsey art, but I haven't got a handle on his style.
 
The Grand Comics Database has attributed the Lance O'Casey stories in #119, 123, 125, and 128 to Dick Dillin. I can see why a reader could be reminded of Blackhawk art, but Weisbecker's trademark long square faces do show through under different inkers on the different stories. Shown is a page from "The Poisoned Sea Mystery." Suffice it to say that the inking on the four O'Casey stories mentioned above is no more Dillin's than the pencilling is.

Issues not listed here between #103-131 do not have Lance O'Casey stories.

Lance O'Casey in WHIZ COMICS

Nov/48	#103	LOC and the Lamp of Three Wishes	a: Louis Cazeneuve
Dec/	#104	The Perils of the Pearls	a: Cazeneuve
Jan/49	#105	LOC Meets Longo of the Congo	a: Cazeneuve
Mar/	#107	LOC and the Lady Pirate	a: Cazeneuve
Apr/	#108	The Bandit Birds	a: ?
May/	#109	LOC and the Pirate's Festival	a: ?
July/	#111	The Stolen Starfish	a: ?
Aug/	#112	Magnet of Death	a: Cazeneuve
Sep/	#113	Doomed!	a: Cazeneuve
Nov/	#115	LOC and the Photo of Death	a: Cazeneuve
Jan/50	#117	The Plight of Homer Whittington, Jr.	p: Clem Weisbecker
Mar/	#119	The Pan American Bull Session	p: Weisbecker
Apr/	#120	The Strange Fight	a: Cazeneuve
May/	#121	Frame Up	p: Weisbecker
July/	#123	Treachery Under Cover	p: Weisbecker
Aug/	#124	The Death Warrants	p: Weisbecker
Sep/	#125	Dangerous Cargo	p: Weisbecker
Nov/	#127	The Reign of Terror	p: Weisbecker
Dec/	#128	The Poisoned Sea Mystery	p: Weisbecker
Jan/51	#129	Pirate Warfare	p: Weisbecker
Mar/	#131	LOC Raids the Antarctic Hide-Out	p: Weisbecker

The Grand Comics Database has credited Cazeneuve with some of the Whiz issues listed but mistakenly on Golden Arrow instead of Lance O'Casey (not that I can give a name to the GA artist at this particular point).

Golden Arrow in WHIZ COMICS

Nov/48	#103	GA and the Passenger Bandit	a: NOT Cazeneuve
Dec/	#104	The Vanishing Payrolls	a: NOT Cazeneuve
Jan/49	#105	GA and the Duo of Crime	a: NOT Cazeneuve
Mar/	#107	GA and the Treacherous Masquerade	a: NOT Cazeneuve

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