Woolfolk Records 1954/05 and /06

These are William Woolfolk scripts for DC and for (UPDATE:) J.B. Publishing's Tops in Human Highlights.

See the comments—SangorShop corrected my assumptions that Woolfolk meant Lev Gleason's two-issue 1949 newsmagazine Tops and that Gleason's version had lasted below the Overstreet radar into 1954. I posted without the issue info; that's from SangorShop as well.

The "impossible headlines" Superman story stumps me. Woolfolk sold a story with the same premise in March 1954. He recorded a $125 payment for that one as received in March and a $125 payment for this one in May; they are separate stories. That one fits Superman 92's September date better than this one would.

May 1954 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

10 pg	Superman	impossible Daily Planet headlines
		[???]
10	Superman	the phantom Superman
		"The Phantom Superman" Action 199, Dec/54
2	C-bomb story for Tops	"Goodbye, World! The C Bomb Can End It" Tops, Sept/54

June 1954

10	Superboy	worst athlete in Smallville
		"Smallville's Worst Athlete" Adventure 207, Dec/54
10	Superman	3 dooms for Metropolis
		"Three Dooms for Metropolis" Superman 94, Jan/55
2	Why Catholics Fight Birth Control (Tops)	"Why Catholics Fight Birth Control" Tops, Oct/54

Woolfolk wrote a July heading in his notebook but didn't enter any stories. The next page picks up with income from publishing, and from writing TV and a novel, in 1962. I wonder if a few of his final comics scripts in 1954 could have gone unrecorded; when I was IDing Superman stories by style, twenty years ago, I attributed a few to him that came out later than these.

But one way or the other, this is the chronological end of William Woolfolk's recorded comic book scripting, except for a Superman story done in the 1980s. He began publishing the magazine Space World around this point, and later Inside Story. His first of nineteen novels, The Naked Hunter, came out this year. Two of his novels, paperback originals under the name "Winston Lyon," were comic-book-related: Batman vs. Three Villains of Doom and Batman vs. the Fearsome Foursome (both Signet, 1966) novelized, respectively, Batman comic book stories and the movie "Batman." He wrote for TV shows like "The Defenders" in the early Sixties, and then his novels appeared on the best-seller lists.

I Dream of Jeannie and the Photostats

As I pointed out about Gold Key's The Twilight Zone, on a number of stories the editors reused a photostat of one particular piece of art to add Rod Serling's head atop the body the story's artist had drawn.

On the first issue of Dell's I Dream of Jeannie (Apr/66), the artist takes that to the limit.

On this page, the Tony Nelson faces in panels 1 and 4 are identical. Likewise his faces in panels 2, 3, and 6. (After panel 2, that one is flipped left for right.) In places the head is the wrong size for the body; in panels 1and 5 it's also turned far away from where he should be looking. It's not in the same artistic style as scientist Stella's face at all.

These are the main two images of the character face the artist uses throughout the comic, over and over, traced originally from photos of Larry Hagman. I see a couple of different stats used sparingly on other pages. He relies on only one or two of Barbara Eden as Jeannie, although on this page it looks as if he's actually drawn her face. In a few spots he draws Tony's face—a very few.

"Sky High" is a full-length three-chapter story. The writer is Paul S. Newman, but I have no idea as to the shortcut-taking artist. (For what it's worth, the Grand Comics Database attributes the art to someone the Who's Who never heard of, a Michael Arnes. My level of confidence in the ID wouldn't be improved by finding it a misspelling.)

Woolfolk Records 1954/04

William Woolfolk sold to Lev Gleason, DC, and (though the stories went unpublished, I believe) to Orbit in April.

I misattributed the Mysto story to George Kashdan some years ago, but correctly figured Woolfolk for the writer of the Superman story.

UPDATE: darkmark tracked down the publication of "Crime Town."

April 1954 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg	Selfish Annie	a gal who's too self-indulgent
		[unpublished]
9	Bright Lights Gang	man organizes crime on Broadway
		"Crime Town" Crime and Punishment 70, Dec/54
10	Superboy	convention of Superboys
		"The Five Superboys" Superboy 35, Sep/54
9	Wings of Passion	stewardess & pilot—and she wants a stable sort of love
		[unpubl]
6	Dressed-Up Doll	a gal who's too flashy, too overdressed
		[unpubl]
8	Mysto	the forbidden trick
		"The Forbidden Trick" Detective 211, Sep/54
12	Superman	Lois Lane becomes great women of history
		"The Six Lives of Lois Lane" Action 198, Nov/54

Who Knows What Evil?

This cover swipe jumped right out at me.

I don’t know the cover artist of Street & Smith's The Shadow pulp for Aug/46; I suppose it was credited on the contents page, but that info doesn’t seem to have made it into Google. There’s certainly no credit for the comic book artist who swiped the pulp’s foreground figure for Cross Publications' The Perfect Crime 14 (July/51).

Woolfolk Records 1954/03

DC and Orbit bought scripts this month from Woolfolk.

Love Diary goes all-reprint with the Sept/54 issue and Love Journal is cancelled after the July/54 issue; I can't find that any of the romance stories this month or next (Woolfolk's final ones for Orbit) were published. (One romance last month was in the July Love Diary.) All were paid for.

March 1954 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg	The Old Man	the old man teacher of war is only 20
		"The Old Man" Star Spangled War Stories 27, Nov/54
6	The Cold War	what it is like to battle at below 0°
		"The Cold War" SSWS 25, Sep/54
10	Superman	Daily Planet prints impossible headlines
		"The Impossible Headlines" Superman 92, Sep/54
7	Bachelor, Beware!	guy who thinks all women are out to trap him
		[unpublished]
8	Mysto	vs. the magic of the medicine man
		"Manitoba's Magic" Detective 210, Aug/54

Twilight Zone 16-20 Writers

These are my IDs of the writers of most of the stories in the next five issues of Gold Key's Twilight Zone. "TZ 2" and "TZ 3" did earlier stories ("TZ 1" didn't write any more stories that I've seen, after the earliest issues); I can't put names to them.

I defer to the Grand Comics Database for the art attributions—except for the Jerry Grandenetti pencils credited to ghost-employer Joe Orlando. "Nightmare for an Astronaut," "The Man Who Mastered Yoga" (one of its panels is shown here), and "The Plague" were pencilled by Grandenetti. Orlando merely inked them. Orlando did pencil "The Masquerader."

The Twilight Zone 16-20 Writers

July/66	#16	Nightmare for an Astronaut	Dick Wood
		The Ghost Gunner	"TZ 3"
		The Wisdom of the Beast *	"TZ 2"
		The Perfect Criminal	Leo Dorfman
		When the Ball Is Over	Paul S. Newman
Sept/66	#17	The Masquerader	Dorfman
		Once upon a Dream	"TZ 3"
		He Walked on Water *	"TZ 2"
		The Ship That Knew *	"TZ 3"
		Crystal Clear	"TZ 3"
		Mars: Dead or Alive	Wood
Nov/66	#18	Second-Hand Clothes	Dorfman?
		When the Lights Go Out	Dorfman
		Dead Man's Train *	"TZ 3"?
		The Man in the Green Coat *	"TZ 3"?
		Programmed Vacation	Wood
		The Impressionist	Wood?
		Strange Reunion *	Dorfman
Jan/67	#19	The Crime-a-Day Town	Wood
		Into Worlds Beyond	"TZ 3"
		Big-Foot *	"TZ 3"?
		The Man Who Mastered Yoga	?
		Our Man on Planet Ergo	Wood
Mar/67	#20	The Plague	Dorfman
		The Prodigy	Dorfman
		The Day That Couldn't Get Lost	?
		The Portal	Dorfman
		* (single-page stories)

Woolfolk Records 1954/02

William Woolfolk's buyers of scripts this month were DC, Orbit, and Lev Gleason. Gleason's Buster Crabbe, however, would be cancelled with the issue that printed Woolfolk's December-written script.

UPDATE: I since found the Prescription for Happiness.

February 1954 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

12 pg	Superman	Lois Lane—wanted
		"Lois Lane—Wanted" Action 195, Aug/54
3	Prescription for Happiness	girl afraid she'll lose guy if he goes back to college
		[untitled PFH] Love Diary 44, June/54
8	Buster Crabbe	the spear in the stone
		[unpublished]
8	Mysto	can he repeat "impossible" stunts of a dead magician?
		"The Three Feats of Peril" Detective 209, July/54
9	Lover, Don't Leave Me	gal falls for a rover—a bridge worker
		"Lover, Don't Leave Me" L Diary 45, July/54