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

Woolfolk Records 1952/07

Fawcett and Orbit stories—and a story for DC. William Woolfolk is known, from Julius Schwartz's records of the scripts bought in his and Robert Kanigher's office, to have written a Wonder Woman story in 1948. The DC stories attributed to Woolfolk on the GCD between that story and these (October will start a steady supply of scripts to the publisher) were misidentified (by me) some years ago. When I finish posting the Woolfolk records, I hope to take a new look at those stories and see who might have written them; I trust it will turn out to be a single writer.

By virtue of this, her second story, Vampira is the final continuing villain Woolfolk creates in comic books.

The undersized genii story seems to be the same as next month's too-lazy genii, entered twice, although recorded as paid both times; it's published under a title closer to the second entry's description. This happens in Woolfolk's final writing months with the Superman story about impossible headlines entered twice (in March and May 1954).

Prescription for Happiness, like S.O.S. for Love, is a department with no story individually titled. This one has to fit this issue, as there were only two 2-page Prescriptions hereabouts, and when Woolfolk writes the next one he describes it.

UPDATE: I had misidentified this Superman story as "Super Manor," Action 179. When darkmark IDed the story written in October 1952 as that one, I went back to find which story fit this description better.

July 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

12 pg	Superman	Super goes money mad
		"Muscles for Money" Action 176, Jan/53
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	beast of the battlefield
		"CMJ and Vampira's Beast of the Battlefield" Marvel Family 85, July/53
10	The Rain, the Deadly Rain	vengeance of a rain god
		"The Rain, the Deadly Rain" Strange Stories from Another World 5, Feb/53
10	Man Who Defeated Death	chessmaster vs. Death
7		"The Man Who Defeated Death" Beware! Terror Tales 7, May/53
3	S.O.S. for Love	[untitled SOSFL] Love Journal
10	The Fleshless Ones	skeletons from below the earth
		"The Fleshless Ones" Worlds of Fear 10, June/53
2	Prescription for Happiness	[untitled PFH] Love Diary 32, Dec/52
10	Horror at the Lighthouse	sea monster that eats humans
		"Horror at the Lighthouse" BTT 6, Mar/53
7	Love Me As I Am	girl wins guy just being herself
		"Love Me As I Am" L Journal 17, Feb/53
7	The Butcher	gangster kills gal friend & boss
		"The Butcher" Wanted 51, Dec/52
5	Captain Marvel Jr.	the undersized genii
		[duplicate entry?]

Twistin' Time Is Here (But Who Drew It?)

Dell's one-shot The Twist (July-Sept/62), riding the coattails of the dance craze, was written by Paul C. Ignizio. That attribution comes from Martin Grams Jr.'s book on "Car 54, Where Are You"; Ignizio wrote to the producers with a sample of his writing, the Dell tie-in to that show, and mentioned The Twist as another Dell he'd written. Mark Evanier's mention of that on his blog brought Ignizio to indexers' attention.

The artist of The Twist has gone misidentified, but he sneaked in versions of his name twice.

The interior art has gone misidentified because the cover artist signed his work. "Williams" is, I'd agree with the Grand Comics Database, Bill Williams. But he no more drew the insides here than Gil Kane drew every Marvel in the early Seventies.

The artist with this style in 1962 used it on other Dells like The Andy Griffith Show and Margie. He's Henry Scarpelli. (The GCD currently attributes Margie's art correctly but gives credit for Andy Griffith's to Bill Fraccio.)

A few years later Scarpelli would change his approach somewhat, using photo-reference stats on books such as McHale's Navy, something that he didn't use on those 1962 ones. After that, the deluge, as he refined the cartoonier style of his syndicated panel TV Tee-Hees. He set the Archie-like template for DC's teen books with covers and, generally with others penciling the interiors, inks. (I was surprised to find that he used his more "realistic" style at DC first, on Stanley and His Monster.)

On page 11 of The Twist, a car license plate reads H.I.S. Recognizing Scarpelli's style to begin with, I zeroed in on the initials. Although I couldn't find if his middle initial was indeed I, in the course of an Internet search I found confirmation of his second sneak. According to his 2010 obituary, his nickname was "Scap," and on page 24 (pictured with detail): Scap's Trucking Co.

Woolfolk Records 1952/06

Mostly Fawcett stories (and half of those for the horror anthologies), with two stories written for Quality and one for Orbit this month.

William Woolfolk's final Doll Man stories; his and Fawcett's final Ibis. The Ibis story Charlton published later in Danger and Adventure 22 must have been done new, not taken out of Fawcett inventory.

The Wanted 51 cover identifies "Holiday of Horror" as a Mausoleum of Weird Crimes installment, but the splash page doesn't.

June 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk
 

6 pg	Captain Marvel Jr.	Vampira & her gorilla
		"CMJ Battles Vampira, Queen of Terror" CMJ 116, Dec/52
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	hammer of hell
		"CMJ and the Hammer of Hate" CMJ 118, Apr/53
10	Doll Man	Radioactive Man
		"Radioactive Man" DM 44, Feb/53
5	The Lonely One	man keeps a corpse for company
		"The Lonely One" Beware! Terror Tales 5, Jan/53
5	The Ghoul of Eldritch Manor	man looking for a ghoul—which is himself
		"The Ghoul at Eldritch Manor" BTT 5, Jan/53
5	Dracula's Daughter	a Hollywood vampire queen—meets a real vampire
		"Vampire's Daughter" Strange Stories from Another World 5, Feb/53
6	Ibis	guardians of the tomb
		"Ibis and the Guardians of the Tomb" Whiz 155, June/53
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	guilty of murder
		"Guilty of Murder" CMJ 119, June/53
10	Doll Man	meets Metal Face
		"The Man with the Iron Face" DM 45, Apr/53
10	They Are Watching You	rodents are going to take over the world
		"They Are Watching You" Worlds of Fear 9, Apr/53
9	Holiday of Horror	case history of a drug addict
8		"Holiday of Horror" Wanted 51, Dec/52

Double Date with Judy and Debbi

Swing with Scooter 20, the Summer 1969 Special, wasn't the only time DC reused story material from A Date with Judy.

They had gone to that well in late 1968 for the first few issues of Date with Debbi. Here, at least, they didn't redraw reprints; they bought new scripts and art, but the scripts were rewrites of 1947-48 Judy stories. Both A Date with Judy 1 and Date with Debbi 1 open with a letter to the reader from the main character, introducing the characters pictured around the page edges: parents, boyfriend, little brother, rival, and Judy/Debbi..

The liberated woman story in Debbi 2 is the one that veers the furthest from the original, but still, the writer obviously saw the emancipated woman Judy story.

Alvin Schwartz was the first writer on A Date with Judy, and wrote her stories cited here; Graham Place drew the originals. I can track one writer on early Date with Debbi stories without being able to put a name to him or her; it doesn't seem to be any of the ones already known on the strip: Henry Boltinoff, Steve Skeates, Barbara Friedlander, or John Albano. Samm Schwartz was the first artist, but even by issue 2 the powers that be decided that some Schwartz faces had to be reinked. By issue 3 new artists began arriving.

DATE WITH DEBBI Stories with
A DATE WITH JUDY Plot Sources

"Detention's the Thing" DWD 1 (Jan-Feb/69)

Story 1, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

"Eeeek—It's a Heap" DWD 1 (Jan-Feb/69)

Story 3, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

"Who's Blue?" DWD 2 (Mar-Apr/69)

Story 4, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

"I'll Be Suing You" DWD 2 (Mar-Apr/69)

Story 2, ADWJ 1 (Oct-Nov/47)

Story 3 (Liberated Woman), DWD 2 (Mar-Apr/69)

Story 2, ADWJ 2 (Dec-Jan/48)

"The Cave-Man Cometh" DWD 3 (May-Jun/69)

Story 2, ADWJ 3 (Feb-Mar/48)

Woolfolk Records 1952/05

William Woolfolk entered the comic book scripts he sold in a notebook that, much later, Donna Woolfolk let Marc Svensson scan (thanks to both of them!). These May 1952 entries sold to Fawcett, Quality, and Orbit.

This month's are Woolfolk's final Blackhawk stories.

May 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

8 pg	Captain Marvel Jr.	Robin Hood days
		"In the Days of Robin Hood" CMJ 118, Apr/53
7	Blackhawk	Guerrilla meeets Blackhawk
		"Guerrilla—the Unknown Hero" BH 61, Feb/53
10	Man Who Broke the Black Hand	"The Man Who Broke the Black Hand" Underworld Crime 7, Sep/53
7	Blackhawk	terror of the Crimson Hoods
		"Terror of the Crimson Hoods" BH 60, Jan/53
10	Killer from the Grave	a dead gangster who comes back from lime pit
	Mausoleum of Weird Crimes	"Make Way for Murder" Wanted 50, Oct/52
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	werewolf of London
		"CMJ and the Werewolf of London" CMJ 117, Feb/53
8	Captain Marvel Jr.	mad Mongol monster
		"CMJ Battles the Mad Mongol Monster" CMJ 115, Nov/52
6	Ibis	the thing from the deep
		"Ibis and the Man-Eater from the Deep" Whiz 154, Apr/53
7	Lady—or the Tigress?	a woman who is both
		"Lady or the Tigress?" This Magazine Is Haunted 9, Feb/53
6	Devil's Mask	if evil, face changes to that of the mask
		"Devil's Mask" TMIH 9, Feb/53
7	Forbidden to Love	modern Romeo & Juliet
		Love Journal

Scooter, Scooter, Scooter (in a Cary Grant Voice)

Swing with Scooter 20 (Aug-Sep/69), the Giant Summer Fun annual, needed reprints, but the title was only three years old. That wasn't a problem; DC had repurposed old stories before—modernizing hairstyles and fashions (Binky, romance stories) or outright turning characters into new ones (Dobie Gillis and Maynard G. Krebs into Windy and Willy).

By this point, though, Scooter had been transformed from the original design ghosted by Jerry Grandenetti in a Joe Orlando look into a more-or-less Bob Montana look, with Henry Scarpelli's full art on covers and his inks over other artists' interior pencils. (The Binky and Debbi titles would soon follow suit.) Anything from five or ten years earlier would have to be redrawn to match the style in Scooter 19 and 21.

But since the point was to save money on "reprints," the bare minimum of revision was called for. That meant some characters were not redrawn. People with Scarpelli's Archie-style heads would interact with Bob Oksner's and Mort Drucker's caricature-realistic folks.

I had no idea at first where the original stories (evidently untitled and so not cross-indexed on the GCD) might be turned up. Then I found that the long-time artist of the radio tie-in A Date with Judy, Graham Place, did most of that title's run but not the last of it. Oksner and Drucker came aboard for the final year (Oksner had been given the cover art assignments on Judy a bit before that). I don't know who was writing the Date with Judy stories in 1960. Cal Howard?

SWING WITH SCOOTER 20 Stories and
Their A DATE WITH JUDY Sources

"If It's Free, I'll Take It"
Story 1, ADWJ 77 (Jun-Jul/60)	a: Bob Oksner
"Sign Here, Please"
Story 3, ADWJ 79 (Oct-Nov/60)	a: Mort Drucker
"Carnival Time"
Story 3, ADWJ 78 (Aug-Sep/60)	a: Drucker
"Cousin Roger's Hang-Up"
Story 2, ADWJ 77 (Jun-Jul/60)	a: Drucker
"Golf Anyone"
Story 3, ADWJ 74 (Dec/59-Jan/60)	a: Graham Place
"Cool Bongos"
Story 3, ADWJ 78 (Aug-Sep/60)	a: Drucker
"Johnny, You Kill Me"
Story 1, ADWJ 76 (Apr-May/60)	a: Drucker