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]

Disc Jockeying Times Three, Not Two

A while ago I listed some of the teenager scripts that Jack Mendelsohn reworked at Tower from ones he’d written at Quality a decade earlier. One such pair was "Disc Jockeying" in CANDY 49 (July/54) and the story by the same title in GO-GO AND ANIMAL 2 (Oct/66). Now I’ve found an earlier source for the plot at DC--the untitled Liz story in SCRIBBLY 1 (Aug-Sep/48). They're in chronological order below: Liz, Candy, Go-Go. The heroine in each has thrown a platter party to replenish her record collection and every guest has brought a single with the same song.

The Go-Go script reworks the Candy one closely, but they don’t resemble the Liz one aside from the plot. Jack Mendelsohn was working at DC in 1948, or at least for Howie Post there, on Presto Pete and Jiminy and the Magic Book, but I can’t see any of his style in the Liz script.

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

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

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

Almost Comics--But Not Quite

A Golden All-Star Book from Western (as a Golden Press imprint) is a storybook--prose and illustrations. Online sellers have mistaken it for a comic book--not only is it comic book size in dimensions and number of pages (36 including covers), most of the writers and artists were working at Western's Gold Key comics at the time. The exceptions as far as known credits go: Mary A. Mintz, whose only comic book credit is a story in Spidey Super Stories at Marvel, and Bill Ochs, credited on no comic books. (The Greatest here, by the way, is a novelization of the Muhammad Ali movie.)

These two covers are the only paintings among almost all photo ones (Fat Albert is line art). I couldn't say who the painters are.

A Golden All-Star Book — 1977 — 59¢

6413	WELCOME BACK KOTTER
	w: Arnold Drake  a: Mel Crawford
	Kotter for Sale
	Wake Me to Say Goodbye
	Down on the Farm
6414	STARSKY & HUTCH
	w: George Kashdan  a: Jack Sparling
	Brother Avenger
	No Time for Crime
	A Mixed-Up Murder
6415	DONNIE & MARIE
	w: Wallace I. Green  a: José Delbo
	If This Is Tuesday...
	Some Vacation!
6416	ISIS
	w: Steve Skeates  a: Sparling
	The Discovery
	The Bermuda Triangle
	Hard Lesson
6417	THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
	w: Mary A. Mintzer  a: Alden McWilliams
	The Captive Crowd
	Aunt May's Crusade
	The Taking of Manhattan Isle!
6418	WELCOME BACK KOTTER
	w: Drake  a: Crawford
	The Unteachables
	Barbarino's in Love!
	Kotter King of Krime
6419	WELCOME BACK KOTTER
	w: Drake  a: Sparling
	Julie vs. the Gerbils
	"Kotter's Pet"
	Dreamboat Woodman
6420	CHARLIE'S ANGELS
	w: Kashdan  a: Sparling
6421	THE GREATEST
	w: Bill Ochs  a: John Celardo
	The Greatest
6422	SPACE: 1999
	w: Mintzer  a: Frank Bolle
	The Return of the Metamorph
	Queen Brain
6423	STARSKY & HUTCH
	w: Kashdan  a: Crawford
6424	DONNIE & MARIE
	w: Gary Poole  a: Delbo
	"Someone's Following Us!"
	Pranks Aplenty!
	Lost and Found
6425	FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS
	w: Drake  cover & a: Winslow Mortimer
	The Night We Spent in Spooky House
	Save Our Clubhouse
	Happy Anniversary

1978 — 69¢

[no #]	THE NEW KROFFT SUPERSHOW
	w: Mintzer  a: Mortimer
	Wonderbug in Honk Meets a Quack
	Kaptain Kool and the Kongs [1-pager]
	Bigfoot and Wildboy in The Abominable Snowman
	Kaptain Kool and the Kongs [1-pager]
	Magic Mongo in The Three Wishes