Just Before Fantastic Four: Amazing Adventures

At 1961 Marvel the fifth monster anthology, Amazing Adventures, distinguished itself from Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense with a series: occult master Dr. Droom, in #1-4 and 6.

With no full credits at this point, the best guess at authorship has been that whatever Stan Lee didn't sign was written by Larry Lieber. In late '61, it looks as if they were indeed the only two writing for the company; that wasn't be true a couple of years earlier, where Jack Oleck, for instance, was one of the writers with a story in TOS 1 and Jack Kirby was for a short time allowed to be the writer/artist he'd been elsewhere (see Nick Caputo on Kirby's scripting his own stories in Battle).

Since by 1961 Stan and Larry's styles are very, very similar, I'd been relying on that signature; the only story signed by Stan in these six issues is "The Fourth Man" in #6. It's a small surprise, then, that he wrote some stories he didn't sign. The surprise is only a small one because they're exactly the ones you'd think he wrote: the twist-ending shorts drawn by Steve Ditko, quite a different sort of tale by this point than the monster epic leads. AA would, of course, turn into Amazing Adult Fantasy with #7—all Lee-Ditko stories of this sort and all stories, covers, and contents pages signed by Stan and Steve. In the four anthologies that outlasted AA, Stan would continue with the Ditko stories (signed and then credited, when Larry gets credit too on his stories).

Again, this doesn't stretch back years. Steve Ditko's first stories for Marvel in 1959 were not scripted by Stan Lee, who was busy enough with the Western and girls' series.

 

If Stan Lee (as per later stories' credits) or Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko (as per reminiscences of the Marvel method) plotted some of these, who can tell? (Although that alliteratively-named capitalist Simon Sledge is the villain and not the hero would suggest that Stan could keep all the credit for "The Bootblack" and be welcome.)

UPDATE: I'd originally listed Dick Ayers as the inker of "Sserpo," but Mark Evanier's comment sent me to look at it more closely.

Amazing Adventures

Jun/61	1	Torr	w: Larry Lieber
			p: Jack Kirby  i: Dick Ayers
		Midnight in the Wax Museum	w: Stan Lee  a: Steve Ditko
		I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ditko
Jul/	2	I Led the Strange Search for Manoo	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
		TheWorld Below [DR. DROOM]	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
		Rocky's Last Ride	w: Lee  a: Ditko
Aug/	3	We Were Trapped in the Twilight World	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
		The Teddy Bear	w: Lee  a: Ditko
		Dr. Droom vs. Zemu	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
Sept/	4	I Am Robot X	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
		Who or What Was...the Bootblack?	w: Lee  a: Ditko
		What Lurks Within? [DR. DROOM]	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
Oct/	5	The Escape of...Monsteroso	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: Ayers
		The Watchers	w: Lieber  a: Don Heck
		The Joker	w: Lee  a: Ditko
Nov/	6	Sserpo! The Creature Who Crushed the Earth!	w: Lieber  p: Kirby  i: George Klein
		The Fourth Man	w: Lee  a: Ditko
		Dr. Droom Defies the Menace Called...Krogg	w: Lieber  a: Paul Reinman

Woolfolk Records 1950/01

Not much has changed over the fourteen months whose records are unavailable: Fawcett, Orbit, and Quality are still William Woolfolk's publishers. The only entries out of the ordinary are the Rocky Lane western instead of a Monte Hale, and the biography of champion boxer Joe Louis.

If we go by his track record before and after this interregnum, I'd guess that during it Woolfolk wrote all the Ibis stories in Whiz 110-124 and close to all of the Wild Bill Pecos stories in The Westerner 21-27; moreover, that he had stories in every issue of Wanted 21-26. By this point he's selling Captain Marvel Jr. scripts every month.

UPDATE: Since posting, I found which issue the Rocky Lane story was published in.

January 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

9 pg	Captain Marvel Jr.	house feuds with Jr.
		"Feud with a House" CMJ 89, Sept/50
7	Rocky Lane	Rocky Lane's bodyguard
		"RL and His Bodyguard" RL Western 17, Sept/50
9	Wild Bill Pecos	his blood brother
		"Blood Brother" The Westerner 28, Sept/50
7	Doll Man	curse placed on family of Danes
		"You Shall Die by Fire" DM 29, July/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	trublins—little elves who cause accidents to Freddy
		"The Trublins" Marvel Family 50, Aug/50
9	Ibis	Davy Jones locker & pirates escape
		"Davy Jones' Locker" Whiz 125, Sept/50
8	Mania for Murder	man is made to believe he is mad killer
		"Mania for Murder" Wanted 27, July/50
7	Plastic Man	meets Mr. Aqua
		"Mr. Aqua" PM 25, Sept/50
14	Joe Louis book	childhood & amateur days
		[untitled 1st story] Joe Louis 1, Sept/50
10	The Devil to Pay	Vannie Higgins had too many enemies
		"The Devil to Pay" Wanted 27, July/50
18	Joe Louis book	The Brown Bomber, world's champion
		[untitled 2nd story] Joe Louis 1, Sept/50
1	letter from Joe Louis	[text] Joe Louis 1, Sept/50
12	Marvel Family	school for witches
		"The School for Witches" [Chapters 1-2] MF 52, Oct/50

Woolfolk's writing this Marvel Family script happens to fall on the end of the month; he begins February writing its final chapter.

Kirby Insanity

Simon & Kirby swept in and out of Charlton in 1955 with a handful of comics—some out of inventory from Prize, but some original. With From Here to Insanity Jack Kirby took over an established title for its final issue as a four-color comic.

 

On Black Magic, earlier, Bill Draut's art doesn't let much of Kirby's putative layouts show through, but on this story (above) it does—even more so on later pages.

"Dorothy and Digby" is left over from the previous issue's staff. Fred Ottenheimer did "Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch House" and "Cristofer Clumsiness" in #10 as well as stories in earlier issues. He initialed the splash page detailed below.

 

The Kirby-pencilled features in this issue where I don't see enough to identify the writer are the one-pagers. If they're not by Kirby, though, I'd be surprised. He drew the cover, too. Unindexed here: the inside front cover uses mostly found art; the text 2-pager is one whose writer I can't ID. Inkers on the Kirby pencils? I can't tell. The inker on "Rex Mortgage" tries to bring something of the comic strip's look to the faces; the inker on "Tweetie Piper" and "90-Pound Weakling" just about obliterates Kirby's pencils.

From Here to Insanity—the S&K issue

Aug/55	11	Old Love	w, layouts: Jack Kirby  a: Bill Draut
		Expressions...	w: ?  p: Kirby
		Line 'Em Up	w, p: Kirby
		The Psycho News	w: ?  p: Kirby
		Dorothy and Digby	w: ?  a: Fred Ottenheimer
		Rex Mortgage M.D.?	w, p: Kirby
		Walt Chisely's 20,000 Lugs under the Sea	w, p: Kirby
		Build It Yourself	w, p: Kirby
		Comet Feldmeyer, the Ace of Space	w, p: Kirby
		Foreign Intrigues	w, p: Kirby
		Tweetie Piper	w: ?  p: Kirby
		Be a Successful 90-Pound Weakling	w: ?  p: Kirby

Woolfolk Records 1948/10

As with September 1948, I reconstructed the notebook page. Some hard-to-decipher words I figured out by working back from the stories in William Woolfolk's style that I found in the appropriate months, but I haven't seen the Monte Hales of this period. The next installment of Woolfolk's records will be January 1950.

Orbit, Quality, and Fawcett are the publishers. This is Kid Eternity's final issue of Hit; he'll be replaced by Mississippi steamboat captain Jeb Rivers (by other hands). The Golden Age of superheroes is losing steam...

UPDATE: Until Wanted 19 became available as a scan, the known story that seemed to fit this first one's description was "The Strange Case of Mortimer Dollard," the lead in issue 20. He may well have written that one too, of course—next month. ALSO: darkmark found the Monte Hale Weeper story, which fits the "meets" in the description and the June cover date alongside some of the other Fawcett stories here. Note that it was cut in half in number of pages between script and published story!

October 1948 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

12 pg	True Crime	businessman bandit
		"Business Man Bandit" Wanted 19, May/49
11	Doll Man	contest for minstrels
		"The Minstrel's Ballad of Mayhem" Feature 138, Sep/49
9	Captain Marvel	meets Trouble
		"Never Trouble Trouble" CM Advs 96, May/49
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	gravity stops
		"The Day Gravity Stopped" CMJ 73, May/49
7	Monte Hale	river island that ceases to be _____
		MH Western or Western Hero c. May or June/49
13	Kid Eternity	The Mummy, a pharaoh's curse
		"The Mummy" Hit 60, Sept/49
8	Ibis	a gambling house where souls are the stakes
		"His Greatest Gamble" Whiz 110, June/49
8	Monte Hale	meets the _____
4		"MH Meets the Weeper" Western Hero 79, June/49
15	Bad Man's Land
	as Wild Bill Pecos	"Bad Man's Land" The Westerner 20, Apr/49
15	Plastic Man	man who can split up like an amoeba
		"Twinning Terror" Police 93, Aug/49
21	Marvel Family	invaders from infinity
		"The Invaders from Infinity" MF 36, June/49

G.I. Combat 1-5

G.I. Combat began at Quality. Much later, after DC bought the title, the WWII stories of the Haunted Tank headlined; but in 1952-3 this anthology presented nothing but contemporary Korean War stories.

I can identify the three writers by style but can name only one of them, Joe Millard. "Q" worked on Ken Shannon, T-Man, Blackhawk, Exploits of Daniel Boone, Robin Hood Tales, and Web of Evil—and wrote a couple of stories for Doll Man—from 1951 or '52 to Quality's demise at the end of 1956. "GIC A" I've so far found scripting only on this title. The first story here uses "damn" and "dammit" but that experiment in precode adult-aimed writing ends before the issue and the title get any older. UPDATE: "Q" is Robert Bernstein.

Indexers have reflexively named Chuck Cuidera as Reed Crandall's inker on most of his stories at Quality, no matter the actual style (or the reports of other inkers like Les Zakarin or Sam Burlockoff on some of his strips). In the case of the first G.I. Combat story, however, Crandall's inker is indeed Cuidera. Note the faces of the lieutenant in the top tier panels as examples of Crandall's pencils and the sergeant's face in the bottom tier's middle panel as most obviously Cuidera's inks.

 

My impression is that Pete Morisi and Sam Citron ink themselves on this title, but the difference between John Daly stories' inks at DC and Quality suggests he didn't ink himself at both. After the obscuring inks over Charles Nicholas's pencils in #1, the inking of his stories here is pretty consistent, and so although I've never seen his inks credited later at Charlton or DC, I'll venture that he does ink himself from #2 on.

The cover pencils are by Crandall: #1, 3-5, and Dick Dillin: #2.

G.I. Combat 1-5

Oct/52	1	Beyond the Call of Duty	w: Robert Bernstein
			p: Reed Crandall
			i: Chuck Cuidera
		Killing Pitch	w: "GIC A"  a: Pete Morisi
		The Runt Breaks Through	w: Bernstein  p: Charles Nicholas
		Trumpet of Death	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
Dec/	2	Operation Massacre	w: Bernstein  p: John Daly
		Prison Camp Slaughter	w: Bernstein  a: Morisi
		Behind Enemy Lines	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
		The Human Fly on Heartbreak Hill	w: "GIC A"  a: Nicholas
Feb/53	3	Havoc behind Red Lines	w: Bernstein  p: Daly
		An Indestructible Marine	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
		No Grandstand in Hell	w: Joe Millard  p: Crandall
		Suicide Decoy	w: Bernstein  a: Nicholas
Mar/	4	Bridge to Bloody Hell	w: Millard  p: Dick Dillin
		Vengeance Raid	w: Millard  a: Sam Citron
		The Lieutenant Attacks	w: "GIC A"  a: ?
		One Man Army	w: "GIC A"  p: Crandall
Apr/	5	Vindicated under Fire	w: "GIC A"  p: Dillin
		Glamour Guys of Hell	w: Bernstein  a: ?
		Hell Breaks Loose on Suicide Hill	w: Millard  a: Citron
		Death of a Coward	w: Bernstein  p: Crandall

Woolfolk Records 1948/09

The records for November 1948 through December 1950 are unavailable; the available 100 months of William Woolfolk's records are about a hundred more than most Golden Age writers left. This month and next are ones I reconstructed, so there are a few words that escaped me. I had to backtrack on some; "Avernus" was just a squiggle until I read the Ibis story following last month's.

I can't find a Plastic Man story (at 15 pages it would have to be for Police, not Plastic Man) in Woolfolk's style in the appropriate timeframe, let alone one that fits what may be "crazy crimes."

"Blackhawk against Blackhawk" is in Woolfolk's style and published in a month you might expect. The villain's name in the published piece is Mung; his plot involves midget radios.

I could find the title of the Wild Bill Pecos story, as changed from Woolfolk's, but not its page count; his previous lead stories for The Westerner have been cut by a page or so. The Wanted story may have been published under another title.

Publishers: Quality, Orbit, and Fawcett.

September 1948 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

15 pg	Plastic Man	the crazy ____
		Police
15	Custer's Last Stand
	as Wild Bill Pecos	"Custer's Massacre" The Westerner 19, Mar/49
9	Lance O'Casey	giant bandit birds
		"The Bandit Birds" Whiz 108, Apr/49
9	Captain Marvel	the great polar ice cap
		"CM and the Great Polar Ice Cap" CM Advs 95, Apr/49
7	Monte Hale	the men who died twice
		"The Men Who Died Twice" Western Hero 77, Apr/49
11	Blackhawk	Major Morgue? & his midget _____
		"Blackhawk against Blackhawk" BH 25, June/49
7	Ibis	Avernus entrance under desert
		"The Land of the Lost" Whiz 109, May/49
10	Man Who Couldn't Kill	"The Man Who Couldn't Kill" Wanted 19, Mar/49
4	Wanted features	[two 2-pagers] Wanted 19, Mar/49
7	Monte Hale	installments from ____
		"Installment for Plunder" Western Hero 78, May/49
7	Captain Marvel	the great balloon race
		"CM and the Big Balloon Race around the World" CM Advs 96, May/49

Writer: Batman 131-140

I'll repeat the story editors gave of Bill Finger: he was forever cadging advances but had a real hard time producing scripts.

Oh, so? Not in these issues, he didn't.

On the art side, Sheldon Moldoff did almost as many stories in this run, spelled only on the pencils of stories 131/2 and 133/1, by Dick Sprang, and on the cover of 135 by Dick Dillin.

This run begins Alfred's stories of the second Batman and Robin team and introduces Bat-Girl. Batwoman, Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite, and the Joker appear. There are a few alien and transformation stories. Superman makes an appearance and Green Arrow is mentioned.

Batman 131-140 Writer

May/60	131	The Dog That Betrayed Batman	Bill Finger
		The Case of the Deadly Gems	Finger
		The Second Batman and Robin Team	Finger
June/	132	The Martian from Gotham City	Finger
		The Three Faces of Batman	Finger
		The Lair of the Sea-Fox	Finger
Aug/	133	Crimes of the Kite-Man	Finger
		The Voyage of the S.S. Batman	Finger
		Batwoman's Publicity Agent	Finger
Sept/	134	The Rainbow Creature	Finger
		Batman's Secret Enemy	Finger
		The Deadly Dummy	Finger
Nov/	135	Crimes of the Wheel	Finger
		The Return of the Second Batman and Robin Team	Finger
		Menace of the Sky Creature	Finger
Dec/	136	The Case of the Crazy Crimes	Finger
		The Town That Hated Batman	Finger
		The Challenge of the Joker	Finger
Feb/61	137	Robin's New Boss	Finger
		The Bandit with 1,000 Brands	Finger
		Teacher from the Stars	Finger
Mar/	138	Batman's Master	Finger
		The Simple Crimes of Simple Simon	Finger
		The Secret of the Sea Beast	Finger
May/	139	The Blue Bowman	Finger
		Island of 1,000 Traps	Finger
		Bat-Girl	Finger
June/	140	The Ghost of the Joker	Finger
		The Charmed Life of Batman	Finger
		The Eighth Wonder of Space	Finger