Woolfolk Records 1950/05

 

These blog entries present the records William Woolfolk jotted down when he wrote and sold scripts in the Golden Age. Donna Woolfolk let Marc Svensson scan the original notebook; I've transcribed, leaving out the payment info but adding (in bold) the publication info I've tracked down. Woolfolk's publishers for May 1950 scripts were Fawcett and Orbit.

The text story carries William Woolfolk's byline (as must his text for Joe Louis 1), per Fawcett's policy. He had some early bylines as Bill Woolfolk; to find all his known credits listed in the Grand Comics Database you'll have to search under both forms of his name.

May 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

2 pg	Tiger in the Ring	Johnson vs Ketchell
		"Tiger in the Ring" [text] Joe Louis 2, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	good rumor factory
		"The Good Rumor Factory" Marvel Family 53, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	Sir Reginald & the beast man
		"Sir Reginald and the Beastman" MF 55, Jan/51
10	Kiss of Doom	a woman whose touch seems to be death
		"Kiss of Doom" Wanted 30, Oct/50
7	Monte Hale	boy editor of Boot Hill
		"The Boy Editor of Faro City" MH Western 58, Mar/51
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	four lives of Freddy Freeman
		"The Four Lives of Freddy Freeman" CMJ 93, Jan/51
9	Wild Bill Pecos	golden city of Monteado
		"The Golden City of Monteado" The Westerner 28, Sept/50
6	Calamity Kate	meets the Gaucho Kid
		"The Gaucho Kid" The Westerner 28, Sept/50
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	world's mightiest caveboy
		"The World's Mightiest Caveboy" CMJ 92, Dec/50
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	Hiram Boggs, underworld lord
		"The Lord of the Underworld" CMJ 94, Feb/51
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	the lamp of power
		"The Lamp of Power" CMJ 94, Feb/51
10	Wild Bill Pecos	battles Kid Runt
		"WBP Battles Kid Runt" The Westerner 29, Oct/50
9	Ibis	day the sorcerers ruled
		"The Day the Sorcerers Ruled" Whiz 129, Jan/51
8	Wild Bill Pecos	Sheriff Nuggets has to catch Wild Bill
		"Six-Gun Traitor" The Westerner 29, Oct/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	space spy
		"CMJ Battles the Space Spy" CMJ 97, May/51

Annie Oakley Written by Hank Chapman

Atlas had two Annie Oakleys. The original version was very much in the style of Hedy Devine (who had the back-up story in #1), Millie the Model, and the other girl features; she debuted with a Spring 1948 cover date, beating Sun Girl, Namora, and Venus to the stands by half a year. Her comic lasted four issues.

The title was resumed mid-Fifties as a straight western. The covers were by Joe Maneely, John Severin, Carl Burgos, Sol Brodsky, and one was even by the interior artists, Andru and Esposito. The back-ups were the usual western shorts, on which I have no new info.

Hank Chapman's scripts in the earlier Atlas war titles, even when he isn't credited, stand out with "Cripes," "Holy Cripes," and "Ca-ripes." Not a single one of those shows up in any of these stories. I don't know if those interjections struck Chapman as too modern  for a Western, or if the new Comics Code considered even euphemisms too rough. At any rate, it's the variations on "Oww"—including "Ow-w" and "Oww-w"—that put me on Chapman's track here. The Annie Oakley stories tied in with those war stories in other ways, though; Chapman uses footnotes to translate Western lingo here and Chinese or Korean there; and Texan infantryman Battle Brady, in his own Korean War series by Chapman, uses the expression "Great Grizzlies" that Annie does here.

Annie Oakley
Written by Hank Chapman
Pencilled by Ross Andru
Inked by Mike Esposito

June/55	5	Introducing the Champion Cowgirl of the West, Annie Oakley
		The Mystery of the Vanishing Herd
		The Secret of Lost Canyon
Aug/	6	Bushwhack at Bull's-Eye Ranch
		Grizzly Giant of Vista Valley
		Skillets and Six-Guns
Oct/	7	The Scarlet Shadow Strikes
		The Treasure of the Conquistadores
		Contest of the Champions
Dec/	8	Queen of the Cowgirls
		On the Warpath
		Six-Gun Showdown
Feb/56	9	Wanted: Dead or Alive
		The Cowboy
		Flaming Fury
		Buffalo Bandits
Apr/	10	The Tribal Treasures
		Double Trouble for Annie
		Law of the Wild
		Shot-Gun Sadie
June/	11	Bandits in Buena Vista
		Outlaws Beware...When the Oakleys Ride
		A Sheriff's Duty
		Little Sure Shot

Woolfolk Records 1950/04

Scripts go to just two companies, Orbit and Fawcett, this month.

UPDATE: I could find "A Man I Dared Not Love" and "Dead on Arrival" mentioned in house ads in The Westerner 28 and 29 before I saw the respective issues of Love Diary and Wanted in which they appeared. I guessed correctly that "Man Shy" was in the same Love Diary issue, but incorrectly on "My Office Lover" going in that issue; under a new title and page count it waited another full year for publication.

"Simon Pure Socker" seems to be "Victory for Jimmy," the 4-page back-up for Joe Louis 2 that Woolfolk recorded as "How to Box" in February when he wrote the issue's main story. From the bottom of the story's first page: "They don't call amateur boxing 'simon pure' for nothing, Jimmy!"

April 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

8 pg	Hangman's Holiday	man meets another with his identity
9		"Hangman's Holiday" Wanted 29, Sept/50
9	Ibis	the moon menace
		"Ibis Battles the Moon Menace" Whiz 128, Dec/50
9	A Man I Dared Not Love	girl falls for a criminal
		"A Man I Dared Not Love" Love Diary 8, Sept/50
4	Simon Pure Socker	boy wants to be amateur fighter
		[duplicate entry]
10	Captain Marvel Jr.	battles the silicon men
		"The Silicon Monster" CMJ 92, Dec/50
2	fiction yarns	Human Reptile, and Draw against Death
1	Blackhawk	"The Human Reptile" [text] Modern 101, Sept/50
1	Arizona Raines	"Draw against Death" [text] Crack Western 68, Sept/50
9	My Office Lover	secretary & her boss
7		"I Loved My Boss" L Diary 20, Sept/51
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	Mrs. Wagner's forbidden room
		"Mrs. Wagner's Forbidden Room" CMJ 92, Dec/50
10	Man Shy!	circus gal who is afraid of men
		"Man-Shy" L Diary 8, Sept/50
10	Captain Marvel Jr.	the cosmic war dust
		"CMJ Fights the Cosmic War Dust" CMJ 93, Jan/51
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	Sivana Jr.'s friendly robot
		"Sivana Jr.'s Friendly Robot" CMJ 93, Jan/51
10	Dead on Arrival	man establishes his own death & regrets it
		"Dead on Arrival" Wanted 30, Oct/50

Winter Buccaneers

Here, like John Daly, is another Adventure Comics artist (in this case on the Shining Knight) who did some work at Quality in the Fifities. Chuck (or C. A.) Winter worked on a few strips like Hell Diver at the company in the early Forties, then returned late in the decade to do Black X—which has been recognized—and a few other features which have not. I've seen one Quality romance drawn by him, "Ringside Heartbreak" in Heart Throbs 1 (Aug/49), and imagine there are more.

The Spanish Main was a series with no continuing characters in Buccaneers 19-24; I can't tell the artists on the first five stories. Corsair Queen took over the slot with 25 and lasted the three issues to the title's end.

The inking looks different enough from Winter's work at DC (or even on "Ringside Heartbreak"), that I don't think he's inking himself on Buccaneers. The Liberty Belle splash co-credited with writer Don Cameron is from her debut in Boy Commandos 1 (Win/42-43).

Winter's The Spanish Main story in Buccaneers

Nov/50

24

Destruction or Delight

w: ?  p: Chuck Winter

Corsair Queen in Buccaneers

Jan/51	25	The Tigress of the Seas	w: Joe Millard  p: Winter
Mar/	26	King of Corpse Cay	w: Millard  p: Winter
May/	27	The Castle of Greed	w: Millard  p: Winter

Winter had a run of eight stories in a row in another Quality feature around 1951; does anybody riffling through the company's titles for that year pick out that work? I'll post on it later.

Woolfolk Records 1950/03

Quality, Orbit, and Fawcett continue as buyers. Arizona Raines, at least, is a feature we haven't seen in the records before.

I haven't seen Wanted 28 or seen it indexed, but the first two crime stories this month would have to fit there—William Woolfolk wrote stories published in 27 last month, and in 29 later this month. These and last month's "Death Trap" may have been published under the editor's titles and page totals.

The Minstrel Man is a recurring villain; I've seen him in one of the scattered Monte Hale issues available scanned, but it's not this story with Mother Goose rhymes.

March 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

8 pg	Doll Man	crime wave
		"Crime Wave" DM 30, Sept/50
9	Ibis	the headless horseman
		"Ibis Battles the Headless Horseman" Whiz 126, Oct/50
8	Twice Dead Killer	a crook police know to be dead is committing crimes
		"Twice Dead Killer" Wanted 28, Aug/50
10	Man about Murder	a crook who lives high—by swindling underworld leaders
		"Man about Murder" Wanted 28, Aug/50
9	Arizona Raines	a town where dead outlaws rule
		"Phantom Town" Crack Western 68, Sept/50
8	Monte Hale	Minstrel Man uses Mother Goose rhymes
		MH Western c. Oct/50
9	Captain Marvel Jr.	fish who are devouring everything—and the cat who saves the world
		"The World Eaters" CMJ 91, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	radioactive air
		"The Radioactive Air" Marvel Family 54, Dec/50
7	Monte Hale	Pardner (Monte's horse) hates Monte Hale
		MH Western c. Oct/50
7	Monte Hale	the balloon bandits
		"MH and the Balloon Bandits" Western Hero 95, Oct/50
10	Crime's 3 Musketeers	crooks who all destroy each other
		"Crime's Three Musketeers" Wanted 29, Sept/50
9	Ibis	the world of wizardry
		"Ibis and the World of Wizardry" Whiz 127, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	the great fog
		"Sivana Jr.'s Green Fog" CMJ 91, Nov/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	magic carpets inc.
		"Magic Carpets, Inc." CMJ 92, Dec/50
10	Johnny on the Spot	did a ventriloquist dummy murder a man?
9		"Johnny on the Spot" Wanted 29, Sept/50
7	Captain Marvel Jr.	murder at Mrs. Wagner's
		"The Murder at Mrs. Wagner's" CMJ 91, Nov/50

That Strange Feeling That You've Been Here Before

Some of the notable examples of comic book features recycling stories are in The Spirit, the Superman family, and the Marvel western and weird titles. That's not even counting writers redoing stories they did at other companies; I can think of a Jack Oleck story appearing at EC, Harvey, Prize, and DC. The rewrites I speak of are ones instigated by the editors; as Mort Weisinger is supposed to have rationalized it, there's a new audience of kids every five years.

 

This pair of stories at Charlton—"The Black Cat" in Unusual Tales 41 (Sept/63) and "The Golden Horse" in Strange Suspense Stories 73 (Jan/65)—came out only a year and a third apart; I don't see the editors not being in on it. The same artist, Rocco Mastroserio, drew both. If there's anything not by the original writer, Joe Gill, in the rewrite, I can't see it. Panel for panel this is the same story, rewritten to fit a different historical period. In both versions a statuette falls and shatters, but in the second it's made of gold, a flubbed detail that shows the speed with which Charton work was done; Gill later told that he couldn't afford to do second drafts at the page rates.

Woolfolk Records 1950/02

To repeat the background: through the good graces of Donna Woolfolk, Marc Svensson some time ago scanned William Woolfolk's original records of his comic-book script sales in the Golden Age. Bold additions are my tracking down (or making a best guess at) where the stories were published.

Publishers this month: Fawcett, Orbit, and Quality.

The only place I can imagine the boxing bout text piece fitting is on the inside covers of Joe Louis 1, which I haven't seen but whose 36 pages already contain a front cover, 32 pages of comics, and a letter ghosted for Louis. Woolfolk writes issue 2's text piece in May.

UPDATE: I guessed the Monte Hale gold rush story for one called "The Great Gold Strike" only to find after posting that I'd gotten its date wrong; Monte Hale Western 40 was published long before this story was written. LATEST UPDATE: darkmark found it.

February 1950 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg	Marvel Family	school for witches chapter
		"The School for Witches" [Chapter 3] MF 52, Oct/50
10	Death Always Knocks Twice	strong man killer—poisons self in mistaken belief cops are after him
9		"Death Always Knocks Twice" Wanted 27, July/50
4	How to Box	"Victory for Jimmy" Joe Louis 2, Nov/50
2	Corbett vs. Jeffries bout fiction yarn	[text] Joe Louis 1, Sept/50
7	Monte Hale	fake gold rush to raise price of beef
		"MH Battles the Great Hunger" Western Hero 94, Sep/50
26	Joe Louis book	champion of champions
		[untitled story] Joe Louis 2, Nov/50
13	Blackhawk	creatures from outer space
		"Creatures from Outer Space" Modern 101, Sept/50
6	Captain Marvel Jr.	battle of birds and beasts
		"The Battle of the Birds and Beasts" CMJ 90, Oct/50
10	Wild Bill Pecos	school for outlaws
		"School for Outlaws" The Westerner 28, Sept/50
10	Captain Marvel Jr.	meets the ice monster
		"The Giant Ice Monster" CMJ 91, Nov/50
10	Death Trap	man sets a death trap in which he meets his own death
		"Death Trap" Wanted 28, Aug/50