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

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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 Twisthas 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.)

The Twist, 'Scap's Trucking Co.'
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 1952/07

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Actiopn 176--Muscles for Money
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 SupermanSuper goes money mad
"Muscles for Money"Action176, Jan/53
Captain Marvel Jr.beast of the battlefield
"CMJ and Vampira's Beast of the Battlefield"Marvel Family85, July/53
10 The Rain, the Deadly Rainvengeance of a rain god
"The Rain, the Deadly Rain"Strange Stories from Another World 5, Feb/53
10 Man Who Defeated Deathchessmaster vs. Death
7 "The Man Who Defeated Death"Beware! Terror Tales 7, May/53
S.O.S. for Love[untitled SOSFL] Love Journal
10 The Fleshless Onesskeletons from below the earth
"The Fleshless Ones"Worlds of Fear10, June/53
Prescription for Happiness[untitled PFH] Love Diary 32, Dec/52
10 Horror at the Lighthousesea monster that eats humans
"Horror at the Lighthouse"BTT6, Mar/53
Love Me As I Amgirl wins guy just being herself
"Love Me As I Am"L Journal17, Feb/53
The Butchergangster kills gal friend & boss
"The Butcher"Wanted51, Dec/52
Captain Marvel Jr.the undersized genii
[duplicate entry?]

The Western Nighthawk's First Writer

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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 Westernwriter 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). Western5 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.

Western 5 Nighthawk--'Eeeeow'

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 1952/08

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Captain Marvel Adventures 146
Fawcett and Orbit buy from William Woolfolk in August. Bill Battle is another try at a new direction for Fawcett, a Korean War Army sergeant. But the end is near for the company's comics line. Note the Captain Marvel Junior stories being turned into Captain Marvel ones after Junior's title finishes with 119.

"The World's Mightiest Circus" seems to be on Otto Binder's records as well as Woolfolk's, judging by his credit for the story in the GCD, but his records were assembled with Jerry Bails after the fact, in the Sixties; his and Jerry Siegel's likewise duplicate each other on some later Superman stories.

"Cult of Blood" was written under the title "Cult of Death" back in April and published under this third name. Woolfolk was paid a lower rate for the rewrite, but that and the original payment added up to quite a bit more than the usual.

August 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

10 pg Bill Battlemeets Iron Pants Crowley—a general as tough as he is
"The Biggest Brass There Is"Master133, Apr/53
10 Payment in Blood!story of a gangster's moll
"Payment in Blood!"Wanted52, Feb/53
10 Phantom of Disasterman who sees phantom before disaster strikes
"Phantom of Disaster"This Magazine Is Haunted 10, Apr/53
Captain Marvel Jr.the too lazy genii
"CMJ and the Lazy Genie"CMJ118, Apr/53
rewrite Cult of Blood8 pg "Cult of Killers"Wanted52, Feb/53
Captain Marvel Jr.4th dimensional elephant
"CMJ and the Fourth Dimensional Elephant"CMJ 119, June/53
Captain Marvel Jr.the superstitious regiment
"CMJ and the Regiment That Was Afraid to Fight"CMJ119, June/53
Hot Silk!silk hijackers
"Hot Silk"Wanted52, Feb/53
Captain Marvel Jr.world's greatest circus
as Captain Marvel"CM and the World's Mightiest Circus"CM Advs 146, July/53
Captain Marvel Jr.meets the spider man
as Captain Marvel"CM Fights the Unholy Spider"CM Advs 146, July/53
Captain Marvel Jr.return of the first people
as Captain Marvel"CM Battles Sivana and the First People"CM Advs 146, July/53

Double Date (Cover Division) with Kathy and Vicki

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When Martin Goodman started the new Atlas Comics after having sold Marvel, he wanted books as much like Marvel's as possible. You'd think that would be hard to do with Vicki, which repurposed reprints of Tippy Teen from Tower. But:

Kathy 1 and Vicki 4 covers--kissing booth gag

Kathy1 (Oct/59) was published by the company going without a cover name between calling itself Atlas and Marvel; Vicki4 (Aug/75) by Atlas/Seaboard. Both covers were drawn by Stan Goldberg. The question is whether he needed any help for the eight words of dialogue on the Kathycover if he came up with the situation Marvel-style (as the artist-before-writer method would later be called); on the Vickione, was he reusing something he'd done all by himself?

Of course in the intervening years at Marvel he could first-hand see Stan Lee recycling story stuff over and over on Millie the Model.

Woolfolk Records 1952/09

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This Magazine Is Haunted 13 -- The Man Who Lost His Head

From William Woolfolk's notebook recording script sales; I've added publication data in bold.

Fawcett and Orbit are his only two publishers again this month. He hasn't been told yet that Captain Marvel Jr.'s book is being cancelled.

September 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

5 pg The Death Fishan enchanted marlin who hunts fishermen
"Death Fish"This Magazine Is Haunted14, Dec/53
10 Bill Battleflag of a fighter
"Death Warrant"Bill Battle 4, Apr/53
10 Captain Marvel Jr.country of giant rats
as Captain Marvel"The World of Giant Rats"CM Advs145, June/53
Captain Marvel Jr.the vampire burglar
as Captain Marvel"CM and the Vampire Burglar"CM Advs147, Aug/53
Too Smart Killermurderer who traps himself—too clever
"The Too Smart Killer"Wanted53, Apr/53
Man Who Lost His Heada witch's curse does it
"The Man Who Lost His Head"TMIH13, Oct/53
Mother Knows Bestgirl loves radical, has a prim mother
"Don't Change Our Love"Love Diary 35, June/53
10 Captain Marvel Jr.inventions that fail
[unpublished]

An Inadvertent Ghost?

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Can you recognize whose pencils lie under Al Williamson's inks here?

'You Never Can Tell' panels--earth-diving suit


Adventures into the Unknown 107 (Apr/59) is the third issue to carry credits on the stories' splash pages. The artist on "You Never Can Tell" is given as Williamson.

Art-spotters have noticed that it doesn't really look like his solo work; at present, the Grand Comics Database IDs Williamson as the penciller and Jack Davis as the inker. Others like James Vadeboncoeur Jr. have zeroed in on the pencils as the non-Williamson component.

Many of the other pages and panels might have been a distraction in the identification process; I cherry-picked these. Williamson has inked this artist elsewhere with a much lighter hand.

I doubt that Williamson called up the uncredited one offering a ghost-penciling job. I'd posit that, instead, he had this inking job on hand from another publisher—say Harvey—when the book it was meant for was canceled. Eventually he brought it to ACG.

The writer's credit is to "Kermit Lundgren" (Richard Hughes), and I don't see any reason to say he didn't do the final script; the lettering is certainly ACG's. Under the circumstances I've imagined, the original artist might well have written as he drew, lettering in pencil; editor Hughes, just like some other editor-writers, then revised to fit his one-man house style.

So—do you see who I see?

Woolfolk Records 1952/10

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Frogman 10 splash--'Frogman in Purple'Fawcett, Orbit, DC; one final story for Hillman, after writing Sky Wolf some years ago; and a new publisher for William Woolfolk: Standard (I had no idea he'd worked for them).

UPDATE: I couldn't identify the Superman story; darkmark has supplied the citation. The reason I missed it: I had misidentified an earlier script as "Super Manor"—going by the cover, it seems to me now; I IDed most of these in a batch almost two years ago.

Woolfolk has evidently been told there are no more Captain Marvel Jr. stories needed, but this month sees the last Captain Marvel-related story he writes, as Fawcett's reign of comic book publishing nears its end.

"Murderous Cargo" is an instance where, instead of changing a title, Orbit changes a character name: real-life Lucky Luciano becomes fictional Louie Lusto in the published story.

October 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg Captain Marvelthief from the past
"CM and the Thief from the Past"CM Advs 147, Aug/53
Prescription for Happinessgirl loves a gambler
[untitled PFH]  Love Diary 33, Feb/53
12 Supermantown that didn't want Super
"Super Manor"Action 179, Apr/53
Frogmanhis majesty, frogboy
"Frogman in Purple"Frogman10, Apr/53
10 Killer Guns supplier of guns to the underworld
"For Hire . . . Guns for Killers"Wanted53, Apr/53
The Mirror Mana man in a mirror
"The Man in the Mirror"Out of the Shadows8, Apr/53
Nothing Can Save Herdoctor loves a vampire
"Nothing Can Save Her"Advs into Darkness 9, Apr/53
Wanted script"Raymond Wilt"Wanted53, Apr/53
12 Batmanunderworld bank
"The Underworld Bank"Detective194, Apr/53
Mollstory of a girl who falls for a gangster
"Moll!" Love Journal 18, Apr/53
Murderous CargoLucky Luciano wants to get back to the U.S.A.
"Murderous Cargo"Wanted53, Apr/53

Heroes for Hire from Harvey

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Some time in the future I hope to concentrate a few posts on the Harvey Thrillers, but at the moment I want to mention one story of interest. In Unearthly Spectaculars3 (March/67) the story "Rent-a-Hero from Miracles Inc." carries on the Miracles Inc. feature from issue 2, and with a completely different writer-artist team (in issue 2 that "team" was pretty much Wallace Wood).

Unearthly Spectaculars 3--Miracles Inc.

The Harvey Thrillers line in the mid-Sixties was edited by Joe Simon, who called in a rosterful of people, many of whom had worked for him before as well as some new ones. His writers on the various features included Dick Wood, Otto Binder, France Herron, D. J. Arneson, and Jim Steranko.

But "Rent-a-Hero" stands out as the only story I've recognized at Harvey as written by Joe Simon himself. I had to look ahead to his work at DC in the Seventies to find a starting point in creating a list of his scripting characteristics; at Harvey in this period, and in the earlier Sixties and the Fifties there, as well as at Archie and Prize and Crestwood, it looks like he was busy enough editing that he relied on writers including Jack Kirby, Jack Oleck, Carl Wessler, Bob Powell, and so on.

As far as the art on this story goes—I can relate to convincing oneself of seeing the work of an artist who isn't there, but I'm going to suggest that that's exactly what's happening when "Rent-a-Hero" is attributed to Joe Orlando. It's certainly easy to see why it is: folks are working backward from Orlando's credited work at Warren and DC from this period.

I would have thought his use of ghosts in those years is notorious by now, but I hope eventually it will sink in.

I can't make out a hint of Orlando on this story. Jerry Grandenetti pencilled it. Period. Is he being inked by someone else? If so, it doesn't much look like Joe Orlando. The latter did work for Simon earlier, but I don't see his art anywhere at Harvey.

Woolfolk Records 1952/11

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Superman 82

Stories for Orbit and DC; and William Woolfolk's final story of three for Standard.

There seems to be almost no production time for the Unsolved Crimes, but there it is. Only one of the two pages had to be drawn and lettered, at least—the second was text that merely had to be typeset. Wantedwas cancelled before #54, for which "Date with Danger" (noted as an Orbit buy) must have been intended.

November 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

2 pg Unsolved Crimesmurder of a spinster
"Murder for Aunt Martha"Wanted52, Feb/53
12 Supermanthe super telethon
"The Super Telethon"Action180, May/53
10 SupermanLois Lane becomes a WAC
"Lois Lane Joins the WACS"Superman82, May-June/53
Date with Dangermystery of a vanishing corpse
[unpublished]
The Evil Cornucopiaa cornucopia owned by a demon
"The Evil Cornucopia"Advs into Darkness10, June/53

While We Wait for Doctor Strange: Marie Severin Art

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The Atlas Tales website lists a good handful of text page illustrations in the late Fifties at Timely/Atlas/Marvel attributed to Marie Severin (over twenty, but at least a few of the later ones are reprints; more, if titles were changed).

Many Atlas text pieces reused art from comics stories, but a few were original; Joe Maneely initialed some of his with an "M". Atlas Tales cites Marie Severin's first known text piece there as signed (Astonishing 54, Oct/56), but I can’t see any initials or signature on it. The site attributes only the pencils on her spot illos, but I think it's a safe bet to say that she inked herself. As an example:

Cartoon Kids 1 text page illos

These two Severin pieces of spot art, like a tree falling in the forest without being posted on YouTube, haven't yet been cited on the Internet that I can find. They're from Cartoon Kids 1, no month, 1957. Joe Maneely did the rest of the issue; he's been the best guess so far as the artist on the text piece.

Woolfolk Records 1952/12

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Another month, like last, of only five stories entered in the records book; for the only time, a single publisher: DC.

The authorship of William Woolfolk's war stories is already known, from Julius Schwartz's pay records for the books he and Robert Kanigher each edited.

Detective 196--City without Guns

December 1952 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

12 pg Batmancity without guns
"City without Guns"Detective196, Aug/53
10 SuperboySuperboy's manager
"Superboy Hired a Manager"Superboy26, June-July/53
The Milk Run"Pappy" of an air squadron in World War II
"Ghost Ace"Our Army at War13, Aug/53
10 SupermanClark Kent goes to prison
"Clark Kent—Convict"Superman83, July-Aug/53
Drummer Boyboy drummer at Waterloo
"Drummer of Waterloo"OAAW14, Sept/53

The Lighter Side of Ponytail

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Dell editor D.J. Arneson recalls Lee Holley producing the entirety of the comic book spinoff of his syndicated daily panel/Sunday strip Ponytail, editorial input unneeded at Dell's end, and that's true as of issue 4 (and in fact through the title's run, including at Charlton later). Holley did supply all the covers from the very beginning, and there were some panel reprints.

I'll stick with "produce" rather than just "write and draw", because according to the Bails and Ware Who's Who, Frank Hill assisted Holly on the strip and on the comic book, so the later work was not necessarily Holley solo.

Ponytail 1 'Bar-B-Cute'

The Who's Whocredits Dave Berg and Bob Gustafson with the feature in the first years at Dell. Berg does a pretty good job of ghosting Holley's art style, but he doesn't try to replicate it exactly. Secondary characters are the best place to find something closer to a ghost artist's own style; see Donald's parents in panel 4 above.

Ponytail 3 'Phone-y'

The Who's Who credit for Bob Gustafson is for writing, unconfirmed, but his art should be evident. Some Mort Walker-style touches give him away, as in Dell's Gulliver's Travels; he tries even less to mimic Holley on the Cassie back-ups, as above. He may well have written these two issues; it looks like a single writer did all the stories. The Grand Comics Database has given Frank Hill the credit for issue 2's stories, but per Bails and Ware this would be before his time on the strip.

Ponytail
1-3


Jul-Sep/62Half Baked *w, a: Dave Berg
Brace Yourselfw, a: Berg
Swell Smellw, a: Berg
Bar-B-Cutew, a: Berg
Bubble Troublew, a: Berg
Dress Right Dressw, a: Berg
Rain in the Face *w, a: Berg
Apr-Jun/63Wedding Belles *w: ?  a: Bob Gustafson
What the Doctor Orderedw: ?  a: Gustafson
Danger--Woman Driver [CASSIE]w: ?  a: Gustafson
Dress Messw: ?  a: Gustafson
Gift of Gabw: ?  a: Gustafson
The Merry Chasew: ?  a: Gustafson
Best Test *w: ?  a: Gustafson
Jul-Sep/   Low Down Trick *w: ?  a: Gustafson
Palsy Walsyw: ?  a: Gustafson
Tele-wisew: ?  a: Gustafson
Beautiful But Not Dumbw: ?  a: Gustafson
Secret Admirerw: ?  a: Gustafson
Phone-y [CASSIE]w: ?  a: Gustafson
Poodle Doodle *w: ?  a: Gustafson
(* single page)

Woolfolk Records 1953/01

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Adventure 191--The Two Clark Kents

A William Woolfolk story bought by Fawcett is followed here by ones for DC and Orbit. That story isn't publishedby Fawcett; This Magazine Is Haunted 16 is Charlton's second issue after buying the rights to the title and inventory.

And Woolfolk returns to Archie Publications after writing Black Hood and so forth in the early-to-mid Forties; but with a try at the company's by-now flagship character he scores another rare rejection and moves on.

January 1953 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

5 pg The Evil Ministerspolitical leaders who are really demons
"The Evil Ministers"This Magazine Is Haunted 16, Mar/54
Operation Tall Talesa tall tale teller who does heroic deeds and can't prove it
8 "Operation: Tall Tales"All-American Men of War 6, Aug-Sept/53
12 Supermanthe new Krypton
"The Return of Planet Krypton"Action182, July/53
Archiethe burglar alarm [reject]
The Girl That I Marrybachelor tells why he couldn't marry
"The Girl That I Marry"Love Diary 35, June/53
Flying Blinda blind pilot has to take in a jet fighter
"Flying Blind"Our Army at War12, July/53
12 Supermanthe perfect plot to kill Superman
"The Perfect Plot to Kill Superman"Action 183, Aug/53
Prescription for Happinessgirl learns she doesn't love soldier
[untitled PFH] L Diary 35, June/53
12 SuperboyClark Kent's double lives in his home
"The Two Clark Kents"Adventure191, Aug/53
Fighting Mandoctor who wants to see realcombat
"Soldier without Armor"OAAW14, Sept/53

Unknown Aparo Art Again

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Jim Aparo is in his first year of work at DC when Girls' Love Stories 142 (Apr/69) comes out. The general rule with the romance comics is anonymity, and here editor Jack Miller makes Aparo even more anonymous by assigning him an overwhelming inker, Bill Draut, on the story "Thrill-Chick." (There are none of the nonconventional, angled panel borders Aparo uses on Aquaman, either.)

Girls' Love Stories 142

I started looking over the late-60s/early-70s DC romance comics in search of possible Richard Hughes scripts, but haven't run across any so far. I can see stories by Robert Kanigher, Jack Miller, and Jack Oleck, but the other writers like Barbara Friedlander, Lee Goldsmith, and Phyllis Reed (as given in the Who's Who) I haven't been able to credit with stories at this point. I'm sure there are writers not yet connected with these books. In other words, I can't ID the writer of "Thrill-Chick."

Woolfolk Records 1953/02

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All-Star Western 72 Trigger Twins

Back to just Orbit and DC as publishers here.

With "Song of My Heart" paid at a rate lower than for regular writing, I believe that William Woolfolk is revising one of his own stories, but if so, the title has already been revised from one we've seen earlier.

Woolfolk's sole western for DC has been known, like the war stories, from the Julius Schwartz payment records.

February 1953 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

7 pg revision of Song of My Heart"Song of My Heart"Love Journal 19, June/53
Too Many Sweetheartsgirl at an Army post
"Too Many Sweethearts"L Journal 20, Sept/53
12 Supermancaravan of doom
"The Covered Wagon of Doom"Action184, Sept/53
S.O.S. for Lovea fat girl's problem
[untitled SOSFL] L Journal 19, June/53
Trigger Twinsone twin is mysteriously missing
"Legend of a Lawman"All-Star Western 72, Aug-Sept/53

Lee Marrs' First Comic Book Work?

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When an artist is doing a licensed property, the best bet for identifying them by style is to look at the one-shot secondary characters. So, if I'm IDing correctly on these pages:

Lee Marrs' comic book work, both in undergrounds and mainstream, came after working on syndicated strips (writing gags on "Hi and Lois" for King in 1969 and doing backgrounds on "Little Orphan Annie" for Chicago Tribune-New York News starting in the same year, according to the Who's Who). Her underground work first appeared in 1972. I'd assumed her first four-color comic book credit was DC's Plop in 1974.

Blondie 175--Dagwood and the Go-Go Girl

It would seem it was actually Blondie—at King's mid-Sixties comic book division. Out of a spotty collection (there could be something earlier), I see her work in #175 (Dec/67) on the story "Dagwood and the Go-Go Girl." Possibly she did "Emergency Dinner" in that issue and just possibly "Blondie Makes the Switch." The Dagwood story "The Offer" I'm pretty sure is by someone else, not that I could say who. The main artist on the Blondie comic books, Paul Fung Jr., channeled Chic Young more thoroughly.

Popeye 120--Have a Happy, Pappy

Lee Marrs also drew an entire issue of Popeye (apart from regular artist/editor George Wildman’s cover), licensed from King at Charlton, a little later: #120 (Jun/73). It looks like she drew an unrelated back-up, Marvin the Mailman in "Dog Gone It," in Popeye 103 (Aug/70). Again, my collection is incomplete; she may have done other work on the title.

Woolfolk Records 1953/03

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Love Diary 36--Not the Right TypeOrbit and DC, buyers. And: in 1952-53, William Woolfolk has noted the publishers alongside the stories; the Freddy Feline is sold to Fawcett. Pooch is mentioned in the May '53-written Slinky Stinky stories, Woolfolk's last for the company. When I posted that month's records out of order, I guessed from Woolfolk's "F" code that Fawcett was the publisher, but hadn't seen these previous years to confirm the same code on, for instance, Captain Marvel Jr. stories. The company bought these funny animal scripts but I don't find them published.

I can't read the handwriting about a "Mickey J____ character" and can't guess the cultural reference, but the Love Diary 36 story "Easy to Love" is about a girl who works as a housemaid for the man she falls in love with.

It isn't completely out of left field, but a syndicated Superman strip sequence is a change of pace. Technically this was published by the syndicate, but DC bought the scripts from Woolfolk. Six tiers, a week's dailies, are paid as six pages (or three times as many panels), and in fact at a slightly higher rate. He continues writing the sequence next month. UPDATE: SangorShop supplied the strips' publication dates.

March 1953 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg That's How I Amathletic girl loves a lifeguard
"Not the Right Type"Love Diary 36, Sept/53
10 SupermanSuperman becomes pet of space men
"A Doghouse for Superman"Superman84, Aug-Sept/53
Command Performancean actor who hates to play Nazis
"Command Performance"Star Spangled War Stories13, Sept/53
10 Superboymakes a 4th dimension movie in the future
"The Movie Star of Tomorrow"Superboy27, Aug-Sept/53
Freddy Felinewants Pooch's swimming pool
[unpublished]
Flight into Passioncan a girl go too far and keep her man?
"Flight into Passion"L Diary36, Sept/53
Battle Decisiondetective after crook—in the Army
"Battle Detective"SSWS13, Sept/53
Treacherous Lovegirl works for a Mickey J____ character
10 "Easy to Love"L Diary 36, Sept/53
12 Batmanthe invisible Batman
"The Invisible Batman"Detective199, Nov/53
Superman syndicate$100,000 on Clark Kent's head
Supermanstrip,  May 18 to May 23/53
Killer Tanks!a man who is deathly afraid of the German tanks
"Killer Tank"Our Army at War14, Dec/53

Ray Cummings Writes Captain America

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Ray Cummings, once a secretary/assistant to Thomas Edison, wrote science fiction and horror for the pulp magazines, beginning with The Girl in the Golden Atom in 1919 and on to around 1950. One novel, The Exile of Time, was reprinted by Ace Books in 1965 with a new cover painting by 1940s Captain America cover artist Alex Schomburg—appropriately enough, since Cummings had scripts in some of those Cap issues.

Cummings is credited with "The Princess of the Atom" in Captain America Comics, but without his actual name mentioned—the coming attraction in issue 24 just calls him the author of Girl in the Golden Atom. "The Princess of the Atom" two-parter uses the basic situation of "Girl in the Golden Atom"—miniaturizing into an atom world by means of a drug—but otherwise is a new plot.

The noticeable style characteristic on "Princess" that led me to the first of the other stories is "Oh migosh."

Cap 25 Princess--'Oh migosh'

He's known to have written Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch too, but so far, concentrating on Cap, I have yet to run across any stories of those characters by him. Another pass through the Caps may well find more Cummings stories.

Ray Cummings scripts on Captain America

Apr/4325 The Princess of the Atom
May/    26 The Princess of the Atom Part II
June/    27 North of the Border
Aug/    29 The King of the Dinosaurs
The Case of the Phantom Engineer
The Case of the Headless Monster
Sep/    30 The House of the Laughing Death

on Captain America in All Winners

Win/43-4411 The Case of the Yellow Fire Monster

on Captain America in U.S.A. Comics

Sep/4310 The Cylinder of Death

Woolfolk Records 1953/04

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SSWS 14--Pitchfork Army
DC and Orbit are the companies buying the scripts.

The "$100,000 on Clark Kent's Head" syndicated strip sequence ends at eight weeks.

My transcriptions of William Woolfolk's records, to the end of his career in comic books, continue with May 1953 in this post. He began his records with September 1944 after a few years of writing comics; he didn't describe any story further than the feature name through December 1944. I began blogging these transcriptions with January 1945's, when he began putting in descriptions. But a list of the strips he was writing is better than nothing (and I can find the publication of one or two through number of pages or his style), so those four months of 1944 will be my posts when I return to this subject.

April 1953 Comic Book Scripts by William Woolfolk

6 pg Superman syndicate2nd week
Supermanstrip, May 25-30/53
10 I Put a Price on Lovegirl who takes men for all she can get
"I Put a Price on Love"Love Journal 21, Nov/53
Battle of the Alamoonly the flag survives to tell the story
"Ghosts of the Alamo"All-American Men of War7, Oct-Nov/53
Superman syndicate3rd week
Supermanstrip, June 1-6/53
12 Superboycoronation of Lana Lang
"The Coronation of Lana Lang"Adventure192, Sept/53
Superman syndicate4th week
Supermanstrip, June 8-13/53
Farmers Can't Fightfarmer vs. Hessians in the Revolutionary War
"Pitchfork Army"Star Spangled War Stories14, Nov/53
Superman syndicate5th week
Supermanstrip, June 15-20/53
Superman syndicate6th week
Supermanstrip, June 22-27/53
Fighting Heartgal loves a prizefighter
10 "Fighting Heart"Love Diary 37, Oct/53
12 Superman syndicate7th & 8th weeks
Supermanstrip, June 29-July 4, 6-11/53
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