Category Archives: Topic

Some Stories from The Final Issues of Alarming Tales

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Posted in 2007/08, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Harvey, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

In a previous post I mentioned that some of the stories for the two final issues of Alarming Tales had an Atlas flavor to them. My understanding of Atlas comics of this period is limited so I would not want to over emphasize this similarity. I guess I should give some examples of these Atlas-like stories, but instead I want to comment on three stories that engage me one way or another when I read them.

Alarming Tales #5
Alarming Tales #5 (September 1958) “12,000 To 1” by unidentified artist

A man sets up some sort of television or radio station deep in the jungle. He encounters an unexpected opponent to his efforts. What follows can only be described as warfare. The man uses a number of ingenious methods to defeat his enemy, but to no avail. In the end only the appearance of another target for his opponents saves the man. The hostile enemy are driver ants. The story brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds”. That movie was released in 1963 so there can be no relationship between this story and the film. Rather the story’s author had probably viewed a nature program about driver ants, which are also known as army ants. The writer gets some of the facts correct. The swarming of the ants and the fact that they are actually blind. The scripter does not call them army ants but he obviously must have heard the term. But the writer takes the name literally as the ants seem to act as a military unit. While reading I kept wondering if these were meant to be real army ants or whether some radioactive origin would be revealed. Would normal driver ants be expected to pause and contemplate an obstacle that the man has created? Would the male drones for the colony actually be expected to attack and destroy a radio/tv antenna? Would real ants care to reek havoc on electronic equipment? The whole story is so preposterous that it keeps you reading as you wonder what next peak of absurdity would be attempted. Because of, not despite, the peculiarities of the story I actually enjoyed it.

Alarming Tales #6
Alarming Tales #6 (November 1958) “King of the Ants”, art by Al Williamson

I guess one ant story was not enough, Alarming Tales #6 includes “King of the Ants”. A tropical plantation is attacked by some raiders. As a result of some gunfire our hero is accidentally showered with chemicals. He awakens to find he has shrunken to a very small size. Ants seize him, presumable for food, but after the man defeats an enemy, a beetle, the ants bring the man back to rule the colony. I wonder what the mystery food that the ants provided the man was? Perhaps it is bests not to know. Eventually the man returns to normal size while the plantation is still fighting the raiders. The hero uses a tactic he learned from the ants to defeat his human foes. The plot of a man shrinking to a small size and his encounter with an ant colony would appear in Marvel’s Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962). The similarities of the two plots maybe significant or may just be a coincidence. Ultimately the inspiration for this plot may have been the movie “The Incredible Shrinking Man” that was released in 1957. As I remember it, that movie did not include any ants. But it was common to describe something that looked very small as ant-size so it may not have been too surprising to connect a shrunken man with ants. This story does not have any of the entertaining excesses of “12,000 To 1” but having Al Williamson as the artist more then makes up for that.

Alarming Tales #6
Alarming Tales #6 (November 1958) “The Strange Power of Gary Ford” by unidentified artist

Next I want to write about “The Strange Power of Gary Ford”, another weird story. A man, Gary, finds a city in the desert where none should be. Here he discovers that he now has the ability to walk through walls and other solid structures. The man credits this to the local water, adding that the city’s citizens do not share this ability because they probably are used to the water. (I do not know what seems odder, that the man made this conclusion or that the water allows the man’s clothes to go through walls as well). The town people welcome Gary and introduce him to their ruler. Gary captures the heart of the shieks’s daughter and professes his love. But actually Gary becomes enamored with another outsider, an attractive redhead. Gary convinces her to leave with him, but not before Gary, using his power, helps himself to the ruler’s jewels. The two escape separately, Gary on his motorcycle and the lady on a horse. No sooner does Gary evade his pursuers then the city disappears and he finds the jewels have turned to sand. Gary regrets that it all was an illusion since the redhead was just the sort a girl he could have married. We next see the redhead also alone in the empty desert, also saying it was too bad it was all an illusion because she really would have liked to marry Gary. This is another of those stories so odd that you just have to shake your head go along with its goofy premise.

At the time that Alarming Tales #6 was published the Comic Code had been in operation for a few years. The Comic Code purpose was to insure that susceptible youngsters did not fall under the comic books bad influence and become delinquents. So here is “The Strange Power of Gary Ford” where the hero rewards the welcome he has received from the city’s inhabitants by leading on the sheik’s daughter and stealing a ruler’s jewels. That sounds to me like just the type of morals Comic Code was trying to protect developing minds from. Oh I forgot, the citizens of the city were Arabs, I guess that made it all right.

Extinction

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Posted in 2007/07, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive.

Alarming Tales #6
Advertisement from Alarming Tales #1 (November 1958)

As I have been scanning Alarming Tales comics I kept coming across the above advertisement. I remember this ad from when I was young, it ran in a lot of different comics and did so for a number of years. I remember it because I always had a fascination with dinosaurs. When young I wondered what these particular dino figures actually looked like. I was not so naive to believe the illustration was a true representation of the actual model. As inflatable latex I am sure the toys were pretty crude objects. The thing is I have never seen one, and I suspect I never will. As cheap items sold to or for youngsters, it is quite possible that none have survived.

This is not the only toy dinosaur I wonder about. When I was very young, four or five I believe, I played with a set of toy dinosaurs that included a gorilla, obviously inspired by King Kong. What made this set special is that this was in the days before plastic became so prevalent, these dinosaurs were made in wax. I am sure it was not typical wax, it must have been a compound made to survive a wide range of temperatures. But because it was wax the toys would not last too long before breaking. I remember them as a rather nice set, but since I was so young was that memory accurate? I would love to see them once more but with their fragile nature I again have to wonder if any survived. They are probably as extinct as the dinosaurs they represented.

It probably is not that great of a loss if in fact none of the dinosaur toys discussed above have survived. They played a very small part of our history. What about comic books? Throughout their history comics have been considered unimportant disposable items of interest only to youngsters. However many artists worked on comics, and many more readers, however young, bought them. Surely comic books had an important impact on our culture. Surely the work of so many artists should not be silenced. Surely this is part of our history that is worth saving.

But will it be saved? Yes there are a lot of active comic book collectors. Their treasures are protected in various types of sleeves. But it is a doomed effort. The paper the comics are printed have acid that makes them self destructive. I do not know when, but the day will come when they will all crumble away. There are some treatments that are supposed to stall the acidification but I cannot help but wonder if the cure is worse then the disease.

There are people like me scanning their collections. But there is so much to scan I cannot help but wonder if it will all be recorded before it is too late. If you think this is unlikely to happen I recommend that you examine what happen to early films. Some movies have been completely lost, they were never copied before the cellulose they were made from disintegrated. Some of these films were considered significant pieces at the time. An important part of our history was lost.

The Final Issues of Alarming Tales

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Featured Work, Harvey, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

As I am in the process of restoring the last issue for Alarming Tales I ponder the significance, if any, of the change that came over the final two books. As I previously mentioned, I find issues #5 and #6 to have an Atlas flavor to them.

Alarming Tales #5
Alarming Tales #5 (September 1958) art by John Severin

An important contribution to giving AT an Atlas look is the cover artist John Severin. Well at least he is listed as the artist in GCD and some other Internet sources. Judging by some of John’s work for Atlas, such as the cover for Black Rider Rides Again #1, this seems like an accurate attribution. Although he had been only been working for Atlas for the last few years Severin had done a lot of work for them and his style was very much in tune to that publisher. Atlas seemed to prefer comic art that emphasized detail, a style I find rather dry. That is what we find for John’s rendition for the Atlas Tales #5 cover. AT #5 is over all realistic, almost illustrative, but note the fish-like mouth of the man in the foreground. Yes lots of details, look at all the machinery that can be seen through the door. But all things considered I am afraid this cover leaves me rather cold.

Alarming Tales #6
Alarming Tales #6 (November 1958) art by John Severin

John’s cover for AT #6 is even more detailed and has more figures. Generally I find this sort of art style dry and uninteresting. Not in the case of the AT #6 cover, Severin has really pulled off a great cover. Yes there is a lot of detail, but John maintains the Ambassador as the center of focus. The background figures provide just the right sort of emotional responses. With one exception, I do find the pointing man to be a bit awkward. A good deal of the success comes from the character of the Ambassador. Why would anyone think that the envoy from another planet should look like a British bureaucratic official? I do not know who came up with him, but he works.

Not to diminish Severin’s art, but part of the success of this cover is due to the colorist. All the background is done in muted blue and purple as if under the shadow cast by the flying saucer. This has the beneficial effect of playing down all the background details allowing the Ambassador to stand out even more. The background figures also show small highlights of white. I am not sure whether these highlights really make any sense but they do add interest and help prevent the figures from appearing too flat.

It was not just the cover art that leads me to say that Alarming Tales had become more Atlas-like. Some of the stories also had that flavor as well. Or at least they are rather different from previous Simon or Simon and Kirby productions. I will be writing about some of the stories in another post so I will leave it at that for now.

Alarming Tales #6
Alarming Tales #6 (November 1958) Contents page, art in part by Joe Simon

AT #5 has a postal statement, the only one found in any Alarming Tales issue, which lists Leon Harvey as the editor and nowhere mentions Joe Simon. Could the alteration that came over Alarming Tales be due to a change in editors? I am not the first to warn against an over reliance on the postal statement. I believe that often the postal statement will list some one company personal as the editor even in cases where another person may be doing the actual work. Leon Harvey is one of the owners of Harvey Comics so we maybe dealing with just that sort of case.

Although Simon did not do the covers for AT #5 or #6 he was not completely absent. I am uncertain whether Joe had any hand in the Contents page for AT #5 but he clearly worked on the Contents for AT #6. The figures in the first art panel look like they were done by Joe. I am less certain about the next two panels. The ambassador in the second panel is particularly well done and faithful to the story art. We have seen in the Harvey romance content pages that Joe could do excellent imitations of other artists. But the best examples of Joe imitations are close swipes from the story. In this portrait of the ambassador I cannot find a source from the story. In the end I am uncertain whether Joe did the whole introduction story or just the first panel. But his presence doing at least part of the contents page suggests that he was still acting as editor.

Of course if Joe Simon was still the editor why did Alarming Tales become so Atlas-like? Unfortunately I just do not have a good answer. Perhaps after the Implosion writers who had worked for Atlas took gigs elsewhere, including at Harvey. Maybe Jack Oleck was doing some of the writing for Alarming Tales. We know Oleck did some work for Atlas before the Implosion perhaps he continued to use some stylistic traits learned there. It is known that Oleck recycled stories from one publisher to another. Perhaps that was being done here, unfortunately I just do not know enough about Altas comics to say if any of their stories are too close for comfort with those in Alarming Tales.

Rambling About Joe Simon and Alarming Tales #4

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Odds & Ends, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Previously I mentioned what a fine comic Alarming Tales #1 was. Actually the first four issues are rather good even though Kirby’s presence diminishes with each issue until with Alarming Tales #4 Jack is completely absent. I am less enthusiastic about issues #5 and #6. The final issues seem to have succumbed to a case of Atlas envy which resulted in less satisfying art and stories. I have been scanning and restoring Alarming Tales comics and last weekend I did issue #4. This has inspired me to write about an assortment of subjects with Joe Simon as the tenuously connection.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958), Contents page art by Joe Simon

A standard part of the Harvey comics format was the content page. Generally this was little more then using bits of the art or titles from the stories contained in the comic. With Joe as the editor or producer this simple format was often modified with the use of a short introduction for the featured story. Not long ago I provided examples of this from the romance titles. The romance introductions most often told a prelude to the featured story, but sometimes it was the comic book equivalent of a movie trailer. Interestingly the artist for the romance content page, usually Kirby but sometimes Simon, would imitate the artist for the featured story. Alarming Tales #4 also has a content page with a short story. Here Joe is the artist but he makes no attempt to imitate the featured artist, Jack Kirby. Jack’s story, “Forbidden Journey”, is about a boy who is so eager to escape into space that in order to get to the spaceport he commandeers a vehicle with almost disastrous results. In Simon’s prequel, the boy, appearing even younger, tries to sign up as a cabin boy. The spaceman who confronts him in the second panel seems unnaturally large, almost gigantic. I am sure Joe was well aware of this but does it as a way of indicating how intimidated the boy is. If that was not enough, the third and fourth panels show his interview with the leader. Here Joe uses an enormous screen showing only the leader’s face. This extra intimidation and the leader’s derogatory speech prove too much for the boy.

I fully admit that Joe’s art for the content page really was not among his better efforts. But that seems to be typical failure even when Jack did the introduction story in the romance titles. These content stories really were not that important and probably were rushed jobs done after all the rest of the comic were completed.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) advertisement for Race for the Moon

Science fiction played a significant part of Alarming Tales yet it only represented a portion of the stories from that title. AT #4 included the above ad for a new title, Race for the Moon, which would be composed entirely of stories from the science fiction genre. Such a full page ad for a comic was unusual for Harvey. Normally ads were either small ones for a single title or full page advertisements for multiple titles. Joe and Harvey must have hoped that such a prominent ad and the recent surge in interests in space due to Russia’s Sputnik would make Race for the Moon a big seller. Unfortunately it did not seem to work.

Included in the ad is a copy of the cover for the first issue of Race for the Moon. However it is not identical to the released cover. It shows the same astronaut and space craft that Kirby drew. The main difference is the more prominent use of the moon surface in the background of the ad version compared to the printed one. Also in the final cover the earth was more completely set in the blackness of space. Joe put particular effort in getting the covers just right during this period. He completely redid the cover for Alarming Tales #1 from the original done by Jack Kirby (although that version was at first meant for Black Cat Mystery). Joe did two versions for the covers for AT #3 and #4 (I now agree with Nick Caputo that the AT #3 cover was done by Simon, not Kirby). In the case of RFTM #1 Joe probably thought that the astronaut and vehicle did not stand out enough in the first state. Simon therefore moved the distracting moon surface to the bottom of the image leaving the man and ship in the darkness of space.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) art by Joe Simon

As I said not all of Alarming Tales was dedicated to science fiction. As appropriate for a comic with this title, some of the stories belong to the horror genre. Or at least as much of horror that was possible under the Comic Code. The cover for AT #4 depicts one of the interior stories “The Feast of the Rag Dolls”. I suspect when Joe did this cover he was thinking of a story and cover from Black Magic #1. In that story a rag doll with a demonic nature brings murder and mayhem to a family. For the cover to AT #4 Joe brings a whole troop of rag dolls to life. If anything the dolls’ smiles bring a threatening chill for their advance toward the surprised man.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) “Feast of the Rag Dolls”, final panel for page 4, art by Doug Wildey?

I attribute the story art for “The Feast of the Rag Dolls” to Doug Wildey, albeit questionably. I am not very familiar with Wildey’s work, I do not think he ever did any work for Simon and Kirby prior to this period. Nor did he sign anything he did for Joe at this time. That Doug did work for Simon is indicated because Joe’s collection has original art for “When Time Ran Out” from Thrill-O-Rama #1 (October 1965) with Doug’s name and address written on the back of one of the pages. I have read that Wildey made heavy use of photographs in drawing his comics. I can easily accept that because some of his work combines very realistically rendered images interspaced with more simple ones. In general I prefer a more “cartoony” style for comic books. I feel that with the small size of most panels all the details of an illustrative approach can actually make it hard to project the emotions in a scene. A more simple art combined with some exaggeration can completely overcome the difficulties of telling a story on the small pages of a comic book. Of course Jack Kirby is a great example of what an artist can do without being truly realistic. However I also feel that it is a mistake to look at an art form only from a single aesthetic viewpoint. Sometimes you have to put aside your own assumptions and try to adopt those of the artist in question. So when I try to accept Wildey’s more illustrative style I find that he really is a talented artist. Doug truly knows how to present a story, he is almost cinematic in approach. The only question is did Wildey pencil “The Feast of the Rag Dolls”? I make this attribution because of similarities between this story and the parts of other Wildey pieces that do not seem to be based on photographs. But I just do not know whether Doug would occasionally abandon photographic references throughout an entire story as would be the case if he were the artist for “Feast of the Rag Dolls”.

The threat the rag dolls present to the man on the cover as presented by Joe Simon really was not part of the story. Actually the threat perceived by the boy’s parent is the obsession the boy shows for the dolls and his insistence that they talked to him. The parents appeal for help from the boy’s much older and very idolized brother. That brother decides to use the child psychology he has learned in college. He arranges a party for the boy and all his dolls. The older brother uses the party to indicate to the boy that the rag dolls really cannot talk and are nothing more then toys. It is a panel from that party whose image I have included above. Note that all the rag dolls seem slumped and lifeless in the chairs. But I love the way Wildey uses the shadows casts by the candles to provide the otherwise mundane scene with an eerie overtone.

Alarming Tales #4
Alarming Tales #4 (March 1958) “Feast of the Rag Dolls”, page 1, art by Joe Simon

While I am not certain Doug Wildey penciled the story it is clear that the splash page was drawn by Joe Simon. Joe presents his version of the same party scene that Wildey did in the panel image I presented earlier. I am sure Joe fully knew the story because the older brother gives a speech chiding the rag dolls for not toasting the guest of honor. Yet despite this Simon does not present the rag doll guests in the slumped and lifeless manner as Doug Wildey had. Instead Joe provides us with rag dolls that look lively and are having a very good time. As if the emphasize their dynamic nature, Simon adds above a frieze of rag dolls prancing across with gifts.

I doubt that any art form is grown in isolation from all others. Carefully examine the work of the earlier comic book artists and you will find they were influenced by syndication strips, magazine and pulp illustrations and the movies. Because comics were a part of pop culture it is not surprising that comic artists drew inspiration from other popular arts. What is infrequently found are any references to the fine arts. Crowd scenes are found in many art forms but only in the fine arts is it not unusual for one of the secondary participants to look back out at the viewer. That sort of thing is so rare in comic books that I cannot help but feel that when the rag doll in the lower right corner looks back at us, that is Joe tipping his hat to the fine arts. When an artist wants to include his self portrait in a group painting it is generally as that outward looking individual. So what do you think, is that Joe with his cigar smiling back at us?

More Robots

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Periods, Robots, Topic, z Archive.

Blast-Off #1
Blast-Off #1 (October 1965) “Lunar Goliaths” pencils by Jack Kirby inks by Al Williamson

In the comments to my recent post on the Year of the Robot comic scholar Stan Taylor pointed out another robot story “Lunar Goliaths”. As he indicated although it was published in Blast-Off in 1965 it probably was originally intended for Race For The Moon #4 which, if it had not been cancelled, should have been published with a cover date of January 1959. As with the other robot stories that I covered in my previous post, the robot in “Lunar Goliaths” is oversized and although has an broadly human shape is mechanical enough that it would not possible me mistaken for a man. Like two of the previous stories the robot achieves consciousness (in this case when struck by a meteor) but is destroyed by the end of the story.

Blast-Off #1
Blast-Off #1 (October 1965) “Space Court” art by Al Williamson

Joe Simon’s collection still includes much of the original art for Race For The Moon and Blast-Off. Joe has all of Kirby’s contribution to Blast-Off #1 (“Lunar Goliaths” and “The Great Moon Mystery”) as well as most of Al Williamson’s “Space Court”. Despite that fact that the art has not been trimmed, none of the Kirby pages show the Comic Code approval stamp. I suspect that Joe was going to send the pages for approval back in 1958 but did not bother once the title was cancelled. In 1965 Simon probably did not pay much attention and just mistakenly believed the art had already been approved. However all the pages Joe has for “Space Court” had received the Comic Code approval stamp on March 8, 1958. This not only shows that the story was originally meant for Race For The Moon, but was actually approved earlier then some of the art that was published in Race For The Moon #3 which have a March 28, 1958 stamp.

Al Williamson not only provide two stories that were eventually published in Blast-Off #1, the Jack Kirby Checklist also credits him with inking the art that Jack penciled in that same issue. I have not carefully studied Al’s inking techniques but it does seem to me that inking of the Kirby art was much more restrained then that done on the Williamson story. However I am confident that the difference in inking technique was not due to someone else actually inking the Kirby art. The Kirby inker used the back of the art to either test or prepare his brush. He left brush marks that trace a curved path. This brush work only occupies a portion of the paper but it seems the inker also occasionally rotate the paper 90 degrees so that in the end the brushings would form a rough oval shape. This exact type of brush marks are found on the back of Williamson’s “Space Court” as well. Although I have seen other inkers leave brushings on the back of art pages, I have never seen any others remotely resembling Al’s unique marks.

Blast-Off #1
Blast-Off #1 (October 1965) “Space Court” color guide

Simon’s collection also includes some color guides for Blast-Off. As can be seen by comparing the two scans, the printer followed the guide pretty carefully. I asked Joe if he had done the coloring. Joe replied that although he might do color guides for a cover he would never have done one for a story.

The Cover for Alarming Tales #2

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Odds & Ends, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) art by Mort Meskin and Joe Simon

The Simon and Kirby studio must have been closed at the time Joe Simon produced a new title, Alarming Tales, for Harvey Comics. Jack Kirby had been doing freelance work for almost a year. Jack and Joe were still listed as editors for Young Romance and Jack would provide some art for that title. But missing from Young Romance were old S&K studio artists like Bill Draut, John Prentice and Mort Meskin. At this point the “usual suspects” were also absent from the Harvey romance comics that Joe Simon had been editing. John Prentice had begun what would be a long gig as the artist for the syndication strip Rip Kirby. Meskin, a prolific artist, had already been doing work for DC for a few years. What Draut was doing is a bit of a mystery, but he would do work for DC in the 60’s. What is clear is that Draut, Meskin and Prentice were conspicuously absent from the Harvey comics that Joe produced at this time. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the good working relationship these artists shared with Simon and Kirby had not weathered well the breakup of the studio. (This relationship was not permanently damaged because Bill Draut would do a lot of work with Joe in the 60’s.)

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) original art by Mort Meskin and Joe Simon (with thanks to Paul Handler)

The cover for Alarming Tales #2 is surprising, considering Meskin’s otherwise absence from Joe Simon’s productions of 1957 and 1958. Previously I believed this cover was penciled by Joe Simon. Actually I still adhere to that attribution for the man on the lower right. The similarity he has in his facial features and pose to other work by Joe, particularly the cover for Alarming Tales #4, leave me with little doubt that Joe was indeed the penciler. I have come to re-think my position about the figure of the giant after seeing the original art attributed to Mort Meskin by Paul Handler in the Comic Art Forum. (Paul has an excellent original art collection which includes some really nice Simon and Kirby pieces.) The facial features of the giant, particularly the eyebrows, certainly suggest Mort Meskin’s work. Unfortunately I really have no equivalent Meskin piece to compare it with. Meskin had done some work for titles like Black Magic and Strange World of Your Dreams but those titles lacked the science fiction emphasis found later in Alarming Tales and Black Cat Mystic. So the absence of similar figures by Meskin like the one on Alarming Tales #2 is not very surprising.

So what can we make about this cover for Alarming Tales #2? Well here is where the original art really helps. The art shows that it actually consists of two separate pieces that have been combined. The edge that delimits them from each other marks an irregular path between the two figures. The giant does not accurately reflect the story the cover is based on (“Fire Balls”). In the story the strange visitors are roughly human in size and the flames they are ensconced in obscures their features. The differences between the cover and the story maybe nothing more then artistic license, or it might reflect that the Meskin portion was originally meant for something else. Mort did provide work for Black Magic up until the end of the first run (the last issue of the run was #33 cover dated November 1954). As I said above, Black Magic did not have much of a sci-fi bent but that might have been changing. The last issue had a story by Jack Kirby called “Lone Shark” that best belongs in the science fiction genre. So perhaps the Black Magic title was in the process of including more sci-fi just when it was cancelled. I doubt the Meskin piece was meant for a Black Magic cover since previously Kirby did every single cover for that title’s first run. But a splash page seems quite possible or it could have been meant as a cover for a never launched title. Whatever its ultimate source, the Meskin piece appears to have been modified for Alarming Tales #2 by the inking of the background.

This combining of two different sources to make one piece is something I have seen Joe do before. His collection includes an unpublished romance cover constructed in just that manner. In the 60’s many of the covers for comics that Joe produced are combinations of original art and stats.

Year of the Robots

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Posted in 2007/07, 7 Freelance, Harvey, Periods, Robots, Topic, z Archive.

Generally speaking robots did not appear often in Simon and Kirby productions. But for some reason S&K produced three stories about robots over a single year towards the end of their collaboration. Actually I am doing a bit of a stretch when I say that. It is not clear that it is a robot in one story, “Gizmo”, but it sure looks like one. Another story is an early Challengers of the Unknown and although Joe Simon help create that team it is uncertain if he had anything to do with the initial stories.

SPOILER ALERT: I will be discussing stories below including their endings. so do not proceed if you have not read these yet but still want to.

Black Cat Mystic #58
Black Cat Mystic #58 (September 1956) “Gizmo” page 3, art by Jack Kirby

The sudden appearance of the large Gizmo brings terror to a small family. Neither the walls of the house or bullets will stop it. In the end the family’s baby puts an end to Gizmo’s destruction, he was only looking for someone to play with. The arrival of an even larger version showed that Gizmo was just a baby. As I discussed above, Gizmo may not really be a robot. In fact the boy describes him as a man from Mars. But clad in metal he sure looks like a robot and we do not learn he is a baby until the end of the story. After all how could a baby robot possibly grow?

Showcase #7
Showcase #7 (April 1957) “Ultivac Is Loose” page 4, art by Jack Kirby (from DC Archives)

An evil scientist creates the ultimate machine. Unfortunately for him the robot escapes. It is the Challengers of the Unknown team to the rescue! Except a beautiful scientist seems to be the one that convinces Ultivac that he need not fear humans. A meeting is arranged with the leaders of the world where Ultivac promises to help mankind solve many of their problems. But up springs the mad scientist who destroys Ultivac rather then lose his creation. Ultivac can still be used as a computer but is no longer sentient.

Alarming Tales #2
Alarming Tales #2 (November 1957) “I Want To Be a Man” page 1, art by Jack Kirby

A scientist’s advanced computer develops consciousness. To keep Fabiac happy, the scientist makes him a robotic body. This ploy works until Fabiac sees himself in a mirror and realize he never will be human. Gee you would think he would just look at his hands and see something was not right.

There seems to be a common threads to these stories. In all of them the robot is very large and only marginally human in shape. This was done to make so that their fearsome appearance would belie their true nature. In all three stories it turns out that the robot does not truly want to hurt anyone. In two of the stories the robot wants to help mankind, but that help is ultimately lost.

The robot for the last two stories have similar names; Ultivac and Fabiac. These are take-offs from the names of two very real computers. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was completed in 1946. UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) was first released in 1951. These were very significant and widely reported developments. By the time these stories appeared, UNIVAC cost about a million and a half dollars. That is a lot of money even today (50 years later) especially since the computer may only have had 60 kilobytes of memory.

I have no idea what was the source that sparked these robot stories. Part of the explanation was that S&K stories had gotten substantially more science fiction based at this time. Still it is likely that something in particular inspired this effort. I do not think it was the movies. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) had a large robot but it was not nearly as large or “roboty” as in these stories. “Forbidden Planet” (1956) had a sufficiently convincing robot but it was neither large nor threatening. I suspect the source was some science fiction pulp or book that Jack and Joe had read.

Jerry Grandenetti and Sandman

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Posted in 2007/07, 9 DC (late), Alternate Takes, Topic, z Archive.

Original Art
Sandman cover rough by Jerry Grandenetti

Some time ago I received an email from Kris Brownlow asking if I knew anything about a Sandman cover drawn by Jerry Grandenetti. Kris thought he remembered seeing it on eBay in the late 90’s. Unfortunately I knew nothing about the cover nor was Kris able to find anyone on various comic lists who knew anything either. When I asked Joe Simon he confirmed that Jerry was involved in the early stages of the Sandman proposal. That tantalizing state was were things remained until recently Kris stumbled on a printout that he had made, and forgotten, of the original eBay image. I would like to thank Kris not only for the scan of the printout he provided but also for his diligence in uncovering this fascinating piece of comic book history. I have done some Photoshop adjustments of the scan, but because it is a second generation copy of what was probably a poor scan to begin with, there was a limit to what I could do.

Both Kirby and Simon were working for DC in the early 70’s. Jack’s New Gods titles had not been as successful as hoped and DC had him doing other things such as Kamandi. Joe’s DC work was more on the lines of a creator, writer and editor. The art for Joe’s books was done by others, including Jerry Grandenetti. Since Joe’s titles would last only a few issues I would hazard a guess that his books were not big sellers. It must have seemed obvious to Carmine Infantino to try re-uniting the Simon and Kirby team. Perhaps with a bit of arm twisting, Carmine persuaded Jack. So after many years of working separately, Joe and Jack produced Sandman. The comic seemed to sell well enough but Kirby had his own personal goals which did not include turning back the clock to a long past working relationship. More issues of Sandman would follow and Jack would contribute covers and eventually some story art, but he would do so without Joe’s help.

Original Art
Unpublished Sandman cover, pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Joe Simon.

Joe Simon inked a version of the Sandman cover drawn by Jack Kirby. Perhaps because of Joe’s use of crosshatching (which DC staff derogatorily called hay) or because of the liberties that Joe took (such as rounding off of finger tips), this cover was never published. But it does stand as an intermediate state between Jerry’s version and the final published cover. Kirby must have seen Jerry’s rough, or perhaps some other intermediate layout that we do not know about, because Jack keeps a couple figures. Most notable is the machine headed guy on the left in both versions. The pose of the legs of a scaling demon on the second state is similar to a larger figure higher up on the page in Jerry’s sketch. Jerry had a number of serpents on the left side which was reduced to a single one in the Kirby/Simon cover.

The above similarities were unchanged in the final published state. But there are other features shared between the Grandenetti and the Kirby/Simon versions that did not survive to the final cover. Both have the Sandman logo looking like it was made of stone. The logo in both sits on what looks like a swirling river. This river sweeps down from the right to the left but in Jerry’s rough, though not the Kirby/Simon art, the river turns back in to form part of the divide between the nightmare world and the sleeping boy. Both early states seem to have a mountain formation the immediate right of the end of the logo.

On the Grandenetti version the Sandman declares:

Come see what I dreamed up for you!

This was modified slightly for the Kirby/Simon art:

Come See what I’ve dreamed up for you!

The text was again altered slightly in the published cover to:

Come see what weirdies I’ve dreamed up for you!

Other features are only found in the initial Grandenetti state. Such as the text that also separates the nightmare scene from the sleeping boy. Or the hand raising up from the river holding a doll. There are other figures but with the poor quality of the scan of Grandenetti’s drawing it is hard to make out what some of them represent. The most dramatic change was made to the Sandman. In Jerry’s rough the Sandman is easy to overlook standing on the right among all the chaos. With the second state the hero becomes front and center with the exaggerated perspective that Kirby so favored.

Sandman #1
Sandman #1 (Winter 1974) art by Jack Kirby

Except for the inking, the published cover is not very different from the rejected Kirby/Simon version. The rock formation logo has been replaced with a more modern and sleek version, but otherwise keeps the overall form. The flowing water and mountain have been completely eliminated.

Since we have three versions of the Sandman cover, are there more? Joe’s collection includes two copies of the Kirby/Simon state. These copies do not differ significantly in layout from the second state and I believe they were actually made years later. The published comic has a job number of SK-2 so what was SK-1? Very likely SK-1 was the Kirby/Simon version. I have seen on a couple occasions the original art of another Sandman cover rough purportedly done by Joe Simon. On that example the drawing is very amateurish and was certainly not done by Joe. Who knows, maybe there are more Sandman covers out there?

Rewrite!

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Posted in 2007/06, 7 Freelance, Alternate Takes, Harvey, Periods, Topic, z Archive.

First Love #69
Gangster’s Girl” original art by Bill Draut published in First Love #69 (October 1956) as “Remember, I’m Your Girl”

We are on location for the filming of a television drama. Suddenly someone taps the director on his shoulder and hands him a cell phone. We cannot make out the conversation but it is obvious the the director is very unhappy. He gives the phone back to his assistant and then calls out “Get the author, we have to do a rewrite”.

Well I do not know how often this sort of thing happens but I have heard of various movies under going a series of rewriting of the script. In the comic book industry of the 50’s such rewrites were very unusual. Sure a word here or there would be changed or some art editing performed, but generally the story was published as it was originally scripted. With a product that was sold for ten cents and with smaller print runs, care was taken to avoid waste when producing the comic. The most frequent reason for comic book rewrites resulted when a title was cancelled. Because the art was created well before publication, a cancelled title would often result art in various stages of work including some that was fully complete. Such art might have to be rewritten in order to publish it in some other title. But baring recycled art, it was unusual for a comic book story to be extensively rewritten.

Not too long ago I posted on a Bill Draut story “Remember, I’m Your Girl”. Shortly after my blogging on it some of my readers pointed out to me that the art for the story was up for sale on eBay. However the image on the eBay listing showed the story title was “Gangster’s Girl”. I was intrigue and although I felt the art was not the best that Bill Draut had done, I put in what turned out to be the winning bid.

Also included with the art that I received was the text paste-ups that had come off or been removed. I did not think much about the paste-ups at the time because I thought they would just be the text as it was finally published. Later I would find I was wrong. Like most of the art for S&K productions, there was little on the margins except for a few production instructions. However you could tell that that was not always the case because an eraser had been used on the margins. So I scanned the art and did some processing in Photoshop. This allowed me to bring out some of the erased pencils. I also did some work to bring out the color blue because some blue pencil markings had also been erased. Armed with the original art, the paste-ups and enhanced scans I could do an analysis as if I was some sort of comic book archeologist. I can now outline the steps in the process of converting the story from the original “Gangster’s Girl” to “Remember, I’m Your Girl”.

The Photoshop enhancements did bring out some erased pencils that probably date from the when the art was first produced. Inside some of the captions and balloons there can be seen some of the text in pencil. It was standard for the S&K shop to have all the text placed on the art before the final lettering was done. I am not clear on whether the penciling of the text was done before the art was penciled, or if it was done by the penciler or the letterer. Also from the original state of the art, each page had in pencil the story title on the upper left and Bill Draut’s address on the upper right margin. The handwriting seems the same for the two, and I suspect that it was Bill’s but I have nothing to compare it with.

The original art no longer has any of the paste-ups still attached. This meant that the original story could be read in full. The only exception was that one word balloon had been inked over. But by viewing the art at an angle the pencils show up and it was possible to read the original text.

The story is a love triangle between Joe (a gangster), Annie (the love interest) and Phil (former friend). Phil’s running for election on a clean up campaign is a clear threat to Joe. Joe asks Annie to get close to Phil in order to find weaknesses, overcoming her reluctance with expensive presents. Annie stages a meeting with Phil and a romance ensues. Phil looses the election but Annie says she will stay with him. During a confrontation between Joe and Phil, Joe shows Annie one of his presents, a mink coat. Enticed by Joe’s rich presents, Annie decides to stay with Joe.

That is right, in the end the gangster gets the girl. This has got to be the most unusual story from a romance comic that I have ever read. Not only that, it is probably the best. My story outline does not give it justice, in particularly how Annie’s weakness is portrayed. But this story was published in 1956. Who in their right mind would think that this story could get Comic Code approval? I do not know how to explain this lapse. Perhaps it was actually produced before the Comic Code but had somehow never been used.

Well someone realized that the story would have to be altered if it was to be published. So the first rewrite was performed. That is right, there were actually three versions of the story. For the second story Joe became a big businessman. All the details of the second story cannot be reconstructed. It is not clear whether Joe still uses expensive gifts to get Annie to spy on Phil, or if instead the final version of the plot was used. Fortunately the end can be reconstructed and surprising Joe still gets Annie in the end. Only it is not the expensive gifts that changes her mind, it is the fact that she detects that Phil does not trust her enough to reject those gifts. The confrontation has made Joe realize his own failings, he decides to marry Annie and changes his ways.

First Love #69
Page 4 editing changes for the first rewrite from the Photoshop enhanced scans.

A lot of text had to be changed in the rewrite. First a pencil was scribbled over whatever was going to be replaced. Then the new version was written in pencil generally in the margins but for small changes it might be done nearer. The above image of the Photoshop enhanced image shows an example from page 4. In the lower right is the new text for the second balloon:

JOE – ALL I EVER WANTED FROM YOU WAS A TENDER WORD. BUT YOU SEEMED TO HAVE LOST THEM.

This rewrite was only used for the second story, the third story reverted back to the original script. That is why the pencils scribbling over the second balloon are lighter then those for the first balloon. The second balloon scribbling was erased and are hardly visible on the art without Photoshop adjustment.

First Love #69
Page 5 from the Photoshoped enhanced scans.

The final page had a very effective series of panels showing Annie trying to make her final choice. In all versions of the story this appears to have been without any text. But the enhanced scans show that for a time word balloons were considered. The one in the second panels says:

PHIL THINKS YOU WANT THE MINK HONEY

The last has:

ANYONE CAN SEE HE TRUSTS YOU —

Since both statements deal with trust I believe these changes were considered for the second version of the story where Phil’s lack of trust causes Annie to choose Joe. But thankfully this version did not make it into the second story and was never inked. This set of panel “speaks much loader” without the use of any words.

The margin rewrites look to me to be in Joe Simon’s hand writing. But to be sure I will be showing them to Joe on my next visit to see what he thinks.

First Love #69
Close-up from page 2 filtered for blue.

The rewrite was done in a way that not much art had to be altered. A classic technique used to change art is the use of whiteout. Here there is not a lot of use of whiteout in the art. You can tell that some whiteout was used by Draut because the inking over it is his. That particular whiteout use had nothing to do with the rewrite. Whiteout was also used on Joe’s face and this does seem related to the rewrite because it was not re-inked. Of course the whiteout obscures the art that has been changed but the filtering for blue in Photoshop sometimes allows us to see through the whiteout. As can be seen in the example above Joe originally had wrinkles, jowls and a mustache. As a powerful gangster Joe was older because the appeal he had for Annie was based solely on his money. The whiteout changes were done to make him younger.

First Love #69
Close-up from bottom of page 1 filtered for blue.

When I examined the art I found a couple of spots that were inked by another artist. For example in the foreground of the splash panel there is a table with a funny shadow and an unusual vase-like object. By looking at an angle at the art I could see the original pencils. Unfortunately I cannot scan at an angle but I found that further manipulation of the blue filtered scan sometimes brings out the pencils to a certain degree. In the image above you can see that the shadow hides a gun laying on the table and that the vase-like object was originally a glass. Drinking and the use of guns is appropriate for a gangster, but not for a business man, even a shady one. The Comic Code was very sensitive to anything that might “corrupt” the morals of the young readers. Similar re-inking hides guns a couple other places in the story.

First Love #69
Close-up from page 3 filtered for blue

With the art changes made and the altered scripts pasted into their proper places, the second version of the story was ready to go. The next individual to work on the story used blue pencil to indicate certain changes. ‘X’s were placed in the margins at certain spots and other editing marks were made. These marks are all somewhat cryptic because for the most part they are not accompanied with any remarks. This blue penciling was done after the first rewrite because in some places it extends over the paste-ups. Once it even indicated a change to be made on a paste-up. Interestingly not all the changes indicated by the blue pencils were ever made. One is shown in the image above. There a circle was made around Joe connecting to a comment

where did he get the mustache?

Sure enough this was the one place that whiteout had not been used to remove Joe’s original mustache. But for some reason this was never corrected.

First Love #69
Close-up from page 3 filtered for blue.

On the third page the art had a blue pencil notation leading to an area with an ‘X’ (see above image). Again looking at an angle I could make out the original pencils. In this case the pencils showed a part of Annie’s anatomy that, let us just say, normally would not be visible with her dress on. I have heard of artists fooling around like that but I think we can be pretty confident that this was not included in the inked version and therefore was not the problem. But there is an indication that perhaps Annie was shown more busty then desirable for the Comic Code. Rather then whiting it out and re-inking, the area was just filled with black so that Annie’s profile was no longer distinguishable.

The way the blue pencil was used leads me to believe that the art had been presented to someone at Harvey for approval. In his book, “The Comic Book Makers”, Joe describes presenting Silver Spider to Leon Harvey, so perhaps Leon was responsible for the blue pencils in “Remember, I’m Your Girl”. In any case I suspect all the blue ‘X’s indicated that the second version of the story had not gone far enough. This resulted in the second rewrite.

In the third and final version of the story Joe becomes Annie’s brother and now became a shady politician. Of course all mention of a romantic connection or marriage between the two had to be removed. I am not sure what type of person Annie was in the second version, but in the final she is clearly given a more moral character. Although she accepts gifts from Joe she refuses to arrange to spy on Phil. But fate intervenes with an accidental meeting between Annie and Phil after which the story continues pretty much as before. However in the final confrontation Annie goes off with Phil leaving Joe all alone.

The same person who did the first rewrite did the second one as well. And the same technique of writing the altered version in the margins was used. Some of these new notes were done over erased portions of previous notations. This not only made it impossible to read large portions of the earlier versions, but some portions of the latest are hard to make out as well.

First Love #69
Page 5 final art panel from a normal scan of the original art.

Most of the art changes were done with the first rewrite. An exception is the art for the last panel was dramatically changed for the last version. The two foreground figures are now shown largely as silhouettes. However a careful examination of the inking shows that this was not always the case, some of the original spotting can be made out on the original (but not in the image I supply). The doorway was also modified. Whiteout has been used to cover up a dark background that original extended much further down the doorway. The background figure is a silhouette as well, but I wonder if it was originally. Regrettably it is not possible to detect any original spotting or pencils. These changes were made because in the last version of the story Phil, not Joe, gets the girl. The making of the foreground figures as silhouettes was done because originally Annie was wearing her mink coat. The change in the background was done to change the original looser Phil into Joe, a silhouette being easier to do then a full re-inking.

The story ends with a vertical caption. Because all the different versions of the story had unique endings, this caption was changed for each of the rewrites. Fortunately when the second rewrite was done the paste-up from the first rewrite was peeled off, flipped over and reused. Therefore all versions of the final caption have been preserved. These are the endings in the order that they were written.

OKAY… SO I SOLD MYSELF… CHEAP! I LOVED PHIL… BUT I LOVED JOEY’S MONEY MORE! SO WHAT? LOVE ISN’T THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD IS IT? BUT I WONDER WHY SOMETIMES, IN THE NIGHT I CRY…

PHIL HAD MADE UP MY MIND FOR ME– EXPECTING ME TO TAKE JOE’S MINK COAT. HE HAD EVERY SHINING QUALITY– EXCEPT TRUST! I WAS GLAD I CHOOSE JOE. HE KEPT HIS PROMISE. HE LEARNED TO BE TENDER!

JOE WAS ALONE, NOW– WITHOUT FRIENDS OR FAMILY! THE FUTURE WAS UP TO HIM– HE COULD WALK TO HIS DOOM DOWN THE SIDE STREETS OF SHADY POLITICS OR WALK INTO THE SUNLIGHT WITH HIS HEAD HIGH– AS I HAD!

The story line for the last two versions are not nearly as good as the first. That is just the nature what had to be done to alter the story so that it could get Comic Code approval. When you keep that in mind, the rewrites are impressive particularly since they required only limited changes to the art.

A New Book, The Marvel Vault

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Posted in 2007/06, Odds & Ends, Topic, z Archive.

During a visit with Joe Simon, I had the pleasure of looking at an advance copy of a new book called “The Marvel Vault: A Museum-in-a-book With Rare Collectables from the World of Marvel” by Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson. Here is a link to it in Amazon. They list it as available on October 8, 2007. It is an unusual book, to say the least. It is hardcover but is more like a spiral notebook then a regular book. Some plastic pages are included among the regular paper ones. These plastic pages have pouches that include reproductions of various items. I did not look at them all but one group that I did look through were a pile of reproduction of golden age sketches. I cannot say I care for the paper they were printed on, it is much too brown for my taste. But the printing quality and the sketches themselves are just marvelous (pun intended). I remember great stuff by Bill Everett and Carl Burgos, perhaps other artists were represented as well.

The book covers Marvel’s entire history, including the Timely and Atlas periods. So of course there is a lot of Jack Kirby. Joe Simon is in it as well in what is my favorite photograph of him. It shows Joe at his drawing board, talking on the phone and smoking a cigar. (I guess I better add something for in the spirit of full disclosure, I digitally restored the photograph and the books gives me credit along with Joe for supplying it.)

I only spent about five minutes looking at it so I am not able to provide an in depth review. Or to comment about the accuracy of the history the book provides. But I did see a lot of interesting stuff and I heartedly recommend anybody interested in history of comic books to check it out when it is released.