Love To Love You

Wednesday Advertising Day.

This is the last of my posts to sell my double Timely books. Timely (or Atlas, as is was also known) was the company run by publisher Martin Goodman line editor Stan Lee and is one of the must sought after comic lines of the fifties after EC. If have written somewhere that I feel the output of the Timely lne more in line with our current sensibillities than the EC books. EC was a literary company and it's quality suited the needs of a generation of fans who were looking to justify their collecting hobby. The Stan Lee edited books were nothing than entertainment and are often a lot more fun for those of us not interested in proving ou interest in them is justified. This opinion has not gotten me a lot of respect from the comic book collectors community, which is still being monitored by the first generation. Still, I have to concede that they have their points. The general wuality of the EC books was much higher than that of Stan Lee's output. There are more clunkers to be found among the many books published. On the other hand, for years the mpression has been made that Bill Gaines was the only publisher allowing artists to develop their own style and that is not so. DC may have had a company policy of having everyone draw as much as possible in a slicj 'huse style', but most other companies couldn't be bothered. There is some evidence that Stan Lee at least appreciated individual quirkiness as much as Bill Gaines.

Anyway, in these romance books you can find as much art-surprises as in any of the other lines. And though the stories themselves are usually nothing special, at least they weren't overwritten and allowed the artists some moments to shine.

Girl Comics #6
Januari 1951
Cover by unknown

Artists: unknown, unknown, Ann Brewster, John Tartaglione/Hy Rosen (?)
Condition: Good minus, some damage to the cover, a bit old otherwise
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8

The cover looks like those stories drawn by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Christopher Rule, so either of them might be involved. Even though it looks like a romance book, it was actually a girls adventure series - something entirely new and creative and therefore abandonned after twelve issues.


Girl Confessions #27

August 1953
Cover by Al Hartley

Artists: Bernard Baily (?), Jerry Robinson, Manny Stallman, Jay Scott Pike,
Condition: Good plus, a bit worn, some red smears on the cover (a lipstick kiss, actually)
Guide price: $14
Offer price: $10

Atlas Tales suggests that the fist story might be by Bernard Baily, but all the other attributions are by me so it may be an early guess I made myself. The Robinson story is another gem. The story isn't too bad either, with the girl not getting her man for once. The lipstick lips on the cover make this a true rarity.

Love Romances #29
July 1953
Cover by Al Hartley
First copy of two.

Artists: Jay Scott Pie, Alice Kirkpatrick, John Tartaglione, Jerry Robinson
Condition: Good, cover loose and split, right hand corner fold on cover
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $10

Jerry Robinson solo love story. Get this book. The Al Hartley cover doesn't hurt either. In fact, the art in all these stories is great. The amount of effort the artists put into their stories in this period is astounding.

Love Romances #29
July 1953
Cover by Al Hartley
Second copy of two.

Artists: Jay Scott Pie, Alice Kirkpatrick, John Tartaglione, Jerry Robinson
Condition: Good, spine roll, some creasing on cover
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $10

It's only of one Jerry Robinson's rare love stories. Interesting to compare this to the ones he did togther with Mort Meskin. Great splash page.

Love Romances #52
October 1955
Cover by Vince Colletta

Artists: Vince Colletta, Jay Scott Pike, unknown, Vince Colletta
Condition: Good minus, cover loose but unsplit
Guide price: $6
Offer price: $5

Vince Colletta does a pretty good wedding dress design, if you are into that sort of thing. The unknown story is credited to Fred Kida on Atlas Tales, but it looks as if it could have been inked by Vince Colletta (although he usually put his own style unto it a bit more).

Love Tales #50
January 1952
Cover by Al Hartley
First copy of two

Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta (?), Bill Everett
Condition: Good, cover a bit loose, blue pen on title and text balloon
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8

Mike Sekowsky always worked with inkers. This is one of those I always thought were inked by Christopher Rule. The early Sinnott story doesn show his Tom Gill influence or his later grimaced faces. Actually, it is quite pretty. The seve page Everett story is a gem, wit two woman literally fighting over a man.

Love Tales #50
January 1952
Cover by Al Hartley
Second copy of two

Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta (?), Bill Everett
Condition: Good, some tears in spine, a bit beat
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8

Slightly better than my other copy and just as interesting.

Love Tales #69
August 1956
Cover by Coletta

Artists: Vince Colletta, Al Hartley, Bill Everett, unknown, Jay Scott Pike
Condition: Very Good, but front cover missing
Guide price (Very Good): $20
Offer price: $8 (with other book)

Great book, apart from the missing cover. The main reason for getting this one is the rare Bill Everett love story.

Lovers #27
Februari 1950
Cover Photo with Cathy o'Donnell and Farley Granger
52 Pages

Artists: Mke Sekowsky, Bob Powell, unknown, unknown, unknown, Al Eadeh (?)
Condition: Good minus, corner fold, dirt mark on page 1, spine roll
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $8

My copy of this book (as more in my collection) has a stamp by the seller Bonnett's from dayton, Ohio Don't know if that's a famous collection, but a colection it must have been. the first story is what I used to be sure was a Mike Sekowsky/Christopher Rule colaboration. The Bob Powell story is a rare early appearance at Timely for him. And already his characters were wearing those striped and blocked jackets that must have een out of date even then.

Lovers #51
July 1953
Cover by Jerry Robinson

Artists: Al Hartley, Mike Sekowsky, Jim Mooney, Jay Scott Pike
Condition: Fair, water damage on the cover, tear on first page top
Guide price: $6
Offer price: $5

What's not to like? A Jerry Robinson cover, Al Hartley pulling out all stops, one of those Mike Sekowsky stories that is sometimes attributed to Alex Toth and a Jim Mooney story to die for. In fact, it is so good I just had to have it in a better condition. A good starter, though and highly undervalued in the Guide.

Lovers #60
April 1954
Cover by Jay Scott Pike

Artists: Jay Scott Pike, Paul Reinman, Bill Ely, unknown
Condition: Good, cover scuffed, a bit beat
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $10

The unknown artist of the last story has a photorealism that reminds me of Art Peddy. The true rarity here is the story by Paul Reinman, who was usually used for war and horror stories. This is a far cry from his romance stories for Prize at the end of the fifties, thouh. He was at the top of his art around this time. The open bottomed splashed shows he waas a great designer as well. To make an odd issue even odder, ther's also a rare story by Bill Ely, who usuall worked for other companies.

Lovers #66
March 1955
Cover by Vince Colletta

Artists: Vince Colletta, Jay Scott Pike, Vince Colletta, Al Hartley
Condition: Good plus, some creases on cover
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $7

I had a quick look through this first post-code issue to see if there wer any alterations, but on the whole the love stories from Timely were never out of line even before the code was installed.

My Own Romance #62
March 1958
Cover by Kirby (?)/Vince Colletta

Artists: Vince Colleta, Jay Scott Pike, John Tartaglione, John Forte, Vince Coletta
Condition: Very Good Minus, some creases and tears, but well preserved
Guide price: $6
Offer price: $4

After the implosion of 1957/8 the Timely books fell into a predictable rut. Capabillity took over from excitement. What remains is Vince Colletta's extreme facillty at surfaces and Jay Scott Pike's all American faces. And the fact that some art connesseurs have speculated that the cover may be from a Kirby sketch reworked by Colletta.

Patsy Walker #19
November 1948
Cover by Al Jaffee
52 Pages

Artists: Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurzman, Al Jaffee, Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman, Ken Bald, Mike Sekowsky, Ken Bald, Al Jaffee
Condition: Good minus, spine damage, a bit rough
Guide price: $15
Offer price: $12

Patsy Walker was Timely's effort to create a Archie clone, with Patsy and Hedy playing the Betty and Veronica roles. The two Harvey Kurtzman Hey Look pages are in his best style. All Hey Looks were reprinted in a handy book by Denis Kitchen, but it is time for a complete reprint in color. Many newer artists aknowledge Kurtzman's ongoing influence and here we see him at his best.

Wendy Parker #2

August 1953
Cover by Christopher Rule

Artists: Christopher Rule, Christopher Rule, Morris Weiss (?), Christopher Rule
Condition: Good minus, cover loose and split
Guide price: $8
Offer price: $5

Three stories by regular Wendy Parker artist Christopher Rule and a Ptsy Walker story which is probably by Morris Weiss. Probably only for the completists, but then again - I apparently have two.

As always, leave your name in the comments section and I will get back to you.

Hi-di-hi!

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

Here are some more of those wonderfull early Hi and Lois strips. I have many more coming up, both Sundays and dailies. Some of the Sundays in color, too. And a nice set of black and white Sundays from a Britisch reprint book, where they were used as filler material.

Dikkin' Around

Monday Cartoon Day.

We all know and love Dik Browne as the overseized viking with the unkept beard he used as a model for his succesful solo strip Hagar. But he didn't always look like that. Kicking off a week of Dik Browne posts, we start with a unique interview he did for the december 1846 issue of the sponsored magazine The Ford Times (complete with selfportrait).Apparently he did cartoons for this magazine, which has immediately risen to the top of my list of obscure magazines to look out for. I have added the cover of this digest sized magazine, which is not by Browne by the way.

The Formula That Goes Down Easy

Sunday Quick Fix.

Those Who Are About To Go Blub Salute You

Sarturday Leftover Day.

After bringing out books devoted to The Haunted Tank, Sgt. Rock and The Land That Time Forgot DC seems to have sowed down their efforts to bringt the war stories to the Showcase reprint series. They seem to be hampered by the fact that they have chosen for a 'series' reprint format rather than an artist based approach. Becaue where would you place a story such as this from Star Spangled War Stories #72, other than in a Marveleous Russ Heath Work volume?

Unknown But Not Unloved

Friday Comic Book Day.

A bit late, because the airline left my bags in Paris. But Now that I have them, I can pulish my preprepared post.

I've been enthusing about Timely/Atlas for so many times here, I think it's time for me to show some more of it. Uncanny Tales was one of their most interesting horror titles. It had lots of Stan Lee stories, art by all the regulars and a lot of very interesting art by some lesser known talents. Here is a whole book full of artists you don't normally associate with Timely of Stan Lee, but who al did quite a bit of work for him anyway. The cover is by Russ Heath, although the signature is hard to find.

I have cut this book in two, cleverly forcing you to come back next week for more.



The first story is by Paul Hodge, who did a handful of stories for the war, cowboy and horror books between July 1954 and August 1956.







Bob McCarty worked for several companies. His style is usually quite easy to pick out, especially the craed look of his protagonists. But here is is much more muted, though equally recognizable once you see it.






Next friday Bob Forgione, Shelly Moldoff and Mort Lawrence.

Rogering The Trend

Thursday Story Strip Day.

The midde part of George Tuska's first Buck Rogers story from 1959. Next week the last part.

Crime Can Pay

Wednesday Advertising Day.

This is the last before last of my posts with double Atlas Comics for sale. After I am back from my honeymoon, I will start putting them on e-bay, often at a lower starting price. I think the prices here are quite reasonable as well, so if you want to be sure to get a certain book, drop me a note in the comments section. When the books are up on e-bay, I will refer to this site, so people can select books to be added for maximum packaging. I can put seven or eight books in a $12 envelope, limiting the cost per book. After that I will also start selling other books, mainly stuff from other publishers.

Justice #31
November 1952
Cover by unknown

Artists: George Tuska, Jack Keller, Allen Bellman, Tony DiPreta
Condition: Good, would have been better but for a small piece missing from the right hand corner.
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $10

George Tuska had started at Gleason's doing crime stories. His work was very much appreciated and even imitated, for instance by Stan Lee when he was doing crime books at Timely. When he joined Timely in the early fifties, his inkline had beefed up considerably, making his caroony realism even more striking. The crime titles were giving way to the 'new' genres of horror and war, but some of them remained. Justice was one of them. In this book Tuska returnes to crime, using his new (and in my opinion even better) style. Tony DiPreta had done a lot of work for Gleason as well. He is a remarkable artist, who could adept his style to whatever was needed. It was only at Timely that he seems to have found a style of his own, a weird sort of realism, with a Dick Tracy like element of charicture, but totally his own. Sadly, in the early sixties he took over Joe Paloeka and dropped all of his individual quirks. Allen Bellman has a similar quirky style, that makes the story really speak.

Justice #34
Februari 1953
Cover by Sol Brodsky

Artists: Jack Keller, unknown, Allen Bellman, Vernon Henkel
Condition: Good minus, cover split and loose
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $6

More true crime stories, with Bellman's story telling the tale of a German tailor who stood up against the NAZI's for being rude (one of their more serious crimes apparently) in 1937. Hitler even appears himself to say he wants the case solved and shaking his fist.

Justice #46
May 1954
Cover by Joe Maneely

Artists: Gene Colan, Tony Mortellaro, Ed Moline, John Forte
Condition: Very Good, actually Fine book but for water stain on cover
Guide price: $25
Offer price: $18

With this issue the cover from this books gets the slogan: "Respectfully dedicated to the law-enforcement officiers around the nation, without whose selfsacrificing devotion to duty out society would fall prey to the underworld!" The water stain in the cover does not touch the image area, as you can see from the scan (which, although it is from Atlas Tales, is from my copy). The Gene Colan opener, a true story about an ecapes convict is worth the money alone. The John Forte story is very similar artwise to the one shown by Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine recently.

Justice #47
June 1954
Cover by Sol Brodsky

Artists: Chuck Miller, Lou Ravielli, Bill Savage, Mac Pakula
Condition: Very Good, just some small creases along the sides
Guide price: $20
Offer price: $15

The Atlas Crime books used more 'serious' artists than the others, ot at least there wa less charicature and more 'realism'. This could give them a dull look, but with atists such as Chuck Miller and Lou Ravielli, there lots to admire. Mac Pakula actually does some of his best work here.





Justice #50
November 1954
Cover by Sol Brodsky

Artists: Dick Ayers, Ed Moline, Sam Moscowicz, Al Eadeh
Condition: Good, a bit beat, creases on the cover
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $7

Sam Moscowicz did a couple of stories with Joe Kubert, but apparently he was promoted to doing his own inking. Al Eadeh draws his usual ugly people, this time including someone who could be a contender for the Worst Haircut of the Decade.

Police Action #5
September 1954
Cover by Joe Maneely

Artists: Dick Ayers, Ed Robbins, unknown, Mort Lawrence
Condition: Good minus, bit beat, piece missing from right hand corner
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $7

Towards the end of the fifties most artists started to slick up their styles. One sample of that would be Mort Lawrence, whose work here looks as if he is auditioning for DC or a newspaper strip. Ed Robbins had been drawing the Mike Hammer strip for the newspapers and is more than suited for this book. His style is suitably butch and his scartchy inking makes it very lifely.





Crime Can't Win #12
September 1952
Cover by Sol Brodsky

Artists: Jack Keller, Manny Stallman (?), unknown, Marion Sitton
Condition: Fair minus, back cover ripped, front soiled and creased
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8

Here's one for the art spotters. The first story could be by Manny Stallman, but has a weird comical vibe as well, usally missing form Stallman's work. The third story is competently drawn by a Jim Mooney-like artist but with some odd touches, almost as if the penciller and inker were'nt on the same wavelength. Pretty good story too, about an apparently insane criminal on the run capturing a kid as a hostage... with a pretty surprising and humane twist.

Crime Must Lose #11
February 1952
Cover by unknown

Artists: Tony DiPreta, George Roussos, Allen Bellman, Jack Keller
Condition: Good, some creases, some splittage of the spine, but holding on
Guide price: $15
Offer price: $10

This series is the one that escapes me the most. For some reasons there are none issues to be found, cheap as they are. These 'true crime' books could be pretty boring, with very little to be surprised at in the stories (whose main fault seems to be that they are well-told), but around this time Stan Lee artists did start to turn loose with their own styles. Both Tony DiPreta and George Roussos offer a lot of dark shadows and good storytelling here.





All-True Crime Cases Comic #47
November 1951
Cover by unknown

Artists: Jerry Robinson, Marion Sitton, Dan Loprino, Jim Mooney, Mike Sekowsky
Condition: Poor, would be Good, bit of a spine roll, 52 pages, but last story is missing large chunks of pages
Guide price (Good): $15
Offer price: $5 (with other books)

This book is ruined because of the damage to the last pages. I would get it for the Jerry Robinson story if I couldn't get it any other way. He was way ahead of anyone at that time. The Guide price for this book is rediculously low anyway.

How Now Browne Blog?

Monday Cartoon Day.

This week I'll be leaving on my honeymoon for ten days. When I went into my tumor operation this year I thought I'd better ask my 29 year live in girlfriend and mother of my children to marry me and she kindly saw I was too sick to refuse me. We are going to Florida, but the posts will continue as much as possible. I had planned to use the scheduled posting feature of Blogger, but for some reason it gave out after the first three. I now have saved all posts as drafts and will try and put them up every day from my holiday adress in lovely Sanibel. So if nothing appears I have been eaten by a crocodile or the wifi in my hotel has given out.

In preparing the scheduled posts (I thought), some of my upcoming entries were published earlier than they should have been. I quickly removed them, but apparently some people have me on a feed, so my old friend Mike Lynch beat me to it, read the post and created a link to it. Which immediately disappeared when I removed the post and turned it into a draft to be published next monday.

So for all of you who are coming here to see some pretty rare Dik Browne material, he is some pretty rare Mort Walker material instead. I rencently ran into a seller at e-bay selling Mort Walker cartoons from the late forties. All of these cartoons were initialled 'okay JB' and it turned out they were from the collection of the surviving relatives of the SEP cartoon editor. The e-bay seller thought they might be originals for cartoons that have appeared in the Post, but I had another idea. Since they were initialled and since the seller had two other cartoons (by Ted Key and the Berenstains) that were still in sketch form, I think these cartoons are in fact presentation cartoons done by Walker. In the forties and probably all through the fifties, all cartoonists did the rounds with their new material every wednesday. Sarting at the best paying magazines, or at their personal favorites, they went from office to office in New York with their sketched samples and tried to sell as many cartoons as possible. That's why most of them started with the best paying ones, if a cartoon didn't sell, they culd then offer it to the next client. In many of his biographies Mort Walker has mentioned that he discovered early on, that it was better to go around with finished cartoons rather than sketches. He found it no pain to finish of his work and he sold them a lot quicker. That would explain why there is a note of acceptance on them. Walker left a batch of them on the desk of the editor, who picked out his favorites and returned the rest later in the day.

Which leaves me with two questions:

1. Did Mort Walker then do the cartoons again or were they used as they were done the first time around. They certainly look fit to print, but wouldn't the editor have used a blue pencil rather than a red one if he knew he was going to use the cartoon. Red is so hard to lose when making plates. We have one more clue in the batch of cartoons below. On the last cartoon we see a note suggesting that the tricycle was to be changed to a bicycle. My guess is, if we were to find that cartoon as published, it might look quite different. And tehrefore the same could be true for all of them.
2. But more importantly, there is the question if they were published at all. I have quite a collection of these Mort Walker cartoons and I have come across none of the 16 the e-bay seller has. He was kind enough to send me copies of the ones I didn't buy, so I can show all of the to you, so maybe there is someone out there who can tell me if any one of them was ever published. This could go either way, but if they were published I would not know why the editor kept them. Unless they were redone for publication. I just don't know.

Also, anyone who can tell me the name of the editor?

Clearing Out The Old Paper

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

I finally have my new scanner, so now I can show you all the terrific new stuff I have bought in the last half year or so. Unfortunately, I am going away on my honeymoon tomorrow, so I had to try and get Blogger to take scheduled posts. This didn't work out as well as I would have liked, so I have chosen the next best opion. I have saved a couple of posts as drafts and will 'activate' them from my holiday adress in Florida as often as I can.

So there is little time for new essays, as I am concentrating on quanity rather than quality here. This means more of the same, but at least it's from a period when the same was pretty damn good every week. Just look at those last B.C.'s. When was the last time you saw Johnny Hart do an ant gag without using it as a way to do less drawing?

July 5 1959:


Oct. 4 1959:


Oct. 11 1959:


Oct. 18 1959:


Dec. 13 1959:


These last thre are from the Canadian Winnipeg Sunday. They had the unfortunate habit of recoloring their Sundays and not always in the most attactive palette.

Oct. 16 1960:


Oct. 22 1960:


Oct. 30 1960:

Day For Night

Sunday Leftover Extra.

In the past, I have shown a couple of rarities from the great artist Noel Sickles. Today, while looking at illustrations by comic book artists for army newspapers and manuals, I ran cross these illustrations I believe are done by Sickles as well. They certainly are in his style and om some of them you can barely see a scribbled signature that looks like Sickles'.

These rare illustrations are all the more interesting, since they show Sickles doing what he does best: indicating the difference between day and night with his remarkable facillity in creating chiascuro shadows. The illustrations come from army manual FM 21-45: Protective measures,individuals and small units,March 10, 1942, which can be found here: http://www.ibiblio.org/cizewski/felixa/crowder/manuals.html

Color Me Quick

Sunday Quick Fix.

I wish all my Johnny Quick scans were as clear as last week's. Still, if you look through the muddy images, you'll see Meskin still growing as an artist. John Quick was like a television version of the big screen hero Flash. But in Meskin's han's he is stll exciting. To make up for the poor scan, I have added an early DC story by Meskin from House of Mystery #52 in 1956. It has been reported to me that Meskin sometimes had a bit of trouble facing the blank page and had to work from lay-outs provided by others. Harry Mendrick also noted that there was a period in the midfifties he did less work for Prize and more for other companies. This story might fall in that period and is looks sufficiantly un-Meskin-like for me to suggest he may have been suffering from another anxiety period and someone may have helped him with this one.

The Slick Of It

Friday Comic Book Day.

Last Sunday, I showed a Mort Meskin story from 1956 that looked quite different from his other work at that time and I asked the question if he might have been helped by someone else on it. Today I have another story from the same year, that seems much more like his own style, while still not as loose or even rushed as his work for Prize. So maybe the other story was his too and was he only trying to find a style slick enough for his demanding bosses at DC.

But while it is slicker than his usual work around that time, it is still as adventureous as his other work. Most DC artists kept to a rigoreous six panels a page grid, but Meskin adepts the panel size to the story needs through the whole story. I particulary like the wide shots on the second to last page. Nowadays they are all the rage, but Mesking knew how to use them as well.

This is from Star Spangled War Stories #49.