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Friday, July 31, 2015

Number 1768: Roth by Toth

When Pete Millar branched off into doing companion titles to his Drag Cartoons magazine, he licensed Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Roth’s biography is here. Big Daddy was a car designer, and also the designer of the popular Rat Fink and monster t-shirts kids had to have in bygone days. Rat Fink was everywhere: model kits, decals, and of course the t-shirts.

Alex Toth (who signs with the name “Big Fatty” Toth) did some pages for early issues of Pete Millar’s magazines. I have included the two strips he did for issue #2 of Big Daddy Roth #2 (1964). I scanned them from my copy, bought fresh off the stands when it came out. I bought it because it had art by Toth, including a couple of pages on the Beatles.






When Toth did this two-page dig at the Beatles (did he write it, also?) there was talk that the Fab Four’s fame could not last. Even being a Beatles fan, I wondered in 1964 if they would still be relevant in 1965 and beyond. Over 50 years later, history has answered with its decision.



Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Number 1767: The cut-up

The mad magician, man, he is really mad! He has a plan to cut someone in half and put them back together. The biggest and baddest magic trick of all. Too bad he can’t make it work. It seals the fate of at least one victim, a guy who came across the magician’s path, who we see chained to a wall pleading for his life. We are left to imagine his awful demise.

This tale, drawn by Harry Harrison and Wallace Wood for EC Comics’ Haunt of Fear #15 (actual issue #1, 1950), is from the very beginnings of the EC horror comics, and like others of its time, is feeling its way around what is really horror, or is just horrible. The plot of “The Mad Magician” is born of innumerable “shudder” pulps, and although well drawn, is hokey.

As you may know, Harry Harrison went into other endeavors after his comic book career, writing among them. He is well thought of for his science fiction work, including several popular novels. But he didn’t write this story. Fred von Bernewitz’s Complete EC Checklist credits it to Gardner Fox. Note the magician’s name of Boris Petaja. Emil Petaja was a well-known figure in science fiction circles, who also wrote several novels.

My scans for this story came from the Gladstone 1990 reprint from the double-sized first issue of The Vault of Horror, which includes a reprint of HOF #1.








Monday, July 27, 2015

Number 1766: Dr Mephisto and the Milquetoast model

Caspar “Casper” Emerson, born 1878, was an artist who began work in newspapers before the turn of the twentieth century. He ran into a situation which caused a public scandal and personal ignominy, when his wife left him for a gypsy violinist known as Prince Rigo. A divorce was granted in 1910, and Emerson is thought to be the model for the henpecked Timid Soul, Caspar Milquetoast,* made famous by cartoonist H.T. Webster.

In the thirties illustration work dried up for Emerson, and he began drawing for pulp magazines. In the forties he worked doing comic stories for Fairy Tale Parade, and later did the Dr. Mephisto strip in Power Comics. This particular episode is from issue #4 (1945). A comment with an accompanying illustration in the excellent article on Emerson by David Saunders demonstrates that Dr. Mephisto looks a lot like Prince Rigo, the man who took his wife.

The Dr. Mephisto script was written by William Woolfolk.








*See examples of The Timid Soul here.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Number 1765: Biker gang, fifties style

This vintage look at outlaws on motorcycles comes to us from I’m a Cop #2 (1954), a title from ME. The motorcycle gang phenomenon was not unknown in those days. Life magazine showed this picture in 1947, when bikers took over a California town.

The Hollister incident was the basis for the movie, The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, released in February, 1954. My impression from the look of the stick-up men is that the story was influenced by what Brando wore in the movie.

There were no cell phone videos in those days to document how the cop got the confession from the butcher, although we are given a silhouette so we can imagine the carnage.

Bob Powell and his gang did the artwork.









Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Number 1764: “Feed me, Seymour!”

Does this Mary Marvel story remind anyone else of the two movie versions of Little Shop of Horrors? Were the filmmakers inspired either directly or indirectly by this 1950 tale from The Marvel Family #54? I don’t know, but it was a connection I made when I saw the splash panel.

Mary Batson is the only Marvel who got to use her first name; if the others had followed suit we would have had Billy Marvel and Freddie Marvel.

The Grand Comics Database tells us Otto Binder wrote the story, and Pete Riss penciled the artwork. Mary Marvel, created by Binder, was named after Otto’s daughter.








Monday, July 20, 2015

Number 1763: “Another successful mission for the Perimeter Patrol!”

Henry Sharp, credited with drawing “The City of Light” for Ziff-Davis’ Amazing Adventures #6 (1952), went into television, and in the 1960s became the story editor for the hit show, The Wild, Wild West.* He was the only writer to have episodes in all four seasons of the series. There is an online, abridged article from Cinefantastique, where Sharp tells the story of his contribution to the hit show: “Story Editor Henry Sharp” by Craig Reid.

Henry was also a fine comic book artist, as evidenced by his work on this story, and a pair of stories for Strange Adventures I showed last year. See the link below.







*The Wild, Wild West owed a lot to the success of the James Bond movies, but I always thought of The Wild, Wild West as being a comic book on film. Like comics, it took fantastic concepts, action-filled science fiction plots, and incredible villains, just as comic books did. I thought it closer in tone to comic books than the spoof Batman TV series.

Henry Sharp drew these two stories for Julius Schwartz, which I showed last December.