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Post by brutalis on Jul 18, 2017 8:11:52 GMT -5
This is good stuff! Thanks Cody! Out here in Phoenix all of the Dell/Gold Key comics were always a hard find. Seldom seeing anything out on the comics rack other than occasional odd issues (never frequent or continuing issues) or mostly the Warner Brothers cartoon comics. In K-Mart is where you would find the Dell goodness. Combo bags with multiple different series and when those were ripped open then you could purchase the individual single issue comics. Circle-K and 7-11 if you were lucky might carry some of the action/adventure stuff so you might find the occasional Phantom, Space Family Robinson or such. I never really had many of the Dell/Gold Key as to me they just weren't comparable in quality to Marvel and DC for the nickels and dimes spent. Now that I am older I do wish that I had gotten more of their stuff whenever I would find them. Any Dell that I remember owning was never bought by me and were "gifts" from my grandparents or trades with neighbors/friends as the going trade rate was 3 Dell for a DC/Marvel in the neighborhood
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 18, 2017 8:41:28 GMT -5
This is good stuff! Thanks Cody! Out here in Phoenix all of the Dell/Gold Key comics were always a hard find. Seldom seeing anything out on the comics rack other than occasional odd issues (never frequent or continuing issues) or mostly the Warner Brothers cartoon comics. In K-Mart is where you would find the Dell goodness. Combo bags with multiple different series and when those were ripped open then you could purchase the individual single issue comics. Circle-K and 7-11 if you were lucky might carry some of the action/adventure stuff so you might find the occasional Phantom, Space Family Robinson or such. I never really had many of the Dell/Gold Key as to me they just weren't comparable in quality to Marvel and DC for the nickels and dimes spent. Now that I am older I do wish that I had gotten more of their stuff whenever I would find them. Any Dell that I remember owning was never bought by me and were "gifts" from my grandparents or trades with neighbors/friends as the going trade rate was 3 Dell for a DC/Marvel in the neighborhood I've heard similar stories, especially on the West Coast. I don't recall seeing the adventure stuff on stands, here; mostly the cartoon books. I think the Midwest saw more of it, since Western started in theis area. I used to see the bags in K-Mart and some supermarkets and drug stores.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2017 8:57:05 GMT -5
This is good stuff! Thanks Cody! I never really had many of the Dell/Gold Key as to me they just weren't comparable in quality to Marvel and DC for the nickels and dimes spent. Now that I am older I do wish that I had gotten more of their stuff whenever I would find them. Any Dell that I remember owning was never bought by me and were "gifts" from my grandparents or trades with neighbors/friends as the going trade rate was 3 Dell for a DC/Marvel in the neighborhood codystarbuck Let me add my thanks for tackling the Dell/Gold Key imprint! Looking forward to this!
brutalis My experience is similar to yours. I bought DC, Marvel, Harvey & Charlton but Dell/Gold Key & Archie were usually gifts.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 18, 2017 10:43:11 GMT -5
So Dell was just essentially a financer and distributor? Yeah. They had been publishing pulp magazines and some other ones and had teamed up with Western, because Western had the printing facilities. Western did the printing on the Dell paperback books, as well as the comic books. With the paperbacks, Dell did all of the editing and buying of content, while Western did the printing. Dell then took care of the distribution. With the comic books, Dell partnered with Western to produce the actual comics. Dell provided the financing, then Western hired the editors, writers and artists, paid them for their work, printed them, then Dell handled the distribution. Western bought the bulk of the licenses and already had an exclusive license, via KK Publications, for the Disney material, as well as licenses from Warner Bros and leon Schlessinger (for the Looney Tunes stuff), MGM (Tom & Jerry and movie related material) and Walter Lantz's studio (Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, etc...). Western already had experience with the license holders, via the publication of the Big Little Books, the Little Golden Books and things like jigsaw puzzles, coloring books, and other merchandise. That was the thing, Whitman was a subsidiary of Western, publishing the children's books and toys, bearing the Whitman name. Whitman was THE coloring book producer for a couple of generations, as well as one of the top producers of jigsaw puzzles and board games (printing some for others and producing their own). The problem with trying to research their comic book stuff is that so little has been written about it, relative to other publishers. Mark Evanier is about the only one I've ever come across who has written extensively about them and that has been more personal stuff, since he started writing there (and with Kirby). Otherwise, it's more about specific titles and artists. Most of the articles I have read about Dell focus almost exclusively on Carl Barks and the Ducks. He was a god to Boomer fans. Tons of stuff on that. There are bits and pieces about Magnus, because of Russ Manning, and a little about Turok, Dagar, Brothers of the Spear, and Mighty Samson. Space Family Robinson gets a little coverage, due to the Lost in Space connection and the Star Trek comics because it is Star Trek. Zorro gets talked about because it is Zorro and Alex Toth did some of his best work on it. The rest are relegated to discussion of merchandise based on the particular show or movie, usually in photo reference and one or two sentences. It seems like a lot of fans kind of looked down upon them, apart from the Barks stuff, and Toth's Zorro, and some of the Gold Key adventure material. A lot of that is probably because they churned out licensed material that was often inferior to the original property. Also, they packaged their comics much like the Dell paperbacks, with uniform covers and layouts, so there is a certain sameness to a lot of that material.. With Gold Key, they had gorgeous painted covers, then rather underwhelming interiors, unless it was someone like Dan Speigle, Russ Manning, Sparky Moore, or a few others (including Frank Thorne, who drew Mighty Samson). Also, they had spotty distribution on a lot of their titles, on newsstands, so you more often found them in the toy departments. Also, they published on infrequent schedules. They put out 5 issues of Mission: Impossible in as many years. Also, they reprinted a lot of stories, especially in the later days. Western didn't pay very high rates, so they didn't attract a lot of the name talent; mostly the guys working in California, many of whom came from the studios and were moonlighting or hired because they already had connections at the studio. Guys like Russ Manning and Dan Spiegle had been working in newspaper strips and comics and made up for the lower rates by producing more work. Wally Wood did Total War/MARS Patrol for them, around the same time he was working on the Tower stuff (THUNDER Agents) and for Topps. He also did work for Charlton, so he wasn't beyond taking lower pay, as long as he could churn out enough work to make up the difference. The real workhorse of Western was writer Gaylord Dubois, who dated back to the Big Little Books and wrote all kinds of westerns (Red Ryder, Gene Autry) animal comics (Lassie), Tarzan, adventure (Turok), cartoon characters (Andy Panda), sci-fi (Space Family Robinson, Captain Venture), biographical (the Dell one-shots), and movie adaptations. I remember seeing a piece in CBG that mentioned he probably wrote more comic scripts than any other writer in the history of the industry. I've got a pretty good sampling of their material, so I will probably be on Western for a while, focusing on specific titles and genres. Not so much the tv and movie stuff, except where there is a special connection, like Toth and Spiegle or a particular property. I love the Tarzan and adventure stuff, so plenty there, plus some other favorites. Like I said in the CCF podcast, my first comic book was Super Goof, and that was a favorite series in my early childhood, as well as Uncle Scrooge and the Junior Woodchucks (and that wasn't even the Barks material!). I was a fan of anything with the Beagle Boys! This is the most thorough analysis of Dell/GolD Key/Western that I've ever read and, believe me -- I've looked! Thank you SO much for all of this!!
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Post by Rob Allen on Jul 18, 2017 13:04:52 GMT -5
The real workhorse of Western was writer Gaylord Dubois, who dated back to the Big Little Books and wrote all kinds of westerns (Red Ryder, Gene Autry) animal comics (Lassie), Tarzan, adventure (Turok), cartoon characters (Andy Panda), sci-fi (Space Family Robinson, Captain Venture), biographical (the Dell one-shots), and movie adaptations. I remember seeing a piece in CBG that mentioned he probably wrote more comic scripts than any other writer in the history of the industry. Wikipedia quotes the Guinness Book of World Records as saying that Paul S. Newman was the most prolific comics writer. He wrote a lot for Western too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S._Newman
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 18, 2017 23:10:44 GMT -5
The real workhorse of Western was writer Gaylord Dubois, who dated back to the Big Little Books and wrote all kinds of westerns (Red Ryder, Gene Autry) animal comics (Lassie), Tarzan, adventure (Turok), cartoon characters (Andy Panda), sci-fi (Space Family Robinson, Captain Venture), biographical (the Dell one-shots), and movie adaptations. I remember seeing a piece in CBG that mentioned he probably wrote more comic scripts than any other writer in the history of the industry. Wikipedia quotes the Guinness Book of World Records as saying that Paul S. Newman was the most prolific comics writer. He wrote a lot for Western too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S._NewmanAlright; maybe the SECOND most prolific. Too bad Newman never teamed up with an artist named Redford.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 22, 2017 16:24:41 GMT -5
In 1947, Western published a Christmas tale, featuring Donald Duck, in Four Color #178. Within that story, Donald laments he is flat broke and can't afford presents or food for a Christmas celebration, which sinks the spirits of nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. We then meet Donald's miserly, bitter Uncle Scrooge, who hates Christmas. He decides to have some fun and invite his nephews to his cabin for Christmas, where he will give them presents, if they prove brave. He feels that there aren't any brave people and will have fun proving it. The Ducks get the invite and find a treasure of presents and goodies, and the possibility of bears. After much feasting a many pointless scares about bears, they Ducks bring in a hollow tree for a Christmas tree. Inside is a hibernating baby bear. He helps himself to food and toys, running into the boys. They tell Donald who goes to look and encounters Mama Bear, looking for junior. Much terror ensues, with Donald fainting next to the sleeping mama, while the boys chase after the baby, who has their food. Scrooge has come along with a bear suit to scare them, but was delayed by the heavy snow. he finds Donald sleeping next to a giant bear and HD & L chasing the baby. These are the bravest men he ever saw and he gives them a real feast and presents Donald with the bearskin he was going to use. Donald faints and the boys pass it off as too much food. This initial story is more a parody of A Christmas Carol than what we think of as an Uncle Scrooge tale. Scrooge is more Ebeneezer than Scrooge McDuck. He is more grizzled and infirmed, using a cane for support. He lives in a more modest, but comfortable house. Carl Barks liked the idea of the character and thought he'd be a great motivator for adventures and brought him back. This led to the Uncle Scrooge series, where Barks create his masterpiece of the Ducks' globetrotting adventures. The first issue of Uncle Scrooge sets the tone for later, with "Only a Poor Old Man." Here,we see a more refined Uncle Scrooge, as we would come to know him. He has his money bin and goes swimming in the cash. We see that the Beagle Boys have set up shop next door, on a construction site. Scrooge is afraid they are after his money. He relates to his nephews that the money is more than cash, it is the end result of his trials and tribulations, of toil and hard work, all of which he achieved by playing it square. He fears the Beagles mean to take it away and he takes steps to thwart them. he creates a chute that drains money out the side, into the Beagle Boys dumptruck, which gets covered by their excavated dirt and dropped off in a lake. They burrow into the money bin and find it empty. Scrooge now worries about the money at the bottom of the lake and takes steps to protect it. he misses his swims in money and builds a mound of it, which is spotted by one of the Beagles, as he goes fishing. he alerts the others and they go after the money. What follows is a series of moves and counter-moves, which builds upon the last. The beagles send fish to eat the cash and Scrooge has the boys try to catch the fish. Bomb carrying cormorants come after the resevoir. It builds and builds until the dam is destroyed, unleashing the flood of money. The Beagles get it first and Scrooge seems resigned to losing and congratulates them. he then asks to go swimming one last time and dives around like a dolphin. He encourages the Beagle Boys to give it a try and they jump in head first and knock themselves out. Scrooge had a solid wall under the spot and they will not regain conscious in time before he can lay claim in court. It ends with Scrooge in control of the money, then worried that someone will try to steal it, starting the cycle over. Stories like this would be the heart of many Uncle Scrooge tales, as he jousts with the Beagle Boys to protect his money bin. These would be the foundation of tales by others, which filled the Uncle Scrooge comics right until the end of Western. However, it was the treasure hunts that really fuelled the Barks tales. Issue 7 has the Ducks searching for the treasure of the Seven Cities of Cibola. Scrooge is lamenting that he doesn't have new ventures to conquer. He goes around town, looking for a new business venture, to relieve the boredom and every time he finds something, it is something he already owns. He runs into his nephews, who are off to hunt for arrowheads, in the desert. After checking to see if he has such a business and finding out he doesn't, he joins the boys. They go searching around the mesas and find ambush spots, with plenty of arrowheads, spearheads, and stone axe heads. A dust storm comes along and they lose sight of their car. They stumble into an oasis and eventually uncover an old trail, where they find indian artifacts and treasure! They go back to town to consult an expert, who tells them it is treasure from the lost Seven Cities of Cibola. They decide to look for it and the boys figure out that they just need to follow the trail. Meanwhile, the Beagle Boys have been kicked out of a mission for the poor and they spot the Ducks. They eavesdrop and learn of their expedition and set out to follow them and steal the treasure. Much hiking and camping follows and they eventually come across an old Spanish galleon in the desert. They find casks of wine, but no treasure. they eventually learn it was a treasure ship and are able to follow clues to a canyon, where the hidden cities reside, carved into the rock. They find much treasure, even idols cast from solid emerald. H,D & L spot a series of traps, if the idol is disturbed and warn their uncles. They move away and explore the city, where they run into Conquistadores, who turn out to be the Beagle Boys. They brick up the Ducks in a house and start hoarding the treasure. They coe across the emerald idol and fight over it, eventually tripping the boobytraps. They are chased away by a huge rolling boulder, which buries them under rubble. The Ducks escape, but can't remember why they were there, or why the Beagle boys are there. Then they recall the arrowheads and realize they are buried under the rubble. Scrooge isn't going to waste his time digging for $2 worth of arrowheads, so they head home. Sound familiar? Scrooge and his nephews range from the Klondike (where a case of amnesia sends him after old gold and lost rivals) to the South Pacific, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and even the old family castle of Clan McDuck. Through it all, they match wits with the Beagle Boys, Magica De Spell, Flintheart Glomgold, and John D Rockerduck. Often the stories would reveal much of Scrooge's past, such as being part of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, his start as a shoeshine boy (working on a miner's boots, for his first dime), coming to America, his prospecting in the Yukon, etc, etc... These tales would eventually inspire Barks super-fan and storyteller Don Rosa to create his epic, The Life and Times of Scrooge mcDuck, putting those tales in chronological order, as a biography of Scrooge. Rosa's tale weaves in things like his sister Hortense, who would go on to be Donald's mother, who is shown to have an explosive personality (passed down to her son), as well as several historical figures (always using Barks' stories for guidance). In the 1950s, the Disney Duck stories were the top selling comics and are beloved by the Boomer children who devoured them. Carl Barks became an unknown superstar, as kids learned to spot the "Good Duck Artist." Barks eventually left the series, when he retired in 1966 (just my luck, he retired when I was born). His tales would be reprinted, but he moved on. He did continue to write stories for Western, including the Junior Woodchuck stories (Huey, Dewey and Louie: The Junior Woodchucks) into the early 70s. He started accepting commissions for oil paintings of his ducks and was inundated by requests, far more than he could produce. He was granted a royalty-free license to produce them, by Disney and was persuaded to sell them via auctions and galleries, as well as through lithographs sold by Russ Cochran and Bruce Hamilton. Disney would soon renegue on the license, until efforts by Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz and screenwriter Edward Summer got them to give in, to create a print for a collection of Uncle Scrooge stories: Uncle Scrooge McDuck: His Life and Times, which became the template for collections of classic comic stories. Barks continued to make convention appearances and produce paintings until his death, in 2000. He lived to see his work turned into the foundation for the popular cartoon series, Disney's Duck Tales, with many of his classic tales adapted for the cartoons (with some alteration). These tales made fans of a new generation, leading to a movie and spin-off series (Darkwing Duck and Tail Spin). Barks created many of the classic Duck characters in the Western comics, including Scrooge McDuck, Gladstone Gander, the Beagle Boys, Magica de Spell, Gyro Gearloose, and the Junior Woodchucks (a parody of the Boy Scouts). He fleshed out Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie, creating the definitive versions. Though he started as an animator for Disney, contributing a couple of comic stories, he had left Disney when he was hired by Western to create stories for the Donald Duck comics. So, Barks greatest achievements were via Western, not Disney. His work is known the world over and especially in Scandinavia, where the Ducks are huge. These European adventures would provide material for Gladstone, when they acquired the Duck license, including the work of Don Rosa, who was working for the European publisher, Eggmont. Rosa has come the closest to capturing the spirit of Barks' tales and his stories are worth checking out. All of Barks' material are classics. Uncle Scrooge was one of my favorites, from early childhood, even though most of what I read wasn't Barks (apart from some of the Junior Woodchuck tales). The scenes of the money bin, the battles with the Beagle Boys and the Junior Woodchuck smarts always made an impression. These were tales where brain triumphed over brawn, which always stuck with me and I have always been drawn to heroes who exhibit that, including cartoon characters, like Bugs Bunny. I loved Gyro Gearloose's wild inventions and the havoc that often accompanied them. They ran the gamut from clever devices to Rube Goldberg contraptions. Now, Fantagraphics is reprinting the old Barks adventures, in nice hardcovers. These are well worth having, if you don't already have the Complete Carl Barks Library or the other Uncle Scrooge reprints. They are great tales at any age.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 22, 2017 22:23:04 GMT -5
Western did a ton of licensed comics, both during and after the Dell partnership. Dell continued in this route, after the split, as did Western, though Western had the better licenses. This, though, is during their partnership. Way back, in 1949, Dell published Four Color #228, which featured an adaptation of The Mark of Zorro. More Zorro comics would follow, including 3 with art by Edward Raymond Kinstler (noted pulp and paperback cover illustrator and painter of official portraits of Pres. Ford and Reagan), Bob Fujitani, Bob Correa and Alberto Giolitti. Zorro was the brainchild of writer Johnston McCulley, debuting in the story "The Curse of Capistrano (later retitled The Mark of Zorro, after the movie versions) in 1919, in All-Story Weekly (serialized in 5 parts) The story proved popular and spawned a silent film with Douglas Fairbanks, in 1920, which was followed by Don Q, Son of Zorro (also with Fairbanks). This was followed by more films, including the very popular Fox Mark of Zorro, with Tyrone Power, in 1940. The character was the subject of multiple movie serials, including Zorro's Fighting Legion, where Yakima Canutt provided the stuntwork, recreating the same stunt he did in John Ford's Stagecoach, where he passed underneath a stagecoach and team of horses, only to emerge at the end and catch on, climb over the top and stop the runaway stagecoach. The stunt was later recreated for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Western capitalized on the popularity of the character in their Four Color comics. However, it would be Disney who made Zorro a superstar and export it around the world, via the tv series, with Guy Williams and the movie, The Sign of Zorro, which edited together the first few episodes into a feature. It is this version that took over in Four Color and graduated to its own title, featuring some of the finest storytelling ever achieved in comics, by Alex Toth. Toth captured the swashbuckling action of the show, the humor, the romance, and the drama, bringing the character to life on the page. He also captured the likenesses of the actors well. Toth was a great lover of swashbuckling adventure and was a swordsman at heart and it showed through in his art. Zorro was his true masterpiece, distilling his ideas of storytelling. However, you don't need me to sell this stuff; let Toth do it for me... Toth had no wasted lines; everything was in service to the story. It is clean and powerful, bright and playful, bold and romantic; just like the hero. These comics sold very well indeed and when Western carried on the series, they mostly reprinted Toth's stories. Toth's work was reprinted by Eclipse and Image, and, later Hermes. If you call yourself a comic lover and don't own these comics, you haven't made the full leap. This is high adventure at its finest.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 23, 2017 1:58:49 GMT -5
Nice summary of the Disney Duck material done by Barks. I first read a bunch of these back in the 1970s when they were being reprinted under the Gold Key imprint. At the time I was reading a lot of funny animal comics, including other Disney characters, and some of the Looney Tunes features, but the Duck tales were my favorite as a kid, and I only realized much later that it was the stories by Barks that captivated me so much (two of my all-time favorites: the Golden Helmet, a Donald Duck story, and the Golden Fleecing, a Scrooge story, both reprinted under the Whitman imprint in the 1970s in slightly higher quality editions with nicer paper and cardstock covers). I've read a few of Rosa's Duck stories and quite liked them, although I have yet to read Life & Times (I have the tpb as well as the companion volume, which have been sitting on my shelf for several years now, like so many other books...)
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 23, 2017 21:26:17 GMT -5
Nice summary of the Disney Duck material done by Barks. I first read a bunch of these back in the 1970s when they were being reprinted under the Gold Key imprint. At the time I was reading a lot of funny animal comics, including other Disney characters, and some of the Looney Tunes features, but the Duck tales were my favorite as a kid, and I only realized much later that it was the stories by Barks that captivated me so much (two of my all-time favorites: the Golden Helmet, a Donald Duck story, and the Golden Fleecing, a Scrooge story, both reprinted under the Whitman imprint in the 1970s in slightly higher quality editions with nicer paper and cardstock covers). I've read a few of Rosa's Duck stories and quite liked them, although I have yet to read Life & Times (I have the tpb as well as the companion volume, which have been sitting on my shelf for several years now, like so many other books...) Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is an excellent piece of work. Rosa does an amazing job of pulling together the bits and pieces from Barks' stories and distilling them into a biography of the character, taking him up to "Christmas on Bear Mountain." We see everything, from Scrooge earning that first dime, to piloting a riverboat, to prospecting in the Klondike, to building the money bin. Everyone who factored into those stories is there, from family, to rivals, to historical figures. He also provided a nice timeline and Duck family tree and footnotes about where things were drawn. He only took Barks' stories as canon and is up front where he had to make an interpretation and his reasoning behind the one he chose. Rosa also did a story for Egmont, which was reprinted (in Englis) in Gladstone's Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27 and Uncle Scrooge #383, "Guardians of the Lost Library," which covers the origins of the Junior Woodchucks and their guide. CBG called it the greatest comic story ever and others call it one of the greatest. Rosa's stuff is probably the best non-Barks material. For me, the Disney comics to read were Uncle Scrooge, Junior Woodchucks (aka Huey, Dewey and Louie; Junior Woodchucks), and Super Goof. I saw more of the Barks material later, as most of the US I read tended to be Scrooge vs the Beagle Boys, trying to break into the money bin. Some of those were Barks reprints, though not all. I'm also a big fan of Bugs Bunny, though more in the Dell days, rather than the Gold Key ones. Those earlier comics felt more like the cartoons (and had people from the studio working on them). The Road Runner comics were always a bit odd, with the three nephews and the rhyming dialogue. Never quite up to the standards of the Chuck Jones cartoons.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 24, 2017 3:04:35 GMT -5
Wow, I don't think I've ever even seen the Road Runner comics, much less read them. That does indeed sound odd. Bugs Bunny was really the only Looney Tunes character whose comics I bought occasionally. And yes, I've heard of the Lost Library story, but haven't read it. It's pretty hard to find reasonably priced copies of the books in which it's reprinted - I know it took me quite a while to finally track down a pretty inexpensive copy of an album that included another favorite Rosa story, "Son of the Sun." (And I got the Life & Times tpb by pure happenstance - a few years ago some guy here in Croatia posted it on the buy/sell page of the local comics site, only asking for the equivalent of about $10 for it; I snapped it right up, as at the time the cheapest copies I could find online were going for $60-70.)
Back to Barks: yes, the stuff being reprinted in the '70s when I was reading the Disney Ducks had a bit of everything, and yes, many of the Scrooge stories tended to feature the Beagle Boys, but they did reprint quite a few of the classic Barks stories. I know that when I remembered specific stories that I liked and looked them up online, they were almost always the ones done by Barks.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2017 9:10:11 GMT -5
I love all Zorro Comics ...
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 24, 2017 9:26:24 GMT -5
Yeah, I had a couple of Road Runner comics, which came in the bagged sets, with some Bugs Bunny. I read any comic that came my way, including Richie Rich, Casper, the Christian Spire comics (talk about preachy...), even a romance comic or two (they were about dead, by that point).
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 25, 2017 15:41:10 GMT -5
Time for my "gateway drug" to comics... Our hero made his debut in The Phantom Blot #2. Basically, he is Goofy, who becomes a superhero. In this first story, it is due to one of Gyro Gearloose's inventions. In his own stories, he gains super power from Super Goobers, peanuts, which he keeps under his hat. pretty much ripped off from Popeye; but, to a kid, it sure as heck was tastier than spinach! The stories were drawn by Paul Murry, who was another Disney animator who went to work for Western, drawing Disney comics (for much better treatment, if not necessarily better money). Murry did the art into the 70s, before others took over. A few later stories were penned by Mark Evanier. Goofy is often aided by his nephew Gilly, who occasionally becomes Super Gilly, after injesting a few super goobers of his own. The main adversaries I recall were the Beagle Boys, though Black Pete and a few other Disney villains (like the Phantom Blot) also turned up. The stories were light-hearted and fun, with Goofy's powers wearing off at the worst moment. Duckberg seemed to be the locale, as Gyro Gearloose and the Junior Woodchucks occasionally showed up and even Mickey, in the early days. The Beagle Boys proved popular enough to have their own series... The stories were of a similar vein to their appearances in Uncle Scrooge and Super Goof, with various schemes to steal the load in the money bin, or some other criminal adventure, with things never quite going their way. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories was the bread and butter of the Disney comics. They were dominated by the Ducks, especially once Carl Barks started working on them; but, you could read stories of other Disney characters, including some from the features. You could find reprints of the Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse comic strips or new Mickey comics, the 7 Dwarves, or even the Big Bad Wolf and his son, Li'l Bad Wolf. Li'l Wolf had his own regular feature in WDCS, starting with #52, which proved quite popular in Europe (as were many of the Disney characters). The other big Disney comic hit, apart from spin-offs, like Gyro Gearloose (in his own book was the Junior Woodchucks. Although he didn't draw them, Carl barks wrote many of their adventures, well into the early 70s. The situated around Huey, Dewey and Louie, sometimes with and sometimes without Unca Donald, and their various scouting adventures or attempts to earn merit badges. It is here that we develop much of the Junior Woodchuck Guide lore, though the Uncle Scrooge tales provided the foundation. Anyone who was ever even briefly involved in scouting can relate to many of the stories (I tapped out of Cub SCouts pretty early; way too serious and not enough fun). The trio and other members of their troop, including Field Marshal Fox and Trooper Hogg tramp through woods, canoe down rivers, help little old ladies across streets, and even run afowl of the Little Chickadees, their version of the Girl Scouts (Yuck!) Through it all, The Junior Woodchuck Guide tells them everything they need to know about anything. Gyro Gearloose got a few issues of Four Color, but spent most of his time inventing in back-up stories in the Duck books. The rest of the Western Disney output was relegated to adaptations and spin-offs from the films and cartoons. Just about all of the live-action films got an adaptation, right up through The Black Hole. Quality varied greatly, depending on who was the artist. The best were done by people like Alex Toth and Dan Spiegle. Spiegle drew a lot of the live action adaptations, especially anything western-themed, and did the adaptations of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow, in the feature version) and The Black Hole. Some of these adaptations were reprinted when the films would go back into theaters, appearing both under the Dell logo and the Gold Key/Whitman logo. Western also specialized in licensed tv and movie adaptations beyond just Disney. They had license with MGM and Warner Bros and brought much of their wares to comics, as well as other films. There were also tv comics... After the split, and after the failure of their other material, Dell mostly stuck with the tv and movie comics. Western, with Gold Key and Whitman, also continued, but with better access to more high profile material. TV was dell's bread and butter until the end, while Gold Key had tv, tv cartoons, and movies. Again, quality depended on who was the artist, with Dan Spiegle doing some fantastic work on Maverick (after sketching him on set, which he also did for Welcome Back Kotter, at DC). Others ended up a bit bland. Mark Evanier was involved in some of these, though more of the cartoon material. In the 60s and 70s, if there was a Saturday morning cartoon with a comic, it was either published at Western or Charlton (or both, in the case of the Hanna-barbera properties). Scooby Doo featured Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle on many of the comics, which were sold around the world. The main audience for this stuff were fans of the shows, with fewer casual readers. Most had short, infrequent runs, as some of them were part of the Four Color series, under the Dell name (which would rotate features, with an issue or two devoted to a property, but numbered in the Four Color series, even though they might appear simultaneously with other properties). The cartoon material sold better, as it better fit the medium and the audiences were a bit less demanding. it was also easier to write for the cartoon characters, as you could do almost anything, vs trying to do a decent Nanny and the Professor comic (even the tv series wasn't on THAT long). There are treasures out there, like the Toth Zorros and Spiegle Mavericks and some decent comics based on the series, like the Man From UNcle comics. A lot depended on the writer and the series premise. Happy Days would be one of the last tv comics, from Gold Key, while the Black Hole and Condorman were some of the last movie adaptations. Times were hard in the 70s and selling comics was even harder. Splitting profit, hat there was, didn't help. Next, a look at a few of Western's comic strip-based comics, including a jungle hero and a space adventurer or two.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2017 18:00:13 GMT -5
Starting with Dell's Four Color, in the Golden Age, Western had a long history of publishing comic strip characters in comic books. Like other publishers, they reprinted actual strips, but they also produced new stories. Just about every major strip came their way, at one time or another. Western, though became synonymous for a couple of adventure comics, with some interruption. One was Flash Gordon. Flash appeared in several issues of Four Color, before moving to Harvey, in the 50s. King Features tried their own comics in the 60s, with little success. They then gave a license to Charlton, then Western, who produced new Flash Gordon stories under the Gold Key/Whitman banner. These harkened back to the classic Alex Raymond stories, with art by Carlos Garzon and scripts by John Warner. Garzon worked very much in the Raymond/Al Williamson style (he had inked much of Williamson's post-EC work, especially things like Star Wars). Garzon delighted in capturing that classic look and the stories present a return to the old days. Ming is back in power on Mongo, though Arboria is still free of his rule. He kidnaps his own grandson, heating up a cold war. One of my favorite issues was #24 Flash infiltrates Ming's coronation, in disguise. He meets up with old friends, such as Ronal and Queen Fria, rulers of frigia. Flash is caught by Ming and must escape, in an excellent tale of swashbuckling, which borrowed liberally from Alex Raymond strips, both in scenery and plot. Unfortunately, the market was shaky in this period and Western published things less frequently. They followed with an adaptation of the 1980 movie, with Al Williamson, himself (with Garzon) on art. A few more issues followed, but without those great painted covers that the Gold Key issues had (the later issues were done under the Whitman banner, sold in bagged sets, mostly). Flash soon gave up the ghost, until he returned at DC, in a revamp of the story, then a couple of issues by Williamson and Garzon, at Marvel. Flash was still big overseas, but not here. Alex Ross would help turn things around with Zeitgeist, at Dynamite, which drew its influence form the Filmation cartoons of the 80s, especially the original tv movie version (not shown until after the Saturday morning cartoon was launched), which set thing in 939 and threw in the Nazis and the bombing of Warsaw. Another space hero made it to Western: Buck Rogers. Buck Rogers was published in comics by Famous Funnies, back in the 40s. In 1964, Western put out a one-shot, under the Gold Key name. These were reprints of material from the period. In 1978, they put out an adaptation of the movie, which was a slightly retooled version of the pilot for the Gil Gerard tv series. It was released theatrically first, then broadcast on tv, with some different scenes, which then led into the series. The Gold Key adaptation technically started with Buck Rogers #2, which made you wonder if you had missed an issue (you had, 16 years before). The adaptation was typical of Western, with rather stiff art and so-so likenesses. They also toned down elements like Princess Ardala, who oozed sex on the movie screen. The worst part was the spaceships. It appears that the artist only had shots of the Earth Star Fighters. The Draconian ships look like old designs from the 50s, from Werner Von Braun. I bought this as a three comic Whitman bagged set and was massively disappointed. On top of it, they made the story boring. The comic lasted for a little while, while the tv show was in its heyday. However, Western's sales were not great and they were really concentrating on selling Whitman sets of DC and Marvel. A favorite of Western was The Phantom. Gold Key published 17 issues of The Phantom, before it was yanked (along with other King Features strips). It later turned up at Charlton. Quite frankly, the main selling point for the Phantom, at Western, was the painted covers by George Wilson. These are exciting pieces of pulp art, which far outshone the more staid artwork of Bill Lignante, inside. These don't hold a candle to Jim Aparo or Don newton's work (especially Newton) artistically; but, they drew story inspiration from the strips. Wilson also did the covers for the Avon paperback series, which attributed the stories to Lee Falk (since most were adapted from the strips); but, which featured ghost writers, including Ron Goulart. These are finally being reprinted by Hermes. One area where Western did do justice to the material was with Tarzan. They had a long association with the character, before Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc took the strip to DC and Joe Kubert. The real workhorse of these stories was Gaylord Dubois, who wrote the comics well into the Gold Key issues. Jesse Marsh was the resident artist through the Dell years and into the Gold Key iteration. Marsh worked in a classic, illustrative style. The comics lacked a bit of the vibrancy of the Hal Foster and Burne Hogarth strips; but, Dubois helped with excellent plots and scripts. They adapted most of the Burroughs novels and some of the movie plots. They did a ton of original stories. Starting with issue #154, Russ Manning took over the comic, really bringing it to life. His work there would lead to getting hired to do the newspaper strip, which he did until 1979 (on the Sunday strips). Manning also got to illustrate many of the original Burroughs story and DC reprinted several of these when they took over the series. Mannings Tarzan adventure "The Land That Time Forgot" is one of my favorites (first seen in the DC 100-PG issue of Tarzan), with a hidden civilization, with triceratops dinosaurs. That started a fascination with that species of dinosaur. Manning brought life back to Tarzan. Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey also worked on the Western version. Western also published Korak, Son of Tarzan. The team of Dubois and Manning also produced several issues of these comics. Tarzan was taken away from Western when they refused to expand the series and publish other Burroughs comics. Burroughs Inc were motivated by foreign reprint sales money; but, Western gave up too much profit to make this viable. DC tried it for several years, though only the Tarzan books themselves sold well. DC largely used the other characters in back-up stories, until putting out Weird Worlds. John Carter had been tried in the 50s, under the Dell name, but it wasn't a big hit. Without the movies and comic strips driving the comic book sales, as with Tarzan, it struggled to find an audience. Visually, it lacked the punch of the Tarzan material. Tarzan pointed Western in the right direction and they used that to produce original comics, which captured the same sens of adventure. We will explore those next, as we look at things like Brothers of the Spear, Dagar the Invincible, Mighty Samson, as Tragg and the Sky Gods. We'll also look at a pair of Native Americans, as they explore a lost valley.
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