Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Jun 24, 2020 15:06:48 GMT -5
Does anyone have any info about Virginia "Ginny" Hubbell? She apparently ghost-wrote a lot of stuff for Charles Biro, including a lot of my favorite Boy Comics series, but since she was uncredited I haven't been able to find out which issues or stories she wrote for Lev Gleason. I'd dearly like to find out! I have Ten Cent Plague, where it's suggested she wrote most of the series, but I'd love to know when she started, which strips she worked on, etc.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 25, 2020 20:11:02 GMT -5
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Jun 26, 2020 12:41:45 GMT -5
Good idea, thanks! It's interesting, I speculated that the earliest break point in terms of writing style on the Crimebuster strip that I could see was Boy Comics #30, and here that's the first issue they have her credited with, though it's for the backup strip Swoop Storm. I also see that she seemed to be the main writer on the Sniffer strip over on Daredevil, and it's speculated here that he was writing the Sniffer and Iron Jaw strip in Boy Comics at the end (#110-119). Sniffer moved over from Daredevil around Boy Comics #80, though, which makes me wonder if she was writing the series the whole time. If so, it's another possible jumping on point, as when he moved over it started with a three issue appearance in the Crimebuster strip. It might make sense if she were writing both. I'm not convinced she wrote the Crimebuster strip thugh, only because Biro was notoriously proprietary about the character, to the point where he insisted drawing Crimebuster's head for every cover - other artists would draw the cover, and then Biro would paste on a head for CB that he had drawn, much like the corrections to Kirby's Superman. I think it's possible that Biro continued to write the Crimebuster strip throughout and just farmed out the backups. But I'm not sure. If Hubbell had taken over the book around #80 on the strength of her Sniffer series, it might also explain why Crimebuster lost the lead and cover spot for 15 issues or so during this time, replaced by Sniffer and Iron Jaw. Hmm...
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Post by MDG on Jun 26, 2020 13:29:16 GMT -5
..... I'm not convinced she wrote the Crimebuster strip thugh, only because Biro was notoriously proprietary about the character, to the point where he insisted drawing Crimebuster's head for every cover - other artists would draw the cover, and then Biro would paste on a head for CB that he had drawn, much like the corrections to Kirby's Superman. I think it's possible that Biro continued to write the Crimebuster strip throughout and just farmed out the backups. But I'm not sure. If Hubbell had taken over the book around #80 on the strength of her Sniffer series, it might also explain why Crimebuster lost the lead and cover spot for 15 issues or so during this time, replaced by Sniffer and Iron Jaw..... Depends what "writing"--or "script" as listed in GCD--means. Not sure how Biro's studio worked, but writing a comic story includes plotting, breaking it down into panels, and final captions and dialogue. Those can all be done by different people.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Jun 26, 2020 14:00:57 GMT -5
I'm not quite sure either, but I do know that Stan Lee held Biro in high regard and in some ways patterned himself after Biro. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some form of the Marvel method being used during the 50's when Biro's plate was much fuller, with him maybe just giving basic ideas to his writers - or possibly, as you say, scripting over his plots.
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Post by MDG on Jun 26, 2020 15:53:51 GMT -5
I'm not quite sure either, but I do know that Stan Lee held Biro in high regard and in some ways patterned himself after Biro. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some form of the Marvel method being used during the 50's when Biro's plate was much fuller, with him maybe just giving basic ideas to his writers - or possibly, as you say, scripting over his plots. From my very limited experience, the toughest part --for me anyway--is going from the "plot" to a usable page-by-page and then panel-by-panel breakdown. Once tht's done, the "words" are usually pretty easy.
Do you have this fanzine? It has a pretty extensive article on Biro and reprints (reduced) a whole story from TOPS.
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Crimebuster
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Making comics!
Posts: 3,959
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Post by Crimebuster on Jun 26, 2020 16:18:45 GMT -5
I'm not quite sure either, but I do know that Stan Lee held Biro in high regard and in some ways patterned himself after Biro. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some form of the Marvel method being used during the 50's when Biro's plate was much fuller, with him maybe just giving basic ideas to his writers - or possibly, as you say, scripting over his plots. From my very limited experience, the toughest part --for me anyway--is going from the "plot" to a usable page-by-page and then panel-by-panel breakdown. Once tht's done, the "words" are usually pretty easy.
Do you have this fanzine? It has a pretty extensive article on Biro and reprints (reduced) a whole story from TOPS.
No, I don't have this one yet! I'll have to make sure I pick it up next time I put an order in with mycomicsshop, as they seem to have the most affordable copies. Thanks!
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