Number 69


COVERING UP: Great Covers Of Golden Age Comics: Santa Covers

One week until Christmas, gang! This is your reminder from Pappy that if you don't have that Christmas shopping done by now you'd better watch out, you'd better not pout, you'd better just get out! Spend the mon' and get it done, son.

That said, get back to the reason we're here. We want to show some of my favorite covers featuring Santa Claus. Since these comics were produced exclusively for younger children it's difficult to find any of them in really great shape, but all of these covers seem to have survived (mostly) the ravages of little fingers.

Walt Kelly was not only one of the greatest cartoonists of the Golden Age--or any age--he did some of the best covers. This is a cover that is somewhat atypical because Santa is drawn in a more realistic manner. It evokes Thomas Nast to me. But the rest of the cover, the toys and such, are purely Kelly. A really great cover from 1946.

In a similar vein is 1947's cover of Tiny Tot Comics by an artist named Burton Geller. I'm not familiar with this artist at all, and despite the subject similarities, compared to Kelly his art is crude. As all true EC Comics fans know, Tiny Tot Comics was produced by legendary comics publisher M. C. Gaines, who died and passed the company on to his son, Bill. He turned it into one of the best remembered and most loved comic book companies of all time. Also most notorious. Just a few years later, any pictures of Santa Claus produced by EC Comics would be of jolly ol' St. Nick carrying an axe.

Everybody knows the song, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," which is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Lots of merchandising was done, including his own comic book series from DC Comics. It ran for 13 annual issues from 1950 to 1962. The series was revived for a time in the 1970s using some reprints and new stories. I loved this comic book when I was a kid and it was because of the great artwork by a very underrated artist, Rube Grossman. This is Rudolph #1, from 1950, which features a book-length story of 48 pages.

L. B. Cole was a great, and very collectable, cover artist of the 1940s and '50s, but his funny animal stuff is lacking something. Cole was much better at his more dramatic artwork, but he could really produce covers that sold comic books. I like this particular 1952 cover of Holiday Comics, not so much for his Santa Claus, but for its poster-like qualities, including the snow. It gives it, as my old college art teacher would've said, "thump."

By the late 1950s the Santa Claus we know best today was done by Haddon Sundblom, an illustrator who did yearly paintings of Santa holding Coca-Cola bottles. Those ads were so influential that they defined the costume and vision of Santa Claus. This cover from 1960, Dell's Four-Color #1154, is by Mel Crawford, who captured the Sundblom look. It's a great whimsical cover and I probably bought it off the stands because of the cover. When I look at the interior art I know I didn't buy it for that.

Next week, break out the Kleenex for a sentimental Walt Kelly Christmas tale.

Number 68


Frankenstein Friday: Pins and Needles

Frankenstein wins election to president of the magician's society. The jealous losing candidate puts some voodoo vengeance on Frankenstein, who won't be "pinned down" by his rival's magic.

This is the fifth and final story from Frankenstein Comics #7, May-June 1947, written and drawn by Dick Briefer.

Next Friday: More covers!

Number 67


The Last Look


According to the Internet site, Lambiek.net, Bob Q. Sale was born in 1924 and died in 1962, which made him about 38 when he died. That's too young, and you have to wonder how he would have developed had his career been allowed to continue. He had a decent drawing style, although it's apparent in this story one of his panels had a partial swipe. Check out the panel on page 4 that looks a lot like the panel from Mad #7, "Smilin' Melvin" by Wally Wood.

This story, The Last Look, from Atlas Comics' Mystic #31, June 1954, has one of my favorite types of scenes from horror comics: dead guys hauling live guys into the ground! The dead guys even have mold on them. That's a good reason right there to read it.

Number 66


Walt Kelly's Search For Santa


This is the third of five Sunday Pappy's leading up to Christmas Eve.

Even before the fantastic success of his comic strip, Pogo, Walt Kelly was a celebrated cartoonist. At least he was celebrated amongst those who paid attention to such things as funny animal and children's comic books, that is. There are a lot of adults who were buying comics like Dell's Four Color #90, Christmas With Mother Goose, in 1945, not just for their kids, but for themselves.

The story, "Search For Santa," is a 5-page Christmas story using the Mother Goose characters, Little Miss Muffet and Peter Pumpkineater on a quest to find Santa. They encounter other Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme characters along the way, but also some fairy tale characters in The Three Bears. Throw in Santa Claus and some of Kelly's whimsy and even though the story is quite slight, it is all Kelly and well worth reading.

Number 65


Frankenstein Friday: The Lorelei


After last story's meeting with the legendary Flying Dutchman, Frankenstein meets up with the equally legendary siren, the Lorelei.

It's a short five-page story, which features the Lorelei as a blonde babe. There's even a panel of Frankenstein without a shirt; maybe the only beefcake shot of Frankenstein in the whole series.

This story is the fourth story from Frankenstein #7, May-June, 1947, written and drawn by Dick Briefer.

Number 64


COVERING UP: Classic covers of Golden Age Comics: Remember Pearl Harbor


Today is the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the event which propelled Americans into WWII. The nature of the attack was such that it caused an instant reaction in the public. Outrage.

All media, and all popular media, immediately responded. Comic books were no exception.

Here are some examples of comics published right on the heels of Pearl Harbor. The first, Remember Pearl Harbor, drawn by Jack Binder for Street and Smith Publications, is a patriotic cover: Uncle Sam rolls up his shirt sleeves and strides across the Pacific to kick some butt!

Comics, by virtue of their cartoony origins, used their ability to caricature to present the enemy as inhuman, vampire-toothed, claw-fingered. It wasn't enough to just use the common stereotype of the day, buck teeth and thick glasses, to represent the Japanese. To reflect American anger, they had to be demonized. Young Allies#3, Spring 1942, drawn by Al Gabrielle, fall into the demon enemy category. On the Young Allies cover Gabrielle draws both types of caricatures: the demon, drooling and sharp-toothed, and the buck-toothed, thick glasses stereotype. Timely Comics used this sort of cover with great success and other publishers soon followed suit.




As a bonus, here's the original art to a cover by Alex Schomburg. Of all of the artists who did comic book covers during the war years, Schomburg really stands out for his excellent drawing ability and his ability to draw fantastic scenarios, with American heroes beating up on Axis gangsters in fantasy settings. This particular cover shows Schomburg's signature type of situation.

Number 63


The Face


We'll soon be observing the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that drew America into World War II. While mobilization was taking effect, the comics jumped right in, sending their characters into the fray, usually whipping on the enemy with savage ferocity, and of course, coming out the winners.

In real life it wasn't so easy, but the job was eventually done.

The Face was one of those characters. Tony Trent, war correspondent, put on a Halloween mask, his entire costume. Later on in The Face's run in Big Shot Comics, as the strip was re-titled simply "Tony Trent."

The art was by Mart Bailey, who had a good illustrative style with solid and clean inking. His art style wasn't spectacular, but Bailey was a pro who started his career at DC Comics for Big Shot Comics editor, Vin Sullivan. In a lot of ways Bailey's style reminds me of fellow Big Shot artist, Ogden Whitney, who drew Skyman.

This story, from Big Shot Comics #37, August 1943, shows The Face participating in a Marine invasion of an island, which is in fact what was happening in real life at the same time. The story takes off into a flight of fancy. In real life islands like Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal were taken only after fierce fighting and great loss of lives. The Face and his friends, the bearded "Mattress" McCarthy, spouting his annoying rhymes, and "Babbling" Brooks, showing timidity in the face of the enemy (something you didn't usually see in comics), took care of the situation in short order and the island was taken. Hooray for our side. To his credit, Bailey didn't draw the Japanese as ugly caricatures, which was common in those days. It wouldn't have fit into his style of art at all.

Number 61
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Frankenstein Friday: The Curse Of The Flying Dutchman

Frankenstein continues his lonely hearts business and matches up the legendary Flying Dutchman with a woman who is less than a perfect match.

I was disappointed by the rushed art in this story; in the panel I've reproduced above you can see that Frankenstein's eyes aren't even drawn close to the same size. It shows some lack of care on the part of the artist, Dick Briefer, who drew it for Frankenstein #7, May-June, 1947, but it also shows there may have been very little editorial supervision of Briefer. Maybe this comic sold really well, no matter how fast Briefer drew it.

What shows through is Dick Briefer's sense of humor, and while the artwork is speedily done, the panels are well composed. Being the Dick Briefer fan that I am, when that's all I can say about a story then it's gotta be lacking, but for all that I think this little five-pager has some charm. This story is one of two five-pagers from the issue. The second you'll see next Friday.