Hiyo, Quaker

Wednesday Ad Strip Day.

I love the way some movie companies used newspaper comic strip advertising as a way to lure the audience into the theatre with straight comic style adverts. Here is another way they did it, having the star of a movie endorse another product, while mentioning the movie. I guess it was cheaper than getting a picture. Or maybe they thought that kids would be more attracted to these ads for their choice of westerns.

Aug 22 1948:


Jan 16 1949:


April 24 1949:


June 19 1949:


March 12 1950:


May 28 1950:

Only Ribbing

Tuesday Comc Strip Day

The fifties and sixties are full of shortlived comic strips no one remembers. Some of them are flops, that fizzled out after a year or so. Some ran for decades and still have left no footprint on the landscape of memory. One of those is Dave Gerard's Will-Yum, which I have shown here some time ago, which seems to have been overtaken by Dennis the Menace in the national consciousnous. Others were maiden efforts by cartoonists who found fame later on, like the eleven year daily cartoon series by Bud Blake (before he developed Tiger) or Mel Lazerus' daily panel Li'l Ones. Some strips have been hindered by the blandness of their later years. Frank O'Neill's Short Ribs seems to have suffered from having been just not good enough. Interesting enough to have run for over twenty years, this daily strip with gags set in different ages centered not around a recognizable set of characters, but around the jokes. Every gag seems to have consisted of two characters walking around in the Wild West, the Middle Ages, on the Moon, In Russia and other set pieces, exchanging jokes. Although most of the settings returned with alarming frequency, no characters ever emerged. No characters means no licnecing and that means there are no other ways for the strip to have gotten famous. Some creators say the development of durable characters is what seperates the good strips from the bad, but I am sure the licensing factor is just as important. After all, it's Snoopy most people know from Peanuts, not the mellow life view of it's creator as shown in his daily jokes. This has lead to the fallacy that all a good strip needs is characters and I disagree. Characters is what brings the audience to the strips. But good jokes, well drawn slapstick and a noticable point, is what makes the strip last. Then again, there is no joke like a good character joke...

So Short Ribs is not the best strip I have ever shown here. But it is deserving of more attention than it has been geting over the last decades. It started in November 1958 and ran at least until well nto the seventies. I lost track after that. I am starting with the first week and ending with some much later Sundays.

Getting A Head

Monday Cartoon Day

Here's a nice overview of cartoonists from an issue of the Sunday supplement magazine This Week in 1950.

House of Mysery

Sunday Meskin Measures.

Yesterday's post got a couple of interesting reactions from Steve Brower, writer of the upcoming Mort Meskin biography. He told me that at least one of the stories I showed yesterday was probably inked ny George Roussos rather than Mort Meskin, although it is just as weird to me that he should or that either Kubert or Infantino would 'moonlight' from their usual gigs. This prompted me to go back to the GCD. From there I got this list of Meskin's work and collaborations at DC at that time. I am not sure how reliable these entries are and if the come from some sort of official DC records or are just educated guesses. But they show that in january 1960 Meskin did one story with Joe Kubert for My Greatest Adventure. That's the one I showed earlier and I have to say it has very little Meskin in it, if any. This could be inked by Roussos as well, although the GCD doesn't say so. Unfortunately the GCD was down for maintanance before I could have a look for more Kubert/Roussos collaborations.

A year later there is one Kubert/Meskin collaboration in House of Mystery #105. I have found it and am showing it here. One page four it seems to me George Roussos may have been involved. Steven has remarked that the inking in these stories reminds him more of Kubert than anything else, but you have to remember that Kuberts own inking style was a lot heavier than the much more similar thin lines he has been using since the seventies. Than, a couple of months later there is one more collaboration with Kubert and two with Infantino. I don't have the Kubert one, but the Infantino ones, look as if they support the story Infantino was 'helping out'. The first one is the one I showed yesterday, which has a pure Infantino lay-out and according to the GCD George Roussos inks. So this could be a story Infantino layed-out for Meskin, for what ever reason. The second one, which I am showing below, has less of the typical Infantino touched. More so on the first few pages than later. Could Meskin have indeed been suffering from a psychological set-back and have recovered from it pretty soon? Since the GCD is down, I can't check the inker, but it wouldn't surprise if if that was Roussos as well.

To complicate matters, Meskin kept on doing his Mark Merlin stories in House of Secrets, though he skipped one in December 1960 (the month of his House of Mystery collaboration with Kubert) and one in April (the month with his other Kubert collaboration), though he did provide one in May, the month of his first collaboration with Infantino and probably (GCD is down, remember) June (the month of his second collaboration with Infantino).

To all that I have added a 'pure'Roussos story from House of Mystery #112, just so you can compare the styles. The two stories inbetween seem to be pure Meskin and there is no sign of a coming breakdown. I don't think he had help from George Roussos here, but if he had, it would have been at the pencilling stage and pretty hard to see.Havind said that, to me pure Mort Meskin story always stands out from a Roussos pencilled one, because of Meskin's great sense of design.

Pencils:
Joe Kubert; Mort Meskin

We Were Trapped in the Valley of No Return
story / 8 pages My Greatest Adventure (1955 series) #39
January 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

Prisonnier du pays dŽsertŽ
story / 5.66 pages Big Boy (1956 series) #41
February 1960 Artima

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Hybrid Monster
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #31
April 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

Ouragan humain
story / 7.66 pages Big Boy (1956 series) #43
April 1960 Artima

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

L'Or maudit
story / 7.66 pages Big Boy (1956 series) #43
April 1960 Artima

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Test Tube World
Mark Merlin / story / 9 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #32
May 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Secret of the Leopard God
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #99
June 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Monster of the Mountain
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #33
June 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Puzzle of the Plundering Creatures
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #34
July 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

We Battled the Black Narwhal
story / 7.67 pages My Greatest Adventure (1955 series) #45
July 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The City of Golden Men
story / 9 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #101
August 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Interplanetary Target
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #35
August 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Creature Costumes
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #36
September 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Secret of the Captive Creature!
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #37
October 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Fantastic Flower Creatures
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #38
November 1960 DC

Pencils:
Kubert and Meskin

The Creature of X-14
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #105
December 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Aliens Who Framed Me
story / 8 pages My Greatest Adventure (1955 series) #50
December 1960 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

Invaders From the Doomed Dimension
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #106
January 1961 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

Master of the Space Beasts
Mark Merlin / story / 9 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #40
January 1961 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

Captive of the Alien Fishermen
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #107
February 1961 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Dinosaur in Times Square
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #41
February 1961 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Weird Weapons of Zabadu
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #108
March 1961 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Man with the Alien Identity
Mark Merlin / story / 9 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #42
March 1961 DC

Pencils:
Kubert and Meskin

The Mystery of the Space Swaps
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #109
April 1961 DC

Pencils:
Carmine Infantino; Mort Meskin

The Duel of Dooms
story / 8 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #110
May 1961 DC

Pencils:
Mort Meskin

The Valley of Doomed Creatures!
Mark Merlin / story / 8.67 pages House of Secrets (1956 series) #44
May 1961 DC

Pencils:
Carmine Infantino; Mort Meskin

The Return of the Sorcerer's Satellite!
story / 7.67 pages House of Mystery (1951 series) #111
June 1961 DC


House of Mystery #105 (Dec 1960):









My Greatest Adventure #59 (Dec 1961):









House of Mystery #107 (Feb 1961):









House of Mystery #108 (March 1961):








House of Mystery #111 (June 1961):









House of Mystery #112 (July 1961):