Number 200


Jack Davis' Yak Yak #1


Yak Yak, published by Western Publishing under the Dell imprint in 1961, is one of those neither- fish-nor-fowl comic books/magazines. Is it a comic book? It's the same size, has a 15¢ price tag, and is part of the Dell Four Color series. It has unusual but attractive pastel coloring instead of the usual four color job. It's also typeset, not hand-lettered. In form it looks more like Humbug, which Davis worked on as part of a cooperative of artist-publishers.


Before his greatest success of the 1960s, and after Humbug folded in 1958, Davis did a lot of free-lancing for various publishers. I remember seeing his work all over the place, record album jackets, even on the cover of a horror digest called Shock! I picked up the first Yak Yak in 1961, and there was another issue later, #2, which I no longer own.

According to the Comic Book Price Guide, my version of Yak Yak #1 is missing three pages, taken up by ads in this variant edition. I haven't seen that other edition of Yak Yak. The artwork Davis did for Yak Yak is very good, just not his best. He reserved the best for Mad, Humbug and Trump. Yak Yak may be rushed in the art department, but that doesn't mean it's not a really fine job, because even lesser Davis is better than major most-other cartoonists.

There isn't any credit for writing.

In some ways Yak Yak anticipates the stylistic changes made to the Western Publishing comic books when they cut their ties with Dell and formed their own imprint, Gold Key. I read once that Western left Dell because Dell wouldn't let them make such major changes. Yak Yak could have been some sort of precursor to see how well the changes would be received. That's a guess, so take it for what it's worth.

My good friend David Miller provided Photoshop help with the centerfold for this issue. Thanks, Dave!

Number 199

Whither 'Golden Age'?

Three subjects in the posting today.

An e-mailer has written to ask, "What is your definition of 'golden age', anyhow? According to most authorities the golden age was from 1938 to 1955 when the comics code came in. Your blog has comic books from the 40s, 50s, 60s, even 70s. You must have a liberal interpretation of golden age."

I do. I believe the wise man who when asked, "When was the golden age?" answered, "Age 12." That's about the time I took what was an interest in reading comics, and turned it into a lifelong love. I call this blog Pappy's Golden Age Blogzine for a reason. It's about my highly personal affection for a collection of different styles and eras. I don't dispute the general consensus that the Golden Age of comic books was from 1938-1955, and it makes sense to identify it as an era, a set of dates created for the purposes of dealers and The Comic Book Price Guide. But it's not carved into granite anywhere. If it inspired me, no matter when it was published, to me it's part of my personal golden age.

However, the writer continues: "You also run stories you don't seem to like, slamming them with criticism. Why put stories on your blog you don't like?" Ah, but I do like those stories. Just because I like them doesn't mean I can't see what's wrong with them. I am a critic in everyday life, looking past the obvious and the apparent. That has seeped into my blog. Even a poorly written or illogical story can be fun to read. But I still retain my critical faculties. My 'gosh-wow' sense up and left me years ago.

For reasons peculiar to me, I consider these representative titles and covers to all be within my personal definition of "Golden Age":
The death of Lord Greystoke

It's interesting to see how cartoonists handle similar subject matter. Well, it's interesting to me, anyway. The posting in Pappy's #198 on early Joe Kubert led me to what I consider a masterpiece of Kubert's, the issues of Tarzan he did for DC in the early '70s. That in turn led me to Russ Manning's Gold Key Tarzan of the Apes adaptation from 1965, and then to the graphic novel version of Tarzan Of The Apes by Burne Hogarth, published in 1972. How each of them handled the sequence with the death of Tarzan's father, Lord Greystoke, is shown here.

Kubert chose to show the action from a medium long shot, putting Kala, the female ape who raised Tarzan, in the forefront of the panel where Greystoke is being besieged by apes.
Manning didn't show the action at all, except for the ape bursting into the cabin. The next page shows Kala taking the infant, so Lord Greystoke's death is "off-camera."
On the other hand, Hogarth drew the actual killing of Tarzan's dad. Click on the pictures for full-size images.All of these artists were--and are--heavy hitters in the comic art department, each with a distinctly individual style, each with their own way of staging and drawing a sequence. I wouldn't pick one over the other because they are all great.

Hogarth's young Tarzan

I hadn't looked at Burne Hogarth's Tarzan Of The Apes for many years. This is a first edition printing my wife gave to me for Christmas in '72. I was going to hold it up to Pappy's readers as an example of an early--and popular--graphic novel. I was going to point out that Hogarth had drawn the Sunday Tarzan for newspaper syndication for many years. Then I looked at it the other day and was surprised to see that the book could be considered gay erotica. There's been a change in perceptions over the years, mine included. When I first read this book none of this was apparent to me, but I'll bet it was very apparent to gay readers.
None of that takes anything away from Hogarth's beautiful, action-filled artwork. He's considered one of the premiere artists of the figure in motion. What it does is give me a new insight into the artist.

Number 198

Joe Kubert's Witches Kill At Daylight

Joe Kubert is such an icon in the comics industry not much more need be said of him than has been written in dozens of other articles. I'll just remind everyone that Joe was a prodigy, beginning his comic book career at age 11 (!!) and by his mid-to-late teens was already an established comic book artist.

This story, "Witches Kill At Daylight," from Harvey Comics' All-New Comics #10, September 1944, was done by Kubert, born September 18, 1926, before his 18th birthday. It's one of two stories Kubert had in this issue of All-New.

The art is good, but unpolished, and understandably so due to Kubert's youth. But lots of much older cartoonists weren't drawing as well as Joe at the time. The script doesn't deserve much study; the "witches" of the title are apparently a group of criminals called The Phantom Gang. The hero is a New York detective named Terry Carr.

I looked up All-New Comics #10 in the Grand Comics Database, and data compiler Lou Mougin lists this story as having an unknown penciller and inker. I guess Lou must've missed Joe's signature in the lower left of the splash panel.

Number 197


The Face gets in their faces!


I've always thought that superheroes looked sort of dorky in their costumes. I'm the one comic book fan who thinks that, though, because to superhero fans often it's the costume that makes the hero, not the other way around. The Face had just a Halloween mask to slap on when he was daring to do that derring-do he done. Apparently he had Batman's logic: "Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot, and I'll frighten them by becoming a bat…or better yet, a silly green face!"

But, in these comics, at that time, with Mart Bailey's artwork, it all seemed to fit. This is the first story from The Face #2. The Face was a two-fisted war correspondent who fought America's enemies with his typewriter as Tony Trent, and with his fists as The Face. Besides appearing in Big Shot Comics, The Face also appeared in his own book for two issues during the war years, 1942 and 1943. He reappeared in 1948 and 1949 for issues #3 and #4 under his civilian name, Tony Trent, The Face.

I'm prone to think of stuff like this: how much did artist Mart Bailey influence artist Ogden Whitney, or was it the other way around? Mart Bailey did the feature, "The Face," for Big Shot Comics, and Whitney* did "Skyman." Their artwork and their approach to illustration seem to come out of the same school. They are both solid artists without a lot of flair. Their pictures tell the story without using a lot of flashy technique to distract from the narrative.

In the latter years of Big Shot Comics, Bailey was listed as art editor. I have seen his work in early 1950s issues of Treasure Chest, the comic book sold to Catholic school children. According to the biographies I've read, he had a career until he was mugged in the 1960s. The crime apparently ended his career, but I have no other details.

*Click on the link for Ogden Whitney at the bottom of this page for more Whitney-work.