Highlights of History

Highlights of History by J. Carroll Mansfield began November 17 1924 and ran until at least November 22, 1941. In the early days it was a caption strip heavy on the history. Eventually word balloons were added and soon even the stories became more like a Revolutionary War era adventure strip although real-life characters continued their appearances. The heroes were forest rangers Jack Blount and the lad Kip Kirby along with their sidekicks White Buffalo and Pineknot. The strip was very close to the later DC comic book storyline on Tomahawk and his rip-roaring rangers. By the forties Highlights of History had returned to its original form, telling the story of Jenghis Khan in the old caption strip format.

George Woodbridge (1930-2004)

Regular readers of YP will have noticed that I have a fondness for old western comic books. This one, Masked Ranger, Volume 1, No. 8, is a humdinger from June 1955, published by Premier Magazines Inc. of New York. The cover artist is George Woodbridge, MAD artist and one of the original Fleagle Gang. Among the members of the Fleagles were Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Wally Wood, Roy Krenkel, George Evans, Nick Meglin and Angelo Torres. Below is the complete first story, The Iron Ghost, as drawn by Woodbridge. The cover is not an illustration for a comic story it’s an illustration for the text-page that was mandatory in those days for second-class postal mailing privileges. Mickey Spillane used to do a lot of these for various Timely comic magazines. For those who must know how Masked Ranger got out of that one the text page is reproduced at bottom.

Jet Scott

“More research has gone into the preparation of ‘Jet Scott’ than that team of scientists put into the first atomic bomb. At this point I think I could build an atomic pile in my basement with some wire fence, a little putty and a jack-knife.”

This was Sheldon Stark, author of the science-fiction-spy adventure strip Jet Scott illustrated by Batman artist Jerry Robinson. Jet Scott ran daily beginning September 28, 1953, added a Sunday page on October 4, and ended September 25, 1955.

Sheldon Stark played basketball, soccer and lacrosse at Dartmouth College where he studied physics and chemistry. He made frequent scientific field trips to Hudson Bay, the Mojave Desert and Macchu Pichu, Peru. He had a pilot’s license and was handy with a gun. He was a script-writer for television and radio on such programs as “The Lone Ranger,” “Straight Arrow,” “Lux Theatre,” “Studio One,” “The Big Story,” “Ford Theatre,” “Green Hornet,” “Challenge of the Yukon,” “Grand Central Station,” and “Rocky King, Detective.” He also scripted a comic strip called “Inspector Wade.” For over eight years he served on the council of the Author’s League of America, whose members included Oscar Hammerstein II, John Hersey, Rex Stout, Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse.

Cartoonist Jerry Robinson travelled widely on sketching tours of Mexico, the Caribbean and South America. He was an alumnus of Columbia University and ented the comic book industry when he was 17. He worked on “Batman” and “The Green Hornet,” as well as advertising and magazine illustration. He was an instructor at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York and author of “The Comics,” published by Putnam in 1974.

Sheldon Stark was introduced to Robinson in 1953 at the New York Herald-Tribune editorial offices. After a considerable period spent in travel and scientific research Jet Scott was born. Dark Horse comics will be issuing a collection, Jet Scott Vol. 1, on 10 Feb 2010.

Wild Will

Wild Will; Or, the Pirates of the Thames, By Percival Wolfe was published for the London Romance Company by News-Agents Publishing Company limited about 1865. It was a short PD in twelve 8 page penny numbers illustrated by Robert Prowse Sr. Wild Will carried on from Red Ralph; Or, The Daughter of Night A Romance of the Road In the Days of Dick Turpin, also by Percival Wolfe, published for the London Romance Company by the News-Agents' Publishing Company limited, 147 Fleet Street. Red Ralph ran about a year to a total of 412 pages.

There was no sign of Red Ralph in the sequel but the illustrations by Robert Prowse were stunning. Prowse was a giant. Perhaps the publishers hoped that Wild Will would emulate the success of Red Ralph. It ends rather suddenly with Wild Will captured by cannibals, rescued by the English and sent back to Britain in chains to be hung. "Alas poor Will! What greatness might he not have achieved had his talent and energies been
better applied?"

The ending is ambiguous;

"Jack Ketch, though well nigh frightened out of his wits, had sense enough to ply his hateful trade, and suddenly the combatants became conscious that Wild Will was swinging in the air. With one last tremendous effort a party of roughs broke through the soldiers, scrambled up and cut the rope."

There it ends. Either they were leaving room for a sequel or more probably low sales caused the publishers to order a quick halt to what promised to be a great tale. A copy
of "Wild Will" held by Indiana University has a note that Percival Wolfe is the pseudonym of Charles Henry Ross. On 1 Feb 1868 The Bookseller noted:

“Mr. C. H. Ross, described as a clerk, residing in Surrey Street, Strand, applied for his order of discharge from debts of £1008. The bankrupt stated that he was in receipt of a salary of £310 a year; he also earned about £120 a year as a writer for the periodical press, but he was in such delicate health that his medical man had forbidden him to further exercise his literary talents. Offered to set aside £50 a year. Ultimately the case went off, on an application for additional accounts.”

Peter Scratch

Lou Fine (1914-1971) once had plans to be an electrical engineer but after leaving college began writing and illustrating his own stories for comic magazines. In 1958 he was illustrating the Ellery Queen series for the American Weekly magazine and then began the superb Adam Ames soap opera comic strip from 1959 to 1962. He began Peter Scratch on 13 September 1965 with writer Elliot Caplin (Abbie ‘n Slats) and it ran until 1967 eventually being ghosted by Jack Sparling and Neal Adams.

Peter Scratch, a “slightly used private eye,” lived with his hardboiled, chain-smoking mother, who he addressed as Lucretia. The artwork was solidly in the Rip Kirby style camp but the scripts were a bit too zany for the subject matter. Fine’s hobbies were boating, gardening and drawing. He kept a 14 foot boat christened the “Adam Ames.” He died July 4, 1971.

Don Komisarow, Lawrence Lariar, and Lou Fine

In 1945 and 1946 Liberty Magazine was running a 2 page comic by “Donlou,” a pen-name used by illustrators Don Komisarow and Lou Fine. The text was by Lawrence Lariar, cartoonist, author and cartoon editor of the Parade newspaper supplement. Lou Fine is well-known for his superhero comics for Victor Fox, Eisner& Iger and Quality comics in the Golden Age. He quit comics in the forties for advertising and comic strip work.

Don Komisarow is less well-known but he was a well-known newspaper illustrator circa 1936-1939 and had a single-panel called “All For Lovely Woman’s Sake” and in 1954 was drawing a religious comic strip re-telling the tales of Noah and Jacob which was distributed by King Features.

Lawrence Lariar won the Red Badge Mystery Prize in 1944 for a book entitled “The Man with the Lumpy Nose” published by Dodd, Mead & Co. A reviewer said of that book:

“The man with the grotesque proboscis is a bird of ill omen, where he appears evil follows, usually murder. When his shadow falls on the great Earl Chance, a magazine editor almost any member of the Comic arts club could have cheerfully murdered, and wins him the attention of Homer Bull, short, fat bundle of shrewdness, murder comes home to roost. Lariar has fashioned quite a neat plot, but best feature of the yarn is its picture of the Bohemian world of the comic strip artist.”