Back Issue #129 Preview

COMICS’ BRONZE AGE AND BEYOND 2021

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TV TOON TIE-INS!

All characters TM & © the respective copyright holders.

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BONUS: SCOTT SHAW! DIGS UP CAPTAIN CARROT’S ROOTS!

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Volume 1, Number 129 August 2021 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Ray Dirgo and friends (Cover art from Charlton’s HannaBarbera Parade #10, with some character substitutions by other artists.)

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Maddy Madrazo Jerry Beck Jim Main Nate Butler Dave Manak John Byrne Richard Maurizio Ed Catto Fabian Nicieza Robert V. Conte Luigi Novi Tom DeFalco Jerry Ordway Jim Engel Ross Pearsall Mark Evanier Joe Rockhead Stephan Friedt Steve Schanes Michael Gallagher Keith Scott Grand Comics Scott Shaw!

Database Evan Skolnick Hanna-Barbera Merrie Spaeth Productions Joe Staton Heritage Comics Mary Vigliante Auctions Szydlowski Kelley Jarvis-Maclay Roy Thomas Mike Kazaleh Steven Thompson Stephen Keeter Greg Walker Milton Knight Mike Zeck Ed Lute

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BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 OFF MY CHEST: The Secret Origins of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! . . . . 3 Scott Shaw! hops into the rabbit hole of history FLASHBACK: Bullwinkle and Rocky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 “I Read the Moose Today” or “What’s a Nice Squirrel Like You Doing in Comics Like This?”

BACKSTAGE PASS: Underdog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 There’s no need to fear! TTV’s canine crusader is here!

FLASHBACK: The Bronze-tastic World of Hanna-Barbera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 H-B’s comic adaptations, from Bedrock to Orbit City and beyond FLASHBACK: Gold Key’s The Hardy Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The Filmation toon and tie-in comic that should have been a hit BACKSTAGE PASS: The Pink Panther . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 DePatie-Freleng’s fuschia feline, on screen and in funnybooks WHAT THE--?!: Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 From public service announcements to comic-book stardom FLASHBACK: Mighty Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Here he comes to save the day, in a trivia- and creator-loaded comics history BACKSTAGE PASS: Battle of the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 The comic-book adventures of G-Force!

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BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $90 Economy US, $137 International, $36 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Ray Dirgo and friends. Fred Flintstone © HannaBarbera Productions. Other characters © their respective companies. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2021 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Br onze Age TV Toon Tie-ins • BACK ISSUE • 1

[Editor’s note: While most of this issue explores Bronze Age comic books based upon Saturday morning cartoons, ye ed didn’t want to leave you superhero fans high and dry. So here he comes to save the day! Not Mighty Mouse (although the Mouse of Might does appear later this ish), but Scott Shaw!, the Emmy and Eisner Award-winning cartoonist/animator/comics historian, who’s got something he’d like to get off his chest….] by

Scott Shaw!

World’s Furriest Comics Circa 1982–1983, a Captain Carrot and Pig Iron sketch by our guest columnist, Scott Shaw! Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew TM & © DC Comics.

The first time I met Roy Thomas was at the 1972 San Diego Comic-Con. Roy was basking in fandom’s overwhelmingly positive reaction to Conan; I was hawking my first professional comix, “The Turd” in Ken Krueger’s Gory Stories Quarterly. The second time I met Roy was in 1977 at the American Comic Book Company in Studio City, California.

Roy had recently moved to Los Angeles to work in film; I had recently moved to Los Angeles to find work in comics and animation while managing a comic shop that was conveniently near the studios, including Hanna-Barbera Productions, located right down the street from my store.

Understandably, Roy didn’t recall me from our first encounter, but as Roy became a regular customer at the ACBC, we became more familiar with each other, then friends. That lead to Roy assigning me to write and draw a backup story for a new series he had recently created for Marvel. What If? vol. 1 #8 (Apr. 1978) featured “What If the Spider Had Been Bitten by a Radioactive Human?,” which introduced “Man-Spider.” (Marvel keeps reprinting it, they just stopped paying me for it, because as we all know, Disney’s broke.) Soon after (but unconnected) I also worked on many of Marvel’s line of Hanna-Barbera comics, edited through the studio’s offices. The gig directly led to me working at HannaBarbera on their SatAM cartoon shows for years.

Meanwhile, Roy and I were working on a number of concepts to “pitch” to newspaper syndicates and cartoon studios. When Roy finally left Marvel for more creative freedom at DC, it wasn’t long before we were talking about developing a new concept to pitch to Roy’s new bosses. Of course, DC was eager to license their myriad IP to TV networks. That got Roy Thomas and I thinking up concepts that would be appropriate for licensing, especially because Roy’s new deal was signed during DC’s short-lived era of creator participation in certain titles. Since I had already done a number of funny-animal stories for Quack! from Mike Friedrich’s “ground-level” Star*Reach, we starting thinking about funny animals. I think that Roy must have mentioned that he and North Carolina cartoonist Sam Grainger had once co-created a rabbit superhero named “Captain Carrot” who was in the vein of Mighty Mouse. (I didn’t see Sam’s drawing until many years later.) To incite DC’s interest, Roy, his spouse Dann, and I decided to pitch a team of funny-animal superheroes based on DC heroes, “Super Squirrel and the Just’a Lotta Animals,” a parody of the Justice League of America. Our gimmick, developed over many spaghetti dinners, was a simple one: “What if Jack Kirby drew Mighty Mouse?” In other words, funny-animal superhero stories written and designed with humorous intent but told with Kirby-esque storytelling. The plots would be serious with real consequences rather than Tex Avery-style gags but scripted with plenty of comedic versions of superhero tropes. Jack was (and is) my favorite “straight” cartoonist, so I knew what to do.

We submitted a premise, character designs, and two sample pages of dynamic pencil story art. DC expressed interest, but ultimately decided that although they—especially publisher Jenette Kahn—liked the concept, they wanted new funny-animal characters, not ones based on pre-existing superheroes. Back to the drawing board, literally.

While designing these new characters, my primary influences were cartoonist Wallace Wood’s somewhat obscure kid-leading-a-team-ofgoofy-heroes concepts Bucky Ruckus, Goody Bumpkin, Miracles Inc., and Fearless Ferris and the Misfits. I was also a huge fan of Gilbert Shelton’s Wonder Wart-Hog [see RetroFan #15, now on sale—ed.]

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by

Steven Thompson

jay ward

june foray

bill scott

“Get Moose and Squirrel!”

Those no-goodniks Boris and Natasha are up to… well, no good in this 1989 Rocky and Bullwinkle hand-inked, handpainted scene cel originally sold at West Hollywood’s Dudley Do-Right Emporium.

Also shown are creator Jay Ward, June Foray (voice of Rocky), and Bill Scott (voice of Bullwinkle), excerpted from a 1985 group photo of the three.

Cel and photos courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Bullwinkle and Rocky © Ward Productions, Inc.

When we last left our stalwart heroes, Rocky the flying squirrel and Bullwinkle Moose had been seemingly safely ensconced at Western Publishing’s Gold Key Comics. That was at the (squirrel) tail end of 1962. Suddenly, as if by some existential form of four-color magic, the dauntless duo turned up again, in—of all places—Derby, Connecticut, some eight years later, for a seven-issue run at Charlton Comics before continuing on their Western way with numbering as if nothing had ever happened! To find out what mystery caused this bizarre sidestepping, don’t miss our next episode, “I Read the Moose Today,” or “What’s a Nice Squirrel Like You Doing in Comics Like This?”

Well, no mystery, actually, and you don’t really need to wait until the next episode, either.

Look at it this way. If Rocky and Bullwinkle had been a comedy team in old Hollywood, they might have started their careers at the top with MGM making their classics, but then, after diminishing box-office returns, gone on to release new, if somewhat lesser quality, pictures through Monogram. Then, when the public’s fickle tastes took them up again, MGM would come calling to take them back into the fold. Not that that would last long, either, and yet even here in the 21st Century, new adventures and reprints have arisen for Rocky and his friends, both in print and in animation.

What’s all the fuss about, you ask? Just who are Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose, anyway, and why do they simply refuse to stay in the past? The answer to that lies in the waning days of the Eisenhower Administration of the late 1950s.

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Kil-glorious Art (top left) The first appearance of Rocky, Bullwinkle, and pals in comics, in Dell’s Four Color #1128 (Aug.–Oct. 1960). (top right) Bullwinkle horns in as the title star in the first issue of his own ongoing comic (Nov. 1962).

Both covers by Al Kilgore. (bottom) This Bullwinkle daily comic strip (from Nov. 4, 1964) may predate B I’s Bronze Age purview, but Al Kilgore’s artistic wizardry is too good not to share. Courtesy of Heritage. © Ward Productions, Inc.

al kilgore

WOSSAMOTTA U’s BULLWINKLE HISTORY 101

The middle initial “J” in both characters’ names stands for Jay Ward.

Ward and Alex Anderson, who had earlier teamed on early cartoon hero Crusader Rabbit, created Rocky and Bullwinkle as part of an unproduced TV series concept called The Frostbite Falls Review, about animals running their own television station. Ward and former Looney Tunes writer Bill Scott refined the characters and Ward’s company, Jay Ward Productions, created and produced Rocky and His Friends for ABC-TV beginning in 1959 and The Bullwinkle Show for another four seasons on NBC after it was determined that viewers felt more empathy for the big, dopey moose than for the plucky little squirrel.

As noted, Rocky was a flying squirrel, seen perpetually in an aviator’s cap. Unlike real-life flying squirrels that can merely glide short distances, Rocky was a flying fool. He could buzz around like Superman and was, in fact, described in the show’s original opening as a “supersonic speedster.” In those days of sonic booms all over America, “supersonic” was quite the buzzword. Rocky was a boy scout type, a do-gooder, a moral compass, and a pretty smart young lad. In other words, although a heroic role model, he was actually kind of a dull character. This is why Bullwinkle, the lovable doofus with his own portable hat rack, became the favored POV character.

A character biography credited to Jay Ward and Bill Scott states, “Despite his obvious sophistication, Rocky still retains his squirrel’s penchant for collecting nuts, as witness his partner, Bullwinkle.”

Bullwinkle is the everyman character, seemingly not quite all there and yet a goodhearted and lucky soul, a loyal, goofy friend with a penchant for stumbling into adventures, many of which pitted him against spies.

At the time of the series’ debut, the world was in the throes of the Cold War with the Soviets, and it seemed like spies were everywhere.

Spies were especially big in popular fiction of the 1950s such as Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. Thus it was that Jay Ward’s fictional Frostbite Falls also had antagonistic spies, in the person of diminutive Communist-type Boris Badenov, his taller female sidekick, Natasha

Fatale, and sometimes their more Nazi-like fearless leader, Fearless Leader. Basic good vs. evil adventures… with lots of puns and occasional breaking of the fourth wall.

Every episode of the TV series was structured like an old-timey Vaudeville act, with a short, serialized, farcical adventure chapter with our main characters followed by brief “on-stage” shtick, then one of several hilarious backup features such as Dudley Do-Right, a dead-on sendup of the once-popular adventure genre that included O’Malley of the Mounted, Renfrew of the Mounted, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. The Do-Right segments proved to be popular enough that Dudley got his own spinoff TV series and eventually his own spinoff comic-book series as well.

Amongst the other well-remembered backup features were Fractured Fairy Tales (narrated by the great character actor Edward Everett Horton), Aesop and Son (with Aesop played by Hollywood star Charlie Ruggles and Junior by Daws Butler), and Peabody’s Improbable History, featuring cartoon dog genius Mr. Peabody and his “pet boy,” Sherman.

Without really trying, Ward and his multitalented writer-director Bill Scott, who also voiced Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody, and other Ward characters, created a slow-building mini-phenomenon.

Their cartoon series proved to be immensely popular with kids, of course, but eventually intrigued and attracted the college-age and adult audiences that were appreciative of the humor of Nichols and May, Ernie Kovacs, Stan Freberg, and MAD magazine.

The show’s writing, led by Scott and future MTM writers Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, was the key, with satirical silliness and puns being the order of the day. Equally important, though, were veteran radio performers June Foray, Paul Frees, William Conrad, Hans Conried, and Walter Tetley providing most of the other voices alongside Scott.

Actress June Foray portrayed Rocky so well and in so many projects for so many years that her 2009 autobiography, Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? (for which I, myself, did transcription work!), features her squirrely alter ego posing with her on its front cover.

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by

TTV or Total TeleVision productions was created as an answer to Jay Ward Productions in Hollywood in 1960.

Jay Ward had begun as an advertising vehicle for General Mills and its initial offering was Rocky and his Friends, starring Rocky, the flying squirrel and his pal, Bullwinkle Moose. The series premiered in 1959, and although popular, was not exactly what General Mills was really looking for in regard to a cartoon show to advertise its cereals. They were expecting a cute and kid-friendly funnyanimal show, and instead they got a show that featured hard-hitting satire of the Cold War and espionage.

The people at General Mills’ advertising agency, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample or DFS, were in a quandary.

They didn’t want to upset what Ward Productions was doing in Los Angeles, but at the same time, they didn’t trust some of the stuff they were doing. Indeed, some of the story ideas that Ward had come up with like Truthpaste were soundly rejected, and others that did go through, like the idea of counterfeit box tops, was not greeted well by General Mills, for fear that people might do the same with their box tops for promotions.

Mark Arnold

THERE’S NO NEED TO FEAR, TTV IS HERE

Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog, just little ol’ me… …Underdog. And the series’ main cast and crooks, as illustrated by Jim Engel for an issue of Spotlight Comics’ Underdog series that went unpublished. Courtesy of the artist.

Underdog © Classic Media, LLC.

So, TTV was formed in New York, with four principals who had advertising backgrounds, three of whom came from DFS. Their initial offering was a show called King Leonardo and His Short Subjects in 1960, which contained three segments. The first was The King and Odie, where King Leonardo and his handler Odie Cologne were constantly at odds with the King’s sibling Itchy Brother and his mob boss, Biggy Rat. The second segment was The Hunter, about a detective dog out to capture the Fox and stop him from doing his latest crime and inadvertently defeating him and sending him to jail with the help of Officer Flim Flanagan.

The third segment was of Tooter the Turtle, a meek turtle who consistently wished he was something he wasn’t like an astronaut or a baseball player. Tooter would go visit Mr. Wizard the Lizard, who would grant him his wish, but always warn him of consequences.

Tooter would invariably get himself in trouble in his new guise and always call out, “Help! Mr. Wizard!” for Mr. Wizard to rescue him and bring him back home.

King Leonardo and his Short Subjects was syndicated as The King and Odie Show. Similar to how The Rocky Show was syndicated from Rocky and His Friends, The King and Odie Show was designed to be shown in either a 15-minute or a half-hour format.

Early in the series’ NBC run, selected Columbia Pictures theatrical cartoons were aired on the program, some featuring The Fox and the Crow and Li’l Abner.

These shorts were added to fill time when production of the early shows was delayed. The Columbia cartoons were featured during NBC showings of Hanna-Barbera’s Ruff and Reddy, but not included in subsequent syndicated versions of the series.

Another segment of the original King Leonardo show was Twinkles (an orange elephant), which simultaneously appeared as a feature on Jay Ward’s Rocky and His Friends. The title character served as the mascot of Twinkles Cereal, a product of the show’s chief sponsor, General Mills. The 90-second Twinkles segments continued to air in syndication during the 1960s, and were presented in a 15-minute format under the title

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The King and Odie, but later phased out after a firefighter character THE UNDERDOG SHOW replaced the elephant as the cereal’s mascot. The segments also During Tennessee Tuxedo’s success, TTV was able to sell their third appeared during some NBC network rebroadcasts of Underdog. hit series. At first they weren’t sure what they were going to do King Leonardo was a hit show and did become a comic-book series for another encore. DFS and General Mills gave TTV a cryptic clue. and was heavily merchandised in many other ways. Two issues Gordon Johnson of General Mills said that “TTV’s next series had appeared under the Four Color banner (#1242 [inset] and 1278), an better be super and also to stay away from frogs.” TTV creators issue with no number from 1962, and then a four-issue series that Buck Biggers and Chet Stover weren’t sure what they meant, but was issued during 1962 and 1963. for a grand total of seven issues. they eventually discovered that Jay Ward’s next series after Rocky After King Leonardo ran its course in 1963, TTV sold its second and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show had run its course was to series, titled Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. This featured be a series called Hoppity Hooper, starring a frog! Ironically, some of the same old segments, plus the new segment Jay Ward’s Hoppity Hooper is the one Ward show that featuring Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin, and his walrus most closely resembles a TTV show in style and tone, pal, Chumley, who are constantly trying to escape from despite the fact that they were created on opposite the Megapolis Zoo or invent some sort of get-richcoasts of the country. They did still share the common quick scheme or find an easier way to do assignments bond of being animated at Gamma Productions in given by Zookeeper Stanley Livingstone.

Mexico City.

When Tennessee and Chumley did get into some As for the super part, they figured that a supersort of fix, which usually happened at the midpoint hero should be their next offering, but a super what? of each two-part episode, they almost always escaped Chet Stover explained that he was in the room when the zoo in order to seek out the advice and help of a rerun of the I Love Lucy episode came on that featured Mr. Whoopee, the man with all the answers. Whoopee George Reeves as Superman. Inspiration struck him would explain their problem on the 3DBB, or three-dimensional blackboard. Tennessee and joe harris Chumley would then leave prematurely because they thought they had enough information. Other times, when they did heed Whoopee’s warnings of “But wait!”, they came up with an intelligent solution to their problems.

Amazingly, there was never a Tennessee Tuxedo comic book, even to this day, although the concept would lend itself well to a comic.

Even American Mythology, which has published new Underdog comic books in recent years, has never issued a Tennessee Tuxedo book, although Tennessee has appeared on occasional covers.

New short episodes of Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley were created in 2014 for YouTube by Chuck Gammage Animation in Toronto and Cartoon Lagoon Studios in New York. While creating these episodes, in 2013 the studio took a stab at a new Underdog episode called Underdog: The Adventure Continues. This episode was not completed, but one can view the results on YouTube.

“There’s no need to fear… Underdog will soon be here!” (top) Our courageous canine crusader is interviewed

by Sweet Polly Purebread in this undated original illustration by Underdog character designer Joe Harris.

Also shown are character sketches, storyboard drawings, and production materials related to the development of the TV show. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions and iCollector. © Classic Media, LLC.

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by

Michael Eury

Anyone who attempts to produce a comic book based for Ruff and Reddy, the first of what would become upon a Hanna-Barbera television cartoon is working a legion of Hanna-Barbera Productions cartoon from a deficit, as H-B’s cartoons are as distinguished series for television. Curtin’s snappy music blended by their audio tracks as much as they are their iconic perfectly with Bill and Joe’s lyrics, inciting viewers to “Get set, get ready, here come Ruff and Reddy.” characters and limited animation.

As the H-B family of shows grew, their sing-along Hanna-Barbera sound effects are legendary.

If I mention “Kabong,” “Scrambling Feet,” themes wisely identified their stars for the kids of the 1960s growing up in front of the tube: “Falling Object Whistle,” “Bugle Charge,” “The biggest show in town is Huckleberry or “Bongo Feet and Zip,” chances are Hound for all you guys and gals. The you will “hear” those sounds and biggest clown in town is Huckleberry remember specific scenes from old Hound with all his cartoon pals.” cartoons, even though these sound “Yogi Bear is smarter than the effects were often interchangeable average bear. Yogi Bear is always in among H-B series. the ranger’s hair.”

Equally important, if not more “Flintstones. Meet the Flintstones. so, are the Hanna-Barbera theme They’re the modern Stone Age family. songs. While their later show themes From the town of Bedrock they’re a might not be as well remembered, page right out of history.” each of the earlier H-B toons Everything you needed to boasted a theme song that you know about these characters was simply cannot forget. Most were hoyt curtin laid out for you in song. And while composed by the late, great Hoyt The Adventures of Jonny Quest’s Curtin, who was scoring music for television commercials when he was tapped in 1957 theme had no lyrics, none were necessary thanks to by animation pioneers Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, Curtin’s jazzy score, with its pulse-pounding drum who had just left MGM and their Academy Award®- and trombone intro that screamed, “Excitement winning creation Tom and Jerry, to score their lyrics awaits ahead!”

From the Stone Age to the Bronze Age (left) Charlton’s The Flintstones #1 (Nov. 1970). Cover

by Ray Dirgo. (center) Marvel’s The Flintstones #1 (Oct. 1977). Cover

by Roger Armstrong and Joe Prince. (right) Blackthorne’s The Flintstones 3-D #1 (1987). Cover by Jorge Pacheco. Who did it best? That’s up to Yabba Dabba You. TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions

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Smarter Than the Average Barbera (and Hanna, too) (left) Animation pioneers William Hanna (seated) and Joseph Barbera (standing) meeting with some of their fabled toon titans in a publicity photo from the ’60s.

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (right) The first Hanna-Barbera comic book, Four Color Comics #937 (Sept. 1958), starring Ruff and Reddy. Art

by Harvey Eisenberg.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

And the voices! From the main characters—often a takeoff of an established television or film star—to the incidental characters, and even the hilarious asides from The Flintstones’ prehistoric beasts doubling as household appliances, no speaking part on an H-B cartoon, always performed by A-list voice talent, was miscast or wasted. Their witty dialog was courtesy of top-notch writers like Charles Shows, Tony Benedict, Warren Foster, and Mike Maltese, which, according to cartoonist Scott Shaw!, “was essential to all those scenes where characters were only moving their mouths and eyelids.”

Sure, it’s easy to take potshots at the produced-on-ashoestring budget of these early H-B toons (really, how many times is Dino going to chase Fred past that same living room chair and window?), but each character’s respective world—from the homey cave dwellings of The Flintstones to the cloud-piercing domiciles of The Jetsons—conveyed a universe among itself of smartly designed figures and creatures (where most males, including animals, had five o’clock shadows) and their environments. H-B cartoons may not have been as lushly animated as Disney’s opulent theatrical releases, but from the cactus-dotted prairies of Quick Draw McGraw to the colorful aquatic park of Squiddly Diddly to the mind-blowing galaxies of Space Ghost, each H-B toon was packed with eye appeal.

And let’s go ahead and address the elephant (or, in The Flintstones’ case, the wooly mammoth) in the room: Many have criticized Hanna-Barbera for their appropriation of live-action sitcoms and other media as subject matter for their series (The Flintstones = The Honeymooners, Top Cat = Sgt. Bilko, Quick Draw McGraw’s El Kabong = Zorro, Scooby-Doo = The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and the list goes on and on).

What some consider a lack of inspiration was, in my estimation, a brilliant modus operandi: adapting a concept familiar to adults to a medium that catered to kids, thereby attracting a dual demographic. Like the theatrical Looney Tunes shorts that preceded them, the early H-B toons were watched by both children and

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adults, particularly programs like The Flintstones, The Adventures of Jonny Quest, and The Jetsons, which were originally produced for primetime, nighttime viewing.

No wonder the world of comic books came calling, especially once H-B’s TV properties became popular in the early 1960s. But was it a fool’s errand to attempt to translate these sensory-stunning cartoons into the quiet confines of the four-color world, where the only sound produced by a comic book is the rustling of a page turn?

H-B COMICS IN THE SILVER AGE

Before we begin with our roundup of the Bronze Age’s Hanna-Barbera comics library, let’s detour back to the Silver Age, where Joe and Bill’s babies first ventured onto magazine racks when comic books were bountiful in newsstands, drugstores, and grocers (oh, how we miss those days).

Discounting MGM’s Tom and Jerry, the first comic book published to feature Hanna-Barbera characters was Dell’s Four Color #937 (Sept. 1958), starring Ruff and Reddy. And what a beautiful comic it was, thanks to the artwork of Harvey Eisenberg, who had come from the world of animation, originally hired by Joe Barbera himself at the MGM cartoon studio. In rendering Ruff and Reddy’s encounters with funny animals ranging from a pink elephant that’s run away from the circus to a big brown bear bullied by a baby-sized bruin, Eisenberg’s artistry was a sheer delight, illustrating the characters perfectly on-model and employing a range of camera angles and brisk storytelling that replicated the often-frenetic pace of your typical H-B TV toon.

Over the next few years, as Bill and Joe rolled out new characters on the tube, those TV funny animals quickly followed in Ruff and Reddy’s pawsteps to the pages of comic books, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, and Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks. The modern Stone Age family joined in on the fun when the Flintstones debuted in comic books in Dell Giant #48 (Sept. 1961) and soon spun off into their own title. Each comic

with permission. Following in 1945 was their establishment of Charlton Publishing in Derby, Connecticut, and a long publication history that would stretch to 1986, with hundreds of issues of music magazines, comic books, coloring books, puzzle mags and books, and other periodicals following.

Santangelo was a shrewd businessman who was, according to Giordano, “a great gambler, a numbers man.” George Wildman agreed, crediting Santangelo’s craftiness for the establishment of Charlton’s all-in-one-house publishing setup. In an interview with Jon B. Cooke in Comic Book Artist #12 (Mar. 2001), Wildman said of Santangelo, “[H]e soon figured, why pay all this money out to distributors, to wholesalers, to sales people, to engravers, to printers, to outsiders—so he thought along the lines of Henry Ford. ‘I’ll get all of my own equipment and I won’t have to pay anything to anybody.’”

From the get-go Santangelo established as a cost-cutting measure that implemented some of the industry’s lowest page rates for artists, writers, and colorists. As a result, over the decades Charlton generally became a training ground for new talent hungry enough to work for lower pay. Conversely, george wildman Charlton offered creative freedom an artist might not find at the bigger publishers like DC and Marvel, and as such it became an occasional oasis for talent like Steve Ditko, most famously in the mid-1960s when he departed Marvel’s hottest new title, The Amazing Spider-Man, for Charlton… where he worked with editor Dick Giordano. Ditko’s Captain Atom was part of Giordano’s celebrated “Action Heroes” line that one might argue revolutionized the comics medium as a whole by its eventual inspiration of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1986 opus Watchmen (check out BACK ISSUE #79 for the Bronze Age history of the Charlton Action Heroes at their second publisher, DC Comics).

Sal Gentile was the company’s managing editor in 1970 when Charlton began releasing its Hanna-Barbera comics. As part of the company’s aforementioned expansion, books like Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Bullwinkle and Rocky, Underdog, Hee Haw, and Ronald McDonald were also joining the Charlton lineup. Charlton’s seven Hanna-Barbera titles launched in July 1970 were among 28 titles released by the company that month, quite an output for a small publisher!

With Charlton’s first Hanna-Barbera releases, a discerning eye could note that… well, something was a little off. The characters didn’t quite look the way they were supposed to and some of the situations seemed abnormal (since when did Pixie and Dixie become pestering sidekicks to Huckleberry Hound?). Complicating matters were the books’ often-poor production values. Even the most ardent Charlton supporter will admit that the production quality of the company’s comics paled in comparison to DC, Dell, and Gold Key comics of the era, the result of the publisher’s crank-’em-out mentality and its mandate to keep its printing press rolling 24 hours a day (it cost more to stop and restart the presses, hence their perpetual operation).

Sloppy color registration, crooked pages, and misaligned staples were common in

Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones Promotional poster for Charlton’s The Flintstones (a.k.a. The Flintstones and Pebbles), 1972. Art by Ray Dirgo. 11.625 x 17.875 inches on heavy textured stock, printed black with red spot color; signed in green marker

by Dirgo. Courtesy of Michael Ambrose.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

THE “OTHER” HANNA-BARBERA COMIC BOOKS Once Filmation Studios made Riverdale’s favorite teens Saturday morning superstars beginning in 1968 with The Archie Show—with Don Kirschner turning the bubble-gum pop group The Archies into a hit-making sensation—Hanna-Barbera Productions followed suit with a partnership with Archie Comics when premiering Josie and the Pussycats on CBS-TV in 1970, repurposing Archie Comics’ Dan DeCarlo-created Josie title into a Scooby-Doo-like series featuring a rock band pulled into mystery adventures. The show gave Archie’s Josie comic a much-needed shot in the arm. (Two years later, H-B reimagined the toon as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, with the girls’ long tails and ears for hats boldly going where no cartoon rock band had gone before… until 1974, when Hanna-Barbera was at it again with The Partridge Family 2200 A.D.) Animation historian Mark Arnold points out of few other instances where comic books were publishing during the periods Hanna-Barbera was producing animation series based upon established characters. “Gold Key published Popeye when H-B did Archie Comics Publications. their series, The All-New Popeye Hour [see RetroFan #12—ed.], and Harvey published Casper and Richie Rich when H-B did those cartoons [Casper and the Angels, Casper’s First Christmas, Richie Rich, and The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show],” all in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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star sitting on top. The two issues of Charlton’s Great Grape Ape feature no creator credits, but their delightful artwork might be the work of Bill Williams.

Some sources have credited artist Mike Zeck for his contributions to Charlton’s Hanna-Barbera comics, but as the talented illustrator tells BACK ISSUE, he never drew any H-B characters for Charlton… although his artwork did appear in Charlton’s H-B (and other cartoon) titles! Confused?

As Zeck shares with BI, “My illustrations for the Charlton Comics’ animated titles are my first professional color comics work. The Charlton editorial crew, George Wildman, Nick Cuti, and Bill Pearson, saw potential in my art when I peddled my portfolio during the early ’70s. Each issue in the Charlton animated line featured an interior two-page text story with accompanying spot illustrations. Those spot illos were my first assignments, and I imagine the editors were considering those as something of an audition before moving me into sequential art for their horror titles. The experience I gained at Charlton was instrumental in prepping me for a long career in the comics industry.” Zeck collectors can find his spot illos in these Charlton H-B books: Barney and Betty Rubble #11, 16; Dino #12, 13; The Flintstones #36, 40, 41; Great Gazoo #14; Hong Kong Phooey #2, 3; Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm #26, 29; Scooby-Doo #4; Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2, 3; and Yogi Bear #28.

A Charlton subscription ad running in the company’s late 1976 titles including listings for Dynomutt (listed as “Dyno-Mutt”) and Jabberjaw (listed as “Jabberjaws”), indicating that the company was planning titles based upon those then-popular Saturday morning cartoons. Since this announcement came shortly before Charlton’s loss of the Hanna-Barbera license, it is unclear if the publisher actually had earlier agreements with H-B for those new titles, or if Charlton actually produced any Dynomutt or Jabberjaw material. “Odd that they’d include the titles in a sub ad without actually having anything in the pipeline,” Charlton Spotlight publisher Michael Ambrose remarks, adding, “I’ve never to my recollection seen any unpublished Charlton art of those characters, and I’ve made it a habit for many years now to monitor as much Charlton original art passing through the marketplace as I can. Of course, there’s no accounting for what might be in private hands. For that matter, some work could have been commissioned by George Wildman, but cancelled.”

Born to Be Wild (top) Korg: 70,000 B.C. #5 (Feb. 1976) original cover painting, by Pat Boyette. Courtesy of Heritage. (bottom left) John Byrne original cover art to Charlton’s Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 (Sept.

1975). (bottom right) Joe Staton original art (with story by Joe Gill) from Wheelie #4 (Jan. 1976). Both, courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions.

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by

Ed Catto

It should have been a huge hit.

After all, it had everything going for it. The effort was based on a long-running property that was loved by generations. The original books were bestsellers in the field of juvenile fiction. The characters had even appeared on the screen before, so non-readers would know them.

These characters were ready for their renaissance with a hip update.

They looked “now” and they looked “wow,” with current fashions and haircuts. The cast was broadened to include an independent woman and the first black character on a Saturday morning program.

Most importantly, they followed the animation studio’s successful formula. Just as Filmation Studios had done with their hit Archie program [see BACK ISSUE #107—ed.], they took well-loved characters, made them hip, and injected bubble gum music into the mix.

This effort provided the opportunity to learn from past mistakes.

They developed a plethora of merchandise (toys, Halloween costumes, board games) for store shelves coordinating with the show’s debut.

And another correction: a real band would be ready and available to record and tour to capitalize on the program’s success.

But then… something happened. All these plans of pop-culture supremacy were undone by a stoner, his dog, and his three best friends.

What happened? Why didn’t the show click? Why isn’t Gold Key’s The Hardy Boys comic lovingly collected and revered today? How did it instead become just a footnote, a curiosity, and a perennial pop-culture trivia question? Like the characters themselves, let’s solve the mystery of The Hardy Boys’ Gold Key Comics!

C’mon, Get Happy Gold Key’s groovy first issue cover to The Hardy Boys #1 (Apr. 1970), featuring Dan Spiegle art. © Filmation Associates.

The Hardy Boys were created by Edward Stratemeyer for his Stratmeyer Syndicate. It’s hard to understand the impact of this publishing house by today’s standards, but suffice it to say that they brought juvenile fiction, a precursor to today’s Young Adult/YA trend, to the forefront of American pop culture. Stratemeyer published numerous series, including Tom Swift, The Bobbsey Twins, The Rover Boys, and The Hardy Boys. And from The Hardy Boys template came Nancy Drew.

The Hardy Boys were also rebooted many times. Periodically, the book series would be updated. The Hardy Boys characters came to life on screen on Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club.

There was an ABC pilot that debuted in September of 1967, but it failed to gain traction.

Meanwhile, Filmation Studios was enjoying success with their adaptation of Archie comics. It’s not unimaginable to surmise that Filmation thought that The Hardy Boys would simply be their next big hit. The Riverdale teenagers were similar to Joe and Frank Hardy and their friends.

But did the studio really put enough effort into it? So much of the animation production and rotoscoping was repurposed from their Archie show. And The Hardy Boys cartoon program employed an astonishingly small company of vocal talents— notably Byron Kane, Dal McKennon, and Jane Webb. Each would play several parts in every episode.

In some ways, Filmation tried to do new things, learning lessons from Archie. While the Archie gang would always exist only as comic characters or cartoons, or as Don Kirshner-controlled studio musicians, Filmation created a live touring band version of The Hardy Boys.

Lookalike actors were hired to play the characters in the opening and closing credits of the show and to perform at live concerts.

The “real” Hardy Boys were Jeff Taylor as Joe and Reed Kailing as Frank. Bob Crowder, the drummer, had played with several groups, including the Shirelles. Norbet (Nib) Soltysiak was the brothers’ friend Chubby, and Devin English, a former Playboy Club Bunny, became the live incarnation of the band’s female dancer.

Br onze Age TV Toon Tie-ins Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

© Disney.

HARDY HISTORY

THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLD KEY

Gold Key’s The Hardy Boys series debuted with an April 1970 cover date.

This short-lived series, just four issues, was written by Don R. Christensen.

More than just a writer, Christensen was an animator working for studios such as Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. His comics work included Magnus Robot Fighter, Daffy Duck, and Uncle Scrooge. He also adapted other Saturday morning heroes to the comics, including Space Ghost, the Herculoids, and Moby Dick, in the pages of Gold Key’s Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes.

Dan Spiegle, a fantastic artist with an enduring career, never seemed to miss a beat. Spiegle started on adaptations of screen favorites like Hopalong Cassidy, Maverick, Sea Hunt, and The Untouchables. Like Christensen, he also was assigned to comics featuring Saturday morning cartoons, such as Space Ghost.

Known for his ability to draw ordinary people in adventurous situations, Spiegle was the perfect choice for Gold Key’s Hardy Boys series. He was able to draw any setting and even the gang’s car, a vintage 1912 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, never looked better. Spiegle had an uncanny ability to populate every page with myriad unique characters, without it ever looking crowded.

And with all this, somehow Spiegle was able to channel the signature Filmation style into the Hardy Boys comics. He also did the very same thing when he illustrated other cartoon characters from other studios. Spiegle’s version of Space Ghost, for example, looked like the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

It was subtle. In 1970 few readers would have ever even noticed or vocalized his craftsmanship. Enjoying the art from the vantage point of today, one can only have more respect for the talented Mr. Spiegle.

OH, BOY, WE’RE HAVING A PARTY

The cast was a classic group of friends. They were all affable and upbeat.

Memorable? Well… that’s for you to decide.

Brothers Joe and Frank Hardy were the sons of “famous” detective Fenton Hardy. They often dropped his name to gain credibility with and access to the adult community.

In issue #2’s “The Mystery of the Catacombs,” Joe meekly told the beleaguered owner of an amusement park, “Sir… y’see, our sideline is the detective business!”

Wanda Kay explained further, “Their Dad is Fenton Hardy!”

“Fenton Hardy!?” exclaimed the man. “Then you’re those Hardy Boys!”

But unlike any other brothers in America, they never fought or bickered.

And the teen friends were all very collaborative in creating music, making decisions, and solving mysteries, although the brothers led the gang.

Musical Mystery Tour (top) The “real” band, the Hardy Boys, made a blip on the bubblegum charts in 1970. (bottom) Man of mystery Fenton Hardy and his boys, and their band, on page 1 of Gold Key’s Hardy Boys #1.

Story by Don R. Christensen, art by Dan Spiegle. © RCA. © Filmation.

Wanda Kay Breckenridge was a platinum-haired beauty, even though actress Devin English, who played the real-life version, clearly was a brunette.

Wanda Kay was a part of the gang, although often relegated to the role of the quintessential damsel in distress. While undeniably the hot chick of the band, her musical contribution, beyond dancing, was unclear.

Of note: Wanda Kay had so much marketable potential she earned her own action figurine (from Corgi) and a Collegeville Halloween Costume.

Pete Jones, the drummer, was a smart and competent friend of the Hardy Boys. This trailblazing character was the first African-American cast member on a Saturday morning Show.

Chubby Morton, based on Chet Morton from the book series, was the comic relief. He was the upbeat but often cowardly group member.

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THE PINK PANTHER’S ORIGINS

David DePatie was the final head of the original Warner Bros. cartoon studio, makers of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, before it was shut down for good in 1963.

With nothing left to lose, DePatie and his partner, Isadore “Friz” Freleng, founded their animation studio and officially called it DePatie– Freleng Enterprises Unlimited, Inc. A formal six-page memo introducing the company was issued on Warner Bros. stationery on March 19, 1963 and appears to be the first printed mention of DFE anywhere.

In the inter-office communication, DePatie details plans for DFE to take over cartoon production for Warner Bros. by leasing the cartoon building and using many of its employees. The new company was publicly announced in the May 31, 1963 edition of Daily Variety.

There was an overlap of the two studios. Warner Bros. was still doing the final touches on the animation for The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a Don Knotts comedy that combined live-action with animation.

Work on the animated portion of this film was completed by April 19, 1963, as evidenced by an internal Warner Bros. memo that also mentions everyone’s termination from Warner Bros. including DePatie’s. Cartoon Studio upon completion

by M ark Arnold of this work. No mention of DePatie–Freleng is mentioned or referenced.

DePatie recalled, “Basically the entire staff was pretty much left intact until we ultimately closed down. When Friz and I formed our company, we literally had the cream of the crop, the pick of anybody we wanted, because they were all gonna get laid off.

“There was a five-year lease on the building plus all the equipment for $500 a month. That really put Friz and I on the map. We had a beautiful facility, all ready to go.” david depatie DePatie explains how the Pink Panther came to Los Angeles Public be: “One day the telephone rings, and on the other Library/Valley Ties Photo Collection. end is [filmmaker] Blake Edwards. I had known Blake through an uncle of his by the name of Owen Crump.

Crump was a producer at Warner Bros., and through that relationship I had met Blake two or three times. He said, ‘David, I understand that you are in the animation business. I’d like to see you.’ I go over to see Blake and he hands me the script of The Pink Panther. He said, ‘This is a live-action movie. I really don’t know where there’s a place for animation, but I’d like you to design me a pink panther.’

“We had a character designer by the name of Hawley Pratt. Hawley must have done at least 100 different renditions of a panther.

The only thing we had to go by was in the script itself, the thing about the jewel that gets swiped back and forth, and in this—this diamond—is an imperfection that looks like a pink panther. We designed some stuff and one Sunday we took it over to Blake’s house and spread them out over his living room floor. He walked around, and he’s a pretty decisive guy, and he said, ‘That’s the one I want!’ The Panther was born.

“Blake went off to Rome to shoot the movie, and the only thing he used the Panther for was on letterheads and business cards. Friz and I didn’t have any idea of where it was going to go from there. After the Congratulations! It’s Pink! picture was completed, I got a call from Blake and he said, ‘I have the (left) Pink-matted original art, by Phil DeLara, for the cover film in the can now and I would like to tell you my thoughts, so come on over.’ I went over to see him and he said, ‘I want you to create a of (inset) Gold Key Comics’ Pink Panther #1 (Apr. 1971). main title sequence for my movie.’

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

“We went on to create a storyboard with the character involved in all of the main title credits and he thought it was great. He had to take Pink Panther © MGM Studios, Inc. Br onze Age TV Toon Tie-ins Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

Environmental Protectors

by

These Gold Key comic books shared their characters’ public service messages and entertained young readers in the process. (left) Smokey Bear #6 (June 1971). (right) Whitman variant of Woodsy Owl #5 (Nov. 1974). Cover

by Paul Norris and Larry Mayer.

Ed Lute

© USDA Forest Service.

Many comic books are set within a city, whether it be the New York of Marvel Comics or the fictional Metropolis, Star City, or Gotham City of DC Comics.

However, during the 1970s Gold Key Comics went in the opposite direction when they produced a pair of comics set within the woods.

These comics didn’t feature big-name superheroes but instead two widely known advertising icons: Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl. While neither is as popular as Superman, Batman, or the Amazing Spider-Man, most kids and adults still know who they are to this day, and some can even recite their catchphrases.

The popularity of the characters meant that fans would want to see Smokey and Woodsy in a variety of formats. This included comic books, and Western Publishing (under their Gold Key imprint) was happy to oblige them. While Gold Key Comics had its own stable of characters including Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom; Magnus Robot Fighter; and Turok, Son of Stone, the company was mainly known for its use of licensed characters including Disney, Star Trek, and many others, so Smokey and Woodsy fit right in. But these two comic-book series would stand apart from the other licensed titles: instead of simply providing entertainment, they would also provide readers with a message of either fire safety or pollution control.

SMOKEY BEAR

“Remember – Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires!”

Those words helped propel Smokey Bear (not Smokey the Bear as some people think) into one of the most iconic characters ever.

Smokey Bear is a fictional character used in advertising by the US Forest Service to help remind youngsters (and oldsters, for that matter) that their actions could prevent forest fires. He first appeared in 1944 (Smokey’s official birthdate is August 9, 1944). His first slogan was “Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.”

His most famous slogan made its debut in 1947 and remained the same until 2001 when it was changed to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires!”

However, Smokey Bear is more than just an icon of the Fire Service, as he has been featured in cartoons, comic books, toys, and other merchandise. Smokey Bear’s first comic-book appearance was in Dell’s Four Color #653 (Oct. 1955).

The Smokey Bear comic book that many collectors are familiar with is a promotional comic first published in 1959 called The True Story of Smokey Bear. It contained the first 16 pages of Dell’s Four Color #932 (Aug. 1958) and recounted the “true” story of Smokey Bear and how he got his name. The story is based on the true story of a black bear cub that was saved during a fire in New Mexico in

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by

In the comics and cartoon worlds, where anthropomorphous characters (that is, illustrated and animated beings who behave as if they were human) exist including Donald Duck, Droopy Dog, and Felix the Cat, one particular muscle-bound murine reigns supreme— MIGHTY MOUSE! For almost 80 years, Mighty Mouse has entertained generations of children and adults worldwide through theatrical cartoons, syndicated and all-new animated shows for television, a plentitude of merchandise including apparel, board games, plush dolls, playing cards, story records, and, of course, comic books.

WHO IS MIGHTY MOUSE… AND HOW HE CAME TO BE!

Originally created in 1942 by Paul Terry’s Terrytoons Studios as “Super Mouse,” the character first appeared in the animated short, “The Mouse of Tomorrow” —a parody of DC Comics’ archetypal hero, Superman (just a year before, cartoons produced by Max Fleischer Studios were released through Paramount Pictures) and Walt Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse, who had already reached a decade-and-a-half of multimilliondollar prosperity.

Super Mouse was flying high after the release of several more well-received Terrytoons. But some changes were necessary; another “Supermouse”— sporting a similar red-and-blue costume—regularly appeared in Nedor Publishing Company’s Coo Coo

R o b e r t V. C o n t e

Comics, coincidentally debuting in 1942. Reportedly, Terry himself decided to change the name to “Mighty Mouse” and, after his animation staff tested various color schemes, permanently changed his new star’s costume to yellow and red. By the time Mighty Mouse first appeared in Terry-Toons Comics #38 (Nov. 1945), his popularity skyrocketed to become one of the most victorious superhero animals in pop-culture history.

Retiring in 1955, Paul Terry sold Terrytoons Studios and its vast 25-year inventory of cartoon characters to CBS Television. His decision to do so would break ground in the industry; it paved the way for theatrical cartoons of the past to be shown to a new generation inside their homes. For a dozen years, Mighty Mouse Playhouse was, arguably, the show that introduced American children—boys and girls alike—to superheroes.

Throughout this time, Mighty Mouse and other Terrytoons appeared in hundreds of comic-book stories by multiple publishers including Timely (later Marvel, with stories written and edited by a young Stan Lee!), St. John Publications (including the first-ever three-dimensional comic book—reportedly selling over 1.25-million copies!), Pines, Dell, Gold Key, and again, Dell. For 23 years, Mighty Mouse comics were consistently published throughout the Golden and Silver Ages—eclipsing well-known superheroes including Marvel’s Captain America and

Mighty Mouse in the ’70s Through the ’90s! (left) Western/Gold Key’s Adventures of Mighty Mouse #168 (July 1979), featuring cover copy playing off of ’70s Jawsmania.

Cover artist unknown. (center) Spotlight’s Mighty Mouse Adventure Magazine #1 (1987).

Cover by Nate Butler. (right) Marvel’s Mighty Mouse #1 (Oct. 1990).

Cover by Ernie Colón.

Mighty Mouse, Deputy Dawg, and Heckle and Jeckle © CBS Operations, Inc.

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ARE GOLD KEY/WHITMAN COMICS REALLY GOOD COMICS? When asked how the Bronze Age of Terrytoons comics compare with the characters’ Golden Age and Silver Age predecessors, three well-known animation and comics experts clearly expressed their opinions: • MILTON KNIGHT “The Gold Key/Whitman comics weren’t the same; all their adaptations were sanitized. Imagine discovering a coverless copy of a St. John’s Mighty Mouse comic; I loved a story by [Terrytoons animator and director] Connie Rasinski with a sexy Mitzi Mouse. Seeing a Heckle and Jeckle comic by “the Stretchy Artist”—Jim Tyer—was a dream come true. Up to then, I had never seen a ‘funny comic’ that actually looked like animation. From then until the 1980s, a bias against authentic animation style had arisen; cartoons were one thing, but comics were supposed to be comics. Dell had always had that going, and so did the others. I had my own differences with the publishers for this reason; though they were doing animated characters, the styles were not authentic.”

• JERRY BECK “Mighty Mouse comics from the 1950s were done by Terrytoons Studios and, unlike the Dell/Gold Key/Whitman

books, these artists actually signed their names to the work!

The comic stories were drawn based on [Connie] Rasinski’s model sheets, and the comic adaptations of the cartoons were sometimes better! The whole run of the St. John’s era is amazing. The kooky, looseness of Jim Tyer—Robert Crumb once parodied Gandy Goose in that style! And later, Gene Deitch’s Tom Terrific and Clint Clobber were just fantastic!”

• SCOTT SHAW! “They’re kinda tepid. The Dell stuff is not memorable, at least not to me. The ones that were packaged by Western Publishing are competent but unremarkable. Those that followed, after the split between Western and Dell, are quite poor, Dell’s equivalent to Charlton’s substandard line of Hanna-Barbera titles.

“I love Timely’s Mighty Mouse funnybooks written and drawn by Al Jaffee in a style that displays his cleverness, versatility, and draftsmanship. I’m not crazy about Al Fago’s work. I don’t know if he was the editor or not, but there seemed to be a directive to draw every opening splash page with a huge image of the feature star’s face. The concept is bland and a rather lazy solution to what could have been impressive, as in Al Jaffee’s stories.”

DC Comics’ the Flash, whose adventures ceased publication in the 1950s but returned for the 1960s. But all good things eventually come to an end and, in 1968, Dell’s Mighty Mouse #172 would be the last issue to appear on newsstands for nearly a decade…

Now we fast-forward to flash back to discuss Mighty Mouse’s comics comeback during the Bronze Age! Early known Mighty Mouse art created sometime in the 1970s includes two gags pitched for an unrealized comic book or newspaper strip. Written and illustrated by Tony Tallarico, this veteran cartoonist’s immense body of work includes other Terrytoons properties used in children’s books and advertising.

Sadly, Paul Terry passed away in 1971. But Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg, and other studio creations remained alive and well through nationwide television syndication during the 1970s.

Children who once watched Terrytoons and read the comics were now adults—and all too happy to share those same experiences with their own families. Mighty Mouse merchandising was in full force, too: buttons, cereal bowls, chalkboards, puffy stickers, Super-8 films, trace-and-paint sets, daily vitamins, and more were readily available at the local grocery stores, five-anddimes, and toy-and-model shops.

One company in particular reigned as the proud, powerhouse licensee for the character—Western Publishing!

The Early Years (top left) The former “Super Mouse” as he first appeared in 1942’s “The Mouse of Tomorrow,” and (top right) Mighty Mouse’s final look. To help remedy possible confusion with Standard Comics’ Supermouse (bottom left), Paul Terry insisted for years that Mighty Mouse’s revised name appear on posters, publicity, and licensing materials. (bottom right) A publicity photo of Paul Terry, promoting Mighty Mouse and other Terrytoons characters from his animation studios, in New Rochelle, New York.

Mighty Mouse and Terrytoons characters © CBS.

54 • BACK ISSUE •Br onze Age TV Toon Tie-ins Issue

Super Cover Art! (left) Stat for Spotlight’s The Mighty Heroes #1 cover, complete with logo-and-typepaste-ups! Not seen since Dell’s Mighty Mouse #171 in 1967, Strongman, Cuckoo Man, Diaper Man, Rope Man and Tornado Man return for one black-and-white adventure.

Art by Jim Engel. Issues #2–3 were planned but unpublished. (right) Black-and-white cover with paste-ups for Mighty Mouse #1, featuring three all-new stories. Cover by Concrete creator Paul Chadwick who, reportedly, illustrated this image in exchange for an ad for his character on the inside back cover. © CBS.

Frank was a judo instructor whose knowledge influenced the creation of the series Judomaster for Charlton. This was fascinating to me, so I enrolled at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City and commuted to take basic art classes. I wanted to become a comics professional.”

After being published for the first time inside JC Comics’ T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 (Jan. 1984) and later contributing to various periodicals including Comics Collector and Toys Values Monthly, Maurizio felt frustrated by the ups-and-downs prevalent in the comics industry: “Deals would happen, then not happen, after a lot of time was invested in creating materials. After putting together an issue of Ghostbusters (still unpublished to this day) for another publisher— only to later lose the license to Now Comics—I thought it was best to start my own company. But I knew it couldn’t be done without help—a lot of it. [laughter]” As fate would have it, Maurizio would meet Kelley Jarvis-Maclay (jarvisarts.com), an aspiring animator who would help him realize his dream of becoming a comics publisher: “Growing up in the ’70s, my sister took me to see Disney’s The Jungle Book in a theater—the first time I saw an animated, feature-length movie,” recalls Jarvis-Maclay. “I was mesmerized by how the characters had feelings—very different than that of the slapstick humor seen on Saturday mornings. From that point on, KELLEY jarvis-Maclay I wanted to tell stories by bringing drawings to life.”

Inspired by multiple animators including Don Bluth, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Walt Kelly, and Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” Jarvis-Maclay wanted to follow in their footsteps. But if that did not work out, she had a backup plan: “Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, and other characters I loved had stories being told in printed form. I educated myself how to draw these famous cartoon faces, and collected old Dell comics to learn about the artists who illustrated them. I first met Richard, who was teaching my first art class in the comic-book field, ‘How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way,’ at a local art-supply store in Connecticut. It was there that I learned about storytelling, figure art, perspective, and staging.”

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by

Stephan Friedt

Here Comes G-Force!

Win Mortimer cover art intended for Gold Key’s Battle of the Planets #1 (June 1979). (inset) Animation-based art was used on the cover instead.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © Sandy Frank Film Syndication Inc.

Battle of the Planets was an Americanized version of a popular Japanese cartoon series known as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.

It followed a team of young heroes called G-Force in their battle to protect Earth from intergalactic threats. Their use of a giant ship made up of smaller ships would inspire other popular series like Voltron. The G-Force team was to kids and young adults of the 1970s what Jonny Quest had been to the kids and young adults of the 1960s.

TATSUO YOSHIDA’S VISION

It started in the imagination of Tatsuo Yoshida. Tatsuo was born in 1932 in Kyoto, Japan. He and his two younger brothers, Kenji and Toyoharu, spent a portion of their childhood during the American occupation of Japan, where they were often gifted with well-read copies of comic books from the soldiers. This early exposure to

Superman and the realm of superheroes proved to be the spark that brought out Tatsuo’s artistic talent of. He supplemented his family’s income by selling his drawings during his teen years. In 1954, now married, Tatsuo packed up his art supplies and, with his wife beside him, moved to Tokyo, where the manga phenomenon was just starting. The publishing house Akita Shoten recognized his talent and hired him on. From 1955 to 1957, he was a prolific artist for the company. His workload eventually became overwhelming, and he convinced his brothers to join him. Toyoharu was also a talented artist, so he helped lighten the load, taking on the pen name Ippei Kuri to distinguish himself from his brother. Brother Kenji got a job in in production. From 1957 to 1962, the three brothers were instrumental in producing more than 40 titles for the company. If that was not enough, Tatsuo also provided art for the publishing house Shonen

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Gaho Sha, where he illustrated his childhood favorite, Superman, from September 1959 to October 1960.

In 1960 Tatsuo became more interested in developing projects than drawing them, so he formed a studio and began producing comics for several publishers. In 1962 Tatsuo named his new company Tatsunoko Productions.

From 1962 to 1969, Tatsuo bounced back and forth between providing comics and working in the fledgling animation studios that were springing up. He created a comic called Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight, which ran from 1963 to 1965. In 1964 it was developed into the animated series Ninja Squad Moonlight, which ran for 130 episodes from 1964 to 1966 and was the first animated series to include Tatsuo in the credits. Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight would have many of the seminal features of what would become Battle for the Planets.

During this time, he illustrated the comic book for Mach Gogogo, which became a cartoon and ended up in the US as Speed Racer.

From 1969 to 1971, Tatsuo worked more in animation than comic books, striving to increase the realism of the artwork involved and being instrumental in the trend to include as much science as possible.

In 1971, working with a core group of professional friends, Tatsuo set out to create a science-based series that would appeal to an older set.

After all, the fans of his many comics series were growing older. Ippei Kuri (brother Toyoharu) pointed out that one of the most popular series they worked on was Tatsuo’s Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight… so why not blend ninjas and science? Ippei and Tatsuo still had their love for superhero comics and wanted to bring the same love to a Japanese hero… better yet, a team of heroes in colorful costumes!

Further inspired by the popularity of the Godzilla movie franchise and its emphasis on the hazards of pollution, their team would be melded with science (including bringing in a teacher as their Science Fiction Consultant) and the team of hardy heroes would guard Earth from pollution and a horrendous evil from space in the form of an organization called Galactor, led by the gender-fluid villain, Berg Katse.

The original draft, Science Ninja Squad 5, incorporated various hooks popular in previous Tatsunoko Productions series—a team, orphans, some comedy, etc. The five characters were: Ken (The Eagle) Hayabusa, the passionate and headstrong leader; Jun (The Swan) Shiratori, the sensitive but strong member; Joe (The Condor) Takano, the nihilistic and impulsive one; Ryu (The Owl) Washio, the big-hearted and brave member; and Jinpei (The Swallow) Tsubakuro, the comedic and dependent one.

All had last names that were types of birds, setting the bird motif of the series. They all had distinct, different-colored uniforms with built-in wings, different individual weapons, different powers, and modes of transportation unique to each, which could transform into one large vehicle. They were a space police force that operated from Phoenix Headquarters and a giant submarine/airship also called Phoenix, to continue the bird theme. Production model sheets and notes show that the name mutated through production: Secret Seven, Shadow, and Birdman pop up on original notes, production cannisters, and model sheets. But it was decided they needed something catchy, something that would get people’s attention… and Science Ninja Squad Gatchaman was born! Some of the merchandise would change it to Science Commando Gatchaman.

This was Tatsuo Yoshida’s baby from the beginning. He was responsible for all the original character designs and drawings, which were later turned over to the team of professionals to adapt and adjust to produce the series. While most animated series at the time were allotted somewhere in the mid to high 3000 cels per episode, Gatchaman was given a budget of 4500 to 6000 cels per episode and as much as 7000 cels if needed to maintain the amount of realism to the animated flow to satisfy Tatsuo’s vision.

BotP Creator Tatsuo Yoshida (top) Kenji Yoshida, Tatsuo Yoshida, Tatsuo’s wife, and Ippei Kuri. (bottom) The Japanese version of Superman, as illustrated by Tatsuo Yoshida.

Photo: Lambiek.com. Superman TM & © DC Comics.

INNOVATION ANIMATION

The series strived to be different from anything before it. They included special effects not seen in other production companies, from a major use of airbrush (95% of the helmets, the visors, the smoke, shine on the mechanicals, etc. were airbrushed, according to Sadao Miyamoto, one of the animators), to live-action plates. Experimental lighting and photography techniques that had been perfected in earlier Tatsunoko works were used to give Gatchaman its own unique identity. And the

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Battle of the Planets Cover Gallery Issues #2–9 of Battle of the Planets, from Gold Key/Whitman (Western Publishing). Covers by Win Mortimer. © Sandy Frank Film Syndication Inc.

staff was determined to perfect the look of explosions… not the spikey blasts you see in most animation, but something much closer to reality. Thanks to rivalries between the animators, all masters in their field, the realism of the art evolved as the show progressed, becoming more and more a realization of Tatsuo’s vision of an ideal animated series.

The staff was encouraged to see as many movies as possible, always looking for things to emulate and ideas to use to improve the art of the series. Elements from 2001 and Planet of the Apes were incorporated thanks to this policy. The staff thought the series would last for a year, when in fact the demand for new episodes from fans were so strong it lasted three years until 1974, for a total of 105 episodes. Tatsuo’s company always hoped to take their various series to the international market and had a booth at the Marché International des Programmes de Télévision, which took place around the first quarter of every year in Cannes, France. Starting in 1975 they offered Gatchaman, but it did not get any takers in 1975, 1976, or 1977.

But in April of 1977 it was seen by a young American television executive by the name of Sandy Frank. When Star Wars broke in May of that year, the young executive remembered the show from Tatsunoko Productions that had impressed him. He decided he had to have it to ride the wave of sciencefiction popularity exploded on the American public.

Sandy Frank had spent 20 years in the business of television production and distribution, and had run his own company for 13, when he came across Gatchaman. Over a considerable period of negotiations between Sandy and Tatsuo, Mr. Frank obtained almost complete international rights to Gatchaman… everywhere but Italy, which was already under contract.

Tatsunoko would benefit greatly from the partnership, as their strengths were in production and not distribution or monetizing their products.

Sandy immediately gathered a crew together to work with all the materials that they received from Tatsunoko. On the advice of his friend, director Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), he contacted writer Alex Lovy of HannaBarbera Productions for assistance. He also brought on Fred Ladd, who was instrumental in bringing the Japanese children’s programs Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Gigantor to America. Ladd advised Sandy on several aspects of bringing foreign series to the US but had no faith in Lovy’s abilities to work with foreign material and decided this project was not for him. His advice also led to the release of Alex Lovy and Frank replaced him with Jameson Brewer (The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Addams Family, and Branded). Jameson had worked at Universal in animation, moved to Disney, and ended up at Hanna-Barbera.

After viewing several episodes, Brewer realized they had a lot of work to do. The series had far more violence than was allowed on American TV, IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, the gender-fluid villain would never fly in America, and the language was CLICK LINK ORDER THIS too adultTHE as was theTO occasional nudity. Removing the objectionable aspects ISSUE INcreate PRINTshortages OR DIGITAL would in theFORMAT! running times, so they had more work to do to fill the gaps than originally anticipated. Brewer set to work on revising the series’ scripts. The violence was removed and explained away (cities were “evacuated” before they were destroyed); a new robot character, 7-Zark-7, was added to fill story transitions and time shortages caused by the cuts; and the gender-fluid villain became a brother/sister team.

7-Zark-7 was roughly designed by Brewer and was turned over to newly added production person, Alan Dinehart, one of his buddies at H-B. Alan was friends with famed comic-book and animation artist Alex Toth, who whipped up a model sheet for the character.

Even though parts of all 105 episodes of Gatchaman were used, only 85 episodes of Battle of the Planets were produced.

Other changes included changing the character’s names. Ken became “Mark,” Joe became “Jason,” Jun became “Princess,” Jinpei became “Keyop” and was given a vocal tick, and Ryu became “Tiny.” Gender-fluid villain Berg Katse became “Zoltar” and his sister became “Mala Latroz.” And the evil BACK ISSUE #129 organization bent on world domination changed from Galactor to “Spectra.”

TV TOON TIE-INS! Bronze Age Hanna-Barbera Comics, UnderBesides Alan Dinehart, also brought in more talent from H-B: dog, Mighty Mouse, Rocky & Bullwinkle, PinkBrewer Panther, Battle ofcomposer the Planets, andHoyt SmokeyCurtin, Bear and Woodsy Owl. Bonus: and voice actors Janet Waldo and Casey Kasem, with SCOTT SHAW! digs up Captain Carrot’s roots! Featuring the the additions of Alan Young and Ronnie Schell [see RetroFan #12 for a Ronnie work of BYRNE, COLON, ENGEL, EVANIER, FIELDS, MICHAEL Schell interview—ed.].

TheSEVERIN, series,SKEATES, Battle of the Planets, was ready to sell.

GALLAGHER, WIN MORTIMER, NORRIS, STATON, TALLARICO, TOTH, more! it would sell.

But that did notandmean (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1622

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