« Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality. » — Friedrich Nietzsche
This charming rogue doesn’t look like he’s going to share his pretties with just anyone, so be sure to ask nicely.
Stanley P. Morse ran a rather fly-by-night operation, even by funnybook industry standards, but someone in there had some taste, as evidenced by the classic material produced under its various dodgy banners (Aragon, Gilmor, Key Publications, Media, S.P.M., Stanmor, Timor…) by such notables as the aforementioned Mr. Baily, Basil Wolverton (including his enduring The Brain Bats of Venus) and a fledgling Steve Ditko.
This particular issue includes Fredric Wertham favourite Mother’s Advice, but really, the whole issue’s pretty wacky.
Still, the highlight of the issue has to be a brilliantly idiotic short tale intriguingly entitled… Sssshhh. Here it is:
Scripter unknown, with pencils by Sal Trapani, with inks by S. Finocchiaro. I have to say that this is my favourite-ever work by Trapani, a hack if there ever was one, whose inking jobs (his specialty in later years) generally did no favours to anyone’s pencils. And he had quite a prolific career, which was surely not hindered in the least by his being Dick Giordano‘s brother-in-law. For the defence, one of my close pals and colleagues holds that Trapani’s inks over Herb Trimpe‘s pencils on The Incredible Hulk (issues 156-166) were the finest of Trimpe’s lengthy run on the title. As far as that goes, I’ll stick with John Severin, but I do concede that Trimpe and Trapani did mesh well.
In his spare time, Trapani was the driving force behind the Society of American Vintage-radio Enthusiasts, which makes him very cool indeed. Here’s a compelling account of the early days of the movement to preserve this crucial art form. And it wasn’t just passive preservation: here’s an original recording of classic radio plays he produced in 1972.
-RG
Who's Out There? 
One thought on “Hallowe’en Countdown IV, Day 5”