Author: gasp65

Corto Maltese, the Consummate Cosmopolitan Adventurer

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« The poet is a madman lost in adventure. » — Paul Verlaine

Today, we’ll examine the early history of Italian fumetti maestro Ugo Eugenio Prat’s (aka Hugo Pratt, 1927-1995) most famous personage, Corto Maltese.

Maltese (named, indeed, after Dashiell Hammett’s famous novel… or rather its John Huston-helmed cinematic adaptation) created in 1967 for the Italian magazine Sgt. Kirk… saddled with a modest print run of 3000… and rather soon cancelled owing to low sales! There, Corto turned up — as a minor player — in a tale entitled Una Ballata del Mare Salato (“A Ballad of the Salt Sea”). Corto’s peregrinations then followed their tortuous course in French bédé weekly Pif Gadget from 1970-73, where the strip mostly baffled — or even enraged — readers but was tirelessly championed by the enlightened editorial team. In his Prix Goncourt-winning biography*, Hugo Pratt, trait pour trait, Thierry Thomas states: « With each new episode, the magazine received letters from readers who couldn’t make head nor tail of it, and demanded Rahan, nothing but Rahan. » Clearly, the world wasn’t ready for Corto… but that acceptance would gradually arrive, at least in the non English-speaking world**.

While the Corto saga has been made available over the years in several fine editions in most of the European languages, it took a long time for English to be added to the roster. In the USA, IDW has managed the fairly monumental but inarguably laudable task; I only wish the covers weren’t so ill-conceived, sadly a feature, rather than a bug, of editor-designer (and translator!) well-meaning Dean Mullaney‘s reprint collections at IDW**.

This presentation by Pif Gadget’s editor-in-chief, Georges Rieu, ran on the inside front cover of the magazine’s 59th issue, between Corto’s first and second appearances:

« You’ve met him while leafing through your PIF, last week… you may have deemed him, at first glance, cynical and cold… but you quickly realised that this nonchalance was but an appearance: Corto Maltese is a kind-hearted adventurer and his attitude serves only to mask a generosity that pulls him into adventures he’d rather avoid… adventures that drag him to the four corners of Central America, from Chile to the Caribbean, in savage lands where magic and ancient superstitions yet reign… in a search for lost civilisations and treasures.

Our friend, artist Hugo Pratt, has spent nearly ten years in patiently piecing together the history of Corto Maltese… in gathering all the documents that speak of these vanished worlds, in questioning the old sailors of the ports along the coasts of the Atlantic and of the Caribbean Sea…

Today, he reveals to us the fruit of his research… adventures that, we are sure, will enthral you. Hurry over to page 11 and join Corto Maltese and his friends aboard their boat. »

Corto’s young friend, Tristan Bantam, has some interesting visions in a sequence from Rendez-vous à Bahia (“Rendezvous in Bahia”… of course), Corto’s second solo tale, first published in Pif Gadget no. 59.

Rieu’s successor as Pif’s editor-in-chief, Richard Médioni, wrote: « In brief, in the Fall of 1969, Hugo Pratt found himself out of work. » After Pratt is crowned, that year, Best Italian Cartoonist at the Salone Internazionale dei Comics in Lucca (Europe’s oldest comics festival)… « It was expected that all publishers (French, Italian, and others, all present at the Salon) would push and shove their way to Hugo Pratt to propose a collaboration… but no such thing happened. Only Pif Gadget showed interest. »

High drama and ace storytelling from À cause d’une mouette (“Because of a Seagull”), from Pif Gadget no. 89 (Nov. 1970, Vaillant).
Corto is forced to take a hand in a skirmish in L’ange à la fenêtre d’Orient (“The Angel at the East Window”), first published in Pif Gadget no. 135 (Sept. 1971, Vaillant).

The usually unflappable Corto gets the fright of his life in this bravura sequence, also from L’ange à la fenêtre d’Orient.

Two pages from Sous le drapeau de l’argent (“Under the Banner of Money”), my initial encounter with Signor Pratt’s world. Published in Pif Gadget no. 143 (Nov. 1971, Vaillant).
The quiet coda of Le songe d’un matin d’hiver (“A Winter Morning’s Dream“), set in Britain and plunging the reader into a dazzling brew of magical realism and English mythology from Pif Gadget no. 161 (March 1972, Vaillant). The featured crow is of course Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow, which you may recall from Will Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One might say it’s a bit like The Sandman, but without all the preciousness, not to mention having to deal with Neil Gaiman.

Bonus factoid: Hugo Pratt was related to another artistic giant, William Henry Pratt, aka Boris Karloff!

-RG

*Imagine, if you will, a biography of, say, Will Eisner winning a Pulitzer.

**According to his biographer, one of Pratt’s eternal regrets is that his work never broke through in America, land of his childhood cartooning heroes George Herriman, Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond and Burne Hogarth.

***One need only look at Mullaney’s Rip Kirby, where a blobby, lazy Photoshop shadow directly contradicts the light source indicated by Alex Raymond, a guy you’d assume it would be unwise to second-guess.

Treasured Stories: “Sorry, Wrong Dimension” (1965)

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« All realities, all dimensions are open to me! » — Prince

Growing up, Lee Elias (1920-1998) never was a particular favourite of mine. A handful of stories in DC’s mystery titles aside — and I’ve grown to love those — I probably came across his work for Marvel’s Human Fly series, and I was always disappointed when Elias, not my beloved Frank Robbins, turned up in the credits. For the record, Elias drew ten of the nineteen HF issues, and Robbins drew six, plus five covers.

Over time, I noticed his gloriously gruesome cover work with art director-designer Warren Kremer for Harvey’s Pre-Code Horror titles of the early 1950s. His work on DC’s Adam Strange in the mid-1960s is best forgotten — there is only one Adam Strange, and it’s Carmine Infantino‘s (with trusty inker Murphy Anderson along for the Zeta Beam ride, of course). However, I adore Elias’ brief run (with writer Dave Wood) on Ultra the Multi-Alien, the splendidly wacky feature that replaced Adam Strange in Mystery in Space (issues 103 to 110, 1965-66).

As a treat, here’s one of those Ultra covers.

This is Mystery in Space no. 108 (June 1966, DC), illustrated by Murphy Anderson. On this cover, Ultra has always reminded me of Men Without Hats‘ main man, Ivan Doroschuk. Well, Pop Goes the World!
Originally published — writer uncredited — in Strange Adventures no. 178 (July 1965, DC). Its title is a clever twist on Lucille Fletcher‘s 1943 radio play — and Agnes Moorehead tour de force — ‘Sorry, Wrong Number‘, which Orson Welles praised as “the greatest single radio script ever written“.

I’ve left in the ad, because… Enemy Ace, Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert‘s finest hour!

Why am I so fond of this particular story? It’s the little things: for once, a story in a Jack Schiff-edited title makes some semblance of adhering to scientific — or at least science-fictional — principles; here, Elias designed an alien race that, given their grumpy, unprepossessing mugs, would typically have been cast as villains, but instead turn out perfectly honourable; the story’s human protagonists give aid to strangers in need, never asking for a thing in return: no Zarkan mineral rights, no salacious dirt on J’onn J’onzz, just selfless dedication to doing the right thing and the satisfaction of averting a crisis. How refreshingly old-fashioned, a cooling balm for these harrowing times.

-RG

p.s. my partner ds should return to our blog soon… she’s at present battling a mild case of writer’s block, so I’m filling in.

Hey Kids — Tea Party Comics!

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« Well, that was the silliest tea party I ever went to! I am never going back there again! » — Lewis Carroll

One more item unearthed while rummaging through my unsorted boxes: a couple of back issues of The Funny Times, one from 2010, the other 2013. The former held a fascinating exercice by Herblock prize winning cartoonist Ward Sutton, skewering and subverting the conservative ‘mindset’ from within. Not an easy trick to pull off convincingly, I would think; yet it’s one of Sutton’s specialties, having honed it to perfection — of a sort — as The Onion‘s longtime political cartoonist (since 2006), fictive curmudgeon “Stan Kelly”. Here’s a trove of Kelly pieces, which The New Yorker deemed “brilliantly terrible”.

Given the recent rash of controversies — in a long row of such skirmishes — regarding cartoonists’ freedom of expression, this piece sadly remains pertinent.

Remember the Tea Party?
Of course, B.P. barely feels like parody, given B.C. creator’s Johnny Hart mesolithic views. A couple of samples from a 1999 interview: « Jews and Muslims who don’t accept Jesus will burn in hell », « Homosexuality is the handiwork of Satan ». [ source ]
Ah, yes — that nonsense about Obama’s birth certificate, another MacGuffin in a seemingly endless parade of conservative bugaboos.
By most accounts, Herbert Hoover was a pretty lousy president, though everything’s relative.
Another fine myth, that of a liberally-biased media.
Teanuts goes right back to the first Peanuts strip (Oct. 2, 1950) for its inspiration (though not its aspect ratio, for some reason).
Here’s a pearl: « simply, homosexuality can be healed. That is, a homosexual can become a heterosexual; the homosexual orientation can be changed through prayer for inner healing and the power of the Holy Spirit. ». [ source ]
Again, Diligent-Bert hews so close to its model that it might easily pass for an actual Dilbert strip.

Incidentally, “Tea Party Comics”, commissioned by The Boston Globe, hardly passed unnoticed: it reaped a gold medal from the Society of Publication Designers.

The feature was accompanied by this deadpan caveat: « EDITOR’S NOTE: Ward Sutton, an elitist who lives in the elitist New York area, is a cartoonist, illustrator, animator and painter who has recently been lurking about the back of Tea Party gatherings, stuffing his pockets with American flag cookies, and brochures for camouflage underwear and mail-order ammo. Superpatriot and regular guy cartoonist Joe Smith disavows any knowledge of Mr. Sutton and his ilk. Need I say more? »

-RG

Roaming the Snowy Trails With Gité

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« Silence is a still noise. » — Josh Billings

Given the context of pointless and (self-) destructive trade wars currently raging, I thought I’d focus on a topic closer to home, and befitting the season: we’ve received some 85 cm (33 inches) of snow in the past week or so, which makes it ideal snowmobile weather, as these things go.

While there’s been a vibrant comics scene in Québec for just about as long as there have been comics, financial viability has always been a problem. Magazines would pop up like mushrooms after a rain, only to vanish just as suddenly after a few issues. It probably didn’t help that Québécois bédéistes were generally far less interested in producing the next Blondie than they were longing to be the next Crumb.

And so, the best gig around turned out to be Perspectives, a general interest magazine (1959-1982) bundled into weekend editions of several of Québec’s major newspapers (La Presse, Le Soleil, Dimanche-Matin…) in largely distinct versions, which makes collecting them a most daunting task. It’s worth noting that the editorial content, not merely the cartoons and comic strips, were of a very high calibre. After profiling his colleague and predecessor André Montpetit a while back, it’s now time to turn the spotlight upon Gité, born Jean Turgeon (1952-2014).

Do you Snowmobile? « I snowmobile! »; If this traditional wintery scene evokes for you peace and serenity, then you’ve never seen… a snowmobile! This simple machine possesses the gift of turning the quietest of areas into a noisy corner of hell. Unless you can’t bear the silence of our countryside…; In that case, become a snowmobiler… you only need a little snow… not *too* much, though!
You have chosen your snowmobile… and your outfit… think of the essentials.; Stop, listen, look.; Don’t neglect the comfort of your passagers: « Darling, I’m falling! Hiiiik! »; Have you properly read the repair manual?
Beware of the frost. « Say, daddy! How come it’s frozen solid in mid-air… it defies the law of gravity! » « The law of gravity? That must also be frozen! »; … and of the thaw. « Where am I? »; Especially if you’re an inveterate daredevil!; while the more sedentary type…; And if it breaks your heart to put away your snowmobile for the summer…; « And so long live the snowmobile! As for me, I’m off to Miami... »

It seems to me that making a lot of noise and hitting absurdly excessive speeds are the prime draws of their ‘sport’ to a significant portion of fervent snowmobilers. Back in the 1970s, these vehicles were rather comically wheezy, but now can reach speeds far in excess of what a regular automobile can legally — or otherwise — hit on the highway, never mind the Autobahn. I remember one holiday season, not so long ago, when one of my clients topped himself on his snowmobile, leaving behind a tearful wife, three young children, and a couple of rudderless businesses. While someone *did* think of electric — and therefore quieter — snowmobiles (and Jet-skis), they pulled the now-usual arrogant move (think OceanGate and SpaceX) of paying plenty of attention to investors and waving off due process, the scientific method and their engineers, leading to a predictable fiasco.

A note on Gité’s technique, as he recounts it in an interview conducted — in the nick of time! — for Jean-Dominic Leduc and Michel Viau‘s Les années Croc (2013):

« I had developed a technique, during the Perspectives era, that I was probably the only illustrator to use. I first created an illustration in pencil, which I then photographed on a giant machine, as a photostat. I then applied colours in markers with my fingertips, which created a sort of stained glass effect in terms of luminosity. Sometimes you can even see my fingerprints… That technique was not only arduous, but also dangerous. It was really toxic, I was literally ripping off the skin of my fingers. No wonder I got sick a few years later! That method left no room for error. »

Here are a couple more Gité strips from the pages of Perspectives:

« Not so Dumb », from Perspectives vol. 16 no. 37 (Sept. 14, 1974); the sign reads “Mean Dog”.
« Inflation », a forever relevant strip that appeared in Perspectives vol. 17 no. 7 (Feb. 15, 1975).
A sample Perspectives cover, this one featuring national treasure Robert Charlebois, at the time but a single decade into his spirited musical career.

Then came Croc, handily Québec’s most accomplished and successful humour mag (1979-1995, 189 issues), more National Lampoon than Mad, at least in the beginning. Gité produced quite a score of tremendous Croc covers — possibly the epitome of his œuvre — and I was planning on devoting a post to that lovely lot… but discovered that Gité’s colleague and close friend Guy Badeaux, aka Bado, had beaten me to the idea by over a decade. Feast your peepers on his savvy selections!

Ah, but he missed this one, Gité’s first! This is Croc no. 4 (Jan. 1980); despair not, doomsayer: the end may *yet* be nigh!

-RG

Jack Kirby’s ‘I Died a Thousand Times’

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« Great Scott! What a mess! Did we walk away from that? » — Rocky Davis

A couple of years after our big move, I’m still going through boxes, here at WOT? Headquarters. The other day, I came upon a stack of the long-running French anthology digest Big Boss (and its sidekick series, ‘Big Boy’), acquired who knows when and where… but surely for a song. Big Boss and ‘Big Boy’ (the quotation marks were part of the title!) were a most affordable source of vintage second-tier DC material like Roy Raymond, TV Detective; J’onn J’onzz, Martian Manhunter; Detective Chimp… and standalone tales from My Greatest Adventure, Tales of the Unexpected, House of Mystery and House of Secrets… essentially infamous editor Jack Schiff‘s row to hoe in the DC plantation.

This is Big Boss no. 6 (Oct. 1971, Arédit-Artima); cover by Ruben Moreira.

One might be inclined to say that, with its themes of adventurers cheating death or living on borrowed time, I Died a Thousand Times inspired Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown, except that Ace, Rocky, Prof and Red had burst into print a few months earlier. Suffice it to say that they sprang from the same fertile well. It’s always intriguing to observe how the particular seed of an idea can be grown in a myriad of directions.

If you’ll forgive me the intrusion, this is how the opening panel appeared in the Big Boss reprint. In order to make things more readable in the digest format — and in black and white — Arédit‘s in-house art department routinely reframed and even augmented the artwork, with varying degrees of competence and success. This is one of the more accomplished efforts.

The story’s writer is unknown (though it features a most Kirbyesque plot); it was pencilled and likely inked by King Kirby, and originally appeared in My Greatest Adventure no. 16 (July-Aug. 1957, DC); edited by Whitney Ellsworth; Jack Schiff; Murray Boltinoff and George Kashdan… let’s just say DC *was* a tad heavy on the management side in those days.

Though Kirby’s standalone short stories of this period are as charming and inventive as you’d expect, this modest trove of material has by and large been neglected. While a handful of these tales (The Thief of Thoughts; The Creatures from Nowhere!; The Cats Who Knew Too Much!; The Man Who Betrayed Earth; The Negative Man; and The Stone Sentinels of Giant Island) were semi-randomly reprinted in the early 1970s when DC had lots of pages to fill, this one didn’t resurface in North America until 2011’s pricey-then-and-pricier-now hardcover Jack Kirby Omnibus no. 1.

– RG

Hot Streak: Creig Flessel’s Detective Comics

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« The criminal is a creative artist; detectives are just critics. » — Hannu Rajaniemi

This time, we’re going way back to the dawn of DC Comics, when the company name stood for its flagship title… Detective Comics.

This is when the company’s visionary but hapless founder, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, was still around, before Harry Donenfeld and his crony Yakov (Jack) Liebowitz had the locks changed.

While that chain of events is a fascinating bit of history, what I’m here to celebrate is a sequence of classic covers by recent — 2024 recent — Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame inductee Creig Valentine Flessel (1912-2008). Flessel produced eighteen of the first nineteen Detective Comics covers (the premiere issue bore a striking, but rather primitive drawing by associate editor Vin Sullivan), visibly gaining assurance and verve as he sped along. By my reckoning, however, it’s only with the eleventh issue that he solidly hit his stride, which he never let up until the assignment passed into other hands… and then came Batman.

Anyway, here they are: no hand-holding, no patronising, superfluous captions… just graphic purity — and sweat-soaked, pulpy thrills galore.

This is Detective Comics no. 11 (Jan. 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 12 (Feb. 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 13 (Mar. 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 14 (Apr. 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 15 (May 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 16 (June 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 17 (July 1938, DC).
This is Detective Comics no. 18 (Aug. 1938, DC). Even as a relatively sheltered white teenager, I could easily tell that Sax Rohmer‘s Fu Manchu stories were racist (and sexist as well) « Yellow Peril » tripe… even in the context of their era, they went the extra mile.
This is Detective Comics no. 19 (Sept. 1938, DC), Flessel’s final cover for the title.

Flessel would turn up all over the place. Gary Groth writes, introducing his definitive, career-spanning Flessel interview:

« Flessel never became an auteur with a truly recognizable narrative voice or characters that he could call entirely his own. He was so skilled and versatile that he became an artistic chameleon, a commercial propensity that served him well throughout his career. He wrote and drew stories for the earliest published comic books: More Fun, Detective Comics and Adventure; worked for the advertising firm of Johnstone and Cushing; assisted Al Capp on Li’l Abner and worked with Charlie Biro on Crime Does Not Pay in the ’50s; spent the ’60s and early ’70s drawing David Crane, a comic strip about a minister in a small town and segued seamlessly into an eight-year gig doing The Tales of Baron Von Furstinbed for Playboy. »

Detail (the whole spread would have been impossible to scan properly) from one of Flessel’s long-running series of Eveready Batteries adverts, done in the employ of the celebrated Johnstone and Cushing ad agency (this one’s from 1951). On his The Fabulous Fifties blog, Ger Apeldoorn showcases a number of these lovelies — check ’em out!
Flessel turned up as Jerry Grandenetti‘s inker on my favourite issue of Joe Simon and Grandenetti’s much-maligned, short-lived but quite charming Prez (no. 4, Feb.-Mar. 1974, DC). Notwithstanding the — intentionally — fanciful elements of the Wild in the Streets-inspired social satire, old hand Simon had a much firmer grasp on how politics actually work than did any of the earnest, self-consciously ‘relevant’ comics writers of the day. And one can only sigh nostalgically at days when the worst thing that might slither into the White House was a mere vampire…

Flessel’s ability to depict ladies of the buxom and comely variety had certainly played a role in his landing a gig assisting Al Capp on Lil’ Abner for a couple of years in the late 1950s. At the time, Capp spent much of his time touring college campuses and berating the younger set, as was his wont.

Said virtuosity in the light-hearted and erotic stood him in good stead for an eight-year gig on The Tales of Baron Von Furstinbed for The Playboy Funnies; this one’s from the January, 1983 issue of Playboy Magazine. And here’s another, for good measure.

In closing, a brief exchange from The Comics Journal interview — please do go and read the whole thing, it’s a gem!

GROTH: I have a note that you had something to do with Superboy from 1958 to ’59.

FLESSEL: I did one. You know, it’s frightening; it’s like going out and drinking a lot of martinis and doing a job and not remembering.

-RG

New Words for a New Year!

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« I find vocabulary to be a great drawback. » — Elizabeth Taylor

I think most of us will concur — sorry, Liz — that a rich vocabulary is a useful asset on multiple levels. And in riding with that particular train of thought, if a new year brings new goals and resolutions to achieve them, what could be more judicious and feasible than picking up a handful of new words… and their proper meaning?

Cartoonist Mickey Bach (1909-1994) made it his mission to help the newspaper-reading masses bone up on unusual vocables. While he’s never ranked among the cartooning greats, the premise of his feature, Word-a-Day, was a rock-solid one, granting the panel a healthy run from 1946 to 1979, first with the Publishers Syndicate until 1967, when it merged with the Hall Syndicate*.

It’s also worth noting that, for a feature that’s been officially defunct for some forty-five years, it’s a pretty lively one: an admirably devoted and industrious fan has kept the Word-a-Day flame alive with the Word A Day Revisited Index. Kudos!

As far as I can tell, there was only one Word-a-Day collection published, but it was a successful one. First published by Scholastic Book Services in 1965 and comprising selections from 1960 to 1963, it received at least four printings through 1972, this being the fourth, from April of that year.

Let’s see what lies within, shall we?

Part of the nostalgic fun in these images is their reliable repertory company of cartooning archetypes such as sandwich men, hobos, boxers, cranky bosses, talent agents, bearskin rugs, door-to-door salesmen, masked burglars, beret-sporting artistes…
Ah, yes: that nagging feeling that we, as a society, are somehow regressing rather than progressing.
Bach had a somewhat generic, but pleasant and competent cartoon style, wherein I detect the great Bill Holman as a principal influence. Bach clearly was a man of discernment.

Don’t be that boorish chump: here’s a handy guide to tipping étiquette from no less an authority than Emily Post (not to be confused with Emily Ghost).
This one’s a particular favourite of mine, having had to correct its misuse time and again; apparently, some people have surmised (without checking, naturally) that ‘fulsome’ means, ‘full’, only more so and in a fancier way. No, guys, ‘a fulsome investigation will be conducted‘ does not signify what you think it does.
Derived from the French ‘Gasconnade’, which refers pejoratively to the speech of denizens of the Gascony region. « Speaking with the Gascon accent, which is to say accentuating silent ‘e’s, and letting ring out several final consonants that the French leave silent. »
I find this one particularly clever.
This one’s considered archaic nowadays — when it is considered at all — though its close relative, insipid, endures. Not to be confused with its homophone, incipience, which refers to the beginning of something.

Sadly, Gorilla will likely pound the erudition out of that unfortunate pugilist.
Here’s a sentiment most reasonable the world over are currently experiencing, to their chagrin.

« There could be no jealousy/over my poetry/it’s my weakest quality/no vocabulary » — Todd Rundgren, Chapter and Verse

From both of us at WOT?, thanks for your continued support and interest, and may the coming year bring you as little as possible of what you’re dreading.

-RG

* It’s actually considerably more complex: « In 1963 Chicago-based Field Enterprises and New York Herald Tribune publisher John Hay Whitney acquired Publishers Syndicate, merging syndication operations with Field’s Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate, the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate, and the syndicate of the Chicago Daily News (a newspaper that had been acquired by Field Enterprises in 1959). When the New York Herald Tribune folded in 1966, Publishers inherited their strips, including Johnny Hart‘s B.C., Mell Lazarus‘ Miss Peach, and Harry Haenigsen‘s Penny.

In 1967, Field Enterprises acquired Robert M. Hall‘s New York-based Hall Syndicate, merging it with Publishers to form the Publishers-Hall Syndicate. » Phew.

Everybody Knows Leadfoot Larry!

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« In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After ‘nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder. » — Jan Karon

Jerry Grandenetti‘s whirlwind passage through the halls of Charlton (circa early 1966) was barely noticed, let alone commented upon. Ah, but it nonetheless was interesting. Grandenetti, frustrated with his limited prospects in illustrating war scripts for Bob Kanigher at DC, was in the middle of trying to expand his client base and break away from the obvious constraints of dealing with a petty tyrant. He was also eager to let his style evolve naturally, which certainly wasn’t going to happen in the pages of Star-Spangled War Stories.

And so, in 1966, Grandenetti, while keeping active at DC, passed through Tower (Fight the Enemy), Gold Key (The Twilight Zone), Marvel (Tales to Astonish: both The Hulk and Namor), Warren (Creepy and Eerie), though much of that work was ghosted for Joe Orlando and only revealed to be Jerry’s own… well after the fact.

For my money — and it won’t surprise anyone — the most unhampered and noteworthy art he created over that year was at Charlton. Here’s a sample!

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« Leadfoot Larry » was written by Joe Gill and inked by Jon D’Agostino.

While I prefer Grandenetti’s own inks (unless Wally Wood or Murphy Anderson are on the table!) over his pencils, future Archie stalwart Jon D’Agostino (1929-2010) performs a slick job that doesn’t smother Jerry’s pencils. A pair of romance stories saw him unfortunately saddled with indifferent Vince Alascia, but a teaming with Rocco Mastroserio proved attractive. The crown jewel of the ’60s Grandenetti Charltons was a sixteen-pager purporting to tell « The True Story of Jesse James! », wherein JG got to ink himself.

For me, what sets « Leadfoot Larry » apart is that it’s a character piece, the hot rodding taking a back seat to the — often underlying — themes of PTSD, sound reason pitted against blind rage, trust, maturity and responsibility facing callowness and cowardly chaos… with the sobering conclusion that you just can’t reason with some people. In typical Joe Gill fashion, most of the issues are circumstantial… they don’t explode into melodramatics. It’s not a perfect world, nor should it be, but one I’d rather inhabit, given the choice.

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Here’s the issue it’s from, Hot Rod Racers no. 8 (Apr.-May 1966, Charlton). Despite being cobbled together from interior art, the cover manages to be pretty striking. Pat Masulli, editor.

-RG

Welcome to Virgil and Sigmund’s Cocktail Party!

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« If Freud had worn a kilt in the prescribed Highland manner he might have had a very different attitude to genitals. » — Woodrow Wilson

Let’s talk about your drinking.

Aw, just kidding: that’s your business and none of mine. There’s certainly no shortage of reasons — or might these be excuses? — for it nowadays. Speaking of which, here’s the recipe for the Freudian Slip Cocktail, which is presumably what ol’ Sigmund is shown energetically mixing up below. Cul sec, friends!

Virgil Partch‘s « Sigmund Freud’s Cocktail Party » originally appeared in Playboy Magazine’s August, 1962 issue.

Let’s keep it straight. Check out Exhibitionism: Misconceptions and Tips to Practice Safely.
More on the subject with Introvert vs Extrovert: A Look at the Spectrum & Psychology.
Let’s skip the envy… the theory of wish fulfillment gives us more to chew on, so to speak..
What are compulsions? As if you didn’t know…
Here’s What You Should Know About the Oedipus Complex (the fancier, more scientific appellation).
I love that chair! Why don’t you take a seat and peruse A Brief Introduction to Dissociation?
The Herd instinct or How cultivated individuals can become barbarians in a crowd… tell me about it! (is that Bea Arthur in the light green dress?)
Meet The Invisible Wall of Psychological Resistance and wail.
Yes, good old self-sabotage. Try, if you’ll allow yourself,Taming the Inner Storm: Strategies for Managing Internal Conflict.
« Hallucination, the experience of perceiving objects or events that do not have an external source… »
A common affliction in superheroes, one would expect. Here’s a piece about Sigmund’s take on the concept.
Ask yourself this: Are you subconsciously seeking out rejection?
A sizzling double header of Why You May Act Immature During Anxiety-Provoking Situations and The Instinct Theory of Agression. Watch the fur fly!
And finally, Freud’s hysteria and its legacy. Good night everyone, and where’s that designated driver at?

-RG

Hallowe’en Countdown VIII, Day 31

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« A dead body revenges not injuries. » — William Blake

« Do you end every Hallowe’en Countdown with Steve Ditko? », ds reasonably asked me last month. Well, no, I replied, but it generally plays out that way since, by my reckoning, nothing embodies the spirit of this finest of holidays quite like a sepulchral Joe Gill – Steve Ditko yarn.

My heartfelt thanks to all our guests — visitors, readers and contributors — who made this breakneck endeavour possible… in particular ds, who shouldered a significant part of the load and came through with flying, but appropriately sombre, colours.

Take it away, Messrs Gill, Ditko and Dedd!

Yes, it’s your basic ‘greedy relative’ plot, but perfectly executed. And the late Mr. Strick would surely concur about the ‘perfectly executed’ part.
And since the cover gives away a bit too much, here it is, after the story. This is Ghostly Tales no. 103 (Apr. 1973, Charlton). Cover by Steve Ditko, naturally.

And we have one more countdown concluded against soul-searing odds. Now, if you’re craving more, you insatiable ghouls, feel free — could we stop you even if we tried? — to slobber amidst our back pages, at this point numbering two hundred and forty-eight posts :

Hallowe’en Countdown VIII

Hallowe’en Countdown VII

Hallowe’en Countdown VI

Hallowe’en Countdown V

Hallowe’en Countdown IV

Hallowe’en Countdown III

Hallowe’en Countdown II

Hallowe’en Countdown I

Wishing you all a spine-rattling Hallowe’en — all your verminous loitering was deeply appreciated!

-RG