TV comicbook tie-ins of the 50s & 60s PART 5

my final batch, for now...if anyone can think of any others, gimmie a yell (I'm not counting the marvel/dc/independants from about 1970 onwards. If you know of them, have at it)

Charles Gross, pulp artist

Charles Gross painted action oriiented covers for pulp magazines anf their offspring , paperbacks, for almost 50 years beginning in the late 1930s. He painted hundreds of freelance pulp covers for Action Stories, Air Stories, Baseball Stories, Complete Northwest, Detective Book Magazine, Fight Stories, Football Stories, Jungle Stories, North West Romances, and Wings. He also sold pulp covers to A. A. Wyn's Periodical House, for titles such as Ace Sports and Western Aces.

 He was born in Brooklyn in 1909, of Hungarian immigrant parents. His father was a successful freelance artist who did  work for Montgomery Ward's catalogs.

Click all of these for larger versions

Striking cover for THE AVENGER # 74 paperback, 1970s

Early work, 1938

 Sc Fi from 1945

 Another Avenger cover

These 2 look like they are from Don Pendelton's The Executioner paperback series.

Later work,  Nick Carter paperback, 1987

Infopage from Space Family Robinson #23 Aug 1967

art by Dan Spiegle

Jack Benny Comics?

This cover has been making the rounds on the geek-o-sphere.

Hey, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Gleason  & Bob Hope all had comicbooks of their own..why not Jackson?

This is a fantasy cover of what it would have looked like.


But Jack DID make a few comicbook apearances...here's one from TRUE COMICS # 69, Feb '47

Gold Key Comics I've Never Seen (Part 3)

Spring 63 also saw the oneshot Duke Of The K9 Patrol. Cover looks interesting.

Jerry Robinson was the interior artist for this next rarity, which ran 2 issues , June and September of 1963. Obviously a romance comic. Less obvious is who painted the covers.

I remember the TV show, not the comic from July of 1963

Another one shot with a dramatic cover, CITY SURGEON, dated Aug 63. Jack sparling did the interior work.

After their first year, the Gold Key products are more often found in my own collection, so there are not many surprises. Lots of disney, and Disney live action adaptions. Solar, Magnus,Tarzan, Korak and so on.

There was the occasional Four Color reprint.

Here is an interesting oneshot based on a 1963 TV show , The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters , which starred Kurt Russell.

Another GK action title I have never seen and know little of, from December 1964:

Collier's Magazine July 13 ,1940

Love this cover painting my Robert Reid

                                                                    click for full size

George Wilson cover art, Dark Shadows #30, Feb 75

Not sure if the text overlays are original for the photo-art process or not. Looks pretty much like the final cover, except no price diamond in upper right.

Original cover art RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT #39

George Wilson, 1973.

One thing I love about Wilson's work is his use of just a few elements of a scene to convey excitment..just what a commercial artist needs to do.

Click the image for a MUCH larger one.

Infopages from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea #7, Feb. 1967

Popeye The Sailor Sea Stories

Gold Key put this out in their first month of operation, in 1962 (cover date October) when they were doing a lot of 25 cent 80 pagers.  Written and drawn by Bud Sagendorf .
Indicia info indicates that this is issue #66, continuing the numbering from Dell's series

Original cover art for BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #17

March, 1967. Most likely by George Wilson.




The first 2 issues were named Boris Karloff Thriller, after his anthology TV series.
The very first issue, dated October 1962 (so it went on sale about August), was only the third Gold Key offering since their creation by Western Publishing's break with Dell.
These first two issues were 80 pages priced at 25 cents.