Morning Joe

"Hi guys..I know how cold it gets up here, so I brought a LARGE thermos of decaf!"

Gold Key Educational pages from SUPERCAR #4

August 1963

Comic Book Short Story- Mr District Attorney

Mr. District Attorney was a popular radio crime drama which aired on NBC and ABC from  1939 to  1952. It also had a brief run on television. In the radio version, the lead character's name was never stated.
Dell Four Color #13 presented several tales of the D. A. in 1942, all fairly short. Here is one of them, with art by Maurice Kashuba. (These were actually collected from Dell's earlier THE FUNNIES)



As usual, click on the pages for full size..they are fairly large scans.

Dell educational page from Four Color #960

During the last half of its long run, the Dell Four Color series began placing , on its last page or so, an educational short often related to whatever that particular issue was about.Gold Key continued this for their first few years too.

This page is by the great Alex Toth.

 Guy Williams, of course, as ZORRO!!. from December 1958 issue.

Gold Key Comics I've Never Seen (Part 2)

One of the first things Western Published under their Gold Key imprint for January 1963 was a movie adaption of Walt Disney's Escapade in Florence, a title unknown to me as a movie either. It was an Annette Funicello vehicle with Tommy Kirk. I think it only saw light on Disney's TV show.

Also dated for January is this oneshot called THE LION, adapted from the William Holden film that starred a very young Pamela Franklin.

February found us with the previously mentioned 77 Sunset Strip # 2, but also the usual assortment of licensed cartoon characters such Bullwinkle, The Flintstones & Heckle and Jeckle. Oh, and some guy in shorts who looked like Tarzan but fought robots that  went "SCREEEEE".

The only thing unknown to me for March 63 was a Disney movie adaption about a wolf, entitled The Ledgend of Lobo.

April 63 has an interesting GK on its newsracks....Freedom Agent. I know nothing about it other than it has a George Wilson cover with a chicken as its largest element.

The Nurses was a TV adaption that ran for 3 issues (April, July & October 1963)

part 3 ---ready soon!

Comic Book Short Story ~~ The Detectives "The Informer"

The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor was an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons, and on NBC for its final season. Along with Robert Taylor the series starred Tige Andrews (later on THE MOD SQUAD), Adam West (later on THE FAMILY GUY and some other show) and Mark Goddard (future Don West on LOST IN SPACE).
The first 2 seasons were in my favorite format, 30 minute drama. The 3rd season increased to an hour. Reruns were syndicated as "Captain of Detectives", as most reruns had a title change back then.


Nat Edson, who mostly did westerns in the 1950s, drew the Dell Four Color issue # 1219, March 1962. Written by Eric Freiwald and  Robert Schaefer, here is one of the two stories in   that issue.

The front cover is rather bland compared to earlier photo covers.

info page

info page

Dell infopages

from Four Color 1148, Oct 1960

 above art by Jack Sparling

from Four Color 877, Feb 1958

art might be by Aex Toth

from Four Color 1101, May 1960

Nat Edson did the art

Dell Four Color # 1231 DANGER MAN

This issue from November 1961 features a one shot story about John Drake, Danger Man.


The show ran for 39 episodes in 60-61. Drake was not so much a secret agent as a globe trotting trouble shooter. Patrick McGoohan played Drake, an American employed by NATO.

After a hiatus of 3 years, and with the James Bond fad heating up, the show was brought back. Oddly, McGoohan played Drake now as an Englishman working for the British secret service. The shows were now an hour long, instead of a half hour, and the tightness of script suffered. It was renamed SECRET AGENT for the US market.

Drake plodded along as a TV 007 for a couple more years. Then he may or may not have been taken to the Village...but that's another discussion.

The interior artwork is by Tony Tallarico .The animals on the cover are reminiscent of Norm Saunders.

Marvel likes to take credit for the double page panel, but as I've shown in a previous post, Dell was doing them as early as 1943. Here is a nice double page panel from this issue.
 

The comic was 32 pages...that's alot to do a story from a 30 minute TV show format, so padding is evident. Here are THREE full pages panels.

 

This issue also contained an "infopage" on the back cover