Brrrr. Much of North America and the United States is gripped right now is what is called a polar vortex, with record-breaking cold temperatures. Jack Frost is definitely nipping at our noses and any other exposed parts.
Speaking of Jack Frost, I’ll bet you wouldn’t place Jack Frost under the ocean (nor would I), but here he is in The Land of the Lost #3 (1946). The story is written by Isabel Manning Hewson, the creator and writer of the then-popular radio series, and illustrated by Olive Bailey.
I have shown other episodes of this charming series, published by EC Comics when EC stood for “Educational Comics,” under the ownership of Maxwell Charles Gaines, father of William Gaines, who went on to a wholly different style of comics when he took over the company after the elder Gaines’s accidental death in 1947.
Stay warm!
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More Land of the Lost. Just click on the thumbnails.
In addition to writing scripts and songs for the successful mid-'40s radio program, Land Of the Lost, Isabel Manning Hewson wrote the scripts for the comic book version, published by EC Comics. The comic book apparently sold well enough to have nine issues between 1946 and 1948. I'm not sure whether it was eventually canceled due to a drop in sales, or because EC founder Maxwell Charles Gaines died in the summer of 1947 and his son, William M. Gaines, took over the company.
As is well known in comics history, Bill Gaines took EC in a whole 'nother direction from that of his father.
Land Of the Lost is a clever and charming radio show/comic book, about a kingdom under the sea where lost things go. In the case of "The Disappearing Desert," it's a pair of Z-ray glasses. Red Lantern is joined by two human children, Isabel and Billy, who use "magic seaweed" to allow them to breathe underwater.
Olive Bailey did a terrific job on the artwork. As far as I know Bailey's only comic book credits are in those nine issues. I'm sorry she didn't do more in the field. As I've mentioned before, Hewson and Bailey may be the only female writing and art team in this era. Go to the labels below this posting and click on "Land Of the Lost" for more stories.
Maxwell C. "Charlie" Gaines started EC Comics after selling his All American Comics line to DC in 1945. They'd had a co-publishing arrangement for years, anyway, and Charlie Gaines' heroes, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, et al., were assimilated by DC. We go forward to 1947, the last issue of Animal Fables, #7, and the story of the "new" Wonder Woman, Moon Girl.
There were a lot of similarities between the characters, but Moon Girl was missing a couple of key elements that made Wonder Woman so memorable: Harry Peter's outrageous artwork, and Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston's bondage themes. Moon Girl was drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, who had worked for Gaines at All American. Moldoff later went on to do a variety of genres, including horror comics for Fawcett, but settled in for a steady gig as Bob Kane's ghost artist on Batman in 1953.
Moon Girl was short-lived. Her comic book morphed from #1, Moon Girl and the Prince, to #2-6, Moon Girl, to #7 and 8, Moon Girl Fights Crime, and finally A Moon...a Girl...Romance. She was the only super-powered character to appear in EC Comics (unless you count Freddy Firefly or "Comics" McCormick).From the looks of the history of EC after its founder died, it's clear that his son, Bill, who inherited EC, had other ideas about what would sell, and superheroes weren't in the mix.
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Unknown on Chủ Nhật, 12 tháng 12, 2010
Number 859
Many happy returns of the spray
Here's story two from EC Comics' Land Of The Lost #1, 1946. For those of you who know EC only as the publisher of the best horror and science fiction comics ever, it was quite a different company when Maxwell Charles ("Charlie") Gaines founded it after selling out his All American Comics line to DC toward the end of World War II. Gaines had an idea that EC could stand for Educational Comics, and to this end he published several comics for young readers. Land Of The Lost was an adaptation of a popular radio show, written by the program's creator, Isabel Manning Hewson, and drawn by illustrator Olive Bailey.
What pleased me most when reading this story was the wordplay. I also noticed that the character Triton looked familiar. I'm sure that when the artwork for this story was turned in, Charlie Gaines could not have guessed that his son and heir, future Mad publisher Bill Gaines, would one day look a lot like Triton.
