The Comic World 1955

Dana Gabbard is back, and he's got another fascinating discovery to share with you. Enjoy!

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Through the assistance of Betty Uyeda at the Seaver Center for Western History Research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, here is the Holy Grail of Barkdsom (never before posted on the internet!): the May 1955 Fortnight Magazine article "The Comic World" by Charles Beaumont that has the first description in print of Carl Barks as a Disney comic book creator for consumption by the wider world (this followed a 1951 profile in his local newspaper).

It was Michael Barrier is his groundbreaking book Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book that first made wider Barksdom aware of this singular article. I recently asked Barrier how he became aware of it (Fortnight is a fairly obscure magazine, a sort of Time Magazine for California that didn't survive the 1950s). The explanation isn't surprising: "Barks had a copy of the magazine, and I borrowed it to copy the Beaumont article".

Beaumont's familiarity with the ins and outs of Western Publishing was due to his briefly (in collaboration with William Nolan) crafting scripts that resulted in about two dozen published funny animal stories for Western including two Mickey Mouse adventures. And besides Barks several other Western writers and editors are given prominent mention, decades before most of us became familiar with the names Del Connell, Chase Craig and Alice Cobb.

One can sense Beaumont using the article to vent some of his frustrations at the peculiar requirements he encountered in adapting to what he evidently felt were often nonsensical dictums one had to accommodate to successfully sell scripts to Western. Soon after the piece appeared Beaumont moved on to more mature venues for his work as he cracked the slick magazine market for short stories and started his brief but celebrated career as a fantasist whose stories graced such venues as Playboy and The Twilight Zone along with scripting movies such as The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.

It is rather amazing Western cooperated in this almost unprecedented peek behind the curtain of their operation. I say almost because (and I credit David Gerstein via Joe Torcivia first making me aware of this) Western actually published credits in Little Lulu #49 (July 1952) and New Funnies #183 and 184 (May and June 1952). But generally Western didn't reveal the names of its creators outside the pages of its Annual Report and house organ The Westerner. It would only be in 1974 that Western referred to Barks in print in the introductions to the three deluxe Best of Walt Disney Comics volumes reprinting his work.

For more peeks at Fortnight from the same year you can check out scans posted of an article and ads from the August issue on a Disneyland fan blog.
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 A pfd of "The Comic World" article can be found by clicking this sentence.

CANaR #20 & 24

Still hungry for more about Western publishing and Gold Key?
Here's Dana Gabbard with another piece to the golden puzzle. Enjoy!

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During the classic era of American comics fandom (circa 1960-1972) Gold Key and Disney comics received very little attention. Comics fandom historian Bill Schelly in an e-mail to me about the era opined "Gold Key was generally treated as a minor, also-ran comic-book publisher by fandom back then, or so it seems to me". That is why it was a big deal to me to recently stumble across the Rocket's Blast Comic Collector (RBCC) piece by Bernie Bubnis of his visit with Gold Key editor Bill Harris (who Michael Barrier informs me is still alive and has had letters published in the fanzine Robin Snyder's History of Comics). I have since discovered that Steve Perrin had articles in RBCC #14 and 15 about Gold key and Magnus Robot Fighter that I hope to soon obtain scans of to pass along to Joakim for posting. Meanwhile here more Gold Key related fandom rarities: 1970s fanzine articles on contemporary Gold Key and Disney comics. These appeared in Comics Arts News and Review (CANAR) published in Canada by John Balge. This somewhat obscure publication featured interviews (mostly by a pre-Cerebus Dave Sim) of a jaw dropping collection of comic book creators. In line with the review part of the title issues 20 and 24 have the above mentioned reviews of Gold Key and Disney comics of the era by Stan Molson. I actually met Molson one year at the San Diego Comic Con while waiting in line (this is back in the Golden Hall days). I recognized his name on his badge from my researching the history of Western Publishing (something I have been informally engaged in for 20+ years) and having read his article on Disney comics. Via a Google search I was able recently to reconnect with Stan and he not only still remembered me but informed me he to this day still attends comics conventions (and that includes not only Comic Con but most recently the Portland Wizard convention and the Seattle Emerald City con -- while in the Pacific Northwest he visited with Michelle Nolan and Bill Schelly, who like Molson are veterans of the classic era of fandom). Molson informs me "I doubt if there’s any easy way of obtaining original CANARs. I think John Balge only printed in very small quantities, maybe 300 or so" Thankfully Molson still had his copies of the issues and scanned the entire issues as they are generally rather short (8 pages each). Regarding the articles Stan avers "Perusing those articles now, it doesn’t look as if the content would currently have much research value, especially in light of some of the more-recent ultra-high quality work by historians like Becattini or Gerstein". I disagree. They reflect the times and how people viewed the Gold Key and Disney comics that were appearing on comic racks and at newsstands. An invaluable time capsule which thankfully are now via Messrs. Molson and Gunnarsson being shared with the world.
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CANaR #20 can be found by clicking HERE!
And CANaR #24 can be found by clicking HERE!

Gold Key 1964

As a follow up the the posts about Western Publishing here's another rarely seen piece.
Again thanks to Dana Gabbard:
"Here is a rare 1964 article by a fan visiting the New York offices of Western Publishing and
interacting with the comics editor of the time,  Bill Harris. It appeared in Rocket's Blast Comic Collector #30. I learned of this when Bernie Bubnis in a letter in one of the last issues of Comics Buyer's Guide mentioned his article. This is another new item never before posted on the internet. My thanks to comics fandom historian Bill Schelly for scanning it so interested fans can see this rarity."

The Collectors Editions that never was

Just got this interesting piece on Barks fandom/Western Publishing history from Dana Gabbard.
Take it away, Dana!
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This post shares scans of a heretofore nearly forgotten corner of Barksdom -- a Western Publishing Barks deluxe reprint project that advanced as far as producing a prospectus shared with Carl Barks fans in the early 1980s. The origins of this project lay with John Nichols, who was both a dealer specializing in Barks and the publisher of the leading Barks fanzine, The Barks Collector. At that time (the late 1970s) certain classic Barks stories in English were only available in the U.S. via the pricey original editions. Nichols found an affordable alternative to offer his clients by importing Australian reprints of stories such as "Adventure Down Under" that were otherwise too expensive for most fans to afford in the original printing. Nichold did a brisk business in the Barks reprints and evidently wished that a new series of deluxe Barks reprints a la The Best of Walt Disney Comics series issued in 1974 was published by Western Publishing and which he could then market to his burgeoning customer base eager to have access to classic Barks at an affordable cost.

Then by chance at one of the two Barks Cons Nichols held in New York in the early 1980s (one was also held in the same period in Oakland California) among the attendees was the comics editor for Western's New York office, Wally Green. Green evidently was impressed with the gathering of fans he witnessed and Nichols' pitch that unlike the previous attempt Western had made to enter the collectors market (which the company must have seen as a failure since a second set of volumes in the Best of Walt Disney comics series had gotten as far as advance publicity aimed at the then nascent comic book fandom with mockups of the cover much like the Green memo before the project was without explanation cancelled) there was now an established distribution network serving comic book shops nationwide that featured non-returnable wholesaling. That must have been music to Green's ears as Western was in a downward spiral at that time as to sales of its newstand comics. This memo outlines the new deluxe Barks reprint series Western was contemplating. 

It was distributed by Nichols to the mailing list of Barks fans he had built up as a dealer and publisher soliciting their expression of interest in such a series. And that was the last anyone heard of the proposal. Why it didn't happen is a mystery but not soon after Western got out of the comic book business and shortly after that Gladstone stepped into the breach and began what is now seen as a Disney comics renissance featuring both classic and new material that garnered wide acclaim from fans.

It is thanks to Brent Swanson (who held onto the memo all these years and supplied a scan of it after my faint memories of it prompted him to retrieve it from storage) that this memo is now recovered from being hidden in the dark corners of history.

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Thanks for sharing the info Dana!

And as an extra Barks-bonus to this post:
here's a watercolor by the duck man.
Looks like a 1940's piece and judging by the hair style it might be his daughter Peggy. 

The History of Golden Books Part II

Here's the second, and final, part of the history of Golden Books covering the years 1967-1982.

PS. A set of the Westerner was just auctioned on eBay. I didn't win any of the lots, but here's a glimpse of what the magazines looked like.

And if YOU are the one who won one or several of these, feel free to get in touch. I'd be more than happy to do some "Best of the Westerner" posts. :) 

The History of Golden Books Part I

The 1982 "Commemorative issue" of the Westerner also featured the history of Golden Books. Here's the first part covering 1942 – 1964. Enjoy!

Click HERE to get to the second part.

The Westerner 1982 Part III

Here's the third part, covering the years 1960 – 1982.

But, hey, there's more!
Click here to read the history of Golden books!

The Westerner 1982 Part II

Here's the second part, covering the years 1918 - 1957.

Click here to read part III.

The Westerner 1982 part I

Remember the issue of "The Westerner" posted here last year?
(The "Golden Anniversary Issue" #194, published in January 1966.)
Now, thanks to Michael Barrier, Dana Gabbard and the Racine Wisconsin Public Library here's the "Commemorative issue" from 1982!
Thanks for scanning and letting me post this find, guys!!!

Here's part one: The history of Western Publishing 1907-1915!

Click here to read Part II.

The Westerner #194, 1966 part VIII

At last, the final pages of the Westerner #194. :)

And as a "bonus" here's a photo of the commercial Art Department at Western, taken in January 1943.

If you have scans of interesting issues of the Westerner please feel free to share them. If you don't have a blog or a website of your own I'd be happy to post them here.

/Joakim.

The Westerner #194, 1966 part V

Here are pages 20-23!
This time it's all about one of the sellers of Whitman products.
Meet Fred LaBelle "Our Man in the Maumee Valley".

Bonus: Here's a photo from ca 1941-42. It's the Western lobby and reception area in Racine. Bet few of you have seen this photo before. :)

Any sharp eyed reader who can identify the Disney publications on the wall?

Update: Are Myklebust was able to identify the publication! It turned out to be "The Victory March", Random House, 1942. Thanks, Are!