Saturday, December 28, 2013

 

Herriman Saturday

Tuesday, May 19 1908 -- The statewide Democratic convention is now in session, and the news Herriman reports is that Gavin McNab, previously considered a shoe-in to continue as head of the California Democrats, has been dumped in favor of Theodore A. Bell. It seems McNab has been tainted with (probably true) rumors of being in the pay of the railroads and other interests, and of having run the Democratic party as an ethically impious organization.

Theodore Bell, a young fresh face in the party, is hot on reform of all kinds. Though not one of the vocal rabble-rouser who got McNab into hot water, he is believed to have done some back-room pulling of strings to get the dismissal of McNab into motion.


Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

Friday, December 27, 2013

 

Sci-Friday starring Adam Chase

Adam Chase strip #52, originally published May 28 1967. For background on the strip and creator, refer to this post.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

First the short version -- due to circumstances beyond our control, the second year of the Adam Chase comic strips, which complete the storyline and the run of the strip, is unavailable to run on Stripper's Guide. Russ and I apologize that we are unable to bring you the conclusion of the strip. Russ will provide a synopsis of the second year's storyline at the conclusion of this series, which ends with installment #52.

And here's the long version. Before we began running Adam Chase on the Stripper's Guide blog, Russ sent me the first year's worth of strips to scan. He believed that the second year of the run was in his attic, in the form of black and white proofs. We decided to see how things went with the first year, see if people liked it, before troubling Russ with the job of playing archaeologist up in his attic. Recently Russ did go on an expedition into cobweb land to retrieve the second year. Unfortunately to his surprise and dismay he was able to find only a little more than half the proof sheets for year two, not nearly enough to keep running the series.

Russ is very unhappy that his archive turns out to be incomplete, and I'm saddened that we can't bring you the rest of the series. That is, barring the miracle that someone out there has the tearsheets and is willing to lend them to us for scanning. I considered the possibility of pulling the missing episodes from microfilm, but then I realized that since they were run in color, the quality coming from microfilm will be really awful, if even legible, so that's no solution.

I hope you will accept the apologies of Russ and I. Having gotten you interested in the story, we know this is a big disappointment. Please keep in mind that I am just as disappointed as you, and Russ even more so at the loss of his archive. I hope you'll join me in letting Russ know that we really enjoyed year one of his delightful strip, Adam Chase.Your feedback in the comments would be much appreciated.

PS -- On a side note, this leaves the Stripper's Guide flat-footed as regards the future of Sci-Friday. I had expected to have another full year of material for it, and so have not until just now bothered to think of what we might run instead of Adam Chase.

I certainly don't have a long run of any sci-fi oriented strips that come to mind, at least nothing that suits our needs here. We need a feature that is well and definitely out of copyright, or comes with permission from the copyright holder. Also, it has to be something that isn't already readily available elsewhere on the web. Anyone have any ideas, or better yet ideas that include source material I can borrow to scan?

Labels:


Comments:
~ Allan, so sorry to hear about the second year of Adam Chase. I've enjoyed it so far. How about Basil Wolverton's "Spacehawk" as a replacement? Love the art but maybe it's already available.
 
Sorry about the change with Adam Chase. I don't have any copies myself, but what about Stanley Pitt's "Silver Starr?" I remember reading those years ago in Captain George's Comic World and being very impressed with the Alex Raymond-style artwork.
 
Sorry Sam, but Spacehawk was a comic book feature. We stick with newspaper strips here. And Bill, we're so doggone parochial around here I had to look up this Silver Starr feature to even know what it was. New Zealand comic strips are way out of our knowledge zone. Does look intriguing. If someone wants to volunteer a run of scans ...

--Allan
 
Silver Starr is Australian, although it did feature in a small run of New Zealand comic books. I wouldn't consider it public domain, From what I gather the Captain George reprints were unauthorized and the copyright on Silver Starr is retained by Pitt's family.
 
Post a Comment

Thursday, December 26, 2013

 

Ink-Slinger Profiles: Royal King Cole


Royal King Cole was born in New York on June 3, 1907. His birthplace was found in census records and his birth date is from the Social Security Death Index. He was the oldest of two children born to Thornton B. and Etta Berger. His father was a writer and actor who joined D.W. Griffiths’ film company, Biograph, around 1910.

Cole has not been found in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census. The New York Dramatic Mirror, March 10, 1915, reported the passing of his father:

The death of Thornton Cole, a Biograph actor, carried away one of the most capable character men in the motion picture profession. Mr. Cole, wife and two children, came to Los Angeles with the Biograph aggregation. After a few weeks here Mr. Cole became ill and died of heart failure. Mr. Cole had been with the Biograph five years. His wife is not in the profession.
The date of his death was February 21 and he was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery.

Cole has not been found in the 1920 census but he was living in New York City. The New York Evening Telegram, February 18, 1923, reported the exhibition at the National Arts Club and said:

Tony Sarg is very much his familiar self in his “illustrations.” Mrs. Henri (Marjorie Organ) is as incisive in two drawings as she ever was at the shows of the independents, while Royal K. Cole, “fifteen years old,” has already gone so far that some of our leading comic artists should be very much afraid of what he will do next.
The 1925 New York State Census recorded Cole, his mother and sister in the Bronx at 2005 Walton. His occupation was cartoonist.

According to the 1930 census, they lived remained in the Bronx but at a different address, 1130 Anderson Avenue. Cole continued as a newspaper cartoonist. According to American Newspaper Comics (2012), Cole’s first strip was Christmas in Toyland, which ran for most of December.

Christmas-themed strips would be his annual contribution for the next five years, ending with the Quints' Christmas in 1940.

Cole produced the Ace Drummond strip from some time in 1937 to the end of the series in 1939. The final Sunday page was published July 2, 1939.



In 1940, Cole, his wife, Kathryn, and mother-in-law, Lora Goodwin, resided at 87-84 165th Street, Queens, New York. Cole was writer, and his wife, a vocational school teacher; he had four years of high school, and she, four years of college.

In a few years Cole moved to Hollywood and wrote screenplays for a number of serials and movies. The 1944 North Hollywood city directory listed Cole at 11346 Emelita. His occupation was writer.

In 1952 Cole wrote an episode of the TV series Hopalong Cassidy. Later he was hired to write the comic strip, which was drawn by Dan Spiegel. In an interview, Spiegel said:

Like all writers, he had a tendency to overwrite things. He would always inject unneeded adjectives in the box captions and bog down dialog with long wordage. He’d go on and on, stealing my thunder since everything was already written out and I couldn’t even begin to create as much impact as I would want to with my drawings. A reader can get frustrated with so many descriptions in words when he can see what’s going on by glancing at the drawings. The drawing should always come first and the words second….I never really cared for the stories that Royal wrote, anyway. They just weren’t interesting.
Cole’s last writing credit was in 1974 for a segment of the Three Stooges Follies.

At some point Cole moved to Arizona and was found at four locations: 10618 North 26th Place, Phoenix; 7044 East Hubbell Street, Scottsdale; 201 South Greenfield Road, Benson (1992); and 245 South 56th Street, Mesa (apparently his last address).

Cole passed away August 14, 1993, in Mesa, according to the Social Security Death Index.


—Alex Jay 

Labels:


Comments:
what about his art in 1930s Winnie Winkle the breadwinner as Martin Branner's assistant ???

 
What's a good citation for that? I see it only on Wikipedia (and clones) with no citation.
 
Bails' Who's Who listed him doing ghost writing on Winkle:

WINNIE WINKLE (ghost wr/) for Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate

No date given.
http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=COLE%2C+ROYAL

-Ray Bottorff Jr
 
Post a Comment

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

 

Merry Christmas!



Comments: Post a Comment

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

 

Santa Claus and Company Day 8


Merry Christmas !

Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

Monday, December 23, 2013

 

Santa Claus and Company Day 7


Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

Sunday, December 22, 2013

 

Jim Ivey's Sunday Comics


Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]