Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Dale Evans Writer: Joe Millard

That Joe Millard was the first writer on Sierra Smith back-ups in Dale Evans (see previous post) leads to the fact that he was the first writer on Dale Evans herself. Some quirks shared among the Dale stories and the Sierra story in #1 are "Ulp," "Owoooff," and "Eeeow." "Ub-blub" or a variation is used in both strips (as well as many at Quality)—as shown here from the Sierra story in Dale Evans 7 and her own story, the first  in Dale 4. (I included part of the next panel in the Dale Evans story to show Dale herself, although in long shot and from the back, in the crane cab.) Alex Toth art on Sierra and Jay McArdle art on Dale.

Sierra Smith dialog: 'Ub-blub-gurgle-glug!'; Dale Evans dialog: 'Ub-blub!'

A few decades after Dale Evans Comics was published, Ryerson Johnson recalled that he had written the strip, and thought that he had written the first appearance of the character Uncle Six. But the wheelchair-riding retired sheriff appears in the first story in the first issue, written in Joe Millard's style.

I had thought that the stories identified below with a question mark were Johnson's; they all seemed to match up with the style in some Wyoming Kid stories, another series he worked on. But in Robin Snyder's History of Comics, (Aug/90), the bibiography of Phil Evans' comics work shows stories (no title given) in Dale Evans 8 and 9.

Paul Talbot, in a letter to Grand Comics Database co-founder Bob Klein, recalled writing Dale Evans as well; there does seem to be at least one more writer alongside "?" after Millard leaves. I hope to sort this out in the future!

The comic lasted until #24 (July-Aug/52).

Dale Evans written by Millard and others

S-O/48#1 Secret of Ghost Town GreedMillard
'Readin', Robbin' and Six-Gun 'RithmeticMillard
The Spirit of Annie OakleyMillard
N-D/    #2 Roughneck RomeosMillard
The Evil Eye of Eagle EyeMillard
The Rodeo RatMillard
J-F/49#3 Diamonds Ain't HayMillard
The Two-Ton Crime WaveMillard
The River of Never-ReturnMillard
M-A/    #4 Phantom of Cactus CanyonMillard
Mere Slip of the GunMillard
A Dead Man's LifeMillard
M-J/    #5 The Thin Air DisappearancesMillard
Those Deadly DreamsMillard
Dale Evans of the Pony ExpressMillard
J-A/    #6 The Horse-Thief Catcher Millard
The Alibi Bullet ?
Riot at Roughhouse Rancho Millard
S-O/    #7 The Belles of Buffalo Wallow?
City of Dreadful Dust Millard
Canyon of DisasterMillard
N-D/    #8 Gobblers and Gold DustMillard
The East Goes West?
Oil Is Where You Find It?
J-F/50#9 The Ship of the Desert?
On the Merry-Go-Round?
The Money Tree?
M-A/    #10 Dale Evans...Mining Engineer?
The Senator Goes West ?
The Prince of BangistanMillard
M-J/    #11 Talent Scout for Danger ?
Bullets and Balloons?
The Snow Broncos of Pride Mountain?
J-A/    #12 The Horse That Forgot to Remember?
The State Fair FraudMillard
Fancy Footwork Millard

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am a big fan of your work with GrandComicsDatabase. I found this and thought you might be interested--

    "My name is Joe Kleinman, and for many years, from the 1950’s to the 1960’s I was Bob Kane’s ghost artist. I drew many of the Batman, Robin, Joker, and many other characters. Bob and I were very close."

    but I have searched for Joe's name everywhere and have come up with nothing!!!!

    (There is also a newspaper article about him and Bob Kane but I couldn't read it--it was a picture in an ebay listing-)

    I found his name on ebay. Someone else posted a page of Bob Kane's art for him. let me know if you find anything (I know you are the guy to ask) nszerdy@gmail.com

    Thank you
    Nathan Szerdy

    Here is the link to the ebay listing

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190680917079&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123#ht_662wt_943

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nathan, I think most of Kane's ghosts, and the other Batman artists, have been identified by now. This sounds like the story of Mayo Kaan, who claimed to model as Superman for Joe Shuster arouhd 1936.

      The eBay auction (a page from Detective 318) is a hoot; of course the "Bob Kane" art isn't by Bob Kane, but in this case it isn't even by a Kane ghost; Jim Mooney worked directly for DC.

      Delete
  3. Now that you mention Paul Talbot, Martin - he is supposed to have written Batman and Superman (among other DC characters) between 1948 and 1952, but I've never actually seen one of their stories attributed to him - admittedly the GCD has a number of gaps for authorship in that period, especially for Superman, at least the last time I looked.

    (Same with Al Schwartzer - he claimed to have written a couple of Superman stories in the early 1950s, in an interview in Alter-Ego a few years ago, but he did not go into any details, so if his statement is factual his stories are also unattributed.)

    - Lee

    ReplyDelete
  4. My memories are playing me tricks - I should have said Al Schutzer, not Schwartzer, in my previous post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lee, I once tried to get a handle on Talbot's style from a couple of Aquaman and Green Arrow stories attributed to him, but never found any Superman or Batman by him--possibly just because I haven't yet seen the issues with his work.

      Delete