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Recent Pre-Code Purchases
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22,192 posts in this topic

Well, it is pre-code. It's just not a comic book. I hope I'm posting it in the right place... this one seemed logical to me, anyway.

 

Typically I pick up things related to SOTI and the comic book censorship movement of the 40's and 50's, but every now and then something else jumps out at me. I thought this was really cool, so I decided to share.

 

1945_How_To_Draw_Comics_000.jpg

This 1945 book teaches you everything you need to know about how to create comics. It covers comic strips and comic books, as well as advertising illustration. Well, I guess it's not quite everyhing you need to know. How about everything you can fit into 48 sparsely-populated pages?

 

I wasn't familiar with the author, Robert Peterson. At first I suspected he might be a nobody with zero credentials who decided to cash in on the success of comics by creating a book about them. But then I spotted this guy who made me think "Catman".

 

1945_How_To_Draw_Comics_002.jpg

 

And then I saw the page that purports to have been written and drawn by the author, and published by Holyoke. So I went to GCD and found that Robert Peterson did work for Holyoke. He's credited with stories in several issues of Sparkling Stars. Anybody know if he had any other published work, like Catman? Or, here's a long shot, anybody recognize the Holyoke page below?

1945_How_To_Draw_Comics_001.jpg

 

 

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The character on that page is Boxie Weaver whose feature appeared both in The Blue Beetle and Sparkling Stars. The feature on the GCD is (from what a cursory look) indexed as drawn by Morris Weiss. I have yet to see one listed as drawn by Peterson, but with the comic series on hand and access to the Digital Comics Museum, I believe you have a great chance of finding the source of this page. :thumbsup:

 

Edit: Check out Sparkling Stars # 2 first.

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It's not # 2. I checked.

As many times as I've witnessed your comic sleuthing superpowers, you still never cease to amaze me, Scrooge. Thanks!

 

The last of the Boxie Weaver stories in Blue Beetle ends up with a teaser that he's about to meet up with "The Champ." In the first issue of Sparking Stars, Boxie takes on "The Champ" and becomes the new Champ. In the page I'm looking for, Boxie himself is referred to as "The Champ". So it stands to reason that the page I'm looking for is in Sparkling Stars, not Blue Beetle.

 

The book I have has a copyright date of 1945, so it's unlikely (but not impossible) that the published page was dated prior to, say, April of 1946. That would put the page I want somewhere between Sparkling Stars #1 and #12.

 

Scrooge checked #2, and I checked #1, 3, 5, 10, 11 and 12 with no luck. So the most likely candidate for this page is Sparkling Stars #4, 6, 7, 8 or 9.

 

Now I'm on a mission...

 

Thanks again for the assist!

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Glad I could help. I like the continuity that does exist in GA features despite the fact it is mostly ignored by current readers. At any rate, glad you were able to check off some possibilities. I would have run through all the available issues had I had time but you've confirmed that it's probably from one (of course!) of those issues not scanned yet.

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Picked this up at Wondercon, I've always wanted a copy of this book. The cover is so grotesque I can't resist it... The story is equally cool!

 

That is a gorgeous copy. I wish I had my copy back. Congrats on picking this one up. How are the pages?

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