Buried Treasure: John Lehti's Tales of the Great Book

In 1954, John Lehti was still looking for an original strip idea to pitch to the newspaper, syndicates when he came up with the notion of a Bible-inspired feature called Tales from the Great Book which sold accordingly as a Sunday only strip to Publisher Syndicate. Lehti, over the next eighteen years, presented some entertaining Biblical epics that felt more like the Hollywood motion pictures of the time, respectful yet not preachy in tone, based mostly on the dramatic spectacles of the Old Testament. Lehti could tell the exciting action-packed story like David and Goliath or a "quiet" tale from the Book of Ester with equal flair, drawn in his pleasant detailed style. Often starting or ending the Sunday page with a Bible verse to better summarize his storyline, the dialogue was a interesting combination of modern American expressions and King Charles English. But, I fondly remember reading this feature in my local Dallas paper as a child, especially enjoying the large historic battle scenes, or saintly acts of courage the heroes encounters from their often overwhelming Biblical odds.

Infantino Goes Ape! - DC's Gorilla Covers

Carmine Infantino may not have started DC's fascination with gorilla covers, but he sure enjoyed drawing them over the years. Many believe Strange Adventures #8 started it off with the image of a gorilla trying to get out of a zoo by writing a message on a chalk board, drawn by Win Mortimer. But I think the executives at DC just found out that issues with apes on the covers had an increase in sales, so they did a lot of them in the years to come. Numerous talented artists drew ape covers for all the various titles, but DC's sci-fi anthology books were always my favorites. Seeing apes on the cover of a Tarzan comic was not really out of the ordinary, but when they fly spaceships around Saturn's rings, they stand out. Strange Adventures was always the best comic to find covers with intelligent apes working on scientific experiments, practicing medicine, on talk shows, and even cross-examining a witness in the courtroom! But Carmine did appear to do a high number of these covers, or a least a story in them, including his popular Flash Gorilla Grodd covers. Featured here are some of the numerous DC ape covers done by Carmine Infantino or issues with one of his gorilla features inside.

National Cartoonist Society Profile: Wallace Wood

Wally Wood was one of the all time comic greats, that unfortunately ended his career too soon. Here is his brief bio from the NCS archives, in his own words...Born in Menahga, Minnesota 1927. Decided to be a cartoonist at age two. Didn't get into it for another twenty years. In between was a dental lab worker, printer, pin setter, factory worker, etc. Joined the Merchant Marine, then Army. Put in a term at Minneapolis School of Art. Decided they couldn't teach me anything. They had the same idea. Went to Hogarth's school for a year or so on G.I. Bill, then got to work in comic books, have done millions of them. Also children's books, gag cartoons, toy boxes, bubble gum cards, a mural, science-fiction covers, a story board, a comic strip. "Ghosted" strips, lunch boxes, illustrations for men's magazines, and some advertising($!!) and was in every issue of MAD for twelve years. Met Tatjana (Mrs. Wood) folk dancing fifteen years ago. Ambition: to retire.

Rocket's Blast Comic Collector Art Prices

A good friend of mine has a large collection of the earliest and best known of comic fanzine's, the Rocket's Blast Comic Collector. One of the first “adzines” from the late 1960s it was filled with ads for comics, movies, old time radio, original art, convention reports, and other various fan publications. It also had great articles, interviews, comic reprints, and artwork from pros like Frank Brunner, Mike Ploog, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Tom Sutton, Berni Wrightson. It also showcased new talent that later would become professionals, including Don Newton, Mike Zeck, Kerry Gammill, Bret Blevins, and others. When the magazine ended in the late 1970s the Comics Buyer’s Guide picked up a lot of these features, but the art prices from RBCC being earlier are even lower!

For example, here are prices from the 1971 RBCC #74 by dealer Gary Dolgoff, who is still going strong, selling art and comics today. It seemed the “magic price” in this ad was fifteen dollars for spectacular pieces -- like Steve Ditko Thunder Agent pages, or even Dr. Strange art from Strange Tales #125. Lots of Tower artwork had apparently just been released from the publisher, since there was a great deal on the market from different sellers at super cheep prices, since almost all the Wally Wood pages of Noman and Dynamo were also running $15 @ from Thunder Agents #3-9. Gil Kane’s Undersea Agent #5 examples were a mere $10 a piece or you could have any of DC's Green Lantern #55 or Atom #36 for the same low price. George Tuska or Mike Sekowsky Thunder Agents pages from issue #7 were selling on average for $7.50 a panel page!

How about some gritty “Big 5” action by artist Joe Kubert. His war pages were $8 and a Sgt. Rock cover ran only $15, or pieces from the early try-out Hawkman books from Brave and the Bold #44 for fifteen bucks! But some of the best deals I saw would have to be a Jack “King” Kirby cover for the Mighty Thor #161 for thirty dollars, and wonderful Human Torch pages from Strange Tales for 20.00 for a splash or that magic fifteen dollar price for various assorted pages. A John Severin Sgt. Fury cover for issue 34 would set you back a mere $25, same price for a Dan Atkins X-Men #34 cover. But the great examples from X-Men #18 or #19 by Werner Roth were only $7.50 a page! Take your pick for the twenty offered.

Dick Dillin 's Justice League of America pieces from issue #68 were only fifty cents more than the Werner Roth. While some higher priced Dell work from Russ Manning were $17.00 for Magnus Robot Fighter artwork, but more affordable pages from his Ben-Hur one-shot were $12. Dynamic examples from the dynamite team of Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson on their Mystery in Space run had pages from #79 or #81 with Adam Strange at $15 or $20 for a splash, and even Anderson’s Hourman pages from Showcase #56 were twelve bucks. The absoluute cheapest deal was a cover to an undisclosed issue of Men of War by Irv Novick for $7.50, I guess it didn't matter which one it was at that price! The very highest priced page in the advertisement was from X-Men #58, pg. 10 to be exact by Neal Adams for $25. Let the good times roll!