Help with Chesler stories

[darkmark (RIP)]

After going thru a bunch of the St. John reprints, I've sourced a lot of the Harry "A" Chesler stories therein.  But a batch of them are still beyond me, usually because we don't have the source material.  If any of you know the exact issues these stories appeared in, please let me know.  Here we go:

CRIME ON THE RUN / MANHUNTERS:
"A gun blast!"  (6 pages)
"Lawmen of the Los Angeles sheriff's office..." (6 pages)
"The killers played a dangerous game of hide-and-seek..." (6 pages)
"Would psychiatry have spared Irving Carl 'Charlie' Chapman..." (6 pages)
"How could the police probe the twisted motives..." (6 pages)
"Crime Does Not Pay!" (6 pages)  PUNCH COMICS #17
"The Whispering Bride"  (6 pages) RED SEAL COMICS #18
"The Red Desperado"  (6 pages) PUNCH COMICS #14

ECHO:
"In an exclusive interview..." (6 pgs)

GAY DESPERADO:
"How could the Gay Desperado dodge death..." (6 pgs)  RED SEAL COMICS #17
"In the desperate struggle to clear his name..." (6 pgs)  RED SEAL COMICS #16
"Haunted Land"  (6 pgs)  RED SEAL COMICS #18
"A fugitive from justice..." (6 pages) PUNCH COMICS #14
"Reckless courage and a keen sense of humor..." (6 pgs)  

HALE THE MAGICIAN:
"When the police asked Hale to track down..." (7 pages)

K-9:
"Nothing could make K-9..." (6 pgs.; villain: The Rat)
"Madman of Moon Street"  (6 pgs)

LUCKY COYNE:
"Death lurked in the shadows..." (7 pages)
"Murderer!" (6 pages)  RED SEAL COMICS #14
"A routine interview turned into a nightmare..." (7 pages) RED SEAL COMICS #16
"Last night I was followed by a strange man."  (7 pages)
"Honey Komes, Broadway actress..." (6 pages) RED SEAL COMICS #17

MR. E:
"Fear is a powerful weapon..." (5 pgs.; 1 or 2 pages possibly edited out)  DYNAMIC COMICS #18

ROCKETMAN:
"Dr. Karl Bauer was unlocking the secret..." (7 pgs)
"Streaking over the highways at supersonic speed..." (7 pgs)

SCOOP DAILY:  
"Scoop Daily, American correspondent, is covering the good will mission to Mexico..." (6 pages)  PUNCH COMICS #17

SKY CHIEF:
"Burton Strong, scientist, scoffed at Joshua Kendall's prophecy..." (6 pgs)  RED SEAL COMICS #17
"Greed-Maddened Prince of Rahsap!"  DYNAMIC COMICS #15

VEILED AVENGER:
"The White Death"  (6 pages) RED SEAL COMICS #16

Thanks.

[Roygbiv666]

If you copy and paste your descriptions into Google, if the issued is catalogued at Grand Comics Database it will show up in the results. Does that help?

[darkmark (RIP)]

Actually, Roy, I've been working with the GCD all day, and what there is to find there, I've found.  Thanks, though.

[Roygbiv666]

Actually, Roy, I've been working with the GCD all day, and what there is to find there, I've found.  Thanks, though.

Hi DM

I hope this doesn't sound rude (not trying to me), but if, for example, I type "Would psychiatry have spared Irving Carl" into Google, the first hit is a link to this:
http://www.comics.org/issue/259981/
Authentic Police Cases #1, which tells me that story was the second title of the comic and:
Genre:CrimeCharacters:Irving Carl "Charlie" Chapman; Jack Packard; Elton Cross; Andrew KeplerSynopsis:Irving Carl "Charlie" Chapman is a highway contractor who runs into hard times: his wife dies and his business starts to fail. He turns to a life of crime, first robbing a bank's payroll delivery men, and eventually robbing banks. Chapman is shot and taken to prison. He escapes prison and resumes a normal life under the name of Halvert. Eventually, police find him and he dies in a shootout.Reprinted:
From Authentic Police Cases (St. John, 1948 Series) #2

Do you mean that you found this, but listed it as unknown because you're not sure if the information is correct?

"The Red Desperado"  returned http://www.comics.org/issue/174282/

A lot seem to be from Authentic Police Cases.

Good luck though.

[JVJ (RIP)]

I think you're missing the point, Roy,
DM is trying to find out where those stories originated as they are reprints from earlier HAC comics.

Just tryin' to help.

(|:{>

[darkmark (RIP)]

Thanks, JVJ.  Sure, Roy, I know where the *reprints* of the stories appeared.  But I'm trying to find out the original "sources* of those reprints, which are Chesler books we haven't scanned or found out about yet.

[Roygbiv666]

Thanks, JVJ.  Sure, Roy, I know where the *reprints* of the stories appeared.  But I'm trying to find out the original "sources* of those reprints, which are Chesler books we haven't scanned or found out about yet.

D'oh! Gotcha.

[JVJ (RIP)]

ps. DM, it's okay to call me "Jim".

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[JVJ (RIP)]

Just a couple, DM,

K-9:
"Nothing could make keep K-9..." (6 pgs.; villain: The Rat) (MAJOR VICTORY #3 - 6 pages)

MR. E:
"Fear is a powerful weapon..." (5 pgs.; 1 or 2 pages possibly edited out) (DYNAMIC #18 - 6 pages)

Two questions:
1. since HAC reprinted stuff so many times himself, do we have some method of ascertaining whether or not these are the original printings?

2. did HAC (or St. John) ever retitle/rewrite any of the stories? i.e. Are we certain that the original appearances bear the identical phrases?

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[darkmark (RIP)]

Thanks, Jim.  As for (1), it's difficult...all we can do is seek out the earliest appearance of the story in question.  That "Dorrence...Murder" story appeared, iirc, in DYNAMIC #1 but was reprinted time and again.  That's why I think the K-9 story from MAJOR VICTORY #3 may have had an earlier printing.  Chesler would reprint at the drop of a hat.
(2)  That is a sticky wicket.  Chesler (and later St. John) would rework the stories, often just renaming the characters, but sometimes I think by altering the art a teensy bit.  That "Red Desperado" story was, I think, a generic Crime On the Run story before it was renamed.  Thanks for your help!

[darkmark (RIP)]

Just to keep this thread alive:  Like to point out that a number of the blanks above have been filled in.  We're making progress.

[colescomics]

Doesn't sound like one you're looking to identify, but -- for what it's worth -- Jack Cole's "Manhunters" story from MLJ's TOP-NOTCH #1 (Dec. 1939) was reprinted in St. John's AUTHENTIC POLICE CASES #1 (Oct. 1948). Might be a clue here for you - maybe some other material from TOP-NOTCH or MLJ was the original publication of the St. John's reprints?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dvKhzCDAgM4/SnWxVpVPJ5I/AAAAAAAAAlo/vf8GiEk-Vwg/s1600/man3.jpg

Full details at my blog: http://colescomics.blogspot.com/search/label/Manhunters%20%28early%20crime%20stories%29

I'd love to know more about the St. John's reprints. Also have a fond dream that some of the HAC original art by Cole is floating around out there. Thanks to Everett Arnold's paranoid practice of destroying original art after it was shot for printing, there is almost no original Jack Cole art from his 12 years at Quality!

- Paul Tumey
Cole's Comics
Comic Book Attic

[Yoc]

Nicely done Paul, thanks for sharing on this very interesting topic.

[darkmark (RIP)]

Thanks, Paul.  This really does illustrate how stories were altered, even pre-Code, to be reused in a slightly different format.  St. John would often rename characters, often understandably (Gay Caballero became Bold Buckeroo), sometimes not so much (Mr. E became "Thug Hunt").  Appreciate the posting.