Jim,
Since I last looked in here I've revised my thinking on this.
In one of the discussions of the comic somebody referred to"Al Capp's Toby Press." No source is given for this odd detail, but it does offer a chain of connections. Toby Press was run by Elliott Caplin, Al Capp's brother. I'm thinking somebody has mistaken the two at some point in the history of the piece. My current thought on the matter is that the job was done through, by referral or what ever, E Caplin, who has a history with 'true' stories in comics (being an editor for the Parents' Institute publications (including comic books that are filed here in the DCM) before setting up his own comics op (and writing Juliet Jones and Big ben Bolt at the time of the job in question). Benton Resnik's name appears as 'office manager' in the indicia of Toby Press's comics (spelled thus but spelled differently, Resnick, in most other discussions of the MLk comic.)
When I saw the "Toby Press" reference, Eddie, I began to smell the same rat as you. Al had nothing to do with Toby, but was better-known than Elliott and would have added a touch of glamour to the story. Interesting to note that Sorority Secrets has the lead story by what appears to be Stan Drake or his clone. i.e. someone with whom Elliot would collaborate.
There seem to be several errors that have taken hold and been repeated around the place as facts (eg. Resnick as a 'blacklisted comics writer' following the Kefauver hearings, which is gibberish. Comics were blacklisted , not writers and artists.)
Comics were tarred, feathers, demeaned and almost destroyed, but only individuals could be "blacklsted" - "to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle." Whether any comic book writers were ever blacklisted is not a subject upon which I can speak authoritatively, but I would hesitate to label such a report as "gibberish".
Anyway, from all of this I'm presuming a Toby Press artist is the likely candidate for this job, and I don't know of any Dan Barry connection there, so let's lose that attribution.
Let's definitely LOSE the "Dan Barry" attribution. I KNOW that it is NOT Dan. MAYBE it's Sy Barry, but not Dan. I apologize for introducing that red herring. And, while I'm not familiar with all of the Toby artists, I went to the Who's Who [http://www.bailsprojects.com) and put Toby Press into the search field. The resultant list of writers and artists was unhelpful to me. I knew the styles of 90% of the artists and can eliminate them as possibilities.
One book in The DCM files seemed to offer some likely art connections, the Sorority Secrets #1. I couldn't find any definite stylistic cross -connections for the art, but oddly I think I see one in the lettering, in the story 'The Wrong One', with its unusual sweeping caption boxes here and there, such as the one on the second panel, top of the third page. compare with the one on top of 'page 3' (thus numbered in the DCM files) of the MLK comic. This is all vague but helps me to feel confident that I'm looking in the right place. The Toby Press stories are all unsigned too, but you can't expect these things to be easy.
The Toby artists are not so easy to ID - at least not by me. Here's my take on Sorority Secrets:
The Secret - Stan Drake?/Alex Kotsky? (someone very good)
To Win Your Love - probably Art Peddy pencils under Jack Abel's smothering inks.
The Wrong One - signed David Gantz
The Faint Heart - signed Bob Brown and David Gantz
Kid Sister - dunno, though I get some hints of George Klein-ish inks
I wonder if Jim can suggest an artist for "the Wrong One" that might help me move forward?
best
Eddie
I don't think that David Gantz is going to move you forward, Eddie. This is some of his final realistic comic book work. From 1954/55 onward, he focused on his cartoony style. If the lettering is a clue, sadly the Who's Who does not have any credits for Toby letterers. I still believe that this MLK strip was produced by one of the advertising studios like Johnstone & Cushing. Al Wenzel, who I mentioned earlier, seems to have bought out J&C in 1963. I seem to remember a lot of "Al Wenzel" in Boys' Life - but I have no way to pin down the dates. Sorry. Wenzel is NOT the MLK artist, but someone associated with him, J&C, or another comics-producing studio IS. That's my suggestion.
I agree 100% that "Al Capp" is a mistake. I also agree that Elliott Caplin is a clue. Let me know where it might lead.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
