The Martin Luther King "Montgomery story" comic book

[EddieCampbell]

Now the investigation takes a confusing turn.

My friend, whose inquiry started this thread, has now sighted a letter from Benton Resnik (supposed writer of the MLK book in some versions of the story- one might suppose that Hassler, not a comics writer, would have needed his scenario retooled for comics) that mentions a company named "Graphic Information Services' (note Jim's feeling that a company such as Johnson and Cushing would be behind the MLK book- here's such a company, but one I haven't heard of before). Now, The Comics Museum has a comic book published by this group, and it's another public information booklet of the type we've been discussing above (16 pages, no slick cover). Title is "Mr. Civil Defense tells about NATURAL DISASTERS"

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/index.php?did=10138

The style is 'generic 1950s utilitarian comic book', except for the front cover. And here's where it gets very odd. This one DOES have Al Capp's imprimatur on the cover, on which L'il Abner introduces Mr. Civil Defence. I am now so baffled that I would have to refrain from making any more dumb guesses related to this thing.

[JVJ (RIP)]

This does certainly point to an AL Capp connection, Eddie.
One has to wonder if Capp DID have a studio producing comic books after all. (It's possible that Abner was merely licensed by the CD folks for this book.)  I wonder if anyone can locate data on the principals of "Graphic Information Services"? And anything else that they might have had a hand in creating? The artistic style here (on Natural Disasters) is maddeningly familiar! I know who this is but am more and more frustrated lately by an inability to connect a style with a NAME. Not much use in knowing that I know if I can't connect those two up. Sigh...

This also goes to show that all of my accumulated "knowledge" and "instincts" really amount to very little when confronted with the confusion of reality.

Let's just hope that GIS left a footprint somewhere in the sand other than these two books. And, for the record, I just saw a signed Sy Barry story at Atlas circa 1954 that reinforces (alas, but doesn't cement) my feelings that he had a hand in the MLK book.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[RJ Bowman]

Find a L'Il Abner or Shmoo comic and check the indicia and so how it compares to the information in the MLK book.

I know that Cap used ghosts for his newspaper strip, and I'm pretty sure that he didn't draw his comic books. It's quite possible that he ran a small shop that provided content for publishers.

[JVJ (RIP)]

Great idea, R.J. Do you know of anyone who's got some? I don't. Are we certain that Capp was controlling production of those titles? They could have been produced by a Toby mimic. I know NOTHING about them, so I'm just thinking out loud about the possibilities.

Also, I would imagine that it would be a different shop that produced the Toby's and assisted on Li'l Abner. Both of the Public Service comics are drawn by rather serious/straight artists who likely have few responsibilities in an all-Al Capp comic production shop.

Time and further research will help sort it out.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[EddieCampbell]

My pal reports back:

"I referenced the address printed in the Natural Disasters comic with the publisher addresses listed in the 1954 Senate hearing transcripts and GIS has the same address as Toby Press."

So 'Graphic Information Services' is an imprint of Toby. I don't think the publisher, Elliott Caplin, getting his brother, Al Capp, to lend his authority by having one of his studio guys draw the cover, needs too much explanation.

Now, The MLK book has 'published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation' on its final page. Since the Fellowship was not in the business of publishing comic books we may presume that a regular comic outfit packaged it for them. I note that the natural Disasters book is copyright 1956, which is after Toby closed its doors. If Toby was trying to continue in business as GIS, we might presume further and say that The MLK book was packaged by them. (with Toby down, one could imagine Al Capp providing that cover to help his brother stay afloat, since L'il Abner isn't really connected to the subject in any way). Perhaps Al lent his name to one or two other things, which is where the Capp-Toby confusion originated. perhaps his name was on 'the board of directors' or whatever.

We went on a diversion there for a while, which did end up proving that Toby went into the business of publishing public information pamphlets in comics form, something we didn't know when we started. So that leaves us with two books published by Graphics Information Services, and now two unidentified artists. Still, we've come a long way on this inquiry. I'm sure if we had more of those Toby romances to look at we could find our artists (The romances use more prosaic real-life drawing than the adventure and horror, whic is what we need for comparison here)

[JVJ (RIP)]

Well-reasoned and well-researched, Eddie.
I'm on the task. I've got my stack of Toby comics and my Toby notes and away I'm going...

Will let you know what, if anything, I find.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[EddieCampbell]

thanks, Jim.

there are other ideas presented above that could add to the picture, such as RJ's suggestion that we check the address on the Capp comic books. All in all it's great where you can get by just applying logic. And sticking to the evidence of course, and avoiding repeating things that never made any sense in the first place. This story was riddled with such things (such as "Al Capp's Toby Press") and yet it was sitting quite close to the truth all along (though much of what we've arrived at is still theoretical).

of passing interest, Andrew (my pal mentioned throughout the above) also noted:
"Also, the Subcommittee issued "grades" on a large swath of comics with A and B being acceptable and C and D being unacceptable.  Several Toby publications were reviewed, including "Great Lover Romances" which was given a "C" rating."

[JVJ (RIP)]

We will all keep plugging and chipping away at the mystery, Eddie,
Here's a big chunk off the "ediface". These are all of the artists I can identify in my Toby comics from 1953 onward. I'm pretty certain that Kotzky is there with Keefer on some of Keefer's best (and unsigned) work. The ONLY possible name from this list for the CD book is Keefer, but he simply isn't consistent enough in his "style" to suggest seriously.

NONE of the other names on this list is a contender (including the added names):

TOBY artists - 1953 onward

Jack Abel
Valerie Barclay
Dick Beck
Betancourt
Lorence Bjorklund
Ben Brown
Sam Burlockoff
Christiano
Bob Correa
Ellis Eringer
Myron Fass
David Gantz
Tom Gill
Art Helfant
Medio Iorio
Mel Keefer - ?
Alice Kirkpatrick
George Klein
Alex Kotzky(?)
Littman
Bill Martin
Gerald McCann
Bob McCarty
Charles Nicholas
O'Brien
George Olesen
Art Peddy
John Rosenberger
Alex Schomberg
Mike Sekowsky
E.J. Smalle
Jack Sparling
Charles Sultan
Sal Trapani
Bill Walsh
William Weltman
Leon Winick
Les Zakarin

add:
Marty Elkin ('55)
Frank Frazetta
Don Heck ('55)
Nat Johnson ('55)
Fred Kida
Mel Lazarus
Jim McCardle
Ernie Schroeder
Al Williamson

Note: Sept. 1954 dated O.S. lists only Elliot Caplin as owner.

[JVJ (RIP)]

thanks, Jim.

You're very welcome, Eddie.

of passing interest, Andrew (my pal mentioned throughout the above) also noted:
"Also, the Subcommittee issued "grades" on a large swath of comics with A and B being acceptable and C and D being unacceptable.  Several Toby publications were reviewed, including "Great Lover Romances" which was given a "C" rating."

I'll bet that was based entirely on the TITLE of the comic.

(|:{>

[EddieCampbell]

The Schmoo comics were indeed published by Toby Press. I wonder whether Capp had a financial stake in Toby after all....
"Al Capp's Toby Press created five issues of Shmoo Comics back in 1949 and 1950 to capitalize on the fad.  In 2008, Denis Kitchen reprinted the entire run in this handsome volume from Dark Horse Archives."
quoted from this blog:
http://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/book-review-al-capps-shmoo-complete.html

the next question is: does "Al Capp's Toby Press" originate with the blogger or is it in Kitchen's introductory notes?

From Here it found its way into the story about the MLK book.

[JVJ (RIP)]

I should have checked the earlier ownership statements, Eddie,
and answered that question for you. Yes, the OS that was notarized on 9/23/1953 for Great Lover Romances shows the owners of Toby Press as Elliott A. Caplin, Jerome B. Capp, and Alfred G. Capp (who is better known as Al Capp). I believe that he was not active in the day to day running of the corporation (cf. Mel Lazarus' hilarious concoction, The Boss is Crazy,Too), but, as you speculate with regard to Graphic Information Services, Al is probably helping to fund and to jump start the company with strong-selling titles early on.

It was Elliot Caplin's Toby Press. As usual with much of comics history, surface impressions often hide the facts. A year after that OS in GLR, Elliot is the sole owner in the 1954 owner's statements and the company is fading away -another victim of the general attacks on comic books and the comics code and the changing spending and viewing habits of the U.S. public. A year or so after THAT, Elliot is struggling to produce overly-padded (one enlarged panel per page!) packages like the Survival 16-pager - again with a push from his famous brother. I believe that Al is a doting (or harried, take your pick) brother trying to get his sibling's newest company off the ground. I would IMAGINE that by this point Al knew better than to invest in Elliot's ventures.

If I own a copy of the KSP Schmoo reprint, alas I don't know where to find it. Denis would be a great source. Try him at denis@deniskitchen.com.

Keep whittling away those assumptions and sooner or later you're bound to strike truth.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[EddieCampbell]

I haven't read the Mell Lazarus piece. But funny that you mention him. While checking the Toby indicias, i noticed his name as art director at the company. later as you know, but for the benefit of anyone who needs the benefit,  he produced the syndicated daily, Miss Peach (1957-2002). And thus does another guy survive in the comics biz.

from Wikipedia:
A native of Brooklyn, Lazarus began as a professional cartoonist when he was a teenager. During his twenties, he worked for Al Capp and his brother Elliott Caplin at the Capp family-owned Toby Press, which published Al Capp's Shmoo Comics, among other titles.

[JVJ (RIP)]

We had a review of "The boss is crazy, too" in Promethean Enterprises #2 back in 1970, Eddie.
It's a great read, especially for comic book fans. Mel draws (ha ha) heavily on his experience at Toby to flesh out this sarcastically funny novel of the lower end of the publishing biz in the 50s. Search out a copy.

And don't forget "Momma"!

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[EddieCampbell]

this is rich: (wikipdia)

His novel The Boss Is Crazy, Too (Dial, 1954) was inspired in part by his experiences as an editor at Toby Press. mike weber described the storyline:
Mel Lazarus' great novel of the early days of the Silver Age, The Boss Is Crazy Too, features a production manager who literally knows nothing about his job; he's the publisher's wife's unemployable cousin, and giving him a job is part of the price of getting family money to keep the company afloat. The artists hate him, and the inker has a habit of lettering obscenities in areas that are going to be solid black, just to honk him off. He's positive that, one day, the black isn't going to cover it up. So one week, the bullpen crew grab one of the sample bundles of comics coming into the office, and, with a rubber stamp and dark grey ink, stamp an obscene word in the same place in a black doorway the hero has just emerged from, gun blazing. And then they tie the bundle back up and leave him to find it.