General Category > Comic Related Discussion
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)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version