Colossus Comics #1

[Mr. Izaj]

 Looking at the upload of Colossus Comics #1, it was quite an impressive read. I'm glad you were able to upload this rare book. It's a good thing sites like this give people like me a chance to read some very rare comic books that otherwise I wouldn't have been given the chance to read.

 One should remember the fact that comic books were - and still are - normally cover dated two months in advance of their publishing dates. Thus Colossus Comics #1 cover dated March, 1940 actually hit the stands in January of that year. I should know because I always used to lremind the people who read the reviews I wrote for www.goldcomics.com - which I did under another name there - of that particular fact.

[Yoc]

Hi Mr I,
Very nice to hear you are enjoying the DCM collection.  Finding and sharing books like these is a special pleasure for me.  There is almost no chance an average comics fan would ever get to read such a rare and expensive book if it weren't for generous people like Rangerhouse in this case, scanning and sharing his precious books with everyone on DCM.
The cover dates are later than actual distribution sure.  All the books mentioned in the description share the same March date.  Did the all come out in January?  That's a good question.

Enjoy the books!
-Yoc

[Geo (RIP)]

Yes, we are very fortunate to have some very generous members that have access to those rare books we have up here. I know when we first started I thought we would never see some of these books here. So thanks goes out to all those that have helped with scans, books, etc.

Geo

[Mr. Izaj]

 Very likely, especially in the case of Prize Comics #1 and Adventure Comics #48. And that is due to the fact that Independent News was not only DC's newsstand distributor, it was Prize Publications distributor as well. And DC occasionally ran house ads for Prize Comics and Headline Comics - both published by Prize Publications - in their books.

[Yoc]

Sure, I had a laugh when I first saw a Prize ad in a DC book or I think it was a Novelty ad in a Timely book.

[Mr. Izaj]

 Very likely the former, since I found an ad for Prize Comics in a reprint of Superman #12 in Superman Archives Vol. 3.

[bminor]

Does anyone know the physical dimensions of this seminal tome?
10.25" high x 7.5"
B.

[Yoc]

Note sure B.
You might ask Brian over on Facebook.

[chrisbeneke]

Hi All,

I found Colossus Comics so charming and imaginative that I was inspired to do some digging to see if I could find more by, and about, Bernie Wiest, the artist who snuck his signature into a panel on the last page of that boldly drawn Colossus a.d. 2640 lead story. Those modulating panel sizes throughout the 13-page layout were quite unusual for the time, but still effective. (Wiest also signs an illustration that accompanies the two-page text story.)

I also thought that Wiest might have drawn two, perhaps three, of the issue's other stories: the Lum Sims "Ghost of Buzzard Mounting," where the artist ('Nard) has signed a panel of the last page;

the Ruggey story, the Hitler satire that closes the issue, which is signed "Lincoln Maher" in the first panel;

and the Tulpa of Tsang, which shows some similarities in the cartoony faces and hands, but is otherwise crudely or hastily done, though I found the Tulpa him(it?)self interesting and the story's mix of whimsy and the grotesque very entertaining and better than the issue's straightly drawn adventure stories.

duckduckgo helped me find a touching obituary for a grandmother, Sim Wiest, who was preceded in death by a husband Bernard (called Bernie), an artist in many media:
http://jmahorney.blogspot.com/2009/01/sim-wiest-1917-2009.html

I wrote this grandson, Jeff Mahorney, and he confirmed that Colossus Comics #1 did seem to contain stories drawn by his grandfather Bernie. Jeff put me in direct contact with his mother, Penny Wiest Augustine (), who kindly sent me the following biography and photos of her father:

"Bernie was my dad.  He was born in 1919 (I think) and lived in Chicago.   He graduated from the Chicago Art Institute then went into the Army and was stationed in Ft Custer in Michigan for the war...illustrating all kinds of posters (I'll attach a pix of him).  I do remember him talking about illustrating a comic book and drawing a comic strip before the war.

After the war, he and my mom (she was in the WACS at Ft Custer) settled in New Orleans.  He worked for two different ad agencies, then made schlock drive-in movies with a producer friend, then had a commercial animation studio in our home (and acted in little theater and he and my mom had their own Punch and Judy show) then was an animator for Boeing, then "retired" to painting (primarily miniatures).  Unfortunately he died in 1999...just as he was getting very excited about computer animation.

I think that all of the things you found are his.  Although the Wiest signature with the lines for E and S were not ones I've seen before, I know the signature on his work changed over the years.  Anything with "Nard" is definitely his because he used that during the war.  The last comic with the name Lincoln is the only one I'm not 100% sure about (neither Lincoln or Maher is a family name).  However the hands on the guy with the green cap...especially in the second to last panel...are definitely Dad's style.

Thank you for finding his early artwork and sharing it with Jeff and me.

If you have any other questions or find anything else, please let us know."

I have since asked Penny to look at other stories and credits in Colossus and have also sent her the links to that earlier Sun Publications comic, Sun Fun Komiks, which apparently includes work by "Lincoln Maher," though scans of Maher's pages are unavailable.

I've further requested more details about Bernie's other works, comics and otherwise.

imdb.com has a "Bernard Weist" credit for a New Orleans-produced 1958 Shadow movie, The Invisible Avenger, a low-budget production that might have been a pilot for a proposed-but-never-realized Shadow TV series.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051783/?ref_=nm_flmg_set_1

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051783/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

I do hope that we can learn more about this talented early comic book maker and his later works, but Penny has given me permission to post this info -- and her email address -- now.

Enjoy and thanks for all the free comics!
CB

[Yoc]

Great work on finding all of this Chris!
I've removed Penny's email address as this is a public forum and we wouldn't want her to be getting spam.
Congrats on your successful search.

[crashryan]

This was fascinating information. Thank you for posting it.

I'm not sure The Tulpa is Weist's work, however. I've seen references crediting that strip to Norman Nodel. The info was attributed to Nodel family members. True, the byline says "Norman Modell" but that could be a lettering error. Or Nodel (birth name Nochem Yeshaya) might not yet have settled on his pen name. He would only have been 18 or 19 at the time. I suppose Nodel might have written the story for "Lionel March" to draw, but artist/writer credits were often reversed back in the day. Perhaps March wrote and Nodel drew?

Whatever the case, your post provides a wonderful glimpse of a bygone age.

[erwin-k]

Wonderful information. Thanks for all your efforts!

As an aside, that pic of Bernie in uniform could well have been me in 1973 & '74. I was a Draftsman (read sign-painter) while the Army still wore khaki uniforms stateside in summer.

[Mr. Izaj]

 I was wondering if Norman Nodell was any relation to Martin Nodell Who was best known for co-creating The Green Lantern for DC?

[chrisbeneke]

Did Nodel live in Chicago at the time? The work of his that I found online since crashryan's observation seems more accomplished than the Tulpa effort, but Tulpa could've been among his earliest comics works.

Tulpa lacks the easy grace of Weist's other Colossus pages but working against a deadline or consciously trying to draw in another style (since Bernie was already doing 24 (or 28, with Ruggey) of the 66 pages with art), might've been to blame for the crudeness.

I read the credit on Tulpa as "Norman Modell" and one of the credits on the Blond Garth story is "Ramond Mellon," which is an anagram of Norman Modell.

Having a complete scan of Sun Fun Komiks might clarify some of these pseudonyms.

Just noticed that, except for its first page, the Lum Sims story  by Bernie/'Nard can almost be read in 4-panel increments, so maybe it was repurposed from a comic-strip proposal?

My strong suspicion is that the comic was entirely produced in Chicago, since Bernie lived there at the time.

If Nodel was living in Chicago in 1939, he can/should have the Tulpa credit!

[jacquenodell]

Hi there all! There is no relation between Norman Nodel and Mart Nodell (my grandfather). Thanks to Jim Van Dore for letting me know about this very interesting conversation!

I was wondering if Norman Nodell was any relation to Martin Nodell Who was best known for co-creating The Green Lantern for DC?