Colossus Comics #1

[Yoc]

Wow, this book has generated a lot of very interesting posts here.
Thanks gang! 

[StevenRowe]

Norman Modell actually existed and was living in Chicago in 1940, where the census that year lists him as a radio scriptwriter. 
(1913-1999) died in L.A. He was a staff writer for Billboard, Chicago division, in 1940, writing about the Chicago radio studios. Was in WW2,
In NY after the war, says he specialized in 'daytime radio scripts'.    Hope this helps

[chrisbeneke]

Hi Steven,
Great find about Norman Modell.
I didn't think that the earlier Nodel ID was on the right track, especially since the drawing styles didn't align very well and there was that anagrammed pseudonym on the Blond Garth story.

Hope Jim peeks in here again to further clarify the Colossus credit index at comics.org.
Norman Modell, script on Tulpa, and, as Ramond Mellon, script on Blond Garth...probably?

Radio is the great missing piece in our contemporary understanding of American popular culture. In 1940 and earlier, Chicago was second to New York as a national broadcaster and some of the best shows of the time were based there: Lum & Abner (which the Lum Sims story in Colossus swipes, and which 60s sitcoms like Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres swiped more lucratively) and Vic & Sade.

Most comics critics ignore the influence of radio on the later horror comics (I think Max Collins gave due credit in one of the recent Dark Horse Archives of EC). Some doctoral candidate is going to write a lot of pages connecting 50s comics stories to the 30s and 40s radio shows that they swiped from.

Maybe other Colossus credits belong to other known radio people?

[Mr. Izaj]

 When you think about it, Colossus Comics #1 was one of those books that catches the spirit of what was going on in the comic industry circa 1940. Every publisher who wanted to try publishing comic books were trying to find out what was going to work and/or get that hit character or combination of characters that would make their books best sellers. Everyone was hoping to emulate the success that DC was having with Superman and the two books he appeared in, Action Comics and Superman. But Colossus Comics sadly ended up as one of those books that didn't catch on with the reading public at large and ended up in the dustbin of history. That is until the advent of the internet and someone scanning this rare book to give us a glimpse of a book from a now forgotten publisher and a glimpse of the ground floor of the beginnings of the comic book industry.

[jrvandore]

Looks like Steven already put in a note about the Modell confirmation.  But I added him as likely behind the pseudonym on the other story.

[Yoc]

Well said.
I couldn't have said it better Mr I.

[crashryan]

Steve, thanks for setting straight my misconception about Norman Nodel and Norman Modell.

Chris, you're right about the influence of radio. Such a powerful popular medium inevitably would have affected the young men and women creating early comic books, just like the movies did. I would love to see someone with solid OTR credentials tackle the subject of the connection between comic books and radio programs.

It always seemed to me that Charles Biro's crime stories were influenced by radio storytelling. The way he set up scenes, covered scene shifts with dialogue rather than narration, and had characters name each other when they spoke seem right out of the radio-writing playbook.

[Mr. Izaj]

 When you think about it, a lot of the writers and artists who were creating comic books during this period were much more in tune with the pop culture of the period than most of their young readers. Not only did they listen to the latest radio shows, they also read much of the latest pulp magazines and books and checked out the latest films for inspiration (movie going was at a major high during this period). The result was that the comic books of the period were much more in tune with the pop culture of the period.

 The reason why people like us notice the influence of the pop culture of the period on the comic books created during the Golden Age is because a lot of us are either history buffs, old movie buffs, and/or old time radio fans. I would notice these things as well. When I was writing reviews Of various MLJ books for www.goldcomics.com - under my original screen name of Kelso - I noticed a lot of similarities between the stories and the movies and books of the period.

[CBpop]

There is no doubt that Old Time Radio did have a big influence on the comics and movies.  Buxton and Owen's The Big Broadcast book published in 1966 and revised in 1972 is a good resource for researching the Pop Culture connections.  I bought my copy in the early 1970s when stationed overseas and OTR was the only entertainment we had. The shows stirred childhood memories of listening to favorite shows and looking for comics such as Captain Midnight, The Shadow, Roy Rogers, Terry and the Pirates,Gene Autry etc.  The Big Broadcast helped me appreciate the history of the shows and introduced me a lot of the history of those shows.

There are a lot of books and websites dedicated to radio and I'm sure there are many connections that can be made. It would be a great topic for DCM to follow.
Ed

[chrisbeneke]

Did a quick check of my on-hand radio book, John Dunning's On the Air, the Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, for the other credited names from Colossus. Nothing turned up, despite my high hopes of finding Reinsberg, the writer (?) on the Colossus feature.

archive.org hosts lots of great old-time radio for anyone who's interested. The OTRR sets, which can be downloaded with extras in CD-sized bites or streamed from single-episode pages, are pretty great: the scifi/horror series available FOR FREE include The Whistler (Biro, Gaines and Feldstein listened to this one for sure!), Arch Oboler, Inner Sanctum, Suspense, Escape, the later Dimension X/X-Minus One...Theater Five (from the still-later early 60s).

Mysterious Traveler, better known to comics folks because of its Ditko print incarnation, began on the radio.

Dragnet and Gunsmoke, from the 50s, are far superior to the better-known TV versions and among the best OTR.

The OTRR group has yet to tackle some classics (or have had their efforts copyright-challenged dubiously by commercial repackagers): the previously recommended Vic & Sade and Lum & Abner (also search the Pine Ridge Project for more eps), Fibber McGee & Molly and Jack Benny (more a show about nothing -- or itself -- than Seinfeld ever was) require some acceptance of  loud studio audiences and weekly musical numbers but are still hilarious, Bob & Ray, and the odd works of Ernest Chappell (Quiet Please), Jack Webb as Pat Novak (Webb's first success was a very sly parody of the hardboiled genre), and Carlton E. Morse, whose great I Love A Mystery is only available in pieces (or in its Morse-scripted imitation, Adventures by Morse -- those 60s audio satirists, the Firesign Theatre,  had to be Morse fans).

Internet radio station Antioch ABN Old-Time Radio at http://radio.macinmind.com/ streams an interesting sampling of many of these recommendations and seems to be available through some of the specialty streaming apps on wireless devices.

Enjoy!

Chris B.

[Yoc]

Thanks for the suggestions Chris!

[bminor]

Let us not forget what I consider to be the best radio detective shows ever.

Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, The man with the action packed expense account, (especially the five part, fifteen minute episode years)

And
Richard Diamond, Private Detective, played by the great Dick Powell (at the top of his form) and his girlfriend Helen, played by Virginia Gregg, also a wonderful cast of characters.
This series was created and written, for the most part by BLAKE EDWARDS, later of The Pink Panther.

Go on over the www.archive.org and download these they are fantastic!!!

B.

[chrisbeneke]

I agree about Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar --the Bob Bailey years of five 15-minute episodes per week are great! (And, not coincidentally, are a more mature work of the writer of the Superman radio serial, Jack Johnstone.)

YTJD was next on my list of recommendations, which was painful to keep so short!

The Adventures of Sam Spade (a name-only relation to Hammett's hero) with Gerald Mohr and the great Lurene Tuttle is as breezy as Richard Diamond, as is the earliest set of Boston Blackie, who's wise-crackin' ease should remind comics fans of Eisner's Spirit. Rocky Jordan is a Casablanca caricature that can be quite entertaining.

Nat Hiken was an auteur of early TV (Bilko and Car 54) and his Magnificent Montague is inimitable and overlooked. (Bonus: These 1950 recordings feature early work by announcer Don Pardo, better known as the announcer for Saturday Night Live.)

We've strayed a bit far from Sun Publications' Colossus....

[Mr. Izaj]

 You could also add Gerald Mohr's work on the Philip Marlowe series as well.

[Mr. Izaj]

 I would really love to write an introduction to this book. This is one of those comic books that gives us a glimpse of what was going on in the highly competitive world of comic book publishing during this period. And it's one of those books that act as a time capsule of pop culture circa 1940.