Blue Beetle/Spunky or Sandman/Sandy- What's the Difference?

[TheCosmicMoth]

I've been reading through Holyoke's Blue Beetle as research for my comic project and I ran into an interesting gaffe. I found it in Blue Beetle #18 which is already an interesting issue because here they start referring to the Blue Beetle's sidekick as Spunky instead of Sparky. Anyway, in the final Beetle story of the issue, "The Sight-Seeing Bus Mystery," I ran into this panel:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b371/Jekylhyde14/BB18WesandSandy_zpsj6cxikjn.png

As you can see, Dan and "Spunky" are referred to as "Wes" and "Sandy." My theory is that the writer and/or artist was also a creator for Sandman and Sandy in National's Adventure Comics. Either they slipped and wrote Wes and Sandy's names in by mistake because they were so used to writing Sandman stories that it became reflex OR this was supposed to be a Sandman story and National passed so they ended up selling it to Holyoke for Blue Beetle. The story credits "Art and Editorial" to "Cromwell Bates and Dudley Rutherford." However, movielover's notes at the end of the scan seem to suggest the real identity of the creator is "Willmer." I couldn't find much else about it from my Google searches.

Anyone know anything more about this little mistake?

[Yoc]

I can't add anything to this other than thanks for finding it.
Very interesting!

[narfstar]

Very interesting. I think the writer of Sandman can be credited as the writer for that story.

[mopee167]

This is a great find, CM!!! Here’s my theory of what happened: Ray Willner (the artist) applied
for work at DC/National, circa 1942, and was given a Sandman and Sandy script by Gardner Fox
(who was writing Sandman at the time) to illustrate. When he turned the story in, the Powers that
Be at DC/National found it unacceptable (for whatever reason) or wanted changes. Ray Willner
then repurposed the story as a Blue Beetle and Sparky story, making the necessary changes to the
art and lettering except for that panel you posted.

And Gardner Fox (who had already been paid for the script) never knew he wrote a Blue Beetle
story. Anyway that’s my theory. What do you all think???

[Yoc]

As good a theory as any I could think of.
Who would really notice if hadn't be for the one missed slip?

-Yoc

[SuperScrounge]

This is a great find, CM!!! Here’s my theory of what happened: Ray Willner (the artist) applied for work at DC/National, circa 1942, and was given a Sandman and Sandy script by Gardner Fox (who was writing Sandman at the time) to illustrate. When he turned the story in, the Powers that Be at DC/National found it unacceptable (for whatever reason) or wanted changes. Ray Willner then repurposed the story as a Blue Beetle and Sparky story, making the necessary changes to the art and lettering except for that panel you posted.

If true then shouldn't there be a published Sandman story that matches this Blue Beetle story? If DC had paid for the story I'd expect them to use it.

Another possibility is that a freelance writer wrote a Sandman story that got rejected then just changed names and sold it to Holyoke. There were a few writers who worked for multiple publishers grinding out generic stories for various characters to be drawn in.

[mopee167]

I never said that was the true story of what happened. It was just my theory to possibly explain some of the facts, though publishers have been known to write off scripts that have been paid for, i.e. “The Will of William Wilson.”

Another possibility, as you suggest, is that the artist (either alone or working with a writer) worked up the story on spec, only to have it rejected and reused (with changes) as a Blue Beetle story. I guess we’ll never really know.

[SuperScrounge]

Well, Mopee, in my ham-fisted way I was trying to suggest that people with copies of old Sandman stories compare them with that Blue Beetle story. If there's a match that would back up your theory.

I hope you didn't take my post as an attack on your theory. It just jumped out at me as an avenue to check.

[mopee167]

No offense taken, SuperScrounge. And I quite agree that checking Sandman stories for a match might prove useful.

[TheCosmicMoth]

Ha! I just caught a similar instance from Simon and Kirby in Star-Spangled Comics #7: https://community.dcuniverseinfinite.com/t/has-captain-america-been-in-the-dcu-since-1942/3225448