Golden-Age Comic Book Scripts Wanted

[The Ghost Man]

Greetings all, just reaching out to the DCM community to see if anyone knows where I might find scripts the artists used during the Golden-Age for the artists to draw comics from. I've looked all over and so far haven't turned up anything. I'm hoping that a few exist and weren't just rubbished because they weren't considered of any value.To clarify I'm not a collector so I'm just seeking a few sources preferably online for now. However, if a physical version with good content came up, I wouldn't reject it out of hand. If there were any digitized that were used during the seminal Marvel reconstruction in the 60's they'd be cool as well.

I'm pulling this together for both research into my personal vintage comic reformation project as well as making it available to other like-minded content creators at my artists academy blogsite.

[Yoc]

Hi GM,
I just recalled there is a script here on the site:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=6952

We just don't have the book that it goes with.

-Yoc

[The Ghost Man]

THANK YOU! You're a lifesaver Yoc, after taking another run at it today online and failing to find anything I just gave up. It's just so hard to believe these vintage scripts are so rare and ridiculously hard to find. There's a good number of new/modern ones out there but I don't want any of those. I'm constructing something brand new but harvested from the solid core and everything good from the Platinum and Golden-Age creatively that I can salvage.

I'm compelled to push this project forward and there's a ton of work ahead. It's like trying to eat an elephant and can't be done in one shot, it has to be done in stages. As much effort as I've poured into the The Vintage Inkwell Academy blogsite, it will have to take a backburner to future updates. It's getting hardly any response and I need to move forward and concentrate my energies towards constructing the infrastructure for this endeavour. All the while pursuing advanced art studies! I'm as busy as a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest and your gracious assistance has been well appreciated.

[Yoc]

Hi GM,
Happy I could be of some help.  And you have my sympathies regarding the site.  DCM is a 'niche' site and the VIA is a niche of a niche.

There's some sites with pay records for GA writers.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180225190339/http://thebookstork.wikispaces.com/Otto+Binder's+Pay+Records+Part+1+-+Marvel
And this blog talks a lot about writers as well:
https://martinohearn.blogspot.com/
It's not really what you want but I found it interesting.

If you are on Facebook you might try reaching out to Michael T. Gilbert who is also a fan of GA history.  Tell him 'Yoc sent you.'

Good luck with the site!
-Yoc

[The Ghost Man]

Thanks once again! Just made an overdue donation to the site in my gratitude for your help, and throw in my contribution to support the site. I would never have gotten as far if you guys didn't exist. People don't really know what they have until it's not there one day and I for one never, ever want to see that day. Keep at it guys, you've got one guy who your efforts made a personal impact on. I'll try and contribute again once when I can as finances permit.

[Yoc]

Thanks very much GM!
That was a very generous donation you just made!

Are you on Facebook at all?  There might be some people and groups that could help with the site.

Stay well,
-Yoc

[The Ghost Man]

Yoc, you're very welcome! I don't have a FB account or presence, not due to laziness, I just avoid them and Twitter. However The Vintage Inkwell Academy site is on Reddit and to a larger degree on Pinterest. I sincerely appreciate all of the interest and assistance you've personally and graciously offered. You were absolutely correct about my site being a micro-niche of a Golden-Age niche which I don't believe younger people (to their detriment) are even interested in.

If DCM also offered advertising like the sister site Comic Book Plus, I would definitely invest in running an advert here which I think might gain attention from people who truly care about this medium. If you guys ever decide to construct something like that, I'm happy to be first in line.
By the by, your remaining monthly coffer balance kept bothering me, so I just paid off all the remaining balance. Happy September to all.

[Yoc]

Hi GM,
Thanks very much for covering almost half our monthly sever bill for August!   
Any further donations will help cover those months we fall short like we did in September.

I know what you mean about avoiding social media.  I've never used Reddit or Pinterest.  I'm only on Facebook because DCM has a FB page but I have met some nice fellow collectors.  A couple have even contributed comics to the collection.

There's a private FB page run by Robert Beerbohm called 'Platinum Era Comic Books & Periodicals' that might be a resource for fellow Victoria era fans and information.  They might have a presence on Reddit or Pinterest if you check.

Another possible source for info is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable comic scholars Ken Quattro.  I've even pointed him to your TVIA site.  Ken has his own very interesting site here: http://www.comicsdetective.com/

I just gave TVIA site a plug on the DCM FB page as well as in our Discord chatroom. 

Hang in there and stay healthy,
-Yoc

[Yoc]

Hey, I just found a link to something that might be very helpful.
Cartoons Magazine - which ran for a long time!
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Windsor%2C+H.+H.+%28Henry+Haven%29%2C+1859-1924%22

If it really speaks to you Craig Yoe is selling off some of his collection of the magazine.  No clue on what he's asking for them.

-Yoc

[The Ghost Man]

Wow Yoc, great links! I checked out Ken's site and really liked what he has going there, I've read his most recent post and will continue through them all this week. Craig Yoe is top shelf and his contributions have greatly added to the hidden knowledge base. I'm personally chomping at the bit to get my hands on his soon to be published 'Drawing and Life Lessons from Master Cartoonists' due out this November. It contains a diverse array of vintage Cartooning greats, teaching you from old courses beginning and advanced lessons on how to draw and write comics! I'm also scouring heaven and earth to no avail, trying to locate a copy of the book 'Mail-Order Geniuses' which reprints the famous W.L. Evans Cartooning courses from the Platinum Age. I have the vintage Landon Cartooning course which I'm currently going through my art training with.

I went to the link you shared on the Cartoons Magazine and found exceptional and very helpful content there. Sincere thanks for the great links, plugs and your grand supportive generosity.

[OtherEric]

I should check; I've got  a couple issues of Cartoons Magazine, although one is coverless.  If they're not scanned maybe I can look for some hints on scanning pulps...

[SuperScrounge]

I'm indexing issues of the Saturday Evening Post at the GCD and a few issues might be of interest to you.

John T. McCutcheon wrote some articles on cartooning (some of the articles ramble a bit, so you might have to edit them down a bit). Hopefully you can find some info to use.

May 30, 1903 Humorists of the Pencil https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1903-05-30/mode/2up

February 6, 1904 Tales of a Cartoonist https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1904-02-06/mode/2up

October 29, 1904 The Cartoon and the Campaign https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1904-10-29/mode/2up

May 20, 1905 The Cartoon Prophet https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1905-05-20/mode/2up

March 13, 1909 Roosevelt as Cartoon Material  https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1909-03-13

[Yoc]

Happy to help GM.

Thanks for chiming in guys.  I'd not heard of the 'Cartoons' magazine before this.
There's another long running magazine called 'Print' that if you could find them would cover a lot of material on printing, etc from 1940 to 2017 when it went to online issues only.  I recall M. C. Gaines writes about making a Wonder Woman story in an old issue.  It's been scanned IIRC.  Just need to track it down again.
---
Reading the Wiki for 'Print Magazine' it mentions merging with 'The Printing Art'.  That's a new title to me.  A Google of it says it started back on 1905.  I also see issues of it are being shared online on the AMAZING HathiTrust Digital Library site.  Home to 1000s of magazine scans of many, many different titles!  'Printing Art' can be found there at this link: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009039816
I suspect the suggestions on the right side of the page should keep you very busy for a loooong time.
---
Another link of general interest is this one I just heard about in that Platinum Age FB group I mentioned:
Visualizations - American Magazine Circulations graphs.  https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/circulating/visualizations/

It does list some comic publications in the list of titles included: https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/circulating/titles-included/

If I find anything more I'll keep updating in this topic.

-Yoc

[The Ghost Man]

Thanks Yoc, I well appreciate your efforts in passing these along. I examined the links and want to remark on a disturbing and angering recent trend I'm experiencing in digital book archiving. As you know, there are a great many excellent books who've legitimately entered the public domain and now entities like Google and the Hathi Trust are digitising and then walling off download access to these volumes to the general public. In the Hathi Trust's case, they make it a pre-requisite that you must belong to an affiliated institution to be able to download books in their entirety. Amazon is also pulling a rubbish stunt by taking digitised books in the public domain and then selling very poorly reproduced printed versions on their site. Archive.org who are co-opted by Google, are pulling a stunt where they take public domain books and then wall them off and make them available ONLY accessible as library loans that cannot be downloaded.

This is a reason I have curated any art instructional books I find of value and upload them to The Vintage Inkwell Academy completely gratis. Knowledge should not be in chains and restricted by trash entities with control fixations.

[Yoc]

Hi GM,
Yep, I feel your frustration.  I wasn't aware it was this bad.
Thank-you again for all your work trying to keep this info free to the general public like this.

Hang in there,
-Yoc