by attribution I mean
"Dan Barry (studio)?"
anything more than that would be going too far out on a limb.
This site gives a 1958 publication date and also credits the Al Capp Studio with the art.Having read all of the info, Joe, it seems that everyone is determining an "earliest possible" date, not an actual publication date. Based on the internal evidence of the incidents depicted and referred to in the strip, it is nearly impossible for the publication date to have been 1957 or earlier. Hence they are assigning 1958, but it could just have easily been 1959 without contradicting any of the data.
http://www.bookerrising.net/2010/03/martin-luther-king-jr-comic-book.html
The 1958 date is also backed up here.
http://sdvoice.info/martin-luther-king-jr-comic-books-to-be-rereleased-p1350-101.htm
Personally I get both Al McWilliams and Sy Barry vibes from the art in different parts of the book.
Best
Joe
Jim,
Since I last looked in here I've revised my thinking on this.
In one of the discussions of the comic somebody referred to"Al Capp's Toby Press." No source is given for this odd detail, but it does offer a chain of connections. Toby Press was run by Elliott Caplin, Al Capp's brother. I'm thinking somebody has mistaken the two at some point in the history of the piece. My current thought on the matter is that the job was done through, by referral or what ever, E Caplin, who has a history with 'true' stories in comics (being an editor for the Parents' Institute publications (including comic books that are filed here in the DCM) before setting up his own comics op (and writing Juliet Jones and Big ben Bolt at the time of the job in question). Benton Resnik's name appears as 'office manager' in the indicia of Toby Press's comics (spelled thus but spelled differently, Resnick, in most other discussions of the MLk comic.)
There seem to be several errors that have taken hold and been repeated around the place as facts (eg. Resnick as a 'blacklisted comics writer' following the Kefauver hearings, which is gibberish. Comics were blacklisted , not writers and artists.)
Anyway, from all of this I'm presuming a Toby Press artist is the likely candidate for this job, and I don't know of any Dan Barry connection there, so let's lose that attribution.
One book in The DCM files seemed to offer some likely art connections, the Sorority Secrets #1. I couldn't find any definite stylistic cross -connections for the art, but oddly I think I see one in the lettering, in the story 'The Wrong One', with its unusual sweeping caption boxes here and there, such as the one on the second panel, top of the third page. compare with the one on top of 'page 3' (thus numbered in the DCM files) of the MLK comic. This is all vague but helps me to feel confident that I'm looking in the right place. The Toby Press stories are all unsigned too, but you can't expect these things to be easy.
I wonder if Jim can suggest an artist for "the Wrong One" that might help me move forward?
best
Eddie
thanks, Jim.You're very welcome, Eddie.
of passing interest, Andrew (my pal mentioned throughout the above) also noted:I'll bet that was based entirely on the TITLE of the comic.
"Also, the Subcommittee issued "grades" on a large swath of comics with A and B being acceptable and C and D being unacceptable. Several Toby publications were reviewed, including "Great Lover Romances" which was given a "C" rating."