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[John C]

You think I was "bossy", "patronizing" and "insulting" to bchat.

That's very much not what I said.  I said "can be interpreted" that way, and specifically said that I knew better as to your intent.  Multiple times.  In the very same sentences in which those words appear.

I won't apologize for being critical, here, though I do certainly apologize for singling you out.  I knew you were trying to help and how, as I said, but what you said can be (and was) easily read as "you're not doing this well enough."  I point it out because I believe it was NOT your intention and assumed you might not want to be read that way.  If you don't care, then I apologize for getting involved and wasting your time.

[JVJ]

My personal rule is to wait at least a day before responding to anyone who triggers some emotion in me. I have found that it makes ME a better and wiser correspondent and lowers the overall emotional level of the discussion. This is a GOOD thing, otherwise we end up with a premature (and emotional) termination of what WAS a very interesting thread. At this point no one is going to want to touch this topic, and that makes me sad - especially since I just unearthed my sole copy of Model Fun comics and was going to share it. Now, I think not.

Peace, Jim (|:{(>

[kquattro]

My personal rule is to wait at least a day before responding to anyone who triggers some emotion in me. I have found that it makes ME a better and wiser correspondent and lowers the overall emotional level of the discussion. This is a GOOD thing, otherwise we end up with a premature (and emotional) termination of what WAS a very interesting thread. At this point no one is going to want to touch this topic, and that makes me sad - especially since I just unearthed my sole copy of Model Fun comics and was going to share it. Now, I think not.

As always, Jim, you are a wise man.

I'll ignore the temptation to respond to the last post directed at me and ask: PLEASE share your copy of MODEL FUN. That's why I am here.

--Ken Q

[bchat]

Hey everybody ...

I'm going to ignore what irritated me ... it's time to let it go and move forward, and I don't want to see other people arguing because I  took offense to something.

I am tackling this project in a way that makes sense to me, which begins with exhausting one resource (the internet) until there is nothing left to learn or gain from it.  To do it any other way is, to me, simply non-productive.  Why not learn everything I can from one source before moving to the next step?  Why start a search beyond the internet for the various publications when I'm not even sure if I know of all the magazines involved?  You wouldn't try baking a cake without knowing all the ingredients you needed, why start looking for something if you don't know what you're looking for?

As long as it doesn't cost a fortune, I'll probably take the next step and begin acquiring a few of the publications that interest me.  Some of the magazines, etc. that I've become aware of are quite pricey, so when I say "I'm not going to buy this or that", that should end that aspect of the discussion right then & there, not lead to a debate about the "right way" serious researchers do things.  When I spend money, it's on things I or my family can enjoy, not something that satifies the curiosity of others.  I'm not looking to gain anything more out of this other than knowledge, so the less I spend out-of-pocket, the better.  If someone wants to dispute or contradict the facts & information I bring forward, I expect them to at least say where they are getting their information so that I (and everybody else) can compare & double-check to see what the reality is.  I've been quite straight-forward with where I've been getting my information from and I don't think it's too much to ask that others do the same.

I'm well aware of how serious researchers conduct themselves while gathering & documenting facts (there is more to me than just being a guy who reads comics).  I'm doing my best to document where exactly I get information from.  I HAVE TO because I want the end product to be as accurate as possible for myself.  There will be a point where I will throw-up everything I have in a detailed format AND state where that information came from so that anyone else can double-check my findings if they desire and correct any wrong information.

To get things back on-track:

January 1937 - Detective Digest 1 -

[kquattro]

I'm going to ignore what irritated me ... it's time to let it go and move forward, and I don't want to see other people arguing because I  took offense to something.

You're a good man, bchat. I apologize if I did offend you. It certainly wasn't my intention and I hope you understand that.

To get back on this fascinating topic, I have found a few things that may be of interest.

Keeping to things that can be found online, here was an image of a 1967 crossword puzzle book on the Mile High Comics site:
http://comicartville.com/harlepublications.gif

(the image is no longer on the MH site, which means that someone probably bought it)
You'll notice the Harle logo indicates that it has been around since 1936.

another, much smaller image of that logo is also seen here:
http://muradgumen.com/Hpublished.htm

Note that the date on this issue of Top-Notch Fill-In is 1983, so that company was around until then at least.

Hope that's helpful.

--Ken Q

[bchat]

I'm going to ignore what irritated me ... it's time to let it go and move forward, and I don't want to see other people arguing because I  took offense to something.

You're a good man, bchat. I apologize if I did offend you. It certainly wasn't my intention and I hope you understand that.

It's water under the bridge.

To get back on this fascinating topic, I have found a few things that may be of interest.

Keeping to things that can be found online, here was an image of a 1967 crossword puzzle book on the Mile High Comics site:
http://comicartville.com/harlepublications.gif

(the image is no longer on the MH site, which means that someone probably bought it)
You'll notice the Harle logo indicates that it has been around since 1936.

I just ran across that yesterday on MH's site, so I guess someone JUST bought it.

I've been "collecting" any of the covers I've run across because for the most part, it's artwork and not photographs.  Motorsport has photo covers & I haven't run across any decent quality Flying Models images yet, but magazines like Smiles and Comet at least have some decent looking artwork.  If people want, I can add some of those images to my posts.  One Smiles cover was suggested by the seller to be by "Kelly" but I coudn't say one way or the other who it's by.  It might have been just a name he threw-in there to get people to look at the item.

another, much smaller image of that logo is also seen here:
http://muradgumen.com/Hpublished.htm

Note that the date on this issue of Top-Notch Fill-In is 1983, so that company was around until then at least.

Hope that's helpful.

--Ken Q

I miss the days when search engines didn't give you three results (or more) that took you to the same page.  It made looking for information easier.

Yes, this is helpful.  Up until I saw the other Top-Notch yesterday, the furthest I could possibly place any of Hardie & Kelly's ... or their company's production (trying not to assume that these guys are immortal)  was 1960.  One search result I kept getting for "Harle Publications" takes me to the "Kappa Publishing Group" website.  There's no company history available that I see, so at this point, I don't know what the connection is, if there even is any.

And I was just poking around the 'net while I was typing this and ran across an article regarding the history of Crossword Puzzle Magazines which talks about Harle, Dell & Charlton http://www.trivia-library.com/a/history-of-the-crossword-puzzle-part-1.htm.  I haven't read it yet because I'm HERE, but I've copied it to read in a bit.

Use of the "Harle" name seems to be sporadic.  It all but disappeared when they began publishing the comics in 1938.  I've seen nothing yet under the "Harle" name from 1938 to 1941, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to be found.  It gets put back into use by at least 1942 when they start producing the puzzle magazines, but by 1944 they started switching the publishing names to whatever the magazine was called (it's when "Fifty Crosswords Inc" comes into being, along with others ... once I get a little more info plugged-into my "Big List of Stuff" I'll post it here and everyone can see what happened).  I'm not exactly sure when it would have popped-up again as I haven't gone through any Copyright entries past 1945 yet.  Obviously, "Harle" was used for Model Fun in 1954 and slapped on the cover of the Top-Notch Fill-In Puzzles in 1967 & '83, but that leaves a lot of gaps to "fill-in" (absolutely NO pun intended).

Here's something that I just ran across (again, while typing this) from https://www.usps.com/judicial/1960deci/1-183.htm:

In the Matter of the Petition by
SPECIALIZED PERIODICALS, INC.
merged with HARLE PUBLICATIONS, INC.,
215 Fourth Avenue,
New York 3, New York

for a hearing on the applications for second-class re-entry of cross-word puzzle magazines. 
P.O.D. Docket No. 1/183
May 9, 1960


That's going to take some time and patience for me to read through, but it lists seven puzzle magazine titles ... more stuff to weed through.

[narfstar]

I had a high school math teacher who probably had a large collection of Flying Model but he passed away. Do not know them well enough to ask the wife.

[JVJ]

FWIW...

Model Fun, July 1955, Number 5. Published bi-monthly (every other month) by Harle Publications, Inc. 1250 Camden Ave., S.W., Canton 6, Ohio. Editorial and Executive offices: 215 Fourth Ave, New York 3, NY. Entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office at Canton, Ohio. Annual (6-issue) subcription: 60

[Yoc]

Great update guys!
Nice to see things going forward on this.
And yes, please do include links or add scans to your messages if you like.

-Yoc

[kquattro]

Cover and interior art by George O'Connor. Interior art by Gil Evans. Centerspread by Martin Filchock!

And with Filchock you have a Centaur connection! Not only did he draw for the Centaur comics, if you check his Who's Who entry, he also drew for Harle's YOO HOO! He is at least one constant throughout.

So it is Gil and not George Evans, Jim? Considering George's airplane illustrations, he seemed to be a good fit. And do you know who the "Scap" is that drew much of the FLYING MODELS comic and a story in the MODEL FUN on this site?

Cover blurb touts "with Bobby Benson and B-B Riders"

I have a feeling that the Bobby Benson tie-in was important to this comic's existence. Coincidentally, I've been doing some research into the Bobby Benson program for another project and I know that the radio show ended in June 1955. The cover date on issue #5 of MODEL FUN is July '55. I think there's the possibility that MODEL FUN was commissioned by the BB show as a promotional comic. He was in all issues 2 through 5, ads for his show and club ran in each issue and the comic ended when the show did. Why the tie-in with airplane modeling I have no idea, but I thought I'd toss it out for consideration.

--Ken Q

[bchat]

FWIW...

Model Fun, July 1955, Number 5. ....

Thank you, I appreciate that you took the time to post this information. 

...  Centerspread by Martin Filchock!

And with Filchock you have a Centaur connection! Not only did he draw for the Centaur comics, if you check his Who's Who entry, he also drew for Harle's YOO HOO! He is at least one constant throughout.

Only going by the "Who's Who", the impression I had was that Filchock didn't do a lot of comic book work beyond what everybody calls "Centaur".  His work beyond comics seems to be pretty well-covered (Highlights For Children, etc), including mentions of covers he drew for Hardie & Kelly's puzzle books.  The GCD is a little more enlightening with work he did in the 1960s & 70s for Charlton, but here's something that apparently people missed or simply weren't concerned with. 

That's kind of one of the side-effects that I hope results from my search ... that work from comic book artists, who are mostly over-looked, may be "hidden away" in these publications (Yoo Hoo, Smiles and the like) that most comic fans aren't aware of, and new light can be shed on their careers for anyone interested in the careers of those individuals.  An eBay listing stated that "Mirando" did some interior artwork for the May 1941 issue of H-K's "Comet" (the same issue has a story by "Eando" Binder listed on the cover).  I'm not saying Michael Mirando is the greatest artist in the world, but it always seemed odd that he's only credited with a handful of stories, so I've wondered occasionally "Didn't he do anything else?".  If the listing was anywhere near accurate and "Mirando" IS, in fact, Michael Mirando, well, now there's something new that people weren't aware of before.

[bchat]

Oops!  I wanted to post an image or two in my last post.  Some fairly nice artwork on all.

Here's the Dec 1940 issue of Comet (image from Heritage Auctions):


Here's the cover the eBay seller said was by "Kelly":


The front cover of the Feb 1956 issue of Smiles (from ebay, obviously):


Here's the back cover to the Feb 1956 issue of Smiles (eBay):


Here's the May 1941 issue of Comet (from Heritage Auctions):


The January 1946 cover to Band Leaders (from magazineart.org):

[narfstar]

I Smile when I see women who look like women. Back when they appreciated a woman with a figure not just boobs on a stick.

[kquattro]

The front cover of the Feb 1956 issue of Smiles

The 1956 SMILES digest covers are obviously by Bill Wenzel (whose "cheesecake" work I always found way more appealing than the more popular Bill Ward's). Wenzel did a ton of similar work for these sort of books.

--Ken Q  

[kquattro]

... that work from comic book artists, who are mostly over-looked, may be "hidden away" in these publications (Yoo Hoo, Smiles and the like)

A lot of comic book artists did work for these sort of publications. Goodman put out a bunch of them and you'll find work by such guys as Dave ("Davy") Berg and Dan DeCarlo in many issues. The artist could churn out a pile of the single-panel strips in the time it took to illustrate a comic book story. It probably was a fairly steady and easy income.

--Ken Q

[Yoc]

Thanks for the covers bchat!

[narfstar]

I liked Ward's comic book work better than his too well endowed gag girls. I find Wenzel's to actually be sexier.

[bchat]

... that work from comic book artists, who are mostly over-looked, may be "hidden away" in these publications (Yoo Hoo, Smiles and the like)

A lot of comic book artists did work for these sort of publications. Goodman put out a bunch of them and you'll find work by such guys as Dave ("Davy") Berg and Dan DeCarlo in many issues. The artist could churn out a pile of the single-panel strips in the time it took to illustrate a comic book story. It probably was a fairly steady and easy income.

--Ken Q

I was rereading the interview with Martin Filchock from AC Comics' "Men of Mystery 23" last night where he mentioned how thrilled he was to get paid the same for a single-panel gag page as he would for a 5 or 6-panel comic book page ($5 each, back when $5 could actually get you stuff).  He also quickly mentioned "Yoo Hoo" in the interview, but when I first read it about 9 years ago, it didn't mean anything to me at the time.