[phabox]

Thats an easy question to answer I hear everyone who reads this answering:

The costumed alter ego of writer and broadcaster Libby Lawrence who appeared in the first two issues of Boy Commandos, 50 issues of Star Spangled Comics for a four year run between may 1943 and 1947 and decades later 67 issues of the All Star Squadron.

Those of you into the more obsure companies and comics of the last three dacades may even recall a one-shot character illustrated by Steve Ditko in Charlton's E-Man_005 November 1974 otherwise known as Caroline Dean.

So having read this far you have no doubt concluded that I have just answered my own question.

Well, not quite as I have reason to believe that there was in fact a THIRD gal by this name who may ( or may not) have appeared in comics during the Golden Age and if not at least her adventures seem to have been set during World War Two.

Sadly I have VERY LITTLE data on this character hence this posting as I'm hoping that someone here can fill in the blanks.

All I know for sure is that she was the partner of a male hero named 'Bill of Rights' and her artist was Marv Lev, or at least thats how he signed himself in this case.

Can anyone here give me some further info please ?

-Nigel

[John C]

I poked around, but couldn't find anything at all.  Would you mind horribly if I asked about your source?  That might give a new line of inquiry.

What I did find were two non-comic Liberty Belles that were contemporary with the Golden Agers.  One is among the remaining operational B-17 bombers, with leggy nosecone art.  I briefly considered the possibility that this was the "character" you're thinking about, but that doesn't seem likely.

http://www.libertyfoundation.org/

The other is the IX-72 Unclassified Naval vessel, built in 1910 and ran as the Asbury Park along the Jersey Shore for many years after WWII (after spending a couple of decades juggled around the Navy from one war to the next).

http://gallery.pictopia.com/usni/photo/318601/

I also checked out what work of Marv Lev (also probably Marv Levy) I could find, and it looks like he's mostly a humor artist, with an extremely exaggerated style.  According to the GCD, he worked for Centaur, Consolidated, Harvey, and Spark, from '42 to '46.  So the character is probably a Golden Ager, should anybody be able to find her.

(Oh, and don't forget that Libby also appeared throughout the Young All-Stars, bringing her 1980s appearances closer to a hundred issues.)

[phabox]

Thanks and while its true that DC's Liberty Belle did appear in the Young All-Stars and even made it onto a few covers she was little more then a surporting character in this series.

As for the 'other' Liberty Belle I came accross her via a yahoo group page picture ( since removed) so i'm not even sure who posted it, it was a Black and White splash showing LB and her partner Bill of Rights in what look like matching Red White and Blue costumes in an adventure centured around the bombing of a munitions plant, I am guessing here but its not rocket science as to what the most likely colour scheme might have been.

Not sure why it was Black and White, may have been a piece of original art, an overseas reprint or maybe even some kind of mock up for an unsold or unused series.

I Think there is a story here somewhere and this gal is the 'missing link' between her DC and Charlton namesakes and i'd love to be able to include her in a forecoming history of Liberty Belle that i'm working on.

Anyway thanks for taking an interest and having a look around for me.

-Nigel

[Yoc]

Hi Nigel,
This is a case where posting an example would have been the most help.
PLEASE take a look at www.imageshack.com.

You can upload a picture and then it will present you with links to the image.
Copy and past the 'Thumbnail for forums 1' version into any message here and it should work fine.

For example - HERE is the Liberty Belle pic you've been talking about.

[John C]

Hm.  That certainly does look a lot like Lev/Levy's other work that I saw (the GCD has the list I worked from), and the cartoonish art almost kinda-sorta works.  And yeah, it's a definite mystery.  Yoc, do you happen to have any more of the material floating around, or know who it came from?

[phabox]

Thanks to Yoc for the image, never could get the hang of that darn Imageshack.

I have the complete page on my HD maybe I can twist Yoc's arm to post that for me also.

The Mystery Deepens !

-Nigel

[Yoc]

Nigel, please try it yourself first.
It really isn't THAT hard to upload a jpg to Imageshack and get a working link from them.

-Yoc

[phabox]

Sorry guy but i'm half way through scanning an October 1941 Better/Nedor book for the site and just don't have the time to start learning new trick just now, besides you know what they say about "old dogs" 

Still anyone REALLY interested in seeing the full splash page should be able to find it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1emwentenkz

Hope it helps.


-Nigel

[John C]

Given your impressive output in scans and articles, I'm rather surprised you don't already have your own website (or blog, or whatever) to keep it all centralized.

Meanwhile, looks like we're not going to get much more information out of that page.  I mean, the note in the upper left is suggestive of original art, since I think it's in Lev's hand and nobody labels pages like that in a comic.  An expert like Jim might be able to compare it to Lev's other work to place it in sequence with the rest.

But there doesn't seem to be any indication of who might've been planning to publish the thing--and I assume it was at least slated for publication, because Lev isn't sufficiently well-known (or, quite frankly, good) for the contents of his estate to be opened up.

For reference, the GCD shows Lev/Levy working on the following:

- Amazing Man #26 (Centaur, Jan 42), two single-page "Kisco Sid," written by Martin Filchock (not in the available scan)
- All-New Comics #8 (Harvey, May 44), two-page "Five Princesses of Pompadoonk" (scan not available)
- Lucky Comics #3 (Consolidated, Win 45-6), four-page "Nomie and Hoiman"
- Atoman Comics #1 (Spark, Feb 46), seven-page "District Attorney"
- Golden Lad #4 (Spark, Apr 46), seven-page "Enoch Sly"
- Lucky Comics #4 (Consolidated, May 46), four-page "Nomie and Hoiman"
- Golden Lad #5 (Spark, Jun 46), six-page "Enoch Sly"
- All-New Comics #12 (Harvey, May-Jun 46), eight-page "Five Princesses of Pompadoonk" (scan not available)
- Lucky Comics #5 (Consolidated, Sum 46), four-page "Nomie and Hoiman"
- Sooper-Dooper Comics #8 (Harvey, 46), six-page "Adventures of the Handy Dwarf" (scan not available)
- Key Comics #5 (Consolidated, Aug 46), four-page "John Quincy Atom"
- The Original Black Cat #8 (Harvey, Nov 91), six-page "Ogre of Merryville," reprinted from unknown original

As guesses go, assuming that Bill and Belle were created in 1946 probably wouldn't be out of line, considering that's Lev's main year.

Ooh.  Here's more:

http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(pdp4tz45cayrtq55zeyg2p55))/whoswho.aspx?mode=AtoZsearch&id=LEVY

though it still doesn't directly give any more information on this particular story.

[phabox]

I thought about a blog once but at least two bloggers that I know of went of the deep end and started sending out posts to the effect that they were thinking of killing themselves so I decided against going down that road *shudder* !

So onto our problem, thanks for all your research even if you did draw a blank.

Here's a thought could this be from a series that was altered/renamed following a complaint from DC over some upstart company using the 'Liberty Belle' name ?

As you say it DOES look like a page of original art so maybe it was reworked or redrawn before use.

I guess i'm clutching at straws here but it IS something of a mystery.

-Nigel

[John C]

Well, I'm thinking that DC wouldn't preempt anything.  They'd have to know about the story in advance, after all.  It's possible, though, that the editor scrapped or renamed it, realizing that Libby was still in print.  Of course, that's just a guess.  I don't have anything resembling a canonical list of Lev's work.

If we can trace the chain of ownership of the page, that'd obviously supply a lot of information.  Failing that, I guess it's just a matter of tracking down his work, and checking the issues before and after for possible candidates.

One thing I did notice, which may or may not be of interest:  It's not unique to the title, but unlike other places I've seen it (Atoman is a good example), the Yellowjacket title (where Lev worked on the Filipino Kid for a couple of issues) has almost exactly the same splash layout for every story.  It's not remotely conclusive, but that sort of thing might help narrow down who intended to publish it, at least.

[JonTheScanner]

This has been answered finally.  Marv Levy created Bill of Rights and Liberty Belle in 1942.  The story was created on spec and never sold -- or at lest never published.  The picture is from Alter Ego #75 Jan 2008.

[Yoc]

Ah, there's the info we wanted.
Thanks Jon!

[John C]

And it also provides me with other important information:  I'm WAY behind in my reading, if I didn't catch that Alter Ego issue.  I mean, I've had a subscription from almost the beginning.

[bchat]

This has been answered finally.  Marv Levy created Bill of Rights and Liberty Belle in 1942.  The story was created on spec and never sold -- or at lest never published.  The picture is from Alter Ego #75 Jan 2008.

Did the article say which company the characters may have been created for?  I'm just curious about it since he worked for Centaur in '42, so I was wondering if this might have been something that company would have published had they not gone under.

[phabox]

Sounds like it was just something Levy put together for his portfollio though he may have offered it to Chesler or Funnies inc but seems they both passed on it.

-Nigel

[John C]

Right.  From "The Copywriter Survival Guide" (which is what popped up when I searched "on spec"), "[t]his work is 'on spec,' or, on the speculation that they will be paid for the work if they get the gig."  So, he probably created the story (or even just the splash) to get his foot in the door at an interview, and probably wasn't intended for publication.  And yes, probably while he was apprenticing at the Chesler studio.  The idea has kind of a Chesler vibe to it, and would fit chronologically with what little I (now) know about his career.

[bchat]

I ran across another "Marv Lev" piece entitled "Mann Mountain and Moal Hil' ", which you can see at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malibuprotectors/  (it's on the homepage, so you don't have to have a Yahoo account to see it).  Does anyone know anything about this?

[phabox]

Its covered on the same page as LB of Alter Ego number 75.

Looks like someones been having fun with there scanner making these look like parts of complete stories 


-Nigel

[bchat]

So Mann Mountain was another "on spec" piece?  Just want to be clear on what you're saying since I haven't purchased an issue of Alter Ego in years.

[John C]

It's possible (I still haven't dredged up the article, myself), since it looks like more original art, but the Bails database (relevant link posted a few messages back) mentions it as something done for Lloyd Jacquet in the late '40s.  And by then, he had already published in a couple of genres, so it's a little more difficult for me to believe that he was just padding out his portfolio.

[phabox]

 quoting the Alter Ego piece regarding Mann Mountain and Moal Hil .

." The two pages above introduce 'Mann Mountain and Moal Hil' a pair of 'American aviators' in a common mold of the day.

Marv tells us it was done for Lloyd Jacquet's Funnies, inc though never bought or used "

Alter Ego _075 January 2008 page18

-Nigel