[crashryan]

Recently some members have wondered about artist Paul Parker. Add me to the ranks of the curious. Parker was an excellent artist with a flair for crime and noir stories. He produced quite a bit of work during the late 40s into the 1950s. The latest I've found him was in 1962, in Dell's Tales from the Tomb edited by Leonard (L.B.) Cole. Parker is supposed to have drawn romance stories for DC in 1965 but I haven't seen them. Being a fan of his, I researched Parker online and found only this comment from a decade-old post at Pappy's Golden Age Blogzine:

That first story... [was] the work of Paul Parker who did quite a bit of work for Lev Gleason. A sharp cartoonist, he ended up as a radio reporter for 1010 WINS news radio in NYC from 1965 until well into the 80's. He allegedly left sketches at the scenes of fires, or water-main bursts, or wherever he was reporting from. Hell of a voice, too.

I came across that comment years later and tried to contact its author without success. Jerry Bails' Who's Who agrees that Parker was a writer/reporter at WINS. Bails says Parker was there from 1950 to 1959. This would have meant Parker was drawing comics on the side while working for WINS. It could be...Parker's output was heavier before 1955 than after. Maybe he got too busy. He seems to have laid off comics around 1955, then reappeared briefly around 1962-1965.

WINS switched to an all-news format circa 1965. I found mentions of Parker in online obits of a legendary WINS editor. Apparently Parker was a highly respected--and very busy--reporter who covered daily NYC events. For example he was aboard the famous passenger liner America when the ship's plumbing ruptured and grossed out a boatload of once-happy vacationers. I was even able to locate a photo of the man. A broadcasting trade magazine (1965) ran a pic of the WINS newsroom in which Parker is just visible sitting at a desk in the background.

I don't have Ancestry or one of the other pay sites so I can't do a search of Parker's genealogy. Bails says he was born in 1927.

Parker appeared in many magazines alongside L.B. Cole. I speculate that they were friendly enough that when Cole took over the fading Dell line he sent some work Parker's way. Perhaps there was a lull in Parker's radio work during 1962-1964 and he returned briefly to comics to earn a living.

I also speculate that Parker may have written some of his 1950s stories, notably Kirk of Scotland Yard. They have a certain rhythm to them which is absent from other Parker jobs. This is just a guess, though. Parker certainly lettered many of his strips. He had a distinctive lettering style.

So that's what I've been able to collect on Paul Parker. He's not the only comic artist to have had a radio career. Pat Boyette did a lot of radio and TV in Texas before turning comic book artist in the late 1960s.

[The Australian Panther]

Crash, l thank you. Well researched. I still think he probably had a relationship with Gardner Fox, since Fox and he [I think] worked at the same publishers in the same periods and he did illustrate many of Fox's Scripts.

Cheers!   

[mopee167]

In the letter column of My Greatest Adventure #81 (August 1963), BNF Paul Gambaccini of Westport, Connecticut comments...

[mopee167]

Oops, that should read his birth year was 1927. Sorry about that.

[crashryan]

Good find, Mopee! That completes the circle...I wonder if any of Parker's relatives are still around, and whether they know anything about his comics days.

[mopee167]

Shirley R. Parker (1928 - 2018)

Vineland - Shirley "Sherry" R. Parker (nee Shirley Waterman), wife of the late Paul C. Parker, died on Sunday, January 28, 2018 at the age of 89. She was the stepmother of JoAnn Walsh (John), Paula McGuigan (Frank) and Jonathan Parker (Debbie). Daughter of the late Sherwood and Billie Waterman, she is survived by her sister, Sandie Springer and two nephews. Sherry was the sister-in-law of Lois Barber of Millville, and aunt to all of the Barber children and grandchildren. Through her marriage to Paul, Sherry was the grandmother of six, and also the great-grandmother of nine. A major contributor to the SPCA, Sherry loved her dogs from a span of 55 years: Toby, Tawny, Tory, Raven, Tony, Mark, Luke, and Scochie.

Sherry was born in Springfield, PA in 1928. She was a graduate of Springfield High School, Class of 1945. After high school, she was trained by and worked for the Weather Bureau in both Newark and Washington, D.C. Eventually, Sherry became a stewardess for American Airlines. Later, Sherry joined TransOcean Airlines where she was stationed in Hawaii, Japan and Wake Island. Sherry eventually retired as a flight attendant returning home to write "From Another Island" a book about her experiences as a stewardess. After the publication of her book, Sherry began a new phase of her life as a reporter's wife. Sherry and Paul lived for many years in Tinton Falls, NJ to be close to Paul's work at WINS NewsRadio in New York City. Activities included entertaining, flying in their own antique planes and boating. In 2001 they moved to South Jersey.

Throughout her life, Sherry maintained the friendships she had formed during her flying years. She was an inveterate writer of letters and frequent contributor to the TransOcean newsletter. Sherry also belonged to the KIWI's, an organization of retired TransOcean stewardesses. Sherry loved reading biographies and watching football. Helping others through volunteering, donating or hiring, Sherry contributed to many worthy causes.

Family and friends may visit from 10 to 11 a.m. on Friday, February 2, 2018 at the Christy Funeral Home, 11 W. Broad St., Millville, where services will begin at 11 a.m. Burial will be private at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Cumberland County SPCA, 1244 N. Delsea Dr., Vineland, NJ 08360.

Loving memories of Shirley Parker can be shared by visiting www.christyfuneralservice.com.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thedailyjournal/obituary.aspx?pid=188020693

[Andrew999]

Terrific work, Mopee! Well done!

Not only that but surely Paul Gambaccini must be the very same comic book fan who became a big UK radio disc jockey and TV presenter in the 70s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gambaccini

[mopee167]

re: Paul Gambaccini

Yes, one and the same!!

[Electricmastro]

His earliest signed credits appear to have been from Captain Aero Comics #22 (April, 1945), which is a Temerson comic that also had work by not only L. B. Cole, but also Rudy Palais, Nina Albright, and John Giunta. Makes me wonder how often he had worked with them.

[Electricmastro]

More info I came across that I

[crashryan]

That's the same Parker, all right. The picture you posted is the one I referred to in my early post. I'm surprised I couldn't find a better shot of Parker, given that he was a radio personality. Thanks for the extra background info.

[Electricmastro]

That's the same Parker, all right. The picture you posted is the one I referred to in my early post. I'm surprised I couldn't find a better shot of Parker, given that he was a radio personality. Thanks for the extra background info.

There was a Paul Parker on SoundCloud said to have done radio shows in the 40s through the 70s, but I

[Electricmastro]

Finally came across a potentially specific piece of birth info in the form of Fold3. It lends to the possibility that Paul Parker the comic book artist could have actually been born in May of 1926 instead of 1927, being still 76 by the time of this Paul Parker?s passing in November of 2002, his last known city of residence being the same last known city Shirley Parker resided in.

[mopee167]

That works for me:

PARKER, PAUL was born 30 May 1926, and died 9 November 2002, according to New Jersey, U.S.A. death index entry number 20020060706.

Still think of him as a WINS radio reporter.

[Electricmastro]

Seems to be the case based on a newspapers.com search:

[W-B_Comics]

Paul Parker...[is] not the only comic artist to have had a radio career. Pat Boyette did a lot of radio and TV in Texas before turning comic book artist in the late 1960s.

Nor was he the only one on 1010 WINS.  There was another at the station, only the trajectory is in reverse:  Linda Sutter (1941-1995), who in the late 1970's was WINS' consumer reporter, or as she billed herself, "Inflation Fighter."  She left the news business in 1982 to supply stories for the "Brenda Starr, Reporter" comic strip after creator Dale Messick retired (by then, Ramona Fradon was doing the artwork); Ms. Sutter continued to chart storylines for the long-running strip through 1985, when she was replaced by Mary Schmich.

Though I'm going off the charts on this, Mr. Parker's particular beat on WINS, after he retired in 1992, would be taken over the next year by John Montone (who retired in 2021).

[W-B_Comics]

In addition, Parker's time at 1010 WINS up to the point it went all-news in 1965, may well have dated as early as the time Westinghouse bought the station in 1962 (and Stan Brooks was hired away from Newsday to be news director; he may well have been the one to have hired Parker).  On the Archive of Television Audio website, there's an aircheck of WINS from early 1964 when The Beatles were staying at the Plaza Hotel, and Paul Parker - already at WINS by then - was there filing reports from outside the Plaza.  When WINS was going all-news, he was cited as among those reporters (also including the likes of Tuck Stadler and Charles Scott King) already in place when the switch was being implemented.

This may well explain why Parker's last comic book credit would have been 1962.

[mopee167]

According to GCD, Paul Parker’s last story was “Please Take My Heartbreak!” in Girls' Love Stories #112 (July 1965), 13 pages scripted by Robert Kanigher.

https://www.comics.org/issue/19317/#621011

[W-B_Comics]

According to GCD, Paul Parker’s last story was “Please Take My Heartbreak!” in Girls' Love Stories #112 (July 1965), 13 pages scripted by Robert Kanigher.

https://www.comics.org/issue/19317/#621011

Interesting.  Only 2-3 months after WINS went all news.  But then, given that such comic books are prepared in advance of issue date, well . . . he must've drawn those on the eve of the format switch.  So in his first years at WINS, he still did some comic book drawings on the side . . .