Topic: Professor H's Wayback Machine (Read 162937 times)

profh0011 · « **Reply #100 on:** June 19, 2013, 03:42:34 AM »

BIBLE HEROES, 2002-2003
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2002.html
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2003.html

New versions of the stories of "Noah", "Isaac, Esau & Jacob", and "Joseph". Artist Anthony Castrillo was either unable to manage more than 6 episodes a year, or some editor at BOYS' LIFE magazine decided to scale back BIBLE HEROES to only 6 installments a year. I wonder which it was?

profh0011 · « **Reply #101 on:** June 20, 2013, 04:08:27 AM »

BIBLE HEROES, 2004
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2004.html

The story of "Joseph" concludes. The latest version of "Moses" follows, the 9th time the material had been covered in BOYS' LIFE, going all the way back to February 1953.

The schedule of these things becomes even more absurd. There were no BIBLE HEROES for the months of January, March, May, July, August, September (that's 3 in a row), or November. After 3 years in a row of only doing 6 episodes per year, this year, Anthony Castrillo only did 5!

I'd pity anybody trying to follow this in the magazine as it was coming out... or, for that matter, at the BL "Wayback Machine" website, where I grabbed all of these (and cleaned them up EXTENSIVELY).

narfstar · « **Reply #102 on:** June 20, 2013, 11:52:30 AM »

Thanks to you there is a nice version and a chronology for everyone to read. Have you gotten permission to run the post 1964 stuff since it is not PD?

profh0011 · « **Reply #103 on:** June 20, 2013, 11:31:31 PM »

No. The year didn't cross my mind at all.

What did cross my mind was, the ENTIRE series is already posted online FOR FREE-- at THEIR website. The problem is, the scans suck, and the format of the site makes it impossible to read. (Heck, it's difficult even to just download and save properly! I have to re-name every single file manually-- the entire file name, can't just change the date for example, as the only way to download is to grab "complete page" files which consists of about 280 image files at once, and only 3 of them at a time are full-size, and only if I manually ZOOM IN on those.) I'm just re-posting what they already made available, except, at my blog, it looks nicer, AND, can be read with ease.

Every blog page has the copyright notices posted, as well as a link to their website.

SPACE CONQUERORS! (1952-72) has been up for over a year. No complaints from anybody.

There's quite a few BOYS' LIFE features I'd like to give this treatment to. The BANK STREET CLASSICS have been fascinating. Imagine trying to cram an entire novel into 16 comic-book pages!! Crazy. There's been 4 artists involved-- I forget who the 2nd one was, but the other 3 were Ernie Colon, Dan Spiegle and Mike Vosburg. What I find funny (or just very fitting) was Spiegle doing SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, considering what he did for Gold Key in the 60's!

But the next thing I do from there will probably be KIT CARSON, which pre-dates the color section, and only ran about 2 years (I think).

narfstar · « **Reply #104 on:** June 21, 2013, 01:33:38 AM »

Just want you to be safe. You may want to let them know what you have done and offer your improvements to them to run on their site also.

jimmm kelly · « **Reply #105 on:** June 21, 2013, 04:44:54 AM »

I know that for CB+ we have to observe copyright, but for blog sites my understanding is that it's okay to post excerpts from the publications--so long as you don't put up all the contents from the publication. I'm not sure what the actual percentage is, but for review purposes I believe it's okay to put up a quarter of the content from what is in the publication.

If I'm wrong on that, then I'm in trouble, too. And so are most bloggers. Of course, there's some blog sites that put up the entire contents and seem to get away with it.

For myself, I restrict the amount to less than 5 pages from a regular size comic book. For public domain, of course, I don't put any restrictions on myself.

profh0011 · « **Reply #106 on:** June 21, 2013, 11:07:06 AM »

For the sake of the BOYS' LIFE Bible series, we're talking about HALF a page from a 60-PAGE magazine!

It only seems like a lot because my blog feature is collecting all those half-pages (and in the early installments, full pages) from 1952-up.

narfstar · « **Reply #107 on:** June 21, 2013, 12:46:45 PM »

The comic market is so depressed it would not be worth paying their lawyers and filing the papers to come after most sites. And most companies realize that as well as the free advertising value of appearing on numerous sites. We got the blessing of THE SAINT copyright holder. I think that goes a long way in showing we are not competition. The value of most comic books is in the licensing anyway. We would actually increase the licensing value. I know I have tried to contact Street and Smith a couple times to let them know that but they do not respond.

profh0011 · « **Reply #108 on:** June 22, 2013, 08:38:52 AM »

BIBLE HEROES, 2005
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2005.html

The story of "Moses" concludes. This was the 9th time the material had been covered in BOYS' LIFE.

As usual, this leads directly into the story of "Joshua". This was the 7th time this material was covered, going back to April 1955. For the first time, mention is made of the people in the city of Jericho being "evil" and a danger that the Israelites might turn evil themselves unless they are ALL killed. (Sheesh)

"Solomon" (6th version, see August 1955) and "Elijah" (6th version, see October 1955) follow.

After 5 years of the series appearing on-and-off, 2005 became the first year to see 12 installments of the BL BIBLE series since Frank Bolle's final year in 1999.

profh0011 · « **Reply #109 on:** June 23, 2013, 02:06:59 AM »

BIBLE HEROES, 2006
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2006.html

This year begins with a new version of "Noah". This was the 10th time the material had been covered in BOYS' LIFE. The odd thing about this is, despite Anthony Castrillo only having done 5 years of the series so far, and 4 of those only consisting of half a year's worth of episodes each, this was already the 2nd time he'd illustrated this story-- the previous time being in 2002 (just 4 years earlier). The previous version of "Noah" took 3 episodes; the new version had 5. The B.L. BIBLE series hadn't repeated something in this short a space of time since 1966, which redid stories done only 3 years earlier in 1963.

Castrillo's use of photographic backgrounds (particularly for the skies) increased dramatically this year.

Next up is the story of "Abraham", the 8th time this material was covered, going back to August 1957. Something never mentioned in the BL series before, oddly enough, is that Abram started out as a warrior, and after many years of being so, and being childless, wondered who there would be to inherit his lands. Another detail shown here for the first time is Abram having a dream that predicted the 400 years the Israelites would spend in Egypt between the time of Joseph and Moses.

As several times, before, this includes the story of "Sodom And Gomorrah", the 7th time that story has appeared in the BL series, going all the way back to July 1956.

I suspect the more this series "jumps around", the more confusing it's going to become for anyone trying to follow the history of the Jewish people. Why can't they just adapt the book in sequence, like Andre LeBlanc did?

Finally-- and surprisingly-- the year ends with "Deborah & Barak". This was in fact only the 2nd time this story had been told in the BL series, the previous time all the way back in May 1960. One wonders, with all the detail lavished on the storytelling during the Frank Bolle years, why this story (and several others) were never tackled?

profh0011 · « **Reply #110 on:** June 23, 2013, 10:59:41 PM »

BIBLE HEROES, 2007
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2007.html

This year begins with a new version of "Gideon". This was only the 3rd time the material had been covered in BOYS' LIFE, going way back to June 1960. Seeing as the last time this was tackled was 1970, it would seem the BL series has decided to start doing some of the more obscure stories again.

I've also noticed that the Copyright for the book "Heroes From The Bible" disappeared some time ago, and this apparently coincided with the use of modern colloquialisms disappearing from the dialogue as well. I guess BIBLE HEROES has actually returned to the earlier style, despite the modern ("generic superhero") art.

Next up is "Samson", the 5th time the story has been done in BL, going back to May 1955. Anthony Castrillo had already done it 6 years earlier in 2001. It's interesting to compare the two versions, for while Castrillo's art seems to have "calmed down" and become less cartoony, the coloring has gotten more "overdone" and over-powering.

"Samuel" (4th time going back to November 1960), "David And Goliath" (8th time going all the way back to October 1952), and "David The King" (7th time going back to August 1953) follow. Finally, in a surprising move, rather than continuing straight into "Solomon", instead, the year ends with the beginning of "Righteous Kings", which jumps far ahead to material being covered in this series here for the very 1ST time!

profh0011 · « **Reply #111 on:** June 24, 2013, 07:25:56 PM »

BIBLE HEROES, 2008
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2008.html

"Righteous Kings" continues. Having begun the previous month with "Asa", it then covers the stories of "Jehosaphat", "Jehoram", "Joash", "Hezekiah" and "Josiah". I'm frankly astonished that it took over 54 YEARS before the BOYS' LIFE series covered most of this material! Only "Hezekiah" and "Josiah" had been covered before, in 1983, and 1993 (both times by Frank Bolle).

These stories, I have determined, take place between the stories of "Elisha" and "Daniel". They'd been skipped over in 1962, 1972, 1983 and 1993.

Jehoram being inspired to murder his brothers, and one heir, Joash, surviving by being hidden, reminds me a lot of the story from Greek mythology of Jason, whose father was murdered by his uncle Pelias. The difference here being, it was the murderer's WIFE who urged him to do it, rather than Zeus, king of the gods, and there doesn't seem to have been any sort of sea-going "quest" involved in the resolution of the problem, a generation later. Jehoram's wife, Queen Athaliah, sure seems to have been an evil B****, doesn't she? Amazing that the worst that happened to her was being kicked off the throne and exiled.

Next up is "Daniel" (the 7th time going back to 1956), "Jonah" (the 5th time going back to February 1963) and, finally, "Esther" (only the 3rd time going back to May 1956).

After 8 years on the BIBLE HEROES series, 2008 would prove to be Anthony Castrillo's final one doing the art. A major change occured with the December 2008 episode, which is why I'm ending this page one month early.

profh0011 · « **Reply #112 on:** June 25, 2013, 12:20:37 AM »

BIBLE STORIES, 2009
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-2009.html

Another new era begins for the BOYS' LIFE series. "Bible Heroes" reverts to its previous title of "Bible Stories", as new artist Graeme Hewitson makes his debut. While Anthony Castrillo had made extensive use of "overdone" Photoshop coloring and textures, as well as photographic skylines, Hewitson does his art entirely in computer 3D modeling! One only wonders why this didn't start in January to give it a clean break?

Otherwise, the series picks up right where the previous installment left off, with the debut of "The Exiles Return" and "Nehemiah", 2 stories that had somehow NEVER been covered in BL before this!

Then it jumps back again, and a brand-new version of "Joseph" follows, the 10th time this material was covered in BOYS' LIFE, going back to May 1953. Strangely, it started with "Part 2". When "Part 3" was published, a cartoon of the magazine's mascot "Pedro" was plastered on top of it, telling readers to go to their website to read the missing installment. Putting this blog page together, I found that 4 years after-the-fact, it was still there. And so, for the convenience of anyone reading this here, I've slotted it in sequence where it SHOULD have been in the first place.

I find it curious that in this new version, Pontifar's wife is said to try to tempt Joseph "to do wrong", but doesn't mention that she was ATTRACTED to him. More modern-day censorship? There sure seem to be a lot of scheming women in these stories (but then, the same goes for the men).

2 more differences in this version... Joseph is show revealing himself to his brothers immediately, rather than putting them through months of hell and uncertainty in repayment for the evil they did to him. This makes him seem like a total sap. Also, the new version describes the Egyptians "hating" Joseph's family on finding out they were "lowly shepherds". This has the effect of painting all the Egyptians as evil, rather than what happens generations later as being simply the result of one horribly misguided ruler. Which is rather xonophobic (and rather "neo-con"-ish), to say the least. I find these drastic changes in the retellings bizarre and somewhat disturbing.

profh0011 · « **Reply #113 on:** June 25, 2013, 09:02:01 PM »

BIBLE STORIES, 2010
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-2010.html

A new version of "Moses" takes up most of 2010. This was the 10th time the material had been covered in the BOYS' LIFE series, going all the way back to February 1953. As usual, the story of "Joshua" follows-- the 8th version in BL going back to April 1955.

More changes crop up in these latest versions of the stories. One important one is, in this version of "Moses", it's the Plague Of Darkness that causes Pharaoh to finally let the Israelites go. What happened to the Death Of The First Born?

As I've discovered, Scottish artist Graeme Hewitson (and what a THICK accent he's got!) has made quite a career out of doing BIBLE-related material, and his art in BL barely scratches the surface. His work only appeared in BL for 2 years, and as his last episode was the one for January 2011, I'm including it on this page to make things a bit more "organized".

profh0011 · « **Reply #114 on:** June 25, 2013, 09:06:46 PM »

BIBLE STORIES, 2011
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-2011.html

Another new era begins with the February 2011 episode, as Yugoslavian artist Tin Salamunic takes over BIBLE STORIES. One might almost be tempted to call this a "retro" move, as not only do we once again have an artist working in "traditional" 2D line-art, but the coloring is also more "traditional" than anything seen on the series since Frank Bolle's last year in 1999. Even further, while I'm sure the lettering is a computer font, it LOOKS more like a hand-drawn font, of the kind not seen since 1997! Need I say...? I like it. Well, to be honest, I'm not all that crazy about the art style (which reminds me, in a very different sort of way than Anthony Castrillo's, or Japanese "manga"), but from a technical standpoint, I prefer it being done this way to the previous 3 whole eras.

New versions of "Gideon" (the 4th version going back to June 1960) and "Samson" (the 5th version going back to May 1955) take us to the end of the year. Both had been most recently seen in 2007.

As of my setting this up, 2011 is the last year of BOYS' LIFE current set up at the magazine's website "Archives" section. It's taken me 5 solid MONTHS to do this project, and frankly, I'm both amazed and relieved I've finally reached the end! (For now...)

profh0011 · « **Reply #115 on:** June 27, 2013, 01:27:47 AM »

I've barely finished my BIBLE STORIES project (in fact, I still want to go back and adjust skin tones on some of the episodes), when I've decided to start a new, 4th blog, which, in comic-book terms, might be considered a "reprint collection"...

Professor H Revisits The Bible !
http://professorhrevisitsthebible.blogspot.com/2013/06/in-beginning.html

Check it out... you'll see what I'm up to!

profh0011 · « **Reply #116 on:** June 28, 2013, 02:06:22 AM »

RED MASK #48 / Mar'55
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4_fE-T1VHWY/UczuLEXYzSI/AAAAAAAAMeU/gm07rrmduJA/s1600/TH+48_cc_HA_HK.jpg

A 705 pixels wide image from Heritage Auctions. Pretty small, pretty miserable. But, you do what you can. I picked this over a somewhat larger image at the Comic Book Plus site, because while smaller, this one looked MUCH better to start with. I then cleaned up the logo area, and the top and right edges, plus a few spots of "drop-out' here and there. Not bad... but if I could find a MUCH bigger one to start with, I could probably do even better.

profh0011 · « **Reply #117 on:** June 28, 2013, 11:03:10 PM »

RED MASK #49 / Apr'55
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NkJMMyjFYKA/Uc2dTI-NWYI/AAAAAAAAMfE/g5BA4aY90Cw/s1600/TH+49_cc_HA_HK.jpg

A 711 pixels wide image from Heritage Auctions. I had to "fill in" the top edge (comparitively easy) and both left and right edges (trickier around the bottom), plus I airbrushed the entire white background and red and yellow in the logo area. Also, the entire right edge was much darker (discolored) and required some tricky copy-and-paste and airbrushing. Compared to some, this was almost a "quickie".

RED MASK #50 / Aug'55
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yy-8mA_QoQ0/Uc4SKm9EhiI/AAAAAAAAMf0/vYPo_Ayl8Vc/s1600/TH+50_cc_CBP_HK.jpg

A 969 pixels wide image from Comic Book Plus. I had to "fill in" all the way down the entire left edge (to avoid cutting off the left side of the company logo). I airbrushed the entire sky background and logo area, and cleaned up the bottom edge as well. Overall, a few hours at most.

This turned out to be Frank Bolle's FINAL cover for this series. I've seen a couple more covers he may have done on turn up on some foreign reprints, but for the remaining issues in the US, Dick Ayers' Presto Kid was cover-featured. Gee, it's kinda sad when a character gets sidelined in HIS OWN BOOK.

profh0011 · « **Reply #118 on:** July 01, 2013, 11:04:01 PM »

RED MASK #51 / Oct'55

Thanks to the B***S*** of the Comics Code, one of the most successful western characters of the 50's was cancelled. In place of THE GHOST RIDER, came THE PRESTO KID. Instead of stories that bordered on supernatural horror (but were mostly of the "Ghost Chasers" variety) was a stage magician who pretended to have real supernatural powers. Go figure. This only lasted 4 issues before Magazine Enterprises gave up the ghost... so to speak.

Let's keep this simple... the scan, a 968 pixels image from Comic Book Plus, was a HORRIFIC MESS. Not anymore!

DICK AYERS rides again...!

BEFORE
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRQZzIC1ebc/UdDO6to4r0I/AAAAAAAAMmc/nXGgy4Elts4/s1600/TH+51_cc_CBP_HK++A4.jpg

AFTER
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bl4TxS_9D7k/UdIIUDbl20I/AAAAAAAAMm8/cdWNa2hO9B8/s1600/TH+51_cc_CBP_HK.jpg

profh0011 · « **Reply #119 on:** July 04, 2013, 06:43:42 PM »

RED MASK #52 / February-March'56

Another horrific mess! The 963 pixels wide image from Comic Book Plus required airbrushing virtually the entire upper logo area, plus the entire white background. In addition, I adjusted the color for all the figures on a separate layer, and very carefully airbrushed in new skin tones for The Presto Kid's face. I also did some addiitonal repair, but to tell the truth, I could spend several more hours on this one... I just DON'T feel like it! Sometimes you just gotta know when to stop.

BEFORE
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aIRpps1Lt_c/UdJC5-JKx1I/AAAAAAAAMnM/y4wV_RhENEU/s1600/TH+52_cc_CBP_HK++A4.jpg

AFTER
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6mc230fxVWc/UdW-703wXtI/AAAAAAAAMoY/q6jb3Fa4FGw/s1600/TH+52_cc_CBP_HK.jpg

Maybe I'll do more later... or maybe a better version (much larger) will turn up eventually.

narfstar · « **Reply #120 on:** July 04, 2013, 09:27:19 PM »

Nice I know how much work even a little touch up is.

profh0011 · « **Reply #121 on:** July 04, 2013, 11:45:46 PM »

That wasn't anywhere near a "little" touch-up!

A simple truth is, the bigger an image, and the better quality of the book scanned, the easier it is (usually) to generate one of these eye-popping "restorations". But sometimes, you have to work with what you got. The 1st "Black Phantom" cover I posted was about 400 pixels-- a MUCH better one turned up at the Heritage Auctions site about 3 years later.

What I'm hoping, when I'm done with this set, is to upgrade the files currently posted HERE. I've been adding links at my blog to each individual issue, and it's a bit shocking to go from bold, dazzling clean-ups to... well, what's here at the moment. It's too much trouble to clean up the interior pages, but I figure, wouldn't it be nice at least to improve what we have, so anyone going to read the books can have an easier time appreciating how wonderful some of these old comics looked when they were NEW?

I haven't been able to make heads or tails of the technical instructions I've read (so far), but with so much else on my mind that's not surprising. If anyone would be interested in replacing the files with versions with better covers, I can always send the HI-RES versions of the covers by e-mail (since I tend to create "700 pixels" versions for my blog).

I've also got about 5 or 6 BEST OF THE WEST covers done from a few years ago, and of course theres the 4 JET cover by Bob Powell (I just love those!). And I've still got at least 4 more GHOST RIDER covers yet to process.

profh0011 · « **Reply #122 on:** July 05, 2013, 12:55:27 PM »

RED MASK #53 / May'56

This one wasn't so bad. A 959 pixels image from Comic Book Plus. I airbrushed the entire logo area and white background, the yellow text balloon, and the red, whte & skin tones on the Presto Kid and baddie. I also adjusted the dark greens on a separate layer. The trickiest part was cleaning up the photographic face in the logo area. This one "only" took a couple hours!

BEFORE
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7_y5SJqY0AQ/UdYW69l3LaI/AAAAAAAAMoo/mRmhRfmYe4k/s1600/TH+53_cc_CBP_HK++A4.jpg

AFTER
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XJJyNYQLWTA/UdbAZtmZdnI/AAAAAAAAMo4/Yj1FZHqRY5E/s1600/TH+53_cc_CBP_HK.jpg

profh0011 · « **Reply #123 on:** July 06, 2013, 03:53:41 AM »

RED MASK #54 / September'57

Another mess... a 960 pixels image from Comic Book Plus, as usual, I airbrished the entire logo area & background, as well as bits of the bottom ground area. I copied the horse onto a separate layer because I didn't want the pale blue to BLANK out due to use of "levels". A few hours.

BEFORE
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I94rg8BTsms/UdchzUwvWYI/AAAAAAAAMpY/9Z4XlbCyj5s/s1600/TH+54_cc_CBP_HK++A4.jpg

AFTER
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5JOAgZCr0Y8/UdeSkoGrCwI/AAAAAAAAMpo/-fn16UOHNOM/s1600/TH+54_cc_CBP_HK.jpg

I wonder what was going on that this FINAL issue of TIM HOLT / RED MASK came out more than a YEAR after the previous one?

profh0011 · « **Reply #124 on:** July 11, 2013, 12:49:26 AM »

Here's a huge improvement / expansion...

TIM HOLT #1-10 !!!
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2012/05/tim-holt.html

	Capt Billy's Whiz Bang V1 68 pages

	Capt Billy's Whiz Bang V1 67 pages

	Baby Journal 2 8 pages

	Baby Journal 1 8 pages

	The Adventures 24 pages

	True Pirate Comics 1 36 pages

	Comics On Parade 57 31 pages

	Comics On Parade 68 24 pages

	America's Greatest 101 pages

	Realistic Romances 17 37 pages

	Rags Rabbit 11 36 pages

	Crestwood Love 9 34 pages

	The Spirit 1950-02-26 8 pages

	Comics On Parade 52 52 pages

	Comics On Parade 59 52 pages

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Professor H's Wayback Machine

Author Topic: Professor H's Wayback Machine (Read 162937 times)

profh0011

profh0011

narfstar

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jimmm kelly

profh0011

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