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[Robb_K]

FULLY, OR MOSTLY-DRAWN, SCHEDULED, BUT UNISSUED, NEXT ISSUES OF GOLDEN AGE CANCELLED SERIES

INTRODUCTION TO THIS THREAD

This thread will be for unpublished upcoming issues from cancelled Golden Age (and early Silver Age) series of ALL genres, to be discussed in detail. Currently, I have only a handful to contribute; and they are all from the Funny Animal, and very cartoony Human Comedy genres, as those are my areas of interest. So, I welcome others to contribute PD issues from other genres (i.e. Superhero, Military, Historical, Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Teen Comedy, etc.). I will even welcome references to issues that are Non-PD, but with admonishment that we should be careful to not go into much detail about those, and not upload  unpublished story pages of those stories, IF they were eventually printed in later books whose material doesn't fall under currently-held copyrights. We CAN, however upload any of those later-printed, pages, IF those later books are known to be in the public domain.

I have been advised by our moderators, that we will have to avoid allowing ANY uploading of even single pages from non-PD series books, or scans of never-published original artwork copied from auction websites. I know that Heritage Auctions and other auction houses copyright the images of all the original comic art pages whose sales they administer. Therefore, I assume they would not like our members uploading scans of those pages. So, I assume we will have to be careful about uploading scans of such original art, and known-to-be Non-PD material, even if it is only a single scan of an unused cover drawing, or the first page of an unpublished story. So please do not upload scans of original art and Non-PD material, based on CB+'s moderators' instructions.

[Robb_K]

(1) The Adventures of Patoruzu - 1946 - Fox Features, Syndicate

I have recently been accumulating scans of art from some Golden Age Comics whose books were completely, or almost completely drawn, and planned or scheduled for issuance, and in some cases, even printed up and bound, but not published (issued and distributed), due to that publisher ceasing operations and going out of business, or that series previous issue not selling enough to justify continuing the series. I have been attempting to re-construct those originally-planned books, to add to the production histories of each individual original producing publishing company, with hopes that as many as possible can be uploaded to this CB+ website, IF documentation and/or confirmation can be found to prove the books were planned for release.
To that end, I will first be posting separate threads for each individual would-have-been book, hoping to see if other CB+ posters have any knowledge of the original planning of these books, and can lead me to documentation of what contents were planned to be printed in them.

The first, and likely easiest with which to deal, is Fox Features 1946 planned issue of The Adventures of Patoruzu, an American reprint of the earliest daily newspaper strips by original author/artist, Dante Quinterno, of the comedic Argentinian newly-elected last of The (fictional) indigenous Tehuelches Tribe, living in Patagonia, far from civilisation. 

To my knowledge, Fox only released the front cover of this planned book, after apparently paying for the rights to publish it in USA, and, also apparently paying some of their internal staff to adapt the art received in newspaper page format, to US comic book page layout, and paid someone to translate the original Spanish text and dialogue to English. The front covers have been found covering fthree different reprinted books inside pages, two from Green Publishing (probably issued in 1957), are a reprint of Fox Features Animal Crackers 31 (1st issue), and a previously-unpublished issue of Animal Crackers, which surely must have been planned for the second issue of Animal Crackers, which would have been #32, issued in 1957. The third was covering a reprint of Charlton's From Here To Insanity 10, from 1955.

What, apparently, is the drawn, inked, and possibly even printed and bound insides of Foxs planned Patoruzu book, which may have been used as is, by just stapling on the covers Fox had ready, after acquiring both the covers and uncovered, bound insides in a publishers distress, going-out-of-business sale in 1951, or from a similar storage warehouse sale in 1957. GCD is unclear, and possibly incorrect on their dating of Green Publishings issue dates.  Personally, I think all of their issues involving Patoruzu, and Animal Crackers were released in 1957 (none in 1946). It is my goal to unite the Fox-produced cover and insides, to produce Foxs planned issue, and have it placed in CB+s Comic Book section, in its producing publishers (Foxs) section.  But, to do that, I need some confirmation from official sources that the books insides ARE the pages that Fox planned for their 1946 Patoruzu book.

Here is the cover:

Here is the first page of the 29-page Patoruzu story:

As there is no title to the story on this first, inside, newsprint page, we can only conclude that the inside front cover was an introduction page to this series and story. Fox started some of their books first stories on the inside front cover on 3-colour, red, white, and black pages, sometimes with an introduction to the main character or characters on top, and with a title for the story and the beginning action below that, and with the text indicia at the bottom.  Here are the inside front covers of Foxs Pedro 2, showing the 1st stories titles, and beginning, without the character introductions, because those would have been in Pedro Issue#1(which CB+ does not have).  I have also included the inside front page of Animal Crackers 31:

I have made up a placeholder page, with series character introductions, to insert as the missing page IF we get to upload this planned, but unissued book onto CB+.

The following Old George(presumably, originally, Jorge Viejo) story, seemingly drawn by the same artist(Dante Quinterno), is a 3-page filler also printed in the Green 1957 issue:


The following feature, Do You Know Why?, is an educational/entertainment page filler, that rounds out the books newsprint pages, leaving the inside back cover and back cover for advertising:


Many of the inside pages have the panels situated in a pattern that makes it difficult to read.  It looks like a very amateurish job, rather than professional.  Perhaps that is why this book was cancelled by Fox.  Maybe the extra cost of translation of the Spanish newspaper strips, and the amount of work it would take Fox or more costly, more competent outside hired graphics-trained help to reformat the newspaper panels to comic book layout made Victor Fox decide to cancel the series, altogether?  Whether that was the reason, or Foxs tax and legal problems, and severely curtailing his operation soon before closing down completely, I need to get some confirmation that the insides published in Green Publishings 1957 issue, are, indeed the insides planned for Foxs Adventures of Patoruzu in 1946. Any additional information on the production history of this Fox Features planned book will be of help, to me and greatly appreciated, especially any documentation proving it was planned as I have deduced.

[Robb_K]

(2) Animal Crackers 32 - Late Summer/Early Fall 1950 - Fox Features Syndicate

The second planned book for which I need confirmation of its planned contents is Fox Features Animal Crackers 32 (2nd issue), from late 1950. To my knowledge, although Fox Features clearly managed production all the comics-related artwork for the front cover, and most of the non-advertising pages(with hired Hero Comics, Inc.), planned for Animal Crackers second issue, but never issued it, themselves. This was likely due to poor sales of its first issue (No. 31), or the fact that Victor Fox, due to legal issues and company debt, was severely cutting down his comic book publishing and other publishing operations at that time, not long before shutting down completely. 

It is perfectly clear from comparing this unissued books cover and inside pages artwork with Foxs previous (first) issue (No. 31), that this was produced by Fox Features in conjunction with Hero Books, Inc., just as the first issue was. Every one of the stories lead characters is the same in each of the two books, and it is also clear that the same 3 artists (Seemingly with Louis Ferstadt and Howie Post being 2 of them) drew the same 4 characters that they had drawn in Issue No. 31.  It appears that Ferstadt drew Rufus Dog, Post drew Flunky Monkey, and a 3rd (unidentified) artist from Hero Studio drew the other 2.

In 1957, Green Publishing issued the books cover as Animal Crackers 9, containing a reprint of the insides of Star Publishings Frisky Animals/Super Cat 57 inside.  Bargain-basement reprint publisher, Norlen Magazines, published the books cover as No.9 again, in 1959, with a group of stories from Charltons Giant Christmas Book 3 from 1957. Another printing of the cover had an early 1950s 2nd Series of Charltons Zoo Funnies No. 5 inside.  In addition, yet one more printing was used as an unnumbered giveaway comic book by stores.  The insides were printed by I.W. Comics in Leo The Lion 1 in 1958.

I would like to join the cover and the book's inside pages together, to for most of what would have been Animal Crackers 32, and have it uploaded onto CB+, and be stored in Fox's publisher section, alongside Animal Crackers 31.  But, in order for that to happen, we need some documentation proving that all of the related artwork we've identified, was planned by Fox Features, to form at least the major portion of a planned second issue of Animal Crackers.

Here is a scan of the unnumbered cover, which was used on the giveaway issue, with the 10 cent price moved to where the issue number was on the Green, and Norlen issues:

Unfortunately, the reprint publishers did not print the first page of the first story of this book, because it was located on the inside front cover.  So, perhaps they obtained only the finished artwork for the front cover, and a large stock of already bound and printed sets of inside pages that Fox had prepared in 1950, but never used. So, they just printed up new covers and placed advertising on the inside front cover.  We can see that they didn't care to have repeat customers, by printing the first story in a book with its first story missing.  They just wanted to sell as many as they could of the batch they bought for almost nothing. Like the first page in Foxs 2 Pedro Comics, and the first page in The Adventures of Patoruzu, it was red, black and white on the inside front cover. So, here is a scan of the 2nd page of the book's first story (the 1st page of the newsprint inner section), Drooley Lion:
]
Here is the 1st Page of the 2nd story, Flunky Monkey:

Here is the 1st Page of the 3rd story, Satchel Crocodile:

Here is the 1st Page of the 4th story, Rufus Dog:

There would have also been a 2-page text story, featuring one of the mid-to-late 1940s Fox funny animal characters, such as Cosmo Cat, Senor Tamale, or Red Kamphor.  But, we have no way of knowing which story would have been used, unless the plates of the original pages are found. But, we would have all the artwork pages that would have appeared in the planned book, as Foxs text stories had no artwork included.
Any additional information on the production history of this Fox Features planned book will be of help, to me and greatly appreciated, especially any documentation proving it was planned as I have deduced.

[Robb_K]

(3) Kiddie Kapers 2 - Fall 1945 - Farrell/Fago Studios (Ajax-Farrell Dist.)

The third planned book, for which I need confirmation of its planned contents, is Ajax-Farrells mid-to-late 1945 planned 2nd issue of their joint venture with The Fago Brothers publishing Kiddie Kapers Comics (Kiddie Kapers 2). It must have been either a lack of enough sales from Kiddie Kapers 1 to justify continuing the series, or a severe disagreement among the partners, Al and Vince Fago, and Robert Farrell, about how the partnerships business affairs were being handled, that led to Issue No. 2 being cancelled after its major stories and front cover had been drawn, and perhaps plated, and a subsequent break-up of the partnership. 

The only Farrell cover art from the 1940s that fit the Kiddie Kapers format, and the art style of The Mid- 1940s that I have seen other than the cover Al Fago drew for the original, 1945 Kiddie Kapers 1, was the cover used on his Decker Publishings Red Top reprint series Kiddie Kapers 1 issued in 1957.  I've been told that cover was also used on a 1946 2nd printing of the original Kiddie Kapers 1 (but I've never seen nor heard of that issue otherwise (and have a suspicion that that is a rumour confusing the  timing of Farrells own 1957 reissue. So, I believe that the artwork used for The unnumbered Kiddie Kapers cover on the Red Top issue was the artwork originally planned to be used on the planned Kiddie Kapers 2 in 1945, regardless of whether or not it was first used one year later on a 1946 reprint of Issue No. 1.

Here is a scan of the cover used on the Red Tops 1957 Kiddie Kapers 1 (filled with St. John reprint stories), as well as rumoured to have been used on a 1946 reissue of Kiddie Kapers 1:


It is obvious from seeing the major portion of the insides of books issued by bargain basement comic book reprint publishers, printed more than 10 years later, whose stories matched The Fago Brothers Studio style used on Kiddie Kapers 1 in 1945, and matched the page layout style, and used jagged-edged and coloured speech balloons that issue uniquely employed, that this art had been prepared in 1945 for another issue of Kiddie Kapers. It was printed in books issued with totally unrelated covers, by Green Publishing (in 1957, bound together with a reprint of Foxs Ribtickler 3 cover, but numbered as Ribtickler 7), and I.W. Comics Tuffy Turtle 1, a cover title used to disguise the fact the publisher had not obtained the copyrights needed to publish that material. I have never seen this manner of jagged-edged word balloons used, nor background-coloured word balloons, used only sporadically on any other funny animal comic books during the 1940s. It is obvious to me that these pages must have been drawn by The Fago Brothers Studio for use in a future Kiddie Kapers 1945 issue.

Here is a scan of the 1st page of the 1st story (Cheerie Chick) used in the two reprint books:

Here is a scan of the 1st page of the 2nd story (Tuffy Turtle) used in the two reprint books:

Here is a scan of the 1st page of the 3rd story (Robin Koo Koo) used in the two reprint books:

Here is a scan of the 1st page of the 4th story (Donald (Dogg)) used in the two reprint books:

I have also seen two other stories also printed in 1959, by Fago Comics chief editor, Al Fago, who must have kept the original art or high-quality photos and made new plates, while Farrell kept the plates to all their Kiddie Kapers production. The coloured speech balloons and text blocks makes me wonder if Farrell already had the pages printed and ready to bind into the covers. But the 1957-59 printings by the reprint publishers would have required new advertising inserted into the bound pacquets. So, I don't think Green and IW obtained them already bound. That brings me to the fact that more advertising pages were used on average in comic books from the late 1950s than had been used, on average during the mid 1940s.  So, despite the fact that the original Kiddie Kapers series used a small, 36-page format, as did the late 1950s reprint publishers, there is some question about whether or not Green and IW Comics had to cut out one (few pages larger) 5th funny animal story that was originally planned for the books next issue, that had to be replaced by the shorter, Western Genre story that was included in the 1957-58 versions printed by the reprint publishers, so they could fit in the current standard maximum number of advertising pages. The Western story printed in those later books, Longhorn Legends, just does not seem to fit with the cutesie, little kid style of almost-no-plot stories, and cute, Disneylike characters. Also, Longhorn Legends was originally  published in a 1954 issue of Fawcetts Gabby Hayes Western. So I have severe doubts that it was owned by Farrell and The Fagos in 1945, and planned to be used in a Kiddie Kapers comic book. It is much likelier that Greens reprint editor had to remove a 6 or 7 page Fago-drawn funny animal story, and replace it with the Western 6-pager so he could add 1 more advertising page, and Green had no 6-page filler stories in the funny animal genre to replace it. The two candidates for the Fago story that was NOT used by either Green, or IW in their printings were one 7-page Pat Parrot story, and one 7-page Bubu Bear and Marty Monk story, both clearly drawn in the mid 1940s using the same story logo top bar layout and same unique speech balloon features, and both ended up in the hands of Kiddie Kapers art editor, Al Fago.

Here is a scan of Longhorn Legends 1st page:

Here is a scan of Pat Parrots 1st page(Pages2-7 DID include jagged-edged and coloured speech balloons:

Here is a scan of Bubu Bear and Marty Monks 1st page:


There is also a reasonable possibility that 1945s planned Kiddie Kapers 2 would have included only the 4 stories, and a 2-page text story, a 1-page gag or 2, and a few activity pages, more similar to what Kiddie Kapers 1st issue had included. To this point, I have only found one activity page using the unique Kiddie Kapers format, and one mid 1940s style gag page printed by Green Publishing, and a 2-page text story for which Al Fago drew the logo drawing that was reprinted by Fago in the same book as the Bubu and Marty Monk story, all of which could replace the 5th story, and we could assume that the reason we cannot find 2 more activity pages is because Farrell had planned for Kiddie Kapers to qualify for US 2nd class reduced postage rates by including the mandatory minimum of 2 pages of text reading material(which usually happened AFTER the first issue was seen to have sold well enough that the series would continue; so they planned to include a 2-page text story in Issue No. 2, replacing 2 of Issue No. 1s activity pages.
We could also assume that the rest of the book was planned to be filled by advertising pages.

Here is a scan of Greens Fun Page, with unique Kiddie Kapers text box and speech balloon format:

Here is a scan of Greens Kiddie Kapers 1-page gag (apparently related to the cover):

Here is a scan of the 1st page of Al Fagos self-drawn, previously unissued, 1940s style, text story:


Any additional information on the production history of this Farrell/Fago Kiddie Kapers Co. planned book will be of help, to me and greatly appreciated, especially any documentation proving it was planned either as I have deduced, or a different way, and documentation on exactly what was included in it.

[Robb_K]

(4) A fourth example of a book produced (drawn) for the next (upcoming) issue of a series that was cancelled before the book could be distributed and sold to the public, was Harvey Comics' Rags Rabbit 19, from May, 1954. Its front cover and inside stories were all penciled, and fully-inked. The original art that I have seen included the original book cover art, with Rags' twin nephews, Pesty and Jesty, riding a skateboard, and flipping Rags up into the air.  There was one five-page Rags Rabbit story (the book's second), titled The Rain Drip, one five-page Pesty and Jesty story, titled Gorilla Gripes, one five-page Shaggy Dog story, titled Fouled Up, and a Pesty and Jesty one-page gag, titled Run For The Money.  Clearly, it is missing its lead Rags Rabbit story, which is usually the longest, usually ranging from 6 to 8 pages. 

But, I have no information on whether or not the pages were ever printed up. That is highly doubtful, or the printed pages of these relatively short stories might have ended up being used as filler material in one of Harvey's other, continuing series. None of those stories, one-page gags and other features were listed in Grand Comics Database as having been printed in a Harvey comic book, or a reprint book from any other publisher. Unfortunately, unless I find out that some of the planned book's stories were printed in later books that are now in the public domain, and I have access to copying the printed version of those books, I won't be able to post scans of the pages.  That is because I only have copies of the original artwork, and I've been instructed by CB+ moderators, that we cannot post scans of original artwork from auction sites, as we cannot be sure of their copyright status.  Heritage Auctions copyrights the photos of the original art they sell for clients.

I would appreciate it if any readers of this thread would contribute any other information about the original artwork of this scheduled book, and can point us to any official documentation, or references to statements made by former Harvey personnel as to its planning and scheduling.  And I'd also appreciate any information about the eventual printing of any of these stories, features, or its front cover art.

[Robb_K]

(5) A fifth example of a drawn, and scheduled book from a canceled series, is E.C.'s Tiny Tot Comics 11, for which, the front cover original inked artwork, and original pages of 4 complete stories has been found. To date, I have not seen any original artwork for the other stories' pages. But, I have reason to believe those pages were also drawn, because they had to be completed long before the release date, and probably well before the sales data from the previous issue would be available, to be used before make the decision on whether or not to cancel the series. And, also because the original inked cover art for (6) Tiny Tot Comics 12 was also found, along with 5 of its inside stories fully-inked.  I have reason to believe that Burton Geller (artist for the entire series) had already completed both Issue #11 and #12, and probably Issue (7)Tiny Tot Comics 13, before the series was cancelled, because he had already completed the cover of Issue #13, and at least, several of its stories as well, if not that entire book, as he had also completed the cover to [8]Tiny Tot Comics 14, and, at least one story from THAT issue. I think it was unusual for a publisher to have TWO complete issues to be ready to have photo plates made and be printed ahead of the current issue.  But Geller was probably a free-lance artist contracted directly to E.C. to provide most of the artwork for their various young children's series; and it is clear that he wanted to be ahead in his work in case other opportunities would arise, so he could take on a heavier workload. 
I'd appreciate any information about these two planned, scheduled, and, at least partly drawn, but later cancelled, issues. 

[Robb_K]

(9) A semi-related type of situation, in which artwork from three stories, that were possibly originally drawn for a series eventually published by E.C. Comics affiliate, Fables Publishing Co.'s Animal Fables series, were actually published as fillers, by a seemingly unrelated publisher (O.W. Comic's series' Mad Hatter Comics No. 1 and 2). It is unlikely that Mad Hatter obtained the artwork AFTER The Animal Fables series had been cancelled, as that series issued 7 issues, ending in late 1947.  But, Mad Hatter's two issues were issued between Animal Fables 1 and 2, and 3 and 4.  So, they started AND ended in 1946, AFTER Animal Fables had started, and long before the latter series ended, near the end of 1947.

These three stories could possibly have made up 3 of the 4 feature stories in an early, or even the first issue of E.C.'s Animal Fables. But, clearly one of these artists (who drew Little Danny Demon and Freddy Firefly) was the same one who drew those two characters for E.C., and whose copyrights should have been owned by E.C. The artwork in The Freddy Firefly and Little Danny Demon story looks very like that of Burton Geller, who was the main artist contracted to draw funny animal and children's series for E.C. Comics, and is credited for drawing those two characters for E.C. I believe that the writer may have been E.C. co-owner, William Woolfolk, who later got credit for several of E.C.'s Danny Demon and Freddy Firefly stories, IF Geller didn't write them, himself. The artwork on Hasty and Tardy looks suspiciously familiar, like that of one of The Jason Comic Art Studio artists from the mid 1940s, but also looks like it might. However, the usually present (JCA) signature isn't written anywhere on the story's first page.  I think I may have seen Geller's name on the list of Jason Studio's artists.

It is most logical to assume that the two different artists, or Geller, alone, wrote and drew these three stories, perhaps on speculation, to market towards getting comic book work, and sold it to Mad Hatter's publisher, O.W. Comics, BEFORE getting directly hired by E.C. Comics, OR towards getting hired by a pre-packaged comic art studio, who got the contract to provide the comic book art for all of E.C.'s funny animal and children's comic book series. And, for some unknown reason, O.W.'s  issuance of Mad Hatter 1 was delayed enough to be released AFTER E.C.'s release of Funny Fables 1, containing two of the three characters' features the writers and artists had drawn for Mad Hatter.

Here is a scan of the cover of Mad Hatter 1, which contained the Freddy Firefly and Little Danny Demon stories (both of which seem to be series introduction stories):
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Here is a scan of Mad Hatter 1's House advertisement/Indicia page.  I find it very interesting that the ad is for Animal Fables. #1, which was apparently issued almost exactly concurrently with Mad Hatter1. And two of the character series are the same in each group, drawn by the same artist:

Here is a scan of the first page of the Little Danny Demon story:

Here is a scan of the first page of the Freddy Firefly story:

Here is a scan of the first page of the Hasty and Tardy story, printed as a filler in Mad Hatter 2:


Here is the cover of Animal Fables 1, some of whose stories will compared to those in Mad Hatter 1:

Here is the first page of Animal Fables 1's Freddy Firefly story.  Clearly, it was drawn by the same artist who drew it in Mad Hatter (Burton Geller):

Here is the first page of Animal Fables 1's Little Danny Demon story.  Clearly both were drawn by Burton Geller:



I would appreciate any additional information about any connection between these two publishers, and the two comic book series.

(10) A similar situation to that of Harvey's Rags Rabbit 19 exists for Standard Comics' Buster Bunny 17, in that it must have been expected to be published, given that its 15-page lead story, "Don't Be A Bonehead", was completely drawn and inked in late spring, 1953.  Unlike the Rags Rabbit slated issue, the complete (e.g. remainder of the) artwork for that planned, but never published, next late summer/early fall, Buster Bunny issue, has not, as yet, turned up.