Print

[Quirky Quokka]

At around that time the USSR had developed a method of compressing industrial diamonds under millions of tons of pressure to mold them into a single thick lens for use on their Venus probes. The lens allowed unobstructed radar and radio signals that the thick pressure resistent hull would have blocked.

Thanks for that info. It puts the story in a better context.

[crashryan]

Death Valley #2

Others have already commented on the unfortunate way Don Heck was underrated. He was just getting started in his Comic Media stories. As time passed he got even better. If you look at those silly Atlas spook and critter stories you'll see some darned fine drawing...okay, except for the monsters themselves, who always looked like evil muppets. Give him a sorcery tale, a spy or war story, a western, a detective strip, and he was tops. Heck's one weak spot was superhero stories, and because he wasn't Jack Kirby fans never gave him a chance. Anyway, his art here is terrific.

The stories are a bit more brutal than the typical 50s western comic. This must have been by design, for other Comic Media titles, even the romances, were quite violent. Yes, the romances! Read a few if you don't believe me. These stories were written more like crime comics, with kill-crazy villains. Crime comics gotta have killing, I know, but my suspension of disbelief is sorely strained when even in a simple saloon robbery the master villain massacres every last person without blinking an eye. Is it really necessary to murder everyone on the stage you just robbed? At least in crime comics the story usually stressed that the villain was mentally unhinged. These guys seem to assume that if you shoot one, you may as well shoot 'em all.

I appreciated the way the first story ended without a caption driving home the irony. It's a small thing, but 99% of scriptwriters would have belabored the point with a caption. Or if it was Al Feldstein, two captions. Big ones.

Not much more to say about this one, other than pointing out that in the last story the Sheriff's last name seemed to be "Wixon" until the last page when it suddenly became "Nixon." Dick's grandfather?

I enjoyed these two books a lot.

[Quirky Quokka]

Death Valley #2

I appreciated the way the first story ended without a caption driving home the irony. It's a small thing, but 99% of scriptwriters would have belabored the point with a caption. Or if it was Al Feldstein, two captions. Big ones.

Yes, I liked that too. It's usually better to say less and let the reader 'get it'. I'm not a fan of some western comics because of the way they portray First Nations people, but that first story wasn't too bad. It showed they too had a sense of justice by rewarding the man who helped them, but 'dealing' with the one who was out for himself.

[Quirky Quokka]

Death Valley #2

The stories are a bit more brutal than the typical 50s western comic. This must have been by design, for other Comic Media titles, even the romances, were quite violent. Yes, the romances! Read a few if you don't believe me. These stories were written more like crime comics, with kill-crazy villains. Crime comics gotta have killing, I know, but my suspension of disbelief is sorely strained when even in a simple saloon robbery the master villain massacres every last person without blinking an eye. Is it really necessary to murder everyone on the stage you just robbed? At least in crime comics the story usually stressed that the villain was mentally unhinged. These guys seem to assume that if you shoot one, you may as well shoot 'em all.

Yes, they're not "pretty" westerns. Brawls, massacres, hangings. I had to smile for all the wrong reasons in the last frame of the final story. Nothing makes a woman swoon more than a good murder! But I guess the West, or at least some parts of the West, were fairly lawless at that time. What we've seen in a lot of the old western movies and TV shows would be highly sanitised. I also read the two-page true story about the sheriff who did make a difference, so it's good to know there were also men and women who really did fight for justice in those situations.

[Captain Audio]

At around that time the USSR had developed a method of compressing industrial diamonds under millions of tons of pressure to mold them into a single thick lens for use on their Venus probes. The lens allowed unobstructed radar and radio signals that the thick pressure resistent hull would have blocked.

Thanks for that info. It puts the story in a better context.

These days they can manufacture industrial grade diamonds

[Robb_K]

Review of Death Valley 2

(1) Fools Gold
This was a decent lead story, given a generous 13 pages in a small, 36 page book.  Don Heck's artwork is excellent.  The inking is superb, as is the colouring.  The story is good, too.  It is a bit far fetched that an Apache chieftain would allow an old 'White Man" to find their abundant source of high grade gold ore, given that they needed pay lots of money or trade value to buy guns from "The White Men", to protect themselves, and support their on-going "war" against the encroaching of American settlers and military occupation of their lands.  They knew, since Coronado's expedition to the New Mexico and Arizona areas in 1540, that The "White Men" had an abnormal fixation with gold, and value it almost above everything else.  So, they would not likely have risked the location of their secret mine being discovered by masses of "White Men", who would leak its location to many more, and eventually result in The Apaches being driven away from that entire area.  The Apache young woman's outfit was quite unrealistic.  I worked for The Navajo Nation for several years, as well as for a few of The Pueblo Tribes in Arizona and New Mexico during the 1970s, and never saw any female outfits like that worn by anyone then, nor in any historical photographs or paintings.  But, the editors clearly wanted to help attract teenaged boys to read and buy their books, so I understand why those outfits are used, and why the featured Native women have European idyllic features.  Nevertheless, the story had an interesting (if not unexpected) plot, and a satisfying ending.

(2) Outlaw Nightmare - Text Story
A bit of Arizona history that is interesting to learn, but was told in an uninteresting, matter-of-fact, way. It was interesting to learn that the gross lawlessness in "The Old West" lasted into the 20th Century, when lots of people I knew in my childhood (and some with whom I resided) were already adults.

(3) Bloody Sheriff
An interesting story about a crooked sheriff and his gang of thieves and murderers.  Nice to see that the law-abiding citizens took up arms and saw to it that justice was done in a situation where the only official law enforcers were the worst criminals in the territory.  Again, Heck's artwork and staging are fabulous. 

(4) Alone
A good story, which, limited in pages to a measly 6, due to the lead story getting 13, had too little room to fill in enough background, build The Kid's, Sheriff's, and the villain's characters enough, provide the story with a decent pacing, show the protagonist young man and the young women together, and build up proper suspense.  This is a very good story premise, which would have worked a lot better given 10 to 14 pages.

All in all, this was quite a high quality Western book.  I wish there were 68-page early 1940s books with only 3 stories and such good writing and artwork.

[Quirky Quokka]

Review of Death Valley 2

(1) Fools Gold
This was a decent lead story, given a generous 13 pages in a small, 36 page book.  Don Heck's artwork is excellent.  The inking is superb, as is the colouring.  The story is good, too.  It is a bit far fetched that an Apache chieftain would allow an old 'White Man" to find their abundant source of high grade gold ore, given that they needed pay lots of money or trade value to buy guns from "The White Men", to protect themselves, and support their on-going "war" against the encroaching of American settlers and military occupation of their lands.  They knew, since Coronado's expedition to the New Mexico and Arizona areas in 1540, that The "White Men" had an abnormal fixation with gold, and value it almost above everything else.  So, they would not likely have risked the location of their secret mine being discovered by masses of "White Men", who would leak its location to many more, and eventually result in The Apaches being driven away from that entire area.  The Apache young woman's outfit was quite unrealistic.  I worked for The Navajo Nation for several years, as well as for a few of The Pueblo Tribes in Arizona and New Mexico during the 1970s, and never saw any female outfits like that worn by anyone then, nor in any historical photographs or paintings.  But, the editors clearly wanted to help attract teenaged boys to read and buy their books, so I understand why those outfits are used, and why the featured Native women have European idyllic features.  Nevertheless, the story had an interesting (if not unexpected) plot, and a satisfying ending.

Thanks for that context, Robb. That must have been interesting working for the Navajo Nation and Pueblo tribes. I visited a friend in Arizona 1n 1991 and we stopped at a First Nations mission on the way to Nogales, but I didn't really have an opportunity to experience the culture. I always feel a bit uncomfortable with the way some western TV shows, films and literature portray First Nations people, so I was wondering what this one would be like when I saw the title, especially with 'Redskins' on the front cover. It wasn't too bad, and I liked the way the Indian characters were kind to the old man who'd helped them rather than just being shown as "the band of murderous Apache", as it says in one of the narration boxes. I agree the girl is a very western version of a First Nations person, and seems to be wearing mascara and lippy. I also thought it was pretty far-fetched that they would show the old man where their entire stash was and invite him to use as much as he wanted. Probably more realistic if they had just given him a bag of gold, though I guess that would have ruined the premise. He was also asking for trouble by letting it be know he could get his hands on plenty more. But I liked the way justice did win out in the end.

[Quirky Quokka]

A few of you have been commenting on the art in the Death Valley comic. I can see that there is some interesting art, especially in the action shots, the horses, and interesting perspective and angles. For example, the first panel in the 'Bloody Sheriff' story is really interesting. But I think he falls down a bit with the faces. For example, the panel a few pages later when the sheriff meets the woman at the square dance. The faces just don't seem realistic, especially the woman. I might be in the minority, but I'd be interested to hear more about which bits of art you liked and why. It's not really grabbing me at the moment, but I'm happy to be educated on the finer points.

[K1ngcat]

King of Diamonds

Fascinating as I'm sure they are, I skipped all the links to the TV show and stuck religiously to the comic in question. King doesn't strike me as the typical hard boiled action man, but I rather like that he's not a stereotype. In fact he seems to have seen better days, and perhaps gone to seed a little, but he still takes his job seriously. Probably a bit like Broderick Crawford at the same stage of his career. I (just about) remember him from Highway Patrol which was on TV in the UK when I was young. Modern reviews describe him as "beefy."

Mike Sekowsky's art is very neat and tidy, if I was really picky I'd say perhaps a little flat and short of shading. I recognised it immediately from the slightly stocky figures ( though I don't suppose King looks any chunkier than the Justice League! ) and the way he draws a raincoat. I always imagine Sekowsky as being very reliable, not the kind of guy to miss a deadline, even though he's not incredibly innovative. It's not a bad little tale, not completely predictable, and the colour on the night sequences is effective,  though I find some of the daytime scenes a little over-bright.

This is exactly the kind of comic I would have had zero interest in, in the main comic-buying portion of my life, and I wouldn't have chosen to read it now, if it hadn't been for Australian Panther's posting it here. Thanks for that.

Death Valley

I remember Don Heck predominantly for his Marvel work in the sixties. He wasn't right up there with Kirby and Ditko, but I thought he was okay. His stuff from ten years previously, however, is a real eye-opener. I admit thanks to CB+ I'd had my eyes opened to fifties Heck before now, by his horror work for Comic Media, particularly his covers on Horrific and Weird Terror. This is equally exciting, even to a man who doesn't like Westerns. Dark, detailed and dramatic, his art here really packs a punch.  All I can find to fault are his profile shots, which often seem unrealistic and cartoony.

The stories are all acceptable tales, where a hero triumphs and justice prevails, however unlikely the circumstances seem to be. Robb and QQ, I note your comments on the treatment of indigenous people and I agree. All I can say is they're marginally better than the portrayal of African Americans in other comics of the same era. They come from a time when racial stereotyping was the norm, I'd like to think that the USA had moved on from that but a lot of things I read suggest they haven't moved very far.

BTW, could you really walk into a bar with gold dust and pay for a round of drinks? Didn't it have to be weighed and assayed before it was accepted as legal tender??

As I said before I'm not a big fan of Westerns but I found this one kept me interested, albeit mostly thanks to the artwork, who knows, I might go mad and read another couple!

I guess it's too late for me to apply for a deluxe tummy flattener?

Thanks again Panther, for posting these two
All the best
K1ngcat

[crashryan]

Because I can never leave well enough alone, allow me to return to the King of Diamonds TV show, specifically to its theme song. (This is adapted from a comment I left on YouTube). Someone had asked for the lyrics. Well, here they are:

King of Diamonds

Look for the night people roamin'
When the good folks are homin'
And you'll find Johnny King.

Where there is music of diamonds
He will be where there's diamonds
And of diamonds he's king.

His majesty
is a travesty to ev'ry other crown
Romantically
He's as solid as steel
Like Achilles' heel.

When Johnny King breaks a door down
He's not saying "ten-four" now
He's romancing a queen.

He's the king!

The most remarkable thing about these lyrics is that half of them make no sense!!! What the heck does

His majesty / is a travesty to ev'ry other crown

even mean? And consider the lines

Romantically / He's as solid as steel / Like Achilles' heel

I had to listen to that several times to be sure that's what they sang. An "Achilles' heel" is a weak spot. Is this supposed to mean that romance is King's weakness, that he's a sucker for the ladies? Or is it an ironic dig because King always strikes out in the romance department? Either way it sounds like a putdown of the star of the show. Then there's the funny reference to his Highway Patrol days. I can't believe the lyricist wrote this song with a straight face. I could almost see it as a tweak of the nose to the suits in the front office: "Those guys are so clueless they'll think this is great stuff, har har har."

Anyway, for some reason the jaunty cadence and the bubbly singing group reminded me of the theme to The Blob. And by Jove, that song would also fit our aging, overfed Mr Crawford:

Beware of John King, he creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of John King!

Sorry, Mr Bacharach.

[Robb_K]

Because I can never leave well enough alone, allow me to return to the King of Diamonds TV show, specifically to its theme song. (This is adapted from a comment I left on YouTube). Someone had asked for the lyrics. Well, here they are:

King of Diamonds

Look for the night people roamin'
When the good folks are homin'
And you'll find Johnny King.

Where there is music of diamonds
He will be where there's diamonds
And of diamonds he's king.

His majesty
is a travesty to ev'ry other crown
Romantically
He's as solid as steel
Like Achilles' heel.

When Johnny King breaks a door down
He's not saying "ten-four" now
He's romancing a queen.

He's the king!

The most remarkable thing about these lyrics is that half of them make no sense!!! What the heck does

His majesty / is a travesty to ev'ry other crown

even mean? And consider the lines

Romantically / He's as solid as steel / Like Achilles' heel

I had to listen to that several times to be sure that's what they sang. An "Achilles' heel" is a weak spot. Is this supposed to mean that romance is King's weakness, that he's a sucker for the ladies? Or is it an ironic dig because King always strikes out in the romance department? Either way it sounds like a putdown of the star of the show. Then there's the funny reference to his Highway Patrol days. I can't believe the lyricist wrote this song with a straight face. I could almost see it as a tweak of the nose to the suits in the front office: "Those guys are so clueless they'll think this is great stuff, har har har."

Anyway, for some reason the jaunty cadence and the bubbly singing group reminded me of the theme to The Blob. And by Jove, that song would also fit our aging, overfed Mr Crawford:

Beware of John King, he creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of John King!

Sorry, Mr Bacharach.

Absolutely THIS!  I'd bet he had more fun writing that campy, silly song than he had on any other job in his career.  And, to top it off, the ladies who sang it sang it in that mocking, making fun of drivel, spirit, did as well!  A highlight of an easy job, with a fun twist, and getting good pay for doing it, by people who haven't got a clue, and think the result is not only satisfactory, but rather good!  I almost wet my pants laughing while listening to the recording.  I'm sure that such a memorable camp theme song would only help the popularity of a series, just like the tongue-in-cheek writing of dialogue for The early '60s Batman TV series.  It is too bad that the "King of Diamonds" series was too dull and uninteresting to hold viewers' interest for more than a couple episodes; and Crawford was way over the hill for playing a debonair action role (he was never "debonair" in any case).

[Quirky Quokka]

I remember Don Heck predominantly for his Marvel work in the sixties. He wasn't right up there with Kirby and Ditko, but I thought he was okay. His stuff from ten years previously, however, is a real eye-opener. I admit thanks to CB+ I'd had my eyes opened to fifties Heck before now, by his horror work for Comic Media, particularly his covers on Horrific and Weird Terror. This is equally exciting, even to a man who doesn't like Westerns. Dark, detailed and dramatic, his art here really packs a punch.  All I can find to fault are his profile shots, which often seem unrealistic and cartoony.

I wasn't crazy about the way Heck draws faces in this comic, though I liked the action sequences and different perspectives. However, I have since discovered that he drew a lot of the art in the 70s section of the 'Batgirl Bronze Age Omnibus' I received recently, so he has seriously gone up in my estimation. Some brilliant art in there.

[Quirky Quokka]

Because I can never leave well enough alone, allow me to return to the King of Diamonds TV show, specifically to its theme song. (This is adapted from a comment I left on YouTube). Someone had asked for the lyrics.

LOL - Thanks for that. I'm glad you also had no idea what the lyrics meant. I bit too cool and groovy for this Mr King methinks.

[Robb_K]

Because I can never leave well enough alone, allow me to return to the King of Diamonds TV show, specifically to its theme song. (This is adapted from a comment I left on YouTube). Someone had asked for the lyrics.

LOL - Thanks for that. I'm glad you also had no idea what the lyrics meant. A bit too cool and groovy for this Mr King methinks.

Maybe the theme song and lyrics were written before the producer had signed Crawford for the part, and they had a lead player in mind who would have been a lot younger (in the younger James Bond mold?   The theme song would have needed to be recorded well before even the pilot was filmed.  And TV series pilots often used actors who were not used in the series (e.g. were only placeholders until a better for the part, or more well known actor could be signed.  If they had known they would use a 60+ year old actor in that part, surely they wouldn't use that silly theme song, UNLESS they knew they were going to play the series as a camp parody (as done with "Batman").  Clearly, the producers of this series got a LOT wrong.  Which is one of the main reason why it failed.

[Quirky Quokka]

Maybe the theme song and lyrics were written before the producer had signed Crawford for the part, and they had a lead player in mind who would have been a lot younger (in the younger James Bond mold?   The theme song would have needed to be recorded well before even the pilot was filmed.  And TV series pilots often used actors who were not used in the series (e.g. were only placeholders until a better for the part, or more well known actor could be signed.  If they had known they would use a 60+ year old actor in that part, surely they wouldn't use that silly theme song, UNLESS they knew they were going to play the series as a camp parody (as done with "Batman").  Clearly, the producers of this series got a LOT wrong.  Which is one of the main reason why it failed.

That makes sense. The theme song definitely doesn't seem to fit the final product. I see that Lola Albright was in one episode. She plays the main female lead, and nightclub singer, in the Peter Gunn series. The song might have been better in her nightclub 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054553/

[crashryan]

The theme song definitely doesn't seem to fit the final product.

It's possible that the show was intended for a different actor but I'm not convinced. From what I've read about Broderick Crawford, King of Diamonds sounds like an attempt by Ziv to restart Crawford's tanking career. Crawford struggled with serious alcoholism throughout his life (plus he overate constantly).

Crawford's chronic drinking messed with the production of Highway Patrol. According to Wikipedia, the show's creator said, "We got all the dialogue in by noon, or else we wouldn't get it done at all. He [Crawford] would bribe people to bring him booze on the set." Crawford was stopped so many times for drunk driving that the Highway Patrol nicknamed him "Old 502," that being the radio code for driving under the influence. Eventually his driving license was revoked and they had to shoot driving scenes on private roads.

Crawford left Highway Patrol in 1959 and tried to stop drinking. He worked in Europe for awhile, sobered up temporarily, and returned to the US to do King of Diamonds. Wikipedia says that Fred Ziv was almost the only producer who'd work with Crawford and most of the actor's roles from 1955 to 1965 were in Ziv productions. Robb referred to Crawford as a "60-year-old actor." The toll drinking took is shown by the fact that in 1961 Crawford was just 50 years old.

Based on all that I speculate that in 1961 Frederick Ziv wanted to give Crawford (about whom he said,  "To be honest, Broderick could be a handful") another chance at a series. Whether this ties into the theme song I don't know. I still lean toward the theory that the song was developed without paying attention to the show itself or (except for one line) to Crawford. Somebody whose opinion counted thought it was great, so in it went. Since I can't find any full episodes I'm not certain, but I think the song was played under the closing credits.

On a related note, while looking for King of Diamonds on YouTube I came across a compilation of opening titles for 39 TV series that premiered in the Fall of 1961. It was like watching a roster of post-Western Dell comics! Among the shows were King of Diamonds, Target: the Corruptors, Cain's Hundred, 87th Precinct, Follow the Sun, The Hathaways, Margie [different from My Little Margie], Car 54 Where Are You?, Ben Casey, and The Defenders. Dell adapted all of them into comics, most of which are on CB+. Mister Ed also premiered in 1961, but it was picked up by Western, not Dell. After a Dell-branded appearance in the Four Color series, Mister Ed continued under Western's Gold Key brand.

[The Australian Panther]

On a related note, while looking for King of Diamonds on YouTube I came across a compilation of opening titles for 39 TV series that premiered in the Fall of 1961.

Can you post a link, Crash?

Thanks!

[K1ngcat]

King of Diamonds

Look for the night people roamin'
When the good folks are homin'
And you'll find Johnny King.

Where there is music of diamonds
He will be where there's diamonds
And of diamonds he's king.

His majesty
is a travesty to ev'ry other crown
Romantically
He's as solid as steel
Like Achilles' heel.

When Johnny King breaks a door down
He's not saying "ten-four" now
He's romancing a queen.

He's the king![/i

Well, crash, I thought I'd written some rotten songs in my life, but that's truly excruciating!
I feel better about my entire musical career now. Thanks for sharing!
K1ngcat

[crashryan]

Here's the link for the "39 New Shows of 1961" compilation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9J7q2TQeWQ

[Robb_K]

The theme song definitely doesn't seem to fit the final product.

It's possible that the show was intended for a different actor but I'm not convinced. From what I've read about Broderick Crawford, King of Diamonds sounds like an attempt by Ziv to restart Crawford's tanking career. Crawford struggled with serious alcoholism throughout his life (plus he overate constantly).

Crawford's chronic drinking messed with the production of Highway Patrol.[/i] According to Wikipedia, the show's creator said, "We got all the dialogue in by noon, or else we wouldn't get it done at all. He [Crawford] would bribe people to bring him booze on the set." Crawford was stopped so many times for drunk driving that the Highway Patrol nicknamed him "Old 502," that being the radio code for driving under the influence. Eventually his driving license was revoked and they had to shoot driving scenes on private roads.

Crawford left Highway Patrol in 1959 and tried to stop drinking. He worked in Europe for awhile, sobered up temporarily, and returned to the US to do King of Diamonds. Wikipedia says that Fred Ziv was almost the only producer who'd work with Crawford and most of the actor's roles from 1955 to 1965 were in Ziv productions. Robb referred to Crawford as a "60-year-old actor." The toll drinking took is shown by the fact that in 1961 Crawford was just 50 years old.

Based on all that I speculate that in 1961 Frederick Ziv wanted to give Crawford (about whom he said,  "To be honest, Broderick could be a handful") another chance at a series. Whether this ties into the theme song I don't know. I still lean toward the theory that the song was developed without paying attention to the show itself or (except for one line) to Crawford. Somebody whose opinion counted thought it was great, so in it went. Since I can't find any full episodes I'm not certain, but I think the song was played under the closing credits.

On a related note, while looking for King of Diamonds on YouTube I came across a compilation of opening titles for 39 TV series that premiered in the Fall of 1961. It was like watching a roster of post-Western Dell comics! Among the shows were King of Diamonds, Target: the Corruptors, Cain's Hundred, 87th Precinct, Follow the Sun, The Hathaways, Margie [different from My Little Margie], Car 54 Where Are You?, Ben Casey, and The Defenders. Dell adapted all of them into comics, most of which are on CB+. Mister Ed also premiered in 1961, but it was picked up by Western, not Dell. After a Dell-branded appearance in the Four Color series, Mister Ed continued under Western's Gold Key brand.

I'm amazed that Crawford was only exactly 50 when the Diamond series was shown.  He looked like 40 miles of bad road.  I just guessed that he was over 60 based on his looks, and the fact that I remembered him from films that had been made during the late 1930s, and he looked like he was, at least in his 30s then.  He had been overweight for a long time by then, and that plus a lot of drinking will really wreck a body.  No one who saw him in 1961 would believe he could do physically what the artist showed him doing (diving, running fast, jumping high, etc.).  He was way too old for such a part, even if he had been in good shape for his age. 

[SuperScrounge]

The King of Diamonds

Was the proofreader out sick when this came in? The first two pages & I spotted two obvious grammatical errors.

Casey goes to Brazil and apparently finds nothing worth showing and then is back in New York. How long did it take to fly to Brazil, presumably interview people, and then come back to meet with King? Doesn't seem long enough.

Aren't industrial diamonds smaller than what we see in the case?

Shooting the gun out of King's hand.
I've heard that the force of a bullet hitting a gun in someone's hand will mess up the person's hand badly, unlike fiction that overuses this technique.

I wonder if this was based on a TV story? It does feel like a cut-down story to fit a comic length rather than a story written for a comic that 'mimics' a TV-type story.

Okay story, but nothing special.

Why on the back cover are they showing a cabochon with an asterism? Diamonds are usually faceted, not cabbed. I'm also not aware of a diamond showing an asterism, star sapphires & star garnets, sure, but I haven't heard of a diamond showing this. Also since diamonds are octahedral crystals I'd expect an 8-ray star, not 6.


Death Valley #2

Fool's Gold
Jed has his back turned on three lawmen with guns drawn and somehow he shoots them all dead??? Did he have access to the Speed Force?

Okay story.

Outlaw Nightmare
Interesting.

Bloody Sheriff
Sounds like a title for a Halloween western. 

Not too bad.

Alone
Those are some mighty small exit wounds when Ed gets shot. Admittedly the artist can't get too graphic, but maybe he should have drawn it from another angle.

The things a guy will do to get a date. 

Not bad.

[Robb_K]

The King of Diamonds

(1) Was the proofreader out sick when this came in? The first two pages & I spotted two obvious grammatical errors.

Casey goes to Brazil and apparently finds nothing worth showing and then is back in New York. How long did it take to fly to Brazil, presumably interview people, and then come back to meet with King? Doesn't seem long enough.

Aren't industrial diamonds smaller than what we see in the case?

(2) Shooting the gun out of King's hand.
I've heard that the force of a bullet hitting a gun in someone's hand will mess up the person's hand badly, unlike fiction that overuses this technique.

(3) I wonder if this was based on a TV story? It does feel like a cut-down story to fit a comic length rather than a story written for a comic that 'mimics' a TV-type story.

Okay story, but nothing special.

Why on the back cover are they showing a cabochon with an asterism? Diamonds are usually faceted, not cabbed. I'm also not aware of a diamond showing an asterism, star sapphires & star garnets, sure, but I haven't heard of a diamond showing this. Also since diamonds are octahedral crystals I'd expect an 8-ray star, not 6.


Death Valley #2

Fool's Gold
Jed has his back turned on three lawmen with guns drawn and somehow he shoots them all dead??? Did he have access to the Speed Force?

Okay story.

Outlaw Nightmare
Interesting.

Bloody Sheriff
Sounds like a title for a Halloween western. 

Not too bad.

Alone
Those are some mighty small exit wounds when Ed gets shot. Admittedly the artist can't get too graphic, but maybe he should have drawn it from another angle.

The things a guy will do to get a date. 

Not bad.

(1) I must have seen thousands upon thousands of grammatical and spelling errors in the comic books I have read over the 70+ years I have been reading them.  Most of those I read were sold for 10 cents Canadian & US, and 25 cents for giants, and the equivalent in Dutch money.  The profit margins were so low that comic book companies had little time or inclination to edit for grammar.  They did almost no research on stories, and did not even notice when there were mistakes in the binding, pages in wrong order, etc.  Poor grammar was the least of readers problems with this not-very-well-respected means of reading entertainment.

(2) You are certainly correct that if a bullet, at a range so close as we see in the panel, hits a hand gun held in the grip of a mans hand with force enough to knock it out of that hand, the speed of the bullet and force of the impact would cause damage to the hand.  First of all, with a mans hand gripping the gun, the fingers would be wrapped around its handle, probably with a couple of them extended towards its trigger, at the ready to shoot.  For the bullet to hit with enough force to partially move the gun from the grip, it would also be causing enough pain to the holder to immediately want to remove his fingers from the impact.  But also, it is not likely that the bullet could hit squarely enough on the guns surface to move it, and not also at leased graze the mans fingers and part of the hands skin.  Also the great speed would also bring great heat from the fiction, so, in addition to probably getting wounded in the hand, and bleeding profusely, there would likely be burns to the skin, as well and maybe fingers broken. Such a situation could not always result in a magical removal of the enemy weapon without touching his skin, like a sharpshooter firing from a fair distance, and hitting only the tiny piece of wick at the end of a candle, and putting out its flame, or knocking a cigarette out from between someones teeth.

(3) I believe this was an adaptation of the first episode of the series, as the beginning scenes are almost exactly the same as they were in the trailer.  There were a few changes, but the basic storyline, and a large portion of the details were the same.  And yes, I agree that it is choppy, because the scope of the TV episode is wider than can be shown in a comic book with such a limited number of pages.

[Quirky Quokka]

(1) I must have seen thousands upon thousands of grammatical and spelling errors in the comic books I have read over the 70+ years I have been reading them.  Most of those I read were sold for 10 cents Canadian & US, and 25 cents for giants, and the equivalent in Dutch money.  The profit margins were so low that comic book companies had little time or inclination to edit for grammar.  They did almost no research on stories, and did not even notice when their were mistakes in the binding, pages in wrong order, etc.  Poor grammar was the least of readers problems with this not-very-well-respected means of reading entertainment.

Probably showing my ignorance here, but I wonder if the way in which speech and thought balloons were done in the early days could also contribute to errors? In the days before liquid paper, correction tape and computer software, were captions drawn directly onto the artwork or were they on separate sheets and overlaid in some way? If an error was found when it got to the stage of page proofs, would they have had to weigh up whether it was more trouble than it was worth to go back and change it, especially if it was something relatively minor like a misspelled word?

On the other hand, I still find the odd error in contemporary comics. I do freelance editing on the side (not comics so far) and it's harder than you think to pick up every single error. If you're very familiar with the material and have already read it multiple times, you tend to see what you expect to see. Ideally, you need multiple passes by several different readers, and that costs time and money.  Though I would be a lot more forgiving of the odd typo than I would of pages in the wrong order 

[The Australian Panther]

interesting thoughts.
1/ Errors in these comics surprise me because I would have thought that the creators would have been literate enough to spot them.
2/ When I write something substantial myself, currently on a computer, I spell check it. More and more I don't make many mistakes. I find that the spell checker shows me that I make certain mistakes frequently and I gradually quit making those mistakes. however, I have found that just proofreading the computer copy is not enough. So I print the work out hard copy, put it aside for a  short time and then read the hard copy. I always find errors that way that I had become blind to when reading the copy off the screen.
3/ When posting for CB+, I always preview and correct. Not infrequently, I can read the posted copy later and find the need to modify it.
4/ When working as a teacher, I once attended a workshop where we were presented with common spelling and grammar mistakes that professional teachers make!
5/ When creating comics, the US way, deadlines would be a definite factor in letting mistakes get by.
cheers!             

[crashryan]

Probably showing my ignorance here, but I wonder if the way in which speech and thought balloons were done in the early days could also contribute to errors? In the days before liquid paper, correction tape and computer software, were captions drawn directly onto the artwork or were they on separate sheets and overlaid in some way?

In US comics, for decades the standard procedure was to give pencilled pages to a letterer who lettered captions and dialogue directly onto the art board (and usually drew balloons as well). The art was then given to the inker for finishing. Corrections were lettered on separate paper, then cut out and pasted over the error. If you look at a lot of old original art you'll see brown stains where the rubber cement they used dried out over the years and the corrections fell off. They also used a water-based white paint to cover mistakes. The legendary Dr Martin's Bleed-Proof White was the Cadillac of white-out. This was more common for art corrections since the paint could dry unevenly and it'd be tricky to run a lettering pen over it.

When I started working in the 80s I saw more frequently stories where the lettering was done after the art was finished. The copy was still hand-lettered but it was done on adhesive-backed paper which was then cut to balloon shape and stuck to a transparent plastic overlay. I'm guessing this method was encouraged both by increasing deadline pressures and by the fact that many more artists worked at a distance from New York City. In the old days most comics artists were NYC-based and work was easily handed from one person to another without using the mails. Nowadays of course the finished art (assuming it is still drawn on paper and not digitally) is scanned into a computer where lettering and balloons are added to the digital file.

It seems to me that the old comics workflow may have been unique to the States. I've seen many British comic originals dating back to the 40s in which the lettering was cut out and pasted directly onto the finished art. I'm guessing that this was partly because British comic papers often used typeset captions (sometimes the dialogue as well, but not so often). They also bought a huge amount of art from studios in Spain, France, and South America. The most expedient procedure would be for the foreign studio to send finished art boards without lettering. The publisher would then paste on the text.

I used to have a 1970s Modesty Blaise original by Enrique Romero. The lettering and balloons had been drawn on sticky-back paper. Instead of discoloring the paper like rubber cement, time had made the paper semi-transparent. You could see the parts of Romero's art that had been covered up. There was quite a bit of it. Nice stuff, too.

Today no hand-drawn comics originals have text on them. Being an old coot I think that's a shame. Something I've always liked about original art is that you got a piece of story along with the drawings, and that's what comics were always about to me: words and pictures working together. On the other hand I can understand a modern artist's desire for the page to be a pretty picture without a bunch of stuff pasted onto it. To each their own.