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[K1ngcat]

Robb, I can only say:
(2) Sorry if my remarks were too open to interpretation, I had no intent to suggest that those sportsmen and women who credited God with help in their successes were anything other than sincere. I was only making light of the fact that my lack of religious faith may have contributed to my lack of sporting success. 

(5) I can't fault your musical tastes!

All the best
K1ngcat

(2)  It is I who should apologise for my words making it appear as if you, as a non-believer, were accusing the Christian super athletes of following an ancient religion, whose ancient tenets are based on lack of scientific knowledge, and therefore, on superstition, and that ritualistically praying to that Creator would miraculously turn a less "athletically inclined" than average or less than average skillful sports player, into  a significantly better than average, or even merely average player, simply by granting that "wish".  Your comment made me look over my comments and discover that my personal stereotype of NON-believers in the strict literal interpretation of The ancient Judeo-Christian-Moslem (Abrahamic) scriptures (of which I am one) made it appear that I ascribed that attitude to you.  That is not at all what I intended.   I now understand that that statement from you was just a light-hearted joke.


(5) You can't fault my musical taste because Muddy Waters is my favourite Blues singer?  Or was it because I stated that I prefer Cliff Richard's version of "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?" over Larry Norman's remake?

Don't worry, Robb, not being good at sports wasn't such an issue for me, though of course being a great sportsman would've made it easier for me to "fit in" at a school that revered sporting and academic prowess. As it happened, my talents were more artistic, so I fitted in with a crowd of like-minded "misfits" who were into art, music, and theatre.  We spent a lot of time under the stage in the great hall, hanging out, expressing ideas, and hiding from the sporting crowd! I have no regrets for the path I chose.

As for your taste in music, I was referring to your admiration for Muddy Waters, but I've seen (and heard) musical links that you've posted on other forums on this site, and I like what I see. Though to this day I've never heard Cliff Richard's version of the song mentioned, I suppose I'd best go and rectify that!

All the best
K1ngcat

[Robb_K]

Robb, I can only say:
(2) Sorry if my remarks were too open to interpretation, I had no intent to suggest that those sportsmen and women who credited God with help in their successes were anything other than sincere. I was only making light of the fact that my lack of religious faith may have contributed to my lack of sporting success. 

(5) I can't fault your musical tastes!

All the best
K1ngcat

(2)  It is I who should apologise for my words making it appear as if you, as a non-believer, were accusing the Christian super athletes of following an ancient religion, whose ancient tenets are based on lack of scientific knowledge, and therefore, on superstition, and that ritualistically praying to that Creator would miraculously turn a less "athletically inclined" than average or less than average skillful sports player, into  a significantly better than average, or even merely average player, simply by granting that "wish".  Your comment made me look over my comments and discover that my personal stereotype of NON-believers in the strict literal interpretation of The ancient Judeo-Christian-Moslem (Abrahamic) scriptures (of which I am one) made it appear that I ascribed that attitude to you.  That is not at all what I intended.   I now understand that that statement from you was just a light-hearted joke.


(5) You can't fault my musical taste because Muddy Waters is my favourite Blues singer?  Or was it because I stated that I prefer Cliff Richard's version of "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?" over Larry Norman's remake?

Don't worry, Robb, not being good at sports wasn't such an issue for me, though of course being a great sportsman would've made it easier for me to "fit in" at a school that revered sporting and academic prowess. As it happened, my talents were more artistic, so I fitted in with a crowd of like-minded "misfits" who were into art, music, and theatre.  We spent a lot of time under the stage in the great hall, hanging out, expressing ideas, and hiding from the sporting crowd! I have no regrets for the path I chose.

As for your taste in music, I was referring to your admiration for Muddy Waters, but I've seen (and heard) musical links that you've posted on other forums on this site, and I like what I see. Though to this day I've never heard Cliff Richard's version of the song mentioned, I suppose I'd best go and rectify that!

All the best
K1ngcat

Thanks for the forgiving words, Kingcat.  It seems that so many boys not inclined towards sports, for various reasons, turned to put more time and energy into cerebral pursuits, often starting early with comic books, and later, moving into the creative arts (especially in the various writing arenas, drawing, editing and critique).  That covers a good portion of the posters on this forum.

[Quirky Quokka]

Treasure Chest Vol 17 #2

I thought it was interesting that they used the 'What If?' scenario. What would America look like if the Communists INVADED and took over? Was it propaganda? Scare-mongering? An element of truth? Would those things have happened?
Cheers

QQ

I'm surprised that I'm the only member of this thread who doesn't think that this story is to give the readers an idea of what would happen to their country if The Soviet Russians would invade and conquer their country, but is actually to have their youth be on guard against the sinister Communist ideas, ideals, and values that could soon be infiltrating into The American masses, from activity of Communist spies and agents of sabotage and propaganda, aimed at changing The Americans' traditional values of individualism, piety, hard work, pulling their own weight, limited power of government, free markets and keeping the fruits of one's own labour, to infiltrate into high positions in their labour unions, and soften them up and methodically change their thinking towards The Communist way, so that they would eventually embrace Communism.  And soon, "The Commies" could take over in peaceful elections. And then, after they gain power, they would start implementing their repressive measures.  That is a much "safer" way to take over, with virtually no resistance until the power is in their enemies' hands, and it is too late to do anything about it.  That is precisely how Mussolini and Hitler took over their countries.  Of course, the entire right wing would also want young boys to want to either join their military to fight The Communist Scourge, protecting their families from invasion, and more importantly, they'd want their children to grow up eager to gladly vote for providing the absolute maximum possible funding for their country's military organisations.

Hi Robb - I had another look at the comic, and I think what made me think there was an invasion was that the announcer on the TV broadcast early on said, 'Today Communist forces have completed the occupation of your country', though I guess that could also happen from within. Regardless of how the takeover came to be, I was interested in the way they used the 'What if?' scenario rather than just giving facts or info about communism. It was probably meant to shake people up so they would realise this was a threat to their way of life. And being a Catholic comic, the idea of 'Godless' communists probably would have driven the idea home more strongly. I just think it was an interesting time in history, and interesting to see different responses or approaches to the perceived threat.

Cheers

QQ

[Robb_K]

Treasure Chest Vol 17 #2

I thought it was interesting that they used the 'What If?' scenario. What would America look like if the Communists INVADED and took over? Was it propaganda? Scare-mongering? An element of truth? Would those things have happened?
Cheers

QQ

I'm surprised that I'm the only member of this thread who doesn't think that this story is to give the readers an idea of what would happen to their country if The Soviet Russians would invade and conquer their country, but is actually to have their youth be on guard against the sinister Communist ideas, ideals, and values that could soon be infiltrating into The American masses, from activity of Communist spies and agents of sabotage and propaganda, aimed at changing The Americans' traditional values of individualism, piety, hard work, pulling their own weight, limited power of government, free markets and keeping the fruits of one's own labour, to infiltrate into high positions in their labour unions, and soften them up and methodically change their thinking towards The Communist way, so that they would eventually embrace Communism.  And soon, "The Commies" could take over in peaceful elections. And then, after they gain power, they would start implementing their repressive measures.  That is a much "safer" way to take over, with virtually no resistance until the power is in their enemies' hands, and it is too late to do anything about it.  That is precisely how Mussolini and Hitler took over their countries.  Of course, the entire right wing would also want young boys to want to either join their military to fight The Communist Scourge, protecting their families from invasion, and more importantly, they'd want their children to grow up eager to gladly vote for providing the absolute maximum possible funding for their country's military organisations.

Hi Robb - I had another look at the comic, and I think what made me think there was an invasion was that the announcer on the TV broadcast early on said, 'Today Communist forces have completed the occupation of YOUR country', though I guess that could also happen from within. Regardless of how the takeover came to be, I was interested in the way they used the 'What if?' scenario rather than just giving facts or info about communism. It was probably meant to shake people up so they would realise this was a threat to their way of life. And being a Catholic comic, the idea of 'Godless' communists probably would have driven the idea home more strongly. I just think it was an interesting time in history, and interesting to see different responses or approaches to the perceived threat.

Cheers

QQ

I didn't pay enough attention to that "Your" country.  If the takeover came from within, the new leaders would use "OUR" country in the announcement, and they would have been more friendly and talked about  how things will be so much better from now on.  The announcement tone is belligerent, rather than friendly.  So, I agree with you about the point of view of the story's writer, that it was an invasion or, possibly an infiltration of a very large number of spies who were soldiers, who took off their disguises, and took over The US in a coordinated operation.

[crashryan]

I think what made me think there was an invasion was that the announcer on the TV broadcast early on said, 'Today Communist forces have completed the occupation of your country'

An interesting sidelight on Operation Musk Ox is that one of its objectives was to see whether it was possible for the USSR to stage a land invasion of North America through the northern wilderness. The expedition had such a miserable time that they concluded such an invasion was highly unlikely, if not downright impossible.

[Quirky Quokka]

I think what made me think there was an invasion was that the announcer on the TV broadcast early on said, 'Today Communist forces have completed the occupation of your country'

An interesting sidelight on Operation Musk Ox is that one of its objectives was to see whether it was possible for the USSR to stage a land invasion of North America through the northern wilderness. The expedition had such a miserable time that they concluded such an invasion was highly unlikely, if not downright impossible.

Thanks for that, Crashryan. Though I guess that wasn't beyond the realms of possibility, depending which way they came. Russians had already had settlements at places like Sitka, though I guess that was still quite a way from the Arctic regions the Musk Men were exploring. Then again, if the Russians did their training in Siberia, taking over the north might have been a piece of cake 

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

Serendipity again!
Sitting at arm's length from me is Louis L'amour's book SITKA, about the founding of Alaska.

one of its objectives was to see whether it was possible for the USSR to stage a land invasion of North America through the northern wilderness.

Seems an odd thing to spend time and money to test out.
If you invaded Alaska, you would need to go through Canada to get to the continental US. Why not just start from Portland? I presume it was the US testing this out?

if the Russians did their training in Siberia, taking over the north might have been a piece of cake 

No idea what Russian Army numbers are stationed in Siberia, but Vladivostok is the major Russian naval base and is in Siberia - giving Russia entry to the Pacific. It is still closed off for all except the Russian Military.
Today, in any case, if you wanted a large land invasion you would use helicopters and perhaps paratroopers.       

   

[wiseman]

Sorry for being a bit late.  I was still busy replying to our thread #298, and forgot the time!  Reading the wonderful Faust book from  the series: "Illustrated Stories of The Operas" got me to thinking about comic book series made expressly for sale to educational institutions.  So, that is my theme for this fortnight. 

Our first book is that very book mentioned above, which, containing only 16 pages of comics, albeit excellently probably drawn by Bernard Baily, published by Baily Publishing Co. in 1943, sold for 25 cents per copy, which, at the time of its release, often got its purchaser 100 to 130 pages of comics.  That very fact led some of us to conclude that this series was intended to be sold to public and private school systems and public library systems, rather than individual children or their parents.  The other two books are "Catholic Comics #10", published by Catholic Publications in 1947, and "Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact Volume 17 #2 (Version 1) published by The Catechetical Guild Educational Society in 1961, both for parochial Catholic school systems to purchase in bulk for entire class rosters.  The two books designed for schools have interesting mixes of genres and story styles and educational activities, and their stories are heavily laden with a strong moralistic tone.

You can find Illustrated Stories of The Operas: Faust here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85327


You can find Catholic Comics 10 here:  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=29900


You can find Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact Volume 17 #2 (Version 1) here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85332


I look forward to discussions on the various features of these books and what ideas we all have about their value in education, instilling moral values in children, dissemination of propaganda, appeal to children, and possibly, how they compare to other comics which had educational value, such as Classics Illustrated and other retelling of condensed novels, or giveaway educational comic books.

Hi, sorry to go off topic, but I am looking for reprints of Tumbleweed by Tom Ryan published in Australia. Judging from your pseudonym, you are the best person to answer my request. Thank you in advance.

[Robb_K]

Hi, sorry to go off topic, but I am looking for reprints of Tumbleweed by Tom Ryan published in Australia. Judging from your pseudonym, you are the best person to answer my request. Thank you in advance.

Welcome Wiseman,
I assume you intended to directing this towards Australian Panther (who has made several posts on this thread).  He's the one with The Phantom Avatar.  Maybe he'll see this post from you, but 90% of this post is my uploaded photos and writing, so he may not notice it.  If I were you, I 'd also place your request in our "Comics From Around The World" thread, inside our "Comic Talk" section.  Australian Panther is bound to see it there, and there are several other members who know a fair bit about Australian Comics. 

[crashryan]

     one of its objectives was to see whether it was possible for the USSR to stage a land invasion of North America through the northern wilderness.

Seems an odd thing to spend time and money to test out.
If you invaded Alaska, you would need to go through Canada to get to the continental US. Why not just start from Portland? I presume it was the US testing this out?

As I understand it Operation Musk Ox was primarily a Canadian undertaking, though the US seems to have also been involved. Apparently mechanical problems were a big headache. The weather and terrain were almost too much for their WWII-era vehicles (the expedition took place in 1946). They probably concluded that moving an invasion force large enough to conquer Canada and the US wasn't practicable.

I wasn't around in 1946 but I've read books and newspapers from the era and a lot of people seem to have been worried about a Soviet land invasion. Although there was a growing fear of "the Reds" dropping an atomic bomb, a flight from USSR territory to the USA was still beyond the range of contemporary bombers.

[Robb_K]

     one of its objectives was to see whether it was possible for the USSR to stage a land invasion of North America through the northern wilderness.

Seems an odd thing to spend time and money to test out.
If you invaded Alaska, you would need to go through Canada to get to the continental US. Why not just start from Portland? I presume it was the US testing this out?

As I understand it Operation Musk Ox was primarily a Canadian undertaking, though the US seems to have also been involved. Apparently mechanical problems were a big headache. The weather and terrain were almost too much for their WWII-era vehicles (the expedition took place in 1946). They probably concluded that moving an invasion force large enough to conquer Canada and the US wasn't practicable.

I wasn't around in 1946 but I've read books and newspapers from the era and a lot of people seem to have been worried about a Soviet land invasion. Although there was a growing fear of "the Reds" dropping an atomic bomb, a flight from USSR territory to the USA was still beyond the range of contemporary bombers.

I was old enough to know what was going on just a few years after that, and at that time, it seemed that most people in both countries were more worried about the infiltration of Communist spies and agitators  in USA and Canada getting high positions in the industrial workers unions and the left wings of the political parties, and the legal Communist parties and leftist parties gaining power, and, eventually trying to take power and take over the national governments, as was The Worldwide Communist Comintern's plan for taking over war-weakened Italy, France and Greece soon after World War II, which actually worked in Czechoslovakia in 1948, whose government had not been brutally purged of its centrist leaders, with strong Russian military support, and had new, Communist governments installed in 1946 (as had been done in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria).  In 1946, The Russian economy was still in shambles.  They had had to get continuous help from The US and Britain in the form of money for food and fuel, and shipment of military equipment, and had lost millions of its citizens, including hundreds of thousands of its soldiers.  In 1946, Russia wasn't capable of invading Canada AND USA and winning such a war, and holding on to conquered territory.  Which is why I remember most educated people who feared The Russians, fearing the Worldwide plan of The Communist Party working hard to infiltrate workers unions and leftist political parties, and left wings of major western country political parties, and gaining power from within, who could eventually take over those countries from within, with outside help from The Soviet Union.

By 1949, things were different.  The Russian economy was recovering, and they were spending most of their money on a vast programme of building up their military capability.  And they had also started testing nuclear devices (bombs).  And the innovations in jet bombers' had extended their flight ranges quite a bit.  So, the fear of nuclear war started by The Soviets, first softening up US and Canada's military and industrial capability and vastly reducing their populations before an on-the-ground military invasion, was the new fear.

[Robb_K]

Illustrated Stories of The Operas - Faust
I've already written a lot about this book.  Its artwork is top notch.  It doesn't look like Bernard Bailey's drawing style from 1943, although his signature is on the front cover, and his name is listed in GCD's credits for the artwork.  So, I'm guessing that it may have been his partner in The Bernard Bailey Studio, Mac Raboy.  They did the best job they could do in condensing the Opera into only 16 pages of comics art.  I've read parts of Aida, as well.  But I'd also like to read Rigoletto, also with fantastic artwork on its front cover, and Carmen, too.

Catholic Comics 10
The Shrine of St. Theresa - The Little Flower - Information Page
Very nice artwork.

Bill Brown of Notre Dame
He was both a star football, basketball and baseball player for Notre Dame University (a very prestigious US University -in the area of sports).  He apparently just twisted his ankle, not breaking a bone, nor tearing ligaments or tendons.  So recovering from that mild injury in 10 days doesn't seem like even being prayed for its healing.  IF praying would do any good, wouldn't it be better to pray that the wealthy people and wealthy nations of The World would help finance education (including the wisdom of birth control) and provide basic medical help for the poor countries, and help feed their starving people until those nations can do that, themselves, and also pray for permanent World peace, rather than wasting wishing for a sports player to be able to play in his basketball game?  No surprise that Bill played as his team won their game.  And it won them the US National Collegiate Championship.  So, it was more than just any one game. 
basketball game.

Pudgy Pig
A bit of light-hearted fluff taken from Charlton's stock of secular Children's entertainment to take the kiddies' minds of the moral preachiness, and Church propaganda thrown at them in most of the other stories in this book.  Pudgy had already been appearing in Charlton's "Zoo Funnies", funny animal series.  The artwork is pretty poor compared to that of most of the young children's fare from the comic book packagers who handled that genre (Sangor Studios, Leon Jason's Jason Comic Art, Fago Brothers Studio, Chesler, Louis Ferstadt, Bernard Bailey Studio, Jerry Iger's Fiction House, and Lloyd Jacquet's Funnies, Inc.).  I think this was the work of Ellis "Holly" Chambers, who having been fired by most of the comics packagers, for working slowly, and not meeting deadlines (rumoured to have been because of his drug problems), who, because of that, worked on a short project-by-project basis, as an ad-hoc free lancer.  Despite being below standard, with his normal, very sparse backgrounds, at least it has fairly clean lines and not so psychedelic, surreal,  and bizarre, as many of his 1942-44 stories were.  And the figures are decently drawn, and move properly.  This is actually some of his very best artwork.  I agree with QQ that the "morals" demonstrated in this story are the opposite of what religious schools plan to teach.  Most of Chambers' stories made little sense, - IF any, at all.

Father O'Malley and The Living Rosary
Not knowing any Irish people very well, I'd never before encountered the Irish terms colleen and colin.  We
learn something new every day!  I knew what a shillelagh is from Irish-American, British and Irish films, and books about Irish lore.  I grew up in a Scottish neighbourhood, but Irish immigrants had a representative effect on Canadian culture, as they did in Australia, and certainly in England.  Of course, thanks to the Great Potato Famine, they had a major effect on American culture, and we got our share of immigration from that disaster, too.  Committee members who will work on raising funds have to swear an oath (could it be to be careful not to lose any of the donations?  Or not to be tempted to spend them on one's self???).  That seems like a strange thing to have them do, especially in a religious organisation.  What a BORING  "story"!!!  What is the "lesson" the readers should learn from this???

Aesop's Fables - Frogs Desiring A Leader
Bloody awful "artwork"!!!  I guess the editor let his 7-year old grandson draw it.  They don't look like frogs, especially in the swimming scenes.  Maybe the writer/artist was rather 4 years old than 7!  Even a 6 -year old would know that storks have no teeth.  I've heard of "vampire bats, but not "vampire storks"!   
Sometimes we had storks make nests in the chimneys of our neighbourhood in Den Haag, when I was young.

Story of Pope Pius XII
This non-fiction historical piece was interesting, to-the-point, and well-drawn.

Koroseal - The New Material
I never heard the word "koroseal".  We called it "synthetic rubber".  Clearly, this is a bold-faced commercial advert, which shouldn't be placed in a school curriculum.  I would have nothing against having a history of "synthetic rubber" used to teach a science lesson, EVEN mentioning that Waldo Semon, of BF Goodrich Corp. discovered it, and developed the first commercial version of it, for The US Military.  But, I wouldn't allow an obvious commercial marketing tool like this, with 5 of its 6 pages showing and describing products that now use it in their construction, in schools.  i would have wanted more science related to the process of its forming in the earlier pages (i.e. how its formation process works, chemical bonding reaction produced by heating up a particular combination of chemicals, etc.)

Droopy - Gag Page
More questionable art, this time by a 4-year old! 

Musk-Ox Men Map The Arctic
Interesting article on that project.  Most of Norway is mountainous, rocky, and thickly forested.  I can't imagine where such a tank would even have room to operate.  The Nordic Ski Units of The Finns, Russians and Canadians did fine on their skis, in Finland, Norway, and Russia, and The US did well with theirs in The Alps.  Lots of Canadian men wore fish-net long underwear during winters back in The 1940s.  I didn't like it.  It produced a lot of sweat, even in temperatures 20 or 30 degrees F below zero. 

The Adventures Of Sir Galahad
Where was "The Land of Igeria".  I was a history major in undergraduate, specialising in the ancient Middle East.  I've never heard of it, and Google has nothing, at all, on it.  It must be made up, just as were King Arthur's knights.  The story showed thick forests near the Mediterranean coast of Palestine, which would have had almost none, because it was mostly flat farmland.  Up in the hill country of The Judean Highlands is  where the forests were.  We should have seen them in the panels after it is mentioned that they were nearing Jerusalem.  Instead, we saw totally flat land, with nothing growing (implying desert).  That is totally opposite to reality.  The pre-1800 Jerusalem "Old City" has no "Gate of The Great Sheep".  Another made-up detail.  This is a religious story for religious school students.  One would think they would, at least try to get The Holy Land geography correct, even though King Arthur's knights are total fiction, used instead of the real historical European Crusader knights that we KNOW travelled to The Levant during those times.  At least this story was drawn well.  That's its only redeeming feature.

Odd Inventions
Innocent of being false, if not very interesting.

Overall, this book was not very interesting.  The Pope Pius XII and Operation Musk Ox features were interesting, and well done.  To me, the rest was not worthwhile.

[crashryan]

Treasure Chest v 17 no 2

It's impossible to discuss the lead story without honoring the no-politicking rule. I'll just say that it demonstrates the elastic nature of the word 'freedom,' considering these are the same folk who gave us Opus Dei, Leonard Leo, and arguably the most corrupt Supreme Court in history.

A waste of Reed Crandall's talent.

Chuck White and The Champ share a maddening fault. Both are serials, obviously with a fair amount of backstory, but neither provide a first-panel synopsis for those  who came in late. Surely not every parochial school kid read every single issue.

Thus we are told Chuck and his pals are self-styled "pioneers" in a motorcade headed for Alaska via the TransCan highway. Why? All I can think of is that since Alaska became a state the previous year, the "pioneers" intend to settle on the new wild frontier. Which is rather insulting to both the indigenous Alaskans and the European immigrants who'd lived there for a century or more.

Fran Matera's art ranks among the best he's done. Matera put a personal spin on the Caniff style though his work varied considerably over the years. His late newspaper strip art was pretty sad. Here he is clearly giving the job all he has. The story is fair. It failed to grab me because I didn't know the characters or the larger storyline. It did have one of those groaner non-surprises: Who read "I hope it doesn't rain because..." and didn't immediately know that it would rain and mess things up?

The Champ's story is easier to figure out as one goes along. It's irritating to the extreme how The Champ is constantly saying "I know I forgot something, but what?" This is a cheap narrative trick to drag the story out, especially since it doesn't pay off until a future episode. I presume he's referring to the magnetized tack hammer he stored in the binnacle, which threw the compass off. A dumb move for someone who understands navigation. At least The Champ doesn't suffer all the fat shaming he did in the only other episode I've read. Still, he's not a very appealing character. By the bye, why does the boat's skipper wear an old-fashioned admiral's costume?

Frank Borth's art isn't as strong as Matera's or Ostendorf's but it's solid work and Borth puts honest effort into drawing the boats and nautical hardware.

The St. Anthony feature plays up the fairy tale portions of the saint's story. I wonder if he converted any of the fishes. Lloyd Ostendorf doesn't seem to have done comics work outside of  Treasure Chest. His obit in the Chicago Tribune didn't even mention comics. His career was mostly in freelance commercial art, political cartoons, and greeting cards. He had a lifelong fascination with Abraham Lincoln and came to amass what was then the largest collection of Lincoln photographs. He was a respected Lincoln scholar and even built a replica of the steamboat "Abraham Lincoln" in which he cruised the Ohio River with his family. He also was a darned good draughtsman. The Tribune bio said he got his start working for Ohio-based Milton Caniff.

I don't know who drew the Rafer Johnson biography, but it's a competent job. The story is your average four-page quickie bio.

Nothing special about the fillers. Sure and I couldn't find an actor Tim O'Toole in the proper time frame, so I assume they made him up. Funny that both this issue and Catholic Comics used vaudeville Irish dialogue. Stereotyping their own audience?

In sum, Treasure Chest was nice to look at but not much to read.

[The Australian Panther]

Illustrated Stories of The Operas  Faust
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85327
This is different from the other two choices.
It is an adaption of a narrative from another Medium - in this case Opera.
I love music of many genres but not Opera [ with the exception of Tommy]
But I have always liked comic book adaptations of narratives - like CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED.
There are certain famous novels and plays that I have never read but am familiar with because I have read the comics or movie version.
Lets look at this one.
The cover is attention getting, but is it effectively representative of the narrative? It is typical of comic book covers and shows Bailey's instinctive use of the form. 
Why Bailey attempted to tell this story in only 20 pages is a mystery in itself. 64 page comics were a standard then and this warrants that.
The way to do this kind of thing is to get a sponsor or get an educational institution to underwrite the project.
For example, if Faust was being performed by a major company, sell the comics in the foyer with the permission of the theatre.
I'm guessing that this enterprise was a passion for him and economic necessity limited him to 20 pages.
Most young boys and girls who might buy comics off the stands would not be inclined to pick up a book that says 'Opera' on the cover.   
The first problem then, for me - is that, because of the brevity of this [3 panels], I have no idea why Faust is tired of life. I don't really understand his motivation. I can't buy into it. As I said I don't know the Opera, but I always thought there was more too it. Is this only the final story in the narrative.
The brevity, the cramming the narrative into only 20 pages mean that much is not explained, there is little suspense, and not much effort spent in delineating character. I haven't got enough here to emphasis with any of the characters. So the work doesn't move me in any way.Yes, Bailey has poured his heart into this and it shows in the art.   
Nice idea but the business side of the project was not thought out well. 
           

[Robb_K]

Treasure Chest v 17 no 2

This Godless Communism
This lesson starts off with the statement of "this school year's theme will be the studying of Communism".  Therefore, our theory that this comic book series was started with marketing to Catholic school systems in mind as the main bulk of its market, just as "Catholic Comics" most likely was.  It made the point that the major emphasis will be on its history in Russia, and where the movement is going.  I think it is interesting that the discussion of Communism's start, and history in Russia, in this first issue of the school year dealing with Communism, is limited to 2 narrative boxes and one splash-panel page, while the remaining 5 pages illustrate the loss of personal freedoms that would result from a Communist takeover of The USA or Canada, focusing on the point made by J. Edgar Hoover's letter to the students, which states that The Worldwide Communist movement is today's (1961) most dangerous threat to our (the democratic) way of life.  And learning about this enemy will help prepare readers for recognising and detecting Communists (agents) as they attempt to infiltrate into (positions of power) in our society (capable of changing it in dangerous directions).  The tone of the last five pages is clearly panicky and alarmist, and given the number of national governments that fell to overthrow and replacement by Communist governments between the end of WWII in 1945 and the publication of this book in 1961, due mostly to Soviet Russian and Communist Chinese military aid, including equipment, aerial, naval, and ground troops, that tone is not surprising.  Reed Crandall's artwork is excellent.

Chuck White and His Friends
This is just one segment of many episodes in a serialised story.  It is maddening for the reader who has just seen this issue and none of the previous, as it has no distilling of the plot of this story and what has happened so far, and at the end of the last issue.  I guess the editor assumed that every class teacher would have one of the students give a synopsis of what has happened in the story, so far, and what happened in last fortnight's episode, if any students returned from a long absence.  Usually, when students were absent from a short illness, they were assigned to make up the reading they missed as extra homework going forward, or they were brought their school books and reading materials to do that work at home while ill or recuperating.

Alaska had been a US territory since 1867.  And American citizens had the opportunity to look for work there, or settle there at any time afterwards.  I doubt that there was a gigantic land rush there just after that territory received statehood.  Even today, that state only has a tiny population related to its land size and to that ratio for other US states.  I DO agree with Crash, however, that the changeover to statehood and minor growth in population, which was mostly non-indiginous (non-Inuit and non-Amerind) people, changed the political situation there, given that the indiginous people were so small in number in the first place, and continuously became weaker as a minority as more laws were passed to exploit resources.

Fran Matera's artwork is very good.

Sports Heroes - Rafer Johnson
I remember watching The Olympic Games on TV in 1960, and seeing Rafer Johnson win his gold in The Decathlon.  The uncredited artist did a good job on drawing him (no doubt from photos).

The Champ and The Pirates
Nice artwork. A good story in this episode.  It develops with good pacing, and has a nice bit of suspense, appearing that their boat has been travelling north into the icy waters, near Baffin Island or Greenland, instead of south, to subtropical Florida.  It held my interest so well that I plan to continue reading it in the following issue.

Father John's Trip to Paris
Very boring.  I imagine it would be completely overlooked unless the students would be assigned to write about their thoughts on it.

The Wonder-Worker - St. Anthony of Padua
Lloyd Ostendorf's artwork is excellent.  I know that he was mainly a book and magazine illustrator and political newspaper cartoonist, so his artwork had to be more competent than that of the average comic book artist.  I learned about this saint, and disciple of St. Francis of Assisi, for the first time.  Otherwise, it is not very interesting.

Puzzle Page
I like the cartoony turtle very much.  I've never heard of Tim O'Toole, star of "The Silver Screen".  And I'm a big fan of 1950s and '60s Irish films (as well as 1930-1950s UK, Canadian, Australian, and Dutch films.  I've never heard of this fellow.  I'd have guessed he is completely made up, or was a Boston or New York stage actor in the 1900s to 1930s (mislabeled as a film star)?

Summation
All in all, the book had a few well-drawn stories, and one interesting and well-drawn story episode.  All-in-all I'm glad I didn't attend a Catholic school who would assign this (OR) Catholic Comics. I DID attend a Jewish parochial part religious and part national standards school for a few years, and our Jewish History book series had great illustrations in it, and I was interested in the history lessons, too.  But, like most kids, I wouldn't like ready heavily agenda-laden books with lessons that preach at me.

Of the three books featured, only the Faust Opera book held my interest, and was enjoyable all the way through, and the art was so beautiful, that I felt disappointed that it didn't go on and on.  I'll have to check out several examples of Mac Raboy's early 1940s art, to decide if HE could be The Faust artist.  Bernard Baily, as Baily Studio and Baily Publishing Co. President, has his name on all 5 issues (5th is a different printing and version) of one of the 4 shown above).  Each of the 4 seem to have a different enough style that Baily couln't have drawn them all.  His early 1940s style in stories of his that I've seen, leads me to believe that he did NOT draw Faust, but, perhaps he drew "Aida".  I doubt that he drew Rigoletto (which, may, possibly have been drawn by the "Faust" artist).

[The Australian Panther]

Going to do these two together.

Catholic Comics 10  
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=29900
Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact Volume 17 #2 (Version 1) 
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85332
I haven't posted yet, because I hesitate.
They are both CATHOLIC publications and in a technical sense, propaganda.
Propaganda;- ' Documents, Arguments, Facts spread by deliberate effort through any medium in order to further ones cause or to damage an opposing cause.' [Macquarie Dictionary]
Nobody likes being lectured to, so there is an instinctive negative reactiion to this kind of communication.
Again, not the kind of thing that the average comic buyer is going to pick up off the rack.
Lets look at the books.
Catholic Comics #1 April 1947 and Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact v17 2  - 1961
These books probably exists because someone had an awareness that, at that time comics had a significant audience of young boys and girls and decided that a catholic comic was the way to go.
Treasure Chest was launched in March 1946.
!'m happy that this kind of material has been preserved on CB+.
I'm also impressed by these, in that the quality of the books and the work is as good as, if not better in some instances, than the commercially available comics.
The fact that some of the best artists and writers contributed to these books is clear evidence that at time many comic professionals had strong religious convictions.
I am Christian, but not a Catholic, so I don't hold with some things expressed here-in, but I can enjoy the books for the quality of the work.   
Catholic Comics 10   
The weakest parts of this book are the funny animal strips, which are just plain slapstic and carelessly put together.
Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact Volume 17 #2 (Version 1)
From a current perspective, given what we now know about him, an intro by J Edgar Hoover is a turn-off. 
Now that I think about it, J Edgar was pretty good at getting publicity at the time.
This is 1961, the height of the cold war.
The Cuban revolution had occurred in 1959 and both the USA and USSR created and put into service ICBM's.
The events leading to the Cuban missile crisis were in play.   
So the subject of Communism was very topical. 
Reed Crandall.
The Importance of Reed Crandall To Comic Book History by Alex Grand
https://comicbookhistorians.com/the-importance-of-reed-crandall-by-alex-grand-2/
As this piece points out,

At the age of 19, he made this painting called The Resurrection in 1936 shortly after his father died.
This piece currently hangs in an Episcopal Church in Wichita, Kansas.

This indicates he was a committed Catholic. 
Also,

Crandall ....... found alternative sources of comic book jobs.

In 1956 Reed Crandall, who had joined up with Ray Wilner a few years earlier working on Buster Brown Shoes comics, started illustrating Robin Hood comic tales as part of the shoe merchandising effort, [CB+ has these books]  as well as working at Atlas before their implosion.  He also hooked up with Classics Illustrated, illustrating comic book stories that retold famous works of literature like this Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1960. He also did some work at Dell Comics and more importantly Treasure Chest which paid more money per page than other publishers. That's what I suspected.
This was a Catholic Comic, and one famous series by Crandall started in 1961 called “This Godless Communism” which was a commentary on Communism’s past and present extending to that year. JFK was president during this run whose Cold War tactics are often remembered by historians. Interesting to note that Hydra in Marvel Comics would also use a cephalopod as a symbol of ominous tentacles within civilization.
Kirby although Jewish, not Catholic, devised the Hydra symbol, and had no love for Communisim either.

If the work is visually below par for Crandall, bear in mind that he likely didn't write the script which is dialogue and talking head heavy.
Fran Matera. Had quite the career.
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/matera_fran.htm
I love this art, and it makes me want to read the rest of the narrative.     
Sports Heroes - Sports comics are not my thing - except maybe Car comics. 
The Champ and the PIrates ' Frank Borth. Also excellent work.
Saint Anthony illoed by
Lloyd Ostendorf.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2000-11-04-0011040231-story.html
Interesting Guy!

After the war, he took a job as a commercial artist for the Journal Herald in Dayton and worked with cartoonist Milton Caniff 

https://americangallery.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/lloyd-ostendorf-1921-2000/
I love coming across artists I never heard of before, like this!
Thanks Robb, for these.           

[The Australian Panther]

Tomorrow we have Yoc as a guest for Reading Group #300.
Cheers!

[Robb_K]

Illustrated Stories of The Operas  Faust
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=85327
This is different from the other two choices.
It is an adaption of a narrative from another Medium - in this case Opera.
I love music of many genres but not Opera [ with the exception of Tommy]
But I have always liked comic book adaptations of narratives - like CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED.
There are certain famous novels and plays that I have never read but am familiar with because I have read the comics or movie version.
Lets look at this one.

(1)The cover is attention getting, but is it effectively representative of the narrative? It is typical of comic book covers and shows Bailey's instinctive use of the form. 

(2) Why Bailey attempted to tell this story in only 20 pages is a mystery in itself. 64 page comics were a standard then and this warrants that.

(3)The way to do this kind of thing is to get a sponsor or get an educational institution to underwrite the project.
For example, if Faust was being performed by a major company, sell the comics in the foyer with the permission of the theatre.

(4)I'm guessing that this enterprise was a passion for him and economic necessity limited him to 20 pages.

Most young boys and girls who might buy comics off the stands would not be inclined to pick up a book that says 'Opera' on the cover.   
The first problem then, for me - is that, (5) because of the brevity of this [3 panels], I have no idea why Faust is tired of life. I don't really understand his motivation. I can't buy into it. As I said I don't know the Opera, but I always thought there was more too it. Is this only the final story in the narrative.
The brevity, the cramming the narrative into only 20 pages mean that much is not explained, there is little suspense, and not much effort spent in delineating character. I haven't got enough here to emphasis with any of the characters. So the work doesn't move me in any way.Yes, Bailey has poured his heart into this and it shows in the art.   
Nice idea but the business side of the project was not thought out well.

(1) It seems to me that what is on the cover is a generalised view of Dr. Faust's melancholia, rather than a specific scene from the opera.  He has spent his whole life in a vain attempt to learn absolutely everything about the nature of this World, hoping that that knowledge would allow him to improve Mankind's lot (e.g. stop Human suffering).  Alas, now that most of his life has passed him by, and he finds that he CANNOT learn everything about The World, he realises that he has wasted his life.  He is extremely regretful that by doing so, he has missed out on many of the joys and comforts of life, including adventure, young love, marriage, children, watching them grow and mature into responsible people with their own families, and having children to help him and his spouse in their old age.

(2) The dearth of pages to tell this story is worse than you state.  Only 16 of the book's 20 pages are dedicated to telling the story.  The front cover shows what is also shown on one of the inside pages, there is a "foreward/Indicia" page, a page with a short biography of the composer, and a page advertising Aida, and the other books in the series.  Yes, I absolutely agree that 16 pages (with one being a large single splash panel, and the others averaging only 6 panels per page, is not remotely enough to tell such a story (e.g. to fit in enough detail in the setting, to develop Faust's character and motivation, move the plot at a proper pacing to provide some suspense, provide a proper climax, and an epilogue, showing Faust's anguish when he knows he will spend eternity in Hell, at Satan's whims, experiencing eternal damnation.

(3). I agree that Baily didn't market this series well enough to have it, by itself, generate monetary profit.  And, he may well have contacted school districts, theatres, and city library districts, trying to market his series, and simply failed to get enough contracts or subscriptions from them.  So, he stopped the series after 4 issues, and merely used it as a "loss leader", "prestige item" marketing tool to use as a work sample that shows The Baily Publishing Company's versatility in capability to produce serious graphic material to potential clients.  Previous to his starting his own comic book and illustration packaging, and book and magazine publishing company, he had worked as a regular studio artist for Chesler' studio (comic book packagers), and as a free-lance ad-hoc supplementary comic book artist for The Eisner-Iger comic book packaging studio.  He thought he could make more money by starting his own studio and comic book packaging operation, and needed to build up a track record with examples of his published work to build up his studio's credentials, and be taken seriously.  Showing examples from his opera series may have helped him get some jobs whose projects required higher-level cartoon art.

(4)
It may be that AFTER failing to get the contracts or subscriptions from school systems or public library districts, he decided to just use this idea and example art as a "loss leader marketing tool, and so limited the books he WOULD print up to 20 pages, rather than the 52, 60, or 64 he might have planned if the pages would pay for themselves.  He had been in the comic book business since 1936.  So he HAD to know that individual children or their parents wouldn't pay 25 cents for such an under-sized, thin, pamphlet-style comic book.

(5) As I explained in answering #(1), Faust was regretting having wasted his life in a vain race for an unreachable level of knowledge.  He knew he would die soon without ever tasting young love and the other joys of youth.  Although it is understandable from the first few pages, for a comic book story, I'd still have wanted, at the very least, a full 36-page book, and better, as reader, writer or an artist, I'd have wanted as many pages as possible (52, 60, or 64 full-pages of book).

[crashryan]

Treasure Chest was launched in March 1946.

So Catholic Comics was released a year later. This seems to back up my speculation that Treasure Chest inspired Santangelo and his partners to release their own Catholic themed comic. Not because of TC's "success," as I wrote earlier, because the title hadn't been around that long. Santangelo simply saw what looked like a good idea and decided to rip it off. It wouldn't have been the first time.

[Robb_K]

Serendipity again!
Sitting at arm's length from me is Louis L'amour's book SITKA, about the founding of Alaska.

one of its objectives was to see whether it was possible for the USSR to stage a land invasion of North America through the northern wilderness.

Seems an odd thing to spend time and money to test out.
If you invaded Alaska, you would need to go through Canada to get to the continental US. Why not just start from Portland? I presume it was the US testing this out?

if the Russians did their training in Siberia, taking over the north might have been a piece of cake 

(1) No idea what Russian Army numbers are stationed in Siberia, but Vladivostok is the major Russian naval base and is in Siberia - giving Russia entry to the Pacific. It is still closed off for all except the Russian Military.
(2)Today, in any case, if you wanted a large land invasion you would use helicopters and perhaps paratroopers.

(1) I would guess The Russians have at the very least 50,000 land troops and lots of ships and naval personnel (maybe 25,000?) in northeastern Siberia, to discourage any action by The Chinese, and to protect against Japan, given their horrible defeat against The Japanese in The Russo-Japanese War of 1906-07, and the fact that they were belligerent enemies in WWII, and they need a presence to counter The US Naval power in The Pacific. 

(2) How would The Russians get the paratrooper airplanes and, especially helicopters within range of their targets in Alaska? - carry them near enough on aircraft carriers?

[The Australian Panther]

Robb,

given their horrible defeat against The Japanese in The Russo-Japanese War of 1906-07, and the fact that they were belligerent enemies in WWII, and they need a presence to counter The US Naval power in The Pacific.

There is also the point that Russia is essentially land-locked - the arctic oceans being large frozen over most of the year and impracticable for naval exercises until recently.
That leaves Saint Petersburg in the Baltic, also ice-bound much of the year. And lastly the Crimea which gives access to the oceans via the Mediterranean. And that is one of the prime reasons for the Ukraine war that most commentators don't get. The ocean access to the Mediterranean has most recently been in Ukraine territory.
How would The Russians get the paratrooper airplanes and, especially helicopters within range of their targets in Alaska? - carry them near enough on aircraft carriers?
Yes, but I think that now there are Helicopters that can travel long distances.
Then there is the Antonov An-124 which can do long distance and carry enough paratroopers.
https://crewdaily.com/interesting-facts-about-antonov-an-124-ruslan-the-largest-russian-military-cargo-transport-aircraft/
cheers!
But these days you would probably use ICBM's and take out Portland first.   
Cheers?!
       

[SuperScrounge]

But these days you would probably use ICBM's and take out Portland first.

That'd be one way to get rid of Antifa. 

[Robb_K]

Robb,

given their horrible defeat against The Japanese in The Russo-Japanese War of 1906-07, and the fact that they were belligerent enemies in WWII, and they need a presence to counter The US Naval power in The Pacific.

There is also the point that Russia is essentially land-locked - the arctic oceans being large frozen over most of the year and impracticable for naval exercises until recently.
That leaves Saint Petersburg in the Baltic, also ice-bound much of the year. And lastly the Crimea which gives access to the oceans via the Mediterranean. And that is one of the prime reasons for the Ukraine war that most commentators don't get. The ocean access to the Mediterranean has most recently been in Ukraine territory.
How would The Russians get the paratrooper airplanes and, especially helicopters within range of their targets in Alaska? - carry them near enough on aircraft carriers?
Yes, but I think that now there are Helicopters that can travel long distances.
Then there is the Antonov An-124 which can do long distance and carry enough paratroopers.
https://crewdaily.com/interesting-facts-about-antonov-an-124-ruslan-the-largest-russian-military-cargo-transport-aircraft/
cheers!
But these days you would probably use ICBM's and take out Portland first.   
Cheers?! 

Could these new, long-distance helicopters fly 5300 km from Vladsivostok Airport to Anchorage?  Imagine the weight of the fuel they would need to carry.  Or are they electric, and can hold very, very heavy charges?  I can believe that they can travel farther than during previous eras.  But, I have hard time believing they could fly 3,300 miles and back.  Have The Russians recently occupied Wrangel Island, and set up a fueling and battery-charging station?

[The Australian Panther]

If the objective was to land a ground force I'm sure that planners could find ways to do that.
In-air refueling has been common since the 50's. 

Did you know a helicopter first flew across the Atlantic ocean in 1952? That’s an insane distance. While it’s possible to fly such distances in a helicopter, that journey required a total of nine in-flight refuels.

https://www.flyingmag.com/guides/how-far-can-a-helicopter-fly/https://www.flyingmag.com/guides/how-far-can-a-helicopter-fly/

[Robb_K]

If the objective was to land a ground force I'm sure that planners could find ways to do that.
In-air refueling has been common since the 50's. 

Did you know a helicopter first flew across the Atlantic ocean in 1952? That’s an insane distance. While it’s possible to fly such distances in a helicopter, that journey required a total of nine in-flight refuels.

https://www.flyingmag.com/guides/how-far-can-a-helicopter-fly/https://www.flyingmag.com/guides/how-far-can-a-helicopter-fly/

Not very practical.  The only trips taken that way should have been the experimental first attempt to see if it is possible, and get the pilot into 'The Guiness Book of World Records".  Otherwise, there seems no point in flying that far in one.