[josemas]

Tally-Ho Comics (Dec/1944) Swapper's Quarterly/Baily Publications 

Boy, what an interesting hodge-podge this is!  I forget who here recommended this title to me but thanks!

Snowman by John Giunta and Frank Frazetta.  This is the only story with a credit and what a weird story it is!  Our hero, Snowman, looks like he just stepped out of an Ub Iwerks animated cartoon but the rest of the characters are pretty realistically illustrated.  The villain, a demonic looking monster maker is a very vicious character who is quite a contrast to our hero.  It's almost like seeing Casper the friendly ghost going up against the Golden Age Red Skull.  From what I understand this is Frank Frazetta's very first work in comics.  He must have been still in his teens when he did it. 

He-Man.   Well I can tell you that this story's principal plot device (grandson being given a talisman which allegedly helped his grandfather in war but which is in reality just an umbrella handle, gains courage enough to overcome his fears) is lifted straight out of Harold Lloyd's hit 1922 motion picture comedy feature Grandma's Boy.  I don't know who this artist is but I do like his work.  Limber figures, nice comic expressions and some great loose brush work.  Can anyone identify this artist for me?

Captain Cookie.  Kid has wild adventures while dreaming.  Nothing new here as this sort of thing had been going on since, at least, Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland.  Nothing special about the art either.  The weakest story in the book, IMHO.

The Man in Black.  Wow!  After two mildly humorous stories we are suddenly thrown this grim story (of a severed hand pursuing its owner's killer) looks as if it were pulled from a grisly pre-code horror comic from the next decade!   The depictions of the severed hand with its bones, flesh, veins and meaty pieces hanging off it are actually more graphic than most of the pre-code horror comics that I have looked at so far.  This story must have given many an unsuspecting kid nightmares as they stumbled across it at the end of the book!   The art, though unsigned, reminds me of Bob Fujitani's work from the period.  I could easily be off on that assumption though as there are still many Golden Age artists whom I still need to familiarize myself with.

Does anybody know any of the particulars of how this book came about?   I suspect part of the story has something to do with war time paper allocations but would love to hear anything giving background on this book.

Thanks to all who made it available here!

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

Yeah I love this book also

[CharlieRock]

I'm surprised you can narrow it down to just one issue 

[JVJ]

Hi, Joe,
Since no one else seems inclined to provide it, FYI:
He-Man is by Charles Voight
Capt. Cookie is by Henry C. Kiefer
The Man in Black IS by  Bob Fujitani

It's a strange fact, but there are at least THREE printings of this book that I've seen. I think it originated with the Baily shop and he had to really scrounge to find war-time paper allowances. Only part of the print run is by Swappers Quarterly (no apostrophe) as shown on this indicia. There is an entire previous indicia that is blacked out, as you can see on the inside front cover here. That one is, I believe, by Baily Publications and exists in two different formats.

All in all, a very strange and wonderful book. But, NOT, IMHO, Frazetta's first work in comics. He assisted Giunta on several previous stories - again, IMHO. This is his first CREDITED work.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[josemas]

Hi, Joe,
Since no one else seems inclined to provide it, FYI:
He-Man is by Charles Voight
Capt. Cookie is by Henry C. Kiefer
The Man in Black IS by  Bob Fujitani

It's a strange fact, but there are at least THREE printings of this book that I've seen. I think it originated with the Baily shop and he had to really scrounge to find war-time paper allowances. Only part of the print run is by Swappers Quarterly (no apostrophe) as shown on this indicia. There is an entire previous indicia that is blacked out, as you can see on the inside front cover here. That one is, I believe, by Baily Publications and exists in two different formats.

All in all, a very strange and wonderful book. But, NOT, IMHO, Frazetta's first work in comics. He assisted Giunta on several previous stories - again, IMHO. This is his first CREDITED work.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

Jim,

Thanks very much for the additional insight into this marvelously quirky little comic!   

Charles Voight-a name I'm only vaguely familiar with (comic strip work, IIRC) but one that I am going to start looking into.
I've also heard of Kiefer and have most likely seen his work here and there.  It just doesn't really grab me (at least here) though.
Well I guess I have Bill Black and all of his Golden Age reprints to thank for making me familiar enough with Bob Fujitani's GA stylings to make the correct art ID guess on that The Man in Black story.

Very interesting background on the various printings of Tally-Ho Comics.  Would I be correct in assuming that these various printings and indicia name changes were also situations caused by the paper restrictions of WWII?

I did some quick research on the Baily Publications/Shop/Studio and found that they were active from 1943-1946 and mostly produced work for a lot of the smaller publishers.  I'll definitely have to check out some more of their work.

So this is not Frazetta's first work, eh?  Can you provide some added insight as to some of his earlier suspected collaborations with John Giunta?

Thanks Again.

Best

Joe