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BIBLE STORIES,  1989
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/05/bible-stories-1989.html

The latest retelling of the story of "Moses" continues.  This marked the 7th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.

Frank Bolle appears to be playing a bit with the visual format of the strip.  For the first time in ages, the narrative text began appearing INSIDE the frames, rather than entirely floating outside them.  Also, I wonder if they changed writers here, as several of these installments have titles that are not only shorter than usual, but slightly awkward in phrasing.  "Moses Shatters Tablets"-- not "Moses Shatters The Tablets" ??  Odd, to say the least.

With the July 1989 installment, Frank Bolle had come full-circle to the first episode he did back in April 1979.  I wonder how many artists on this series this happened with?  (If credits were more prevalent, this would be a lot easier to answer.  Once again, NO signatures for this entire year's worth of episodes.)  Note that while the art is new, the text is IDENTICAL to the previous version!

The same is true for the March 1979 and June 1989 episodes (although the format is slightly different, and studying the art, I don't believe the earlier one in this case is the same artist).  As far as I've noticed, this was the FIRST time in the entire series this kind of thing had happened.  (Once before, when "starting over", a version of "The Creation" had reprinted the artwork from an earlier version-- buit the text had been re-written.)

This trend of reused text with new art continued for the rest of 1989.  Considering the tradition of this feature since 1952, it seems to me SOMEBODY was getting awful LAZY here!

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BIBLE STORIES,  1990
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/05/bible-stories-1990.html

The latest retelling of the story of "Moses" concludes once more.  This marked the 7th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Joshua", "Hannah" and "Samuel" follow.

The trend from the previous year continues, of reusing IDENTICAL text from earlier installments, with new art.  To see what I mean, compare...

January 1990 with October 1979,   
February 1990 with November 1979,
March 1990 with December 1979,   
April 1990 with January 1980,
May 1990 with February 1980,   
June 1990 with March 1980,
July 1990 with April 1980,   
August 1990 with May 1980,
September 1990 with June 1980,   
October 1990 with July 1980,
November 1990 with August 1980, and 
December 1990 with September 1980.

(If you go to the blog page, you can click on the links to easily compare.)

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BIBLE STORIES, 1991
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/05/bible-stories-1991.html

The latest retelling of the story of "Samuel" continues once more, including the story of when The Philistines stole "The Ark of God".  This marked the 7th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Saul" and "David" follow.

The trend begun 2 years earlier continues, of reusing IDENTICAL text from earlier installments, with new art.  However, with the February 1991 installment, we began to get REDRAWN art that looked very much like (but not identical to) the earlier versions.

Go to the blog for more details and for LINKS to compare versions.


Personally, looking back, I think the story of Saul's "problem" with David was better told in the October 1970 and November 1970 installments.  The 1981 and 1991 versions make it seem like Saul tried to kill David right after David killed Goliath, rather than the resentment / paranoia building up over time.  And, there's no mention in the newer ones of David having MARRIED  Saul's daughter, Michal.

Further, the later versions inexplicably have David stealing Saul's cloak, AND stealing Saul's spear, indicating he had to "prove" himself to Saul not once, but TWICE.

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BIBLE STORIES,  1992
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/05/bible-stories-1992.html

The latest retelling of the story of "David" continues once more.  This marked the 7th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Solomon", "Jeroboam" and "Elijah" follow.

The trend of REUSED text and REDRAWN art continues.  Go to the blog for more details and for LINKS to compare versions.

This makes me wonder if Frank Bolle's schedule may have gotten in the way of his doing entirely new art on all of these.  He was doing a daily comic-strip at the same time.  Given that Ernie Colon was doing more and more features for BOYS' LIFE around this time, Bolle may have been slowly cutting back on his BL work.

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TIM HOLT #38  /  Nov'53

1,633 pixels wide image from the Heritage Auctions site.  The upper-left area required a bit of clean-up, and in general I used airbrush on the ENTIRE black background, which developed some heavy "glare" when someone scanned it (or photographed it, whichever).  I also cleaned up a lot of dirt on the rocks on the lower-right, and used airbrush on the entire logo area, as well as parts of the costumes of both Redmask & Black Phantom.  NICE!

BEFORE
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8idICiGMWQg/UaAsLe3bGZI/AAAAAAAALXo/WUedxbxYrH4/s1600/TH+38_cc_HA_HK++B4.jpg

AFTER
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gigfjJ7EfpI/UafoOOiko7I/AAAAAAAALg8/z5ww4A7V9As/s1600/TH+38_cc_HA_HK.jpg

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TIM HOLT #39  /  Jan'54

997 pixel image from the B-Western Cowboy Heroes site.  The version currently at the Comic Book Plus site is identical, except smaller, which suggests the BWCH site is where someone got it from.

This reminded me of all those TINY Spanish "Daredevil" cover images I cleaned up a couple years ago.  Maybe 80% of the finished image was the result of AIRBRUSH!  I did the entire blue background, and yellow background, and red circle in the logo.  The white text-- all of it-- was done with "fence" and "levels".  The surface of the cover was so "rough", the background color so uneven, I'm not even sure if it was supposed to be "smooth" or not... but it is NOW!  This took several hours.  I think the result is worth it (although I'd have preferred having a larger scan of a book in better condition to work with).

BEFORE
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Alf5MjpzRqQ/UagNuI9icLI/AAAAAAAALhI/0bBvLsNCfk0/s1600/TH+39_cc_BWCC_HK++B4.jpg

AFTER
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C8PWXqzJPrs/Uaj374ZHPUI/AAAAAAAALho/svk-yIGITBI/s1600/TH+39_cc_BWCC_HK.jpg

As you can see, this was the month Magazine Enterprises decided to toss their Stetson into the "3D" fad arena.  Only, WITHOUT the need for special glasses.  Crazy, huh?

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BIBLE STORIES,  1993
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/05/bible-stories-1993.html

The latest retelling of the story of "Elijah" continues once more.  This marked the 5th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Elisha" (4th version), "Isaiah and Hezekiah" and "King Josiah" follow.

The trend of REUSED text and NEW or REDRAWN art continues. Go to the blog to find the links where you can compare versions.

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Just for fun, I'm posting a link to the entire run of BREWHAHA, a beer-related newspaper strip done by my friend Mitch Scheele. Enjoy!

http://www.surfsumo.net/brewhaha/

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TIM HOLT #40  /  Mar'54
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-guXhUVQIIlM/Uaq_9dE-BTI/AAAAAAAALj4/AGbL_q-wO9o/s1600/TH+40_cc_HA_HK.jpg

2,011 pixel wide image from Heritage Auctions.  This was the biggest (and sharpest-quality) one of these I've found n some time!

A relatively easy one.  The flat, graphic nature of the background made it simple to airbrush most of the dirt and color plate problems.  I used "color balance" to fix the red and green in the logo itself.  I'm not sure if the "tan" on those Indians shouldn't have been lightened up a bit more, it still seems a bit too dark to me...

Does it seem odd that with the advent of this "3D" gimmick that they replaced the "3D"-style logo with an entirely different, "flat" one?

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TIM HOLT #41  /  May'54
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ZvM31Tl0e4/Uath-ew_2qI/AAAAAAAALko/OPBRW_K_L28/s1600/TH+41_cc_HA_HK.jpg

More Frank Bolle fun in "3-D"!  2,027 pixel wide image from Heritage Auction.  Some minor clean-up, and come "fill-in" around the edges.  A relative "quickie", for something this old!

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BIBLE STORIES,  1994
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1994.html

The story of "King Josiah" continues.  This marked the 2nd time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Daniel" (5th version), "Jonah" (4th version), and, yet again,
"The Creation" (8th version) and "The Garden Of Eden" (7th version) follow.

The trend of REUSED text and NEW art continues. When you go to the blog, you can click on the links to compare.

This time around, "Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem", "Nebuchadnezzar Orders The Death Of The Wise Men Of Babylon" and "Jonah Is Angry That Ninevah is Spared", were skipped.  Does it seem to anyone else that BL have been skipping the really "downbeat" episodes?  I strongly suspect some editorializing was going on somewhere, combined with some totally uncalled-for "political correctness".  The specific episodes SKIPPED are those in which characters in The BIBLE are shown in a BAD light.  It seems clear someone was trying to "clean things up" (or perhaps "water it down" would be a more appropriate description).

In addition, in the July 1994 issue there was no BIBLE STORIES episode, for the first time since 1974.  It seems particularly annoying for them to do this in the middle of a story...

Once more, we reach the story of "Jonah", and it's the signal to START OVER again from the beginning.  I can't help but wonder... aren't there any BIBLE STORIES considered worth telling after "Jonah"?  "The Maccabees" (the details of which I can never seem to remember, despite multiple readings on my part) have only been featured ONCE since the BOYS' LIFE series started in 1952, and stories of "Jesus" have been featured only on the rarest of occasions.  Even "The Nativity" hasn't been seen since 1964.

Above, I mentioned it looked like someone was trying to "clean things up".  "The Garden of Eden" is another example of this.  The text is IDENTICAL to the previous version, EXCEPT, the entire last paragraph is MISSING:  "And the man and the woman were naked.  But they were not ashamed." Can it be any more OBVIOUS that something is going on here???

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BIBLE STORIES, 1995
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1995.html

The story of "The Garden Of Eden" concludes.  This marked the 7th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Noah's Ark" (8th version), and "Abraham" (7th version), including "Sodom And Gomorrah" (6th version), follow.

The trend of REUSED text and NEW art continues.  If you go to the blog page, you can click on the links to compare versions.

I "fixed" the skin tones on every episode for this year!  (They were too yellow before.)

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RED MASK #42  /  Jul'54
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p4P8UVS1gxk/Ua_-c_jJFuI/AAAAAAAALp4/Oc0rrJe8Jzc/s1600/TH+42_cc_HA_HK.jpg

The name of the comic was changed from TIM HOLT to RED MASK with this issue.  Otherwise, more of the same!

LOTS of airbrush on this-- the entire red background (including all around the small text!!!), and the green grass (which got totally screwed up due to some SEVERE color balance adjustment).  This was a horrific mess when I started, due to an AWFUL scan "worthy" of Mile High (heehee).  There was also some major color plate registration problems, most of which I fixed with copy-and-paste-into.  LOTS better now!!

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RED MASK #43  /  Sep'54
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0qt94YAS5Hc/UbGcMqnffOI/AAAAAAAALrI/NJX1gtDRywk/s1600/TH+43_cc_HA_HK.jpg

1,360 pixels wide image from Heritage Auctions.  This was another one that required a LOT of color adjustment, and I was rather surprised it came up as good as it did.  I airbrushed the entire white background, the "ME" logo and quite a lot of the heavier black lines (which had gone blue from using "levels").  I also got the lower-right corner from a separate, and much smaller scan.

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BIBLE STORIES,  1996
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1996.html

The story of "Abraham" concludes.  This marked the 7th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the stories of "Isaac, Jacob and Esau" (6th version), and "Joseph" (8th version) follow.

I've read this before, but this time I got thinking...  Rebekah was "the daughter of Bethuel, who was the son of Milcah (who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor)."  Let me backtrack this.  Abraham's brother was Nahor; he married Milcah (who then became Abraham's sister-in-law); HER son was Bethuel (Abraham's nephew), HIS daughter was Rebekah (Abraham's-- what-- grand-niece?).  So, Rebekah was either Isaac's 2nd cousin, or, merely 2nd cousin BY MARRIAGE, depending on if Bethuel was ALSO Nahor's son, or if he was Milcah's son from a previous marriage.

You can see one reason why churches prefer marriages to be for life; it makes things LESS confusing for everybody!!!

The trend of REUSED text and NEW art continues. If you go to the blog page, you can click on the links to compare versions.

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RED MASK #44  /  Nov'54
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5gOSQHhp29M/UbMY_eahrvI/AAAAAAAALto/NokMdHyBsLk/s1600/TH+44_cc_HA_HK.jpg

Unfortunately, I could only find 3 images of this online, and 2 of them were terrible!  The best was also slightly smaller than the other 2... but sometimes you do what you can.  This one actually clocks in at 717 pixels wide, which is the size I'm posting it at, as, if I tried to shrink it down to my standard 700 pixels wide it would become slightly fuzzy, and this thing is fuzzy enough, believe me.

Given its size and inherent fuzziness, there was only so much I could do, or justify doing, on this one.  Even so, this is now the BEST version online (until a better, and hopefully much bigger, version turns up).

Seems like I saw a scene just like this in a Ron Ely episode of TARZAN...!

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RED MASK #45 /  Dec'54
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yq3B_du7HaA/UbRag7JU0rI/AAAAAAAALwA/hcQkEZssw6c/s1600/TH+45_cc_HA_HK.jpg

Another one where I couldn't find as large an image as I'd have liked.  This one was 703 pixels-- and from Heritage Auctions, yet!  I airbrushed the entire yellow background to smooth it out, and did a lot of "copy-and-paste-into" with the left, bottom and right edges.  Plus, I corrected some severe color plate registration problems, especially around the outstretched arm of the main figure, and a copuple of the Indians on the far left.  MUCH better now!

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BIBLE STORIES,  1997
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1997.html

The story of "Joseph" conctinues.  This marked the 8th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.  As before, the story of "Moses" (also 8th version) follows.

In the 1st installment this year, note the last line, "The Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Pontiphar" has been corrected to "Joseph has been sold in Egypt to Pontiphar".  In the 1986 version, it said that the Midianites sold Joseph to Pontiphar, even though they had already sold him to the Ishmaelites!

The trend of REUSED text and NEW art continues. If you go to the blog, you can use the links to compare.

One noticable change this year is that with the February 1997 episode, they switched to using a COMPUTER font.  It vaguely looks hand-drawn, but is too cold & sterile to actually be. (There are better, more "natural"-looking fonts around than the one seen here.)

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RED MASK #46  /  Jan'55
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YXixCcWOhgs/UbZ_1PRIgOI/AAAAAAAALxs/r6-aCRnXbNc/s1600/TH+46_cc_HA_HK.jpg

A measely 717 pixels wide image from Heritage Auctions.  Unlike most, this was pretty "bright", yet still required a lot of clean-up.  I airbrushed the entire white background, the red and black of the logo, and did extensive copy-and-paste-into for the bottom and lower left AND riight edges-- the original comic was OFF-rotation when it was cropped back  in late '54! All fixed now!  What a COMPLEX image, both for the drawing and coloring.  But by comparison, I love how most of these Magazine Enterprises covers have such SIMPLE "design" work with the text, etc.

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BIBLE STORIES,  1998
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1998.html

The story of "Moses" continues.  This marked the 8th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.

The trend of REUSED text and NEW art continues. If you go to the blog, you can use the links to compare.

With the February 1997 episode, they switched to using a COMPUTER font.  However, with the January 1998, they switched to a different COMPUTER font, this one very MECHANICAL-looking.  It reminds me of nothing less than when Warren Publishing's horror comics replaced hand-lettered balloons with mechanically-lettered balloons.  It's cold, harsh, it creates a "separation" between the text and the illustrations, and, in this case, feels totally out-of-place considering the subject matter.  WHO makes decisions like this?  It can't be an artist doing it.  I use computer fonts ALL the time, but at least I have some sensitivity when it comes to "design".

Incredibly, starting with the June 1998 installment, they began including a credit:  "Illustration by Frank Bolle".  He had only been doing the series for more than 19 YEARS by then!!!

Incidentally, in a further design snafu... it looked okay when they added the artist credit next to a box with art.  But when they put it right next to a block of text, it just causes confusion to the eyes.  Further, in several installments, the right edge of the "Bible Stories" logo design is cut off.  WHO does production work that BAD?

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BIBLE STORIES,  1999
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1999.html

The story of "Moses" continues.  This marked the 8th time the BOYS' LIFE series would cover this material.

The trend of REUSED text and NEW art continues. If you go to the blog, you can use the links to compare.

It looks like only one of these had similar poses (and they were flipped).  As with the last several blog pages, I made a point of "fixing" the skin tones on every episode this year.  Looking back, I wish I'd taken the same trouble with the earlier (1989) versions, which otherwise tend to be better-designed.

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A late addition to the 1999 page...
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-1999.html

An era comes to a close for BIBLE STORIES.  These 12 episodes were the final ones by Frank Bolle, who illustrated the series for 20-1/2 YEARS, longer than anyone else, and quite probably longer than anyone on ANY comics feature in the magazine.

In his time on the series, Bolle had done some of the most-detailed versions of most of the stories seen in the magazine-- and done almost all of them TWICE.  It's probably just as well he got off when he did.  A few more episodes and he would have been doing the same stories a 3rd time.

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BIBLE STORIES,  2000
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-stories-2000.html

STAR WARS & DOOM artist Don Punchatz takes over BIBLE STORIES-- if only for a measly 9 installments!

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BIBLE HEROES,  2001
http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/06/bible-heroes-2001.html

A whole new era, as BIBLE STORIES becomes BIBLE HEROES.  After decades of being done in "illustrated children's stories" format, the series reverts back to "comic-strip" format.  "Superhero" artist Anthony Castrillo takes over the art, no doubt in an attempt to attract readers of Marvel or DC Comics.  I'm not sure if this is any kind of good idea, or just one more misguided move further into the abyss.  (I take that back.  I'm sure.)

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RED MASK #47  /  Feb'55
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-auXUVjjZyIg/Ub83z8D4hKI/AAAAAAAAL7U/fohJ01kRxAg/s1600/TH+47_cc_CBP_HK.jpg

A 949 pixels wide image from the Comic Book Plus site.  This started out as a horrific mess, with creases, wrinkles & damage all over the place.  A TON of airbrush (the entire background & logo area), copy & paste (Red Mask, Black Phantom, the Indians, ground & trees) and some severe color adjustment (skin tones), and it's MUCH better now!