Todd Klein's Blog, page 49

GASPAR SALADINO at WARREN, NAL & STAR*REACH

All images © the respective copyright holders. From CREEPY #41, Sept 1971

This article features a small amount of Gaspar Saladino story lettering for three publishers in the 1970s. Jim Warren began publishing FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND in 1958. It was black and white, larger than standard comics size, and used photos and text for the most part. In 1964 he branched out into horror comics in the same size and format with CREEPY, soon adding EERIE and other titles, and eventually his best-selling title VAMPIRELLA in 1969. Early on nearly all the lettering was by Ben Oda, but some artists either did their own lettering, or subcontracted it, paying the letterer directly, and eventually other letterers were hired to keep up with the company’s large volume of comics work. Saladino only lettered three Warren stories that I know of, all for CREEPY. The first one, above, is a beauty co-scripted and illustrated by Wally Wood. This was probably a case of Wood hiring Gaspar, Saladino was lettering CANNON and SALLY FORTH for Wally at the time. Look for Saladino’s characteristic serif I on IRITH in the first caption.

From CREEPY #41, Sept 1971

Another page from the story has large display lettering to add drama. I’m guessing that was loosely penciled by Wood and inked by Saladino. The way the lettering is so close to the page edge at the top right suggests Gaspar didn’t know this was going to be full bleed art, and thought it would have white margins, or perhaps the art was the wrong proportions and the top is cut off.

From CREEPY #75, Nov 1975

The other two CREEPY stories lettered by Gaspar have art by John Severin, a comics veteran since at least EC Comics in the early 1950s, who worked for Marvel and DC at times, perhaps where Saladino met him. In this case I don’t know if Severin hired Gaspar or if Warren did at John’s request, but since Severin pencilled and inked the art, he might have worked directly with Saladino, though the reversed captions would have been done at Warren. The story title is a terrific example of Gaspar’s dry-brush work.

From CREEPY #75, Nov 1975

Some unusual balloon shapes and great sound effects enhance this later page from the same story.

From CREEPY #77, Feb 1976

The other Severin story has an equally fine title, though in very different styles. Warren did a good job reversing Gaspar’s black on white lettering to get the white on black result they wanted. All the lettering is clear and easy to read.

From CREEPY #77, Feb 1976

Another page from the story with more unusual balloon shapes that help sell the horror.

From SUPERFAN and SUPERFAN…AGAIN! paperbacks, 1972 & 1974, New American Library (NAL)

Here are two unusual items. Mad writer Nick Meglin and MAD artist Jack Davis apparently did a comics feature for PRO QUARTERBACK magazine in the early 1970s called Superfan. I have no access to the magazine, so I don’t know anything about the appearances there except for examples of original art found online, some of which are below.

From SUPERFAN, 1972, NAL

Both books are made up of short comics stories, but their contents are different. The first book is all reprints from the original strip broken into several pages, usually two panels per paperback page from one tier of the three-tier page, so three pages of the paperback equal one of the original strip. In the second book, new strip pages were no longer being created, and there weren’t many left unpublished, so Meglin and Davis filled out much of the book with new stories and art. Those new pages are formatted like a paperback page, one panel per page. On both books, Gaspar got a credit up front, as seen above.

From SUPERFAN…AGAIN! 1974, NAL

This repeat of the very first strip’s first tier in the second book includes the Saladino logo that probably appeared on all the original strips, and from that you can see he also did the curved version on the cover of the second paperback.

SUPERFAN original art courtesy of Heritage Auctions, about 1971

Gaspar would probably have met Meglin and Davis when he began working for MAD in 1966, and they brought him in as letterer for this strip. From the original art found on the Heritage Auctions site, I’m guessing that each installment was probably two pages like this one, with three tiers, though some were probably three pages. The three tiers on this page were used as pages 108-110 of SUPERFAN.

From SUPERFAN, courtesy of Heritage Auctions

This is another full page of the original strip lettered by Gaspar, but at the right side you can see indications that each tier will be used on a separate page of the SUPERFAN paperback, pages 64-66. In Nick Meglin’s introduction to the second book, he says the first one used “20 or so episodes.” Many of the strips had curved corners, like this one, which makes it easier to tell where strip pages begin and end, though others had the logo and a single panel as the top tier, and on those just the single panel is used. By paging through the paperback, I’ve determined it used about 56 strip pages. (In a few places there might be more than three tiers on a page or possibly a few panels were dropped, so this is a close guess.)

From SUPERFAN…AGAIN! courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Here’s a strip page that was used in the second paperback, one panel per page on pages 35-39. On page 40 the last panel is used with the next panel from this story that must have been on the next strip page, so it gets a bit confusing. I think there were three pages to this story in the strip, and the panels are spread out over pages 35-49 of the paperback.

From SUPERFAN…AGAIN! page 145, courtesy of Heritage Auctions

The other pages from this book look like this, usually a single large panel drawn and lettered to fit the paperback format, with gray marker tones added by Davis. This really shows off both the art and lettering well. Because of the small size, I will consider four of these to equal a page of comics lettering.

From SUPERFAN…AGAIN! page 155, courtesy of Heritage Auctions

One more example showing the full original art size. There are 134 of these, so let’s call it about 34 pages of standard lettering. I’d call the original strips about the same as a comics page, see below for estimated totals.

From IMAGINE #3, Aug 1978

IMAGINE was part of publisher Mike Friedrich’s experiment with a line of comics that straddled two aspects of the industry, with one foot in underground comix and the other in mainstream comics under the Star*Reach name. He invited contributors from both worlds into his books. This story is written by Paul Levitz with art by Mike Vosburg, both working in mainstream comics at the time. I’m guessing Levitz recruited Saladino to letter the story, which has a beautiful and creative title. There seems to be some lettering missing from the first caption, I don’t know the story behind that.

From IMAGINE #4, Nov 1978

The other story Gaspar lettered is also written by Levitz with great art by Steve Ditko. They had worked together on STALKER at DC in 1975, but this story is more in line with Ditko’s work on Dr. Strange for Marvel. The title is in one of Gaspar’s scary styles with an unusual leftward slant.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering in these issues:

CREEPY #41: 12pp, #75: 10pp, #77: 8pp

SUPERFAN: about 56pp

SUPERFAN…AGAIN! about 37pp

IMAGINE #3: 10pp, #4: 8pp

That’s about 141 pages of comics lettering. Other articles about Gaspar Saladino lettering are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO at WARREN, NAL & STAR*REACH appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO and WALLY WOOD

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C-25

This blog post is about the comic strips CANNON and SALLY FORTH produced by Wally Wood for an overseas US Military newspaper, not an official one. I could have added them to the other Saladino newspaper strips HERE, but I have very little information about the newspaper they appeared in, “Overseas Weekly” published in Germany, and I haven’t found any printed examples online. My main source of information on the strips is original art on the Heritage Auctions site and reprints published in the US in later years. Gaspar didn’t letter all the strips, in fact less than a quarter of them. He was doing both strips for Wood directly around 1971-72. The strips were full of nudity to appeal to young men in the Army, but otherwise more of a tease than anything. CANNON was a spy adventure story, while SALLY FORTH had more humor and fantasy elements. The art by Wood (and assistants) is beautiful, and Gaspar’s work on it looks great. These were large, about 17 by 23 inches, the size of a Sunday newspaper strip, and each one was done in two parts on two pieces of regular comics art paper, so I consider each strip the equivalent of two pages of Gaspar lettering. I can’t show an entire strip because that would make the lettering too small to see well, so I’m going to show selected panels from the original art I’ve found. The ones above are from the first strip that Saladino lettered. The CANNON strips are each numbered beginning with C, so C-25 is the twenty-fifth one. As you can see, some stories played up the drama, while others were lighter.

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C-26

The strips are copyrighted by W. Wood and Richter, Inc. Wood assistant Larry Hama told me that Richter Enterprises, Inc. was the publisher of Overseas Weekly, so they shared the copyright with Wally. Richter bought the rights to the newspaper from the founder Marion von Rospach after her death in 1970. I don’t know how that affected later reprints, but it probably didn’t, as Richter was in Germany while the reprints were done in the US. The military art was terrific, as seen here.

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C-27

More great military art, though readers were probably more interested in the naked woman. Wood often had assistants, but I’m guessing he did a lot of the art on the strip early on, and probably lettered the earliest ones too, he was a fine letterer. Larry Hama told me that, like myself and many others, he modeled his lettering after Gaspar’s.

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C-37

The passport text in the first panel here should have been typeset, but that probably wasn’t an easy option, so Gaspar just lettered it in upper and lower case. It works fine.

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C42

Here’s about half of a full page. I’m guessing the strips were only run in black and white, so Wood or an assistant added zipatone dot patterns to provide grays. Everything here is lettered by Saladino except for the Wood logo and the small poster lettering, also by Wood.

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C-45

This original art shows pencils done in light blue, which didn’t photograph, so didn’t need to be erased, saving a little time.

From CANNON BY WALLY WOOD #C-50

Gaspar lettered all the strips from C-25 to C-46 as far as I can discover. I think C-47 was by someone else, then Saladino continued with C-48 to C-52. The thought balloon on this panel could have cleared the woman’s head if moved right a bit, but Gaspar probably just put it where Wood indicated he wanted it.

From SALLY FORTH BY WALLY WOOD #S-25

This strip, which also ran in “Overseas Weekly,” was definitely meant to be funny as well as sexy, as you can see from the art style. That’s Sally in the center of the group in panel one. The logo is again by Wood, and I think he also did the POOF! sound effect. Instead of C numbers, this strip had S numbers, so this is the twenty-fifth strip, and again the first one I found lettered by Saladino. That suggests both strips began at the same time and that Gaspar started lettering both for Wood at the same point, as his first CANNON strip was C-25.

From SALLY FORTH BY WALLY WOOD #S-28

While played for humor, the art is still full of effective details and military equipment, as here. Again, this sound effect looks like it’s by Wood.

From SALLY FORTH #S-34

A wider example to show more of the great art. The characters were cartoony, but the planes are realistic, an interesting combination. Note the characteristic Saladino lower case letters for Heh! Heh! in the second panel.

From SALLY FORTH #S-38

These panels show off Gaspar’s lettering well, and how about that Wright Brothers plane?

From SALLY FORTH #S-40

I love the sick mouse in this first panel. Oh, and though I’m not showing it, Sally herself is often nude in the strip for no apparent reason.

From SALLY FORTH #S-45

Here’s Sally again uncharacteristically wearing underwear. In addition to military humor, this strip included parodies of other sorts, like one here for the film “The Wolfman.”

From SALLY FORTH #S-51

And here, a parody of “King Kong.” The quality of this image is poor, but you can see it’s the kind of thing Wood might have done for MAD back in the early 1950s, but with nudity. I think all the sound effects are by Wood. On this strip, Gaspar lettered numbers S-25 to S-46, then there’s a few by someone else, then he returned for S-50 to S-52, so about the same as on CANNON. It’s possible I missed one or two. Later letterers of the strip include Alan Kupperberg and Larry Hama.

To sum up, here are the details of Saladino’s lettering.

CANNON C-25 to C-46, C-48 to C-52, 27 strips

SALLY FORTH S-25 to S-46, S-50 to S-52, 25 strips.

If, as I suggest, you count each of these large pages as the equivalent of two pages of comics lettering, that would be about 104 pages. More articles about Gaspar’s lettering can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of by blog.

The post GASPAR SALADINO and WALLY WOOD appeared first on Todd's Blog.

GASPAR SALADINO at NATIONAL LAMPOON

All images © National Lampoon Inc. From NATIONAL LAMPOON Nov 1971

NATIONAL LAMPOON was a humor/satire magazine originally spun off from the Harvard Lampoon with some of the same staff. It flourished during the 1970s, having great impact on popular culture, but by the early 1980s was losing importance and sales, and after the entire staff was fired in 1985, it ceased to have any major relevance as a magazine I would say, limping along into the 1990s, though the company benefitted from successes in other media like films. From the beginning, the slick glossy magazine included comic book and comic strip parodies written by staffers and with art by top names in comics and illustration. It also often had a section of original comics in the back mainly by underground comix artists or illustrators like Gahan Wilson and Jeff Jones. Gaspar Saladino didn’t letter any of those, but he did work on some of the comics parodies beginning with the one above in late 1971, probably brought in by his artist friend Neal Adams. There were plenty of such parodies lettered by others, but Saladino did quite a few, and I’ll look at them here. Lampoon’s content included nudity and they tried to shock readers, so take that as a cautionary advisement. The faux comics could run anywhere from twelve pages to two, with an average length somewhere in the middle. For the one above they started off with great art from the legendary Frank Frazetta. Gaspar lettered the credits, the word balloon, and probably the DRAGULA title. He was never credited for any of his work in the magazine, but his style is easy to spot, and the printing and paper were better than what comics publishers were using at the time, so his work had a chance to shine, even if he later said he was embarrassed by some of it, and glad his name wasn’t on it.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Nov 1971

The first story page with a fabulous title by Gaspar. I also like the scroll caption at the top.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Jan 1972

This was probably the most controversial and talked-about of the comics parodies, with more great art by Neal Adams and wonderful title lettering by Saladino. This image is slightly cropped from the original, best I could find.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Jan 1972

Another page of the same story. For some of these comics parodies, the magazine gave the paper an off-white tone to make it look more like regular comic books, as here. Lots of variety in this lettering. Gaspar was Catholic, and I think was particularly worried about being associated with this parody, but he did it anyway. Good for him.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON June 1972

LAMPOON often made comics using photos, as here, it was a regular feature called Foto Funnies, and occasionally used in longer stories like this one. I think this is the only one of those lettered by Saladino. Here he only did the caption lettering in the first panel, the rest is by whoever did the art. The staff must have seen the value of Gaspar’s contribution, and began using him more often and in more places. He might have lettered a few of the one-page Foto Funnies too, but I’m not sure about those, so I won’t count them.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON June 1972

Another page of the same story with a nice variety of lettering, which would have been done on vellum overlays most likely, and combined with the page photographically, or possibly it was lettered on thin art paper, then cut out and pasted on the pages.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON July 1972

On this story, Saladino works with another veteran comics artist, Gray Morrow, who he would have known from his work at DC Comics. For regular comics like this, Gaspar would have lettered on the penciled pages.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Nov 1972

Artist Frank Springer did lots of these comics parodies for the magazine, sometimes lettering the pages himself I think, or they were lettered by others, but Gaspar also worked with him quite a few times, as here. Lots of lettering work on this page, but the magazine paid well, better than regular comics, so I imagine it was okay with everyone involved.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Dec 1972

Another story with Springer, who probably did the title himself.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Dec 1972

In the same issue, SoO-God was back for a second appearance, this time with a cover by Neal Adams, and lots of fine Saladino lettering, including the logo.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Dec 1972

The first story page has another version of the logo and a fine title by Gaspar.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Dec 1972

He also worked on this faux letters page, doing the header and next issue cover lettering.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Oct 1973

The art on this story is credited to Francis Hollidge, which was a pen name of Frank Springer. The story title and part of the top banner are type, but there’s lots of other lettering by Saladino, including on the signs.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Nov 1973

Another story with Frank Springer with a fine title and lots of word balloons, often a sign of a writer not used to writing comics.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Jan 1974

Another Frank Springer art job. Perhaps he also had decided to distance himself a bit from the content. The title here is very Gaspar.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON May 1974

How to make this feature even more shocking (and funny)? Pit the character against Bob Dylan! Here Gaspar designed the Zimmerman logo. The art is not quite like the Adams art shown previously, perhaps it’s by someone else or Adams worked with another artist on it.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON May 1974

The first story page. There are no writing or art credits this time, though it looks like Neal Adams art to me. There were more Son-O-God stories after this, but they weren’t lettered by Saladino.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Nov 1974

Another story with art by Frank Springer, using his own name this time. The title is cleverly done.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Jan 1975

This Springer story has a beautiful logo and story title by Saladino.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON March 1976

This faux cover has a fine title by Gaspar, though the banner is done with type.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON March 1976

The first page from the same story, art by Frank Springer.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON Jan 1980

After a few years away, Gaspar came back in 1980 for two more comics parodies. This one seems sure to offend some readers as the magazine got more strident and perhaps desperate to stay shocking. The writer, John Hughes, moved into film directing a few years later.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON March 1980

Saladino was the perfect choice for this romance comic parody, and his logo is handsome, though not romantic.

From NATIONAL LAMPOON March 1980

The first story page inside. The art is by comics veteran George Evans, and it’s probably the only time he drew naked women for publication.

To sum up, here are the stories lettered by Gaspar, I’ll include covers and story pages together.

Nov 1971: Dragula 10pp

Jan 1972: Son-O-God #1 9pp

June 1972: Peril From the Clouds 6pp

July 1972: New Guinea Pig 8pp

Nov 1972: Demo-Derby 3pp

Dec 1972: Chess Piece 7pp, Son-O-God #2 10pp

Oct 1973: G. Gordon Liddy 8pp

Nov 1973: Brian’s Ballad 5pp

Jan 1974: Attack of the Sizeable Beasts 5pp

May 1974: Son-O-God Vs. Zimmerman 5pp

Nov 1974: Prison Farm 7pp

Jan 1975: Salvation Army 6pp

March 1975: Turtle Farms 4pp

Jan 1980: Civil War 4pp

March 1980: First Divorce 4pp

That’s a total of 101 pages. More articles about Gaspar Saladino lettering are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO at AURORA

All images © Aurora. From AURORA COMICS SCENES #181-140, 1974

Aurora Plastics Corporation was founded in 1950 and made buyer-assembled plastic replica models of cars and airplanes, later expanding into TV and movie scenes. In 1974 they issued a series of comic book superheroes and characters that ran to ten releases, and each one had a comic book size pamphlet of eight pages, two pages of instructions and six pages of comics including the front cover. Gaspar Saladino lettered all of the comics pages, including the covers, which mostly used existing logos and had hand-lettered story credits. The editor was Mark Hanerfeld, employed by Aurora at the time, and he had close friends at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, where he probably recruited Gaspar as well as the writers and artists involved, though Mark wrote this first one. I’ll show all the covers and some inside pages.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #181-140, 1974

The art, lettering and coloring are all top quality on these, and they were printed on much better paper than regular comics publishers were using at the time, so they make a fine showcase for Saladino’s work. I love the first caption here, no doubt drawn by Neal Adams, and the special style for Tarzan’s monkey friend.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #182-140, 1974

Saladino was really the perfect choice of letterer, as he was working regularly for both Marvel and DC at the time, though doing more at DC.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #182-140, 1974

Gaspar’s dynamic lettering would have been familiar to buyers of the DC and Marvel comics these characters appeared in, even if they didn’t know his name. His work adds drama to this action-filled John Romita page.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #183-140, 1974

Tonto did appear in LONE RANGER comics from Western Publishing and a few of his own, I don’t know if that’s where this logo came from, it’s not on any of those covers. Perhaps someone at Aurora did it, or possibly Gaspar. I’m showing the original art for the cover courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #183-140, 1974

Here’s a typical story page, Kane and Saladino always look good working together.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #184-140, 1974

For the first time we see a large caption by Saladino on this cover filling in buyers who might not know The Hulk’s back story.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #184-140, 1974

All these Saladino balloons and sound effects looks terrific, but he used type for MAMMOTH. I’m not sure why he liked to do that sometimes, it can’t have saved him much time.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #185-140, 1974

I never bought any of these model kits, but a friend had this one and Batman. The comics art versions were better than the kits in my opinion.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #185-140, 1974

I like the sound effect on this page, which covers a lot of story ground.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #186-140, 1974

Most of the artists on these were veterans, penciller Dave Cockrum was from a younger generation, but he’d become the regular Superboy artist at DC at around this time. This is the first place I’ve seen a company copyright notice on these books, it may have been inside on the instruction pages on the others.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #187-140, 1974

For the remaining issues I have only cover images. Gaspar’s credit box on this one is much like the captions he did for SWAMP THING, also with Len Wein.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #188-140, 1974

This logo definitely came from Western Publishing, though I don’t think they were doing any Lone Ranger comics at the time.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #192-140, 1974

With this issue, the numbers jump ahead. I don’t know what happened to 189-191, perhaps those were planned models that were never produced.

From AURORA COMICS SCENES #193-140, 1974

Here’s another logo I don’t recognize, possibly done by Gaspar. The co-writer Felton Marcus was a pen name of editor Mark Hanerfeld. It’s interesting that Gaspar got a lettering credit on all these books at a time when he wasn’t yet getting credited at DC, while on his work at Marvel he was usually using a pen name, perhaps to make his work there less obvious to his DC editors.

To sum up, Gaspar Saladino lettered all ten AURORA COMICS SCENES, six pages each including the cover for a total of 60 pages. Other articles about his lettering work can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO at TOWER & KING FEATURES

All images © the respective copyright holders. From T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1, Nov 1965

This article features a small amount of Gaspar Saladino lettering at two publishers. Tower was a paperback book publisher who got into comics from 1965-69 with two lines of books: Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS and spinoffs, superheroic action, and TIPPY TEEN and spinoffs, Archie-like teen humor. Wood co-edited his books, and did wonderful art on some of them, but many other artists were also brought in. Gaspar lettered two full stories and half of a third for the line. His first story, above has a typical caption and story title on the first page, and he might also have done the character logo. The pencils are by Gil Kane on some pages, George Tuska on others. It seems like a first issue should have been planned with time enough to have one artist do all the pencilling, but apparently not.

From T.HU.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1, Nov 1965

Here’s the last page of the story, also with Kane art, and a great sound effect from Gaspar. He has said Kane was his favorite artist, and they worked together often.

From T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #14, July 1967

This story in issue #14 has script and art credited to Gil Kane, and he probably asked to have Gaspar letter it. Letterers rarely received credit at this time anywhere except Marvel (thanks largely to demands from Artie Simek), but Gaspar’s style of wide, angular lettering is here, though Gil added his own signature in the bottom caption.

From T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #14, July 1967

The last page of the story has a fine sound effect and several different balloon styles, as well as a typical THE END from Gaspar.

From T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #16, Oct 1967

This story ran ten pages, but Saladino lettered only the first five. I don’t know why, but the likely reason is the story was a rush job to meet a printing deadline. The pencils are again by Gil Kane, and Gaspar’s large story title commands attention. The NO-MAN logo is by Wally Wood.

From T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #16, Oct 1967

Saladino’s last page of lettering for Tower, page 5 of the story.

From THE PHANTOM #19, Nov 1966

King Features was and remains the largest newspaper comic strip syndicate, and generally they licensed the right to publish comics about their features and characters to comics publishers, but for about a year in 1966-67, they tried publishing their own comics. THE PHANTOM had been licensed to Western Publishing before King began their own series, and they kept that numbering. Gaspar lettered two five-page Flash Gordon stories that ran as backups in THE PHANTOM with art by Gil Kane, so it’s likely he brought in Gaspar as part of his deal. A page from the first one is above. Saladino lettered everything but the character logo.

From THE PHANTOM #20, Jan 1967

Here’s the first page of the second story. I don’t know if Gaspar lettered the story title. I like his scroll caption at the top.

To sum up, I found Saladino lettering in these issues:

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #1: 12pp, #14: 10pp, #16: 5pp

THE PHANTOM #19: 5pp, #20: 5pp

That’s 37 pages in all. More articles about Gaspar’s lettering can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO at HARVEY COMICS

All images © the respective copyright holders. From DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #1, Dec 1966

Gaspar Saladino’s lettering work for this publisher all happened in 1966-67 with one late exception from 1991. I’ll examine the titles alphabetically except for that last one. The editor of these action-adventure-superhero titles was Joe Simon, who I’m sure would have known Gaspar’s work at DC, but I think in this case, as with Western Publishing, Saladino was brought in by the artists he worked with, like Jack Sparling on this story, who I think also brought him in at Western. This story title/character logo isn’t by Gaspar, think it’s by Joe Simon, and THE SECRET OF is type, but the rest of the lettering shows Saladino’s usual style, wide angular letters with special treatment of the first letter in each caption.

From DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #1, Dec 1966

This story in the same issue has art by Bill Draut, according to the Grand Comics Database, another artist Gaspar worked with at DC Comics. Again I think the logo might be by Joe Simon.

From DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #1, Dec 1966

Another story in that issue lettered by Saladino, the GCD doesn’t offer any artist credit. The title might again be by Joe Simon, it’s not by Gaspar.

From DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #2, March 1967

The second and final issue also has several stories lettered by Saladino, this one again with Jack Sparling. MAGICMASTER is picked up from the previous issue, I’m not sure who did the story title, it might be at least inked by Gaspar.

From DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #2, March 1967

This intro page to the Magicmaster story is almost a house ad, and has lots of fine display lettering by Saladino, though parts of the ticket are type.

From DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #2, March 1967

This short story has art credited to Hy Eisman, and the story title is definitely by Saladino. It looks like something that would have fit right into one of DC’s science fiction anthologies.

From JIGSAW #1, Sept 1966

This one-shot again begins with a character logo and lettering by Joe Simon I believe. Parts of it are type. Gaspar lettered the balloons and bottom captions as well as the rest of the story. The art is credited to Tony Tallarico, and I don’t know that Saladino worked with him anywhere else, so if Jack Sparling did bring Gaspar in, he was soon being given work by other artists too.

From JIGSAW #1, Sept 1966

Saladino also lettered this two-pager, which is full of great lettering by him, including the title and character logo. The art is uncredited, it looks someone imitating DC’s Sheldon Mayer.

From SPYMAN #1, Sept 1966

This one is odd and interesting. Pencils are credited to Jim Steranko. Gaspar lettered the caption at upper left from “Welcome, Dear Reader” to “The Whisperer and”, but I don’t think he did the caption at lower right, and the larger lettering is type.

From SPYMAN #1, Sept 1966

Saladino lettered the main Spyman story with art by George Tuska, though the character logo and story title are probably by Joe Simon.

From SPYMAN #3, Feb 1967

Gaspar’s lettering is on just two covers for Harvey, here he did the two balloons, the blurb at the bottom, and probably the small lettering in the hand image. The art is credited to Joe Simon, who did the logo.

From THRILL-O-RAMA #2, Sept 1966

Here Gaspar is again teamed with artist Jack Sparling under a clever logo and typeset by Joe Simon. This story ran in three chapters, each with a separate story title.

From THRILL-O-RAMA #3, Dec 1966

This five page story from the third and final issue has art credited to Bob Powell. I think Joe Simon did the top line and story title. These are the only stories I found lettered by Saladino.

From UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2, Dec 1966

This title ran three issues, Gaspar lettered a number of things on the second issue. For the cover he did just the two word balloons, other cover lettering is by Joe Rosen.

From UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2, Dec 1966

The intro page inside again has just a little Saladino lettering, the balloons in the lower left panel. All these books edited by Joe Simon seem to have been put together haphazardly, and none of them lasted long.

From UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2, Dec 1966

The first page of the lead story featuring Jack Quick Frost was divided into three five-page chapters. Saladino lettered just the first chapter, but not all the lettering on this page is by him, he did only the two captions across the center. Other pages are all his lettering.

From UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2, Dec 1966

This five page story had art by Gaspar’s friend Gil Kane, so I’m sure he was an easy choice for letterer. As usual, I think Joe Simon did the logo, but Saladino did the story title, and there are some fine Saladino sound effects in the first panel.

From UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2, Dec 1966

This two page origin of The 3 Rocketeers has art by Mike Sekowsky, another artist Gaspar worked with often at DC Comics, and the same team also did a five page story with the characters in this issue.

From WARFRONT #37, Sept 1966

This war story is by Jack Sparling and Gaspar, who had lots of experience lettering war stories at DC, and it shows. As always, the logo is probably by Joe Simon. I like the angled balloon in the second panel.

From WARFRONT #39, Feb 1967

Simon had revived this old Harvey war title and continued the original numbering, this was his final issue of four. The art here is credited to George Roussos on the GCD. Gaspar did the story title, the logo is probably by Simon.

From MONSTER IN MY POCKET #4, Nov 1991

Finally, decades later, Gaspar lettered this one issue of a four issue series based on a toy franchise over art by Gil Kane, and for the first time at Harvey, he gets a lettering credit. I like the title.

To sum up, Saladino did some lettering in two covers: UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2 and SPYMAN #3. Below are the details of his story lettering.

DOUBLE DARE ADVENTURES #1: 1pp, 7pp, 15pp, #2: 1pp, 17pp, 5pp

JIGSAW #1: 16pp, 2pp

MONSTER IN MY POCKET #4: 22pp

SPYMAN #1: 1pp, 20pp

THRILL-O-RAMA #2: 15pp, #3: 5pp

UNEARTHLY SPECTACULARS #2: 1pp, 5pp (of 15), 5pp, 2pp, 5pp

WARFRONT #37: 5pp, #39: 5pp

That’s a total of 154 pages. More articles in this series and others you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO AT WESTERN PUBLISHING Part 2

All images © the respective copyright holders. From COUNTDOWN (Movie Classic #12-150-710), Oct 1967, Dell

Continuing with the lettering work of Gaspar Saladino on stories in comics under the Dell and Gold Key imprints from Western Publishing (see Part 1 for more details), this was one of many one-shot movie adaptations. The lettering on the entire story is by Saladino, here with a fine scroll caption at the top, though he didn’t do the logo. The art is by Jack Sparling, the artist on many Western titles lettered by Gaspar, so likely he was requested by Sparling, and they worked as a team.

From VALLEY OF THE GWANGI (Movie Classic 01-880-912), Dec 1969, Dell

The same is true for this film adaptation, Western did lots of them. Again, all the lettering except the movie title is by Saladino. I like the shape of the first balloon.

From ROOM 222 #1, Jan 1970, Dell

There were four issues of this TV show adaptation with art by Springer and lettering by Saladino, but issue #4 reprinted #1. The sample page I found from the first issue is very soap opera, not unlike the DC romance comics Gaspar often lettered.

From ROOM 222 #3, July 1970, Dell

I found no images from issue #2, the only one located for issue #3, above, is of poor quality, but still clearly lettered by Saladino, so I think it’s safe to assume #2 was also.

From BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #43, Oct 1972, Gold Key

I found no Saladino-lettered stories at Western in 1971-dated issues, but he was active again starting in 1972. This is a four-page story with art by George Roussos, a long-time veteran of comics, having started as a Bob Kane assistant in the early 1940s. Gaspar probably met him at DC Comics, but in this case I’m not sure if he asked for Saladino’s lettering, or this was just a random assignment by the Western editor. The story title is very Saladino.

From BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #48, July 1973, Gold Key

This six-page story is again by Jack Sparling. I like Gaspar’s title, and all the lettering is by Saladino except the tiny book logo. Rounded rectangular word balloons were clearly the house style at Western by this time.

From BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #49, Aug 1973, Gold Key

Another four-pager by Sparling. I’m tempted to think that story in issue #43 which is credited to Roussos might also be by Sparling, but the art does look somewhat different than these later two.

From FRIDAY FOSTER #1, Oct 1972, Dell

This one-shot again has art by Jack Sparling and lettering by Gaspar. It’s an odd adaptation of a comic strip that ran from 1970-74, and there was a film in 1975. The story title is typeset.

From LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP #7, Nov 1972, Gold Key

Here’s Gaspar working with Mike Sekowsky again, but he only lettered two of six stories in this TV show tie-in. It’s interesting seeing the style Saladino often used for the title word INVISIBLE at DC on this story.

From LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP #8, Feb 1973, Gold Key

I never saw this TV show, apparently live action with real chimps, I don’t think I missed much. Gaspar can’t resist making GHOST scary in this story title. Again, just two stories lettered by him in the issue.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #37, Dec 1972, Gold Key

Sparling and Saladino also did some short stories for this book. The story title is more like what Gaspar did for superhero comics than scary ones.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #39, April 1973, Gold Key

This title is better for the theme.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT #41, July 1973, Gold Key

The Grand Comics Database credits this story art to Jack Abel, I don’t know his work well enough to have an opinion on that, but Jack worked at Marvel and DC at various times, and Gaspar would have known him.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #47, June 1974, Gold Key

The GCD credits the art on this story to Win Mortimer. It seems like the editor of the book was now assigning stories to Gaspar at random rather than pairing him with an artist.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #50, Oct 1974, Gold Key

Gaspar’s final lettering for the title has art credited to Jose Delbo. He seems to have adapted to the rectangular word balloons well.

From GHOST STORIES #35, Jan 1973, Dell

Ghost stories were apparently good sellers at Western, they also published this anthology. Jack Sparling and Gaspar Saladino produced all four stories in this issue, the only one they worked on.

From GHOST STORIES #35, Jan 1973, Dell

There’s an effective creepy balloon style in the first panel of this page from one of the stories.

From GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES #9, May 1973, Gold Key

Another ghostly anthology, and the credits are quite unusual. According to the GCD (with information from a Len Wein interview), this four page story was written, penciled and inked by Len Wein! Most comics writers at least try doing comics art as well, but this is surprisingly accomplished for Len, who was nearly always a writer. The lettering by Gaspar is very condensed horizontally, perhaps at Len’s request, and of course Len and Gaspar worked together on SWAMP THING at DC.

From GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES #19, Sept 1974, Gold Key

Gaspar’s final story lettering for the book is on a six page story with art by Jose Delbo, another artist Gaspar would have known from DC. Saladino’s story title is easy to identify as his.

From ADAM-12 #5, Nov 1974

The last Western Publishing comic Gaspar lettered chronologically was this one, again with Jack Sparling, and he lettered both stories in the issue. I’m not sure why he didn’t continue working at Western, but the most likely reason is that he was too busy elsewhere. In addition to lots of work for DC and Marvel, this is around the time he began working for Atlas/Seaboard too.

To sum up, here are the stories lettered by Saladino, with the titles in alphabetical order this time.

ADAM-12 #5: 13pp, 12pp

BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #43: 4pp, #48: 6pp, #49: 4pp

COUNTDOWN: 32pp

FRIDAY FOSTER #1: 32pp

THE FROGMEN #6: 27pp, 4pp, #7: 1pp inside front cover, 27pp, 4pp, #8: 27pp, 4pp, #9: 27pp, 4pp, #10: 27pp, 4pp, #11: 27pp, 4pp

GHOST STORIES #35: 7pp, 8pp, 9pp, 8pp

GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES #9: 4pp, #19: 6pp

LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP #7: 7pp, 1pp, #8: 6pp, 1pp

McLINTOCK: 32pp

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE #1: 18pp, 14pp, #2: 16pp, 16pp, #3: 16pp, 16pp

NEUTRO #1: 9pp, 9pp, 13pp

THE OUTER LIMITS #11: 31pp, #12: 11pp, 10pp, 11pp, #13: 12pp, 12pp, 8pp, #14: 12pp, 9pp, 11pp, #15: 10pp, 12pp, 10pp

RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #37: 8pp, #39: 6pp, #41: 4pp, #47: 6pp, #50: 6pp

ROOM 222 #1: 17pp, 15pp, #2: 16pp, 16pp, #3: 16pp, 16pp

STONEY BURKE #1: 2pp inside covers, 16pp

VALLEY OF THE GWANGI: 32pp

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA #1: 32pp

That’s a total of 858 pages, a good amount of work. More articles on the lettering of Gaspar Saladino are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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GASPAR SALADINO AT WESTERN PUBLISHING Part 1

All images © the respective copyright holders. From STONEY BURKE #1, June 1963, Gold Key

Western Publishing’s comics are complicated. For many years they were produced in partnership with Dell, whose name was on the cover, though Western also produced a few titles under their own name. That ended around 1962 according to the Grand Comics Database, though some titles continued under the Dell name for a long while, and at the same time some of Western’s own comics had the new publisher name Gold Key. There were also versions sold in department stores and toy stores under the name Whitman. For more on this, see HERE and HERE. Gaspar would have been working for Dell and Gold Key at their New York City offices, and he began doing lettering for them in 1963, probably brought in by artist friends, as happened in the 1950s. Gaspar did a good deal of work for Dell/Gold Key from that time until 1974. I’m going to look at each title chronologically based on the first work Saladino did for it. All the work was on story pages, no covers. I’ll examine half the issues here, the rest in Part 2. STONEY BURKE #1 is the earliest Gold Key work by Saladino I’ve found, he did single story pages for the inside front and back covers, one is above, penciled by Mike Sekowsky, who Gaspar worked with at DC on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, among other things. The lettering is typical of Saladino, wide and angular, and the title is by him, but the Rodeo sign is probably by the inker.

From STONEY BURKE #1, June 1963, Gold Key

Gaspar also lettered the second half of the single story inside, pages 17 to 32, the first half is credited to Joe Rosen. This suggests a rush job that Rosen wasn’t able to finish in time, and perhaps Sekowsky suggested and brought in Saladino. The Gold Key editors must have known a good thing when they saw it, and they continued to give Gaspar work when he had time for it.

From FROGMEN #6, Aug-Oct 1963, Dell

This is a title that began under Dell, and continued with that publisher name until it ended in 1964. It had several pencilers including George Evans and Alex Toth, but with issue #6, Mike Sekowsky took over as penciler, and Saladino lettered nearly all the story pages. This is the main story, the logo is not by Saladino, it’s the same one used on the cover, but Gaspar did the story title.

From FROGMEN #6, Aug-Oct 1963, Dell

Each issue also had a four-page backup, likewise penciled by Sekowsky and lettered by Gaspar.

From FROGMEN #7, Nov-Jan 1964, Dell

Sekowsky was a fast penciler, and Gaspar was a fast letterer, so they made a good team here, as they did at DC.

From FROGMEN #8, Feb-April 1964, Dell

This story has a Saladino title, and one style point I don’t recall seeing from him anywhere else: the caption’s borders extend beyond the corner in each direction as if they are poles crossing each other.

From FROGMEN #9, May-July 1964, Dell

The title on this story has an interesting mix of upper and lower case and bouncy letters.

From THE FROGMEN #10, Aug-Oct 1964, Dell

A small and subdued title on this story, and more of those crossed caption borders.

From THE FROGMEN #11, Nov 1964-Jan 1965, Dell

The lead story in the last issue features some nice Saladino sound effects.

From McLINTOCK (no number) March 1964, Gold Key

Here’s another full issue penciled by Sekowsky and lettered by Saladino. The balloons are all round-cornered rectangles, I don’t know if that was Sekowsky’s idea or Gaspar’s, or perhaps the editor, but it looks fine. The best image I could find is not very clear, but you I can see Saladino’s style well enough.

From VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA #1, Dec 1964, Gold Key

Another full issue by Sekowsky and Saladino. However this arrangement started, they both seem happy with it. I suspect Mike penciled the title and Gaspar just inked it, but the sound effects are definitely his. Continuing the rounded rectangle balloon style.

From NEUTRO #1, Jan 1967, Dell

There’s a break of about two years for Saladino lettering at Western, then he resumes with this one-shot over pencils by Jack Sparling, another artist Gaspar probably knew from DC. The issue has three stories, all lettered by Saladino. He didn’t do this logo (I don’t think he did any logos for Western), and THE BIRTH OF is type.

From THE OUTER LIMITS #11, Jan 1967, Dell

At the same time, Gaspar started lettering this series, also over Sparling, and worked on several consecutive issues. Everything here but the title logo is by Saladino, his mixed case THE in two places is very familiar from DC work. This is a three-part story, all lettered by Gaspar.

From THE OUTER LIMITS #12, April 1967, Dell

Issue #12 has three stories all by Sparling and Saladino. I like this title.

From THE OUTER LIMITS #13, May 1967, Dell

This story title is right out of Gaspar’s DC playbook, but I think he left room for the book title to the left of it, and it was placed lower instead. Again, three stories by Sparling and Saladino.

From THE OUTER LIMITS #14, July 1967, Dell

Three more stories by Sparling and Saladino in this issue. I’ve chosen this page because of the great lettering and sound effects by Gaspar. The rounded rectangle balloons continue, leaving Gaspar unsure how to emphasize the one at lower left, so he added thickness to the border, more at the top and bottom edges. In the last panel he went to his usual burst shape instead, which I think works better.

From THE OUTER LIMITS #15, Sept 1967, Dell

On the first page of this issue, it looks like Sparling drew in the balloon borders, as they’re not as well done, perhaps Gaspar didn’t have time, or Sparling inked the story before Gaspar got it, so the lettering was all he had to do. I love this story title, but is it by Sparling or Saladino? Not sure.

From THE OUTER LIMITS #16, Nov 1967, Dell

On this issue, the story title is definitely by Gaspar, taking a cue from Ira Schnapp’s DC Comics logo for MYSTERY IN SPACE, and so are the balloon shapes, which are starting to loosen up from the rounded rectangle look. Again, three stories by Sparling and Saladino. There were two more issues with art by Sparling but lettering by someone else.

From MISSION IMPOSSIBLE #1, May 1967, Dell

Sparling and Saladino also worked together on several issues of this title. I like the triple border on the first caption, and note the Saladino style point of an I with serifs at the beginning of emphasized words and at the beginning of the caption. Each of these issues has two stories by the same team.

From MISSION IMPOSSIBLE #2, Sept 1967, Dell

On this story I don’t think Gaspar did the title, it might be type. He lettered the rest except for the series logo.

From MISSION IMPOSSIBLE #3, Dec 1967

I like the sound effect here with the joined E’s.

From MISSION IMPOSSIBLE #4, Oct 1968

Another type story title that’s small and sad to my eye. Maybe the title wasn’t decided before Gaspar lettered the rest. There was a fifth issue, but it reprinted the first issue.

More Western titles in Part 2, and I’ll list everything there. Other articles about Gaspar Saladino lettering can be found on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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Rereading: HOUSEBOAT SUMMER by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Cover and illustrations by Marguerite Davis

Another summery reread from my library. Bill and his sister Sandy have been sent off for the summer to stay with their Uncle Jim and Aunt Em in Maine while their mother and grandmother redecorate their Philadelphia house. Bill is quiet and uncertain how they will be received, while Sandy is happy and outgoing and sure they’ll have fun. When they arrive by train, they are warmly greeted by their late father’s brother Jim and his wife, and bundled into a car for a long drive to an unknown destination. They arrive at a remote farmhouse on a large lake, and then Bill and Sandy find out where they’ll be spending the summer: on a houseboat in the lake! They’re surprised and delighted. Their aunt and uncle have rented the houseboat for the summer from the farmer, who supplies food and water, but the four vacationers are otherwise on their own. Bill and Sandy soon begin exploring the wooded hills around them as well as the farm and fields. They have adventures, encounter all kinds of wildlife, and have scary moments, as when their canoe is swamped by a storm in the lake. Through it all, Bill’s confidence grows, and Sandy makes new friends.

A fun adventure, published at a time when the U.S. was at war, and perhaps meant to provide an escape from all that for young readers. The book is beautifully illustrated in line drawings reproduced in blue-green ink very effectively. Recommended if you can find it.

Houseboat Summer by Elizabeth Coatsworth

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Rereading THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS by Archie Binns

Usually in December I want to read wintery books, but this past week I reread two summery ones from my collection. Here’s the first. The story takes place among the San Juan Islands off the coast near Seattle. Children from two families are staying in a rented house in East Sound on Orcas Island with the parents of Steve, David, and Nora Hill, their friends Tommy, Jackie and Puss have joined them for the summer. Mr. Hill has rented a cruising ketch, The Wanderer, with enough cabin space for everyone, and they plan to cruise and camp among the islands. Plans change when three elderly aunts of the Hills arrive to visit, and Mr. Hill realizes the family can’t all leave. Steve Hill has a plan, though, he’s learned to sail in the past, all the children have, and he thinks they can sail the ship on their own. Eventually the children convince their parents to let them go, as long as they check in regularly by phone, and soon the expedition is off to explore the islands. Early in their travels they encounter a smaller sailboat, Rainbird, manned by a single boy who is hostile and unfriendly. Later, when The Wanderer makes camp on an uninhabited island, the boy sneaks onto their boat and steals food. The children are shocked, and brand him a pirate. They vow revenge, and begin a search for Rainbird and its owner, but soon bad weather takes their adventures in a more perilous direction.

Archie Binns is perhaps best known for his two books about Sea Pup, a boy and his pet seal. I like this adventure story better. Perhaps inspired by Arthur Ransome’s stories about kids sailing on their own and having adventures, it’s exciting and fun, though Binns is not as good a writer as Ransome, and it takes a while for the children to become distinguishable one from the other. I do like the plot, though, and the way the pirate and his own story gradually take center stage. Recommended, if you can find it.

The Enchanted Islands by Archie Binns

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