Friday, April 13, 2007
Sponsored Comics: Blaze Braden
Here's the first of the adventure strips from the Family Comics section, a western called Blaze Braden. This one was credited to Paul Morgan. I'm assuming that was a pseudonym. Interestingly enough, The Tab Hunter Show on TV featured Tab as a cartoonist named Paul Morgan in 1960.The art on this strip seems to me a bit on the hacky side, looks like the work of a comic book artist. Perhaps one of you readers more into comic books can shed some light on an artist ID.
Blaze Braden is another strip that was advertised in E&P in 1960, so I guess my earlier estimate that most all the strips just gave up when the section folded was premature. Like Happy Days, it was advertised as being syndicated by Crown Features Syndicate. I've never found anything from Crown running in any newspaper.
[EDIT: Art Lortie finds someone on the web who owns the original of the first sample above, and they credit it to John Ushler. That sounds about right to me. It does resemble his other work. To see the original, click on this link]
Comments:
No copies of this one were sold by Howard Lowery. The art to me looks in the mold of Johnson/Cushing or Treasure Comics type advertising art, with an artist who is probably trained in cartooning rather than realistic art, probably with a seperate inker. The girl in the second 'sunday' could be by Maurer again.
Sponsored Comics did a lot of advertising comic books as well, did you know that? Including, I think, a booklet Maurer did for a political race somewhere in the late mid-fifties. An ebay search for Sponsored Comics sometime turns them up. But I also seem to remember picking up somewhere that Maurer was not the prime mover behind Sponsored Comics, maybe even from a private e-mail to Lowery...
Hi Charles -
I got them on eBay, 8 of the first 10 issues in one lot. Believe it or not, I got them for the opening bid of $10. If that seller had any idea of my maximum bid he'd have a coronary!
--Allan
I got them on eBay, 8 of the first 10 issues in one lot. Believe it or not, I got them for the opening bid of $10. If that seller had any idea of my maximum bid he'd have a coronary!
--Allan
Hi Ger -
No I didn't know that Sponsored Comics also did comic books. So did the comic books all come out earlier (pre-1959) or did they continue on past the brief life of Family Comics?
We could perhaps clear up the question of who ran Sponsored Comics based on the address. On Family Comics it was 9424 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills. Is there any way to cross-check this with Maurer's address I wonder? Easier yet, of course, if any of these creators is still alive perhaps they remember. Unfortunately there are none that I know of for sure.
--Allan
No I didn't know that Sponsored Comics also did comic books. So did the comic books all come out earlier (pre-1959) or did they continue on past the brief life of Family Comics?
We could perhaps clear up the question of who ran Sponsored Comics based on the address. On Family Comics it was 9424 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills. Is there any way to cross-check this with Maurer's address I wonder? Easier yet, of course, if any of these creators is still alive perhaps they remember. Unfortunately there are none that I know of for sure.
--Allan
Could the credit to John Ushler be wrong? This looks more like "Al McKimson", i.e. the teamwork of Pete Alvarado, Charles "Chuck" McKimson and Thomas McKimson. The style is very close to their work in the "Roy Rogers" comic strip. Thanks to my friend José Antunes for drawing my attention to this.
My best,
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My best,
# posted by 
: 5/08/2007 6:50 AM
: 5/08/2007 6:50 AM 