The Way Back Machine

 Sunday Surprise Day.

In the early forties the Chicago Sun created it's own 'comic' book Sunday insert, te be folded from their regular pages. Like The Spirit, although it was folded in a different way to form a small three tier oblong booklet. In it were several regular series, but also a whole lot of material that was especially created to be more action/pulp oriented, suchs as Streamer Kelly and the spy series Mister X (by Bert Whitman and Bernard Baily). I got a lot of those for the western story that came along a bit later: Vesta West, originated by Fred Maegher but continued by Ray Bailey. You will find all of my samples if you follow the links. Once I got them my other favorite was a charming comedy strip by Milt Caniff's letterer, Frank Engli called Rocky. Not as sarcastic as the later B.C. bu a similar set-up, about a young boy and his family in Neanderthal times. 

In his profile at The Stripper's Guide (https://strippersguide.blogspot.com/search?q=engli) you can read more about him and see some more color samples of Rocky. It also mentions Looking back, which I had never seen. I always assumed Milt Caniff misremembered the title of Rocky when he mentioned it. It also says that Looking Back ran from December 30, 1945 to May 25, 1947.

But when I saw it recently, I flipped. Looking Back not a regular comic strip, but a half page cluttered drwing in the style of Sergio Aragonés in the later Mad and Caran d'Arche in France. Harvey Kurtzman and Mort Walker had also done a couple of these in Varsity, but it was not something you saw a lot. And here Frank Engli was doing it every week.

I went back to find the strip started on December 30, 1945 indeed and floowed it up to May 26, 1946, when the last half page gag apeared. After that it returned to a nine panel half page - very similar to what Rocky used to be. In fact I have to go back and check to see if they didn't use the same cast.

The last installment I found was April 6, so I have to go and check where the others are as well. Once I have them all I will do another post.

So here it is, the full run of Frank Engli's charming and unique half page gags of Looking Back.

The Mysterious Mr. X

Saturday Leftover Day.

Early on in his career Bernard Baily (the checkered shirt artist mentioned yesterday) made a big entrance by creating the look of The Spectre for DC. Soon after that, he started working for artist/packager Bert Whitman, whith whom he remained associated all through the fifties. I do not know that much abut this perio of Ameican comics and much of what I do know, I know through the work of Ken Quattro, the selfaccliamed Comic Detective. He did two great posts on the early work of Baily at http://thecomicsdetective.blogspot.nl/search?q=baily. And if you are there, stay for the other posts, such as a recent one on the correspondence between Iger and Eisner. Ken really is the greatest researcher in and on comic ook history, unearthing transcripts of the trail between DC and Fox, where Will Eisner lied for his boss and the secret tape made in the fifties of a conversation between Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein and Joe Kubert about the shady dealings surrounding the 3D process. All riveting stuff.

Anyway, Ken can't really tell when Baily ghosted ths strip, which ran from january 19th 1941 to somewhere in 1943.

The Chicago Mob

Thursday Newspaper Story Day.

Today not much to read, but what I have to share is quite rare. I am a big fan of the work of Ray Bailey, who is said to have worked as an assistant for Milt Caniff on Terry and the Pirates and Male Call. In the late fifties he did Bruce Gentry and later Tom Corbett on his own, but still very much in the Caniff style. His first newspaper strip was called Vista West and was created for the CHicago Tribune. I believe it was only done as a Sunday. Is there anyone who can help me out on this? I did find an original online in a different format, but with a bit of cutting and repositioning, it could fit the same format. From the Lambiek website comes yet another sample of this strip, but that's it for me.

I have added however, two other rare strips from the Chicago Sunday Comic Book. The first is Mr. Ex, a rarely seen strip by Bert Whitman, who is best known for his strip Debbie Dean. After that a comic strip by someone who is better known for his lettering. Farnk Engli was the house letterer for Milton Caniff and assorted strips from the same 'school'. His caveman strip Rocky is fun to see and suprisingly well drawn. I should get more of these Chicago Comic Books...