Cole's Comics: Search results for death patrol

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Jul 17, 2009

Inkie: Jack Cole's 1944 Self-Portrait

Story presented in this posting:
Crack Comics #34 (Summer, 1944, Quality Comics ) - Inkie (8 pages)

One of the inventions that made Jack Cole unique among golden age comic book artists is that he occasionally wrote and drew himself into his own stories. In Silver Streak #5 (July, 1940, Your Guide Publications), he directly and passionately addressed his readers as Ralph Johns. His self-portait here is positively heroic.

In Police Comics #20 (July 1943, Quality), Jack Cole becomes not only the creator of the PLASTIC MAN story in that issue, but also a character in it. He retains the white shirt and tie from his previous Ralph Johns self-portrait, but now he is comically bug-eyed, chinless, and stutters.

About a year later (all 3 of these self-portraits were published in the summer months. Perhaps the hot weather made Cole more reflective), Jack Cole wrote and drew two wonderful eight-page stories in Crack Comics #34 and #35. featuring the character of Inkie.

Created and most often written and drawn by Quality staffer Al Stahl (who also worked on DEATH PATROL after Cole left it), the premise of this back-up series was that the disturbingly neotonous, pre-Big-Boy Inkie would cutely emerge from the two-dimensional world of the comic book page to save his creator from dire straits.

It was a sort of reversal on the famous Out of the Inkwell cartoon series created by the Max Fleischer Studio (and available as extras on the recently released amazing Popeye DVD sets), in which Koko the Klown would climb off the animation board and mischieviously wreak havoc in the three-dimensional world of his creator.

Unfortunately, the Crack Comics version of this concept was not nearly as entertaining as the Fleischer cartoons. Except, that is, for the two Inkie stories Jack Cole wrote and drew in 1944.

Cole was bound by the concept to draw himself into the story, and he delivered his most lively, funniest self-portrait in this little-seen gem. In this 1944 version of himself, Cole still wears the crisp white shirt and tie. He now has big round glasses, a long, pointy nose, and has lost the stutter.

In this story, Cole portrays himself as a sort of grumpy comic book Shiva. Just as the Hindu god unceasingly dances to create our reality, Cole continuously writes and draws the action as it happens. He is comically interrupted by a lisping editor who demands that he insert Inkie into the story earlier. It may be that the editor is a parody of one of the Quality editors of the time, but this is not clear. Just as he is a powerful creator in this story, Cole is also eventually dominated by the overbearing editor, tearfully drawing his beloved Inkie into a closed safe.

The story keeps jumping from "their" world to "ours," with a fluidity and dizzying stack of meta self-references that is truly stunning. Cole had some kind of mind.

It all feels like a weird lucid dream on a hot summer night.

A very special THANK YOU to our Cole-ossal reader and comic book expert Darryl Aylward in Australia, who has generously sent in these scans. In fact, Darryl has provided some other rare Cole material, which we'll be sharing in the coming weeks. My heartfelt thanks, Darryl!

Somewhere in my own mine of old comics, I have the story from Crack #33, and will someday chip it out and show it to. In the meanwhile, here's Jack Cole's Inkie story from Crack #34.

I hope you enjoy this sparkling gem rescued from the dust-bin of history by a fellow Cole-miner.

Jul 7, 2009

Is This Cole? (WWII Cartoon, circa 1945)

On the inside front cover of a crude, crappy digest-sized one-shot publication we have an unsigned 1-panel gag cartoon (above) that I think could very well be the work of Jack Cole. What do you think?

First, let's look at the historical facts. The book, which was published by the Remington Morse Company, has a statement inside (shown above) that it was created and produced by the Harry "A" Chesler Jr. shop. Chesler ran a small group of comic book creatives and produced whole books that were then sold to other publishers. he was the first to create this arrangement, which was quickly replicated by others, including Will Eisner, Joe Simon, and Jack Kirby.

Cole's first comic book work when he moved to New York city with his new bride in 1936 was with the Chesler shop. It was through Chesler that Cole worked on Silver Streak, as well as numerous other short pieces and one-pagers. So there's a strong connection.

The book itself, The Adventures of Riggin' Bill #1, has no publication date. A page on the inside includes the phrase "remember Pearl Harbor!" so we can assume it was published between December, 1941 (when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and started a war with the United States) and 1945 (when the war ended).

During this time, Cole worked primarily for Quality Comics, having moved on from the Chesler shop. From 1942-44, Harry Chesler joined the American military and his output of comic books ground to a halt. He did, however, create several ten cent digest-sized books, such as this one, intended primarily for a military audience. After all, it was well-known the "A" in Harry "A" Chesler stood for "Anything."

Did Chesler call up Cole and ask him for a gag panel for a wartime book he was creating?

If not Chesler, perhaps it was Gaspano "Gus" Ricca, art director at Remington Morse that bought the cartoon from Cole. Ricca, a comic artist himself, created a fine series of bizarre and macabre covers for Chesler books such as Dynamic, Scoop, and Punch.

Take a look at the one-panel gag cartoon at the top of this posting. The lovely girl model is addressing the painter, a "Mr. Ricca," who can only be the art director, Gus Ricca. We know that Ricca became an art director at Remington Morse, and the Chesler shop around 1945, so it's likely the date of this cartoon is circa 1945.

However, Chesler is famous for creating new titles stocked with material he had previously published. I wonder if perhaps this cartoon was either published somewhere else earlier, or if maybe it was a "warm-up" Cole did one day while working in the Chesler shop, only intended as amusement for the office, but nonetheless collected and saved by the shrewd Chesler. We'll never know for sure, but it's fun to speculate.

It makes sense for Cole to have drawn a sexy gag panel, as he regularly supplemented his comic book income with beautiful ink wash one-panels he wrote and drew for various men's magazines, including the digest-sized Humorama line.

So much for the historical evidence supporting Cole's authorship of this swell gag cartoon.

Now, let's consider the art itself. There are a couple of tip-offs that this could be Cole.

First off is the sexy woman. Cole could draw alluring females better than almost any other cartoonist of his time. The woman in this panel stikes me as being exactly the type of female Cole did so well. Plus, there's something about the way the woman's hair is drawn here, that seems particularly Cole-like.
Also, Cole often used simple patterns as an art element in his art. Consider the striking use of the black-and-white striped prison uniforms in his DEATH PATROL series in Military Comics. In this cartoon, the painter is wearing boldly striped pants.

Cole's work often distorted shapes. Especially squares and rectangles. Here. in the shapes of the window and the drawing board, we see the artist has distorted them, making them seem more visually interesting, and comical.

Lastly, Cole was quite fond of drawing the bottoms of his character's shoes. In this cartoon, instead of drawing the painter's feet on the ground, as most would do, the artist has drawn the feet sitting askew, so we see the bottoms of his shoes, which is a far more lively and interesting pose.We also get to see the bottoms of the upturned model's sexy high heels, too. Maybe Cole had a shoe/foot fetish.

All in all, if you'll pardon the pun, it's not a, ahem, stretcher to say this is a previously uncredited (as far as I know) gag cartoon by Jack Cole! What do YOU think?
Late-Breaking News!
We just recieved an email that sheds more light on this Jack Cole mystery from Ger Apeldoorn, TV writer and comic book historian. Be sure to check out Der's incredible blog, The Fabuleous Fifties.

Here's Ger's email:
"I can't seem to comment on your excellent blog. Here's my comment to your latest post:
I have several more cartoons in this style and from this period from a similar Chesler produced book on my blog. My guess is Chesler tried to syndicate war related cartoon material to (army) newspapers and got Cole to do a few as well."
Here's a link to Der's excellent posting: http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/search?q=chesler
In this post, Ger provides some great information and 3 more one-panel gags that he attributes to Cole, from Myrth of a Nation, another Chesler-produced digest magazine aimed at a military audience, including this beauty, which is very similar to the gag cartoon at the top of this posting:

And here's a color cartoon from the interior of the book. Note that "Jake" was also one of the pen names Cole used for his pin-up cartoons for the Humorama line.

There's one more gem from the Cole mine waiting for you at Ger's wonderful blog here. With these additional finds by Ger that are cetainly Cole's work, I think we can safely say the cartoon at the top of this posting is, indeed a Jack Cole cartoon! Thanks, Ger!

Dec 24, 2012

Stretching Toward Playboy: Jack Cole Cartoons Grace a 1954 H-K Pulp

THE 12 DAYS of COLE-MISS:
DAY 11

12 days of NEW Jack Cole finds!
Posted every day until Dec. 25th

Recently, my pal the graphic novel author and comics historian Frank Young paid me a visit. I was showing him some of my latest finds and dug out the recent pile of 1950s humor digest magazines I bought from a collector. Many of these issues are marked up and have bits cut out. Some of the captions are rewritten. I suspect the collection once belonged to an aspiring cartoonist -- or even a pro who was ripping off old material.

The Paul Tumey pile of old humor mags , which includes some rare Jack Cole cartoons

I had gone through this pulpy pile earlier to sift out 11 "new" Jack Cole finds. I had a hunch that a second perusal might yield another Cole cartoon or two. Frank and I spontaneously sifted the pile, carefully reading each awful gag cartoon. Frank discovered some amazing early cartoons by Mel Lazurus, of Miss Peach fame. He also delighted in several early Thaves (Frank and Ernest) cartoons. After a dizzy hour or so, I lamented that there just wasn't any more Cole to mine from this vein. Just as I picked up an issue of Smiles and said this, I opened it at random and there, in front of me was Cole cartoon I had previously missed! I quickly sifted through the book and found two more! Score!

The cover to Smiles, Sept 1954 (Not by Cole)

I'm pleased to share with you today the three "new" Jack Cole cartoons found in the September 1954 H-K publication, Smiles. The date is interesting, because it's by far the earliest H-K Jack Cole publication date we've found, so far, about six months prior to the fabulous Cole bonanza of 23 cartoons published in March, 1955.

The first Cole cartoon in the book is unsigned, but undeniably Cole:

by Jack Cole, from Smiles, September 1954 (Collection Paul Tumey)

This sequential light beam cartoon is a concept we find in 3 other published Cole cartoons of the time., including one published in the January 1954 issue of The Saturday Evening Post (see here for that cartoon). It's a unique concept, and Cole spent some time and energy playing with it. He seemed to enjoy drawing beams of light. Many of his comic book covers and stories have light beams and pools of light used as strong design elements.

The second Cole cartoon in the book is one that cracked me up. The drawing is amusing, but the power of the gag is really in the caption.

by Jack Cole, from Smiles, September 1954 (Collection Paul Tumey)

I've read in a few interviews with Cole's colleagues that he imbibed himself. There's a letter from Cole (published in Steranko's History of Comics), written to his folks back home in which he assures them he is living clean and not touching a drop. This letter comes from early in his career, so perhaps Cole changed his ways in the years to come. he was, after all, hanging out with cartoonist Bob Wood, who was living high those daze. It's possible this cartoon is slightly autobiographical. In any case, it's a funny gag and I love the art.

The third and last Cole cartoon we find in this issue presents a performing duo and a typical Jack Cole gag drawn from a small detail of life. Fingernails, house lights, toasters and TVs -- all the common, everyday details of ordinary life were fodder for Jack's cartoon factory in the 1950s. The visual design of the cartoon, with a bold T shape and an artful line, foreshadows his Playboy cartoons.

by Jack Cole, from Smiles, September 1954 (Collection Paul Tumey)

Here's the full spread to help you appreciate how much better Cole's cartoons are than the rest of the material in these magazines:

That's all for today. Tomorrow, the last day of my 12 Days of Cole-Miss publishing event, will pull out all the stops and present a big pile of goodies. I hope everyone has a safe, sane, and enjoyable holiday season.

Cole-crazy,

Paul Tumey

The 12 Days of Cole-Miss Postings to Date:

Days 1 and 2: Jack Cole's Sexy Playboy Style Humorama Cartoon Covers (1950-60s)

Day3: A Rare Jack Cole Playboy Style Cutie Pie Cover (1956)

Day 4: Teasing Blonde Triplets and Mad Japanese Spies (Private Dogtag 1944)

Day 5: Stretching to Playboy: Two Rare Jack Cole Judge Cartoons (1936, 1946)

Day 6: Jack Cole Sells Silk to the Burlap Market (1955 gag cartoon)

Day 7: Two More "Lost" Jack Cole Cartoons (1955)

Day 8: More 1955 Jack Cole Cartoons

Day 9: The Second Death Patrol story in a new paper scan!

Day 10: Two 1939 Jack Cole Cartoons in Colliers

Dec 25, 2012

12 New Jack Cole Cartoon Finds!

THE 12 DAYS of COLE-MISS:
DAY 12

12 days of NEW Jack Cole finds!
Posted every day until Dec. 25th

Well, fellow denizens of the dank, dusty, delirious world of old comics, it's been a fun 12 days. Every day, I've shared with you some Jack Cole cartoons and comics that are new to Cole's Comics -- and, in some cases -- pretty much new to the world. As a grande finale, here's a big pile o' Cole for your enjoyment, with notes and the usual kerfuffle.

Here's a set of Cole gems from a 1955 H-K Publications Digest. The fellows who ran H-K turn out to be same guys who published Centaur comics, where Cole started his comics career 16 years earlier. Was there a connection? Did Cole look up his old associates and sell them some cartoons? Possibly.

First up is yet another of Cole's "searchlight" cartoons. We published one yesterday, as well.