{"id":2818,"date":"2021-08-10T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T17:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=2818"},"modified":"2024-01-10T10:06:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T18:06:27","slug":"maggies-world-093-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/maggies-world-093-credit\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie’s World 093: Credit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\n

MAGGIE’S WORLD BY MAGGIE THOMPSON<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie’s World 093: Credit<\/h1>\n\n\n
Maggie Thompson<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"HD<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"
The artist\u2019s credit appeared when the original serialization ran in\u00a0Woman\u2019s Day<\/em>. Du Bois\u2019s art shown here appeared with the first (left) and second (right) installments. There\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0a design difference in the films that followed. Did you notice it? \u00a9 2021 Woman\u2019s Day, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was 13. Mom used to buy Woman\u2019s Day <\/em>magazine (7 cents! cheaper than a comic book!) at the grocery store, and at some point I\u2019d read her copy. The June 1956 issue cover-featured Danny Kaye\u2014but there was also a cover notice about a serial starting in the issue: \u201cPart 1 of a new novel: The GREAT DOG ROBBERY.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed the heck out of that first part\u2014and the three that followed. However, when the novel was later published in book form, I noticed that the pictures I\u2019d loved were missing and that the copyright page had this notice: \u201cThe Hundred and One Dalmatians <\/em>appeared in serial form, with different illustrations, as \u2018The Great Dog Robbery\u2019 in Woman\u2019s Day<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I didn\u2019t know was who that original artist had been or why the art wasn\u2019t in the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when the movie version\u2014One Hundred and One Dalmatians<\/em>\u2014came out four and a half years later, I realized that the villain\u2019s design was the one I\u2019d seen in the magazine in 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019d wondered about the identity of that original artist ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now \u2026<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

My curiosity finally demanded satisfaction. I tracked down a copy of that 65-year-old magazine for sale online\u2014and was stunned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because, although I\u2019d admired that artist\u2019s work for decades, I\u2019d never seen him credited for this specific pop culture contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William P\u00e8ne du Bois (May 9, 1916\u2013February 5, 1993) had won the 1948 Newbery Medal (as author of the most distinguished contribution of the year to American literature for children) for The Twenty-One Balloons<\/em> and was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal (as artist of the most distinguished American picture book of the year for children) for Bear Party<\/em> in 1952 and for Lion<\/em> in 1957. But I don\u2019t think there are many these days who are familiar with the art he had provided for that original four-part serial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the description that du Bois had been given: \u201c. . . a tall woman came out onto the front steps. She was wearing a tight-fitting emerald satin dress, several ropes of rubies, and an absolutely simple white mink cloak, which reached to the high heels of her ruby-red shoes. She had a dark skin, black eyes with a tinge of red in them, and a very pointed nose. Her hair was parted severely down the middle, and one half of it was black and the other white\u2014rather unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s it. Her hair could have been braided. Could have been in a bun\u2014or two buns. Could have been in a pixie cut. Could have been in two ponytails. But du Bois chose his own \u201crather unusual\u201d style: the style that was used\u2014with one change\u2014in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ah,\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0comic book had creator credits! And even a contents page! Well, but \u2026 \u00a9 2021 The Johnny Gruelle Co.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Raggedys<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/artist Johnny Gruelle (December 24, 1880\u2013January 9, 1938) introduced Raggedy Ann as an actual doll, which he patented in 1915. Her first book appearance came in his Raggedy Ann Stories<\/em> in 1918, and Gruelle went on to expand his cast and output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comic books, Ann and her brother, Raggedy Andy, were the stars of Dell\u2019s Four Color<\/em> #5 (1942), which was \u00a91942 Johnny Gruelle Company. And the copyright was the same for #23 (1943), #45 (1944), and #72 (1945), before they got their own series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raggedy Ann + Andy <\/em>#1 was dated June 1946, and it was an anthology comic book series that included the first installment of Walt Kelly\u2019s \u201cAnimal Mother Goose\u201d feature, which Kelly wrote, drew, and signed. Who didn\u2019t<\/em> sign? The one\/s who wrote and drew the story credited to Gruelle, who had died eight years earlier. While that art has been pretty much agreed upon as being the work of George Kerr (March 13, 1870\u00ad\u2013October 21, 1953)\u2014and, some have suggested, Lea Bing\u2014the scripts of the Raggedys stories have remained uncredited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Gruelle was a cartoonist and children\u2019s books author, my mother (who was supporting my comics obsession at the time) took it for granted in the 1940s that he had written and drawn the comics that bore his name. Over the years, she learned that the stories had been by other creators, and, when she began work in 1982 on an article about those comics, she tried to find out more about them. The Bobbs-Merrill Company was publishing Raggedys material by then, and she wrote to its Character Licensing Division. She outlined what she\u2019d been able to find by that point (most specifically, a 1977 New York Times<\/em> article) but added that even that \u201cgave me no clues about who were \u2018doing\u2019 the \u2018Raggedy\u2019 strips in the 1940s, mentioning only \u2018by then [mid 1920s] his son, Worth, and a brother, Justin, had joined Gruelle in writing and illustrating the books.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bobbs-Merrill marketing manager responded that the company needed to know more about her article and the magazine in which it was to appear, adding, \u201cAny material for publication must be submitted for approval to our office prior to publication.\u201d By then, the intended publication was no longer involved with the project, so Mom\u2019s questions remained unanswered then\u2014and now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Talk about credit!\u00a0Secrets Behind the Comics\u00a0<\/em>revealed information that few readers would have guessed in 1947. \u00a9 2021 Famous Enterprises Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Secrets<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, there were a few sources of information about comic book credits for the lucky few who could find them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those was Secrets behind the Comics<\/em> by Stan Lee, which he produced in 1947. In the course of the booklet, he not only discussed the process of producing comic book content, but he also identified a few of the creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the title page, Stan wrote, \u201cIllustrated by Ken Bald\u201d and \u201cLettered by M. Acquaviva.\u201d Then, the credits began in the midst of samples: Managing Editor and Timely Comics Inc. Art Director was Stan Lee. Artists discussed (with their work) were Ed Winiarski, Vic Dowd, Frank Carin, Ken Bald, Syd Shores, Morris Weiss, and Basil Wolverton. Specified as pencillers were Kin Platt and Mike Sekowsky\u2014and as an inker, Violet Barclay. Credited writers were Stan Lee, Ken Bald, Ed Jurist, Morris Weiss, and Basil Wolverton. There were entries for letterer Mario Acquaviva, writer and editor Alan Sulman, and publisher Martin Goodman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, according to his files, William Woolfolk (June 25, 1917\u2013July 20, 2003) wrote stories for Marvel\u2019s Blonde Phantom<\/em> #19, dated only one year after Secrets behind the Comics<\/em> (in which he hadn\u2019t been one of the creators discussed). But there was no credit for him in that issue\u2014or for any of the other contributors to #19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was that many secrets remained secrets until fans became obsessed with trying to make them public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way \u2026<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Did you spot the design change between Cruella in The Great Dog Robbery <\/em>(1956) <\/em>and Cruella in One Hundred and One Dalmatians<\/em> (1961)? You did\u2014right? Or, putting it another way, the right side! (The du Bois art showed Cruella\u2019s white hair on the same side as her right hand; the films showed it on the same side as her left.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now you<\/em> know a secret behind some comic art, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Maggie\u2019s World by Maggie Thompson appears the second Tuesday of every month here on <\/em>Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Maggie Thompson<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n