1946.05.22 “Bringing Up Father”
by George McManus (1884-1954) and Zeke Zekley (1915-2005)
23.25 x 5.75 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

In 1904, young George McManus was hired by Pulitzer’s New York World as a cartoonist. While he was there he created such strips as The Newlyweds, which comics historians consider the first family comic strip. In 1912, William Randolph Hearst hired McManus away to start a comic strip about a guy called Jiggs, a lower class man who came into a lot of money. With their new wealth, Maggie, Jiggs’ wife, wanted to enter the upper crust of society but Jiggs just wanted to hang out with his old friends at the local bar playing cards and pool and eat his simple favorite foods. This is the classic strip Bringing Up Father.

McManus had masterful line work with a strong deco feel to his designs. Over time, he developed the recurring motif of animating the background paintings in certain panels, and this is generally delightful.

In the news. The war was over, but not forgotten. On May 22, 1946, Karl Hermann Frank, 48, Nazi SS leader who oversaw the massacres at Lidice and Lezaky, was hanged in Prague.

1975 Kirby Thing (Jack Kirby)
By Jack Kirby (1917-1994)
5.5 x 8.5 in, pencil/marker
Coppola Collection

The inside back cover of the program book from Phil Seuling’s 7^th annual comic art convention (July 3-7, 1975) was set aside for autograph collecting.

This page is about as self-explanatory as it gets. Kirby was a guest at the convention, and the book featured a Silver Surfer cover drawing and a Kirby interview.

Poison Ivy – The Mighty Mite in “Feature Comics #47” (Aug 1941) p 11
by Gilbert Theodore (Gill) Fox (1915-2004)
13 x 18 in, ink on board
Coppola Collection

Second page from the 2-page story “The 100-Mile Water Race,” written, penciled and inked by Gill Fox.

Fox began his career in animation at Max Fleischer’s studio, but left due to labor unrest. He entered the comic book industry, working for a number of studios and companies, including DC Comics. During 1940-43, he was an editor and a cover artist for Quality Comics, with his work gracing the covers of such titles as Torchy and Plastic Man. In 1941, he wrote several weeks of continuity for the Spirit daily newspaper strip.

This page is from August 1941, which is a noteworthy time in Fox’s comic book history. A few months later, in November, a comic written by Gill Fox, describing a German attack on Pearl Harbor, was published one month before the real-life Japanese attack on that U.S. naval base.

He left his editorial position at Quality in 1943 to serve in World War II, where he worked for Stars and Stripes. Once discharged from military service, Fox freelanced for Quality Comics until the early 1950s.

Quality published “Feature Comics” for 144 issues (1937-1950), featuring Doll Man as its lead superhero. Fox’s Poison Ivy – The Mighty Mite, appeared through issue 132, and was also a daily strip. In an interview with Jim Amash (Alter Ego 3(12)):

FOX: Crandall, of course, was one of our top artists, but he kept to himself as far as I could see. His work was just terrific, and he helped make Blackhawk one of our best books.

JA: When did Quality move back to New York?

FOX: I was drafted while in Stamford and helped set the New York office up before I left. I commuted from Stamford. I started doing a two-page filler called “Poison Ivy.” It began to get hot. I remember Henry Martin [an associate of Busy Arnold] leaning on a doorjamb and saying to me, “Can you do some dailies so we can syndicate it?” It was a dream! But then I was classified 1-A for military service and had to give it up. We’d even talked about it being a comic book. The breaks in this business are very strange.

Because comics weren’t considered an “essential” job, like some others were, I knew I was going to go when a national “Work or Fight” order was announced. I didn’t want to go. I quit being editor in the middle of 1943 and started working on farms in Connecticut. I did that for about six months and got in great shape. But it didn’t make any difference. I went into the Army anyway.

Strangers in Paradise Collective Volume 3 Cover (2023)
by Terry Moore (1954- )
11 x 17 in., ink on board

This images cropped to give the cover from Volume 3 of the new (2023) 4-volume collection of the entire SIP saga.

Strangers in Paradise III #11 p 12 (Dec 1997)
by Terry Moore (1954- )
11 x 17 in., ink on board

Sal puts pressure on Darcy to get the Senate off his back. She tells him that subtle plans are in motion, when is remains unhappy Darcy smashes the phone into one of her gardener’s faces.  David has packed his bag and walking out when Darcy pulls a gun on him and only misses his head when he ducks. She then tries to kiss him and when he rejects her violently the gun goes off again, she indicates that his past is not so innocent either and he has something dark in his past too.   As David leaves he discovers he was shot in the forearm and collapses. Fran and Walsh pull up and take him to the hospital where he fills them in on Katchoo’s location.

Strangers in Paradise III #23 p 11 (Mar 1999)
by Terry Moore (1954- )
11 x 17 in., ink on board

Katchoo teaches Casey a thing or two about fooling around with other men while David receives a phone call that will change his life forever. Francine returns home to find her affairs are definitely not in order!

Strangers in Paradise III #80 p 5 (Feb 2006)
by Terry Moore (1954- )
11 x 17 in., ink on board

Casey begs David to marry her and give her a child, but Katchoo wants to marry David as well. Which one will he choose?

Cerebus 20 Cover re-creation (Jan 2024)
by Dave Sim (1956- )
11 x 17 in., ink on board

A 2024 re-creation of one of the great early covers – the first “Mind Games” issue of Cerebus. I own the original color prelim for the actual cover.

Ibis the Invincible, in “Whiz Comics” 11 (Dec 1940) p 55
by Peter (Pete) Anthony Constanza (1913-1984)
16.5 x 21.25 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

First page from the story “The Walking Sphinx,” written and colored by Bill Parker, who also wrote and colored the early Captain Marvel stories.

Constanza is best known for his work on Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family during the World War II era and served as one of Captain Marvel’s longest-tenured artists (inking credits on some stories and covers in Whiz, too).

Costanza began his career at Fawcett in 1939, during writer-artist C. C. Beck’s initial planning and creation of Captain Marvel, later becoming Beck’s chief assistant on that character. In the early Whiz issues, he penciled and inked Ibis (picked up in issue 9), Golden Arrow (picked up from Beck in issue 3), Spy Smasher (also picked up from Beck in issue 3).

He stayed with Fawcett Comics until they folded in 1953 after losing an expensive and long-running lawsuit over Captain Marvel’s alleged infringement of DC Comics’ copyrighted character Superman.

Ibis the Invincible began as a feature in Whiz Comics #2 (Feb 1940) and stayed through its entire run (issue 155 in June 1953)

Ibis begins his life as Amentep, a prince of ancient Egypt who was in love with the beautiful Princess Taia of Thebes. As a young man, Amentep is given the “Ibistick,” a talisman of incredible power, by the Egyptian god Thoth, who empowers the talisman after Ibis was overthrown. 4000 years later, the mummy of Amentep returns to life in an American museum in 1940 (this was later revealed to be the work of the wizard Shazam). Now called “Ibis”, Amentep sets out in search of his beloved, eventually finding her at another museum. Seeking to adjust to this new world, Ibis uses his vast powers to become a crimefighter.