__________________________________________________________________________
As a comic historian,specialising mainly in British comics,I have a meagre collection of Class Comics. These were black and white reprint comics of between 62-100 pages and published by Alan Class between 1962 to the early 1980s. Class had gotten agreements to reprint strips from the big boys at Timely/Marvel, ACG, Charlton and others.
At
a time when getting US comics was a little hit-and-miss,to me,as a kid
of the 1960s,these Class Comics were a treasure trove! I first saw FING
FANG FOOM! [wonderfully returned to us recently in EXILES] and many
Kirby and Ditko classics –anyone recall the strip “I RELEASED SHAGG
UPON THE WORLD!”?
There
were plenty of MLJ/Archie reprints such as the adventures of The
Fly,Jaguar and so on. But there were various science fiction and spooky
tales added to these issues.
Two
artists work struck me as a youngster,though it wasn’t until the 1980s
that I tried to find out more about them -an interest re-kindled
whilst cataloguing the issues I had. Ogden Whitney and John Forte seemed to have no written history and I asked any pro artist or writer I met at UK conventions if they knew anything about them....many returning blank expressions.
No photographs can be found of Whitney, but there is his self-penned illo for and ACG book. Which I reproduce here!
I learnt that Ogden
had become a comic book artist during the late 1930s and drew for A-1
Comics and Big Shot Comics. It became quite obvious that fans loved the
way Whitney drew women! So,working on Romantic Adventures and Wedding Bells was quite natural and I have to admit some of the work leaves me in awe!
But,Whitney
was not just a “good girl” artist;he was reknowned for his drawings of
automobiles as well as work on war strips and for horror comics such as
Adventures Into The Unknown.
Tower
Comics also gave Whitney the opportunity to work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R.
Agents NoMan as with the story “The Good Subterranean” [NOMAN
#1,November,1966]. A very distinctive style!
For
those interested in Golden Age heroes,Whitney is probably better known
for the character Skyman –the character even made a cameo in HERBIE
#8,1965. For DC in the 1940s he had drawn Sandman and a strip called
“Cotton Carver” but World War II meant “call up”.
All I have managed to find out about Whitney’s war-time is that he saw service in the Phillipines. Interestingly
enough, in the same outfit was another comics artist and a person who
had worked with Whitney both at DC and the Columbia Comic Group -Fred
Gaurdineer.
Happily,after
the war Whitney continued his comic work,though it has been said that
he had often tried -“unsuccessfully- to break into the more lucrative
advertising market. Whether this was purely for the money or through
disenchantment with comics I wouldn’t like to guess.
Luckily, the Editor at the American Comics Group, Richard E.Hughes, was a former “old-timer” and gave Whitney work. I’ll
put my hands up and declare here-and-now that I know next to nothing
about Hughes except that he often gave work to those considered as
“fading comic book artists” -I should draw so well as those old boys!
Richard
E. Hughes introduced a number of characters to comics such as John
Force,Super Katt,The Black Terror and the Fighting Yank. Hughes
created characters under an amazing number of pseudonyms ;there is even
a silly rumour on the internet that Hughes was Julius Schwartz! And
in Michael Vance’s “Forbidden Adventures:The History Of The American
Comics Group” [page 43] it is stated that Frederick Iger voiced the
opinion that Richard E. Hughes was actually a Leo Rosenbam! In
fact, if I may, I’d disagree as people were still referring to his widow
as Mrs Hughes years later....ahh,what a tangled web they leave us!
Now,Hughes or Rosenbam, it was as “Shane O’Shea” that he created a legend. Nay,more than a legend! This boy..this Herbie!
Herbie Popnecker was
a rotund,basin-haircut,spectacle wearing and lollipop sucking kid! The
first appearance of this youth was in Forbidden Worlds #73 [1958],a
science fiction,fantasy and horror title that,as far as I can tell,had
never before featured continuing characters. Obviously Hughes must have realised there was something special about Herbie.
The
story “Herbie’s Quiet Saturday Afternoon” was typical ACG fair;Herbie
was hated by his peers because he was over-weight,slow and had an
addiction to lollipops.
However,unknown
to his school mates and even his family,Herbie had vast and certainly
undefined super powers. During the course of the strip,Herbie used his
powers several times and even foiled an alien invasion -before anyone
even knew there was an alien invasion! By the end of the story Herbie was back to enduring the taunts of other kids.
Another Herbie story appeared in Forbidden Worlds #94 after popular feed-back. Then came a third strip in #110. Pretty soon Herbie was appearing in each issue. It’s rather interesting that Whitney,said to be a rather “big man”,is said to have based Herbie on his own appearance as a boy.
In
May,1964,Herbie got his own book which ran until #23 [February,1967].
Settings for Herbie adventures and genres included the Wild
West, pirates, science fiction and so on. Then Herbie took the super hero
route and became “The Fat Fury” [very politically incorrect,of course!]. In #14 [January,1966] ACG’s two other mystical heroes,Nemesis and Magicman guest-starred.
With Herbie gone fans felt disappointed but not long afterwards ACG ceased publishing. Hughes went to DC to write. Whitney
got work at Marvel where he drew several issues of The Two Gun Kid and
some covers for Millie The Model and one odd collaboration with Jack
Kirby in Strange Tales #149,a Nick Fury Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. story. In this Fury looks exactly like Herbie’s father, Pincus Popnecker -plus eye-patch!
But what happened to Whitney who seems to have vanished from comics in,it seems,the late 1960s? Hughes
widow has told comic enthusiasts that the couple used to socialise with
the Whitneys up until Mrs Anne Whitney died in the late 1960s [1968?].
There
has also been confirmation of Mrs Hughes’ claim that Whitney had been a
functioning alcoholic, a not completely unknown condition amongst old
time comic pros who spent days in isolation, working late into the night
week-after-week trying to keep up with deadlines. But there is nothing in Whitney’s printed work to show this.
Whitney
apparently ended up in a nursing home after a nervous breakdown
following his wife’s death and the effects of drink and died of a
possible stroke in the early 1970s -possibly 1972?
Alcohol, sadly, as we have read before in cases cited in Alter Ego magazine, has led to many an untimely death amongst old comic pros.
Perhaps, one day, a comic historian based in New York can do some in-depth research on Whitney. For
instance, after all these years I have been unable to find out whether
the Whitneys had any children. One source said there was a son and
daughter but another said there were none. If there are any offspring
could they add more to our knowledge?
The other artist, John Forte Jnr I know a lot more about. Born in 1918, Rockaway, Illinois. In Forte's case at least we have a photograph that, originally, took me a few years to get hold of. I've not seen it used elsewhere so here you go!
Forte
started work at Timely in 1941 but also worked for other companies in
the 1940s and 1950s,including ACG horror comics and romance comics for
both Timely and Quality Comics. When DC purchased Quality Comics in
1958,Forte moved along with the company.
Above -I believe the very first Tales Of The Legion Of Super Heroes story from Adventure Comics 300, 1962. Artist Al Plastino for many years had to "re-touch" faces in strips and I believe this is one of those instances!
Forte had pencilled some early Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane stories and had even inked some Curt Swan pencils -as in “Superboy Meets Supergirl” in Superboy #80,April,1960. Of course, to fans of the original -“the genuine"- Legion Of Super Heroes will be aware that it was with this series that Forte made his mark.
Forte
had made his name drawing those fantastic fun tales featuring the
Bizarro World and moved over to draw the LSH with,as far as I can
tell,Adventure Comics #304,January,1963,
And the story “The Stolen Super Powers”.
Above: Some of Forte's work for Atlas Comics in the 1950s. And, good lords! There's even a post about Forte and this strip over at Four Color Shadows!
But suddenly, in 1965, Forte left comics. To many of us this seemed odd but the usual assumption was that he had moved on to other comics we weren’t getting in the UK or he had, quite simply, left the industry.
The sad truth was that Forte had left to fight colon cancer. From what I can uncover, he lost that fight and died in hospital in New York in mid-1966.
I
would,if permitted, like to make an appeal here to any of the old time
pros who worked or had contact with Whitney or Forte -even fans who
may have had commissioned sketches drawn by these men.
We would all like to think that those creators who brought us many hours -many years- of fun and entertainment simply slip into their sunset years and live on through their work. For
me it was a sad day when I finally learned the truth about Ogden
Whitney and John Forte but at least we still have their fantastic
archive of work to look back on that will go on forever!
But for me, in 2015, it's back to trying to find out more about British Golden and Silver Age creators we know next to nothing about!
Fin.
