Another Humor Digest and some Art Appreciation!

January 6, 2012 was Martin Filchock's 100th birthday. I knew he was born in 1912, but the actual day & month was something I just discovered yesterday.

In my last post, I mentioned how it had been a year since I scanned anything. Well, I can now check-off "What's Cookin' # 7" from the list of things I wanted to finish. Featuring the work of Joe E. Buresch, Woody Krimbell and birthday-boy Martin Filchock, "What's Cookin" was another humor digest published by the Comic Corporation of America (or "CCA" for short), one of the many publishing names used by Raymond J. Kelly & Joseph J. Hardie. CCA was the publishing name used from 1939 onward for such Golden Age comic books as Amazing-Man Comics, Liberty Scouts, Man of War Comics, World Famous Heroes, the third issue of The Arrow, Stars and Stripes Comics, and C-M-O Comics. CCA was also used on various humor digests, such as What's Cookin, Keep 'em Laughing, Pocketful of Pepper, Yoo Hoo, Khaki Humor, Khaki Wacky, Smiles, and Cheers, until 1945. From 1942 through 1944, CCA was the publishing name used for All-American Band Leaders magazine (shortened to simply "Band Leaders" after several issues).

And all you Martin Filchock fans, take note! It would seem that sometime during 1943, Filchock was promoted from Corporal to Sergeant in the US Army, while still finding time to create gag cartoons.

To download the entire contents of What's Cookin' # 7, click here.

Art Appreciation: Martin Filchock & The Humor Digests!

April Fools!!! Every year, the week before April 1st, I say to myself, "Hey! I've got a great idea for an April Fools Day joke", but the ideas I have usually require a ton of time and effort, and one week simply isn't enough time to get anything done. And then there's the fact that if I did post something on April 1st, I would imagine that people just aren't stupid enough to believe something that came-out of nowhere & was posted on somebody's blog. Still, even if I can't think of something clever that takes no time what-so-ever to do for today, I can still do something mildly entertaining, like another post focusing on the legendary Martin Filchock including some of his humor digest work. In 1936, Martin Filchock started working for The Comics Magazine Company, contributing features like "The C.C. Kid" and "Windy", and occasionally providing cover artwork. When the comic work dried-up, he moved on to providing one-page gags to Joseph J. Hardie & Raymond J. Kelly's humor digests. Presented today are a few of Filchock's covers, some pages from Star Ranger Funnies, and a few of his humor digest pages. In interviews, Filchock has stated that while working for The Comics Magazine Company, and then for Hardie & Kelly starting in 1938, he was paid $5.00 per page. It wasn't bad money for the time. I've seen Bob Lubbers state that he was paid $6.00 per page, while Lew Glanz (aka Louis Glanzman) says he was paid about $7.50 (but he also colored his own work). Anyway, when Filchock started providing artwork for Hardie & Kelly's humor digests (something he continued doing well into the 1950s), he was still paid $5.00 per page. That's not a bad deal, since, as you can see, the amount of work that went into a gag page was considerably less than what he put into a regular comic book page.

Art Appreciation: Martin Filchock

Today's stories are: Mighty Man from "Amazing-man Comics # 5" [September 1939]; The Ermine from "Fantoman # 2" [August 1940]; The Owl from "Funny Pages volume 4 number 1" [January 1940]; The CC Kid from "The Comics Magazine Funny Pages # 4-6" [August-November 1936]; The Electric Ray from "Amazing-man Comics # 26" [January 1942]; Windy from "The Comics Magazine Funny Pages # 5" [September 1936]; and Fire-Man from "Liberty Scouts Comics # 2" [June 1941].

To learn a little more about Martin Filchock and his career outside of comic books, visit the following sites: The Christian Science Monitor has an interview with Filchock from August 2006. Looking Back Magazine features Filchock's "Defective Detective", a feature similar to his "Check and Double Check" found in "Highlights For Children". The website, Everything Knoxville, has an interview with Filchock from September 2009, while AmericanProfile.com has an earlier interview from October 2004.

I'ld ramble-on today, but I'm fairly annoyed about something, and I don't want those feelings bleeding-over into something like this blog, which is supposed to be fun for all involved. So go and enjoy 40+ pages of Golden Age fun before you dart to the malls to finish (or start) your Christmas shopping.