Markley’s Fevered Brain: Yoe! It’s a Triple Play!

Wayne Markley

Wayne Markley


by Wayne Markley

I have written a number of times in the past about the work Craig Yoe (and his cohorts) has been doing in collecting and reprinting the odd and obscure parts of comic history. He regularly publishes Haunted Horror and Weird Love, two comics reprinting horror and romance stories from the ‘40s-‘70s showing just how strange comics have been in the past. These are great snapshots of comic history. He also does very nice hardcover collections reprinting different aspects of comic’s history, and this time I am going to look at three of these collections. It varies from classic fairy tales by the legendary Walt (Pogo) Kelly and a couple of collections of horror comics that have long been forgotten by modern fans, if they even had any idea they ever existed.

Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales

Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales


Walt Kelly is without question best remembered for the classic newspaper strip (and the comic before that) called Pogo. But Walt Kelly did a number of comics before Pogo and a lot of these stories, but by no means all of them, were recently collected by Yoe in a stunning hardcover called Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales. Before discussing the contents of this book let me talk about the book itself. It is a large oversized hardcover with an embossed cover with gold leave pages and the design looks like a children’s book from the turn of the last century. It is just a beautiful piece of design. It is over 300 pages and given the price of $39.99, it is a bargain.

Inside there are 24 stories all telling classic fairy tales written and drawn by Walt Kelly. Some of these are well known, such as Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rip Van Winkle, while others are lesser known such as The Wise Men of Gotham (which has nothing to do with Batman), Tiny Folk and the Dragon, and Big Claus and Little Claus. All of these are appropriate for all ages and are a joy to read. Most of these stories first appeared in the 1940s in a comic called Fairy Tale Parade which was published by Dell from 1942 to 1944. Now these are not complete reprinting of Fairy Tale Parade, just the stories by Walt Kelly.

While reading this volume it struck me how much Kelly’s art evolved over this period of time. You can see him becoming more and more polished and developing the style that would come to Pogo in later years. These early stories reminded me of the Our Gang stories that Kelly did that Fantagraphics collected a few years ago. In these stories the art is obviously Walt Kelly, but it lacks the distinct Kelly look that developed over time and can be more clearly seen in the later stories in this collection. Overall this is a great read for kids, adults or adults reading to kids.

Ghosts and Girls of Fiction House

Ghosts and Girls of Fiction House


Ghosts and Girls of Fiction House is part of Craig Yoe’s Chilling Archives of Horror Comics (Volume 11 in fact). It is a full color hardcover coming in at almost 200 pages. It reprints a number of horror stories about dames in various states of duress reprinted from both Jumbo Comics and Ghosts, both published by Fiction House in the 1940s and 1950s. There is a lot to enjoy in this book, from the introduction by Michael Price to the lengthy historical articles about the characters and the artists. Then there are, of course, the stories themselves. Almost all of the stories are Ghost Gallery by Drew Murdoch. These stories are similar to DC’s Roy Raymond, except Drew was first. Each story is a standalone story and involves a ghost and, generally, women in peril. While there is a formula, it works in that there is a fair amount of creativity in the stories so you are not reading the same thing over and over. Well, at least based on the stories reprinted in this collection.

The early stories are drawn by Bob Hebberd and later stories are drawn by Alex Blum and even later by Jack Kamen, who became well known for his work for EC Comics. There are also other artists here and there. I enjoyed these stories, and they did tend to be creepy (and at times silly). It did make me want to read more and I would not mind seeing a complete reprinting of these stories. Or at least a second volume. Also I would be remiss if I did not mention the cover gallery, mostly from Ghosts, where there are a number of examples of good girl art of women being threatened by ghosts and other horrors. These are not lurid like the men’s adventure magazines that would come later, but you can see the attempt to cater to that audience. (This actually came out of the pulps from the 30s where women in peril was a popular theme on the cover images.) Overall this is a great book showing a niche of comic history that is often overlooked and rarely seen.

Haunted Horror Vol. 3: Pre-Code Comics So Good, They’re Scary

Haunted Horror Vol. 3: Pre-Code Comics So Good, They’re Scary


While discussing Yoe’s horror collections, he also recently released the third hardcover collecting the comic of the same name, Haunted Horror. This volume is subtitled Pre-Code Comics So Good, They’re Scary. I really like these collections, even though I read the comics that came before this hardcover collection because the HCs are oversized and the art looks so much better in this large format. This book, as with almost all of the Yoe Library, makes for easy reading as they can be read all at one time or you can read a story or two and come back to it at a later date. Unlike modern comics where it is a never ending soap opera (including horror comics) these are short (generally 10 pages) stories that are both scary and unsettling, sometime just because of how bad they are. Great material for horror fans or people interested in the history of comics. I should mention that many of these stories are as good as, or better than, the more well-known EC stories that get all the acclaim.

I take my hat off to Craig Yoe for once again finding and bringing to light an almost lost part of comic history. I am all for anything that shows off some of the amazing diversity in the history of comics outside of superheroes. In the coming months ,Mr. Yoe has more of the line of Archives of Chilling Horror planned and I for one cannot wait to read them. Also, it should be noted that all of Craig Yoe’s collections are put together by Yoe and his team, and the design work is some of the best in the business, but the actual publisher of record on all of these books is IDW. Mr. Yoe and his staff put the books together, editorial, design, content, etc. but IDW does the actually printing, distribution, etc. It makes for a very nice combination.

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Last of the Clan McDuck HC

Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Last of the Clan McDuck HC


As a quick side note, Fantagraphics just released the fourth volume of their complete reprinting of Don Rosa’s Disney work. As with the prior volumes, this is comic storytelling at its finest and the historical and background articles are fascinating. This volume begins the reprinting of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. This has always been a modern high point in Duck history, and Rosa’s insight to what he was doing, why he did what he did, the scary amount of research he put into each story, both historical and on Bark’s stories, is amazing. This volume once again includes Rosa’s breakdowns for pages that were never used but show insight to what may have been. Rosa shows the McDuck family line back to the earliest days of England and the Romans. (This part of the story did not make the final cut so this is the first time these pages have ever been seen in print.) This alone is worth the price for any Disney or Duck fan.

I would recommend any of these books for holiday gifts or for your own library. Everything I have written here is my opinion and in no way reflects the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I would love to hear what you think. Have you read any of these books? What do you think? Did you enjoy them as much as I did? I would like to know. I can be reached at MFBWAY@AOL.COM. As always,

Thank you.

USER COMMENTS

We'd love to hear from you, feel free to add to the discussion!


Notice: Undefined variable: user_ID in /home/wfcomics/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/westfield2010/comments.php on line 73