WHO WAS THAT MASKED LOGO?

What jumps out at me when I look at the cover of The Lone Ranger
#44 [Dell; February 1952] is that terrific logo!  Whoever designed
it knew what they were doing.  Not only do you get the iconic mask
of the hero, but you get the title of the series in crystal-clear
white lettering on black.  It’s simple but more effective that most
of today’s comic-book logos.

We don’t know who painted this cover, but we do know who wrote and
drew most of the 36-page issue’s contents.  The Lone Ranger starred
in “The Masked Lady” (18 pages) by Paul S. Newman with art by Tom
Gill. 

Gaylord Du Bois wrote “When the Earth Opened” (2-page text) and a
9.5-page “Young Hawk” story drawn by Jon Small.  The latter’s worth
noting because the first Turok Son of Stone comic [Four Color #596;
October/November 1954] was originally written by Du Bois’ for his
earlier Native American hero. 

Rounding out the issue were “Red Cloud's First Battle,” a two-pager
which the Grand Comics Database describes as the “true story of
Sioux chief Red Cloud's first battle against the Army in Wyoming in
1866" and which has a follow-up story in The Lone Ranger #45...and
a single-page fact feature on “Indian Lingo.”

The Lone Ranger #44 hit the newsstands in December 1951, the month
of my birth.  I’ll have another Lone Ranger comic from that month
in tomorrow’s bloggy thing.

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If you happen to find yourself in the vicinity of Casa Isabella at
840 Damon Drive in Medina, Ohio on Friday or Saturday, September 7-
8, you’d do well to stop by one of the few remaining Tony Isabella
garage sales of the year.  As always, I’ll have thousands of comic
books (including a nice selection of comics and books suitable for
all ages), magazines, paperbacks, trade paperbacks and hardcovers
on sale at insanely low prices.  The sale hours are 10 am to 3 pm,
though, truth be told, I sometimes get excited and open the garage
door early. 

I’ll also be selling the very spiffy two-sided Superman/Clark Kent
poster created for Cleveland's International Superman Exposition in
1988.  I’ll be selling the posters for $20 each and there will be
a limited supply available.  After my garage sale customers have a
chance to buy them, I’ll make them available via mail order.  Look
for details on that next week.

Here’s the schedule for this summer’s remaining sales:

Friday, September 7 (10 am to 3 pm)

Saturday, September 8 (10 am to 3 pm)

Friday, September 21 (10 am to 3 pm)

Saturday, September 22 (10 am to 3 pm)

MYSTERY SALE Friday, October 5 (9 am to noon)

MYSTERY SALE Saturday, October 6 (9 am to noon)

MYSTERY SALE? What the heck is that all about?  I guess you’ll have
to ponder that for a while.  Heh, heh, heh.

******************************

Remember how in yesterday’s blog, I didn’t know much of anything
about Little Iodine?  Well, I know a little bit more today thanks
to this e-mail from Brent Frankenhoff, the editor of Comics Buyer’s
Guide.  He wrote:

Nope, not strip reprints as far as I can tell. It's a fun series,
with a kind of a Dennis the Menace as a girl vibe to it. It's not
really Little Lulu-like in that Iodine has male friends, but
they're not at odds as Lulu and Tubby can be, it's more of the
Iodine gets some screwy idea to help her dad or do something else
and she drags her friends into it to help. The usual round of
misunderstandings ensue.

You know, you can always ask Maggie [Thompson] or me about this
sort of stuff. Thanks to my folks and a whole mess of later
purchases, I've got plenty of comics from the late 40s/early 50s.
My maternal grandmother taught school in one-room schoolhouses in
northeastern Iowa and, as a reward for the kids, she'd let them
read comics. (Progressive lady.) She "borrowed" my mom's comics for
the purpose, but my mother, being the anally retentive person she
is, put her initials in pencil on the covers and counted exactly
how many went to school. They all had to come back home as well.
Grandma never threw them away and, when I was old enough, we
retrieved them from storage at my grandpa's farm. I've still got
every one. Mostly Dell Westerns, but some other oddities mixed in.
My dad's comics were a little older and I foolishly sold a big ol'
bunch of 'em (a good run of Joe Palooka, a bunch of Walt Disney's
Comics & Stories, etc.) just before I started at CBG. What did I
know? Kept his Popeyes, his one Captain Marvel Adventures (origin
of Billy Batson and his mean uncle), and a tattered Captain Marvel
Jr.

Thanks for the information, Brent, and for that great story about
your mom and grandmother.  It made my day.

There are two reasons why I don’t ask knowledgeable people like you
and Maggie for information before I post these bloggy things..

One good reason and one bad reason.

The bad reason...I don’t make a dime off my blog and, as a result,
I’m kinda lazy when it comes to researching stuff for it.  If I
can’t find information online and quickly, I embrace ignorance and
move on to whatever paying work I have on my desk.

The good reason...that occasional ignorance is part of what makes
this blog fun for me.  It reminds me of my earliest days in fandom
when the only way I found out anything about comics from before I
started buying and reading comics was if I read a fanzine article
about them or talked with someone who was around when those comics
were published. 

I have read almost none of these comics from my birth month.  If I
had access to them, I would devote an entire blog to writing about
each issue.  But, since I don’t, I seek out whatever knowledge is
easily available online and hope for more information from fellow
fans.  Once again, thanks for the note.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella