Red Ryder Comics #31

(February 1946)

"We were not!" (Table of Contents: 1)

Boots / comic story / 1 page (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

?

Inks

?

Colors

?

Letters

?

Reprints

• From Boots newspaper comic strip (N. E. A. Service, Inc.), 1943, Sunday.

Indexer Notes

On inside front cover in black, white and red.

[Bank Bandits ends; Navajo Malfeasance begins] (Table of Contents: 2)

Red Ryder / comic story / 14 pages (report information)

Script

Stephen Slesinger

Pencils

Fred Harman (signed)

Inks

Fred Harman (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

?

Job Number

R.R.C.31-462

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Well, old timer... with your outfit I'll go over big at the masquerade tonight!

Genre

western-frontier

Characters

Red Ryder; Little Beaver; Po-ko; Old Timer; Quartz City Marshal; Tuck (bandit); Tuck's sister (bandit); Pine Gulch Sheriff; renegade Navajo Marauders; crooked Navajo chief; Navajo medicine man; crooked reservation sheriff

Reprints

• From Red Ryder newspaper comic strip (N. E. A. Service, Inc.), 1943, reformatted for comic books.

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 3)

Telecomics / comic story / 9 pages (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

?

Inks

?

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

I just know something dreadful has happened to that boy

Indexer Notes

strip reprints?

[Seal Poacher's Revenge] (Table of Contents: 4)

Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted / comic story / 10 pages (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

Jim Gary

Inks

Jim Gary

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Get off our boat, Tyson!

Genre

adventure; drama; crime; western-frontier

Characters

Dave King (a Canadian Mountie); Buck Tyson (a seal poacher); Dentist Jim; Sheila; Kid (King's young sidekick); Malo (Buck's half-breed native lackey); the boys (Buck's crew); Factor (trading post proprietor)

Reprints

• From Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted newspaper comic strip (King Features Syndicate, Inc.), 1941, reformatted for comic books.

Indexer Notes

Art identification by Steinar Ådland December 2010. Produced in Stephen Slesinger Inc.'s New York offices.

Little Beaver Plays With Dynamite (Table of Contents: 5)

Little Beaver / text story / 3 pages (report information)

Script

Gayord Du Bois

Pencils

Fred Harman (signed)

Inks

Fred Harman (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

typeset

First Line of Dialogue or Text

A strange sight met Little Beaver and Po-ko, as they reined their ponies into Red Ryder's ranch yard.

Genre

adventure; humor; animal; nature; western-frontier

Characters

Little Beaver; Red Ryder; Po-ko; Dynamite (a Rocky Mountain Bighorn ram); ruster 1; ruster 2

Synopsis

Red wants to be shut of a gift from the governor, Dynamite, an ornery Rocky Mountain Bighorn ram. He can't give him away without hurting the governor's feelings, but he might trade him. Little Beaver demands he first ride and break the ranch-raised ram, before any trade. Dynamite takes him on a wild death defying ride, culminating in an attack on two rustlers by the ornery beast.

Indexer Notes

Text story with illustrations. Writer credit per Gaylord Du Bois's Account Books Arranged By Title, compiled by Randall W. Scott (Michigan State University Libraries, East Lansing, 1985).

Du Bois markers:

1) Typical of Du Bois, he identifies the characters' names, the place, and situation, right off the bat, in the first three sentences: "A strange sight met Little Beaver and Po-ko, as they reined their ponies into Red Ryder's ranch yard. Atop the high cross-bar over the corral gate sat Red himself, while on the top rail, just below him, stood the biggest and horniest male sheep that the kids had ever seen. The ram's mighty horns curved back in a complete circle that ended in polished points." (Compare the Captain Easy story in the next sequence, in which the name of the protagonist, Lulu Belle, is not given at all, a flaw of reformatting a newspaper strip for comic books.)

2) Wordplay:
a) The title, "Little Beaver Plays with Dynamite," takes the familiar metaphorical phrase "playing with dynamite," making it literal, as the ram's name is Dynamite
b) A sexual double entendre for older readers, in reference to the the Rocky Mountain Bighorn: "stood the biggest and horniest male sheep that the kids had ever seen."

3) Didactics in setting, and words:
a) The plot is sheep-centric ("Rocky Mountain Bighorn ram"), and Little Beaver is Navajo, who are famous sheepmen.
b) The text tells of the ram's eye color: "green."
c) Technical and regional vocabulary is used: "surcingle"; "a stony barranca or gully cut the range."
d) Reference to a famous characteristic of the breed: "sure footed." It is the principal plot point, as Little Beaver is taken on a hair raising ride.
e) Use of "bench" in the technical geography sense: "Beyond a gully the ground rose in broken, rocky benches."
f) Use of "knob" in its general sense: "a knob of rock just big enough for his four hooves."
g) Rock formations sheep use: "from niche to ledge to bump."

4) Animal language. Du Bois usually gives his reality-based comics' animals an onomatopoeia vocabulary.
a) Here we get the hardly original "BAAAH!"
b) And, "With a blatt of defiance." (American Heritage Dictionary defines "blat" intransitive verb as "To cry, especially like a sheep; bleat.")

5) Animals. This is an animal-centric story, a Du Bois hallmark. Dynamite is an active character driving the plot.

6) Dialect. Use of dialect is ubiquitous in Du Bois stories. Here he is hampered by Harmon's having established the Little Beaver character as a comic stereotype who speak-um in well established fictional Injun patois, you betchum, and Du Bois is faithful to Harmon's creation. "'Ugh!' he grunted. 'Mebbeso me swap-um, but first me ride-em.'" But the script does contain a "tha's all," a more natural sounding accent.

7) Native culture: The animal here is a ram, and Little Beaver is Navajo, a people whose economy is based on sheep and goats. Du Bois imbues Little Beaver with dignity and fortitude despite his comic persona. Little Beaver rides the ram, as he said he would, though it proved a much bigger task than he anticipated; and resolves without any help from Red what conflict with the rustlers is left after Dynamite is through. Instead of acting the hero, Red is Little Beaver's foil: "Me pay-um Red Ryder two rustlers for one bonehead sheep-ram. Heap good trade, you betchum!"

8) Brains over brawn, a Du Bois staple. Little Beaver is no Superman, and the rustlers have pistols, while he is unarmed, and they are grown men, while he is a child. Using his wits to confront a superior force, he takes advantage of the tools to hand, and, using stealth, comes up from behind and touches the rustlers' hot branding iron to the back of the first rustler's neck, disarming him, and gaining control of the situation.

[Drug Runners concludes. Romance begins.] (Table of Contents: 6)

Captain Easy / comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Roy Crane with Leslie Turner

Pencils

Roy Crane with Leslie Turner

Inks

Roy Crane with Leslie Turner

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

This is what I call smart smuggling!

Characters

Captain Easy; Lulu Belle; Narcotics Inspector Lyons; crime boss Hymie; dope smuggler Steve; dope smuggler Goldie; policeman Joe; policeman Joe's partner; Lulu Belle's admirer

Synopsis

Captain Easy and Lulu Belle, aiding the authorities, capture the ring of drug smugglers. A well-dressed timorous little man attempts to chat up Lulu. She rebuffs him.

Reprints

• From Captain Easy newspaper comic strip (N. E. A. Service, Inc.), 1942.

Indexer Notes

Lulu Belle's name is never mentioned. She is only called Fat Broad.

[Tale of a Great King] (Table of Contents: 7)

Alley Oop / comic story / 2 pages (report information)

Script

V. T. Hamlin

Pencils

V. T. Hamlin

Inks

V. T. Hamlin

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Our hero's hippopotamus-hunting adventure served to help him find Queen Cleopatra, but in a rather startling manner.

Genre

adventure; humor; historical; military; science fiction

Characters

Alley Oop; Cleopatra; the grand councillors

Synopsis

Alley Oop's insubordination sets him at odds with Cleopatra, who threatens to have him face a court martial. He points out he is the highest ranking officer, so there's no court he could be tried by. When she threatens him with hanging, he asks her will she put the rope around his neck? Her courtiers advise she follow a historical example, paraphrasing 2 Samuel 11:15. She sends Alley Oop off with a light column to the frontier of hostile territory far south of Alexandria.

Reprints

• From Alley Oop newspaper comic strip (N. E. A. Service, Inc.), 1941.

[Love and War] (Table of Contents: 8)

Biff Baker / comic story / 4 pages (report information)

Script

Ernest Lynn [as Henry Lee]

Pencils

Henry Schlensker [as Henry Lee]

Inks

Henry Schlensker [as Henry Lee]

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

A U.S. Army Air Forces Base somewhere in England

Genre

drama; humor; romance; war

Characters

Biff Baker; Stu Warren; Fizz Hamilton; Captain Stover; Philippa Downing; Major; Morrison

Synopsis

Biff and Phil fall in love in England. The war interferes: Biff, Stu, and Fizz are transferred to North Africa. Once there, Biff is told he will continue on to the East.

Reprints

• From Biff Baker newspaper comic strip (N. E. A. Service, Inc.), Sundays, 1943, reformatted for comic books.

Indexer Notes

This was perhaps a Sunday only strip (searching finds no dailies). This 4 page episode just about fits four Sunday pages reformatted for comic books.

Biff is told he will continue on to the [Far] East. (According to the Lambiek Comiclopedia, cartoonist Hank Schlensker was with the Army Air Corps in East Asia during World War II.)

[Zula Means Home] (Table of Contents: 9)

Freckles and his Friends / comic story / 2 pages (report information)

Script

Fred Fox [as Blosser]

Pencils

Henry Formhals [as Blosser] (on dailies, and assistant on Sunday strip); Merrill Blosser [as Blosser] (on Sunday strip)

Inks

Henry Formhals [as Blosser] (on dailies, and assistant on Sunday strip); Merrill Blosser [as Blosser] (on Sunday strip)

Colors

?

Letters

?

First Line of Dialogue or Text

We're getting further North every hour, Lard!

Genre

humor; romance; teen

Characters

Freckles McGoosey; Lard Smith (only 1940-07-05, 1940-07-07); cruise director (only 1940-07-05); bandleader (only 1940-07-06); Zula (first appearance, only 1940-07-06, 1940-07-07); Kritts (only 1940-07-07)

Synopsis

Shipboard introductions are interrupted by a young woman who challenges Biff's bragging on his high school football team, as she stands up for her school's team which rival Biff's. Kritts beats Biff's time with the girl before Biff even learns her name. Biff bemoans the sitch to Lard, who then diverts Kritts. Kritts takes it out on Lard with a boot to Lard's buttocks.

Reprints

• From Freckles and his Friends newspaper comic strip (N. E. A. Service, Inc.), dailies from 1940-07-05 - 1940-07-06
• Sunday from 1940-07-07
• reformatted for comic books.

Indexer Notes

Dailies on inside back cover, in red and black. Sunday strip on back cover, in four-color.

Inside back cover contains two dailies gags, drawn by Henry Formhals. Back cover is a Sunday strip, drawn by Merrill Blosser, assisted by Formhals.