Number 1161: Joe Certa's vampire and werewolf

Joe Certa, another journeyman comic book artist who began his career in the 1940s, was the longtime artist on "J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter From Mars" for DC, and was also drawing for Gold Key in the '60s. The fine work he'd done for Harvey's horror comics in the '50s put him in good stead with GK titles like Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery and Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

These two shorts, "The Vampires" and "The Monster of Auvergne," are both from Ripley's #4 (1967). Since Gold Key wasn't covered by the Comics Code Authority they could show vampires and werewolves, which were prohibited at the time by the CCA. (The Code restrictions were lifted eventually, when the little kids who were being "protected" from such mythical creatures in the late '50s and '60s were either going to college, or even if still young, had seen much worse on television.) Certa's "Vampire" came out just about the time the story of the "original" Dracula, Vlad the Impaler—well known in Eastern countries—was beginning to become known to Westerners. Certa apparently used no references when he drew the historical panel of "Drakula."

Certa was born in 1919, and died in 1986.

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Number 615


The birth after death stories


In May of this year Karswell of The Horrors Of It All showed us a story from a 1953 issue of Black Magic about the circumstances of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. I'll link you to it after you've read the version of the story from Harvey Comics' Ripley's Believe It Or Not #4, 1954.

According to the story behind the story, writer Jack Oleck borrowed from himself, penning both the Black Magic and Ripley's stories. It happens...a guy is on a tight deadline, he's straining for ideas, and why not use this one? After all, the guys who publish and edit Harvey Comics didn't look at Prize Comics' products...but the readers did.

Now check out the Simon and Kirby version of this story from The Horrors Of It All.

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Number 109


Howard Nostrand Holds That Tiger!


Ripley's Believe It Or Not! was a very popular newspaper comics panel for decades. It's still being published, now drawn by John Graziano. It was a natural for a comic book, and the title has a history, either as a comic book feature, or in its own title, throughout the Golden Age and beyond.

Harvey's Ripley's Believe It Or Not! #4, dated March, 1954, has a story by Howard Nostrand, who did a terrific job of appropriating Jack Davis's art style. This job looks mostly Davis, although he could sometimes mix in a little of Wally Wood's style for a really nice double pastiche of those popular EC cartoonists. Pappy's #15 shows one of Nostrand's classic Harvey horror comics strips, "Ivan's Woe," done with a mix of Davis/Wood styles.

The artwork in the newspaper comic panel of Ripley's Believe It Or Not! used the technique of shading with a grease pencil on the textured surface of an illustration paper called coquille board. Sports and editorial cartoonists used it for years, but it seems to have fallen out of favor. Nostrand's shading on "The Man Who Was a Tiger!" is masterful. As a matter of fact, the whole strip is excellent. I especially love the "open" panels, which emulate the look of the newspaper Ripley's, while retaining the continuity of a comic book story.

As for whether I believe the story, "The Man Who Was a Tiger," despite the last panel's claim, "…wholly attested by the Yearbook of the Residency of Sumatra, 1927!"...c'mon, do I look like my mother raised a fool for a son? Wait. Don't answer that.

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