©2020 Ken Quattro In previous posts I covered Gabriel Lynn and his contributions to the comic book controversy in the 1940s with his writings for the Catechetical Guild. Some of his background was included in the post entitled Wertham’s Forebearers.  His first pamphlet THE CASE AGAINST THE COMICS in its entirety can be found elsewhere on this blog. Here then…

©2020 Ken Quattro   Aurora Plastics products comprised a major part of my childhood. I had an Aurora N-guage model trains set, and Aurora slot car set, and I built a ridiculous number of Aurora models during my youth. Model planes, model cars, model ships. When they came out with models based upon historic sporting events–Babe Ruth hitting his 60th…

©2020 Ken Quattro “Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’”   Lewis Carroll found a way of expressing the absurd lengths one goes once a journey is undertaken. It’s like he knew me.   It began simply enough. I found a giveaway comic up for auction…

©2020 Ken Quattro   In a previous post I discussed Gabriel Lynn’s 1944 booklet, THE CASE AGAINST THE COMICS published by the Catechetical Guild. As a public service, I am sharing scans of the entire contents of this rare and historical pamphlet. Right click on the smaller images and then click “View Image” to see them in larger size. The…

©2020 Ken Quattro Virtually every comic fan with even a cursory interest in the history of the medium, knows the name of Dr. Fredric Wertham, psychiatrist, author and comic book critic. Just the mention of his name is enough to evoke some slanderous remark, a dismissive eye roll, a curse. But he wasn’t the first to criticize comics. Not by…

Welcome to the first in a series of what of what I call, CURATED COMICS. The purpose of these articles will be the presentation of underappreciated, little seen or overlooked comic characters, titles, series or even stories, along with background information to help give a reason for their significance and to explain why they were chosen. ©2019 Ken Quattro Consider…

Several years back, I discovered this short piece in a 1940 issue of VARIETY concerning a a lawsuit filed by Victor S. Fox and Fox Publications, against Timely Publications, et. al. The article below gives some background to this suit, but unfortunately, at this time I haven’t found out whether this even went trial. I welcome any further information anyone…

©2019 Ken Quattro The vast majority of people reading the Oct. 25, 1940, issue of FAMILY CIRCLE magazine had no way of knowing that it was a setup. The featured interview with Dr. William M. Marston, conducted by “Olive Richard,” was in reality, an interview between a husband and one of his two co-habiting wives. “Olive Richard” was the pseudonym…

©2019 Ken Quattro Comic book defender, Josette Frank of the Child Study Association of America (CSAA) and Edwin Lukas, Executive Director of the Society for Crime Prevention, were in the audience on March 2, 1948, for the radio broadcast of “America’s Town Meeting of the Air.” A panel comprised of drama critic John Mason Brown, writer Marya Mannes, cartoonist Al…

©2019 Ken Quattro New Yorkers like to claim that it’s their water that makes their pizza and bagels taste better than anywhere else. I’m not about to get into that debate, but I will say there must be something in their environment that produces comic creators. Of course, the proximity of the comic book industry to the NYC schools has…