Big Little Books were first published in 1932, with prose on the left side and a single illustration on the right. The books starred many popular characters from comic strips, cartoons, movies and television, including Popeye, Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Tarzan, Donald Duck, Lassie, Flipper, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Man from Uncle, Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear.
You can read more about the history of Big Little Books here:
http://www.biglittlebooks.com/learning.html
William Johnston is credited with writing the 1968 Big Little Book featuring the Fantastic Four, which was published by Whitman. Curious about William Johnston's background, I searched online and discovered his fascinating history:
http://iamtw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/news-1-10.pdf
The first four pages provides you with Johnston's bibliography. He was a prolific writer whose books included many television tie-ins. His most successful run was on Get Smart, but he was versatile. and other books included Dr. Kildare, Room 222, Bewitched, Ironside and novelizations of movies such as Klute. Surprisingly, he left the field of writing and became a bartender in the 1970's.
I've had this book in my possession for 45 years, ever since it was purchased, likely at Woolworth's, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, where I resided as a child. It is one of the earliest comics related items I own that goes back that far, with the paperback version of All In Color For A Dime a close second. Herb Trimpe pencils, John Verpoorten inks.
While Johnston, who wrote other material for Whitman, was credited as author (and, while clearly written for a young audience, Johnston did a worthy job of making the characters, particularly Ben, whose wisecracks remained intact, sound like their comic book counterparts), the artists were brought in from Marvel, although they were not credited in the book. Herb Trimpe was a relative newcomer to the field - as noted in my previous post - but he was given the assignment mainly, as he once explained to me, because Kirby was too busy on his comic book work and didn't have the time to produce outside work. While Trimpe was new to the field, he quickly adapted to the Marvel style, and clearly followed Kirby's look as closely as possible on this job.
Trimpe does an acceptable job of aping Kirby's style, as seen on this page. This image was also used for a jigsaw puzzle that was produced around the same time. I had that puzzle also, although, sadly, it has been lost to the ages.
Trimpe worked on staff for Marvel in this period, as did production assistant (and later production head, replacing Sol Brodsky) John Verpoorten. Verpoorten was assigned to ink the book, and did a fine job, with his style very much in the mold of Joe Sinnott.
A Kirby-esque image of Reed and Sue by Trimpe and Verpoorten. Trimpe got the hang of Kirby's style early on, and would soon go on to draw the Hulk for a long and successful run.
As can be seen by this illo, Trimpe had a good sense of storytelling, producing a dramatic illustration. While some of his drawings were not as confident, and he relied on Kirby swipes on some pages, overall Trimpe did a fine job on this assignment.
There were a few drawings of the FF throughout the book that may have been replaced with stats of Kirby artwork. This was likely due to the characters not looking "correct". The above image of the FF is one that I've found.
Taken from page 3; panel 3 of Fantastic Four # 77, August 1968. This image was statted and used for the Big Little Book, with Sue added.
There are also a few drawings throughout the book that don't look like Trimpe/Verpoorten. The above figures have poses and a confidence of line that look like Kirby's concurrent FF work, particularly the Thing, It's possible this may also be a stat from an FF issue, although thus far I've not found the image in either the monthly comic or the Annuals. It's also a distinct possibility that Kirby was asked to pencil one or two drawings to replace a less dynamic picture while he was in the office.
Here is another scene that has the FF in poses that are too perfect to be Trimpe drawings, although Reed's face may be altered by another hand. Again, this could be a stat from an FF issue, and if anyone finds where it was originally from I'll add the info here. Aside from these two illustrations, I don't see signs of any other possibly new Kirby artwork. The rest of the page is clearly the work of Trimpe/Verpoorten, though.
The possibility of other hands involved in the book exists. While it looks to my eye that John Verpoorten inked the majority of the book, there are a few illos that look like the work of another inker. The pencils here are by Trimpe, although the inking on Dr. Weird's face has an unusual look.
This illustration is even more distinctive, and while it may be pencilled by Trimpe, I see signs of inking and/or alterations by Bill Everett. This would not be unusual, as Everett was working on staff at the time, but the eyebrows, nose and mouth have stylistic touches that Everett is recognized for.
I hope you've enjoyed taking a trip back to uncover some 45 year old secrets as much as I have. It's been a long time since I've opened that well worn Big Little Book, but, as I've often found, there's usually something new and interesting to discover.
You can read more about the history of Big Little Books here:
http://www.biglittlebooks.com/learning.html
William Johnston is credited with writing the 1968 Big Little Book featuring the Fantastic Four, which was published by Whitman. Curious about William Johnston's background, I searched online and discovered his fascinating history:
http://iamtw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/news-1-10.pdf
The first four pages provides you with Johnston's bibliography. He was a prolific writer whose books included many television tie-ins. His most successful run was on Get Smart, but he was versatile. and other books included Dr. Kildare, Room 222, Bewitched, Ironside and novelizations of movies such as Klute. Surprisingly, he left the field of writing and became a bartender in the 1970's.
I've had this book in my possession for 45 years, ever since it was purchased, likely at Woolworth's, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, where I resided as a child. It is one of the earliest comics related items I own that goes back that far, with the paperback version of All In Color For A Dime a close second. Herb Trimpe pencils, John Verpoorten inks.
While Johnston, who wrote other material for Whitman, was credited as author (and, while clearly written for a young audience, Johnston did a worthy job of making the characters, particularly Ben, whose wisecracks remained intact, sound like their comic book counterparts), the artists were brought in from Marvel, although they were not credited in the book. Herb Trimpe was a relative newcomer to the field - as noted in my previous post - but he was given the assignment mainly, as he once explained to me, because Kirby was too busy on his comic book work and didn't have the time to produce outside work. While Trimpe was new to the field, he quickly adapted to the Marvel style, and clearly followed Kirby's look as closely as possible on this job.
Trimpe does an acceptable job of aping Kirby's style, as seen on this page. This image was also used for a jigsaw puzzle that was produced around the same time. I had that puzzle also, although, sadly, it has been lost to the ages.
Trimpe worked on staff for Marvel in this period, as did production assistant (and later production head, replacing Sol Brodsky) John Verpoorten. Verpoorten was assigned to ink the book, and did a fine job, with his style very much in the mold of Joe Sinnott.
A Kirby-esque image of Reed and Sue by Trimpe and Verpoorten. Trimpe got the hang of Kirby's style early on, and would soon go on to draw the Hulk for a long and successful run.
As can be seen by this illo, Trimpe had a good sense of storytelling, producing a dramatic illustration. While some of his drawings were not as confident, and he relied on Kirby swipes on some pages, overall Trimpe did a fine job on this assignment.
There were a few drawings of the FF throughout the book that may have been replaced with stats of Kirby artwork. This was likely due to the characters not looking "correct". The above image of the FF is one that I've found.
Taken from page 3; panel 3 of Fantastic Four # 77, August 1968. This image was statted and used for the Big Little Book, with Sue added.
There are also a few drawings throughout the book that don't look like Trimpe/Verpoorten. The above figures have poses and a confidence of line that look like Kirby's concurrent FF work, particularly the Thing, It's possible this may also be a stat from an FF issue, although thus far I've not found the image in either the monthly comic or the Annuals. It's also a distinct possibility that Kirby was asked to pencil one or two drawings to replace a less dynamic picture while he was in the office.
Here is another scene that has the FF in poses that are too perfect to be Trimpe drawings, although Reed's face may be altered by another hand. Again, this could be a stat from an FF issue, and if anyone finds where it was originally from I'll add the info here. Aside from these two illustrations, I don't see signs of any other possibly new Kirby artwork. The rest of the page is clearly the work of Trimpe/Verpoorten, though.
The possibility of other hands involved in the book exists. While it looks to my eye that John Verpoorten inked the majority of the book, there are a few illos that look like the work of another inker. The pencils here are by Trimpe, although the inking on Dr. Weird's face has an unusual look.
This illustration is even more distinctive, and while it may be pencilled by Trimpe, I see signs of inking and/or alterations by Bill Everett. This would not be unusual, as Everett was working on staff at the time, but the eyebrows, nose and mouth have stylistic touches that Everett is recognized for.
I hope you've enjoyed taking a trip back to uncover some 45 year old secrets as much as I have. It's been a long time since I've opened that well worn Big Little Book, but, as I've often found, there's usually something new and interesting to discover.
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