But, first, a few words about Tip Top Comics.
Born in 1939, during the golden age comix boom, Tip Top was published by United Features Syndicate. At the time, they held a number of popular newspaper strips (Nancy, Li'l Abner, Tarzan, Ella Cinders, Captain and the Kids, et al).
Rather than widely license their characters to publishers such as Dell or National, UFS chose to repackage their back-dated properties into a poorly-printed monthly funnybook.
As such, Tip Top toddled along for years. Heavier emphasis was placed on Ernie Bushmiller's "Nancy" strips. Reprints of Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" and Gus Arriola's criminally under-reprinted "Gordo" spiced up the pot in the 1950s, as did reprints of Bob Lubbers' elegant artwork and layouts on the '50s "Tarzan" strip.
Dell licensed Tarzan in 1947. Jesse Marsh beautifully and boldly illustrated the ape man's exploits for the next two decades. They seem to have left all other UFS properties alone until their buy-out of the surviving UFS comic books in 1958.
EC Trivia Tidbit: Jack Davis and Harvey Kurtzman had their first published works in Tip Top!
Tip Top changed hands twice. After 187 UFS-published issues, St. John Comics took it over through issue 210. Like the companion Nancy and Sluggo book, it was absorbed by Dell/Western in the late 1950s.
Dell obviously held little hope for Tip Top. It was published quarterly: the kiss of death for a licensed anthology title.
Dell dispensed with comic-strip reprints and created new material. They pared it down to four features-- Nancy, Peanuts, Sluggo and the execrable Captain + Kids.
As John Stanley wound down his tenure with the Little Lulu family of titles, he took over the Nancy features--a classic lateral move. In Stanley's hands, Nancy & Co. smacked of Little Lulu & Co., with some telling distinctions.
Clearly weary of the Lulu formula (after hundreds of stories, he'd earned the right to be weary), Stanley explored darker motifs with the Nancy series.
His run on the Nancy/Nancy and Sluggo comics is brilliant work--as Drawn + Quarterly's reprint series will attest. Up until now, I've thought that Stanley had little-to-no involvement with Tip Top Comics.
I'll take a yack-break so you can see the cover to Tip Top 218. Dynamic graphics, eh?
Here's my theory about this work. I believe that Tip Top was edited in the West Coast offices of the Dell empire, while Nancy & Sluggo was created and edited on the East Coast.
Everything about Tip Top smacks of Western's California offices: mediocre cover schemes, inferior writing and editing, compared to the East Coast office's output, and a stronger sense of playing it straight.
Another tell: the Peanuts stories were produced by Dale Hale and Jim Sasseville, local pals of Charles Schulz who, at the time, lived in California. Schulz once noted that he allowed this original material because "...it gave me a chance to have a couple of friends do something."
The Nancy/Sluggo stuff in Tip Top feels like John Stanley's work, with some weird changes. My theory: Stanley wrote these, in his typical thumbnail-script form. The scripts were mailed out to California, where one of the heavy-handed West Coast editors did his or her worst to neuter them.
You can't keep a good man down. "The Empty Piggy Bank" teems with Stanley tells (aggressive physical movement, intense SFX and the unmistakable "Ha! Ha! Ha!"). His trademark "YOWs" are changed to less-appealing "EE-YOWs" by the clueless editor.
There are some great lines in this story--Nancy's quite correct thought-balloon about adults, on p.1, panel three, and her cutting-contest-worthy put-down of Rollo Haveall on p.4, panel 4.
I feel that this is Stanley's work, compromised by an unsympathetic editor. See what you think...
Sluggo and McOnion, his borderline-psycho neighbor, co-star in "Long-Distance Brawl." The California editor left his or her red pencil on the desk--thank goodness!--in this very funny, edgy, dark battle of wits.
Loads of Stanley tells--"windmill action," "Ha! Ha! Ha!," floating eyes in blackness, SFX in balloons--distinguish this piece. As well, Stanley's dialogue. is peppered with sitcom-sharp barbs, retorts and hypothetical questions. The most affecting occurs on the bottom half of p.2, in which McOnion's emotional breakdown is shattered by a seemingly naive question by Sluggo.
Here's the story.
This is tip-top quality John Stanley work. The "Sluggo" stories in Tip Top are less compromised than the "Nancy" entries. I've spotted other Stanley pieces in issues 219, 220 and 222. It's possible that 221 (which I don't have at present) contains Stanley material, as well.
Dell ceased Tip Top with issue 225. This was published in 1961. The last three issues have no Stanley input. Some poor schmo tried to write like Stanley, and missed the mark horribly.
Caveat: early Dell issues of Tip Top do not have Stanley work. You can see just how bad the West Coast Dell writers could be in those stories. Ditto the "Captain & Kids" stuff. Hale and Sasseville's "Peanuts" material is an interesting failure--fascinating stuff for its intentions, and how close it comes to succeeding.
Let me know your thoughts on today's post. I'm fascinated that there are still Stanley stories left to discover...
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