Writer Profile
Bill Gulick
Tales of the working man
Writer Profile
Bill Gulick
Tales of the working man
I discovered author Bill Gulick after finding several issues of Liberty Magazine at archive.org. One in particular was the April 4th issue from 1942. The story was “The Saga of Mike Shannon”. What intrigued at first was the accompanying artwork by illustrator Edwin Henry, the image of large brute grasping the wrist of an attractive young lady who was surrounded by angry faces. In the story the corresponding event was captured perfectly by Henry.
What surprised me most about this story was the author’s attention to detail. I couldn’t find much information on Gulick’s personal life only that he was a writer and historian. After reading this story one can assume he either worked on high tension lines or did considerable research. He makes the most technical details seem interesting and captures the dangers of the job, and makes the reader respect the hazards these men face on the job.
I’ve included a link to the April 4th 1942 issue in it’s entirety for your reading enjoyment, and maybe after reading this you may think twice about calling the power company to complain when your power goes out after a thunder storm.
American Look, 1959
dashboard PROMOTIONAL film celebrating the 1959 Chevrolet automobile line as an exemplar of American industrial design and styling.
American Look highlights the contribution of interior, industrial, product, and automobile designers to the “populuxe” era; the term was coined by writer Thomas Hine to describe the late-1950s stylistic fusion of luxury and mass-produced consumer goods.
This wide-screen spectacular showcases an array of contemporary architectural exteriors, interiors, packaging, office equipment, and industrial machines and ends by revealing designers at work on the 1959 Chevrolet Impala at General Motors’ new Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.
Declaring that “the greatest freedom of the American people is the freedom of individual choice,” American Look takes pride in the country’s abundance of consumer goods and the “customization” made possible by designers.
– NOTES –
Premiered at the 1958 conference of the American Society of Industrial Designers. Produced in Technicolor and SuperScope. Also released in 16mm Technicolor. Received Freedoms Foundation’s George Washington Honor Medal Award in 1958.
Ralph Caplan characterized American Look as “a popular film that was unpopular with the designers who saw it, partly because the term ‘stylist’ was used exclusively, and partly because it presented so misleading a picture of how design gets done.” For more about “populuxe” design, see Thomas Hine, Populuxe (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986), 82–106.
– RESOURCES –
Captain America is a 1944 Republic black-and-white serial film loosely based on the Timely Comics (today known as Marvel Comics) character Captain America. It was the last Republic serial made about a superhero. It also has the distinction of being the most expensive serial that Republic ever made.
It also stands as the first theatrical release connected to a Marvel character; the next theatrical release featuring a Marvel hero would not occur for more than 40 years. It was also the last live-action rendition of a Marvel character in any media until Spider-Man appeared in the Spidey Super Stories segment of the children’s TV series The Electric Company in 1974.
– The Plot –
A rash of suspicious suicides among scientists and businessmen, all found holding a small scarab, gets the attention of Mayor Randolph. He demands that Police Commissioner Dryden and District Attorney Grant Gardner get to the bottom of the case, while openly wishing that Captain America, a masked man who has helped defeat crime in the past, were around to solve the mystery.
– A FEW OBSERVATIONS –
As with most Hollywood adaptations from comics to the screen several liberties were taken with this serial. Captain America resembles the original comic version in name only. Steve Rogers is not even Cap’s alter ego, in this he is a District Attorney named Grant Garner.
What’s even more baffling is that this serial was made in the middle of WWII, and one would assume if you are going to be making a movie about Cap he would be fighting Nazis supermen, Nazi mad scientists or at the very least a member of the Axis or some kind of 5th columnist spies… but no. He is just battling another cookie cutter evil genius. With any other serial this wouldn’t bother me, but with a character like Captain America and it being 1944 he should be fighting the bad guys here was created to fight in the comics.
— Taken from Wikipedia
Pioneer Illustrator
Clarence Matthew Baker was born on December 10, 1921. in Forsyth County, North Carolina. At a young age he relocated with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and after graduating high school circa 1940, moved to Washington, D.C.
Iger recalled that Baker came into his studio with a single sample of a color sketch in his portfolio, He thought the woman was so naturally beautiful that he hired Baker on the spot originally as a background artist before he was given his first scripts.
Baker’s first confirmed comics work is penciling and inking the women in the 12-page “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle” story in Fiction House’s Jumbo Comics #69 (cover-dated Nov. 1944), otherwise penciled by Robert Webb and Alex Blum.
Much of Baker’s work was originally penciled backgrounds as well as the female form for other artist and most of his work has been inked over with the inker receiving credit for his work. He quickly developed a reputation as one of the best “Good Girl” artists in the business for his attention to detail when drawing women.
During this period, known to historians and fans as the Golden Age of Comic Books, Baker did work for publishers including Fiction House, Fox Comics, Quality Comics and St. John Publications. In later years, he independently teamed with inker Jon D’Agostino under the pseudonym Matt Bakerino at Charlton Comics.
Baker’s first pencilled page from
Jumbo Comics #69 November 1944
Canteen Kate, Cover Jun. 1952
Regarding Matt Bakers personal life friends and family members have speculated his orientation as he had many female friends and people viewed him as handsome and spectacularly dressed but he apparently also spoke of men.
Jim Amash a “Baker Scholar” confirmed Frank Guisto’s claim that Baker was Gay or Bisexual with Baker’s half brother Fred Robinson to include in his book.
Baker redesigned the character into her best-known incarnation. This version (generally but unconfirmed credited to writer Ruth Roche) debuted in Fox’s Phantom Lady #13 (August 1947), the premiere issue after taking over the numbering of the canceled comic Wotalife; the title ran through issue #23 (April 1949). Baker’s Phantom Lady also appeared as a backup feature in All Top Comics #9-16 (Jan. 1948 – March 1949).
During the time of the Comics Code Authority (1954) when Dr. Frederick Wertham claimed comics had ill effects on a child’s psychological development; Wertham used Bakers Phantom Lady #17 as a key sample that became the foundation for the CCA and decades of mandated censorship.
At some point during this period, working through artist Vince Colletta’s studio, Baker went on to draw stories for Atlas’ Western Outlaws, Quick Trigger Action, Frontier Western, and Wild Western; more prolifically for the company’s romance comics Love Romances, My Own Romance, and Teen-Age Romance; and one story each for the supernatural/science fiction anthologies Strange Tales, World of Fantasy, and Tales to Astonish (“I Fell to the Center of the Earth!” in issue #2, March 1959).
Baker also supplied artwork for the Dell Movie Classic edition of King Richard and the Crusaders.
His last known confirmed work is the six-page “I Gave Up the Man I Love!” in the company’s My Own Romance #73 (Jan. 1960). His last known work as generally credited but unconfirmed is the first page of the six-page story “Happily Ever After” in Atlas/Marvel’s Love Romances #90 (Nov. 1960).
He died in 1959 of a heart attack.
The Books
Renfrew of the Royal Mounted was a popular series of boy’s adventure books written by Laurie York Erskine that later were filmed and became a series on both radio and television.
Cannon
‘Douglas Renfrew’ was a former Royal Flying Corps officer who joined the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1. Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (1922)
2. The River Trail (1923)
3. The Laughing Rider (1924)
4. Renfrew Rides Again (1927)
5. Renfrew Rides the Sky (1928)
6. Renfrew Rides North (1931)
7. Renfrew’s Long Trail (1933)
8. Renfrew Rides the Range (1935)
9. Renfrew in the Valley of the Vanished Men (1936)
10. Renfrew Flies Again (1941)
Erskine also wrote approximately 17 Renfrew short stories for The American Boy magazine.
Renfrew Rides the Range 1935
Renfrew of the Royal Mounted 1937
Films
Erskine narrated Renfrew of the Mounted, a 1936-40 radio series with House Jameson in the title role of Sergeant Douglas Renfrew. Several premiums from the program were circulated by the program’s sponsor, Wonder Bread. In the film Broadway Limited, ZaSu Pitts’ character insists on listening to Renfrew on the radio in the train’s lounge car.
Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (1937)
On the Great White Trail (1938)
Fighting Mad (1939) (based on Renfrew Rides Again)
Crashing Thru (1939) (based on Renfrew Rides the Range)
Yukon Flight (1940)
Murder on the Yukon (1940) (based on Renfrew Rides North)
Danger Ahead (1940) (based on Renfrew’s Long Trail)
Sky Bandits (1940) (based on Renfrew Rides the Sky)
Television
In 1953, the films were edited into the syndicated Renfew of the Royal Mounted television series featuring Newill in new scenes relating events from the films. A television pilot with Arthur Franz as Renfrew was filmed but never picked up.
Parody
Harvey Kurtzman satirized this series as “Miltie of the Mounties” in the fifth issue of Mad.
Canadian comedian Dave Broadfoot featured a “Sergeant Renfrew” character on the Royal Canadian Air Farce radio series. Broadfoot’s version of Renfrew delivered monologues about his adventures hunting down criminals — like all good Mounties he always got his man, but did so in an outlandishly slapstick manner which relied as much on the criminal’s incompetence and stupidity as on Renfrew’s police skills. Often, it was his dog “Cuddles” who was responsible for saving the day. Frequently, Sgt. Renfrew was knocked out cold at some point in the chase, giving rise to the character’s signature catchphrase, “When I regained consciousness…”
Miltie of the Mounties Mad Magazine
