"FBA" is my interim name for the final Bullwinkle artist at Gold Key; I don't know if he or she worked on any comics other than these two Seventies titles. This is their first Underdog story.
Some Steve Skeates Underdog attributions on the Grand Comics Database are from the writer himself but it's sometimes unclear whether they mean a single story or an entire issue; I just started from scratch on IDing him here by typical bits like Our hero and "Hunh?" I may have missed some, of course.
"Beware the Blowhard" is attributed to Skeates on the GCD because it was credited to him in the American Mythology reprint. My impression is that American Mythology simply thought him the sole Gold Key Underdog writer and so didn't credit anyone else on their GK reprints.
The Grand Comics Database posits Mark Lasky as the writer of "Some Fun City" as there's an "M.L." sneak on graffiti in the splash panel. Working from his credited GK mystery anthology stories I can't say he didn't; and "Sneeze Squeeze" seems to be by the same writer.
UNDERDOG at Gold Key Part I
| Mar/75 | #1 | The Dress Mess | w/a: John Albano |
| Wacky Weather | a: John Costanza | ||
| Plop Went the Plot! | w/a: Albano | ||
| Getting Together | a: Costanza | ||
| June/ | #2 | Lovable Lunkhead | a: Costanza |
| A Foul Fowl | w: Albano a: Chris Browne | ||
| Gilded Cage | a: Browne | ||
| Sep/ | #3 | The Ice Cream Scream | a: Costanza |
| Fast Work | w: Steve Skeates a: FBA | ||
| Topsy-Turvy Time | a: FBA | ||
| Dec/ | #4 | Double for Underdog | w: Skeates a: Browne |
| Let's Twist Again! |
w: Skeates a: FBA | ||
| Underdog Meets the Pie Man | w: Skeates a: Browne | ||
| Mar/76 | #5 | Underdog Meets the Hush Puppy | w: Skeates a: FBA |
| Lullaby for a Superhero |
a: FBA | ||
| Super Scrapbook |
a: FBA | ||
| Wedding Bells for Sinister Simon | w: Skeates a: FBA | ||
| Apr/ | #6 | Head in a Cloud | a: Browne |
| The Mop-Thing |
a: Costanza |
||
| Underdog--No More | w: Skeates | ||
| Sneeze Squeeze | w: Mark Lasky? a: FBA | ||
| June/ | #7 | The Cosmic Canine | w: Skeates a: FBA |
| The Super-Pie |
w: Skeates |
||
| Sealing Underdog's Doom | w: Skeates a: FBA | ||
| The Past Is Tense | w: Skeates a: FBA | ||
| Aug/ | #8 | Belling the Dog | w: Skeates |
| This Suits Me Fine |
w: Skeates |
||
| Too Many Clowns | w: Skeates a: FBA | ||
| The Has-Been Hound | w: Skeates a: Costanza | ||
| Oct/ | #9 | From Ghost to Ghost | w: Skeates a: Costanza |
| Underdog Turns Chicken | w: Skeates a: Costanza | ||
| Just a Pup! | a: Costanza | ||
| Some Fun City | w: Lasky? | ||
| Dec/ | #10 | Bubble Trouble Gum | w: Skeates a: FBA |
| King Gong | a: FBA | ||
| The Poly-Unsaturated-Monster | w: Skeates | ||
| What's the Youth? | w: Arnold Drake a: FBA | ||
| Feb/77 | #11 | The Private Life of Shoeshine Boy | w: Skeates a: FBA |
| The Big Game | w: Skeates | ||
| Slipping Away | w: Skeates a: FBA | ||
| When You're Fat You're Fat! | w: Skeates | ||
| Apr/ | #12 | The Deadly Fists of Fingers | w: Skeates a: FBA |
| Who Was That Lady? | w: Skeates | ||
| The Forget Me Nuts | a: FBA | ||
| Beware the Blowhard | w: Drake a: FBA | ||
| New Villain in Town | w: Skeates |
R.I.P. Chris Browne. Is his recent passing why you started looking at this Underdog run?
ReplyDeleteMartin, I suspect John Costanza may have drawn the covers to #'s 1 and 2. What say you?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late replies, ShadZ and Nick. I had to get my new Gmail account to forward comments to my original email account.
ReplyDeleteShadz, I started on Underdog mostly for the sake of that Bullwinkle artist, since American Mythology credited some his stuff to George Wildman. But Chris Browne's background characters on stories here jumped out at me as being in the Hi and Lois/Beetle Bailey style, Chris being known to have done work for Gold Key (Road Runner).
Nick, that's how I picked out John Costanza (not to mention John Albano)--by the human background characters. All the artists are pretty much on model with Underdog himself, so I don't know what I'd say about those two covers.