GASPAR SALADINO AT WESTERN PUBLISHING Part 2

All images © the respective copyright holders. From COUNTDOWN (Movie Classic #12-150-710), Oct 1967, Dell

Continuing with the lettering work of Gaspar Saladino on stories in comics under the Dell and Gold Key imprints from Western Publishing (see Part 1 for more details), this was one of many one-shot movie adaptations. The lettering on the entire story is by Saladino, here with a fine scroll caption at the top, though he didn’t do the logo. The art is by Jack Sparling, the artist on many Western titles lettered by Gaspar, so likely he was requested by Sparling, and they worked as a team.

From VALLEY OF THE GWANGI (Movie Classic 01-880-912), Dec 1969, Dell

The same is true for this film adaptation, Western did lots of them. Again, all the lettering except the movie title is by Saladino. I like the shape of the first balloon.

From ROOM 222 #1, Jan 1970, Dell

There were four issues of this TV show adaptation with art by Springer and lettering by Saladino, but issue #4 reprinted #1. The sample page I found from the first issue is very soap opera, not unlike the DC romance comics Gaspar often lettered.

From ROOM 222 #3, July 1970, Dell

I found no images from issue #2, the only one located for issue #3, above, is of poor quality, but still clearly lettered by Saladino, so I think it’s safe to assume #2 was also.

From BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #43, Oct 1972, Gold Key

I found no Saladino-lettered stories at Western in 1971-dated issues, but he was active again starting in 1972. This is a four-page story with art by George Roussos, a long-time veteran of comics, having started as a Bob Kane assistant in the early 1940s. Gaspar probably met him at DC Comics, but in this case I’m not sure if he asked for Saladino’s lettering, or this was just a random assignment by the Western editor. The story title is very Saladino.

From BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #48, July 1973, Gold Key

This six-page story is again by Jack Sparling. I like Gaspar’s title, and all the lettering is by Saladino except the tiny book logo. Rounded rectangular word balloons were clearly the house style at Western by this time.

From BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #49, Aug 1973, Gold Key

Another four-pager by Sparling. I’m tempted to think that story in issue #43 which is credited to Roussos might also be by Sparling, but the art does look somewhat different than these later two.

From FRIDAY FOSTER #1, Oct 1972, Dell

This one-shot again has art by Jack Sparling and lettering by Gaspar. It’s an odd adaptation of a comic strip that ran from 1970-74, and there was a film in 1975. The story title is typeset.

From LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP #7, Nov 1972, Gold Key

Here’s Gaspar working with Mike Sekowsky again, but he only lettered two of six stories in this TV show tie-in. It’s interesting seeing the style Saladino often used for the title word INVISIBLE at DC on this story.

From LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP #8, Feb 1973, Gold Key

I never saw this TV show, apparently live action with real chimps, I don’t think I missed much. Gaspar can’t resist making GHOST scary in this story title. Again, just two stories lettered by him in the issue.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #37, Dec 1972, Gold Key

Sparling and Saladino also did some short stories for this book. The story title is more like what Gaspar did for superhero comics than scary ones.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #39, April 1973, Gold Key

This title is better for the theme.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT #41, July 1973, Gold Key

The Grand Comics Database credits this story art to Jack Abel, I don’t know his work well enough to have an opinion on that, but Jack worked at Marvel and DC at various times, and Gaspar would have known him.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #47, June 1974, Gold Key

The GCD credits the art on this story to Win Mortimer. It seems like the editor of the book was now assigning stories to Gaspar at random rather than pairing him with an artist.

From RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #50, Oct 1974, Gold Key

Gaspar’s final lettering for the title has art credited to Jose Delbo. He seems to have adapted to the rectangular word balloons well.

From GHOST STORIES #35, Jan 1973, Dell

Ghost stories were apparently good sellers at Western, they also published this anthology. Jack Sparling and Gaspar Saladino produced all four stories in this issue, the only one they worked on.

From GHOST STORIES #35, Jan 1973, Dell

There’s an effective creepy balloon style in the first panel of this page from one of the stories.

From GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES #9, May 1973, Gold Key

Another ghostly anthology, and the credits are quite unusual. According to the GCD (with information from a Len Wein interview), this four page story was written, penciled and inked by Len Wein! Most comics writers at least try doing comics art as well, but this is surprisingly accomplished for Len, who was nearly always a writer. The lettering by Gaspar is very condensed horizontally, perhaps at Len’s request, and of course Len and Gaspar worked together on SWAMP THING at DC.

From GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES #19, Sept 1974, Gold Key

Gaspar’s final story lettering for the book is on a six page story with art by Jose Delbo, another artist Gaspar would have known from DC. Saladino’s story title is easy to identify as his.

From ADAM-12 #5, Nov 1974

The last Western Publishing comic Gaspar lettered chronologically was this one, again with Jack Sparling, and he lettered both stories in the issue. I’m not sure why he didn’t continue working at Western, but the most likely reason is that he was too busy elsewhere. In addition to lots of work for DC and Marvel, this is around the time he began working for Atlas/Seaboard too.

To sum up, here are the stories lettered by Saladino, with the titles in alphabetical order this time.

ADAM-12 #5: 13pp, 12pp

BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #43: 4pp, #48: 6pp, #49: 4pp

COUNTDOWN: 32pp

FRIDAY FOSTER #1: 32pp

THE FROGMEN #6: 27pp, 4pp, #7: 1pp inside front cover, 27pp, 4pp, #8: 27pp, 4pp, #9: 27pp, 4pp, #10: 27pp, 4pp, #11: 27pp, 4pp

GHOST STORIES #35: 7pp, 8pp, 9pp, 8pp

GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES #9: 4pp, #19: 6pp

LANCELOT LINK, SECRET CHIMP #7: 7pp, 1pp, #8: 6pp, 1pp

McLINTOCK: 32pp

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE #1: 18pp, 14pp, #2: 16pp, 16pp, #3: 16pp, 16pp

NEUTRO #1: 9pp, 9pp, 13pp

THE OUTER LIMITS #11: 31pp, #12: 11pp, 10pp, 11pp, #13: 12pp, 12pp, 8pp, #14: 12pp, 9pp, 11pp, #15: 10pp, 12pp, 10pp

RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! #37: 8pp, #39: 6pp, #41: 4pp, #47: 6pp, #50: 6pp

ROOM 222 #1: 17pp, 15pp, #2: 16pp, 16pp, #3: 16pp, 16pp

STONEY BURKE #1: 2pp inside covers, 16pp

VALLEY OF THE GWANGI: 32pp

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA #1: 32pp

That’s a total of 858 pages, a good amount of work. More articles on the lettering of Gaspar Saladino are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

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