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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This title is better for the theme.
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.
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.
Gaspar’s final lettering for the title has art credited to Jose Delbo. He seems to have adapted to the rectangular word balloons well.
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.
There’s an effective creepy balloon style in the first panel of this page from one of the stories.
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.
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.
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.