Sunday, March 24, 2013

Stories from the Bible, 1963

(Continued from 1962)

The chronological retelling of the Biblical stories begun with the February 1957 installment continued with the stories of "Daniel" and "Jonah". (Although,
I've just found out "Jonah" takes place BEFORE "Daniel". OY.)

Then, after 6 whole years, for March 1963, the series began again "In The Beginning".  This was 6 months after the "Galaxy One" era began in SPACE CONQUERORS!  Perhaps there's a connection, as it was sometime in 1962 that Al Stenzel took over the BOYS' LIFE color comics supplement account from Johnstone & Cushing, effectively putting the advertising firm out of business.

The rest of 1963 saw brand-new versions of "The Garden of Eden", "Cain And Abel", "The Flood", "The Tower Of Babel", "Abraham", "Lot", "Isaac", and that old favorite, "Sodom And Gomorrah".

Although Irv Novick's art on these new versions is as spectacular as ever, I can't help but feel the previous versions of the same stories were better-written.
(But that's me.)

Story by Al Stenzel  /  Art by IRVING NOVICK
BOYS' LIFE  /  January 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  February 1963
After 6 years of retelling Bible stories in chronological sequence, for whatever reason, the series began again at "The Beginning".

BOYS' LIFE  /  March 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  April 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  May 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  June 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  July 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  August 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  September 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  October 1963
BOYS' LIFE  /  November 1963
I wonder what caused the November 1963 installment to be printed in 2 colors instead of 4?  The same month, SPACE CONQUERORS was in full color.

Strangely, for the 2nd year in a row (since Al Stenzel took over the comics account), the series did not have a December installment (either that, or it's missing from the BOYS' LIFE website).

(Continued in 1964)

Copyright (C) BOY'S LIFE Magazine
Restorations by Henry Kujawa

Read the Bob LeRose page at Wikipedia 
Read about the history of Johnstone & Cushing at the Hogan's Alley site
Read the Irv Novick page at Wikipedia

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