Melvin Again!

When I was a kid I loved this guy's work. His name was John Stanley and I was attracted to every comic book that he wrote and illustrated. Toward the end of his career he would mainly create, plot, write, and do what are called breakdowns--bare bones illustrations over which other artists could do the drawing and inking. But even his breakdowns held a measure of real humor that appealed to the kid I was.

This brilliant comic was contracted by Dell to capitalize on the then-current popularity of monsters--most notably the humorous monster take characterized by productions such as The Munsters, and The Addams Family TV shows. And also influenced--culturally, at least--by the light-hearted editorial slant of Forrest J. Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND Magazine.

I've read that Stanley never really got the appreciation he so deserved during most of his working life in comics. This is a real shame, because his work connected not just with me, but with probably millions of other kids who read his books. He also wrote and illustrated the popular LITTLE LULU and TUBBY comics that once commanded an important presence on newsstand shelves for so many years. It wasn't just hordes of little boys who were reading his comics, but vast crowds of little girls, too.

If you want to learn how to write a kid's comic, then study the work of John Stanley on LITTLE LULU and TUBBY comics.