| Gaylord DuBois | |
|---|---|
 Gaylord Du Bois | |
| Born | Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (1899-08-24)August 24, 1899 Winthrop, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | October 20, 1993(1993-10-20) (aged 94) Orange City, Florida, U.S. |
| Area | Writer |
Notable works | Western comics Tarzan comics |
| Awards | Bill Finger Award 2020 (posthumously) |
Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois[1] (/duːˈbwɑː/; sometimes writtenDuBois;[2] August 24, 1899 – October 20, 1993)[3] was an American writer ofcomic book stories andcomic strips, as well asBig Little Books and juvenile adventure novels. Du Bois wroteTarzan forDell Comics andGold Key Comics from 1946 until 1971, and wrote over 3,000 comics stories over his career.
An avidoutdoorsman, Du Bois had a true affinity for writing stories with natural settings. His forte was inWesterns, as well as jungle comics and animal reality comics. He created many original second features forWestern Publishing (e.g., "Captain Venture: Beneath the Sea", "Leopard Girl", "Two Against the Jungle", etc.), but most of his work for the company was in writing stories with licensed characters.
Among the various genres for which he wrote comic book scripts, most were of the outdoor adventure variety, particularly Westerns, includingRed Ryder Comics (for which he wrote "Little Beaver" text pages,The Fighting YanksWWII feature, and, particularly, the "Kyotee Kids" Western series, 31 scripts, the first being sent to his editor 12/23/1946, the last being sent 3/19/1949, that ran from about issue #43 ending with #72; Du Bois had previously been one of the ghostwriters for theRed Ryder newspaper comic strip drawn byFred Harman. Before its format change to all-new Red Ryder material,Red Ryder Comics featuredRed Ryder newspaper strip reprints.
He also wrote stories forGene Autry Comics,Roy Rogers Comics (1944-1956, 1959-1960, all of the first run in theFour Color Comics series, and, under its own numbering,Roy Rogers Comics #1 through about #108, and approximately #134 through #143),Zane Grey'sKing of the Royal Mounted (Du Bois had previously been one of the ghost-writers for theKing of the Royal Mounted newspaper comic strip drawn by illustratorJim Gary),Sergeant Preston of the Yukon,Bat Masterson (adaptingBat Masterson (TV series)),Tales of Wells Fargo /Man from Wells Fargo,Wanted: Dead or Alive,The Rebel,Bonanza andHotel de PareeSundance. Gaylord Du Bois also wrote comic book script adaptations of Zane Grey's western novels for the Dell Four Color Series' "Zane Grey's" issues, which achieved its own numbering with #27 as "Zane Grey's Stories of the West." Du Bois wrote the first issue. In total, he wrote 31 of the series' 39 issues.
Du Bois excelled writing animals: he wrote the entire run ofThe Lone Ranger's Famous Horse Hi-Yo Silver, the entire run ofNational Velvet under both the Dell and Gold Key imprints, the first 9 issues ofRoy Rogers' Trigger, sixty issues ofLassie, plus nine Lassie issues ofMarch of Comics, the last issue of Gene Autry's Champion, as well as the animal adventure back-up featuresBullet the dog,Lotor the raccoon,Yukon King the dog,Grey Wolf,Blaze the horse,et al.. He also adaptedOwd Bob forFour Color Comics #729.
Du Bois created several American Indian features: "Young Hawk" ran as a back-up feature in Dell'sThe Lone Ranger #11-#145 (1949-1962). It had first begun inThe Funnies, and then appeared inNew Funnies, both in 1942. Since Du Bois's pre-1943 Account Books were lost in a house fire, we can only guess that he created Young Hawk.Turok, Son of Stone was created by Du Bois, originally as a Young Hawk one-shot, but Young Hawk and Little Buck were renamed to be Turok and Andar. (Du Bois wrote the first 8 issues.) He also created the American Indian featureThe Chief, the first issue of which debuted inFour Color #290, August, 1950. It assumed its own numbering with #2, April, 1951. The title changed toIndian Chief with #3, August, 1951. Gaylord Du Bois wrote all or nearly all the stories for the first four issues. (His stock of remaining scripts were used in at least three later issues (#12,13, and one other), but they mostly appeared in "Indian Chief" issues ofMarch of Comics.) InHi-Yo Silver, the recurring human character is Keenay, an American Indian.
Du Bois's early comic-book -writing career included many cartoon characters, includingRaggedy Ann,Andy Panda,Our Gang,Tom and Jerry andUncle Wiggily. Additionally he wrote scripts forDell Junior Treasury (2,3,4,5,6,8),Santa Claus Funnies,Frosty the Snowman,Walt Scott's Little People,The Littlest Snowman,Jungle Jim,Space Family Robinson (which spawnedLost in Space TV show) (Gaylord Du Bois became the sole writer ofSpace Family Robinson once he began chronicling the Robinsons' adventures withPeril on Planet Four in issue #8. He had already begun theCaptain Venture second feature beginning withSituation Survival in issue #6.) Du Bois also chronicled the adventures of his own creations, e.g.Turok, Son of Stone,Brothers of the Spear, andJungle Twins.
Gaylord Du Bois wrote script adaptations to comic book form of motion pictures, for the DellFour Color Series "Movie Classics" issues. His movie adaptations included:Robin Hood (Disney-Movie) (Four Color #413, 1952),Quentin Durward (Four Color #672, 1956),The Animal World (Four Color #713, 1956),Around the World in Eighty Days (Four Color #784, 1957),The Story of Mankind (Four Color #851, 1958),Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (Four Color #944, 1958),Last Train from Gun Hill (Four Color #1012, 1959),The Horse Soldiers (Four Color #1048, 1959),Solomon and Sheba (Four Color #1070, 1959),Spartacus (Four Color #1139, 1960),The Story of Ruth (Four Color #1144, 1960),North to Alaska (Four Color #1155, 1960),Master of the World (Four Color #1157, 1961),Dondi (Four Color #1176, 1962),Pepe (Four Color #1194, 1961); andLord Jim (Gold Key #10156-509, 1965). Additionally, he wrote adaptations to comic book form of the TV seriesMarlin Perkins'Zoo Parade, andLowell Thomas'High Adventure.
He also wrote manyone-shot comics, including theDell Giant comicsAbraham Lincoln, Moses and the Ten Commandments, and The Treasury of Dogs that won him theThomas Alva Edison Award in 1956.[4][5]
A devoutChristian, Du Bois co-authoredBiblical Cartoons from Daily Life! with Phil Saint in 1981. Du Bois came out of retirement to co-create and write the Christian comic character Bukki[6] inAida-Zee #1, published in 1990, and inChristian Comics & Games Magazine #0 in 1995, both byThe Nate Butler Studio. The latter magazine was noted for containing"the last completed comic-book script of Gaylord DuBois, one of the most prolific comics writers of all time."[7]
Du Bois wroteThe Lone Ranger (the first novel adapting the popular radio character), 35Big Little Books, fiveLittle Blue Books, at least eight boys' adventure novels and several other ghost-written novels and biographies. TheLittle Blue Books penned by Du Bois in the late 1920s include #997Simple Recipes for Home Cooking, #1105Pocket Dictionary Spanish-English English Spanish, #1109Spanish Self Taught, #1207French Self Taught, #1222Easy Readings in Spanish, and an article in #1270.[8] Little Blue Books Indexed by Author, Corvallis Oregon, 2006.
Big Little Books includedTailspin Tommy (under the nameHal Forrest, the cartoonist who originally co-created the character),Tom Mix,Gene Autry,The Lone Ranger,Pilot Pete,Buck Jones,Clyde Beatty and many others under his own name and using pen nameBuck Wilson.[9]
Adventure novels included theDon Winslow of the Navy series ghostwritten forFrank V Martinek, based on Martinek'scomic strip, Barry Blake,The Lone Rider, and TheLone Ranger. A series of books co-written withOskar Lebeck includes Hurricane Kids on the Lost Island; Rex, King of the Deep; and Stratosphere Jim.[10]
Du Bois wrote several adaptations of well known titles such asTom Sawyer,Huckleberry Finn,Little Women,Kidnapped for his editor at Western Publishing; andThe Pony Express, a series of historical word sketches, with color illustrations.
Two Golden Press adaptations appeared in1960: Kidnapped, based on the novel byRobert Louis Stevenson (Golden Press. 1960. 58 pages). A Golden Reading Adventure. #378.Nomads of the North. Based on the book byJames Oliver Curwood. Story adapted from the 1961 Walt Disney filmNikki, Wild Dog of the North (Golden Press. 1960. 60 pages. # 379:100).
DuBois published several books of his spiritual poems and biographical material in the 1980s:
DuBois was posthumously awarded theBill Finger Award in 2020[11] along with fellow honoreesVirginia Hubbell,Nicola Cuti,Leo Dorfman,Joe Gill, andFrance Herron.
