Gaylord Du Bois

MSU Comic Library index

2024-11-02T14:48:00.001-06:00

Michigan State University Libraries

Special Collections Division
Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection
"Du" to "Du Bois, Gaylord"

https://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/drri/du.htm#gaylord

Our Gang No. 1 1942

1st appearance of Tom & Jerry - Tom is depicted as a brown-colored cat in this comic instead of the more traditional gray

1st appearance of Barney Bear

1st team appearance of Our Gang

Who was Omar

2024-10-27T22:44:00.000-06:00

In an interview with Irv Ziemanns, Gaylord was asked twice who Omar was, since it appears in his account books. He said he couldn't remember but knew the comics were small promotional freebies included in cereal boxes and other food items. Omar, pictured here, was for the Omar Bread Company.

OMAR SUPER BOOK OF COMICS 20 (vol 2)

OSWALD THE RABBIT

OMAR BREAD/WESTERN PUBLISHING

1946

Super-Book of Comics were printed in the early 40's. The first series of them were printed from 1942-43 & had 11 issues (0-10). The 2nd series was printed from 1944-48 & had 31 issues (0-30). The books have 16, full color, all newsprint pages (cover to cover).

Hurricane Kids - and pseudonyms

2024-10-01T22:26:00.001-06:00

Gaylord DuBois’ background and the mystery of Albert Hartje:

Gaylord DuBois: Born on August 24, 1899, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and passed away on October 20, 1993, in Orange County, Florida.
Albert Hartje: A pen name credited from Popular Comics #46 onwards, associated with “The Hurricane Kids.” The question of Albert Hartje’s identity revolves around

whether it was an actual scriptwriter’s name or a house name.

Evidence:
- Mid-1930s: Editor Oskar Lebeck’s policy had artists providing scripts. Once Lebeck

hired DuBois, this policy changed based on artists’ inclinations.

- DuBois’ Contribution: DuBois likely began writing “The Hurricane Kids” from

issue #44, identified by his distinctive nautical language.

- Albert Hartje Byline: First appeared in issue #46. It is concluded that DuBois

created this pseudonym starting in issue #46. DuBois was known for his wordplay and foreign language interests.

“Hartje” means heart in Dutch, suggesting “Noble/Bright Heart.”

In essence, "Albert Hartje" was a pseudonym created by DuBois for its meaning and

word play.

From The Grand Comics Database™ (GCD) at Comics.org

Name:

Gaylord Du Bois

Type

Given name

Family name

Other Names:

Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois Type: Name at Birth
Given name: Gaylord McIlvaine Family name: Du Bois
G. Ellerbrock Type: Pen Name
Howard R. Garis Type: None
Bob Gaylord Type: Pen Name
Albert Hartje Type: Pen Name
Buck Wilson Type: Pen Name

Stanley Stories - Our Gang Comics #4, 1943

2024-10-01T18:52:00.004-06:00

from Saturday May 14, 2016

"This story is not written by Stanley. The prolific Gaylord DuBois penned thousands of stories for Western Publications, from its early years in the comics industry through its transition from Dell to Gold Key Comics in the 1960s. This was one of his typical early '40s jobs."

Tom and Jerry first appeared in 'Our Gang" comics No. 1, 1942. Written by Gaylord DuBois. Tom was a brown cat in this issue.

The Hannah Barbera animation in 1840 was called "Puss Gets the Boot" and the characters were named Jasper and Jinx.

Coon Mountain revisited

2023-05-05T11:55:00.000-06:00

Gaylord DuBois

2009-12-23T23:00:00.001-07:00

A Conceptual Artistic Installation Exhibition of Gaylord Dubois (Du Bois)

Life Scripted

from 10/1/05

It is this artists' conclusion that there is a propensity of material spanning the 93 years of Gaylord Dubois's life. Numerous photos ranging from birth to death have been obtained along with letters, journals, articles and account records.
Gaylord Dubois's history ranges from salesman, minister, school teacher, social worker, deputy sheriff to writer and scripter -- the career we all know him for. In his lifetime Dubois wrote over 3000 comic stories, more then 10 novels or adaptations (including the first Lone Ranger), at least 4 Little Blue Books, several volumes of poetry, 30+ Big Little Books and more.
Comic scripting began as early as 1938 and continued until 1977 with a few stories published as late as 1995 and some still being published. Titles include Tarzan, Lost in Space, Roy Rogers, Turok, The Lone Ranger, Uncle Wiggily, Red Ryder, Brother's of the Spear, Tom and Jerry and Raggedy Ann. A more complete list will appear on this site in the near future.
The location of the initial opening of this exhibition has yet to be determined. Tentatively we have been looking at Denver although it has been suggested Boston might be more fitting since Gaylord Dubois was a Boston 'home town boy'. He was born in Massachusetts in 1899 and died in Florida in 1993 at 94 years of age. During that time he traveled at great length throughout the US and Western Canada.
It is expected the exhibition will be traveling to many of Gaylord's haunts throughout New York, Texas, New Mexico, California, Wyoming, Alberta and other places. After graduating from Boston University, Dubois returned to the Adirondacks where he had spent much of his childhood. In 1946 he, along with his wife Mary Van Alen, purchased a trailer and set off across the country in search of material for his writing. He spent many of his summers in the Peace River District of Alberta staying with his daughter and his grandchildren.

Gaylord DuBois

BROTHERS OF THE SPEAR

2009-06-10T23:25:00.002-06:00

Medium: Comic books

Published by: Dell Comics

First Appeared: 1951

Creators: Gaylord DuBois (writer) and Jesse Marsh (artist)

These days, stories in which black and white adventurers treat each other as equals are such a familiar sight, they're scarcely even noticed. But a half-century ago, they were quite rare. The first such series in American comic books, however, was as little commented-on at the time as it would be today. That's probably because it ran unobtrusively in the rear of another hero's comic. But it was a very well circulated comic, and the feature ran there for a long time.

The Dell comic book based on Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan began in 1948. Postal regulations made it necessary that at least a few pages be devoted to features other than the one on the cover, so the back pages of Tarzan ran series such as "Mabu", "Two Against the Jungle" and "Boy" (the movie name of Tarzan's son, Korak). In the 25th issue (October, 1951), they hit on a winner with "Brothers of the Spear", which ran more than a quarter of a century, all told, and featured the first professional work of cartoonist Russ Manning.
The series was created by writer Gaylord DuBois, one of the most prolific scripters in the history of comic books, and artist Jesse Marsh, whose highly stylized work was seen throughout the Dell line. They'd been the creative team on the Tarzan title almost since it began. The first episode occupied a mere six pages, but it launched a serialized story that eventually grew to epic proportions.
Dan-El and Natongo, who took an oath of brotherhood at the very beginning, were both kings by right, whose thrones had been usurped. Restoring Dan-El in the kingdom of Aba-Zulu and Natongo in Tungelu occupied the first couple of years of the series. By the time it was done, both were married, Dan-El to the beautiful Tavane and Natongo to the equally beautiful Zulena. But neither affairs of state nor family duties had any effect on their love of adventure, and they had many more, one running smoothly into the next, over a period of years.

More ...http://www.toonopedia.com/brospear.htm

Graphic Books Best Seller Lists: March 14 - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

2009-04-09T18:21:00.001-06:00

"7 TARZAN: THE JESSE MARSH YEARS, Vol. 1, by Gaylord DuBois and Jesse Marsh. (Dark Horse, $49.95.) Witness the Golden Age adventures of Tarzan."

Graphic Books Best Seller Lists: March 14 - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com:

The Lone Ranger by Gaylord Dubois. Based on the famous radio adventure series by Fran Striker. - DUBOIS, GAYLORD.

2008-03-20T22:31:00.001-06:00

The Lone Ranger by Gaylord Dubois. Based on the famous radio adventure series by Fran Striker. - DUBOIS, GAYLORD.: "DUBOIS, GAYLORD. The Lone Ranger by Gaylord Dubois. Based on the famous radio adventure series by Fran Striker.
New York, Grosset & Dunlap Publishers [c1936].. Orange cloth lettered and decorated in red. Cloth covers lightly soiled, slight wear to the extremities, otherwise very good. Presumed third printing with both Dubois and Striker named on the title-page. The first Lone Ranger book. This printing issued before Dubois' name was completely removed from the title-page (this occurred with the fourth printing according to Firsts magazine, July/August 1993). Striker's name on the spine and front cover."

ERBzine 2115: Gaylord DuBois Remembered

2008-01-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

"GAYLORD DUBOIS
King of the Comics Writers
Gaylord Dubois worked as a writer for over 30 years with Western Publishing. A graduate of Boston University and General Theological Seminary, his works were always wholesome, family fare.
He wrote Big Little Books and novels as well as contributing to the majority of non-Disney 'adventure' comic books bearing the Dell imprint.
Dubois wrote or adapted almost every Tarzan lead story in Dell from 1947 to 1971 as well as the majority of backup features including the popular 'Brothers of the Spear' from 1950 to 1960."

More...ERBzine 2115: Gaylord DuBois Remembered:

Buck Jones

2008-01-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Buck Jones: "Buck Jones
Real name: Charles Frederick Gebhart
(Some biographies incorrectly show Gebhard or Gebhardt)

1891 - 1942

Buck's real name was Charles Frederick Gebhart, and his oft reported birth dates and birth place is December 4, 1889 or December 12, 1891 in a 'small house on the outskirts of Vincennes, Indiana'. Buck's parents are generally identified as Charles and Evelyn Showers Gebhart. Apparently, there is no birth certificate or other documentation to confirm Buck's real birth date. Communiques to the Knox County, Indiana Health Department (Vincennes, Indiana) resulted in a reply of 'no record found'. The Vincennes Chamber of Commerce replied that December 12, 1891 was the date they have. Am checking some other Vincennes sources, and will report if I have any luck ... but am not optimistic as other western film historians and authors have tried to locate a birth certificate and failed."

Classic Images: Tim McCoy

2008-01-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

"Col. Tim McCoy
Man of Destiny
by Mike Newton
Lightning Bill Carson stood in the saloon doorway, letting the batwing door flip behind him. His austere presence, set off by his high peaked Stetson, dark shirt, and pants, was made more imposing by his icy cold stare fixed on the men standing at the bar. The room, which had been filled with the tinkling of a piano and men’s conversation a moment before, was now silent with hushed anticipation.
Suddenly, "Blackie", one of the men at the bar reached for his six-gun. It never cleared the holster. Carson’s .45 spoke first and Blackie, wanted by every lawman in the West, lay on the floor.
This typical scene was part of every Tim McCoy B-western of the late Thirties and early Forties. He wasn’t always Lightning Bill Carson, cowboy G-Man. Sometimes he was Trigger Tim Rand, or U.S. Marshal Tim McCall, one of the Rough Riders. Regardless of his name, when he appeared on the screen, Saturday matinee kids knew they were in for thrills and excitement.
The man who became Buffalo Bill’s successor in the field of bringing live wild west show entertainment to the American public, was born to Irish immigrants in Saginaw, Michigan, April 10, 1891.
Growing up, McCoy heard stories about the early settlers, the Indians, and the Civil War, from people who had lived during those times. Those stories, combined with his interest in history, inherited from his father, prepared him for his future career."

read it all...Classic Images: Tim McCoy:

Read the Book Tim McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail by Gaylord Dubois

Ideal Metrology by Hermon Gaylord Wood

2007-09-15T08:45:00.000-06:00

Ideal Metrology in Nature, Art ... - Google Book Search

The link above goes to to the book 'Ideal Metrology' by Hermon Gaylord Wood -- Gaylord DuBois's grandfather. He built the house in Winthrop, Massachusetts that Gaylord was born in. He was an architect, designing and building many churches, and also has items registered in the patent office.

The book "Ideal Metrology" was published in 1908.

If the link above does not take you to the book you can go to Google Books and search for Ideal Metrology. The entire book is available online.

DuBois - Wood -- Merritt

2007-04-01T10:16:00.000-06:00

It is a daunting task sorting through all of the letters and information I have gathered on grandpa but it has the rewards of tracing out the family tree.

Of course names have caused some confusion at times but it is all coming together. I added the photo above to the photo album on webshots but have not yet named or otherwise identified the photos. As I do sort them out I'll add names or approximate dates.

This photo was one that was a little easier to identify since it was marked on the back. The name of the lady in the photo is Nancy Ashby Merritt. She is the great grandmother of the signer, E M Wood. I believe this to be Elizabeth M Wood, the daughter of Hermon Gaylord Wood. Hermon Gaylord Wood married Mary Elizabeth Luff and when he died in 1913 he was survived by his wife and two daughters. The daughters were Miss Elizabeth M Wood and Mrs Cornelius (Mary) Dubois, Gaylord Dubois' mother, and the one I have known to be called Gran Dubois. The daughter Elizabeth M Wood, who has signed the back of the photo, would be the one I have known as Aunt Betty Wood.

The lady in the photo, by my calculations, is therefore the Great-great grandmother of Gaylord Dubois.

Gaylord DuBois - Wikipedia

2007-03-22T21:42:00.000-06:00

"Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (as it appears on his baptism certificate), or DuBois (He signed it both ways: as two words, both capitalized; and as one word with a capital 'B') (b. August 24, 1899 Winthrop, Massachusetts – d. October 20, 1993 Orange City, Florida) In his lifetime he wrote well over 3000 comic book stories and comic strips as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure novels."

Read the complete article on Wikipedia:

n.b. Once upon a time I made an ambitious attempt at getting a biography on grandpa started in Wikipedia. After tremendous problems getting references to work I wandered off and left it with only half of the information even visible.
I can only begin to express how thrilled I was to discover that there are knowledgeable and ambitious people people in this world to take over. The article is much larger now -- well worth the read. Thank you so much to David Porta, Kross, Stephen Day and all the others who have contributed to and made edits and corrections on this article.
I can now honestly say that if you ignore it , it will get better. ~Wendy

Photo Album on Webshots

2007-02-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Gaylord Dubois

Lone Ranger First Edition

2007-01-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

On eBay and other locations on the internet I frequently find copies of the Lone Ranger advertised as '1st Edition' and descriptions that state they are by Gaylord Dubois. They really are by Gaylord DuBois but not always 1st Edition. If it has Fran Striker's name on the [front of] the dust jacket or stamped on the outside cover, it is not a first edition.

Many of these do not have Gaylord Dubois's name anywhere except on the ~~fly leaf~~ title page. The actual 1st Edition had his name on the dust jacket, the front cover and inside on the ~~fly leaf~~ title page.

I have no idea how many of these were actually printed but I have more than one. One edition has Gaylord Dubois stamped on the front cover but not printed on the ~~fly-leaf~~ title page.

I remember Grandpa having the dust jacket in his treasures with his name on the front. In later years I had, in my treasures, a photo copy of the dustjacket with his name on it.

Through the wonders of the internet I have [now] managed to collect a few of the different printings and have the following in my collection:

2 with the dust jacket saying Gaylord Dubois, the book cover stamped Gaylord Dubois and his name inside on the ~~fly leaf~~ title page -- they are both from the first printing.

1 with no dust jacket, Gaylord Dubois stamped on the front cover and on the spine but not printed on the ~~fly-leaf~~ title page.

I also have one with no dust jacket and Fran Striker stamped on the front cover. It does say Gaylord DuBois inside on the ~~fly leaf~~ title page but is not from the first printing.

It's in here somewhere

2006-12-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

I have a habit of reading through reams of information and making all my notes in my head so then when asked where I got it -- I have to wade through all the info again.

Lets start at the beginning. In a spare room of my New Mexico home I have no less than 10 large file storage containers, baskets and tubs housing a great portion of the history of Gaylord Dubois. Two boxes have some of the many comic books he has written, one is overfilled with big little books, one of novels and one of miscellaneous books, biographies, poetry, genealogy, etc. The remainder, outside of some paraphenalia like the genuine Roy Rogers felt hat, grandpa's old wallet, a wealth of family photographs, his baby book and his christening gown, is all papers. And there are lots of papers ranging from a hand written essay by his great aunt describing the sinking of the schooner jupiter (she was on it when it struck the iceberg), personal and business letters both to and from Gaylord Dubois, (he kept carbon copies of all he wrote), unpublished manuscripts, transcripts of interviews with GDB, draft copies of poems, newspaper and magazine articles, published articles in fanzines, personal journals of GDB, letters from fans, photocopies of pre 1943 comics, draft manuscripts (i.e. the working copies of Randy Scott's publication) and assorted little notes, cutouts and other things that have been found in his belongings. There is a hand written note with greetings from aunt polly that is signed by Tom Sawyer.

In an effort to sort this all out and get a grasp of how I want to present this in my exhibition I tend to dive right in without keeping a record of where I came across something. In addition to this I have my own memories of things grandpa has told me at some point in time. In answer to David Porta's question on the previous blog post I am not sure at this point what documents or articles have the Tuffy story written out but I do know I came across it in more than one location. Until such time as I can give you the actual details of the sources I will paraphrase the event as told by Grandpa.

During a telephone conversation with Oskar Lebeck GDB was told that one of his cartoon stories was a little weak and repetitive. The story was Tom and Jerry.
Grandpa comments "Its a cat and mouse -- cat chase mouse, mouse chases cat -- mouse wins. What more can I do?" Oskar says it needs another character. Grandpa suggests another mouse -- more of a trouble maker but also mentions they would be hard to tell apart. Oskar mentions dressing him, grandpa mentions a 3 corner diaper and Tuffy the mouse was born.
This is not exact but its close and when I find one or more of the sources again I will post them here.
During Randy Scott's work on the account books he had frequent contact with Gaylord Dubois and much of this was by letter and I have copies of those as well as carbons of grandpa's replies. Since the account books only show Tom and Jerry #3 after they start in 1943 Randy sent copies of earlier comics to Grandpa. One of these was Our Gang #1, 1942 where Tom and Jerry appear for the first time. Grandpa confirmed that he wrote it. Also, Irv Ziemen recalls grandpa telling him of his creation of Tuffy during his interviews.
My comments in the previous post were that I understood the creation of Tuffy (as in the story above) was after the cartoon had been running for awhile. However Tuffy appears in the very first story in Our Gang #1 so the conversation between grandpa and Oskar Lebeck would have taken place prior to the first publication.
Another source David inquired about was the newspaper article I mentioned where Gaylord Dubois is quoted as saying, in reference to Tom and Jerry, "Yes I created those two characters...". This article has a byline Jean Brooks, Sentinel Star and it says Orange City at the start of the column but there is no date on the clipping.
After I came across this article I started trying to find anything at all that would shed light on this and did come across online information (again, I can't quickly cite the source but I do have them printed out in hard copy) mentioning Hanna and Barbera starting work for Hugh Harmon/ Rudolph Ising and the first assignment being the animated feature of "Puss gets the boot" with a cat named Jasper and a mouse named Jinks. So far its a chicken/egg dilemma and the cartoon Tom and Jerry and the animated cat and mouse team seemed to have merged after each was in circulation.

This is all I can offer at this time and if I were able to make any proclamations I can assure you they would be accompanied by the sources rather than a plea for assistance.

Cartoon legend Joseph Barbera dies at 95

2006-12-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

Cartoon legend Joseph Barbera dies at 95 Entertainment Entertainment News Reuters.com:

"Barbera and Hanna, who died in 2001 at age 90, met at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
film studio in 1937 and first worked together on the cartoon, 'Puss Gets the
Boot,' which led to the creation of famous cat and mouse friends, Tom and
Jerry."

My condolences to the families and friends of Joseph Barbera and it would seem he lived a long creative life.
The excerpt above is one more little shred of conjecture on my trail of finding the facts. "Puss gets the Boot" led to the creation of Tom and Jerry. In a newspaper interview in Florida, Gaylord Dubois said (regarding Tom and Jerry) "Yes, I created those two...".And there is more -- the dialogue of creating Tuffy with Oskar Lebeck in a phone call has been noted on several occasions and in several published places and it was my belief this was at some point after Tom and Jerry had been being published. I now have the first 'Our Gang" comic that Tom and Jerry appeared in and Tuffy is already a character.Anyone out there have anything they can add -- shed any light on this?

Brothers of the Spear

2006-11-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Brothers of the Spear: " BROTHERS OF THE SPEAR
Medium: Comic books
Published by: Dell Comics
First Appeared: 1951
Creators: Gaylord DuBois (writer) and Jesse Marsh (artist)

These days, stories in which black and white adventurers treat each other as equals are such a familiar sight, they're scarcely even noticed. But a half-century ago, they were quite rare. The first such series in American …

Little Blue Books

2006-10-23T08:58:00.000-06:00

Gaylord DuBois wrote 6 Little Blue Books that can be found in the Axe Collection

The title and numbers are as follows:

Simple Recipes for Home Cooking #997 -- 1926
Pocket Dictionary, Spanish-English, English-Spanish #1105 -- 1927
Spanish Self Taught #1109 --1927
French Self-Taught #1207 -- 1927
Easy Readings in Spanish #1222 -- 1927
Visits among the Mormons #1270 (partial) -- 1928
Gaylord Dubois wrote the excerpt called An Intellectual Christian

Many thanks to Faye Landskov, treasurer of the Emanuel Haldeman Julius Collectors Club for her help and support.

Simple Recipes for Home Cooking was probably Gaylords first published work and was published while he was still attending university in Boston.

Another blog mention of GDB

2006-10-21T14:39:00.000-06:00

American West History & Notables: 30 January 1890, 1933

His birthday was noted...

2006-10-18T00:16:00.000-06:00

Doctor Why: Today CXXVI

Turok Origin

2006-10-17T23:12:00.000-06:00

david_porta: TUROK MYSTERY ORGIN SOLVED!

and thanks for this David -- You have done some great research over the years -- glad to have you in my corner.

This has now been corrected in the Grand Comics Database

the DuBois name

2006-10-17T23:06:00.000-06:00

It is still unclear whether the name should be Dubois, Du Bois, or DuBois. Until very recently I had always thought it was one word. After being questioned on it by Larry Lowery and mentioning my thoughts to him on the spelling, I had a dream shortly after where I am certain that my departed grandmother admonished me with "Yes, Wendy, it was one word but it had a capital 'B'. " The next day I had the sense of 'aha' with me all day as I remembered him signing it that way and found several old letters, poems, etc where he had signed it as one word -- with the capital 'B'. But my excitement waned as I noticed on some manuscripts and other documents that he had typed it as 2 words. Finally I dug out his baptism certificate and if it can be considered a valid source his name is Gaylord MacIlvaine Du Bois -- 2 words. On my mother's birth certificate it is one word -- with a capital 'B'.
More information on the name can be found on the Dubois Family Association website where it is mentioned that there were discrepencies way back and there seems to have been 2 lines that handed down the alternate spellings. Click the link below for more on the
DuBois Family History
The following poem was also gleaned from the DuBois Family Association website and if read through to the end the correct pronunciation is inevitable.

The Du Bois Name

Not putting much trust in the Edict of Nantes
Our Huguenot ancestors ran out of France.

Old Chretien's offspring soon scattered afar,
All firmly convinced that their name was du Bwa.

But some stayed in Leyden and then, oh my gosh,
Translated the name to the Dutch Van der Bosch.

And some went to Scotland, the land of their choice,
Where clansmen corrupted their label to Boice.

But Louis and Jacques came across to New York,
Where Dutch, French and English all mingled their talk.

And ever since then, in this polygot nation,
Folks ask us, "Please, what's the right pronunciation?"

'Tis no longer du Bwa as so many suppose
And it is not Du Boys, and of course not Du Boze.

Du Boy is not right, nor is Du'Bois correct,
For the accent is not where some people suspect.

Please read this out loud so the sound of your voice
By this rhythm records that our name is Du Bois'.

FLOYD READING DU BOIS 1878-1952