Friday Fun / Baker Reading Room MGM's LASSIE "Down to the Sea"

As a dog owner, I say, there's nothing more fun than a playful dog!

Especially one who can do almost anything, except administer CPR!

Note: the b/w page is the comic's inside back cover, which was usually b/w or two-color.
The last page is the comic's back cover!

After the last movie in the original series came out in 1951, the comic continued, with Lassie linked to new humans, including photographer Rocky Langford and his girlfriend Gerry Lawrence on their trip to South America!

Penciled by Matt Baker and inked by long-time artistic partner Ray Osrin (who inked, among other Baker stories, It Rhymes with Lust), this tale from Dell's MGM's Lassie #20 (1955) is from the first issue of Matt's three-issue tenure as the feature's primary artist.

The writer is unknown.

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Baker Reading Room: VOODAH "Monster Fish"

One of the first Lords of the Jungle was Black...

...and illustrated by a Black artist, specifically the legendary Matt Baker!

Illustrated by Matt Baker (who most fans know was one of the premiere Good Girl artists of the '40s-'50s, but don't know was one of the few African-American comic artists of the era), the idea of a non-White jungle hero seems obvious today, but was extremely-daring in the 1940s!

In fact, it was so daring that Voodah slowly became paler over the next few issues, eventually becoming just another White guy bossing the locals around!

Compare Voodah here with his first appearance in the previous issue of McCombs' Crown Comics HERE!

BTW, the "Clarence Ramon" credit at top is a house pseudonym.

Baker is the artist.

The writer is unknown.

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Baker Reading Room UNUSUAL TALES "Bordoni the Great"

Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia's cover introduces a never-reprinted Matt Baker-penciled story...

..and there's not a single Baker-trademark beautiful woman in sight!

Cue The Twilight Zone music...

Writer Joe Gill and inker Vince Colletta join penciler Matt Baker in a simple, but effective story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #16 (1959) that could've worked as a standard-budget TV episode in the 1950s!
The tale reads like a set of storyboards with dramatic camera-angles and lighting effects!

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Friday Fun / Baker Reading Room CANTEEN KATE vs The Comics Code Authority!

Besides Romance Comics and Scantily-Clad Heroines like Phantom Lady & Rulah... 

...pioneering Black comic book artist Matt Baker also did a military humor strip featuring (what else) a scantly-clad, beautiful WAC (Womens' Army Corps) officer assigned to run a canteen at a US military base not far from the front lines in Korea!

(She actually encountered North Koreans in a couple of tales)

The following, "Foxhole Floozie", appeared in St John's Fightin' Marines #7 (1952), where Kate's strip appeared in almost every issue from #2 to #12...while she also had her own comic book!

Straightforward, fun story with a little harmless cheesecake thrown in, illustrated by a master of the craft!

However...

When Charlton Comics bought out St John Publishing's inventory and began reprinting it, the brand-new Comics Code Authority literally got its' panties in a bunch, insisting on some ridiculous changes in the retelling of this tale in Charlton's Fightin' Marines #17 (1956)

Start with putting a bra/bathing suit top on Kate, and putting a boulder over her shapely legs in the opening panel and removing the story's title "Foxhole Floozie"!

Plus, throughout the tale, her tasteful shorts are replaced with mid-calf length Capri pants, and there's an olive-drab t-shirt under her uniform shirt, covering her cleavage!

One additional point...

Usually, when Charlton, Avon, and other publishers modified previously-published art to conform to the Comic Code's demands, they usually did it only to the black plate art, but, to save money, not to the existing cyan, magenta, and yellow plates!
Here, the reprint is totally-recolored!
Plus the retouching is so clean that it looks like the original artist, Matt Baker did it himself!
Did Charlton have the original art along with photostats and photo negatives, and asked Baker (who was doing freelance work for Charlton) do the reworking himself?
In truth, it's the sort of thing I'd expect editor Dick Giordano to do!

But, sadly, we'll never know the answer, since all involved parties are no longer on this mortal coil!

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Baker Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "Return of the Pied Piper"

A Corrupt Politician Who Steals Public Funds!

As common back in 1959, when this never-reprinted story was published, as today, 65 years later!

Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker (with only a single beautiful woman in sight) and inked by Vince Colletta, this story from Charlton's anthology Out of this World #13 (1959) is dependent on the reader being familiar with the classic fairy tale of "The Pied Piper of Hamlin"!
Wonder how many kids today know about the tale and would get the "punchline"...

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