World's Funnest: Introduction To The Golden Age Segment (Part 2: Two Golden Age Artists)

So, hey, the background material about the Golden Age segment blew up almost as much as the original introduction, so here's another dip into things before we get to the actual script and art stuff. This part of the unexpectedly expanded intro will be about the two artists involved with the Golden Age segment of World's Funnest. 

If you missed it, the first part of this extended introduction (World's Funnest: The Big Reason Why) can be read here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/worlds-funnest-66906681.

Whenever we looked for an artist for a particular sequence, we always tried to get someone who was either actually known for their work in that “era” or who created it, for lack of a better way of putting it. For example, we obviously wanted Alex Ross for the Kingdom Come segment, Frank Miller for  the Dark Knight sequence, Scott Shaw! For the Captain Carrot page, etc.

If the person wasn't available for whatever reason, we tried to make the next best choice and  get someone who either embodied that style, or worked during the particular  “era”, or was willing to ape another artist's style as part of the joke. For example, when George Perez was unavailable to draw the Crisis On Infinite  Earths segment, our next choice was Phil Jimenez, who did a bang-up job of bringing the “Crisis Era” to life (and death). I was super uptight about who we asked, my anxiety and OCD and overall nerdiness was firing on all cylinders. On extra, reserve cylinders. I lost more sleep than usual while we were putting the art roster together, my moods went up and down according to how we were doing at signing both free agents and retired players for the team.

Speaking of retired players, our first choice to draw the Golden Age sequence (featuring the original iterations of Batman, Superman and The Justice Society of America) was Dick Sprang. Excuse me, the  great Dick Sprang. The great and unjustly unsung Dick Sprang. I had no idea Sprang was still alive at the time, so when editor Joey Cavalieri tossed his name into the hat I got up like a wasp had stung me abd danced around it like a hopped-up lunatic on a hot plate (metaphorically typing). Who doesn't love Dick Sprang's work? What comic book nitwit wouldn't want Dick Sprang to draw two pages of Batman and Superman stuff for the book? Hey, you in the back, there! Don't raise that hand, junior, not even in jest, because someone will slap it down if I don't! Dick Sprang, dude! Dick Sprang!

Anyone reading this likely knows how important the man's art and style was during the first two decades of the Bat-books. Sprang's style was the guiding style, the look, the design and the template of what the characters and Gotham City environs looked like. His art was well-designed, clean, sharp, balanced and attractive, he thought about panel construction and backgrounds and once he got really rolling there was none of that choppiness or sloppiness pervasive to so many dashed-out 40's comics.  If you want to see his influence in action, check out or re-watch The Brave and The Bold animated series. My fanzine article about Sprang's influence on the show will be titles “The Clean and The Bold”, because that's how the man worked the pages, and that's what the artists involved lovingly built from II am not working ona  fanzine, btw, just pretend I am). Sprang's a creator who deserves to be better known by non-nerds and nerds who swallow the lies and only believe the legends. Along with Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson and Shelly Moldoff  he's one of the ghost architects of the Batman comics that everything, well...sprang from (please excuse me for that last line, I know, I know, but it was just too cute to kill. Pretend fanzine, remember?). Of course, everyone who worked in the shadow of Bob Kane deserves greater recognition, other ghost artists and writers including Win Mortimer,

Dick Sprang was our first choice, not only for his style, stature and relationship to the material –  because, hang on, kids – on top of all his other DC credentials, Sprang penciled “Bat-Mite Meets Mr. Mxyzptlk!”. That first story where the two imps first mixed it up, thank you very much, originally published in World's Finest # 113 in 1960 – and reprinted in the Batman From the 30's to the 70's book where I first read it as a kid (see the Golden Age introduction post for more on that mishigas). Joey got in touch with him (I believe he was retired and living with his fourth wife), and, holy moly, gang, Sprang agreed to take the gig. We got Dick Sprang on the bench. I was ecstatic. Joey probably was, too, but I was way, way more ecstatic than him, because that's how I do ecstatic, I ecstatic up to 11. Then I crash down to 0 or -7, but, hey, let's not get into that.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out, and Sprang wasn't able to contribute to the comic. If I remember events correctly, his wife had become ill, and his own health was not good, and people basically let us know that we would need to find a replacement for the segment because Sprang was simply unable to do it. Sadly, on May 10, 2000, Sprang passed away at the age of 84.

So, we had to “recast” our Golden Age artist. Our next choice was pretty obvious, and that was Sheldon Moldoff, another retired Golden Age creator with an extensive history at DC (as well as stints at Fawcett, Standard, Timely/Atlas, EC and the Adventures of Big Boy promotional comics). Unlike Sprang he had remained active on the convention circuit and was known for doing numerous color commissions of Batman and Robin along with the Bat-Family characters he co-created in the 50's, such as the original Batwoman and Batgirl, Ace the Bat-Hound and, drumroll please...Bat-Mite. If this was a fanzine article you know I would have had to put an “!” at the end of that last sentence.

Above: One of the few old comics I own. Figures, right?

Moldoff was the co-creator of one of the two main characters in our book, which was a nice bit of serendipity that worked out really nicely, which is, y'know, nice. I admit we didn't ask Moldoff first because Sprang was a better stylist and I was thinking along aesthetic as well as nostalgic lines. But I'm a fan of Moldoff's, and as noted, he's another important fixture in the Batman books. And he co-created you-know-who. And, guess what? Moldoff inked Dick Sprang's pencils on the “Bat-Mite Meets Mr. Mxyzptlk!” story. I mean, come on, right?

The most I ever paid for a comic book back issue, I think it was $75, around 2000 or 2001. Go figure it's this one.

Sheldon Moldoff agreed to pencil and ink the two pages for the Golden Age sequence. According to Wikipedia, it was the first art job he did for DC in thirty years, and, sadly, the last. World's Funnest was a very specific project that needed somone like Mr. Sprang or Mr. Moldoff. We were very lucky to have had access to them, and we would have considered ourselves fortunate to get either of these artists on board. Both of them were perfect for the segment, and both of them helped ground the book in the roots of DC's history with their contribution. I would have loved to have had Sprang pencil the pages and Moldoff ink them, which crossed minds, but there were budgetary and schedule reasosn for trying to limit how many people we could fit in. But wouldn't that have been nifty as all get-out? I think so. I'm a sentimental fool. Most of us are, in the world of comic books, at least of a certain age.

Above: The second World's Finest imp team-up, also a Sprang/Moldoff team-up (from 1962).  Important stuff.  

One last thing. Actually, two last things, while I'm on the subject of Sheldon Moldoff and Worlds' Funnest. In April, 2000, Sarah and I were guests at the Pittsburgh Comic Con in Monroeville, Pa (held within walking distance of the mall used in Dawn of the Dead). Sheldon Moldoff was set up at the booth on our right, which is how I finally got to meet him, and also where Sarah bought one of his pin-ups. Pittsburgh was a busy show for us, and I was still hosting the Harvey Awards, so I didn't get to speak with Moldoff a ton. But on one occasion, he just kind of started talking to Sarah and I, remarking on how we were young and he could see that we were working hard and if we kept at it we were sure to make it in the industry. He was being super-kind and positive, not at all condescending or obnoxious. We have pictures of us taken with him during that weekend. You can see me grinning like, well, a big fanboy. Neither Sarah or I ever told him that I had written the DC comic he had just drawn two pages for (or that we were writing for television at the time). It's always been a cherished con memory.

The second thing concerns the copy of World's Funnest pictured at the top of this post. It was sent to me some years ago, unfortunately I've forgotten the name of the very kind person responsible. He knew that I was getting my own copy signed by as many contributors as I could during my convention travels (I think I have 15 signatures of folks who were involved with the book in one way or another), and he knew I didn't have Sheldon Moldoff's autograph (we met I Moldoff months before the book was published). So he got Sheldon Moldoff to sign a copy at a convention in Florida (iirc), and then mailed me the comic. I smile every time I see it. Just smiled right now, looking at it on my desk.

Below: The pin-up Sarah bought from Sheldon Moldoff at the Pittsburgh Con.