The Secret Behind The Mirror

Yesterday we presented an odd little distorted reflection from seven decades back - two stories, nearly identical, presented at the same time:

While those two pages show what we're talking about, the full stories are in the previous post if you missed it and want to see the entire tales.

How did this happen? What's the strange story behind the stories?

This is one of those rare occasions when we actually have a first hand report from one of those involved. The story on the left is illustrated by Howard "Howie" Post; the tale on the right drawn by Ellis Holly Chambers. (If you ever wondered why Chambers sometimes signed his work with an E.C., and other times with an H.C., it's because he often went by his middle name. That is, in fact, how you'll see him referred to in the story below.)

Let's let Howard Post explain, from his interview in TwoMorrows' excellent Comic Book Artist magazine.

I went over to L.B. Cole who was running a place and I took my stuff to him (as discretely as I could because I didn't want to embarrass myself with Paramount.) So I left it there during lunch and they rejected it. I got it back and took it across the street to Bernie Baily's outfit (which was on 43rd St.; Lenny Cole was on 42nd St.) and Bernie bought it. But the next month, my story came out in one of L.B. Cole's comic books as well as Bernie's! Someone had traced off my story when I left it up at Cole's over lunch! Would you believe it? [laughter] That was my introduction to comics.

Post continues:

Not only that: When the comic came out I found out who did it and the guy wanted me to work for him! He had just gotten a big deal to do a whole book based on my story. He gave me an advance of $800, more money than I'd ever seen in my life! [chuckles] I said I'd do it under one condition: That he just keep me in the clear. (Bernie had asked me, after seeing the story he bought in a rival comic book, "Are you selling this to everybody?" I said, "No, they traced it off on me!") I told him to verify what happened on paper - it may never come up but as long as I had his confession for protection... He said okay because he wanted me on that job. So he gave me that piece of paper, and when Lenny Cole's outfit found out about it - Cole's seemed some kind of criminal outfit, into black market paper, and I heard all kinds of stuff - I got a phone call from a  lady one day who said, "Post, you'd better not make any trouble for us. If you speak up against us, you're going to be in deep trouble. We have ways of taking care of you." [laughter] I'm 17 years old, I just sold my first job, and this is what I wind up with! [riotous laughter] The actual tracer of my work gave me an advance of $800 (he had to get the book out in a hurry) and I cashed the check that day - that minute! - because I didn't believe it was valid. I went home and said, "I got something for you, Ma." She said, "What 'tis it?" (My mother had a thick Scottish accent) and I said, "It's money. Here it is." She said, "I will not take it if you dinna get this  honestly! I will not accept it!" She had never seen this kind of money either! I said, "Well, Ma, I have to admit I didn't get it honestly; I got it for drawing cartoons!" [laughter] So she was kind of pleased and awed, and that helped us pull the family together - and it put my father at ease while he was in the hospital.  (with TB)

When asked if he recalled the name of the comic, Post replied:

All I do remember is that it was about a little Indian and some bears. The first thing I had done for Bernie Baily was a story about a little Indian on a bear hunt. It was a couple of pages. So this guy had presented my idea to a publisher to get a whole book of it and I ended up with half of the money! But I really couldn't take on half the work because there was such a deadline and the guy - who, by the way, is legend in the industry by the name of Holly Chambers - did two-thirds of the work, saying, "Keep the money." He worked overnight to do it; he'd buy himself a half a pound of marijuana, seal up the doors and windows, and work through the night. I came in the morning to find a tremendous amount of work; he's slumped over the desk in this for of smoke with finished drawings stacked up by his desk. It was fantastic.

The title unremembered.

So the work kept coming and I kept working at that studio until one day Chambers got himself a gun. He said, "You gotta walk me to this hotel because I want to show you something." We go up to this hotel and he'd buy heroin and bring it back to the studio. When I saw that I said, "This ain't for me. This is a little too rich for my blood."

Ellis shooting up without a needle, using a razor blade to cut his way in, was more than enough to drive Howard Post away - and on to his own successful career, not to mention repeated appearances here. (Like he'd care)

As one might suspect from the story above, Ellis Holly Chambers was a bit of an outsider, and a mysterious figure about whom very little is known today. This interview is the most i've ever seen on Ellis Chambers, his life, or his works. Like many (most?) Golden Age artists, much of his works were unsigned and uncredited, leaving us to speculate just how much he created.

Yesterday's post also noted that there was a connection to this story:

(Again, full story in the previous post)

The hidden connection?
This is the only tale in the book, beyond the original traced and modified story, that is credited to Howie and Ellis working together. The rest was Chambers' drug fueled late nights. Ellis was at his best, in my opinion, when teamed with a stronger writer - but i love his artwork.

We had no Sunday Morning Funnies today. Instead, let's enjoy some more of Ellis Chamber's work now with some Sunday Chamber Funnies -

page art by Ellis Chambers and Howard Post for Prize Comics #49, Hi-Ho Comics #s 1 & 2, and Wotalife Comics #s 5 & 9 (1945-1947) Howard Post interview text from Comic Book Artist #5 (1999)