Landing Buttons' UFO

Before we view the concluding chapters of Buttons' UFO, let us pause a moment for a couple comments on our previous post.

I heard back from the Librarians at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. regarding those pencil notes in the margins of chapter 5. While they cannot absolutely confirm that those are Frank Borth's annotations, their archive does include his personal collection of issues from 1956-1970, so it is very likely to be the case.
And let me note how speedy and helpful the Librarians at CU are. Thank You!

Very cool info - and a tremendous pain. You may have noticed i sometimes get a bit obsessed with knowledge/information. Now that i know this, i'm going to have to read through 15 years of their collection to see if any more instances of Borth's personal notes are included. I will, of course, keep you appraised if i find more.

The second note is merely another odd synchronicity in my daily life. Recall in the margin notes yesterday that he made reference to Ashtabula being funnier that Jersey City. I'd never heard of Ashtabula before. But between yesterday and today, i read the latest issue of VFW magazine and it turns out there was a naval vessel named the Ashtabula upon which one of those profiled had served.
Certainly funnier than the Intrepid (no, i'm not going to go hunt and see if there was a ship named Jersey City)

Any way, it was just a barely amusing encounter and example of how things seem to cluster in reality. Let's move onward, shall we?

Here are the final chapters of Buttons' UFO -

Damn. Should have read that warning before i tore a hole in the wall...

page art by Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v25 #s 16-18 (1969)

Borth's Buttons Bonus

We continue with Frank Borth's solo tale of Buttons' UFO from yesterday. This time we've got chapters 3-5, with possibly a special bonus for the 5th installment.

We'll talk about that when we get there. Let's get started first -

Let's go to the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. for this next chapter. In their archives is a copy of Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v24#15 that is potentially Quite Special. There are penciled notations in the margins that appear to be from Frank Borth himself. Is that possible?

Well, yes.

Just about 15 years ago, Frank Borth did an extensive interview for them regarding his time working on TCoF&F. It is quite possible that Frank either bequeathed his personal copies to them, or allowed them to scan his personal collection.

I have an inquiry submitted to the Librarians. I'll let you know if i hear back with any concrete details. Meanwhile, be aware that a couple of the notations continue on the following page -
 

Wasn't Ashtabula the home of the Rasa family?

Yeah, it's late and sleep is still elusive. We'll be back with the three concluding chapters.

page art by Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v24 #s 13-15 (1969)

Back To Borth's Buttons

As i noted last week when we started Draw-Along With Frank Borth, i was actually going to run another serial when i remembered that dangling bit and went back to it instead.

My sleep has still been savagely fractured - when i lay down, i'm back up within 30-90 minutes. Ugh. Much ugh.
But, since i'm up again for a bit, i decided to go ahead and start prepping pages and run the first two chapters today instead of waiting until tomorrow to begin Buttons' U.F.O.! -

Buttons' UFO was something of a successor to The Enchanted Flivver. But this time, we've got a Bathtub instead of an old auto. (Yes, there is an in-story explanation for it)

Another significant difference is that this time Frank Borth is handling both Story and Art as a solo production. The series ran in 8 chapters. Let's get started this afternoon with the first two, and we'll continue tomorrow -

Oops.
We'll see how that plays out when we continue on the morrow...

page art by Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v24 #s 1 & 2 (1969)

Missing Magnus

We will get back to Kit West. 
As is too frequently the case these days, my brain doesn't want to go there just now, and i'm tired of fighting it. 
So, meanwhile...

When asked about my all-time favourite Super Hero Team, it was always an easy answer - The Legion Of Super-Heroes. I just loved the mix of superheroics and science fiction. (And, yes - of course, that means that i was reading Marvel's 'knock-off' - the Guardians Of The Galaxy - from page one)

So, it's not surprising that i was a big fan of Magnus, Robot Fighter. Naturally, Russ Manning's, and later Paul Norris's, artwork certainly didn't hurt to draw me in. (No pun intended, really)

But, despite the high quality and personal preference, the series never did as well as it should have. With issue #29 they switched to reprints to save costs. Even in reprints, the book continued for another eight years of quarterly issues.

But, when they switched to the reprint format, there was already a story in the works which got tossed into the files and forgotten for years.

Fortunately, every now and again, somebody seems to go digging in the files. So here are the pencil pages by Paul Norris, written by Mike Royer, for the issue between #s 28 & 29 with a story called Programmed For Revenge -

page art by Paul Norris from Unpublished Magnus, Robot Fighter (drawn in 1969)