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The Shattuck strip was originally drawn by Howard Chayin and later taken over by Dave. I'm always curious to see early Cockrum art so please let me know if you have any scans or Xeroxes to share from Dave's work on the strip.
The previous owner was kind enough to forward me an e-mail that Dave had sent about this piece. Here it is in Dave's own words: "When I was just breaking into the business I landed a job for a while, penciling a western newspaper strip called 'Shattuck', for Wally Wood. He was packaging three strips for the Overseas Weekly, a paper for sailors and soldiers overseas. The other two strips were Woody's 'Cannon' and 'Sally Forth'. The basic thrust of all three strips was to get the ladies out of their clothing as quickly as possible.
That drawing you have was a character sketch of a villain for Shattuck, named Clay Quartermain, if memory serves. He led a gang which took over the town of Sundown and he made himself sheriff. The hero, Merle Shattuck, generally would prefer to slink out of town in such a situation, but occasionally his conscience would get the better of him and he'd do what was necessary to save the day. He organized the town against Quartermain, who he killed, and he wound up--much to his disgust--being appointed sheriff himself. Woody wrote the stuff and Jack Abel inked over my pencils. It was fun." |
