MIGHTY JOE YOUNG IN THE COMICS

Tucked away inside an obscure UK newsprint comic book is the first illustrated adaptation of a Ray Harryhausen film on either side of the Atlantic, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (RKO, 1949), in SUN comic by Amalgamated Press.

Previously, SUN was owned by J.B. Allen who published the first UK post-war comic, THE COMET, in 1947, after paper restrictions were lifted. Some of its earliest stories were adaptations of THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and ROBIN HOOD. Amalgamated bought Allen out in 1949.

The bi-weekly-published SUN was comprised of a combination of humor and adventure strips, illustrated text stories, and adaptations of recent popular movies -- some using photographs and word balloons in the fumetti style -- all aimed at a younger readership.

The adaptation of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG ran in six full-page parts, from 10 December 1949 until 18 February 1950.

The strip was drawn by Robert Robertson MacGillivray (1913-1986). During his career, MacGillivray worked for several British companies that published mainly humor and adventure comic books for children and young people. He was known as a versatile artist and could draw in any number of styles, depending on the needs of the story.

The next Harryhausen film adapted into a comic book wouldn't be until Dell published THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD in FOUR COLOR COMICS #944 (September 1958).

Here are two sample pages from Amalgamated's MIGHTY JOE YOUNG:

SUN (January 21, 1950).

SUN (February 18, 1950).

Read more about MIGHTY JOE YOUNG HERE.

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG: BEHIND THE SCENES

The creators of KING KONG had one more go at his legacy in the 1949 RKO production of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. KONG was re-released three more times after its original run (1938, 1942, and 1946), and studio execs thought audiences were ready for another "giant gorilla" film. The old crew was brought back: Merian C. Cooper produced with Ruth Rose scripting Cooper's story; Ernest B. Shoedsack directed with Robert Armstrong starring. 

The story takes place in Africa where 7-year-old Jill Young (Lora Lee Michel, then Terry Moore as a grown-up Jill) lives with her widowed father (Ben Johnson in his first credited role) on his ranch. She raises a young gorilla, and when it is 10-years-old (and considerably larger) she is convinced to have "Joe Young" transported to Hollywood by entrepreneurs looking for an act for their nightclub after promising Jill enough money to bail out her father's struggling ranch. As one would expect, lots of drama and animated mayhem ensues.

Willis "Obie" O'Brien was originally set to do the stop-motion animation, but he soon got tangled in various production problems and handed over the work to a young Ray Harryhausen, Pete Peterson and Marcel Delgado. As in KONG, Delgado sculpted the various models (Harry Cunningham is credited for building the armatures as he did in KING KONG).

Unfortunately, the film did not do well at the box office and aside from the effects, was met with a tepid response from critics. Plans for a remake were shelved.

Ironically, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for 1949. Perhaps it was fitting, as the Academy Awards had not yet been active in 1933. For his acceptance speech, Obie politely and succinctly said, "Thank you, very, very much."

This photo set shows rare shots from Willis O'Brien's personal collection of work that took place behind the scenes during the making of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG.

Portrait of Ray Harryhausen by RKO studio photographer Bert Six.

MARCEL DELGADO'S LAST SCULPT

The pioneering stop-motion animator Willis "Obie" O'Brien first met the 22-year-old, Mexico-born Marcel Delgado at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Needing a sculptor for his upcoming adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD, he managed to convince Delgado to join his team. At first he was reluctant to leave school:

"Mr. O'Brien took an interest in my work and one night he asked me, 'would you like to work in motion pictures?' I told him I would not because I wanted to be an artist and didn't want to lose any time. Every time he saw me he asked again and offered me $75 a week to come to work for him. I always said no, and I don't really know why; I was only making $18 a week but I guess I felt secure. One Friday he asked me to lay off work and visit the motion picture studio. OBie left a pass at the gate and when I went in Obie met me and took me to his little shop. There was a 'phone, some cameras and pictures all around. 'How do you like your studio?' he asked. 'It's yours if you want it.' It was a twenty-year-old boy's dream! So I signed up and worked for the next couple of years building dinosaurs for The Lost World. I made forty-nine or fifty of them and it was all done under cover with no visitors allowed —although some of the studio big shots came in anyhow."

Delgado ended up sculpting 50 dinosaur figures for the movie which was released in 1925. It was a smash hit.

Delgado went on to work on many more projects (all uncredited) including KING KONG, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE BIRDS and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. His last stop-motion figure would be the Tyrannosaurus Rex seen in DINOSAURUS! (Universal, 1960).

Contrary to conventional thought, these models or puppets were extremely fragile and did not hold up well during the thousands of single frame shots needed to complete the action on film. For example, there were two King Kong puppets used during the making of the movie; while one was used, the other was being repaired.

Marcel Delgado passed away on 26 November 1976 at the age of 75.

The armature and what was left of the muscle and skin buildup of the T-Rex from DINOSAURUS! went up for auction at Profiles in History in July 2006. The sale estimate was between $15,000 - $18,000.