Saturday, April 14, 2018

Trump Reading Room EVERY DAY IS A HOLLY DAY "Pan-American Day"

Here's a holiday I'm sure Don (the John) Trump is glad we've abandoned!
The idea of us actually working with those South of the Border is anthema to such as Don the John.
Don the John followed it with a less-than-enthuisastic proclamation in 2017, making the usual bellicose veiled threats against the other American countries.
I suggest you read both links, then compare and contrast the attitudes presented by both Presidential proclamations!
Why is this comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?
Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!
Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!
We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.
Watch for them!
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Friday, April 13, 2018

Friday Fun JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "Music from Afar"

Teenagers and pop music have gone hand-in-hand since the Jazz Era of the 1920s...
...so why should the mid-21st Century (as seen from the mid-20th Century) be any different?
Our final Jetta tale, from Standard's Jetta of the 21st Century #6 (1953), scripted and penciled by Dan DeCarlo and inked by Fred Eng, is a fun story with a silly ending that doesn't work if you think about it.
(How could the two-headed singer from Planet X not know most other beings have only one head per person...and how could the humans not know people from Planet X had two heads?)
But, in the context of a punch-line for a humor story, it works fine!
Be here next Friday when we take a look at another short-lived, time-lost series!
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Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Reading Room MYSTERY IN SPACE "Operation Phobos"

We presented the first Swinging Sixties Interplanetary Investigations tale HERE...
..now here's their final adventure from DC's Mystery in Space #102 (1965)!
Note Sean Connery-lookalike Damos appears again.
Also note (from the ad at the end of the story), this month also saw the Strange Adventures premiere/origin of "The Man with the Animal Powers" who would morph a couple of issues later into superhero Animal Man, who's still active in DC comics and tv series over 50 years later, unlike the secret agents of Interplanetary Investigations!
Written by Dave Wood, illustrated by Gil Kane, the series had a lot of potential.
Jan and Davos could've become a futuristic Man from U.N.C.L.E./Wild, Wild West/I Spy duo...
What could have been...
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(which contains only a couple of stories from this previously-listed volume)

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder CARSON OF VENUS "Battle Cry!"

Wein and Kaluta have brought us up to date!
Buckle your swashes and read on...
To his credit, Edgar Rice Burroughs made each of his series as different from the others as possible.
Except for an American protaganist and a beautiful woman to lust after, Barsoom, Amtor, Caspak, Pelucidar, and the Moon have vastly-different enviroments, unique flora and fauna, and differently-structured humanoid civilizations and governments!
Written by Len Wein and illustrated by Mike Kaluta, this tale from DC's Korak: Son of Tarzan #48 (1972) continues the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Pirates of Venus, the first of the Carson of Venus series!
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Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Reading Room OUT OF THIS WORLD "LIttle Things!"

One thing Charlton excelled at...
...was saving a buck by creating distinctive covers using existing interior artwork!
Of course, it helps if the art is by Steve Ditko at one of his peaks!
The story from Charlton's Out of This World #16 (1959) is one of those "I screwed up something in the past, thus changing the present" tales.
But it's Ditko's art that elevates it from "merely average" to "really kool"!
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Monday, April 9, 2018

Reading Room NORGE BENSON "Mammoth Poachers of Thor"

Add a mammoth to your cast, and what's the first thing that happens?
You encounter mammoth poachers, of course!
Perhaps it's a blessing that this tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #32 (1944) is the final Norge Benson adventure.
The writing, which had never been the strip's greatest asset, has deteriorated remarkably.
Even Lily Renee's constantly-improving artwork can't save the series.
Be here next Monday as we begin a new time-lost series!
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Planet Comics
Vol. 8

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Reading Room PANIC "What to Do with Ebbet's Field?"

As I had mentioned previously, baseball's Dodgers had left Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957...
...leaving an empty stadium in the heart of the Borough of Kings!
This never-reprinted strip from Panic Publications' Panic #1 (1958) takes the "Man on the Street" skit from then-popular The Steve Allen Show (featuring Don Knotts, Tom Poston, and Louie Nye) and uses it to answer the question!
(You can read about Ebbets [no apostrophe] Field's fate HERE.)
As to who wrote and drew the four-pager...we have no idea!
Only Publisher Robert Farrell and Editor/Art Director Bob Powell used their own names on the masthead!
Panic survived longer than most other MAD clones, running nine issues from 1958 to 1966.
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