Bob Newhart (1929-2024)

Everybody knows the late, great, Bob Newhart's...

...two long-running TV series, The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart.

But, how many remember his final series, Bob...which was set in the world of comic books and greeting cards?

(Silly side note, considering the progression of series titles from The Bob Newhart Show to Newhart to Bob, if he had done another series what was it going to be called..."The"?)

In the 1992-94 series Newhart played Bob McKay, a Silver Age creative now doing greeting cards, who created, wrote, and illustrated Mad-Dog, a super-hero with the abilities of...you guessed it...a dog!

(He also, somehow, retained the copyright to the character, a rarity for creatives before the 1990s!)

When a new publisher wants to revive the character, Bob agrees, provided he does the book.

But, that's not what the publisher has in mind...

Note: we don't call the 1990s "The Dark Age" for nothing!

As you can see, Marvel Comics published a never-reprinted six-issue tie-in comic in "flip-book" format, with one half being Bob McKay's Silver Age version, and the other half being Ace Comics' Dark Age version.
In tribute to this unjustly-forgotten project, which featured an episode guest-starring noted comics creatives Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Sergio Aragones, Jim Lee, and Mark Silvestri; we're interrupting our "Time-Lost" Summer Blogathon to do the following...

Presenting the pilot episode on

Secret Sanctum of Captain Video

NOW!

Presenting the "Silver Age" Mad-Dog on Monday at

Hero Histories!

And presenting the "Dark Age" Mad-Dog on Monday right here at

Atomic Kommie Comics!

Miss them at your peril!