Friday Fun MARGIE COMICS "Elusive Valentine!"

Here's a never-reprinted Valentine's Day treat...

...from almost 80 years ago years ago, featuring a teen humor character from the company that later became Marvel Comics!

Until the mid 1970s when Archie Comics became the sole "teen humor" publisher, every company had several titles with wacky teenage protagonists.
Margie, created/written/illustrated by Morris Weiss was typical of the genre...

• Irresponsible, impulsive teen (of either gender)!
• Usually-clueless object of affection!
• Constantly-irritated parents!
• An annoying younger sibling (usually of the opposite gender to the protagonist)!
• Various eccentric friends!

Initially a backup strip that floated to whatever humor comic needed a 5-6 page filler, she finally got her own title by taking over Timely's Comedy Comics in 1946 as of #35 and holding on to it until #50 in 1950, when the book became Reno Browne: Hollywood's Greatest Cowgirl.
Margie went back to being a floating backup strip for another year before disappearing completely, never to be seen again!
This particular tale (one of the few comic tales I could find with "Valentine's Day" in the title that didn't deal with the famous gang-war massacre!) is from Timely's Margie Comics #37 (1946).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Baker Reading Room CROWN COMICS Voodah in "Justice of the Jungle!"

When you hear the phrase "Lord of the Jungle", you visualize Tarzan or Thun'da...

...or some other White guy.

But, during the Golden Age of Comics, one such jungle lord was Black!

Debuting in Golfing/McCombs' anthology Crown Comics #3 (1945), Voodah was the first Black hero in comic books.

Illustrated by Matt Baker (who most fans know was one of the premiere Good Girl artists of the '40s-'50s, but don't know that he was one of the few African-American comic artists of the era), the idea of a non-White jungle hero seems obvious today, but was extremely-daring in the 1940s!
In fact, it was so daring that Voodah became paler, eventually becoming just another White guy bossing the locals around!
But, before he went White, Voodah had some kool adventures, including battling a dinosaur single-handed!

You'll see a couple more of them before the end of the month!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

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Space-Hero Saturdays CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT "On the Planet of Peril!"

It Doesn't Matter if Your Alien Arch-Enemy is Dead...

There's always work for Captain Midnight in outer space!

Without an ongoing foe, the "Sentinel of the Spaceways" had a series of one-shot adventures involving alien races, and Earth colonies on other worlds, as shown in thi story from Fawcett's Captain Midnight #58 (1948)!

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Captain Midnight Archives

Volume 2

Captain Midnight Saves the World!

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Reading Room MIRTH OF A NATION

Some things never go out-of-date...

...like dumb jokes and juvenile humor, as these panels from Mirth of a Nation #5 (1943) demonstrate!

Five issues were produced by the Harry "A" Chesler Jr. Features Syndicate for the short-lived Wm H Wise & Company.

Each issue had this notice on the first page...

Monday Madness STUART TAYLOR IN WEIRD STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL "Faustus"

Despite the title, the series is actually sci-fi about a time traveler and his machine...

...who occasionally run into mystical menaces.

IIRC, The Time Tunnel TV series did the same thing, encountering Merlin, the ghost of Nero, and others along with the usual silver-skinned Irwin Allen aliens...

This series started in Jumbo Comics #1 (1939) as Diary of Dr Hayward, illustrated by Jack Kirby under the house pseudonym "Curt Davis" (which was used for every story in the series).

With #5, Lou Fine assumed the art chores, and several issues later the title changed to Weird Stories of the Supernatural as lab assistant Stuart Taylor took center stage and old Doc Hayward became a supporting character.

(In fact, the series title sometimes listed "Stuart Taylor" above the "Weird Stories..." logo, playing up the action-hero aspect, as it does here.)

As of #15, a rotating lineup of artists contributed art but no other "big names" worked on the series which continued for almost the entire run of Jumbo, ending at #140 (1950).

This particular never-reprinted story is from Jumbo Comics #111 (1948) and was produced by the Iger Studio, which supplied almost all of Fiction House's comic material during this period!

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Fir Tree"

For Our Final Yuletide-Themed Post of 2024...

...we thought we'd present a tale of a Christmas Tree by a master storyteller...Hans Christian Anderson!

Walt (Pogo) Kelly both adapted the story and illustrated it for Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942).

Comics About the Guy Christmas is Named After!

It's the Sunday before Christmas, an appropriate time to look at comic book stories about...

...the birth of Jesus Christ, the one and only!

BTW, your eyes do not deceive you!

Marvel Comics published a one-shot about the origin of Christ!

You can read that long out-of-print story by clicking on these links...

Part 1

Part 2

Conclusion

But there's more!

Here's a shorter, never-reprinted version from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics...

Bible Tales for Young Folks

From a small publisher who did only a half-dozen comics, all based on Christian themes...

Life of Christ Visualized

Fiction House, noted for really-fun series like Planet Comics and Sheena: Queen of the Jungle took a somewhat more sensationalistic approach to telling the story of the Nativity....using 3-D!

Part 1

Conclusion

and Finally...

EC Comics, aka Entertaining Comics, the guys who later gave the world graphic horror in Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear began as Educational Comics, publishing wholesome material like Picture Stories from Science, Picture Stories from American History, Picture Stories from World History, and Picture Stories from the Bible...which ran material based on the Old Testament!
They added a second series of Bible tales, this time from the New Testament, kicking off with Christ's birth!
Suprisingly, as you'll see, the gave very little attention to the actual event, covering the whole thing in only 1 1/2pages!

Picture Stories from the Bible: New Testament Edition

Rudolph Reading Room RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER the Secret Saga!

You only think  you know the story...

...but the truth is far different!

Yeah, you know the 1940s song and you've seen the 1960s animated TV special every Christmas for as long as you can remember.

But, it's not the original tale of the guy with the glowing nose!

Starting Thursday, we're re-presenting a special treat...the rarely-seen prose tale that inspired both the Gene Autry song and stop-motion tv special.

Here's a vintage 1940s cartoon by Max Fleischer that's somewhat closer to the "classic" version...

And be here Thursday for the actual, illustrated, prose tale!

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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Deluxe 50th-Anniversary Edition

(of the stop-motion animated TV special)

Monday Madness: The Forgotten Inspiration for Disney's FROZEN...Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen"

Disney has a long history of adapting classic fairy tales...

...but none went further away from the source material than "Frozen".

Yes, it's been a commercial phenomenon, but, if you're looking for the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale...this ain't it!

If you want to see an extremely-faithful version of the classic tale...

...click HERE, and "Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go!"

Monday Madness / Thanksgiving Turkey TINY TOT COMICS "Dunny the Flying Donkey on Christmas Eve!"

Before EC Comics Became Entertaining Comics and Did Xmas Tales Like This...

...they were known as Educational Comics, and told Xmas tales like this never-reprinted story from EC's Tiny Tot Comics #10 (1947) that qualifies as our "Thanksgiving Turkey" for 2024!

Dunny the Flying Donkey was one of several ongoing strips in Tiny Tot Comics created, written, and illustrated by Burton Geller.

When EC changed direction and cancelled all its' humor and funny animal titles, Geller moved on to other publishers, patricularly Pflaum's Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, where he remained until he retired in 1963.

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories
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