Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts

Sunday, January 5, 2025

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Some things never go out-of-date...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, December 30, 2024

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!

Sunday, December 29, 2024

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).

Saturday, December 21, 2024

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...
But there's more!

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

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

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!
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!

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

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!
Support Atomic Kommie Comics this Christmas!
Visit Amazon and Order...
(of the stop-motion animated TV special)

Monday, December 2, 2024

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, November 25, 2024

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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Sunday, November 24, 2024

SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "There's a Santa..."

Here's a kool one pager...
...written and illustrated by Walt (Pogo) Kelly from Dell's Four Color Comics #91 (1945) aka "Santa Claus Funnies"!
Until Christmas, we'll be presenting various Yultide-related items, some will be one or two-pagers like this, some will be longer, even multi-part stories.
Have a seat, get a mug of hot chocolate, and enjoy!

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Holiday Reading Room SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Santa Claus in Trouble"

Ever hear "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"?
...well, when that woman is the Ice Queen, even ol' Kris Kringle better watch out!
Some observations...
Boy, the Ice Queen is a real...#itch, ain't she?
Santa has "magic snowshoes"?
Wonder what other kool gimmicks he has lying around the toyshop...
Illustrated by Lea Bing, this never-reprinted story from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #1 (1942) was the first in a series of annual books featuring not only Kris Kringle, but other Christmas-related characters and stories that ran from '42 to '62.
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