Reading Room LEGEND OF "COMIC BOOK" McFIEND "Bella Button Caper"

You thought Golden Age characters SuperSnipe and "Comics" McCormick were fanboys?

They were mere dilettantes compared to this Bronze Age guy!

This origin story actually ran a year after the character's previous published appearance (shown HERE)!
Published in the final issue of DC's Plop! (#24 in 1976), neither story has ever been reprinted, but probably served as one of the inspirations for the 1990s DC character FanBoy!

"Bella Button" was based on NY Congresswoman Bella Abzug, famous for her kick-butt attitude.

Though Abzug never tried to do a "Seduction of the Innocent"-type purge of mass-market comics, she did influence government military comics in the 1970s, when she and fellow Congresscritters William Proxmire and Orrin Hatch urged PS Magazine to"tone down" the mag's female leads Connie and Bonnie to less-sexy imagery.

(PS Magazine was provided to tech/mechanical support personnel with info and updates about equipment in an easy-to-absorb comic format)

The duo had been played as cheesecake from the 1950s through the 1970s, targeting the male GIs.
But with an increase in female recruits for non-combat/support services after the Draft ended, the characters were redesigned more as "buddies" than "babes", since women were now also reading and utilizing the magazine!

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Bella Abzug
How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy...

Reading Room "COMIC BOOK" McFIEND "Collector"

We've presented stories featuring fanboys SuperSnipe and "Comics" McCormick...

..now we present the too-brief run of DC's Bronze Age fanboy, starting with his second tale, which was published first!

Appearing in DC's b/w magazine, Amazing World of DC Comics #6 (1975), this piece was meant to show off cover-featured creator Joe Orlando's editorial skills.

(Exactly how, I have no idea!)

Written by Don Ewing and rendered by Dave Manak, this was the second in a series of fanboy misadventures featuring the character, who was meant to be a semi-regular feature in Plop!

Oddly enough, the book was still going strong at this point, and there was no room for this particular strip.

A year later, the book was being cancelled, and the first McFiend story (his origin) was used to fill out the final issue.

You'll see that one next Monday!

Trivia:

1) there were few comic shops in 1975, so this ongoing magazine was available by subscription from DC or at conventions.

They're HTF and expensive!

2) neither of the Comic Book McFiend tales have been reprinted since their initial appearances in 1975-76!

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Amazing World of DC Comics #6 (1975)

Special Joe Orlando Issue!