Showing posts with label Friday Fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friday Fun. Show all posts

Friday, February 23, 2024

Friday Fun THIS MAGAZINE IS CRAZY "Fact Realism vs TV is 'em Real"

Old West humor, illustrated by the legendary Jack Davis...
...but NOT from MAD!
It's from Charlton's This Magazine is CRAZY! V4N8, a MAD imitator which lasted only seven issues!
Both as a color comic and a b/w magazine, MAD inspired many imitators.
Some, like Cracked, are going even today (albeit on-line, not in print).
Others, like This Magazine is CRAZY, were short-lived, but able, from time to time, to get work from MAD's regular contributors, almost all of whom were freelancers.
This particular piece from 1959 apparently was a satirical response to TV's sanitizing the images of both cowboys and Indians in ongoing series.
Westerns were the most popular scripted genre at the time, dominating almost half of both the prime time and syndicated schedules.
The writer is, regrettably, unknown but it could be Davis himself, who utilized this format in both issues of his own short-lived color comic humor anthology Yak Yak, as seen HERE and HERE!
The writer is, regrettably, unknown.
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Friday, January 26, 2024

Friday Fun ABBOTT & COSTELLO "Justin Tyme the World's Best Grocery Clerk in 'Gorilla My Dreams' "

In Japan, manga about people in everyday jobs are quite common...and popular!
Here in America, they're rarely successful, no matter how well-done!
Illustrated (and possibly written) by Charles W Winter (as "C W Winter"), this feature from St John's Abbott & Costello Comics #8 (1949) was Justin Tyme's second, and last, original appearance>
(The story was reprinted later in A&C's run.).
The idea of having to do something silly if you get an incorrect answer on a game show started in radio, and carried over to TV, where it continues to the present day!

Friday, January 19, 2024

Friday Fun GET LOST! "Robin the Hood"

One of the better-quality MAD comic book clones of the 1950s...

...(and there were a lot of them) was Get Lost, edited and packaged by comic creatives Ross Andru and Mike Esposito!
In case you're wondering why this story from MikeRoss' Get Lost #2 (1954) was about Robin Hood, the answer is that the character was experiencing a revival in popularity due to several feature films, including a Walt Disney flick, The Story of Robin Hood starring Richard Todd, a re-release to theatres of the Errol Flynn swashbuckler classic Adventures of Robin Hood, several other new b-movies, and a new TV series starring Richard Greene as Robin!
Magazine Enterprises gave Robin his own comic book (based on the TV series), Quality Comics did Robin Hood Tales, while DC featured the character in an ongoing strip in Brave and the Bold.
Oddly, Atlas Comics (later to be known as Marvel), who were notorious for jumping on pop culture trends, didn't do anything Robin Hood-related!
As for this particular story, the writer is unknown (but is likely Andru or Esposito),and the artist is versatile illustrator Paul Hodge, who worked for a number of publishers, including Ziff-Davis, St John, Dell, and Atlas during the 1950s until the Seduction of the Innocent "comics cause juvenile delinquency" scandal almost wiped out the comics industry!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Friday, January 5, 2024

Friday Fun HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST "Meet the Neighbors!"

What if Stan (the Man) Lee had written Casper the Friendly Ghost?
Well, he did!
Sort of...
Due to the success of Casper in both animation and comic books in the early 1950s, numerous companies jumped on the friendly phantom bandwagon with clones barely different enough to avoid copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits!
Writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Dan de Carlo presented Atlas Comics' take with this never-reprinted 1955 premiere tale which combines Lee's snarky Catskill vaudeville humor with de Carlo's polished animation-style artwork!
Homer the Happy Ghost ran until 1958 (22 issues, plus a 2-issue spinoff, Adventures of Homer Ghost)!
Lee brought back Homer in reprint form, hoping to run new material if the book sold well.
Whether it was due to poor sales or Harvey Comics (which was at its' peak with over two-dozen Casper titles) finally laying the copyright/trademark law down, this incarnation only lasted four issues without ever getting to run new stories!
Homer hasn't been seen since!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Friday, November 17, 2023

Friday Fun SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Santa in Wonderland" Conclusion

When Last We Left Santa Claus and Alice...

The night before Christmas Eve, Santa was disturbed when a little girl named Alice appeared at his door at the North Pole and pleaded for him to "bring Christmas to Wonderland".
The blonde girl lead Santa to the rabbit hole/entrance and showed him mushrooms that reduced both of them in size.
Once in Wonderland, Santa encountered inhabitants including the Mock Turtle and the White Rabbit, who shrank while using a white fan which Claus inadvertently also uses...
This story originally appeared in Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #2 (1943), but was not the cover feature!
It was reprinted in a stand-alone giveaway, Dell's Alice in Wonderland Meets Santa (1951), to capitalize on the release of the Disney animated film Alice in Wonderland, based on the Lewis Carroll stories Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass!
The reprint's new cover art (as shown at the top of the post) by an unknown artist, shows Alice rendered with the same hairstyle and blue dress as the movie version, rather than the hairstyle and violet dress shown in the comic story.
The other characters on the cover resemble their Disney versions, as well!
Since Dell was then currently-publishing licensed Disney comics (including the comic adaptation of the animated Alice in Wonderland)...
...it's likely the similarity on the cover was permitted!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This Christmas!

Friday, November 10, 2023

Friday Fun SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Santa in Wonderland" Part 1

Now HERE'S a crossover team-up you never thought you'd see...
...as Santa Claus meets Lewis Carroll's Alice and travels to Wonderland!
What does Santa find?
You'll have to come back next Friday to find out!
Though the scripter is unknown, the art for this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Santa Claus Funnies #2 (1943) was by George Kerr, who was the primary artist for the comic book tales of Raggedy Ann and Andy and Andy Panda!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics This Christmas!

Friday, October 27, 2023

Frightening Friday Fun CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY AS TOLD BY SABRINA "Boy Who Cried Vampire"

The now-cancelled CW series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was not the first time the "Teenage Witch" did actual horror...
... in 1972, she hosted her own series of horror stories told in the Archie "vein" as you can see in this never-reprinted (in color) terror-tale...
Now there's an ambiguous ending if ever I heard one...
In 1971, the Comics Code Authority loosened its' regulations regarding monsters, allowing limited use of "classic" creatures including vampires, werewolves, and zombies.
While DC and Marvel went monster-happy, unleashing new strips and several new titles, Archie Comics' response was this book with an unusual combination of horror writing and Archie house-style art, which tended to conflict with the theme of the stories!
To be fair, writer Frank Doyle, penciler Dan DeCarlo, and inker Rudy Lapick tried their best with this tale from Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina #1 (1972), but it just doesn't work.
After two issues, the series was revamped (pun intended) into a more-traditional horror title with non-cartoony art by Gray Morrow and associates, dropping Sabrina as the hostess.
It survived nine more issues.
Speaking of survival, reruns of the TV version of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina can be seen on Netflix!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Buy...
(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white)