Frightening Friday Fun CALLING ALL KIDS "Pug and Curly Find Someone to Scare"

In comics, even anthropomorphic squirrels celebrate Halloween...

...as shown in this never-reprinted feature from Parents Magazine Press' Calling All Kids #13 (1947)!

Pug and Curly were an ongoing feature in Calling All Kids, appearing in 23 of the title's 26 issues.

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Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus

#1 Scary Tales and Scarier Tentacles

Friday Fun BIG APPLE COMIX "Hi There! I'm Paranoia!"

As NYC's subways are shut down due to once in a quarter-century flooding (at least 7 inches of rain)...

...I fondly remember Big Apple Comix's back cover by Ralph Reese, personifying the response we New Yorkers tend to have to even the most outrageous occurrences!

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the HTF Comic Classic...

Big Apple Comix

Space Hero Saturdays ZANY "Buck Dodgers" and "Flush Gordon"

A couple of comic strip parodies from one of the many 1950s MAD Magazine imitators...

...specifically, Candar's Zany #3 (1959), illustrated by Carl (Golden Age Human Torch) Burgos, writer unknown, though it might have been Burgos himself.

From Candar's Zany #2 (1958), artist and writer unknown.

The "Max Oboy" credit spoofs artist Mac (Green Lama) Raboy, who illustrated the Flash Gordon Sunday strip after co-creator/artist Alex Raymond left for other projects.

These HTF and never-reprinted space adventure parodies, were from Candar Publishing, which published risque titles like French Cartoons and Cuties and College Laughs.

Though Zany only ran four issues, it had a pretty damn good lineup of writers and artists including the aformentioned Burgos (who was also the editor for the first two issues), Bill Everett (who also painted all four front covers), Joe Sinnott, Dick Briefer, John Forte, Don Orehek, Morris Waldinger, Paul Reinman, and Pete Costanza!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Friday Fun TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS "Hip Van Wrinkle"

There is nothing more frightening to a beatnik, hippie, or hipster...

...than to be considered "establishment" or "uncool"!

This tale from Archies's Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats #5 (1962) demonstrates that "kool" is all a matter of perspective!

Best-known as the creator of Li'l Jinx, writer-artist Joe Edwards masterfully-adapted to the Dan DeCarlo-esque "house" style of Archie Comics to become one of their (almost-always anonymous) mainstays for decades, from the Golden Age (1940s) through the Modern Age (1980s).
Consider that when he wrote and illustrated this tale, he was already in his 40s (as were almot all comic creatives at that time), not a young adult and "with it", as they said back then!
Does it still read as "legit"?
Think about it...

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Best of Archie's Mad House!

Friday Fun KOOKIE! "Yea Sayers"

The title is a play on the phrase "nay sayers"...

...which denotes someone who complains, criticizes, or objects to something!

Kookie is an aspiring young actress look for her big break.

Her friend, Jose O'Hara, is an aspiring playwright looking for his big break.

In this never-reprinted tale from Dell's Kookie! #1 (1962), scripted by John Stanley and illustrated by Bill Williams, the two encourage each other's "creativity" with almost insane optimism, trying to turn each setback into an advantage!

Friday Fun ARCHIE'S MAD HOUSE "Why Is It?"

Archie Comics tried twice to do a kinder, gentler (Comics Code-approved) MAD-style comic!

This series, Archie's Mad House, using the Archie cast as "hosts" to introduce the features, was the first attempt!

Joe Edwards, the writer/artist behind this never-reprinted story from Archie's Mad House #16 (1962) was one of the most prolific creators of the Archie Comics creative crew, producing several thousand (yes, you read that correctly) stories including standalones like this one, one and two-page shorts, tales of the Archie gang, and an ongoing strip featuring his own creation, L'il Jinx!
The book went through numerous reboots/reincarnations as Archie's MadHouse / Archie's Mad House / Mad House / Mad House Ma-ad Jokes / Ma-ad House Freak-Out / Mad House Glads / Mad House an anthology horror comic for three issues...then reverted to humor as Mad House Comics for a total run of 130 issues between 1961 and 1982, a pretty good run by any standard!
The book was revived as a Halloween reprint annual from 2017 to 2019, and will doubtless rise again at some point!

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Best of Archie's Mad House!

Friday Fun WILD "I Was an 88 Pound Weakling"

As we enter the final weekend of summer vacation...

...lets look at a parody of a classic tale of humiliation and redemption on the beach!

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Wild #5 (1954) spoofs the plot of this ad...

...which had already become a cliche!

Penciler Al Hartley,  inker Carl Burgos, and an unknown scripter (likely the book's editor Stan Lee) knew the audience would get the joke especially since the ad ran in almost every comic of the 1950s!

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Sincerest Form of Parody

Friday Fun HILLBILLY COMICS "Mountain Music"

As Oliver Anthony ("Rich Men North of Richmond") is discovering...

...the Trumpettes who are pretending to enjoy country music because they belive it embodies their "ideals" (such as they are) really have no idea about what they're listening to!

Written and illustrated by Art Gates, this tale from Charlton's Hillbilly Comics #1 (1955) was part of a brief trend in comic books during the Li'l Abner series' greatest popularity in the mid-1950s!

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Best of Li'l Abner

by Al Capp

Friday Fun DOLL MAN QUARTERLY "Torchy"

Here's the premiere tale of one of the best-known "good girl art" comic strips of the Golden Age...

...which according to the Grand Comics Database, has (surprisingly) never been reprinted!

From this debut in Quality's Doll Man Quarterly #8 (1946) onward, writer/artist Bill Ward's Torchy kept gaining fans with each appearance, continuing in Doll Man until the book's cancellation as of #47 in 1953 as well as simultaneously branching out into Modern Comics from #53 (1946) to #102 (1950) and a six-issue run of her own self-named comic in 1949-50!
The strip established Ward, who had been doing work in every genre, solidly as a "good girl" artist, which he utilized when the comics business collapsed in the mid-1950s to get assignments from men's magazines.

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Torchy #0

(which, despite the misleading cover featuring a "modern" interpretaion of Torchy, features a strip by Bill Ward detailing how the Torchy series was created!)

Friday Fun HICKORY "Irrigation Irritation"

Let's have a look at how some creatives see twice-impeached/thrice indicted Don (the Con) Trump's "deplorables"...

...in this never-reprinted tale from Quality's Hickory #1 (1949)

Illustrated (and probably written) by Harry Sahle, this strip began in Hillman Comics' anthology All-Humor Comics, then spun-off into it's own, short-lived, title when All-Humor was cancelled.

In 1948-49, superheroes were all but kaput.

Comics were experimenting with every genre imaginable to see what would sell.

Li'l Abner was a major success in newspapers and had already spawned a radio series and feature film!

Strips like Looie Lazybones had long been a part of anthology titles, and series like Ozark Ike, and Babe had earned their own titles, though it was probably due more to their emphasis on the characters' involvement in sports than their rural origins.

Hickory the comic only lasted six issues.

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Best of Li'l Abner

by Al Capp