Monday Madness BASEBALL COMICS "Rube Rooky Heads Down the Home Stretch"

When Last We Left Our Wholesome Hero...

...under coach Pop Flye's guidance, Rube has developed into a top-notch pitcher.

But even a first-rate hurler needs a great team behind him!

Fortunately, the formerly-mediocre Badgers are inspired by the pitching prodigy and...

Regrettably, there was no "next issue" of Baseball Comics, so no World Series appearance for Rube Rooky.

But we still have this one-shot wonder from 1949 by writer/penciler Will Eisner and inker Tex Blaisdell to remember.
And, after Kitchen Sink Press reprinted this issue in 1991, there was a second issue  in 1992 reprinting a horror comics baseball story and a Will Eisner Spirit story about baseball, but without The Spirit!

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Baseball Comics #2

(A follow-up published decades later)

Monday Madness BASEBALL COMICS "Rube Rooky Climbs Up from the Pit"

Will Eisner's saga of how a baseball superstar is created continues...

...as Rube leaves his family and girlfriend to pursue his dream...

Wow!

Big-screen TV in 1949?

Who knew?

Next Week: the exciting conclusion to Rube Rooky's amazing saga!
BTW, anybody here see a parallel between Rube and a real-life ballplayer who faced similar problems being accepted by his teammates because he was "different" just a year before writer/penciler Will Eisner and inker Tex Blaisdell created this tale?

Be here in two weeks to see whom I'm talking about.

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Baseball Comics #2

(A follow-up published decades later)

Monday Madness BASEBALL COMICS "Rube Rooky"

Is there anything Will Eisner hadn't done during his long career?

He took chances experimenting with genres like this baseball-themed 1949 comic book...

...which predated a rush of sports-themed comics from various publishers the next year.

Unfortunately, the big problem with being first is that, often, the world isn't quite ready for you, and Baseball Comics lasted only one issue.

But it certainly wasn't for lack of quality, as this Eisner-written and penciled tale, inked by Tex Blaisdell, proves.

There's more to Rube Rooky's one shot at stardom, and we'll be running it here at Monday Madness for the rest of the month, so don't miss it!

(Hey, we said we're running "sports" in February!

We never said "football"!)

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Baseball Comics #2

(A follow-up published decades later)

9-11: WORLD'S FINEST COMIC BOOK WRITERS AND ARTISTS TELL STORIES TO REMEMBER "Real Thing"

On the 21st Anniversary of the 9/11 attack...

...we're presenting a reaction to it by a true comics legend...writer/artist Will Eisner!

This superb short appeared in the "benefit book",  DC's 9-11: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers Tell Stories to Remember #2 (2002), which was the second of two books that helped raise money for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

All the creative contributors, as well as suppliers/vendors, printers and distributors donated their work on this project.

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In the Shadow of NO Towers

by Art Spiegelman
and/or

In the Shadow of NO Towers 
Motion Comic
Narrated by John Tuturro 

Reading Room PLANET COMICS "Star Pirate"

In space, no one can hear you say "Arrr, matey..."

...as this example of the little-known "pirates in space" sub-genre proves!

Like most pirates (who are romantics at heart), Star Pirate is a sucker for a pretty face.
The Star Pirate became a fixture in Planet Comics, running from 1941 until just before the book's cancellation in 1953.

The name "Leonardo Vinci" on this intro tale from #12 (1941) is a pen-name assigned to this particular strip.

The general consensus is that the artist is Al Gabrielle, but the writer is unknown.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Richard Corben (1940-2020)...by Will Eisner

Richard Corben was one of the greatest of comics creators!

Who says so?

No less a personage than Will Eisner, in the intro to the HTF Warren's The Odd Comic World of Richard Corben (1977)!

At this point, Corben had only been a published artist for seven years!

Yet the one-and-only Will Eisner penned an intro to his first "best of" compilation book.

(The fact Richard had a "best of" book after only seven years in the field is an accomplishment in itself!)

And this was about the period I first encountered, and was extremely-impressed by his work.

I've been extremely-impressed ever since.

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Odd Comics World of Richard Corben

(a hard-to-find collector's item in itself)

Remember Pearl Harbor

Almost eight decades ago today...

The sneak attack that changed the course of history, told by one of the greatest graphic novelists of all!

Part 1

Conclusion

Plus, a tale published before December 7, 1941 that predicted the attack!
Friday Fun Will Return Next Week!

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Days of Darkness

"A Day Which Will Live in Infamy..."

75 years ago today...

The sneak attack that changed the course of history, told by one of the greatest graphic novelists of all!

Part 1

Conclusion

Plus, a tale published before December 7, 1941 that predicted the attack!

Reading Room: BROTHERS 3 "Battle of Ahmid Bey"

Why should we send thousands of troops to Iraq (again)...

...when all we needed in 1937-38 was three guys (one of whom wasn't an American) to hold off an entire Arab army?

According to Fatts Dugan, it wasnt even a "real fight"!

Y'know, come to think of it, where's the French Foreign Legion these days?

They used to be the world's premier desert fighters!

One of comics legend Will Eisner's earliest solo efforts, this one-shot was probably intended as an ongoing strip, but reader response was probably minimal as it wasn't colorful or exciting enough compared to the interplanetary adventures and fantasy tales in the same issue, so it wasn't continued.

BTW, though it was a one-shot, the story was published three times!

1) Comics Magazine Company's Funny Picture Stories V1N04 (1937)

2) Centaur's Amazing Mystery Funnies V1N02 (1938)

3) Able Manufacturing's Super-Dooper Comics #4 (1946)