Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humor. Show all posts

Friday, January 16, 2026

Friday Femme Fun MODELING WITH MILLIE "Mille the Marvel"

If you think Marvel and DC are rebooting their characters more frequently than ever...
...you've never followed the many incarnations of Millie the Model from 1945 to the present!
This particular story is from the early Silver Age "romance comic" phase of her career.
This never-reprinted story from Marvel's Modeling with Millie #54 (1967); written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by Odgen Whitney, and inked (uncredited) by Frank Giacoia; was Millie the Marvel's only appearance.
It was also the final issue of this particular title.
Over at her ongoing "sister" title, Millie the Model, the character returned to her previous Archie Comics-influenced format, once more becoming a teen-humor title without ongoing storylines.
Trivia: From 1945 to 1973, there was always at least one Millie title from Atlas/Marvel, for a total of five different series, plus annuals, a couple of one-shots, an ongoing series in Comedy Comics, and a spin-off series for her rival, Chili!
Her main title ran for 207 issues, and was, until Fantastic Four #207 came out in 1979, Marvel's longest-running character-named book!
(Books with longer runs like Mighty ThorIncredible Hulk, and Captain America had different names [Journey into MysteryTales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense, respectively] before becoming "character" titles.
Millie's flagship title was always Millie the Model!)
Millie was rebooted several times going from a romance/humor hybrid to Archie-style humor to romance/soap opera and finally back to Archie-style humor with changes to the characters' ages, professions, and relationships at each stage.
Millie Collins, despite being shown as outside the Marvel Multiverse in this tale, has appeared as part of the mainstream Marvel Universe in several titles, including the "Wedding of Reed and Sue" in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (along with Marvels #2), Dazzler #34, Sensational She-Hulk #60, and the Models, Inc mini-series.
In the 1980s, a middle-aged Millie appeared in the Star Comics mini-series Misty, about the teen-age daughter of Millie's brother!
(The best thing about this Trina Robbins-produced mini-series was the retro look and use of readers' designs for the characters' clothes.)
Millie was scheduled to be rebooted in 2003 as a teen-age tennis player in a manga-style mini-series called 15-Love.
When the project was finally published in 2011 (yeah, eight years later), the lead character was Millie's teen-age niece (though Millie herself did appear briefly)!
In 2009, Millie and her Silver Age supporting cast were the 20-something title characters in the mini-series Models, Inc.
The series also features Johnny (Human Torch) Storm, Spider-Man, Dr StrangePatsy (HellCat) Walker, Tigra, Night NurseMary Jane Watson, and real-life fashion expert Tim Gunn, re-establishing the Mille characters in the Marvel Multiverse...but nothing's been done with them since!
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Friday, January 9, 2026

Friday Fun ABBOTT AND COSTELLO "Soup to Nuts"

From the Late 1930s to the Late 1950s, the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
...were multi-media stars, appearing in movies, radio, TV, and...comic books!
This feature from St John's Abbott and Costello Comics #7 (1949), illustrated by Lily Renee and Eric Peters, was typical of the sort of stuff you'd see (or hear) in their other media appearances!
The comic ran for 40 issues, from 1948 to 1956, including a 3-D issue!
But that wasn't the end of four-color fun for the pair!
With their old movies and 1950s TV series proving to be popular on syndicated TV, Hanna-Barbera revived the duo as an animated series in 1967 with Bud Abbott providing his own voice.
(Costello had passed away in 1959).
This resulted in a new comic book series from Charlton using the cartoon as a springboard for a 22-issue run from 1968 to 1971!
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Saturday, January 3, 2026

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE MOUSE "Beauty Contest!"

In the 1950s, both funny animals and sci-fi were popular comics genres...
...so, it was inevitable that someone would combine the two!
Though it is the cover-featured story in Avon's Space Mouse #1 (1954), "Beauty Contest", written and illutrated by Frank Cairn, is not the origin of the Rocketing Rodent.
That tale, "Atomic Attack", comes later in the book...and we've already presented it in Space Hero Saturdays, HERE.
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(covering the studio where writer/artist Frank Carin got his start)

Friday, January 2, 2026

Friday Fun YAK YAK "TV for All!"

Those of you who grew up with a smart phone in your hand...
...will probably not understand a single thing (either in terms of technology or pop culture) in this feature about living in a household with only one screen and a limited selection of programming!
Ironically, cross-genre programming has become something of a staple in our media-dominated world!
Dell gave MAD mainstay Jack Davis his own title, to do with as he pleased.
The series, Yak Yak (subtitled "A Pathology of Humor") only ran two issues, but they were pure Davis, who wrote, penciled, inked, and colored the whole project as well as providing painted covers for both issues!
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Friday, December 5, 2025

Friday Holiday Fun CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL "Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the House..."

It's a pretty long title for a one-pager...
...but the pay-off makes it worthwhile!
The writer and artist for this piece from the one-shot anthology Christmas Carnival (published by Ziff-Davis in 1952 and reprinted by St John in 1955) are, sadly, unknown.
But we didn't want this piece, unseen for 70 years, to be forgotten...so here it is for your enjoyment!
In fact, since this 100-page comic hasn't been reprinted in almost 3/4 of a century, we're going to run more material from it for the rest of December, with the finale on the day after Christmas being a story by Dave (MAD magazine) Berg!
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Friday, November 21, 2025

Friday Fun ALL-NEW COMICS "Mummy Madness"

If You Like Slapstick Abbott & Costello-Style Comedy...

...you'll love this never-reprinted one-shot feature from Harvey's All-New Comics #5 (1943)!
The team of Huff & Guff, produced by Bob Powell's art studio, were obviously patterned after Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, and were meant to be an ongoing feature.
Sadly, the response to them must have been absolutely minimal, since no further stories about them ever appeared!
Bob Powell and his assistants remained prolific contributors to numerous publishers (including Harvey) in every genre from romance to horror to humor to Westerns and more, through the 1940s and 50s

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Friday, November 14, 2025

Friday Fun ABBOTT & COSTELLO COMICS "Comics Convention!"

Like Jim Starlin, Roy Thomas, Berni Wrightson, and numerous others... 

...writer/artist Grass Green was part of the first generation of fanboys-turned-pros in the 1960s.
What few people knew was that Grass was one of the few Black fanboys!

While he occasionally worked in mainstream comics, as shown in this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Abbott & Costello Comics #16 (1972), Green found his greatest professional success as the first Black underground/alternative comix writer/artist!
From the early 1970s to the late 1990s, Grass did quite a bit of work for Kitchen SinkRenegadeRip Off, and Fantagraphics' Eros imprint.
Sadly, Grass passed away from lung cancer in 2002.
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Friday, November 7, 2025

Friday Fun HARRY HOTDOG "Peevy Over TV"

He's not a dachshund, but a generic canine with no self-control...
...who just can't understand what's going on with the then-"newfangled" tech known as "television"!
For those under 70, when TV was introduced to the American public in the early 1950s, it featured news, old movies, and low-budget original programming which this never-reprinted story from Magazine Enterprises' Hot Dog #1 (1954) aka A-1 #107 satirizes!
If you're wondering why the comic has two titles and numberings, let me explain...
Like Dell's Four Color ComicsA-1 was an anthology title which served as a tryout platform for various concepts, so it had both the strip's numbering and the title's numbering.
That way, if the strip didn't sell well, the publisher wouldn't have to pay for another second-class mailing permit (which was required for each title published) for a new series!
Numerous ME series were published this way, including Cave GirlI Am a CopTrail ColtManhuntGhost Rider, and Thun'da!
This issue was the first of four Harry Hotdog-starring issues!
Writer/Artist George Crenshaw began as an animator for Walt Disney, then MGM before going to comic strips and books.
Besides being a longtime "ghost" on Dennis the Menace, he created his own long-running strip, Belevdere, about (surprise) a dog...but not an anthropomorphic one like Harry!
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