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!

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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)!

In 1968, Atlas' successor Marvel (you might have heard of them) signed a new distribution deal freeing them from the sixteen-title per month limit they had during most of the Silver Age under the previous contract.

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!

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Harvey Comics Classics Volume One

Casper the Friendly Ghost
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HAPPY NEW YEAR with "What is Your New Year's Resolution?"

To begin the year, here's a never-reprinted, 30 year-old strip that proves...

...some things (like Wolverine's popularity) never change!

But some things, like a Captain America movie going direct-to-video (and the discount bin), do change!

Written and illustrated by Darren Auck, this was part of the Yuletide holiday issue of Marvel's What The--?! #11 (1991), a revival/revamp of the Silver Age Not Brand Echh self-spoof concept which lasted twice as long (26 issues) as Not Brand Echh (13 issues)!

Curiously, unlike NBE, very little material from What The--?! has ever been reprinted!

Space...Hero? Saturdays WEIRD TALES OF THE FUTURE "Jumpin' Jupiter in 'No Soup' "

Mentioning writer/artist Basil Wolverton in last week's Space Force Saturdays post..

...compelled us to see if there was anything else space-oriented we could present here!

Behold...

Whether it's his ongoing SpaceHawk and Space Patrol strips or any of the numerous one-shot tales he did, Wolverton's Golden Age output was always instantly-recognizable!
This humor strip ran in #2 thru #5 of Key Publications' Weird Tales of the Future, along with several serious sci-fi/horror stories also written and illustrated by the amazing Basil!

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Creeping Death from Neptune
Life and Comics of Basil Woverton
Volume 1
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Friday Fun TRUMP "Toys Realistic in Every Detail!"

Since brick-and-mortar retail stores began running Christmas sales before Halloween...

...we feel we're actually behind schedule running this classic feature about one of the most important aspects of the Yuletide season...TOYS...illustrated by Al Jaffee and likely written by Editor Harvey Kurtzman from Playboy Press' Trump #1 (1957)!

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Frankenstein Friday Fun : ADVENTURES OF JERRY LEWIS "Scared Silly" Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

...Jerry Lewis had rented a supposedly-haunted house for $12 a month.

It was "haunted"...by former horror movie stars Boris Killoff (Krankenstein), Bela Le Ghouli (Drinkula), and Peter Leery (Dog Boy), who were preparing for a return to the silver screen!

The trio had invited a noted film director to visit, hoping to impress him with their ability to still scare potential moviegoers!

But there's been a complication, as Bela Le Ghouli explains...

Don't ya just love a happy ending?

As a bonus, here's a feature from this issue about artist Bob Oksner, whom I've felt has been under-appreciated by today's fans...

Next Friday, another firghteningly-funny story when the wind blows cold and the moon shines bright.

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Artists and Models

Movie about a comic book artist, a fanboy, and a model in a threesome

starring Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin with Shirley MacLaine as "BatLady"!

Frankenstein Friday Fun : ADVENTURES OF JERRY LEWIS "Scared Silly" Part 2

When Last We Left France's Favorite Comedian (2 years ago)...

...he had rented a supposedly-haunted house for $12 a month.

It was "haunted"...by former horror movie stars Boris Killoff (Krankenstein), Bela Le Ghouli (Drinkula), and Peter Leery (Dog Boy), who were preparing for a return to the silver screen!

Explanation: We began this re-presentation of this never-reprinted tale in 2021 as shown HERE.
However, by the time next week rolled around, we ran a different Frankenstein tale, and never got around to running the other two chapters!
So here's Part 2, with Part 3 to follow next week!
Now, back to the story...

Who will trap whom?

See the inane answer...NEXT FRIDAY!

With the Comics Code limiting use of the classic monsters to humorous or decidedly non-threatening versions, DC decided work within those limits.

Jerry would go on to meet versions of the Mummy, Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon and other film and print fiction monsters.

And, fellow DC Comics comedian Bob Hope would end up with ongoing appearances by dopplegangers of Frankie (Coach Franklin Stein), Drac (Dr. Van Pyre), and Wolfy (Professor Von Wolfman) as the faculty of Benedict Arnold High School, which Hope's nephew attends!

That those other characters looked exactly like the trio of monsters in this story is attributable to the fact they share the same artist, Bob Oksner!

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Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

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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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!