Friday Fun KOOKIE "Playmate"

John Stanley & Bill Williams' Short-Lived Strip About 1960s Urban Eccentrics...

...featured not only the 18 to 25 "young adult" crowd, but older, equally-eccentric characters!




John Stanley (script/layouts) and Bill Williams (pencils/inks) did three humor series for Dell in the early 1960s, Kookie, Around the Block with Dunc & Loo (later shortened to just Dunc and Loo) and Thirteen Going on Eighteen.

While the first 9 issues of the last (29-issue) series have been reprinted in a superb collection (see below), neither Kookie (2 issues) nor AtBwD&L/DaL (8 issues) has ever been reprinted...which is a great loss to pop culture as far as I'm concerned!
Note: Though Stanley did the layouts on the stories, the painted covers to Kookie were entirely Bill Williams' work!

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Thirteen Going on Eighteen

by John Stanley (& Bill Williams)
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Friday Fun MARVIN MOUSE "Not-So-'Honest John' "

The creator of Prince Namor: the Sub-Mariner, Bill Everett, was an amazing writer/artist...

 ...who could do almost anything he was asked to do.

Unfortunately, funny animals, weren't exactly his "cup of tea"!

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Marvin the Mouse #1 (1957) was scripted by Stan Lee and illustrated by the aforementioned Bill Everett.

I believe Everett was instructed to make the characters as different as possible from other cartoon mice such as Mickey and Mighty, which resulted in rodents who looked more like rats than mice!

Bill had shown a knack for humor as shown HERE and HERE, but this was a major disappointment!

A caption at the end of the book read "And remember, every issue Marvin Mouse magazine brings you the best in laughs, adventure, and fun ... don't miss a single issue!"

No problem!

The book ended up a one-shot and the already-completed stories intended for #2 became filler in the backs of other humor titles.

(Editor Stan Lee was very frugal and didn't let anything go to waste!)

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Sincerest Form of Parody

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Friday Fun COOL CAT "See You in the Funnies"

We Love it When Comics Go  (Sorta) "Meta"...

...in this case, characters being spied upon by a comics creative with his own ulterior motive!

This never-reprinted tale from Prize's Cool Cat V9N1 (1962), written and illustrated by Jack O'Brien may confuse many readers younger than Baby Boomers (1946-1966) who don't realize the extensive variety of subcultures that existed during the 1960s.
Cool Cat's parents are beatniks.
Cool Cat himself is a hipster/slacker.
The cartoonist, though a creative, is a square, supposedly not as "artistic" as a beatnik or hipster.
Note: there are no hippies at this point.
They didn't come along for another several years.
Trivia: Though this is V9N1, it's the second of only three Cool Cat issues, none of which have ever been reprinted in any form!
The numbering was continued from Black Magic, created by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon in 1950.
Writer/artist Jack O'Brien began his comics career in 1943, doing work for everyone from Charlton to Parents Magazine Press to Dell to Harvey to Timely (Marvel's predecessor).
His first work for Prize was in 1952, and he continued freelancing for them until 1965, switching over to their b/w MAD magazine clone SICK when the four-color comic line was cancelled in 1963.
His new last work appeared in 1976.

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder ACTION COMICS "Superman in '100 Years...Lost, Strayed or Stolen!' "

We Don't Usually Run Superman Stories...

...but this never-reprinted Silver Age Superman tale (yes, there are a few of them) under a Carmine Infantino laid-out/Neal Adams penciled-inked cover, from DC's Action Comics #370 (1968) is so truly unique that it stuck in my head ever since I read it brand-new, plucked from a candy store comic spinner rack!
(And no, I'm not telling you how old I am!)

And here's the really-kool part!
It's not a dream!
Not a hoax!
Not an Imaginary Story!
In fact, it was canon...until Crisis on Infinite Earths!

With reviewers comparing the new Superman movie to a really-good Silver Age comic, now is the time to read this time-lost mini-epic that, if done today, would be a six-issue mini-series and at least a couple of one-shot tie-ins!

Enjoy a unique World of Wonder...

Yeah, there are a couple of leaps in plot logic and amazing coincidences, but it's an absolutely-amazing bit of science-fantasy by writer Cary Bates, penciler Curt Swan and inker Jack Abel that holds your attention start-to-finish!
And isn't that what you want when you enter a World of Wonder?

See Superman the Movie!

Friday Fun P.S. The Batman Meets the ORIGINAL Bat-Man...or Is It ORIGINAL Man-Bat?

"But...We're Practically Brothers!"

A never-reprinted cartoon from Mercury Press' P.S. #2 (1966)

This immediately-followed the nostalgia article "Guys in the Trick Suits" about Golden Age comic books from the same magazine that we ran last Friday!

Friday Fun P.S. "Guys in the Trick Suits"

During the Era of Batmania (In the 1960s)...

...mass market magazines oriented towards the over-30 crowd (who apparently had forgotten their childhoods only a decade or two earlier), sought an explanation as to the appeal of comic books to the under-30 crowd.

P.S., a short-lived magazine (only three issues) dedicated to nostalgia, brought in William F Nolan, a noted science fiction writer with numerous teleplays and short stories to his credit.

You've read his piece, written and published just after the Batman TV series debuted in January, 1966.

What do you think of his look back at his childhood during the Golden Age?
Note: A year after this, Nolan, in collaboration with George Clayton Johnson, wrote the novel Logan's Run.

Reading Room HOUSE OF MYSTERY "Human TIme Capsule"

Under this kool Ruben Moreira cover...

...lurks an even kooler, never-reprinted tale of illegal aliens and crime from DC's House of Mystery #64 (1957)!

So the American citizen is the criminal, not the "illegal alien"!

The Mort Meskin-illustrated tale left a possibility for a sequel, which was never realized!

Since even DC doesn't know who wrote it (and the odds are the author is deceased by now), we'll never know...

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Showcase Presents

Strange Adventures

Volume 1
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Friday Fun DUNC AND LOO "Loo in 'Hot Potato' "

Remember When Not All "Teen Humor" Comics Looked Like Archie?

This never-reprinted story from Dell's Dunc and Loo #8 (1963), featuring title slacker Loo is a kool example!

Scallions, also called "green onions" or "spring onions", are immature, not fully-grown onions!
Usually, they're used as a minor flavor element in cooked dishes and salads.
I've never heard of a "scallion sandwich"!
Trivia: The book was originally-titled Around the Block with Dunc and Loo, but was shortened to just Dunc and Loo as of #4.
(Apparently suburban and rural readers used "corner" or "street" instead of "block" when referring to addresses, so the original title confused them!)

Written by John Stanley and illustrated by Bill Williams (the series' co-creators).

It was one of three "teen humor" series created for Dell by Stanley, including Kookie and Thirteen (Going on Eighteen) for Dell.

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Thirteen Going on Eighteen

by John Stanley