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!

Monday Madness RIOT "The Shadower"

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

Not this guy...

...as demonstrated in this never-reprinted tale from Atlas Comics' MAD clone, Riot #1 (1954)!

Though the writer of this satire of The Shadow radio show is unknown, odds are it was Stan Lee, who was writing almost everything at this point.

The illustrator is extremely well-known...Gene Colan!

This was not the first time The Shadow had been spoofed, since EC's MAD ran their own take on the character in #4 (1953) as shown HERE.

(It was even the cover feature!)

You'll note in this tale "The Shadower" doesn't have the usual cloak, slouch hat, and aquiline nose we associate with the character...

Art by Frank Robbins

In fact, he looks a lot like the Archie Comics version from a decade later...1964...

Art by John Rosenberger

...who, at least initially, was primarily-based on the radio show, but updated to the spy-oriented Sixties!

BTW, if you want more The Shadow stuff, have a look at our current Summer RetroBlog Blogathon participants...

CRIME & PUNISHMENT

...where we're re-presenting the Dark Avenger's never-reprinted 1970s-created, but 1940s-set adventures featuring art by Frank Robbins and E R Cruz.

AND

HERO HISTORIES

...where we began the re-presentation of the never-reprinted, final "Maxwell Grant" Shadow novel from the Swinging Sixties!

Monday Maternity Madness MAD "Mad's All-Inclusive Do-It-Yourself Abortion Newspaper Story"

With minor updating, this never-reprinted two-page feature...

...written by long-time contributor Frank Jacobs from EC's MAD Magazine #324 (1994) could be used today!

Sad, isn't it?

Friday Fun RIOT "Boy Meets Girl"

This never-reprinted tale from Atlas' RIOT #5 (1956) was so odd, I couldn't resist running it!

Note: John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe never appeared together in a movie!
And, if you don't know who they are...GOOGLE THEM!!!

Notes: Neither John Wayne nor Marilyn Monroe ever did a sci-fi/fantasy film!
(No, John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in The Conquerer doesn't count!)
The "movie titles" combine parts of real movie titles from those genres!
Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Severin.
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Friday Fun CRAZY "Bull Thrower"

For all those who requested...nay, demanded...we post a comic story about bullfighting...

...well, your needs have been answered with this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Crazy V1N3 (1953)

If the writer ain't Stan Lee, the script reads enough like him (even though his signature doesn't appear on the splash panel) that it's probably a "Stan the Man" editorial revision of someone else's story!

The art is by Al Hartley, who did sign the splash panel.

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Friday Fun MADHOUSE "Going-Going-Real Gone!"

What if Casper the Friendly Ghost was a middle-aged specter...

 ...encountering live teen "hep cats"?

This tale takes the concept to a literally-surreal level!

BTW, see how many pop-culture references you can understand without Googling them!

The Iger Comics Studio produced this tale for Ajax-Farrell's MadHouse V1N4 (1954), showing teen/young adult hipsters/hepcats encountering ghosts (apparently of middle-aged/older people) who didn't realize their attempts at creating ugly art and terrifying music resulted in cutting-edge popular culture!

When MAD became a surprise hit in 1953 (after the early issues lost money!) other comics publishers were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, eventually bringing out more than a dozen imitations with titles like FLIP, WHACK!, NUTS, EH!, UNSANE!, MADHOUSE/BUGHOUSE, and GET LOST!

These copiers realized that Will Elder’s cluttered “chicken fat” layouts were a major part of MAD’s success, and their pages were also densely-packed with all sorts of outlandish and bizarre gags!

Trivia: While most companies (like Ajax/Farrell) published just a single MAD imitation title, Atlas (the predecessor to Marvel) dove head-first into the fad, with no less than four titles, Snafu, WILD, RIOT, and Crazy!

These “parody comics” are uniquely 1950s catching the popular culture zeitgeist through a dual lens: not only reflecting '50s culture through parody but also being typical examples of that culture...ironically, in a way that MAD wasn't!

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The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics

Monday Madness RIOT "Pascal the Rascal by Yank Kitchen (or: a Comic Strip is Born!)"

65 years ago, one of the many MAD clones did a spoof of the then incredibly-hot new comic strip...

...Dennis the Menace illustrated by an artist whose identity you probably won't guess!

Was I right?

Did you guess who it was?

Atlas' MAD rip-off RIOT #6 (1956) ended the book's run with some spectacular (and never-reprinted) artwork by Bill Everett, John Severin, Dan DeCarlo and this piece by an unrecognizable Joe Maneely!

Joe, whose art normally looked like this...

...totally-suppressing his own style to match Hank Ketcham's style down to the thickness of the linework while making the character look just different enough to avoid copyright and trademark infringement!

It was a beautiful job, and an example of this sadly-ignored artist!

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Hank Ketcham's Complete

Dennis the Menace

1951-1952

Volume 1

Friday Fun / Humor in a Jugular Vein "Blechhula!" & "Night Gawker"

Here's two creepy classics from the 1970s that should've been comic books, but weren't!

Blacula

The Night Stalker

...as presented in our "brother" RetroBlog specializing in TV/movie/radio comics, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!

Both were satirized in never-reprinted strips from Marvel's short-lived humor comics Spoof and ARRRGH!

Blacula never made it to comics, but Night Stalker has appeared under the Moonstone banner since 2002.

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How the World Ends by Virus...

The 1970s post-apocalyptic flick The Omega Man offers a frighteningly-familiar scenario for 2020...

Scary, eh?

BTW, our "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, is running the comics adaptation/spoof of the movie...

HERE!

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I Am Legend/Omega Man

Which features both the recent Will Smith version and the 1970s Charlton Heston version!

(But not the 1960s Vincent Price adaptation.

That one, you can get here...)

Last Man on Earth

Friday Fun SPOOF "What If...Celebrities Were the Last People on Earth?"

You know you're a baby boomer...

...if you recognize all the celebs in this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Spoof #5 (1973)!

 Snoopy from the Peanuts comic strip!

 Julia Child, one of the first TV chefs!

 ABC sports announcer (and really annoying guy who deserves his fate) Howard Cosell!

And, finally...longtime comedy icon Bob Hope, whose annual tours to entertain our troops overseas are satirized!

Written by Marv Wolfman, penciled by master (or is that "mistress") caricaturist Marie Severin, and inked by John Costanza (a damn good cartoonist who made more money as one of the speediest letterers in the business), this piece was part of Marvel's failed 1970s attempt to return to the humor color comics market!

After trying three times with Spoof, ARRRGH! (horror humor), and Crazy (reprinting material from Not Brand Ecch), Marvel decided to switch their humor efforts to a b/w book...with the resulting revival of Crazy in that format running  over a decade with 94 issues and an oversized Special!

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Sincerest Form of Parody