Saturday, July 4, 2020

Holiday Reading Room: EVERY DAY IS A HOLLY DAY: "Independence Day"

From 1956, here's a never-reprinted tale from a unique comic...
...produced to promote, of all things, sugar!
Why is the Brevity, Inc comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?
Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!
Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!
We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.
Watch for them...and be here tomorrow when we present the line-up for our annual Summer Mini-Blogathons!
We're back and raring to go!

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Friday, July 3, 2020

Friday Fun / CoronaVirus Comics DENNIS THE MENACE "Dennis vs the Doctor"

Polio was one of the worst scourges the civilized world ever experienced...
...but when an inoculation was found, many still resisted taking it!
Why do anti-vaxxers act as childishly as Dennis the Menace in this tale from Standard's Dennis the Menace #26 (1958)?
Sadly, writer Fred Toole and artist Al Wiseman have both passed on and can't speculate about the reason.
We hope you've enjoyed our multi-blog "CoronaVirus Comics" posts.
While they will continue from time-to-time, we're returning to our usual assortment of subjects after the 4th of July, including our annual RetroBlog Summer Blogathons.
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Thursday, July 2, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics SCIENCE COMICS "Walter Reed: the Man Who Conquered Yellow Fever"

...but here's another version of true events, with a somewhat different emphasis...
Rudy Palais, one of the more gruesomely-graphic artists of the Golden Age illustrated this never-reprinted tale from Ace's Science Comics #2 (1946).
In fact, some of Palais' work is excerpted in Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent!
And, yes, the subject of the story is the Dr Walter Reed the hospital in Washington DC is named after...and this is why it's named after him!
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Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder / CoronaVirus Comics SERAPHIM 26661336 WINGS

For our final (for now) "diseased future world" posting...

....we offer a most unusual manga by two masters of anime...Ghost in the Shell’s Mamoru Oshii and Perfect Blue’s Satoshi Kon, who wrote and illustrated Seraphim 266613336 Wings, the story of a future dystopic Earth devastated by the “Angel Plague,” a pandemic that induces apocalyptic visions in the afflicted, even as it ossifies their bodies into angelic-looking forms, complete with wings!
The graphic novel is the first chapter of a never-completed mini-series, due to creative differences which the untimely passing of Satoshi Ken kept from ever being resolved.
Nonetheless, it's a fascinating look at incredibly-detailed world-building and, since this volume ends on a cliffhanger, it leaves many loose ends and unexplained aspects that the creators obviously planned to explain, there's lots of things to speculate about (which I feel is the hallmark of successful storytelling)!
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by Mamoru Oshii and Satoshi Kon

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics AMAZING MYSTERY FUNNIES "Daredevil Barry Finn vs the Infectious Insects!"

One of a number of rich, handsome, heroic, layabouts who fought evil...
...because they had the wealth and spare time to do so!
This never-reprinted story from Centaur's Amazing Mystery Funnies V2N09 (1939) was conceived, written and illustrated by Tarpe Mills, one of the few female creatives working in comics before World War II put most of the male writers and artists in military service.
Tarpe's imagination also produced the The Purple Zombie, the original Cat-Man, and, most famously, Miss Fury.
Such "gentleman adventurers" as Barry Finn were popular in literature and media of the period.
Examples include The Saint, Lord Peter WimseyThe Falcon, Boston Blackie, and Bulldog Drummond.
His nemesis, Zaroff (named after the villain of The Most Dangerous Game, but a scientist, not a hunter) constantly did typical mad scientist stuff which Finn would always thwart.
The brash young hero kicked butt for eight chapters, none of which has been seen since their original publication.
It may be time to change that...
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Miss Fury
Sensational Sundays 1944-1949