Richard Corben (1940-2020)...by Will Eisner

Richard Corben was one of the greatest of comics creators!

Who says so?

No less a personage than Will Eisner, in the intro to the HTF Warren's The Odd Comic World of Richard Corben (1977)!

At this point, Corben had only been a published artist for seven years!

Yet the one-and-only Will Eisner penned an intro to his first "best of" compilation book.

(The fact Richard had a "best of" book after only seven years in the field is an accomplishment in itself!)

And this was about the period I first encountered, and was extremely-impressed by his work.

I've been extremely-impressed ever since.

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Odd Comics World of Richard Corben

(a hard-to-find collector's item in itself)

Friday Fun / Holiday Reading Room: RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER "Rudolph's Swelled Head" Part 4

Sorry, but it looks like the kid who owned this book before it was scanned did the activity on this page.

Still, it looks cool, doesn't it?

Anyway, When Last We Left Rudolph...

As preparations for Christmas proceed, two children, Jack and Judy, make their way to Santa's Workshop.

...but their innocent visit has unintended consequences!

Rudolph develops an inflated ego as a result of the kids' mention of his world-wide fame.

Proclaiming he's "too important" to do mundane things like chores, Rudolph alienates everyone around him with an arrogant, self-important attitude.

Santa grounds Rudolph from his usual Christmas Eve run, and the petulant reindeer responds by running away from home.

When his nose freezes and goes dark, the runaway reindeer panics and runs onto thin ice, falling into a lake.

Rescued and nursed back to health by Grover Groundhog, Rudolph realizes the error of his ways and wants to apologize to Santa.

But it's Christmas Eve and because he's so far away, there's no way Rudolph can make it back to Santa's in time.

Grover sends Caspar the Carrier Pigeon with a note to Claus...

To be concluded...

Next Friday!

Written by Sy Reit and illustrated by Rube Grossman, this 1950 annual was the first of a series that ran until 1963.

The concept was revived in the tabloid-sized "Treasury" (10" x 14") format in 1972 and was published annually (except in '75 and '77) until 1978.

(Both DC and Marvel experimented in the 1970s with the over-sized format.

They were much bigger than normal comics with cardstock covers, though the interior pages were printed on the usual comic book paper stock.)

The series was more-or-less a sequel to the original story (which we presented HERE.) and classic song.

(The animated TV special that tells a totally-different version of the tale didn't appear until 1964.)

One thing you'll note is the unique idea of including activity pages as part of the story, giving us perfect chapter enders and openers in our serial presentation format.

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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

75th-Anniversary Edition

(a replica of the original 1939 book which is quite different from the TV special and its' sequels!)

The Inspiration for Disney's "Frozen"...Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen"

Disney has a long history of adapting classic fairy tales...

...but none went further away from the source material than "Frozen".

Yes, it's been a commercial phenomenon, but, if you're looking for the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale...this ain't it!

If you want to see an extremely-faithful version of the classic tale...

...click HERE, and "Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go!"

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder LOST WORLD "Carnage at Camys"

Having returned to America from Europe...

...Hunt Bowman and Lyysa continue the fight against the alien VoltaMen!

Note: the department store's name "Camy's" is an anagram of "Macy's", at the time the most famous department store in the world!
This never-reprinted tale from Fiction House's Planet Comics #34 (1945) is set in New York City, but there are no recognizable landmarks as in other Lost World stories set in specific locales like Paris!
Odd, since artist Lily Renee lived in Manhattan and studied at both the Art Students League and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now known as the School of Visual Arts)...

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Planet Comics

Volume 8

(which includes this story!)

Holiday Reading Room presents MARVEL CLASSIC COMICS' "A Christmas Carol"!

There have been numerous comic adaptations of Charles Dickens' legendary Yuletide ghost story...

...but this never-reprinted one from (believe it or not) Marvel Comics, has the distinction of being illustrated by more artists than any other version!

Credited to "Diverse Hands", the art styles I recognize include Bob Hall, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Carmine Infantino, Steve Leialoha, John Romita Sr, Al Milgrom, Mike Esposito, and probably anybody who wandered into the Bullpen while this book was in production in 1978!

Trivia: 

This was the final title in the Marvel Classics Comics line which had started out as color reprints of the early '70s b/w Pendulum Press "comic adaptations of classic stories" series.
After a dozen issues, Marvel began doing their own adaptations, continuing for another two dozen issues.

Scripter Doug Moench was no newcomer to adapting prose to comics having worked on comics versions of literary properties including Doc Savage, The Shadow, James Bond, and Fu Manchu!

Colorist Francoise Mouly later became the art editor of The New Yorker, co-creator of the legendary comic anthology Raw, and is currently the publisher/editorial director of Toon Books.

You can read this HTF story by clicking HERE for Stave One!