Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine

2012-01-30T00:06:00.000-08:00

Number 1097

We love Lucey

Harry Lucey was one of the best Archie artists. While Bob Montana was THE artist of the Archie newspaper comic strip, Lucey was the main artist for years on the comic books. He could tell a lot with an expression or a pose.

Sam Hill, Private Eye was another short-lived attempt by the publishers of Archie to supplement their teenage line with other comic book fare. Sam Hill lasted for seven issues in 1950-51, which is about par for Archie. Other comics, such as The Dover Boys, which I showed in Pappy's #870, also drawn by Lucey, had an even shorter run, only two issues. Since this issue of Sam Hill is the only one I have I can't tell you if it's typical of the series, but there really isn't anything in this comic, except for Harry Lucey's artwork, which makes it stand out for me from the run-of-the-mill private eye stories in popular fiction, comic books, radio or television.

Sam Hill seems especially tame when compared to Lucey's earlier work. Consider this Hangman story from Pappy's #572 or the first story in the first issue of Crime Does Not Pay in Pappy's #786.

From Sam Hill, Private Eye #4, 1951:

2012-01-29T00:02:00.000-08:00

Number 1096

"You may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer..."

April Dancer (catchy name) was the "Girl" from The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., an NBC television series that was a spin-off of the popular Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Stephanie Powers, in all her youthful pulchritude, played April. The show lasted 29 episodes in 1966-'67. The comic wasn't much more successful, going for five issues. This issue, #2, was illustrated by Phantom artist Bill Lignante, who drew three of the five.

As a reviewer observed, April got into messes and was rescued by her coworker, Mark Slate, played by Noel Harrison. Harrison had a career that included this series and a couple of hit songs, including the outrageously campy "A Young Girl."*

In this comic notice the character, Miss Harshley. This was the 1960s, and a manlike woman wouldn't be a caricature of a sexual stereotype, especially not in cleancut Gold Key comics...not overtly, of course, but inferences can be drawn.

*I recall my girlfriend at the time loved this song. I, being Pappy, just in a younger body, made fun of it whenever I could. I thought the song was stupid, but I was also jealous of modish and handsome Noel Harrison.

2012-01-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

Number 1095

Jasper Fudd steps up to the plate

Jasper Fudd appeared in issues two and three of Boody Rogers' teenage comic, Dudley. Too bad there were only three issues because I think it's good. Jasper (and no, I don't know if he's related to Elmer Fudd) is a hick who moves to an urban high school, and needs to prove himself. It reminded me of what happened to me in a similar situation (oh lordy, another memoir from Pappy)...my family moved and I joined a fifth grade class which had been in session for a couple of months. I was tested on the baseball field during a phys ed class. I couldn't run, field, catch or play base, but Big Pappy had taught me how to bat, to step into a pitch and hit a long ball. That's what I did. I hit home runs. It was the same story with basketball. Big Pappy taught me to make free throws. I couldn't run, guard, or make a basket while moving, but I could hit free throws. So if there were ever teams that needed a guy to do one thing, and do it well, I would have been perfect. Alas. Fifth grade was the pinnacle of my career as a jock.

You can get the second Jasper story in Craig Yoe's book, Boody, still available from your favorite booksellers. This is the first Jasper Fudd story from Dudley #2, 1950:

2012-01-25T00:02:00.000-08:00

Number 1094

Hangman in the future

If the Hangman was an answer on the TV quiz show, Jeopardy, the question would be, "Who was the slain Comet's brother?"

Hangman was Bob Dickering, who took over when his superhero brother John was killed, and like many a vigilante character before him (and after him, too; see Dexter) swore vengeance on murderers. When the Hangman caught his prey, the criminal had the shadow of a noose cast upon him and then met a fitting end to his murderous career.

In this particular science fiction offering of the popular MLJ feature, published in The Black Hood #10, Spring 1944, Hangman goes after the villain by being sent 100 years to the future. It's a future much more enlightened than the world of 1944, one in which the death penalty has been abolished, and you can tell that because the news is on a big billboard.

Bob Fuje (Fujitani), who drew this episode of "Hangman," was one of the best artists to come out of the Golden Age. His work changed over the years from this Will Eisner lookalike to a more illustrative style, and he stayed active until at least the mid-1980s. As far as I know Fujitani, who was born in 1920, is still living at age 91.

2012-01-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

Number 1093

The Sorceror's Apprentice

This isn't the "Sorceror's Apprentice" most of us are familiar with from the Walt Disney classic, Fantasia: no Mickey Mouse or brooms carrying water.

The artwork is by someone comic art historians Hames Ware and Jim Vadeboncoeur called "THE Great Unknown." The artwork is very good, but doesn't look familiar to me. If you know who it is please tell us.

From Fairy Tale Parade, Dell Four Color #114, 1946:

2012-01-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

Number 1092

H.G. Peter's last Wonder Woman

Harry G. Peter was born in 1880. At age 61 he began drawing Wonder Woman, from her first appearance in Sensation Comics, continuing with the feature far into the 1950s. Wonder Woman #97, cover dated April, 1958, was Peter's last issue. He retired at the end of 1957, and died in 1958.

His last issue is just as screwball as most of the issues he drew. Wonder Woman was much cleaned up from the era before her creator, William Moulton Marston (writing as Charles Moulton) was writing the strip. No kinky and bizarre bondage themes, for example. Well, they dropped kinky and kept bizarre. In this issue Wonder Woman goes hopping through time, encountering a dinosaur mingling with cavemen, a society where numbers stand for thoughts, and a crazy Olympic-style games.

That type of story, which came from editor Robert Kanigher, would be the norm even during the era of artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, who took over the book and would draw Wonder Woman for the next several years, based on the familiar depiction created by H. G. Peter

The cover is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs.

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Number 1091

"East Lint," starring Albert and Pogo

East Lynne was a popular 1861 Victorian novel, made into a stage play which ran in various versions almost constantly during the 19th Century. It's been largely forgotten, because it is an old-fashioned melodrama, and because of implausibilities in the plot. They didn't bother Victorian audiences as much as they might bother us. A movie version of the play was made in 1931, but it was another 50 years before the BBC made a version. It has been 30 years since any version of East Lynne has been filmed. It's probably safe to say it has dropped from general public consciousness.

"East Lint" is a story starring Albert the Alligator, Pogo Possum and a stock company of animal characters from the Okefenokee Swamp, who populate artist Walt Kelly's wonderful theater of the absurd. It has very little, if anything, to do with East Lynne except for its punning title. That's a good thing. I'd much rather read Kelly than a Victorian melodrama.

From Albert the Alligator and Pogo Possum, Dell Four Color #148, 1947:

**********

Sly Stanley?

I have lately been going through the classic Little Lulu tales in Dark Horse's Giant Size Little Lulu books. These books, with their sharp black line stories, are an economical way to read Little Lulu without having to spend a fortune on the original comics. (If you collect comic books you can't go wrong with Little Lulu, but if you just want to read the stories these are an excellent way to do that.)

I couldn't help but notice that the classic "Five Little Babies" from LL #38 (1951), looks kinkier to me than it did in the reprints from The Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics or The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, both of which showed the story in color. Maybe the black line just made it look more stark to me, or less a kiddie story than fetish-style nudge-in-the-side type humor.

Giving John Stanley the benefit of the doubt, it's most likely what he thought was funny for the story's purposes, the kinkiness unintended. Maybe it's just my jaded brain, warped from years of exposure to fetishism, out in the open now, but underground in 1951.

Then I ran into the single panel from the story in "The Witch, Hazel, and the Sleepy Seamstress," from LL #50 (1952), which seems to show the well-known obscene gesture using the middle finger, which I used every day in junior high school. It has a thimble on it, but it is what it is.

Perhaps Stanley was giving a very sly "up yours" to someone who had displeased him.

...Or was he...?

2012-01-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1090

"Buck Rogers-Flash Gordon stuff"

In the 2011 book, Becoming Ray Bradbury by Jonathan Eller, Bradbury described a literary party in New York in 1951, where he met members of the New York City Ballet. He said they criticized him. As he put it: "Someone said, 'You're writing what? This Buck Rogers-Flash Gordon stuff. You're a science fiction writer.'" For someone like Bradbury, attempting to make science fiction and fantasy more literate, this was a cutting remark.

Anyone looking at these 1940s stories, "Dick Devens in Futuria" and "Tara", both regular features of Wonder Comics, would see the kind of pulp science fiction those New York City Ballet members were talking about. It's entertaining, but I understand Bradbury's problem with his work being lumped in with it. I appreciate Bradbury for his literary approach to the genre, but science fiction is a pretty wide field, and there's also room for "Buck Rogers-Flash Gordon stuff."

From Wonder Comics #11, 1947, artist not known:

From Wonder Comics #18, 1948, art credited to Gene Fawcette by the Grand Comics Database, but as pointed out by Lysdexicuss (see comments for this post), it is more likely drawn by Mort Meskin. The cover is by Alex Schomburg:

2012-01-16T00:07:00.000-08:00

Number 1089

"Heyyyyyy, Abbotttt!"

Lily Renée, an artist I featured with a Planet Comics "Lost World" story in my last post of 2011, is back with yet another episode from Abbott and Costello Comics. (See also Pappy's #1015.)

Renée's husband at the time, Eric Peters, drew the caricatures of the comedians, and Renée drew the rest (especially the pretty girls, her specialty).

Years after their deaths (Lou Costello in 1959, William "Bud" Abbott in 1974) Abbott and Costello are still well known and some of their movies are considered classics. I know I consider Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to be a classic. Pairing them up with the Universal Monsters was genius. I loved it when I was a kid, and love it now.

From St. John's Abbott and Costello Comics #8, 1949:

2012-01-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1088

Them There Those!

I saw the movie Them! on its first release in 1954, and loved it. I watched a DVD of the film this past October. Except for the caricature of star James Whitmore I barely recognize it from this satire of the film for EC's Panic #7. Jack Mendelsohn wrote it. What makes "Them There Those" stand out is Wallace Wood's excellent artwork.

I loved most of the artwork in Panic, especially stories by the Mad gang of Will Elder, Jack Davis and Wood, but I thought the stories sometimes pale imitations of the much superior Mad. “Them There Those” isn’t bad, but I think had Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman written the script he could have found an element of parody in Them! that would have lifted it several notches.

2012-01-13T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1087

The non-PC Nazi

Doll Man helps an escapee from the Nazis who is being pursued by a Nazi in a purple hood who wears a corrective shoe. Huh. That sounds like making light of a physical problem, but it's fairly well solved in the story by never showing the villain, "Wobble-Foot," actually walking or dragging his foot. We see the corrective shoe only in the splash panel. The writer decided it would be more suspenseful if the victim heard the sound of the foot dragging. It didn't have anything to do with being politically correct; it wasn't uncommon for comic books to have villains with deformities.

Doll Man had a fairly long career for a superhero in the comics. I've said before I thought Doll Man was a bad name for a comic book hero, and it would scare boys away from the comic. I'm wrong. His comic book was still being published years after many of DC's heroes, including Flash and Green Lantern, had been canceled. Doll Man had a simple power: he could get really small, yet retain his punching power. DC used that as the basis for the powers of their revival of the Atom.

This story is from Doll Man #6 (1943), drawn by Al Bryant.

2012-01-11T00:06:00.000-08:00

Number 1086

The good "bad" artist

What struck me about this 1960's Spooky story from Harvey's Casper and Nightmare #27 is that artist Howie Post is supposed to show Spooky as a bad artist. In "Pencilman" Post draws what are supposed to be bad drawings. They are charming, instead. Post was too good at what he did.

Howard Post began working in comics in the mid-'40s, and was very prolific over the next few decades. In comic books he drew mostly children's comics, although he worked in other genres, even for a time in animation. He created and drew Anthro for DC, and had a 13-year stint on a syndicated comic strip, The Dropouts. But I think most of his large body of comic book work appeared anonymously in Harvey Comics. Like the lead Harvey artist, Warren Kremer, Howie Post's distinctive style stands out. Harvey stopped publishing new comics in the 1980s. Post died at age 83, in 2010.

I found this original art posted on Heritage Auctions. It's from Spooky Spooktown #23, 1968.

This penciled page by Post, also found at Heritage, effectively shows his drawing skill in pencil form.

2012-01-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1085

Police Action!

Atlas Comics' Police Action #1 is another of those comics I think is interesting enough to show all the stories. I'm guessing here, but I imagine it was published with "police" in the title, cops as heroes, to deflect criticism from the crime comics that had been getting the comics in trouble. Of course, even with the emphasis being on police, this is still a crime comic.

Atlas fave Joe Maneely did the outstanding cover. Robert Q. Sale, who was a studio mate for a time with Severin, Elder and Kurtzman, did the lead story. Sale was a good artist, but his faces can be grotesque, homely with popping eyes. His action-packed splash panel of "Riot Squad" is great.

John Forte, a favorite of mine, did the story, "Homicide." Forte was another journeyman comic book artist, coming into the field in 1940. He went from drawing fantasy at ACG to DC in 1961 to do "Tales of the Bizarro World" in Adventure Comics. When that was canceled he went on to draw "The Legion of Superheroes" until his death in 1965.

Paul Reinman, whose work on Green Lantern I showed last week, did the third story, set in Paris. Gene Colan did the last story; it suffers from poor reproduction, turning Colan's finer lines into inky blobs, but the elements of action art that are central to Colan's work are here.

Police Action lasted for seven issues, all dated 1954.

2012-01-08T00:04:00.000-08:00

Number 1084

The not-Jack Davis

Howard Nostrand is a comic artist who was sometimes mistaken for another, in this case Jack Davis. Nostrand had Davis's inking techniques down cold. In the early '60s, when James Warren made remaindered Harvey 3-D comics available through his Captain Company catalogs found in the backs of all his magazines, some comic fans were convinced Jack Davis was freelancing at Harvey. It wasn't until I read Bhob Stewart's interview with Nostrand in Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine #16 in 1974 that I learned Nostrand's name. I also found out that Nostrand, when not drawing his own strips, was an assistant to Bob Powell.

Nostrand did some work for Harvey's Ripley's Believe It Or Not comic book. This story is from issue #1, 1954. Do you believe it...or not? It says in the last panel it can be verified by the "Liverpool Board of Trade," and hey, man, if that's not the iron-clad proof I don't know what is!

"Dead End"--here shown from scans of the original art sold by Heritage Auctions a few years ago--is from Witches Tales #21. It's a variation of an urban legend, which in its original form has a guy walking naked into a dark room expecting to find his amorous wife. It's a very entertaining and well-drawn version of the tall tale. If you can read the light blue notes to the colorist on page one you get some instructions from Nostrand, like the puddles are water and not blood. That would be an important distinction...

"Ivan's Woe" is a story I showed in the earliest days of Pappy's. I re-scanned it for this post. It's a knock-off of "Trial By Arms" by Wallace Wood from EC Comics' Two-Fisted Tales #34, using a mix of Davis' and Wallace Wood's styles. Wood kept this story in his files and showed it to people. Even though it used his story as its basis, each of the combat panels is drawn from a different angle.

We had a Sheena story from Jumbo Comics a couple of days ago, and this is a pretty good satire.

The first Howard Nostrand art I remember seeing, even before the Harvey 3-D comics I bought from Warren, was "Shirl the Jungle Girl" from Harvey Hits #1, in 1957. "Shirl" was the back-up for a Phantom newspaper strip reprint. It looked something like the stories in the Mad paperbacks I was obsessed with at the time. I thought originally it may have been a reprint, but can't find any record of it before this appearance. I think now it may have been an inventory strip, perhaps prepared for an unpublished issue of Harvey's Mad imitation, Flip.

"Shirl the Jungle Girl" looks less like Davis than the other stories, showing Nostrand was achieving his own style. In the late 1950s he did the Bat Masterson newspaper strip, and before his death in 1984 he was working for Cracked Magazine. Touches of Davis would show up in his work. Targitt from the 1974 Atlas Comics comes to mind.

2012-01-06T00:08:00.000-08:00

Number 1083

"Our wrath shall be written in thunder and flame!"

Sheena deserves credit for consistency. From the time she was created by the Eisner-Iger Studio she stayed much the same: blonde jungle queen going about said jungle in an imaginary Africa, helping out natives who apparently need to be saved on a fairly regular basis. This episode, "Viper Gods of Vengeance Veldt!" doesn't deviate from that template. White people posing as gods in a plot to steal native treasure? How many times have you seen that one?

The guys for whom Fiction House comics were aimed were interested in sexy women, not the story, and in the Sheena stories those sexy babes were provided by longtime Sheena artist, Robert H. Webb.

From Jumbo Comics #102, 1947:

2012-01-04T00:02:00.000-08:00

Number 1082

Space Ghost

The Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon character, Space Ghost, is reported to have been created by comic book veteran, Alex Toth. Toth worked for H-B as a "designer and idea man." See the story on Space Ghost at Don Markstein's Toonopedia.

I'm aware that Space Ghost had a finish to his animated career as a talk show host on Cartoon Network. I never saw him there, preferring to remember him as he was on his first go-round. This Gold Key one-shot was published in 1966. Dan Spiegle did the artwork.

2012-01-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

Number 1081

"Youse don't haveta encourich me, Lantrin!"

Journeyman artist Paul Reinman's work is all over the history of comics, from 1940 until the mid-1970s. His work shows up at many comic book companies, including Atlas/Marvel, ACG, and Archie Comics. It was at Archie that he and writer Jerry Siegel created the "Mighty Heroes" superhero comics, featuring characters from that company's 1940's past as MLJ Comics, including Black Hood, the Web, Steel Sterling and others.

Reinman was doing superhero comics in the 1940s at DC, where he had a longtime association with Green Lantern. This story, from All-American Comics #69, was published in 1945 under the All-American logo, when founder M. C. Gaines broke off his association with DC Comics. DC bought him out and continued his popular features.

Comedy sidekicks were popular in that era, and for Green Lantern it was the English language-mangling New York cabbie, Doiby Dickles.

Reinman died in 1988, a few weeks after his 78th birthday.

2012-01-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1080

A Pappy New Year!

Head feeling a little fuzzy this morning? A couple of aspirins and Pappy's Golden Age will fix you right up!

We're starting out 2012 with a couple of funny stories from The Kilroys #5, including a story of Natch welcoming the New Year of 1948.

I have something in common with Natch Kilroy...I also greeted 1948. I was only six months old at the time and don't remember it, but I was there nonetheless, and have managed to make it to January 1 each year since.

These stories were written by Hubie Karp and drawn by Bob Wickersham, who sometimes signed his work Bob Wick. The Kilroys was aimed at that big teenage comics market led by Archie. Redhead Natch even reminds me a bit of Archie. Like Archie he drove a jalopy and had girl problems.

Here's an announcement that the comic was going to a monthly schedule, which means it was a seller. The Kilroys had a good eight year run from 1947 to 1955.

Rest up today! Tomorrow you'll be back at the regular old grind.

2011-12-30T00:02:00.000-08:00

Number 1079

Goodbye to the future

We're winding up 2011 in fine fashion, with a couple of beautifully illustrated stories from Planet Comics. Artists Lily Renée and Murphy Anderson were two of the top artists at Fiction House.

I told more about Ms. Renée's work and personal story in Pappy's #1015.

The future presented in the 'forties is pretty much long gone, replaced by the actual future. I love to look back on that never-to-be future. There was really a lot of optimism in it, considering the most terrible weapon in the history of humanity had been unleashed just two years earlier. Some popular magazines of the day painted a glowing future full of leisure time and personal uses of technology, others a more dystopian view of what would be left of humanity, staggering across a nuclear landscape. (Or in the case of "The Lost World" series in Planet Comics, being under the heel of the alien oppressor, the Voltamen.) A lot has happened since this issue of Planet Comics appeared and then disappeared from long-ago newsstands.

Here's to the future that will be, and to the one that never was. Happy New Year.

2011-12-28T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1078

Going crazy for horror comics

Steve Stiles is an artist I first encountered in early '60s fanzines.Years later I saw his artwork popping up in underground comix, alternative comics, even Heavy Metal magazine. You can see examples of Steve's art, professional and fanzine work, at his website, stevestiles.com.

In '91 and '92 Bruce Hamilton published some black and white horror comics, Grave Tales, Dread of Night, and Maggots. There were only eight total issues of the three titles, and Stiles had stories in five of them.

Both of the stories I'm showing today are about insanity and comic book artists. "Black and White and Red All Over" combines art styles of Jack Davis, Graham Ingels and Johnny Craig in homage to EC Comics. It's from Grave Tales #2, 1991, and is written by Eric Dinehart. "Perchance to Dream," published in Maggots #3, is written by Russ Miller. Both stories are lettered by Bill Pearson.

2011-12-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1077

The Clock strikes!

Happy day after Christmas. I trust you had a nice one. I did. Today I'm being lazy, hanging around the house, my Christmas feast a pleasant memory, and the spirits imbibed now fading (the thumping in my brain is almost gone), my bloodshot eye looks to the wall behind my monitor. There is my vintage 1960 GE wall clock, and like me, still ticking. Let's hope for one more year of taking it one second at a time.

It reminds me of the stories I'm presenting on this Monday morning: the Clock by George E. Brenner. The Clock, as told in this article in Don Markstein's Toonopedia, is one of the oldest comic book heroes. He appeared in comics in 1936, before there was a real comic book industry. Here he is, early in his career, cover-featured on Detective Picture Stories #5, from 1937.

The two stories I'm showing today are two of the Clock's appearances in Crack Comics. They share some things in common: Brenner's static page layouts (common in comic books at the time), and despite being only nine issues apart, they use similar villains, gang leaders wearing hoods (common in pulp fiction, movie serials and at Ku Klux Klan rallies), and corrupt politicians (too common, even today).

George Brenner became editor of Quality Comics, which published Crack Comics, and the Clock stopped ticking in 1944.

From Crack Comics #1, 1940:

From Crack Comics #9, 1941:

2011-12-25T00:12:00.000-08:00

Number 1076

A Dan Dare Christmas

"I saw three spaceships come sailing in,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
I saw three spaceships come sailing in,
On Christmas Day in the morning..."

Merry Christmas to all you Pappy readers. We're sailing across the pond to the United Kingdom via our online "spaceship" to celebrate the holiday, with a strip from the 1955 Eagle Annual, featuring Frank Hampson's Dan Dare.

Dan Dare was published weekly in Eagle in the UK. I like the strip very much, and especially the beautiful painted work of artist Frank Hampson. I'll refer you to some websites: Frank Hampson.co.uk and the Wikipedia entry on the Eagle comic paper, where Dan Dare appeared.

What ties this strip to Pappy's is that the Eagle was created as a more wholesome response to the American horror comic books introduced to that country by American GI's stationed in England, and British sailors bringing back comics they picked up in U.S. ports. American comics weren't the only things imported that caused alarm. As I recall, a couple of years later there was this little thing called rock 'n' roll...

Happy Christmas to all!

Here's a vintage Pathé newsreel story about Hampson. Just click on the picture:

DAN DARE

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

**********

Creig Flessel, one of the earliest of the comic book journeymen, left comic books and after a stint as an assistant to comic strip artist John H. Streibel on "Dixie Dugan" went to the advertising agency, Johnstone and Cushing. In the heyday of comic art many ads were drawn comic art style by top comic artists (Lou Fine, Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles among others). The real money was in advertising, where pages were drawn for hundreds of dollars rather than a paltry few dollars at the comic book companies.

Beginning in the early 1950s Johnstone and Cushing provided the 8-page comic supplement to Boys' Life magazine. Flessel did this two-page adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol for the December, 1952 issue. It boils the story down to 23 panels, but the tale is so familiar we just fill in the details in our own heads. Flessel's artwork is outstanding. Flessel worked for many more years in various fields of comic art and advertising. He died at age 96 in 2008.

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Number 1075

The Great Tubbo

In this John Stanley story from Tubby #9, 1954, Tubby invites Gloria to go with him to see a stage hypnotist. He gets to the ticket office before he realizes he has no money. A normally smart boy, his enthusiasm for a date with Gloria has temporarily rendered him stupid.

Well, girls have been known to do that to guys. I've mentioned before that Tubby lives in much the same fantasy-state my head was in when I was that age. Such was John Stanley's genius I found reading Tubby's exploits to be more like channeling my own life. Maybe other kids felt the same. A big difference between Tubby and me is I didn't have those little men from Mars to help me out of a jam.

2011-12-21T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1074

Man of Steel

Monday we had a story set in MLJ Comics' transition period from superheroes to Archie Comics, and today we reach back to MLJ's beginnings.

In his early days Superman was known as the "Man of Tomorrow" and MLJ's Steel Sterling was the Man of Steel. Sterling debuted a couple of years after Superman, in Zip Comics #1. Superman later became the Man of Steel.

Steel Sterling, as you'll see in his origin story from said Zip Comics #1, 1940, had a reason for being the Man of Steel. He jumped into a vat of molten steel and came out a superhero. I do not recommend you try this, but in comic books I guess it's as likely an origin as Superman arriving on earth as a baby from Krypton, or Eel O'Brien falling into a vat of chemicals and becoming Plastic Man.

The story is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Abner Sundell, and the artwork to Charles Biro, who later rose to fame (and infamy) by creating Crime Does Not Pay.*

*There is a text story in Zip Comics #1 with art by a young Mort Meskin, author uncredited. It's about the notorious kidnapper/murderer William Edward Hickman, executed in 1928 for a horrible mutilation killing of a child. It reads like something Biro would have used later in Crime Does Not Pay. When reading several online articles about Hickman I saw his victim was twelve years old, not eight as this two-pager says. Nowhere else but in this article did I read anything about Hickman taking a really long time to die on the gallows, while witnesses stood around watching him fight the noose by using his neck muscles. Did that actually happen, or is this some fever dream by a comic book writer?

2011-12-19T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1073

IN the swim with Betty and Veronica

Were you startled by the new look Betty and Veronica?

Check out a 1947 interpretation of our pulchritudinous pair from an artist who signs the splash page I.N., and is in fact Irving Novick. Irv did Black Hood strips for MLJ. He later did extraordinary work at DC.

At the time Harry Shorten was the editor, and there's an in-joke about "Shorten's Beach." The writing was on the wall at MLJ as they made the transition to the Archie teenage comics they're still living on. Maybe Irv wasn't getting enough work after the postwar demise of the superheroes, and Shorten gave him the assignment.

It's a fascinating strip, if only for Novick's artistic interpretation. Did he do any more of these?

From Archie #27, 1947:

Betty got herself into a similar situation ten years later, in Archie Annual #9, 1957-58.

2011-12-18T00:19:00.000-08:00

Number 1072

Captain Video and the Ring of Orgon

Captain Video, the comic, came from Captain Video, the television series. The show was broadcast in the early days of TV by the DuMont Network, which was a hand-to-mouth organization, broadcasting mainly in the Eastern United States. We didn't see their programs in the West, where I was raised. My only connection to Captain Video was the classic "Captain TVideo" parody by Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis in Mad #15.

The DuMont Network lasted until the mid-'50s, and most of the archives that remained, kinescopes made of their programs including Captain Video, were destroyed in the 1970s. Captain Video was real low budget. The Mad story spoofs that. In a comic book there is no budget for special effects, just what the artist can design. The assignment went to comic book journeyman George Evans, a very fine illustrator, who later made his mark for EC Comics. The story is from Captain Video #4, 1951.

As well drawn as it is, the printing left a lot to be desired. I cleaned up the scans as best I could, but I have worse than a low-budget operation, I have a no-budget operation.

2011-12-16T00:15:00.000-08:00

Number 1071

Ditko x 4

These four stories drawn by Steve Ditko were originally published in Marvel Comics' Journey Into Mystery just after Thor became the main feature. Ditko's pages are masterpieces of composition. I loved these stories when they were published, and while the stories themselves are typical for Marvel Comics at the time, the artwork makes up for any shortcomings in the plots.

Did Ditko work "Marvel-style" on these stories, getting a springboard plot from Stan Lee, drawing them, then Lee would step in and write the dialogue? Or did Stan give him a script? I've never known how he and Lee worked on these five-page shorts during that period.

From Journey Into Mystery #84, 1962:

From Journey Into Mystery #85, 1962:

From Journey Into Mystery #86, 1962:

From Journey Into Mystery #92, 1963:

2011-12-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

Number 1070

Gross exaggeration: Milt Gross's crazy comics

There are a couple of excellent books on cartoonist Milt Gross currently available: Is Diss a System?, edited by Ari Kelman, is part of the Goldstein-Goren Series in American Jewish History. Closer to the Golden Age comic books theme of this blog is The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story, edited by Craig Yoe, containing all of Gross's work done for comic books in the late 1940s.

Gross's work is in a grand tradition of screwball comics. Gross aimed for silliness. My introduction to Gross was in the 1960s, when his wordless 1930 comic melodrama, He Done Her Wrong was reprinted in paperback.

These two stories, which also appear in Yoe's book, are both from ACG comics. If you like these, you'll want to further investigate Milt Gross and his incredible body of work, spanning several decades of the first half of the Twentieth Century.

From The Kilroys #5:

From The Kilroys #6:

2011-12-12T00:09:00.000-08:00

Number 1069

"Back, fiends!"

There's no writing like comic book writing. The title of this post comes from a panel in "Flee the Mad Furies" (a title that is itself pretty supercharged). You don't see the word "fiends" all that often except in comic books.

These are two stories from Ghost Comics #4, Fall 1952, both reprints, but I don't know from what issues of what comics they are reprinted. Drew Murdoch is the main character of "Ghost Gallery," usually found in Jumbo Comics. "Flee the Mad Furies" is drawn, according to the Grand Comics Database, by the Iger Shop. There is a lot of Matt Baker in there, although I wouldn't guarantee it's all Baker. The other story, "No world for me!" is drawn by Jack Kamen.

The cover, which was reproduced large size in the 2010 Fantagraphics book, Four Color Fear, is drawn by the very talented Maurice Whitman.

2011-12-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

Number 1068

The end of the world!

A scientist denied the love of a selfish, gold-digging woman decides to end it all...and take us all with him by plunging the earth into the sun. I remember when losing a girlfriend made me feel like it was the end of the world, but luckily wasn't able to go to such extremes to prove it.

There's a message at the end of this tale from Atlas Comics' Venus #11, from 1950, and that's if a woman suddenly attains great beauty she can be loved. It isn't enough just to be there for a man, willing to do anything for him, she's got to be a babe, too.

All right, it's just a comic book, and true to form, Venus, the Goddess of Love, brings the lovers together and averts the crisis, saving the earth and all of us in twelve pages. This melodrama is well drawn by Werner Roth.

I showed another tale of Venus in Pappy's #997.

Marvel Masterworks has reprints of the first nine issues of this title, if you're still shopping for a Christmas gift for the Golden Age comics fan in your life, or yourself.

2011-12-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

Number 1067

John Lennon by Joe Sinnott

Counting back—holy cow!—can it really have been 31 years since John Lennon was murdered? I remember that day, December 8, 1980 because like many others of my generation I thought of the Beatles in a very personal way. By having his life cut short Lennon's image forevermore is of a young man, but I always think what might have been, what he would have been capable of musically had he lived.

In 1964 my brother and I were just the right age to become Beatles fans, just as caught up in Beatlemania as everyone else. When this Dell Giant Comic with the Beatles story came out we pounced on it, read every word. Even then I saw it as something of a whitewash; I'd seen the pictures of the Beatles in Germany wearing leather jackets and greasy pompadours, so they weren't as simon-pure as the comic book showed. I liked it anyway. After all, Joe Sinnott was one of my favorite Marvel Comics artists, who did such beautiful work with Jack Kirby's pencils. I'd seen many jobs by Joe as a solo artist, and thought he was perfect for this comic.

Joe's professionalism comes out in every panel, whether he traced publicity photos or not. I don't remember if pictures of John's wife, Cynthia, were available at the time, but in the comic book version she looks a bit generic.*

*I got a laugh out of the panel on page 3, "How about a flick tonight, Cynthia?" Comic books usually avoided the use of the word flick because the "L" and "I" could be run together to make a "U". Even in 1964 my mind provided that word in that panel. Ho-ho.

2011-12-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

Number 1066

The "forgotten" attack on Pearl Harbor, 1940!

Pep Comics #4, 1940, tells the story of an attack on Pearl Harbor, almost two years before the attack by the Japanese, 70 years ago today.

The story is not that that surprising or even prophetic fiction. It was common knowledge at the time that Pearl Harbor, where the U.S. Pacific Fleet was stationed, was a likely enemy target. The Shield, America's first patriotic hero, kicks some butt. The fictitious Musconians are standing in for countries with which we were not yet at war.

Irving Novick drew the story, and Harry Shorten wrote it. The story features a crossover with the Wizard and Keith Kornell, the West Point cadet. As we learn at the end of the Shield's engagement with the Mosconian enemy, the Wizard and Kornell would be picking up the fight in the "current issue of Top-Notch Comics." I can figure out the ending of the saga without seeing it, but maybe the crossover worked in 1940 to separate some kids from their dimes.

The panel on page three showing a sailor identifying the Shield as "the guy what done a Steve Brodie!" threw me. Steve Brodie is the name of an inker for DC, whose work has shown up in four Boy Commandos stories on this blog. I did some research. The Steve Brodie referred to in the Pep Comics story was a daredevil who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge (and lived) in 1885. He died in 1901. You can read about that Steve Brodie here.

2011-12-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

Number 1065

The Phantom's treasure

I've been a Phantom fan my whole life, as have a lot of other people. The character first showed up in newspaper comics in 1936. Created by Lee Falk, drawn by Ray Moore, The Phantom was a worldwide hit.

But, lots of things about the Phantom bother me: a line of fathers and sons for all those generations (400 years worth) that are capable of being the Phantom; running around the jungle wearing a tight, hooded costume in the heat and humidity; superstitious "natives" who think he is a ghost walking. I enjoy the Phantom for the Golden Age fun, and try not to think too much about it.

Falk was a good plotter and could keep the action going. Ray Moore captured the Phantom's environment, and had that mid-'30s art style that is still enjoyable. I think of the Phantom as being the Lone Ranger of the jungle. They're two-fisted and quick-witted, noble to the point of being unbelievable.

"Curse of The Phantom's Treasure" is from the first Harvey Comics Phantom reprint, Harvey Comics Hits #51, 1951. The cover is by Al Avison.

2011-12-04T00:11:00.000-08:00

Number 1064

The Yellow Claw

The Yellow Claw* is part of an outdated genre of fiction, popular for decades, about sinister Asians. I'm not sure why it flourished, except that cultural differences between Americans and Asians were probably seen as fair game by fiction writers. By 1956, the time of The Yellow Claw comic book, China was communist, and we'd had a war with them. This comic reflects that. Unusual for its era is that Chinese-American Jimmy Woo is the FBI special agent hero of The Yellow Claw.

Apologies to any readers offended by racial insensitivity. The Yellow Claw has historic value as a comic book: it was drawn by the great Joe Maneely, and it was written by Al Feldstein, who edited and wrote much of the infamous EC Comics line of the early '50s.

Beyond this one comic book I don't know how much work Feldstein did for other publishers after EC went to one title, Mad, and before publisher Bill Gaines re-hired him to replace the departing Harvey Kurtzman.

The Yellow Claw lasted for four issues. This was the only issue drawn by Maneely. It was turned over to Jack Kirby, who made it into a Jack Kirby comic featuring inventive Jack Kirby concepts.

*Not to be confused with the Lev Gleason Daredevil Comics character, the Claw, featured in Pappy's #963.

2011-12-02T00:04:00.000-08:00

Number 1063

Bob Powell's TERROR

The latest in Craig Yoe's fantastic series of comic book retrospective reprints is Bob Powell's TERROR, book two of Craig's series, The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics.

TERROR is full of Powell classics. With the aid of his crew of assistants (explained and identified in an informative biography of Powell, born Stanley Robert Pawlowski in 1916), Powell turned out a tremendous amount of comic book work in the 1940s and 1950s. He worked in all genres, but his special love seemed to be horror, where he lavished considerable skill in making his stories into the highlight of any comic in which they appeared. Craig has chosen well, but then, he had a lot to choose from. Fawcett and Harvey published most of his work during the horror comics boom of the early 1950s, and so a lot of Powell stories are available.

Craig has reproduced two of Powell's best from the original art: "The Rat-Man" is a classic from Tomb Of Terror #5 in 1952, with its bizarre and creepy premise: "It...it is Bennie! He's turned into a real rat!" The other original is "Pit Of the Damned!" from Chamber of Chills #7, also 1952. Powell pulled out the stops with stories with the devil, or those showing hell. Was Powell religious, or raised in the church? I don't know, and Yoe doesn't say, but there is something of a religious fervor to panels of souls writhing in eternal damnation.

The book is uniform in size to the other books of Craig's, and you can see his catalog with his other titles at Yoe Books. Yoe's books are available from the publisher or the usual booksellers. Production on the volume is up to Yoe's standards, made to exacting specifications, quality paper and binding. You buy one of Craig's books, you know if you keep it in the family your great-grandkids will be reading it long after you're gone. I'm giving Bob Powell's TERROR my highest recommendation whether you're buying it for yourself or the Golden Age comic book fan in the family. It's priced affordably at $24.95.

Long time Pappy's Golden Age readers know that Powell is one of my favorite Golden Age artists, and I've had 37 prior posts with his work. The story I'm showing today is not in Craig's book. "Shrunken Skull" appeared in Harvey Comics' Chamber of Chills #5, but is just about the only one of my favorite Powell horror stories that Craig didn't show. Heritage Auctions sold the original art for "Shrunken Skull" in 2004, but only showed five of the eight pages, so I have included pages from the comic.

2011-11-30T00:04:00.000-08:00

Number 1062

Felix steps out

Felix steps out into adventure. The stories starring the famous cat flow almost like a stream-of-consciousness. Otto Messmer, who did these Felix comics, had a way of telling a simple story that appealed to children. In "Rainbow's End" Felix walks out of his house with one dollar in his piggy bank to buy food, and then enters a world of nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters, with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Messmer told a very breezy tale. He did it over and over...and over and over and over...you get the picture. Felix stories didn't change much over the years.

Something I remember about reading these stories as a young child was feeling a sense of wonder. I loved stories that had pots of gold (or Uncle Scrooge's money bin), because they could trigger fantasies of wealth. Wow, what I could do with a pot of gold! I could buy all the comic books on the spinner rack and not just two with my paltry 25¢ allowance.

From Felix the Cat #1, 1948:

Craig Yoe's fantastic collection, Felix the Cat: The Great Comic Book Tails, with many other beautifully drawn Felix adventures like this from Dell Comics, is still available from YoeBooks! All of Craig's books get my highest recommendation.

"If you're looking to spend some Christmas dough, you can't go wrong with Yoe!"

2011-11-28T00:17:00.000-08:00

Number 1061

Headlights on full beam

In Seduction Of the Innocent, Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D., provided comic book fans with a new word: headlights. Headlights are what he claimed children of the era called the accentuated breasts in comic books. Just as today, artists took a lot of delight in drawing big boobs, draping them with clothing folds and shadowing to emphasize.

Allen Ulmer, another journeyman comic book artist, drew this back-up story, "The Secret of the Old Mine," starring the Texas Ranger, in Avon's Jesse James #6, from 1952. A girl is captured, beaten (and we assume from her torn clothing) molested by a gang of outlaws looking for her uncle's gold. The story has bondage (another bone in Wertham's throat), and some fine headlights.

Jane Russell, in her character, Rio, from the Howard Hughes movie, The Outlaw, was the inspiration for Joan. Russell had some of the most famous breasts of the time. The sexiness of the movie had Hughes fighting censorship for two years. I found this ad in Dime Mystery Magazine, September 1946.

Ulmer drew comics in the 1940s and '50s, and then went into fine art. He died in 1990, age 68.

2011-11-27T00:07:00.000-08:00

Number 1060

Blackhawk, Comrade Vampira, and Hitler's daughter

I've got to give Blackhawk credit for meeting babes, even if he doesn't seem to take advantage. I mean, what would you rather do, hang around with your leather-clad buddies or schmooze good-looking chicks? Blackhawk #97, from 1956, has three stories of Blackhawk fighting evil beauties. I'm presenting two: Comrade Vampira and Hitler's daughter, named Hitla! The Blackhawks should feel right at home with Hitla, who wears a uniform like theirs.

There were only a few more issues of Blackhawk from Quality Comics after this one. Quality sold their characters to DC Comics. DC changed some things about the Blackhawks; they looked the same, but DC switched away from the soldier of fortune adventures they had at Quality, and got more into science fiction.

Stories are drawn by the longtime Blackhawk art duo, Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera.

2011-11-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Number 1059

"Keep yer yaps shut!" Lou Cameron's tough guys

Artist Lou Cameron has been featured in my blog, as well as Karswell's The Horrors Of It All several times. I've always thought of Cameron's Golden Age work as being primarily horror, but he did some crime stories, too. I have two of them, from Ace Comics' Crime Must Pay the Penalty.

Cameron's crooks are hardboiled, tough and murderous. They cause lots of mayhem. These are two violent tales, the sort of comics that got the industry in trouble. They were published in issues #40 and #41, which came out in '54, the year of greatest heat on comic books. The next year the Comics Code came out, and Crime Must Pay the Penalty lasted a few issues under the Code.

No matter in what genre he drew, Cameron was superb. He did comics for a few more years, then became a writer, an author of original paperback novels.

2011-11-24T00:06:00.000-08:00

Number 1058

Andy's Atomic Adventures: Pappy's Thanksgiving Turkey Award Winner, 2011:

It's Thanksgiving Day in America, and the day I give readers around the world the bird. The bird would be a turkey, the traditional centerpiece of the Thanksgiving family feast, and also a Turkey Award, which is for the most oddball, screwiest, dopiest and otherwise whateveriest a story is to make it stand out in my mind over all the other oddball, screwy and dopey comics I read every year. You see, the Turkey Award is purely subjective, it's my choice. You don't get a vote. Here's why I chose this year's winner:

I grew up a baby boomer, meaning I was born a couple of years after World War II ended. In the early '50s we had "duck-and-cover" drills in school. In the event of an atomic attack by the Russians we would get under our desks to ride out the blast! You might have seen the old instructional films that are so funny nowadays, but at the time, at least to me, all seemed perfectly reasonable.

The problem is that the United States government, and anyone who could read, already knew that ducking and covering wasn't going to do us any good at all. Follow-up studies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed that when an atomic bomb went off over your city, better bend down and kiss your butt goodbye. No school desk would protect you. Efforts to make the atomic bomb seem less dangerous, when everyone knew it wasn't, was all a terrible lie told to us kids. It was probably done in a misguided effort to make us less fearful, or for whatever other arcane reasons, but it was wrong.

Andy's Atomic Adventures is of that era. Originally published in 1953 as issue #1 of Gilberton Publishing's Picture Parade, it came out when I was in first grade. The copy of the story I scanned is from a reprint, The World Of Science, which came out in 1957. It is an out-and-out propaganda job, and worst of all, at the time I believed it. I'm a lot more cynical nowadays.

Something that leapt to mind while re-reading it was, if Andy and his family live 30 miles from the Nevada test site, how did Andy get from his house to the test site on his bike, and expect to get home before dinner? The second was, Andy's dog, Spot, was in the blast zone and survived, and when the radioactivity went away was allowed to come home to Andy. Jeez, the poor dog would've lost all his fur and died a horrible death from radiation sickness. My guess is, unseen to children reading this comic, it took a couple of weeks for the test site people to find a replacement for Spot to fool Andy.

Did I mention while all the rest of this is going on that radioactive treatments cure Andy's mom of her unspecified (but obviously cancer) illness?

The story is drawn by Pete Costanza, who had come from drawing Captain Marvel Comics at the recently (remember, this is 1953) defunct Fawcett Comics, and later went on to ACG. Andy's Atomic Adventures, drawn in its simple, clear style, was a lie, whether perpetrated at the behest of the United States government, or of the publisher's own volition, and is Pappy's 2011 Thanksgiving Turkey Award winner with a solid three radioactive turkeys.

This is the sixth annual Turkey Award presentation. You can view the others by linking to them:

2006: "The Flat Man" from Pappy's #57

2007: "The Day The World Died" from Pappy's #222

2008: "The Bride of Jungle Jimmy" from Pappy's #421

2009: "The Million Year Monster" from Pappy's #636

2010: "Satanas, the Most Evil Man in the Universe" from Pappy's #849.

2011-11-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Number 1057

Invoking the law of the robots!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, when I present my annual Turkey Award for the most oddball or outrageous story I've read all year. For a while "The Mars Mystery," from Rocket Kelly #2, 1945, was my top choice. At the last minute another story took over the top spot. Sorry, Rocket, but your jets sputtered there right at the end of the race.

Rocket Kelly was a rocket pilot/adventurer/interplanetary policeman from the mid-1940s, when rocket jockeys looked more like airplane jockeys, the stuff kids were used to seeing during the war years. Rocket has two companions, a mechanic and a girlfriend, a rocket that looks bigger on the inside than it does on the outside (holy TARDIS!), and a clumsy art style that renders the stories bizarre or absurd rather than exciting. The artist's name is signed Ted Small, but it's a Fox Features comic, so it's a pen-name.

I like that the conquering robots have goofy heads just like their creator, Professor Mogul, and I like that they have a law. It isn't one of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but a law that says if challenged to the "test of ice" they've gotta do it. I also like that Rocket's dad looks like Robert E. Lee. When the artist went for reference it was apparently to a book of Civil War generals.

No, Rocket Kelly didn't earn the big award, but he's a runner-up. Come back tomorrow for the annual award.

This is a holiday weekend and I'm joining the millions who are traveling. I'll be across the country with family. I may not get many chances to check in on this blog, so if you write a comment and it is delayed in being posted you will know why. I want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving.