Number 445


Happy New Year with Cosmo Cat!


I didn't realize when I posted this Cosmo Cat story that it would get such a good response. Thanks to Dave Miller, who provided the original scans from Cosmo Cat #8, August 1947. He's also gone the extra mile and provided scans for another three stories from that same issue. Dave, you are a very cool cat for doing that.

By following the link above you can read more about Cosmo from longtime fan Martin Greim.

This will be my last posting for 2008, so I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to 2009. Since I joined the blogging world I've met some really great people, those who have left positive comments, constructive criticism, those who have e-mailed me to ask questions or share information. When I started Pappy's 2 1/2 years ago I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I'd get, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the overwhelmingly positive and friendly feedback. Looking at the many blogs that have sprung up with fans sharing comics makes me feel very good. It's great to know that the history of comic books is well represented on the World Wide Web, and as my StatCounter software shows me, people from around the world are participating by looking in.

I'll see you in 2009, and best to you from your Pappy!

Number 444


Rocky and Simpy pull big boners


According to the Grand Comics Database this is the second of the Rocky X of the Rocketeers stories featured in Lev Gleason's Boy Comics. This particular episode is from Boy #81. In this story the characters do, as Simpy admits on page 8, ". . .pull boners — big ones." Training did not seem to be a big part of Rocketeer school...more like flying by the seat of your pants. It's fun reading about space travel from the imaginations of a comic book writer and artist, as opposed to what it became in real life just a few years after this story was published in 1953. We all know with the real-life astronauts training was paramount. No letting a couple of guys take off in an untested rocket ship and hope for the best.

I have the second part of this continuing story, and I'll probably show it next week. Artist Norman Maurer, who married Stooge Moe Howard's daughter and later became the Three Stooges' producer, himself produces a story that with the ineptness of the characters might have fit right into a Stooges' short. A little eye-poking or hair-pulling might have added considerably to the fun.

Number 443


Blackhawk solves the mystery of the flying saucers


The Blackhawks take on a mystery much in the news in the late 1940s and early 1950s. What are the flying saucers and where do they come from? Blackhawk says they come from our own planet; no little gray guys, but giant white guys.


The story is from Blackhawk #71, December 1953, and is drawn by the team of Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera.

Number 442


Boxing Day noir


Americans don't know what Boxing Day is, a holiday celebrated in the rest of the English-language speaking world. For my fellow Americans, here's an explanation of Boxing Day.

I don't have a posting that relates to the Boxing Day holiday so I came up with a boxing strip. This is from Silver Scream #2, from 1991, a black and white reprint from Harvey Comics' 1954 Black Cat Mystery #51. The drawing is by Mort Meskin. Because of the moodiness of horror comics, I think some would have been improved had they been printed originally in black and white. Oftentimes the coloring detracted, rather than added, to the mood. "Punch and Rudy," sans comic book colors, is a noirish story, stark and dark, with a punch ending (literally).

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While on the subject of noir, recently I watched the film, Blast Of Silence, part of the Criterion Collection on DVD. The movie was made as an indy film in 1960, released in '61. It was written , directed, and starred Allen Baron. The reason I mention it in Pappy's is that Allen Baron was a comic book artist sometime in the Golden Age. In the German-produced documentary that accompanies the movie, there are some quick and tantalizing shots of comic book original art. I did some screen captures. I didn't find Allen Baron in the Grand Comics Database, but maybe somebody out there will recognize these stories.