Number 659
Herbie New Year!
We're kicking off 2010 in style with the first issue of Herbie, one of my favorite comic books of all time. It's from 1964, a good year for me. Herbie is kind of a time capsule of what was going on in the world when I was in high school, so read on, put yourself in my size 10 1/2 shoes, travel back in time to Pappy's favorite year...Herbie #1, April-May 1964. Written by Richard E. Hughes as Shane O'Shea, drawn by Ogden Whitney.
I laughed OUT LOUD ! Three times in just the 1st story, Pappy ! It really has everything (including that Jimmy Durante cameo). It reminds me of Mystery Science Theater, except~ it pokes fun of everything, including itself. That Dragon peeling onions~!!!
ReplyDeletePappy: I've never had the chance to see much Herbie, so thanks. He certainly is genuinely odd. Love the depiction of LBJ in the first story, and Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table. What a strangely effective time capsule. - and Sonny Liston! The panels of Herbie dancing with the Cuban jailer in the second story are amazing. There is something terribly decadent about Herbie - something nearly obscene - that flat affect of his gets unsettling. -- Mykal
ReplyDeleteI've found that people either "get" Herbie or they don't. I'm not sure what the original intent of editor Richard E. Hughes was when he created Herbie for a one-off story in Forbidden Worlds, but readers wanted more and the series had a life of its own.
ReplyDeleteI found out, after seeing other artists' versions of Herbie that:
1. Ogden Whitney had a perfect art style for the deadpan, bizarre humor.
2. Richard E. Hughes was the only writer who could come up with such screwball plots.
Herbie is, as Mykal said, "a strangely affecting time capsule." It's like looking at the cold war and American society in a funhouse mirror.
so where's the Herbie Popnecker movie adaptation?...
ReplyDeleteWe could use Herbie nowadays.
ReplyDelete