Number 664
"Dear Senator..."
Sheldon Mayer was with DC Comics from the days before Superman and Batman. He was an editor for Max Gaines' All-American Comics branch of the company known collectively as DC. He quit his editor job so he could draw Scribbly, a very funny, somewhat autobiographical view of himself as a boy cartoonist. In 1956 he created Sugar and Spike, for which he's mainly —and justifiably — known. Late in life Shelly Mayer did try other genres, including science fiction and horror. He wrote and drew "Dear Senator" for Unexpected #217 in 1981.
It's hard to tell if he was trying for a more serious style, because some of his cartoony side shows up, like the robot which looks more like something from the 1930s or '40s. But I like this fish-out-of-water story, anyway. Who can resist a story about Abraham Lincoln brought to the future?
I took the original art from Heritage Auctions. I love looking at original art, but if you don't you can scroll down to the printed version.
7 comments:
I love how this story takes ol' Abe's feelings into account. "Hey, I've had a rough go of it. How about a little time off?" Poor fella.
Wow! Always loved SM but I had NEVER seen this before. Thanx!
Pappy: My goodness, Sheldon Mayer does SF (and does a hell of a job of it). You can still see the wonderful Mayer of Sugar and Spike in a lot of the body postures. What a rush! Abe Lincoln reflecting on his own assassination with cool authority! There is also the Mayer mind: "In this century, nobody is taught mathematics. They leave that to computers."
What a great post! -- Mykal
I also found the original art at Heritage a few months ago and was blown away by this story. I am BIG fan of Shedlon Mayer's comics, and it's great to see him finally getting some attention. This story was an anomaly for him but... as I thought it, I realized hat the concept for Sugar and Spike is pretty close to science fiction in some ways... the adults in S&S are very much like typical SF aliens being powerful, magical, having cool toys they mostly do NOT share, and speaking a weird language. Then later in the series, Mayer introduces the world's smartest person and has all sorts of biting comments and satire about technology and society. Great post. I had not seen the published comic so I appreciate you sharing that, too!
These Mayer pages remind me of modern era Mike & Laura Allred work~! Awesome to see b & w side by side with printed color~!
To think that for all my growin'-up years I passed up Sugar and Spike on the comic spinner rack, because it was a "kiddie comic." I was chronologically advanced before I found out how great Shelly was. My bad!
I wonder if Fred Saberhagen had read this story when he wrote the book "After the Fact" about trying to save Lincoln by substituting a clone.
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