Number 2517: Fritz Frazetta's ugly tree

Frank Frazetta was a master of fantasy, muscular guys, exotic, beautiful women. He was also able to draw funny animals, which seems strange to those only familiar with a painting like “The Death Dealer.” In this particular funny animal story he gives us a reasonably good knockoff of Walt Kelly’s Albert the Alligator called “Al,” and a cute squirrel called Munchy. Who came up with those names? I hope it wasn’t Frazetta. Being a funny animal strip, it is a fantasy, just not the kind you expect from Frazetta; so he signed his name “Fritz.” The tree is the main character of the story, and is the ugliest tree I have seen outside of my neighbor’s front yard.

Altogether the story falls short of genius, Frazetta’s or anyone else’s, it is short, at 5 pages, so you get to look at another facet of Frazetta’s drawing talent, without having to invest much time or brain cells on the story.

From Coo Coo Comics #47 (1949):

 

Number 2428: Looey, Looey, he gotta go

Didn’t I just show a hillbilly story a couple a few weeks ago? Sure did, from Babe #2 by Boody Rogers. A hillbilly, according to Merriam-Webster’s Learning Dictionary is “a person who lives in the country far away from cities and who is often regarded as someone who lacks education, who is stupid, etc.” It is a crude depiction, and is long past a need to be retired. So forgive me, folks, because I don’t want to insult anyone, but I also want to show how popular the spillover from the comic strip Li'l Abner was. Creator Al Capp was a satirist, and his comic strip about the residents of Dogpatch was very popular. There were imitations, including Looey Lazybones. The last few Looey stories (the feature ended in Thrilling Comics #73), were drawn by Frank Frazetta.

This episode was published toward the end of the series, from Thrilling Comics #70 (1949).

Number 2328: The Maid of Mars is so hot sssshe ssssizzles!

A few weeks ago I showed a story drawn by Al Williamson I believe was intended for Buster Crabbe (the comic book), and sold instead to another publisher, where Buster was re-named Captain Comet. (Go to Pappy’s Number 2314 for that post.) Today I am featuring a genuine Buster Crabbe story, “Maid of Mars,” with art by Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel, as identified by the Grand Comics Database.

Martians apparently look just like human beings, but as the Maid tells Buster, they have no phonetic language. Instead, their vocals sound like sssssnakesss hissssssing. Despite the fact that the Maid speaks English to Buster and his old pal, Whiskers, which she learned from Earth’s radio, a sentence from her to one of her fellow Martians on page 8 is “SSS SS SS SS SSSSS!!”

Because she is a woman, and Buster is a man of considerable charms, she falls for him. She helps Buster and Whiskers, and the whole human race, avoid the fate intended by the Martians. The story is from Buster Crabbe #5 (1952), published by Famous Funnies, and given some extra prominence with its ssssnazzy cover by Frank Frazssssetta.

Number 2314: Captain Comet Crabbe

I think it is possible that “Captain Comet, Space Pilot” may have been intended for another publication. Eastern Color, also known as Famous Funnies, published 12 issues of Buster Crabbe comics between 1951-1953. In reviewing the issues I see that Al Williamson did a couple of stories for them. Today’s posting could have been originally intended for Buster Crabbe, but was not published. It appeared in Danger Is Our Business #1 (1952) instead, with the Buster Crabbe name changed. Not only that, “Captain Comet” was a character being published by DC Comics in Strange Adventures, appearing from 1951 to 1954. If I had been a comic book publisher in those days I would have worried about running afoul of DC’s lawyers, in light of the ongoing Superman/Captain Marvel lawsuit which dragged on for years, finally settled in 1953.

The “Space Pilot” story itself is drawn by Williamson and Frank Frazetta, and for fun it features space pirates. The pirate captain is a descendant of Captain Kidd, so he wears a skull-and-crossbones on his chest. I like the artwork, but am indifferent to the story...except for the pirate chief.

Toby Press published Danger Is Our Business, and the first issue was reprinted in 1958 by I.W. reprint comics, from which my scans are taken.

Number 2207: Frank Frazetta and the imitation li’l Abner

Looie Lazybones was a character based on Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” comic strip. In this entry, from 1949, a fan of Capp’s creation can see the similarities between the two. After all, “Li’l Abner” may have been the most popular comic strip in America at the time, or at least the one with the most cultural impact, and also remunerative. Every cartoonist would be lusting after Capp’s success. According to Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary by Denis Kitchen and Michael Schumacher, Capp wanted to hire Frazetta: “When Capp decided to hire another assistant in 1954, he had one particular artist in mind. Some years earlier, Frank Frazetta was doing his own hillbilly comic, ‘Looie Lazybones,’ which owed much to “Li’l Abner” . . . Capp concluded that Frazetta was not only very talented; he was also capable of mimicking a wide range of styles.”

The artwork in the Frazetta “Looie Lazybones” strip doesn’t rise to the level of plagiarism, but the story could star Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae; it reads like a sequence from “Li’l Abner.”

From Thrilling Comics #71 (1949).

Here is an example of the work Frazetta did for Capp. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2054: “Judy, Judy, Judy...”

Maybe it’s just me, but for a jungle girl, the name Judy just doesn’t have the ring of Sheena or Rulah or any of a myriad of exotic names for comic book white girls cavorting about dangerous jungles. Judy as cover girl, though, as shown in Alex (“Xela”) Schomburg’s sexy bondage cover — being bought by a pith-helmeted white man for a watch (from a presumed “cannibal” with cooking pot) — for Exciting Comics #59 (1948), was sure to catch the reader’s eye.

Couple of notes: Judy kills a lion, even calls him an evil jungle prowler for killing sweet little Angela the doe. Shucks, folk, the lion was obeying the law of the jungle, and Judy should have been inured to violent death in the local food chain by this time in her career.

Frank Frazetta gets credit for the artwork. Although his style peeks out, I’ll crawl a ways out on a jungle tree limb and say that another inker, or inkers, worked heavily over his pencils. Another clue is the misspelling of his name as “Frazeta” in the splash panel.