Number 2143: Some-THING!

In the 1951 movie, The Thing from Another World, in describing the Thing itself one characters says, “An intellectual carrot. The mind boggles.” And so the portrayal in Get Lost #3 (1954), with their satire.

“The Some-THING” was drawn by Ross Andru ( co-publisher of Mikeross Publications with Mike Esposito) and inker Martin Thall. As a Mad imitator, Get Lost was probably better than at least 50% of the other Mad knockoffs, attempting to capture some of the lightning in a bottle from the Harvey Kurtzman creation. A problem for Mikeross was it entered the comic book field during a time when the market was experiencing a glut of product, and shelf space was hard to find. The other problem is, as John Benson, author of The Sincerest Form of Parody, put it, is that a large group of Mad’s readers were reading Mad because it was hip. They didn’t normally read comic books, including Mad imitators.

This story was reprinted with some other stories from Get Lost in Marvel Comics Arrgh! #2, 1972.

Number 1875: Heaping it on

In 2013 I showed an origin of the character, the Heap, by Tom Sutton and Robert Kanigher, from Skywald’s one-shot issue of The Heap (1971). You can see it by clicking the link below this story. The origin I am showing today is the one told a few months earlier, in issue #2 of Skywald’s black-and-white publication, Psycho.

If you hang around this blog long enough you will catch up on all of these crazy stories. Read this origin, then follow up with the second origin, and then picture Pappy in 1971 with a puzzled expression on his face.

More Heap origins! This one from the one-shot color comic, The Heap, from Skywald, the other is the original Heap from Air Fighters Comics #3 (1942); Just click on the thumbnails.

Number 1840: Love and fraud for Claude

Who can resist a story about a gigolo? I can’t. When I was 14 our assignment in English class was to write a composition, what career we wanted to pursue when we grew up. I put down “gigolo.” I explained it was because it meant that girls would pay for dates. I thought I was being funny, but I got the paper back from my (female) teacher with “gigolo” underlined in red pencil and a stern note: “You need to look up this word for its precise definition.” I did. I defend it as a career choice, but unfortunately for me it was not to be. What I need now in my dotage is a gigolette. Also not likely to happen. (Especially if I want to keep Mrs Pappy.)

We meet both gigolo and gigolette in this story, drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito for Heart and Soul #1 (1954). The art team had their own short-lived comic book line that year. Unfortunately, they came to publishing at a bad time for the industry, with titles crowding each other off the racks. Heart and Soul lasted only two issues.

Louis Prima and Keely Smith did “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody” on a television program in 1959. Years later Van Halen ex-lead singer David Lee Roth remade the Prima version of the song.

Number 1571: Captain Marvel goes Mad...then Nuts

A couple of things caught my eye when I read this Captain Marvel-King Kull tale in Captain Marvel Adventures #141 (1953). First, it has walking dead. That’s good. Second, it is told in the second person, which isn’t good or bad, just different than the usual third person that Captain Marvel stories were written in by chief scripter Otto Binder.

Then there is the so-so, which is a satire on Captain Marvel, “Captain Marble Flies Again,” done for Premier’s Nuts!#5 (1954), after Captain Marvel was cancelled. The story has its moments, but it depends on your tolerance for this type of satirical treatment. (It has a hooker under a street light putting the moves on Captain Marble; that’s interesting and solidly pre-Comics Code).

You remember another story done for Mad #4, “Superduperman” (below) featuring Captain Marbles and Superduperman in battle. It was a reference to the lawsuit against Fawcett by DC for copyright infringement, which which was ultimately decided in favor of DC. Go to Apocolyte’s World of Comics for the Mad story and some bonuses.

Ross Andru drew “Captain Marble Flies Again.” He and partner Mike Esposito published their own short-lived satire comic, Get Lost!. I wonder if this story was originally something they had prepared for that book.

Number 1184: “The man who dares to cut holes in the Iron Curtain!”

Three fast-moving, well-illustrated tales from Atlas Comics' Spy Thrillers are presented for your pleasure. It's the pleasure of seeing Ross Andru and Mike Esposito's artwork, especially the dynamic and symbolic splash pages.

AtlasTales.com equivocates on the cover credits, giving both Sol Brodsky? and/or Carl Burgos? a credit. Kind of.

Rick Davis is a globe-trotting United States Secret Service agent who answers his country's call to duty in Dick Tracy's yellow topcoat, and suits only a color blind person would pick. Green with a red tie. Nice Christmas colors. Where's his black suit and sunglasses, the uniform we consider appropriate for a Secret Service agent? Rick's world of the mid-'50s is full of Reds and commies, those treacherous and dangerous Cold War enemies of America. They have an advantage over Rick, able to spot him from quite a distance, glowing like a neon sign.

A couple of months ago the Secret Service took a beating over some rogue agents and some unprofessional conduct in Colombia. I have a high regard for the agency and believe they will get through this and do the job they should be proud to do, and with much better sartorial sense than Rick Davis.

From Spy Thrillers #4 (last issue, 1955):