Number 1675: Morning after the day...

Happy Boxing Day. Or, since we don’t observe that holiday as our fellow English-speaking nations do, we just call it Another Damn Shopping Day. This is the day people head to stores to pick up bargain rolls of wrapping paper and Christmas decorations. If they are like me, by next Christmas they will have forgotten they bought it and go buy new stuff instead. So much for bargains.

But today at Pappy’s we celebrate the day after with some fine original art, originally posted at Heritage Auctions, and re-sized to make it more convenient for downloading or reading. First up, “‘Twas the Morning After...” drawn and written by Sheldon Mayer, and inked by Tenny Henson was published in DC’s Limited Collector’s Edition #C-50, in 1976.

Next a cover from another Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special from 1978, also drawn by S.M.

The fine scanning is done by the folks at Heritage Auctions. A big thank you to them.

UPDATE December 26...A couple of readers wanted to see how to make a floor yo-yo, as promised by Rudy on the last page of originals. Always happy to accommodate. I went to my Big Box of treasury-sized comics, and here are the plans.

And now back to our regularly scheduled posting:

Finally, I believe this Mayer story, penciled and inked (and presumably written) by S.M. is unpublished based on the lettering not being inked. It is said to be from Plop!, and while “Gregor’s Grisly Grotto” does not have a Christmas theme, it is an extra present to all of us from the old master.

Number 737


The old-timer


When it comes to the history of comic books and men who began their careers when comic books were first published, you can't find anyone more historic than Sheldon Mayer. He was not only with comic books when they were born, but when they were embryonic. Before he went to work for Max Gaines at All-American Comics as an editor/cartoonist, Mayer, who was barely 18 in 1935, was working as a production assistant to Gaines, cutting and pasting up comic strip original art into comic book format.

Mayer's career is recounted in The Amazing World of DC Comics #5, published in 1975 when Shelly was still working for DC, albeit on a mostly part-time basis. He had trouble with his eyes and gave up cartooning for a time. The examples of original art shown here, culled from Heritage Auctions, are of strips done after the operation to remove his cataracts.

The Sugar and Spike story, from The Best of DC #41, is from 1983.

There's a story to the autographed digest comic you see at the top of this posting. I found it a few years ago in a thrift store. I always pick up and look at comic books in thrift stores and when I saw the autograph I...well, you've heard the expression, "clutched it to my bosom." I held it in a death grip until I paid the 50¢ they wanted for it and was out the door. I still puzzle over why it was there, who "Steven" is, or why he let this go. It has a good home with me, though, and I'm glad I was the one who got it. Whatever collecting gods there are made sure I was in that junky store on that day, at that time, and that I, of all people, was the one who found it.

The original art featured in this post is taken from Heritage Auctions web site.

Sheldon Mayer, cartoonist, editor, writer, and one of the most important men in the early history of American comic books, died in 1991, aged 74.
























There's another great story by Shelly Mayer in Pappy's #664.

Number 655


Rudolph in Gorgonzola


What?! It's Christmas again, already? Didn't we just have Christmas a mere 365 days ago?

To commemorate the day I need to go back to my childhood and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, 1953 edition. No, not my first childhood, but a subsequent childhood (I've lost track of how many childhoods I've had). I bought this comic at a San Diego Con in the 1980s. They aren't that uncommon because they sold very well for DC Comics during the 1950s. The annual series ground to a halt in the early '60s after 12 issues. It was revived for a time when Rudolph reappeared in a couple of DC's tabloid-sized comic books of the early '70s, and also in DC's tiny eyestrain digests.

Rube Grossman is credited with the artwork. Grossman, who had an animation background, went back into animation after his stint at DC Comics. He died in 1964.

To all you Pappy's readers, Merry Christmas!