Number 111



Popped Wheat's Giveaway Smilin' Jack


Smilin' Jack was a popular newspaper comic strip which ran from 1933 to 1973. Forty years is a respectable run for any strip, especially one that was centered around aviation. That field seemed much more exotic in the early 1930s than it was in the early 1970s. The creator/artist was Zack Mosley (1906-1994).

This posting is of a 16-page Popped Wheat giveaway comic book from 1947, with reprints of a 1938 Smilin' Jack continuity. There were four titles in the Popped Wheat series, Terry and the Pirates, Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy, all strips from the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. There was only one issue of each title.


This issue of Smilin' Jack seems to be pretty typical of the comic strip I read from the late 1950s until its demise in '73; it has its soap opera elements mixed in with comic relief. The gimmick of the lothario Downwind Johnson keeping his face away from the reader was used with great effect for the life of the strip. The gimmick of Fat Stuff popping his buttons into the mouth of a waiting chicken seems like something that should have been ended right after it began. Fat Stuff--and his girlfriend--are pretty awful racial caricatures, but that sort of thing was more acceptable in that time.

Number 110


Bob Powell's Twice Alive!


When you think about it, you are a sum total of your ancestors. You have their genes, good and bad; you carry their legacy. In this story by Bob Powell from Fawcett's Worlds Beyond #1, November 1951, the main guy carries his ancestors within him…literally.

Bob Powell does his usual excellent job on this story, and the use of color in the panels of the man wandering through his own body is particularly nice. Unfortunately, the print job on this comic--on a lot of Fawcett comics of this era--isn't the best. The blacks tend to break up from some unevenness to the printing ink coverage. I have used my photo editing software to reproduce it as best I can. Powell was a great comic book artist, probably a lot better than he had to be in that period. No one would have blamed him for cutting corners on his drawings, but he didn't. I like to be able to look at his artwork without the distractions caused by cheap and indifferent printing from giant web presses.

Previous Powell stories posted include "The Man In The Hood" in Pappy's #90 and "The Shrunken Skull" in Pappy's #35.

Number 109


Howard Nostrand Holds That Tiger!


Ripley's Believe It Or Not! was a very popular newspaper comics panel for decades. It's still being published, now drawn by John Graziano. It was a natural for a comic book, and the title has a history, either as a comic book feature, or in its own title, throughout the Golden Age and beyond.

Harvey's Ripley's Believe It Or Not! #4, dated March, 1954, has a story by Howard Nostrand, who did a terrific job of appropriating Jack Davis's art style. This job looks mostly Davis, although he could sometimes mix in a little of Wally Wood's style for a really nice double pastiche of those popular EC cartoonists. Pappy's #15 shows one of Nostrand's classic Harvey horror comics strips, "Ivan's Woe," done with a mix of Davis/Wood styles.


The artwork in the newspaper comic panel of Ripley's Believe It Or Not! used the technique of shading with a grease pencil on the textured surface of an illustration paper called coquille board. Sports and editorial cartoonists used it for years, but it seems to have fallen out of favor. Nostrand's shading on "The Man Who Was a Tiger!" is masterful. As a matter of fact, the whole strip is excellent. I especially love the "open" panels, which emulate the look of the newspaper Ripley's, while retaining the continuity of a comic book story.

As for whether I believe the story, "The Man Who Was a Tiger," despite the last panel's claim, "…wholly attested by the Yearbook of the Residency of Sumatra, 1927!"...c'mon, do I look like my mother raised a fool for a son? Wait. Don't answer that.

Number 108


Scholastic Fantastic!


OK, so this is not a comic book subject. So I'm stepping outside the boundaries of my blog to bring you something that is — gasp! — written in prose, and typeset rather than hand lettered. Hope you guys can stand it. In my defense I'll say I'm doing this unusual blog because I think — or hope — kids who read comics were also reading — gasp! — prose. I'll get back to traditional comics in the next posting, I promise.

Several times a year I encounter Scholastic Book Fairs in the schools I visit. More than 40 years after my first purchases from them Scholastic is still there, pitching books that kids actually want to read. Now they're known as the American publishers of the lucrative Harry Potter series, but in the past they published juvenile editions in several genres. I liked their science fiction books, and a lot of others must've liked them too because they aren't hard to find in used bookstores or thrift shops.

I heard an author say once that he thought juvenile novels were the best novels of all because they were "about something." I appreciate the best of them because they are told concisely, have strong plots and characters. You can fool an adult with a pretentiously written bad story, but you can't fool a kid.

The books I currently have on hand make a partial "Who's Who" of classical science fiction authors. Gordon R. Dickson was a prolific author; Jack Williamson died at age 98, yet was still writing into his old age. He was first published in the earliest days of the science fiction magazines. Lester Del Rey had a publishing imprint, Del Rey Books, which he ran with his wife, Judy-Lynn Del Rey.

Robert Silverberg is a prolific writer in several genres. Besides writing juvenile non-fiction, like Treasures Beneath The Sea (1960), Silverberg also wrote sex paperbacks, and so many short stories he had to use a stable of pen names. Silverberg's main claim to fame is his science fiction, though, and a number of his books are considered some of the best the genre has ever offered. Revolt On Alpha C was his first published novel. I've posted both front and back covers, and it's worth noting that Larry Stark is a real name of a real person, appropriated (maybe as an inside joke) for this novel. He is probably most well-known to comics fans for his insightful and critical letters to EC Comics during their heyday .

Tunnel Through Time was published the same year the television series, The Time Tunnel premiered on television. This book had nothing to do with that series. To add to the confusion, Murray Leinster (another famous s-f author) published a book called The Time Tunnel in 1964, and also did the novelization for the television series in 1968.

Click on pictures for full-size images. Captions below the pictures are from the original back cover blurbs.

Tunnel Through Time By Lester Del Rey (1915-1993). 1966, Scholastic Books. 160 pages.

Has the experiment failed? Why hasn't Doc Tom returned through the time tunnel? "He's hours overdue," says Bob grimly. "Where is he?"

"Back 80 million years in time," says Dr. Miller. "Back in the age of the dinosaurs."
What has gone wrong? Is it too late to save Pete's father? There is only one way to find out. Pete and Bob must go through the time tunnel.

The Runaway Robot By Lester Del Rey. 1965, Scholastic Books. 188 pages.

"We're returning to Earth," Paul's father tells him. Paul is wildly excited, for all human beings on the planet Ganymede dream of going back to Earth some day. Then Paul finds out that he cannot take his robot Rex with him. Rex has been his constant companion for sixteen years. Leave him behind? Never!

So begins a breathtaking adventures in space as Paul and his robot Rex attempt to outwit the forces that seek to separate them.


Trapped In Space By Jack Williamson (1908-2006). 1968, Scholastic Books. 128 pages.


Astronaut Ben is lost--a million miles from Earth! His last message: "Strange life forms here . . . we're under attack . . .!"

Jeff sets off to rescue him, but soon his own crippled starship is caught in the same eerie web of a monstrous creature from outer space!

Secret Under the Sea By Gordon R. Dickson (1923-2001). 1960, Scholastic Books. 128 pages.


Why is the dolphin acting so strangely? Something must be wrong.

It is the year 2013, and Robby lives in an Underwater Research Station with his scientist parents. Most of the time he has fun exploring the ocean caves with the dolphin who is his favorite companion.

But something has frightened the dolphin, and Robby sets out to investigate. Then he finds the giant footprints. And he knows that something enormous and unknown is walking across the bottom of the sea!

Lost Race of Mars by Robert Silverberg (b. 1935). 1960, Scholastic Books. 124 pages.


Are the Old Martians really a lost race--just withered mummies lying in dark caves? Or are they still alive--somewhere on the red planet?

Sally and Jim must find out. They must help their father if the Old Martians still exist. His life work as a scientist is at stake!


But it's not easy. They are only visitors to the Mars colony in the year 2017. And no one really wants them there.

Revolt On Alpha C by Robert Silverberg. 1955, Scholastic Books. 118 pages.


With a mighty twist, the Space Ship Carden lunges into overdrive and shoots out into space. Ahead lies Alpha C IV, eerie world of three suns.

But the Carden arrives on Alpha C right in the thick of a revolution against Earth. Treason!
Then young cadet Larry Stark finds himself caught up in the revolution...on both sides!

Number 107


Doug Wildey's Bug-A-Boo!


When Doug Wildey died in 1994 at age 72 he left behind a body of comic book work but will best be remembered as the creator of the television animation series, Jonny Quest.

In the 1980s toward the end of his career he did some issues of a title called Classic Jonny Quest for Eclipse Publishing that showed how good an artist he was.

"Bug-A-Boo!" is a story from Mysterious Adventures #17, December 1953. Mysterious Adventures* used EC Comics as its model, and in this story Doug Wildey uses Wally Wood's artwork as his inspiration. The artwork is the main saving grace of this story, which pretty much uses for its model Pappy's Rules Of Horror Comics:

• Horror comics characters shall be as stupid, unpleasant, or unredeemable as it is possible to be in 5 to 8 pages.

• Whatever fate awaits those characters shall derive from their own stupidity, unpleasantness or unredeemable actions and shall end in death, the more horrible the better.

In this story the characters are in the jungle trying out a new pesticide. As the old TV commercial used to say, "It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature."

Wildey drew this story when he was about 30 years old and despite appropriating Wood's style (not a bad style itself!) shows that his artwork was very mature. Later on, before Jonny Quest in 1964, he would draw love comics, westerns, mystery and even a run of Tarzan for Gold Key.
 
*Mysterious Adventures also used The Law Of Skeletons to guide its choice of cover subjects. It's been well known to publishers for decades that a skeleton on the cover increases sales. The cover for this issue had nothing to do with the contents of the comic, but is a story in itself that the reader can just make up on his own.

Number 106


Walt Kelly's Jack The Giant Killer!


I haven't posted a Walt Kelly story since last Christmas Eve, in Pappy's #72.

"Jack The Giant Killer" is from Fairy Tale Parade #2, 1942. It's one of three Kelly stories in that issue. The others are "Cinderella" and "The Emperor's New Clothes," both of which I'll be posting at some future time. Check back.

The cover of this issue of Fairy Tale Parade is really nice. Kelly does a relatively straight rendering of a prince and princess on a horse, but in the left margin, as well as the entire back cover, he shows us dozens of fairy tale characters in a style that's pure Kelly.  

Click on pictures to see full-size images.

"Jack The Giant Killer" has the whimsy and fun that Kelly brought to this series of adaptations. The giants are funny-looking and there is an unusual looking dragon.

Since Fairy Tale Parade was done for young readers there isn't anything complicated about the story: The farm boy wins the princess and the couple end up together and live happily ever after. I always wondered, though, exactly what a peasant would have in common with a princess? Maybe the "happily" didn't really last "ever after." In later years Kelly explored the absurdities of fairy tales in his surrealistic Pogo comic books and also his trade paperbacks, but during his time at Fairy Tale Parade he always left his readers "happily ever after."