Number 173


Reprints Make Pappy Happy


In 1970 Mrs. Pappy and I made a trip to Vermont, and stayed with our friends, Tom, Mary and daughter Deana. Tom was a comic book buddy of mine from the old early '60s fanzine days.

Tom was older than us by several years, so he had been around during the original Golden Age, that era from 1939 to the mid-1950s. Tom had amassed an awesome collection, including three of what you could call the Big Four of the comic books: Detective Comics #27, Batman #1, and Superman #1. He was missing only Action Comics #1 to make it the Quadruple Crown of comic book collecting. I was so impressed that I had my wife take a picture of me with the three key books he owned.
Click on pictures for full-size images.
During conversations on those warm August nights Tom and I had some beery observations about the state of the comics. I thought they were going to disappear. The distribution chain for comic books was shrinking, the price had jumped to a shocking 15¢, and the initial joy of the 1960s Marvel Comics boom had faded. I lamented, "Why doesn't someone reprint the old comic books?" We were all familiar in those days with The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer, which contained some of the first actual reprints of complete, color Golden Age comic book stories. There had been the Superman and Batman annuals of the early 1960s. We'd also seen the very poor Captain America reprints in Fantasy Masterpieces in the late '60s. Tom, who worked for a book publisher, said during the Batman craze circa 1966 he'd tried to get his employer to contract with DC Comics for the rights to reprint Batman #1-10. Nix, nix, they said. No market for that old junk.

Flash forward just four years, to 1974. Carmine Infantino, longtime comic artist, was the publisher of DC Comics. Obviously Carmine had wired Tom's house and miked our 1970 conversation, because the Golden Age reprints began to pour out of DC, both in thick 100-page square back annuals and also with the oversized Famous First Edition reprints. Here's a picture of Pappy's reprint versions of Tom's jewels-in-the-crown.

Infantino had some problems at DC; he had the "curse" put on the company by Superman creator, Jerry Siegel, and when DC finally couldn't take the heat from the public scolding they caved in and gave out pensions. As Siegel and Shuster got some recompense for their creation, so was Carmine Infantino shown the door. I'm glad Jerry and Joe got what was coming to them in the last years of their lives, but I immediately missed Carmine, because the reprints came to a halt. It wasn't until DC started issuing their Archive editions that large scale reprinting of the DC line was begun again.

Nowadays both Marvel and DC have their phonebook reprints, Marvel with their Essential and DC with their Showcase lines for Silver and Bronze Age reprints. I've even picked up a couple of those. The biggest commitment I made to reprints was when I resolved to have all of the EC Comics reprints done by Russ Cochran in slipcased, hardbound editions. I have them all now, and I'm very proud to own them.

I can't keep up with all of the available reprints now, and in a strange way that's good. It means the material that has been unavailable for so long is finding its way back into print. It's also why I do Pappy's Golden Age, so you can see online for free the more obscure and even oddball things published in the Golden Age. It wasn't all Superman and Batman, Captain Marvel and EC Comics.

My friend Tom, in those long ago and faraway days in Vermont, showed me a world I'd only dreamed existed, the collectors' nirvana! Box after box, full of comic books from the richest, most interesting era of comic book history. With the reprints I have gotten just a taste of what I saw at my friend Tom's house.

Number 172


From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Organized Crime

Bob Fujitani, who signed his work "Bob Fuje," was one of the best illustrators in comics for many years. He started in the WWII era drawing characters like The Hangman, but after the war went to Charles Biro, illustrating some very memorable stories for Crime Does Not Pay and Crime and Punishment. Later in his career he illustrated Doctor Solar for Gold Key, but he was also helping with comic strips, doing other illustrative work. He was a busy, in-demand artist. I'll show more stories by Fujitani in the future.

"Dion 'Gimpy' O'Banion" is the "true life" story of a Chicago gangster. The story has some truth to it, but as with all of these types of stories, names are changed, incidents are exaggerated. Some of the facts in the story are true: O'Banion did have a limp; he was a florist; he did get killed by rival gangsters. A good overview of his crime career is told here.

O'Banion made his money in bootlegging, thanks to Prohibition. Comic books also came out of Prohibition. There's an alternate history of comic books that needs more exploration, but a good start is the book Men Of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones, which helps explain some of the murky ties some comic publishers had with the Mafia. It's a pretty interesting story, and that book is highly recommended. A mob connection isn't so surprising, really, since New York City was the home of comics publishing, also the home of the Five Families, extremely powerful in that era. There wasn't much they didn't have their fingers in if it made money, and there was money to be made in comic books, especially in distribution, printing and other business aspects.

In the meantime, the guys who made the least money were the ones who made the comic books great. So it was with Bob Fujitani. I doubt that Lucky Luciano could ever produce a comic book, but he could make sure he got his cut of the profits. Bob Fujitani's artwork would be a reason for someone to plunk down his dime for a comic. Fujitani got a page rate and no cut of the profits.

This particular story came from Crime and Punishment #5 (1948).

Number 171


Sex and Skeletons Part 3: Don't Look Behind You!


Remember when you were a kid and had to get up at night? I remember those nights, having to walk to the bathroom in the dark, with the floor creaking, the wind outside moaning, tree branches tapping the windows. Tap, tap, tap. What was really a walk of a few yards in my safe, suburban house, became a midnight walk past a lonely graveyard.

"There's nothing behind me," I'd tell myself. "Mom and Dad are in the other room. If I need to I can holler for help…" I just knew if I turned my head even the slightest I'd see that I was being closely followed by a monster or a ghost or…choke!…a skeleton!

I'd do what needed doing, then walk as fast as possible back to my room, get into my bed, throw the covers over my head, all without turning so I wouldn't see a grinning rack of bones looming over me.

The folks on these covers should probably not turn their heads either. If you don't turn around, the skeleton will just go away. At least that's what I told myself. But then, I didn't test whether it was true or not by actually turning my head and peeking…

Number 170


The Earlier Side of Dave Berg


When cartoonist David Berg died at age 81 in 2002, he had drawn for Mad for over 40 years, appearing in over 350 issues. His wry observations about everyday life, "The Lighter Side" reflected his own life.

Before he worked for Mad Berg was a comic book cartoonist, contributing to different publishers over the years. I have two stories here from 1954, a Mad Comics-styled satire and an Archie-clone.

"King Arthur and His Squares Around the Round Table" appeared in Atlas Comics' Crazy #2, and the Merton story, "A Heck Of A Hair-do!" is from Meet Merton #3, published by Toby Comics.

I'm also posting a scan of the printed cover of Meet Merton #3, and a scan of the original art I found on the Internet. This will be kind of a test, fans…see if you can spot the differences between the original and printed versions of the cover illustration . Click on the pictures for full-size images.
 

Berg had a great pin-up style. He could draw really cute chicks! Marcia from the Merton strip is vivacious and pretty, and unlike the stupid guys in her life, I can appreciate her Italian hair-do. I appreciate everything else about her, too. The Merton story was aimed at pre-pubescent kids, but even they might've wondered why Merton isn't shown as being horny. I mean, two teenagers, a tunnel of love, a beautiful girl…and he brings garlic? I don't know if Berg wrote his own story, here, but he showed with his Mad output that he was more than capable.

Number 169


Jet Powers and the Fleets of Fear


With this Pappy's entry we say goodbye to Jet Comics. We've posted a story a week for the past 16 weeks. This final entry in the saga has Jet Powers not only breaking up a royal Martian plot, but taking on invaders threatening Mars and then Earth. Whew. What a guy!

The story is the second part of the story begun in Jet #3. It's not the final Jet Powers story. Jet Powers (the comic book character) outlived Jet Powers (the comic book) by coming back as an Army air ace. I have one of those stories and will run it sometime in the future. If you want to see all of the Jet Powers stories posted so far click on the "Jet Powers" link at the bottom of this page.

My personal assessment of the four issues of Jet, published in 1950 and '51, is that I liked the character and I felt the best issue was #2 (the first one I encountered, back in 1959). I'm puzzled as to why Jet only lasted four issues. Declining sales could have been the reason this series was dropped, there was a lack of interest on the creative and/or editorial end, or the book was dropped in favor of other projects. In those days ME Comics was doing a lot with their Western comic books like Ghost Rider, Tim Holt and The Durango Kid. ME was a small player in the comics field, with a limited number of titles, but they had a successful line with what it was they did the best. Despite my quibbling complaints over some of the stories in Jet, it was probably better than most of other publishers' outputs in those days. I'm proud of my Cosmic Aeroplane-pedigreed copies of the four issues and I'll keep them forever. I've been happy to share them with you and hope you've enjoyed them.

Number 168

Billy and Bonny Bee

It's time to throw in a funny animal feature, this time from New Funnies #72, February, 1943.* "Billy and Bonny Bee" was drawn by Frank Thomas.

This Frank Thomas is not that Frank Thomas. That Frank Thomas is one of the Nine Old Men of the Disney Studios, famous for his work in animation.This Frank Thomas was born in 1914, was active in comic books from 1938 to about 1952, and drew a variety of features in a variety of styles. He left comic books to work on syndicated comic strips.

This Frank Thomas was a fairly good illustrator of comic book features, but I believe some of his best work is right here in this strip. It was drawn during the first year of World War II and shows some war paranoia, especially in the use of the air raid and dragonfly as enemy. The panel reproduced above is creepy enough to give kids the shivering shudders.

I'm grateful to Michael T. Gilbert and the Eclipse Comics' Mr. Monster's Hi-Shock Schlock! #2** from 1987. I got my information on Thomas from this comic. Gilbert reprinted a Thomas strip from Centaur's Keen Detective Funnies, "The Eye." It wasn't much of a stretch for Thomas to go from a bizarre super-hero to a bizarre funny animal fantasy like "Billy and Bonny Bee." It looks like Thomas' art and heart were more into this type of strip.

*New scans made March, 2018.

**If you go back to Pappy's #125 you'll see the strip, "Toni Gay and Butch Dykeman," which is also reprinted in this issue of Mr. Monster's Hi-Shock Schlock!