Number 526


More Al Wiseman


When I first showed a Dennis the Menace story by writer Fred Toole and Hank Ketcham assistant, Al Wiseman, I got several e-mails from grateful fans. There are a lot of fans and professional cartoonists who share the opinion that Wiseman was a great artist.

Here are two more Dennis the Menace stories by the team of Toole and Wiseman. They are scanned from The Best of Dennis the Menace #1, 1959.

The thing these stories have in common with our Dennis story in Pappy's #497 is that they come from Dennis' imagination, a kid's version of what he hears. In one case it's a dream about cowboys, in the other flying saucers. They're told from his point of view, which gives Toole and Wiseman room to have fun with the material.

Number 525


The Doomed G.I. Shmoe Patrol


In the intro to "G.I. Shmoe" in Mad #10, Harvey Kurtzman wrote, "The truce has been signed in Korea! For some time, we have been itching to sink our teeth into one type of literature born of the war!...We think the time has come! Any similarity between this story and real war is totally accidental!...It is with the sincerest respect that we dedicate this lampoon to you real soldiers who have had to put up with the glamorized war comics like...G. I. SHMOE!"


"G.I. Shmoe" is the classic 1954 Kurtzman/Wood story of two soldiers fighting over women and mowing down hordes of Chinese with fists and rifle butts. The Bob Powell story, "The Doomed Patrol," from American Air Forces #7, published by M.E. Comics in 1952, its panels of guys fighting over women and mowing down Chinese, may be the story that Kurtzman saw that led to "G.I. Shmoe". Can I prove it? Naw, but it's an interesting comparison. Inspiration comes from many and varied places. If you've got a copy of Mad #10, or one of the many Mad reprints check out the story after reading "The Doomed Patrol."

I scanned "The Doomed Patrol" from its appearance in the Super Comics reprint, Battle Stories #15, published in 1964.

Number 524


Plastic Man in the death trap!


Plastic Man goes up against the cystic acne-faced Dr. Scroob, and Woozy faces his expanding waistline. From Plastic Man #43, with credit for the artwork going to Al Luster.

Number 523


Rudy Palais pops a sweat!


Golden Age comic art by Rudy Palais can be spotted easily by looking for flying sweat drops. This past Monday I showed you a couple of stories by Johnny Craig, who also used perspiring faces to indicate stress or fear. But Palais used the type of sweat drops usually associated with funny animal comics. I'm thinking of Chad Grothkopf (Captain Marvel Bunny) or Floyd Gottfredson (Mickey Mouse). Both of those cartoonists drew characters with bullets of sweat flying from their heads. Sweat as Palais portrayed it wasn't usually used in more illustrative comic art, and I can think of no other artist who used sweat or tears in the bulbous and exaggerated way Palais did.

Here are originals for four stories by Rudy Palais I culled from the Internet, all of which show his signature flying sweat. "The Scarecrow's Revenge" is from Witches Tales #14. "The Clock Struck Doom" is from Black Cat Mystery #37, "Army of Scorpions" from Black Cat Mystery #33, and "The Man With the Iron Face" is from Witches Tales #12.

I also showed two crime comics stories by Palais here and here.