Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Dan Brand and Tipi-Frank Frazetta-1949


Oft reprinted--but not here--to old-time fans of the sixties, seventies and up, this is one of the earliest and yet most familiar comics book stories by the one and only master fantasy painter, Frank Frazetta!







Monday, May 30, 2016

Planetary Error-Bill La Cava-1950


One of a zillion throwaway time travel stories in fifties comics, this one has a genuinely shocking ending...or it WOULD be genuinely shocking if not for the title of the story!




Sunday, May 29, 2016

Don Quixote-Wonderworld-1940


I've long been a big fan of the story of Don Quixote. This is a not particularly amusing 2 page filler with some interesting character design but that's about all. 


Friday, May 27, 2016

Where Monsters Dwell-Basil Wolverton-1951

There are a number of uniquely recognizable stylists in comics--Alex Toth, Bernard Krigstein, Dick Briefer, etc.--and a separate group of outrĂ© cartoonists even beyond them--Harvey Kurtzman, Fletcher Hanks, and the uniquest of the unique (sic)--Basil Wolverton. No one EVER mistook Wolverton's bizarre work for anyone else's. Here we see him with Marvel's original use of its '70s reprint title. 






Thursday, May 26, 2016

Batman with Robin and Galexo-Fran Matera-1972


Just a teaser here. Thanks to a new friend in Malaysia, today I received 36 weeks of this late period, copyright-violating BATMAN newspaper strip. I'm going to be sharing more and writing up as much as I know regarding the story behind this frustratingly obscure and elusive chapter in the career of the Dynamic Duo soon but in the meantime, I wanted to share just this one page. If anyone has any GALEXO appearances, or knows anything at all about the background of this series that I may not already know, please email me at booksteve@aol.com. Thanx!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Nightmare-Wayne Boring-1951


Wayne Boring was THE Superman artist between Joe Shuster and Curt Swan, particularly on nearly two decades of the newspaper strip. Although he did draw Supes at DC off and on during that same period, he rarely worked for Timely/Atlas/Marvel. In fact, after a couple of these types of stories in the mid-fifties, I think you have to wait until the early seventies when he turned up there again on a Captain Marvel story.




Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Earth's Friendly Invaders-Gil Kane/Wallace Wood-1963

They'd work together a number of times over the years but here, with this variation on TWILIGHT ZONE's then-recent "To Serve Man" episode, crossed with DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, is their first artistic collaboration.









Sunday, May 22, 2016

Jack Benny-1943


Here's yet another Jack Benny bio in comic book form.Jack made appearances in quite a few comic books and strips over the years including, most prominently, a long "guest star" role early in the 1966 BATMAN newspaper strip, replacing Conrad Hilton. The latter's rival hoteliers are said to have complained about what amounted to daily free advertising in hundreds of papers so a Benny storyline was quickly rushed in.





Friday, May 20, 2016

Black Fury-Super Magic Comics-1941


Never seen this oddly dressed gentleman and his feline sidekick, Kato, before today.










Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Yellow Jacket-Mighty Mouse-1963


Thy seem awfully big for insects but anyway...I am surprised that Marvel didn't get a Cease and Desist a few years later when their Yellowjacket showed up.