For decades, I thought that this comic book cover displayed one of the most egregious errors that could possibly be committed! …Look closely, and see it for yourself! You may click to enlarge.
But now, here’s a DVD package that has actually topped it! (Perhaps in MORE ways than just one – but it certainly outdoes the comic book cover above in terms of the TYPE of error committed!) Click to.. Aw, you know!
…Again look closely, and don’t trust what you see at a glance – especially if you read with glasses, as I do!
I expect Public Domain DVD and video covers to be bad, but this takes it to new lows – unless you count horribly drawn cartoon characters, that is!
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| At least Bela LOOKS like himself! |
Then again, he HAS been known to “rise from the dead”, so ya never know!
We'll probably review this DVD sometime soon. It's better than its packaging -- but how could it NOT be!
14 comments:
How can anyone on the planet not know that it's M-I-C (see ya real soon)-K-E-Y (why? because we like you!) M-O-U-S-E?
I agree--"egregious" is the word for such an error. Also while looking for errors, I noticed that the octopus has only seven tentacles--unless the other one is hidden in back, but wouldn't some portion of it be visible? Besides that, why would Mickey dive underwater with a shovel in hand? Does he plan on digging up the ocean floor in search of buried treasure? And wouldn't a shovel be sort of an unwieldy instrument on an underwater expedition? Carrying it would make swimming difficult, if not impossible, unless it were strapped on one's back--and even then, it would slow a person down by resisting the flow. It might come in handy for cracking bad guys over the head, but I don't see much other practical use for it in the ocean depths.
I'm sure Bella Luausi would second my observations.
Cheers!
Joe,
Oh, the mortification! Oh, the embarrassment!
Really, now... An octopus with SEVEN LEGS!
Chris
Maybe they think the movie is lousy...reminds of that guy Mark Evanier wrote about who worked at Gold Key and was so in love with Mary Tyler Moore that he posted weird messahes on the covers of the "Dick Van Dyke Show" comic books.
There was a toy company called Performo that had a Micky Mouse toy - maybe that's a nod to that. ;)
‘Rehab:
Wasn’t that whole “Dick Van Dyke Show” comic thing eventually revealed as a hoax or April Fool’s joke by Evanier? I know it’s easy to be misled, because he doesn’t, as a rule, indulge in such things.
As far as I know, there was never a“Dick Van Dyke Show” Gold Key Comic. But we will picture another sixties sit-com Gold Key cover in our next post.
And, the German “Mickey Mouse” comic is called “Micky Maus”, but I doubt either one figured into this inexcusable mistake by a usually “meticulous-beyond-reproach” publishing entity.
Scarecrow and Chris:
At the time of that Mickey cover, no one was “alive and over five” who did not know (or could escape without hearing) the Mickey Mouse Club theme song – which makes the error all the more egregious!
I can’t be too hard on Paul Murry for the seven-tentacled octopus, as Phil De Lara drew one with FIVE, on the Woody Woodpecker cover that I’ve used in previous posts – and that will appear again in our next scheduled post, with the Yogi Bear cover I promised earlier.
Oddly, the animators of TAZ-MANIA did their (French) octopus with the required EIGHT. See our last post.
A shovel can’t be much of a weapon against underwater bad guys, because the water would slow the blow to minimal force. It probably made for a decent visual (logical or not), and that’s pretty much all that mattered in comics of all stripes before the modern age. Besides, I don’t see Mickey and Goofy’s AIR TANKS either. Just a clear helmet containing their stale, exhaled air!
Beyond the shamefully incorrect spelling of Bela Lugosi’s name, what’s with that top caption? Caps inappropriately mixed with lower case – and that ridiculous “Gun Letter R”, for a film that featured no gunplay!
The film was confusing enough (though much FUN), without the added burden of having the worst DVD cover in my collection.
Micky Mouse isn't such a crime. I've seen at least one Dell splash panel that billed the title character as "Pig Porky"—and the error was reprinted verbatim decades later, still with nobody noticing.
I know! I know!
The octopus and flounder are donning evening wear jewelry and accessories when its clearly mid-morning.
Someone notify the Fashion Fish Police!
A hoax? Well, he had me fooled! I wanted the issue that was the sequel to the "Walnut" episode! :)
In reverse order:
‘Rehab:
I want the issue where Dick trips over the ottoman!
TCJ:
“Fashion Fish Police”?
YES! I’m always a sucker for “obscure and forgotten comics and animated series gags”!
Or, to modernize it toward a cable show my wife watches, “What Not to Wade”!
David:
“Pig Porky”?
Piffle! Easily fixed with a COMMA!
“Pig, Porky”? …See?
The octopus in the horror movie "It Came from Beneath the Sea" had five or six tentacles. For years, there was a rumor that it was because Ray Harryhausen charged $10,000 per tentacle, and Columbia could only pay $50-60,000 for special effects. The real reason, Harryhausen explained in an interview, was to simplify animation. Interestingly, he noted that Mickey (that's M-I-C-K-E-Y) Mouse and other cartoon characters usually had only three fingers on each hand, for the same reason. -TC
That’s a GREAT piece of info, Anon / TC!
Yeah, sounds like Columbia, too! From the studio that “kept Shemp alive” via stock footage and body doubles, after his death, comes “It Came with Five or Six Tentacles from Beneath the Sea”!
And you even bring it full circle with Harryhausen’s citation of M-I-C-K-E-Y MOUSE as justification for the er, …“octopodal omissions”!
Makes me want to inventory the octos in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA’s “Eleven Days to Zero” and “The Village of Guilt”!
*Insert Beethoven's Fifth opening notes here*
Micky! MICKY! What is this heathenism!
And the cover isn't even that good itself, unless you're a fan of jewelry-wearing septapuses and strange dead-looking fish. At least it can be said that it wasn't the least *interesting* Gold Key cover.
But that "Bella Laosi" ... I don't even know what to say. At least you can discount Micky as a possible typo.
So, to close out the day, let's sing along!
M-I-C
K-YYYYYYYY
L-A-O-S-I
Oh, there would be LOTS WORSE Gold Key and Whitman covers to come, Abe! We all know that…
And, I can never truly bring myself to be too critical of Paul Murry – despite leaving Mickey and Goofy to die slowly with no air tanks, or quickly by “octopus amputee”!
And, yes… Despite it taking more heat in this comments section, I can more readily forgive Gold Key’s editorial mechanism than the staggeringly-sloppy designer of the Lugosi DVD package.
The former is just a lettering error (though one for the ages, to be sure). The latter is SO much more! At least I enjoyed the (very strange – even for a ‘30s Poverty Row) film, and will be discussing it here sometime soon.
And, special points for your clever fitting of the misspelled “L-A-O-S-I” surname into the “Micky” Mouse Club lyrics! The two DO seem to go naturally together! Kinda like this Blog and creative commenters!
Ah why thank you for the praise! Perhaps I shall compose more atrocities :D.
And yes, there were worse covers to come. One of the many things we can thank Bruce Hamilton and Gladstone for is the reemergence of the classic Dell-style gag covers. Some of my favorite covers grace the fronts of Gladstone WDC&Ses.
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