Here's another example of a gag that only CHARLTON would have done!
From TOP CAT # 8 (Charlton Comics, Cover Date: January, 1972), submitted for your approval (as Rod Serling would have said)! Please feel free to draw you own conclusions, as I have drawn mine.
Though I must admit "my conclusions" are rather different in 2020 than they were in late-1971, when this issue was first released. Perhaps yours would be as well!
TC, you old rascal, you!
Aww!
7 comments:
I'm not sure what the scheme is, but that's clearly Spook posing as a mother to that litter of kittens that look nothing like "her"..
Uhhh did Spook have kittens?!?!?!?!
But cats in "Top Cat" don't behave like normal cats! They wear clothes--at least over their top halves (a bizarre notion if it were applied to humans) and they answer police telephones and set up golf games in the alley! In other words, what is a "normal" cat doing among Top Cat and his friends? Somewhat reminiscent of "The Worm Turns" in which Mickey Mouse sprays a dose of his "confidence spray" on a mouse-like mouse! A regular mouse in the same story as Mickey sort of destroys his credibility as being an overgrown mouse. So it is with Top Cat taking care of a "normal" female cat! The type of girl cat who would hide under a box to give birth to kittens is just not TC material. He's supposed to fall in love with female cats like Nurse LaRue.
And speaking of matters of the heart--doesn't the female cat appear to bear a bit of a resemblance to Fancy-Fancy? Could this possibly be Mrs. Fancy-Fancy? Could our feline Casanova with the Cary Grant accent be a family cat, after all? (Or is this--perish the thought! TC's own litter? It would explain his protectiveness, but not his sudden switch from the more human-esque variety of cat.)
And since when is Officer Dibble so kind-hearted and sentimental? Although I must say I like his change of attitude when he decides a "litter" is "fine"! Ah, Charlton comics! Ya gotta love 'em! (Because they happened anyway, like it or not.)
Unknown:
You write: “Ah, Charlton comics! Ya gotta love 'em! (Because they happened anyway, like it or not.)”
I don’t think I could have articulated my own point better than you did here!
That point being that Charlton did things that no “sane” publisher would ever even consider… and did them VERY regularly!
Sure, Gold Key was occasionally inconsistent in their characterization of Brain… Some writers took the name literally, while others actually watched the show and wrote him as he appeared on it. That the incidences of the former may have outnumbered the latter lies at the feet of the editors – who should have insisted on rewrites of scripts containing the mischaracterization. But, overall, they presented a good and proper version of Top Cat – and no other post-Charlton publisher did anywhere near enough with the property to matter.
But, Charlton often went beyond mere misunderstanding-of-character, often going into the bizarre and even brushing up against the inappropriate – but never quite reaching it, as in this Dino gag!
Then again, as I so often say, that’s what made Charlton so fascinating – and truly one of a kind!
You'll see plenty more going forward! It's just too... um, "fascinating" to keep to myself!
‘Rehab and JoeC:
Yeow! (or should I say “Mee-yeow!”) Two votes for Spook!
Here’s the really funny thing… I read that comic brand-new off the newsstand in late 1971, meaning I’ve had it for a LOOONG TIME… and literally to THIS DAY and the comments from both of you… I never saw, or even thought of, Spook! …But, YEAH!
I just LOVE IT when something like this happens!
Okay, Charlton’s books seem to make some of Whitman’s look better by comparison. That is pretty amateurish art and a very strange gag.
Deb:
Just imagine what it was like for me to see these Charlton issues in 1970-1971, while Gold Key was still publishing work by stalwarts Tony Strobl, Phil De Lara, John Carey – and, of course, Paul Murry who hung on there until the bitter end! It was quite a contrast – and not a good one!
Of course, by then Kay Wright had also become a regular at Gold Key – and the quality of his work at that time was definitely in Charlton territory.
In an irony if ever there was one, Charlton actually got better as they went along while Gold Key/Whitman only got worse!
While that more-or-less accurately sums-up the art, Charlton’s gags and stories were often the product of another universe – and that’s why I continue to share them here with all of you!
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