Keep your friends close, and your MEALS closer would appear to be the message behind this SEPARATION AT MIRTH between the cover of THE BEAGLE BOYS #28 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: March, 1976)...
...And this gag, found in MUTT AND JEFF NEW JOKES #3 (Harvey Comics, Cover Date: October, 1964)...
The Beagle Boys cover shows that "There's No Honor Among Thieves"... even if they're brothers, and especially at dinnertime!
The Mutt and Jeff gag, with its opportunistic tramp, is exemplary of the "Depression-era styled humor" that pervaded the strip in its heyday!
And isn't it great that they can BOTH PULL OFF THE SAME GAG with such skillful humorous dexterity!
NICE SUBTLE DETAIL: Notice the overflowing mess surrounding Beagle 176-167's coffee cup!
Not only is he a steak-snatcher, but perhaps he's also "copped some coffee" from his jailbird bro!
In addition to watching his hat, Beagle 176-176 ought to "mind his PEAS and Qs" before they migrate to the adjoining plate as well!
The cover of THE BEAGLE BOYS #28 was drawn by Pete Alvarado.
The MUTT AND JEFF daily newspaper strip was written and drawn by Al Smith.
Both made possible this "Separation at Mirth" between The Beagle Boys and Mutt and Jeff... and, hey, Mutt got off easy this time - he wasn't even in the strip!
4 comments:
Here's a question: How did the Beagle Boys pay for steaks at a diner? Or are they planning to knock the waitress unconscious and run off with the money in the till? After devouring their steaks, of course...or at least after 176-761 sates his appetite, as poor 176-176 is out of luck! I just can't picture the Beagles sitting down to an "honest" meal--even though this meal is far from honest! Beagles are usually cash-strapped, plus they get everything by stealing, even from each other as is so graphically depicted here!
But if 176-761 really wants to steal something while his companion is distracted, if he looked up he might see a great big diamond above his head. And maybe while stealing that particular diamond, he could draw a slash through the price to reduce it back to 15 cents, which I will insist for the rest of my life is the proper price for a comic book! Yes, the Beagle Boys may be criminals, but the real criminals are those taking hard-earned money from innocent kids! Especially while corrupting their brains by depicting such blatant thievery on the cover! O, Western Publishing, have ye no shame?
I, too, love the detail of the coffee cup, especially as that is such a crucial part of my morning ritual! And I can attest that occasionally such a situation does happen!
And these tantalizing glimpses at Mutt and Jeff are definitely inspiring me to expand my collecting horizons! The more I see of Mutt and Jeff comics...
Scarecrow:
“How did the Beagle Boys pay for steaks at a diner?”
They’re probably celebrating their latest successful robbery… Only how successful could it have been if only TWO of them could eat, and one has to steal from the other?
“But if 176-761 really wants to steal something while his companion is distracted, if he looked up he might see a great big diamond above his head.”
Even a Gold Key Beagle Boy (as opposed to Carl Barks’ “Terrible” variety) would know better than to steal THAT diamond… It’s only worth twenty-five-cents.
“I, too, love the detail of the coffee cup, especially as that is such a crucial part of my morning ritual! And I can attest that occasionally such a situation does happen!”
Oh, my! I *am* sorry to hear that “stealing someone’s coffee” is part of your morning ritual! Wouldn’t you be better off just “eating a balanced breakfast”, as the commercials say?
Seriously (…and isn’t it odd using the word “seriously” when discussing Mutt and Jeff), there is NO OTHER COMIC BOOK with a higher quotient of laughs than Mutt and Jeff! Most of them simply collect the daily and Sunday newspaper strips (accounting for that high laugh quotient), while some of them fashion continuities from existing strip gags, and some even create completely original stories.
But the issues of strip collections are the best of all! Even if you don’t care for a particular gag, just turn the page, and you’ll find one you like! Al Smith (or his assistants?) is the writer and artist for all versions, so the consistency is very high!
DC is strictly strip reprints. Dell is original stories. Harvey is a hybrid of cobbled continuities made from existing gags, original stories, and the classic strip reprints.
You can’t go wrong, and most of them are not expensive. You WILL enjoy it!
Mutt and Jeff go all the way back to 1907! So a lot of the early material might surprise people today, seeing how what people deem to be acceptable has changed. https://animationresources.org/category/mutt-and-jeff/ Here’s a page with a Mutt and Jeff gallery.
Thinking about the Beagle Boys, it is perhaps a mark against the Western Publishing series that Carl Barks never wrote or drew any stories for the title. There are occasionally some fun stories in these comics, if I remember correctly, but nothing on the level of quality that European writers and artists (and American scripters) would create later. Were the Beagle Boys the first Disney villains to get their own comic book series, or was it the Phantom Blot?
Deb:
I think that anything that goes back beyond the last 10-20 years, will exhibit material that “might surprise people today”, and Mutt and Jeff would be no exception. Then again, neither would Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. And it’s become such a sliding scale that something that’s okay today can be taboo tomorrow.
There are definitely some cringe-worthy moments in early Mutt and Jeff, but the later material is just plain fun, especially if you like corny jokes as I do!
HERE is Deb’s Mutt and Jeff link! It’s an incredible overview of the pair’s depictions over the decades! Some of it is reproduced too small, making it difficult (…and, in some cases, impossible) to read, but enjoy it all the same! A Titanic TIAH Thank-You for this, Deb!
For all I know, those first three violent images with cannon assaults and even gassing (!) *may* have been common characterizations in those early days, but they seem way over-the-top for the two dolts I’ve known since around 1960! Yet, look at some FOX AND CROW covers, and ‘40s and ‘50s FELIX THE CAT covers with Skidoo the Mouse, and you’ll see the same sort of thing!
And, yes… I’d agree with the assertion that “comedy teams like Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello followed the Mutt and Jeff model”. As a property, Mutt and Jeff is woefully “forgotten” today… but never by anyone who’s spent any time reading it – and laughing with it!
To be fair to Western, by the time the Gold Key BEAGLE BOYS title was up and running, Carl Barks was pretty much out-the-door, with an eye on retirement. I’m grateful that he kept up UNCLE SCROOGE for as long as he did, while more-or-less bowing out of the WDC&S ten-pagers. He was practically dragged-back into doing those JR. WOODCHUCKS scripts – and *could* have done some Beagle Boys scripts if he were so inclined, but I’d guess that he wasn’t.
Given that, the Gold Key BEAGLE BOYS title was just fine at the beginning, capably written by Bob Ogle (especially) and Vic Lockman, and nicely drawn by Tony Strobl, with a dash of Pete Alvarado. It sunk along with the rest of Western’s Disney comics titles during their decline of the 1970s – when Kay Wright and Bob Gregory began drawing, joined for a while by a seriously diminished Roger Armstrong.
For what it’s worth, I’ve long regarded the “Gold Key Beagle Boys” as something different from Barks’ “Terrible Beagle Boys”! Assuming an almost infinite number of Beagle Boys, the Gold Key Beagle Boys are simply three of the less successful members of that clan of clones. And it’s a welcome variety to see them trying to pull off capers that don’t always involve Uncle Scrooge.
My favorite modern-era Beagle Boys story is “Love is Never Having to Say You’re Sentenced”, an extremely funny effort by its original author, which I furthered by suitably writing its dialogue as the “Gold Key Beagle Boys”.
The Phantom Blot was the first Disney villain (…and, I daresay, the first comics villain – period) to achieve an ongoing series (1964) shortly followed by the Beagle Boys.
Post a Comment