Adventures in Comic-Boxing: I Wanna BE This Guy!

Man!  Not only does he have ALL THAT going for him, but he even gets to be featured on the the back cover of REAL SCREEN COMICS # 15 (Published by DC Comics, Cover Date: December 1947 / January 1948)!  
 

Why, just reading his list of accomplishments and future aspirations is enough to give an average student an inferiority complex!  (Click to Enlarge for ease of reading!) 

You were OVER SIX FEET TALL... IN HIGH SCHOOL!?  ...In 1947, yet?  

I've been out of high school for over fifty years, and I haven't reached that yet!  And I'm not very... er, "high" on my future chances... 

As this is 1947, he even got to hear President Dwight D. Eisenhower BEFORE he was president!  

...And, while most of the nation "liked Ike", Ike probably "liked HIM!"  

Contrary to the request made above by "The Box in Pink", I cannot "...watch this space for the high school champ of [my] locality", because my high school wasn't built until 1956!  

Yeah, I know... That's exactly the kind of excuse-laden, non-positive thinking that never won me any class honors beyond "Most Likely to Collect a Lot of Comic Books".  

In addition to our esteemed Mr. Friedman, REAL SCREEN COMICS # 15 featured a number of other role-model types for "what passed for the comic book nerds and geeks of 1947" to aspire to.  

On the INSIDE BACK COVER (the REVERSE of Tommy's page) was this...

Then again, if there was anyone I would have wanted to be, had I existed in 1947, it would most likely be the guy in THIS INTERIOR AD! 

Seriously, "Tommy" (or Mr. Friedman), if you're really out there, please accept my kidding in the spirit of kindly humor with which it is intended!  

Hope it all worked out exactly as you planned!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Strange Bird Lore!

From the pages of HAWKMAN #1 (DC Comics, Cover Date: April-May, 1964)...

...with a cover by Murphy Anderson that I always loved, BTW, comes the "not-so-strange" (because it's in HAWKMAN) editorial feature "Strange Bird Lore"!

[Click to Enlarge]    

While each example of Strange Bird Lore is interesting to one degree or another, I call your attention to the final one featuring a CROW!  

"It is fancied that when a lone traveler spies a single CROW flying overhead, his journey will end in misfortune..."

Yes indeed! ...Especially if you're in a CONVERTABLE with the TOP DOWN! 

And, need I mention that the... um,  crow of convertible coverage  is not the only crow appearing in DC Comics of the time that has been known to cause... misfortune!

 Above: Foxie weighs the CROWS and cons! 

I’m Not an Artist, But… Lost in (ALL THAT EMPTY) Space Volume II!

I'm not an artist, but... a longtime pet peeve of mine is the matter of large sections of EMPTY SPACE on a comic book's cover!

I've posted on this before - on THIS particularly egregious example (below)...

...All the more so because it was created in the far more "graphically conscious" 1990s!

DC's REAL SCREEN COMICS # 105, with a Cover Date of December, 1956, is easier to excuse because of it's time...

...And because the empty space at its lower right, while definitely noticeable, is not nearly as poorly executed as the WDCS cover! 

But why are Crawford Crow and the picnic basket BOTH on the left side, leaving such a wide-open space on the right?  

The BASKET could remain at left, but be slightly "moved-up" a bit, making it more centered between the hammock and the bottom of the cover!

Then, Crawford could remain at the same "latitude" (for lack of a better term), but with his image REVERSED - and moved to the right, looking left at the fire and basket!

I'm not an artist, but... I feel it would be much better balanced that way!  ...Don't you?

Serendipitous Side-Effect Time:  Below is the cover image of MY OWN COPY, of REAL SCREEN COMICS # 105, with an unintended cover enhancement!

Check out what's in the "empty space" at the cover's lower right...

Someone, perhaps as far back as the later 1950s (in those Pre-Price-Guide Days when we were MUCH more careless with our comics), must have spilled some liquid on that portion of the cover...

...But, in keeping with the "campfire motif", it looks like campfire smoke is rising, not only from Crawford's actual cooking fire, but from the "FOX AND CROW" LOGO as well! 

In fact, there's actually MORE SMOKE rising from the LOGO, than from the cooking fire!  Very nicely breaking-up the gaping amount of blank space! 

I'm not an artist, but... I'd say MY copy of this comic, appears better-composed than the actual published version! 

Check 'em "side by side", and you de... "side"! 

Hot stuff... eh, Foxie? 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: What's So FUNNY?

What's so funny?  Well, any Silver Age comic featuring The Joker is bound to have some mirth (though, not necessarily of the "Separated at Mirth" variety) in the mix, and DETECTIVE COMICS #341 (DC Comics, Cover Date: July, 1965) is no exception. 

The cover copy proclaims "WHAT A SWITCH!" And, The Joker does indeed pull quite a switch on our baffled Boy Wonder!  

But that's nothing compared to the "switch" apparently pulled (perhaps BY The Joker?) in a DC house ad in this very issue...

Why, he MUST be responsible... Just look at him laughing at us! 

But, what's so... er, "FUNNY"?  Let's look a little closer... 

"For THE VERY BEST in FUNNY comics reading"...?  BATMAN and THE FLASH?!  

BATMAN and FLASH comics, especially in the Silver Age, have been known for many things...

...Many ODD things...

...Many, MANY odd things!  

But, being INTENTIONALLY FUNNY was not one of them... as you can plainly... uh, plainly... see? 

...AW, SKIP IT!  

Regardless of what you've just seen, I still maintain that this... 

...Was a TRICK by The Joker... or Mr. Mxyzptlk... or Bat-Mite...

...Or... maybe it was just a mistake by DC's Production Department!  Putting THIS... 

...Where, more likely, it should have been THIS!  

Yeah! That's more like it!  

THOSE comics are MUCH FUNNIER than Batman... Bat...Buh...Ba...

BAT-MITE... NOW CUT THAT OUT! 

Ba-Ba-Ba... BATS All Folks!  

Separated at Mirth: The Old Rockin' Chair's Got... Ski!

It's difficult to imagine two relationships in comics as different as Mickey Mouse and Goofy and Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow, but they still managed to pull off the same cover gag, becoming "Separated at Mirth", in MICKEY MOUSE # 23 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: December, 1952 - January, 1953) and REAL SCREEN COMICS # 107 (DC Comics, Cover Date: February, 1957)!

Things to Note:

Goofy is merely being his simple and eccentric self, while Crawford takes great delight in besting Fauntleroy.  

Mickey and Goofy are skiing right to left, while Fauntleroy and Crawford are skiing left to right.  If you were to place these comics next to one another, with REAL SCREEN COMICS # 107 on the LEFT and MICKEY MOUSE # 23 on the RIGHT - and set their characters into motion - Mickey would run over Fauntleroy, and Crawford (on his downward arc) would slam into Goofy! 

Fauntleroy could just as easily have been SKIING DOWNHILL, as was Mickey, only to have Crawford pass him in the rocking chair.  There was seemingly no need for the SKI JUMP aspect of the gag, except maybe to give Fauntleroy an ADDITIONAL PRATFALL to go with his defeat.  

Crawford may be smiling now but, if he lands "forward-rocking-rungs-first", he's looking at a far worse pratfall than Fauntleroy!  Whoever laughs LAST, you know...  

The cover of MICKEY MOUSE # 23 was reprinted as the cover of MICKEY MOUSE # 140 (Gold Key Comics,Cover Date: February, 1973).

The covers of MICKEY MOUSE # 23 and REAL SCREEN COMICS # 107 were drawn by Dick Moores and Jim F. Davis, respectively.  

Unlike Crawford, if Goofy just CONTINUES TO LEAN BACKWARD, he will be okay.  ...Unless, being Goofy, he leans TOO FAR BACKWARD!  

There you have MICKEY MOUSE # 23 and REAL SCREEN  COMICS AND STORIES # 107 - Separated at Mirth!  

A Gag I Shared with Dana!

As you all know, my dear friend Dana Gabbard passed away January 11, 2022, at the age of 59, as I posted HERE!  I miss him all the time, and want to share just another of the many jokes and gags we had between us.   

Since becoming friends in the early 1980s, Dana and I had countless discussions about the state of the comic book industry... the few things we thought were good and/or improving - and the greater number of things we thought were bad and/or getting worse. 

One of the worst things either of us could imagine was the rise of CGC!  

CGC, for those not in the know, was the first entity to "professionally grade and entomb in plastic" comic books that were (and are) thought to be valuable!  Some imitators have followed in this abominable practice, but CGC was the first and remains the best known.  

The fundamental problem we had with this misguided concept is that we both felt that COMIC BOOKS OUGHT TO BE READ AND ENJOYED, not salted away like some form of "newsprint currency"!  

Every comic book that undergoes this process will NEVER BE READ AGAIN!  

Well, maybe not EVERY one... says this traditionalist contrarian.  

You see, I got me some of them there "imprisoned comics" (because I couldn't find any copies that weren't "imprisoned") and set them FREE!  

WHY? ...BECAUSE I WANTED TO *READ* THEM, THAT'S WHY! 

I fully intend to detail that experience in another post (let's hope I actually follow through on that, because it was a real hoot to crack open those "clear flat coffins" like plastic walnuts), but what does one do with a busted-open CGC slab?  

Well, there's where the joke with Dana comes in... 

As you know, Dana was the publisher of a pioneering American Disney comic book fanzine called "The Duckburg Times"...

...And, just to show Dana how important it was, I gave him a peek at what a copy would look like, if it were slabbed by CGC!  

He got a great big kick out of this!  So much so that I turned it into a trilogy!

One of the comics I worked on...

MICKEY MOUSE (IDW) #6!

...And for a great writer - and a great guy, Sholly Fisch...

SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #50! 

And, of course, the basis for the gag, the liberated comic basking in the fresh air of my comic room!

I gave Dana a great laugh that day - as he and I have both done for decades - and I hope I've given all of you one as well!