Adventures in Comic-Boxing: You Never Know Who's Lurking in the Background!

Here's an interesting panel from THE FLASH # 202 (DC Comics, Cover Date: December, 1970), which shows not only the degree to which American society had changed at the time...

...But how much these COMICS themselves had changed since the "anything goes" imagination-burst of the Silver Age!  

The cover of  THE FLASH # 202, in contrast...

Certainly more dramatic, with some late '60s - mid '70s comic-book relevance added - but straight forward, and completely eschewing the unpleasant grotesqueries of today's comics!  

But, amid the greater era-reflecting visuals and relevance, we're here to "draw" (Get it? Because it's art?) some attention to a certain someone lurking in the background!  

Someone who is, in no way, connected to our story, but is there nonetheless as an apparent observer of the unusual culture that we had become.   

Look!  Between the caption box and the hippie's head...

IT'S THE "MIRROR-MIRROR UNIVERSE" VERSION OF STAR TREK'S MR. SPOCK!  

GO ON... TELL ME IT'S NOT!  

I think I might have discovered the first STAR TREK comic book crossover! 

A proud tradition that would someday lead us to places like THIS! 

And to think, it all started with this humble, hippie-like beginning!

Like WOW, man! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Name That Comedian!

There's something inside LOIS LANE # 50 (DC Comics, Cover Date: July, 1964) that stumps even a grizzled Silver Age maven such as myself...

In an incidental bit that has no impact on the story itself - and, thus, requires no further elaboration on the part of writer or artist - Lois pays a visit to Professor Potter, the Silver Age Superman continuity's version of Carl Barks' all-purpose inventor Gyro Gearloose. 

In our story, Potter has invented a "TV comedian robot", with interchangeable "COMEDIAN HEADS" that perform the routines of the comic whose "head" is attached.  (Click to enlarge!)  

In 1964, I watched ALL those guys... yet, there is one I simply cannot name!

In Potter's hand is Phil Silvers!  Attached to the robot's body is Bob Hope!

On the console TOP are Jerry Lewis and Jimmy Durante!  

On the console BOTTOM are Groucho Marx... and WHOM? 

Drawing a blank (...no, it's not Mel Blanc!)...

...I asked Esther, whose "facial recognition skills" far outstrip my own - and she thought it might be  Buddy Hackett!  

I don't believe the "mystery head" to be round and fat enough, nor the nose bulbous enough, to be Buddy Hackett!  Surely, the NECK is too thin, in any event! 

But, I really can't figure out who it's supposed to be!  Remember, it must be someone who was famous in 1964!  

The only thing I can come up with is that it could be Bob Denver as beatnik Maynard G. Krebs from the TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"! 

And then only because DC produced comics based on Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and Phil Silvers... 

...And also published a DOBIE GILLIS title!  

Only I just don't think so!  

Considering that there were such GIANTS from which to choose - Jack Benny, George Burns, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason (all of whom could have been easily - and recognizably - caricatured) one wonders how this apparent "mystery man" found his way into this "Pantheon of the Comedy Gods"!  

It's not Dick Van Dyke, or Johnny Carson... I'm really baffled!

You're all invited to send your guesses in the form of comments!  ...Help a Blogger (...and beloved Disney Comics translator and dialogue creator) out won'tcha? 

WAIT!  Perhaps that's not a SHADOW under "the unknown comic's" chin... but a BEARD!  

If it IS a beard, it COULD be "future Gilligan" Bob Denver as Dobie Gillis' pal "Maynard G. Krebs"!

But, would Maynard G. Krebs (or Dobie Gillis, for that matter) be in the same class of comedic fame as the others?  ...Again, I just don't think so!  ARRRGH!  

I'll bet not even the rest of these guys know who that is!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Knowing One's Limitations!

Ya gotta appreciate this caption from THE FLASH #168 (DC Comics, Cover Date: March, 1967), acknowledging the inherent shortcomings of the printing methods of the time! 

Given that, back in 1967, most comic books (save Gold Key and Charlton, who owned their own presses), were printed at World Color Press in Sparta, IL - and were more than adequately done for the times, before we were collectively spoiled by modern printing and coloring techniques - Flash writer John Broome or editor Julius Schwartz accept the limitations of the coloring process, and engage in a little "truth in advertising" with the following caption narrations...

"At the sensational COLORAMA show, Dr. Maybrook, the show's creator, is seated at his special COLOR ORGAN, expertly

"...projecting on a wide screen an extraordinary play of vivid hues (here, alas, within this magazine-medium, shown only approximately -- with only a bare hint of its startling real-life effect)!..."

And, for what my view is worth, it actually enhances (in your "mind's-eye") what the images might look like within the context of the story!  

A nice touch that didn't need to happen - but did! 

R.I.P. Denny O' Neil.

Every such post of yet another death of someone who made my little corner of the world a better and richer place is written from a place of sadness, but this one is particularly so...

Comic book writer, editor... and transformative figure Dennis (Denny) O' Neil passed away on June 11, 2020, at the age of 81.  

To call Denny O' Neil my favorite DC Comics writer Post-Silver-Age is easy... just look over his body of work.  

To call Denny O' Neil one of my most favorite comic book writers of all is equally easy... just look over his body of work.  

But, to call Denny O' Neil THE most significant comic book writer Post-Silver-Age - and ONE OF THE most significant comic book writers of ALL TIME (in a grouping that would include such names as Jerry Siegel, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Stan Lee, and Carl Barks) - would also not be amiss... just look over his body of work.  

Consider that THIS was the character (and popular image of) Batman before Denny O'Neil...

...And through O'Neil's guidance, aided and abetted by the magnificent visuals of Neal Adams, came things like THIS!  

Of course, there are MANY who prefer a lighter comics Batman and, certainly in view of the extremes of the comics of the 21st Century, I count myself decidedly as one of them - preferring, via the greater perspective of hindsight and at least two decades of gratuitous comics excess, a Batman more like these...

C'mon... Admit it!  Every one of those was GREAT!  

But, "great" as they all were (and ARE), somewhere around this time... 

...Batman needed a "bigger change" than Batgirl needed for her tights!  

And Denny O' Neil was just the writer to deliver that change!  

And did he EVER deliver!  

Creating my favorite DC villain (...yes, even more than The Joker) Ra's Al Ghul in the process!

Not stopping there, he revitalized Superman...

...Paving the way for editor Julius Schwartz and his pack of young writing talents, Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, and the recently-lost-to-us Martin Pasko, to carry the Man of Steel through the 1970s, and well into the 1980s!  

And there was the historic (though, alas, unappreciated in its time) GREEN LANTERN / GREEN ARROW!  

These images simply speak for themselves!  

One of the most iconic and oft-referenced series of panels in comic book history...

Caricatures can sometimes be tricky...  Former Vice-President Spiro Agnew - or horror film star Vincent Price?  

Cover by the great Neal Adams! 

Honestly, back when I first read this issue, I thought it was supposed to be Vincent Price!  But, some say differently.  You decide!  

Alas, we can no longer ask the author. 

Nor, can we ask him about his early days... writing for (can you believe) Charlton...  

...Under his pen name of "Sergius O' Shaugnessy"...

Or his days at Marvel... 

...Or his time in the later 1980s thru 1990s as the editor of the Batman family of titles!  

A period that began with elegance...

...Retaining that elegance amid a direction of market-driven image-distortion... 

...And was the last period during which I truly enjoyed a contemporary Batman comic that didn't harken back to a previous time.  

Mark Evanier has a wonderfully detailed Blog post on Denny O'Neil that you can read HERE! 

Denny O'Neil was the writer most responsible for transitioning DC Comics out of the fanciful Silver Age and into the more grounded Bronze Age, laying the groundwork for the "Modern Age" to come!  Anyone who disputes this can (...all together now)... just look over his body of work!  

Rest In Peace, Mr. Dennis O'Neil... An entire industry has YOU to thank for so very much!