There's Just Something About a Pink Bow...

A universal shorthand technique in creating a female counterpart to a male character - in animation and in comics - is to give that counterpart a HAIR BOW... usually pink!  

But, how would that play out in real life?  Well, Cici's here to show you!  

...And doesn't she look CUTE?  With or without the bow!  

TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Fourteen: "OG We There Yet?" Part Two!

Yesterday we highlighted DONALD DUCK # 109 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1966), and its lead adventure story "Og's Iron Bed"... but hold on to your "iron bedsheets", 'cause we ain't done "OG-in'" yet!  

Let's review a few historical facts about this book, and the day I acquired it...

A bi-monthly Gold Key title, as was DONALD DUCK # 109, with a  SEPTEMBER cover date would have been released in JULY.  Therefore, I would have come across this issue in JULY, 1966. 

And, in July, 1966, I would have been delightfully on summer vacation from THIS STRUCTURE...

...Back when it had REAL doors and windows, and no attending dumpsters!  

In those primitive and barbaric - yet, paradoxically, warmly nostalgic - days, comic readers (...we weren't FANS back then, we were READERS - and stop READING on my lawn, ya pesky young'un) were at the mercy of the newsstand distribution system! 

Okay, maybe not as far back as THAT!  We're talkin' 1966 here!  But what a GREAT picture! 

I can count as many as FIFTEEN comics in that photo that are in my collection... one of which I just got last week!  You can probably guess most of them!  ...And, no... I never wore overalls and a beanie-type hat like that! But, advance it somewhere close to 20 years in time, and that could have been yours truly!  Single-digit-age me even kinda LOOKED like that... such an adorable little tyke!  Whatever could have gone so wrong!   

ASIDE TO SERGIO: That last paragraph is an example of the loopy and improvisational typing I referred to in another set of comments!  I just looked at the photo and began typing away, on the road to who-knows-what!  Didn't know any of that was coming... and only the vaguest idea of what's coming next... if that! 

Where were we?  Oh, yeah... newsstand distribution of comic books!  

Most kids looked forward to Saturdays and Sundays - and I was no exception - but MY favorite days of the week were Tuesdays and Thursdays!  

WHY?  Because on Tuesdays and Thursdays NEW COMICS were put out on the shelves and racks of small stores all across the (still safe, but inching toward eventual danger by 1966) town in which I lived.  Not only in my town were Tuesdays and Thursdays what we now call "an event", but anywhere else in my region that traveling to was possible!  By 1968-1970, I would be traveling by bus to the far corners of my region in search of increasingly elusive comics on almost a weekly basis - and those days (and those trips) began in me an interest in bus transportation that led me to being a local bus transit advocate today!  

From other accounts I've noted, the "Tuesday and Thursday thing" was sort of the standard for the release of new comics. 

It was one such Thursday toward the end of July, 1966 that, for reasons long forgotten, I was spending a nice summer afternoon at a nearby aunt and uncle's house, in a decidedly nicer neighborhood than my own - both then and now!  

Their house had a nice screened-in attached back porch with a large picnic table -- the very definition of comfort vs. the "uncovered brick fortress" we had at the back of our house!  Though I really did have many years of enjoying 1960s comics out on that "uncovered brick fortress".  And, on that Thursday in July, 1966, I would have a particularly memorable day-of-same in the "nice screened-in attached back porch with a large picnic table" at my aunt and uncle's house!

Earlier in the day we'd gone shopping. In their local strip mall center there was a newsstand store. As it was THURSDAY, I made sure to check it out!  ...AND WHAT DO YOU THINK I FOUND?  

Try THIS...

But even more amazing was THIS... 

And out on the SAME DAY, just like my 1965 experience with UNCLE SCROOGE #58 and THE FLINTSTONES #28, as detailed HERE!  

Only I didn't have to rush through them during my "home lunch period" and go back to school!  NOPE, I had the WHOLE AFTERNOON to enjoy these puppies... or perhaps "ducklings"?  

And, enjoy them, I did!  In the LAST POST, I described "Og's Iron Bed" as "one of the best - and most ambitious - Donald Duck stories of the period".  I dove into it first, and it well and truly lived up to my "future-hype"!  Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl's best collaboration, with the possible exception of their consumerism-satire story in THE JETSONS #2 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April, 1963), discussed somewhere in the depths of THIS POST! 

However, THE BEST OF UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK #1 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: November, 1966) was nothing short of a magnificent gift from the Comic Book Gods!  

As the cover says, it did indeed reprint "Two Famous Disney Classics"...

"Back to the Klondike"... 

 Cover by Carl Barks. 

...And "The Ghost of the Grotto".

 Cover by Carl Buettner. 

Ah, but there was a THIRD "Famous Disney Classic" to be found in the pages of this 25-cent ticket to Comic-Readers'-Nirvana... Carl Barks' famous story of "The Land of Tralla La"!  The "Bottle Cap Corruption" story! 

And, needless to say, it was the first time I saw any of these great Barks stories!  

One funny thing is that Carl Barks' art had evolved so much over the years that, while I could tell that  "Back to the Klondike" and "The Land of Tralla La" were by the same artist, I thought that "The Ghost of the Grotto" was by a different artist entirely!  

...And that "Giant Robot Robbers" and the other "contemporary-to-1966" Uncle Scrooge stories I was then reading were by a THIRD different artist!  

Nevertheless, that was quite an afternoon out on my aunt and uncle's (all together now) "nice screened-in attached back porch with a large picnic table".  One that I recall so vividly to this day!  

Of course, with these two ever-memorable comics, it would have also made for a special day on my family's stark "uncovered brick fortress"!  ...Maybe even in some dingy alley, somewhere!  Yes, they were THAT great!  

Gosh, I hope that was enough "stream-of-consciousness-typing" to satiate Sergio!  :-) 

Finally, what could possibly put a capper on such a perfect day?  ...How 'bout THIS?  

It was a THURSDAY, in 1966, remember?  

That meant that, by the time I was deposited back home, there was a summer rerun (...remember "summer reruns"?) of Part Two of this week's installment of BATMAN to enjoy on top of all that great Duck stuff (...as opposed to "Stuffed Duck") 

 "Stuffed Duck"... That's ANOTHER JOKE, SON! 

Yeah, after a "joke" like that, I'd run away too!  

But, before you do, Dynamic Duo (Aren't you glad I didn't say "Before you DUO"?), stick around for one Bat-moment more as I name  THE BEST OF UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK #1 our Cover Number Fourteen!  

Wheee!  Only TWO MORE TO GO, and then I get my life baaack!!!  ...Haaaa-haaaa-heeeee-heeeee! 

Coming to (Nay, NOW AT) a Target Store Near You!

A short while ago, I received my contributor's copy of THIS MAGNIFICENT BOOK from Fantagraphics... and is it ever amazing!  

At a whopping 256 pages and a size of approximately 13.5" by 10", its prodigious production values, combined with its super-size, make a fitting tribute for Disney's 100 Years Celebration!   

It is a Target Stores exclusive, so you'll have to get it there rather than your usual sources of such books, but, having now held it in my hot little hands... YES! 

 

Just some of the highlights would include Carl Barks' "Mystery of the Swamp", Don Rosa's "His Majesty McDuck" (my personal favorite Rosa story!), Super Goof's "The Thief of Zanzipar" by Bob Ogle and Paul Murry from SUPER GOOF # 1 (1965), a beautiful Seven Dwarfs story by Romano Scarpa... a famous-in-many-lands-but-this-one Tony Strobl story with Donald, Fethry, and Scrooge written by Dick Kinney.... 

...And a Casty Mickey Mouse story that features another of Casty's recurring characters that has yet to be seen in the United States - enthusiastic oceanographer Estrella Marina!  

I did the Translation and Dialogue (for whatever that's worth) in support of a great story - and what may very well be Casty's BEST ART!  Certainly the best I've ever seen!  Some of it is actually breathtaking!  

Aw, heck... THE WHOLE BOOK is breathtaking so, as unthinkable as it might be, I'm going to close by saying... stop reading my Blog - and start reading this book!  

...You can always come back to the Blog later.  Promise I'll be here!  

Oh, and when you DO come back, take a peek at the Chip 'n' Dale post I put up this morning... which has become overshadowed by this BIG BREAKING NEWS! 

...That's breaking NEWS, not breaking HEADS! 

Separated at Mirth: Changing the Clock!

For many of us Americans, "Changing the Clock" is a semi-annual chore, annoyance, requirement, [Fill-In-Your-Own-Negatively-Connotating-Noun-HERE] as we bounce from "Standard Time" to "Daylight Savings Time", and back again.  

But, for Donald Duck, it goes beyond "Spring Forward / Fall Back" becoming its own frustrating exercise in futility.  

Observe the cover of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #332 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: May, 1968), where Donald is (pardon the semi-pun) "alarmed" to see the boys taking aim at his cuckoo clock.  

Cover by Carl Barks

However, "Changing the Clock" to one of the "grandfather variety", as seen on the cover of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #452 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: May, 1978 - TEN YEARS LATER, I might add), is not the answer in Donald's case, as the boys adapt by simply aiming lower!  

 Well, at least now they're using rubber-suction-cup arrows!  

Cover by Pete Alvarado and Larry Mayer

EXTRA CLOCK ASSAULT BONUS IMAGE - for those who enjoy "KILLING TIME", we have... WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #194 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: November, 1956) 

Cover by Tony Strobl

This... er, "time", the cuckoo actually makes a reluctant appearance before meeting his (clock)maker! 

Okay, time to "clock-out"!  Bye!  

Christmas 2020: Reading and Viewing.

The question on everyone's lips (...if, by "everyone", you mean everyone presently in my den as I type this - which adds-up to only me) is... "What made up Joe's Christmas 2020: Reading and Viewing, and when will we find out about it?"

The answer to the second question is NOW!  (...If, by "NOW", you mean going on a month after Christmas - all the usual [all together now] "horrifically busy" factors being applicable!)  As for the first... 

Since the days of home-recorded VHS Tape, I've had TWO Basic and Absolute Christmas Viewing Standards for the longest time, and have added (variably, depending on the year, and amount of available time) to them over the years, to where there are now FOUR annual absolutes.  

Others come and go per the above variables, but these are the perennial-programmers of my "Christmas Show"...

THE FLINTSTONES: "Christmas Flintstone" (1964):  Department store Santa Claus Fred fills-in for the real thing, when Jolly Old St. Nick temporarily takes ill.  

This is the real-Christmas-deal that aired the evening of Christmas Day, 1964, and not to be confused with any number of permutations that came later!  

An extraordinary effort for 1964 Hanna-Barbera, with more elaborate than usual backgrounds, and some soundtrack music that might never have been used more than that once.   

It also came "on the cusp" of my believing (or not believing) in Santa, and may have held-off the skepticism for another few days or weeks.  A perfect storm of story, execution, and "time-of-life" for me, made this my All-Time-Favorite-Christmas-Thing!  

LOST IN SPACE: "The Toymaker" (1967):  Will Robinson and Doctor Smith are imprisoned in an "other-dimension-based" toy factory, by an eccentric yet stubborn old toymaker who views them as animated toys to be shipped-off to a world of giant children!  

   

He also refuses to see that events occurring on the Robinson's planet will imminently destroy the Toymaker's shop... and everyone in it!

Though more tangentially related to Christmas than its prior season predecessor "Return From Outer Space", "The Toymaker" still acknowledges the Christmas season in a most imaginative way.   

  

...And, if you have an ear for TV and movie soundtracks, you can even hear a little of the score for "Miracle on 34th Street" mixed-in with the standard LOST IN SPACE musical stylings!  

The Toyshop set, while basic endless black, is marvelously decorated with props from literally all-over the 20th Century Fox lots and warehouses...

So much so that I truly see "something new" in the background every time I watch "The Toymaker"... including this time!  Of course, Blu-ray sharpness and clarity combined with a large widescreen HD TV always helps!  

Finally, for anyone still doubting the "Christmas connection" for this standout episode, check out this Illustrated article from MeTV, the Saturday evening home of LOST IN SPACE since at least 2013, if not longer - HERE!  

"Christmas Flintstone" and "The Toymaker" are my two Basic and Absolute Christmas Viewing Standards.  As for the other two, added-as-absolutes later-on, we have...  

BEWITCHED: "A Vision of Sugar Plums" (1964):  Airing literally the DAY BEFORE "Christmas Flintstone" on Christmas Eve, 1964 (while "Christmas Flintstone" aired on Christmas Day, 1964), "A Vision of Sugar Plums" had the same "Santa-Believing-Effect" for "on-the-cusp" little me.  

...It also guest-stars a Pre-Lost In Space Billy Mumy, seen below. 

Though, unlike "Christmas Flintstone", I did not become reacquainted with "A Vision of Sugar Plums" until  recent years, and a BEWITCHED Complete Series DVD set - which presents the episode in color, rather than its original black and white.  

But, I remembered it, and it fit right in with the Absolute Christmas Viewing Standards where it's remained ever since!  

JUSTICE LEAGUE ANIMATED: "Comfort and Joy" (2003): Three separate tales of Christmas, starring GREEN LANTERN AND HAWKGIRL...

...THE FLASH...

...SUPERMAN and THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER!

All superbly written by the great Paul Dini!  Even if you are not a DC Comics fan, this is a must-see that transcends the expected super-doings, and perfectly captures the spirit of the season.  

Oh, and in that last one a Martian (The Martian Manhunter) discovers Christmas...

...SOUND FAMILIAR? 

...I'd say so!  

Christmas comic reading tends to be more variable, often some combination of an "old favorite" with something I haven't read before - and, unlike viewing, almost never repeats itself.  

And, in an exact reflection of said viewing it began with THIS!  

THE FLINTSTONES #31 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: December, 1965) 

Yes, it's the comic book adaptation of "Christmas Flintstone", with art by Phil DeLara! I'll simply let the illustrations below speak for their "Santa-substituting-selves" (Hey, even the word "elves" manages to find its way into that last phrase!  How 'bout that!)

You can read more about it in the GCD Index, where I supplied most of the specific detail - HERE!

As for the "something I haven't read before", how could I go wrong with BUGS BUNNY CHRISTMAS FUNNIES #3 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: 1952) - especially after so enjoying THIS ONE!

Since this issue is so packed full of yuletide goodies, we'll just cover some quick highlights...  

Usually, when a story begins with a bunch of animals running in terror past Bugs' rabbit hole, you expect one of them to say: "Run for your life!  The Tasmanian Devil's on the loose!" 

But, before Bugs can stop one of the fleeing creatures (usually by force) and ask: "Eeeh, what's a Tasmanian Devil?"...

 

...Jolly Old Saint Nick gets into the act, and turns the story in a completely unexpected direction... leading to this wonderful image - courtesy of writer Don R. Christensen and artist Tony Strobl... 

...And some good old Christmas magic!  

In other stories, Henery Hawk visits a department store Santa (not Fred!) with some very characteristic behavior - and later hatches a Christmas-chicken-catching-scheme of his own...

...And Elmer Fudd vs. Sylvester in a "snowman-building contest" that would be right at home in a Donald Duck ten-pager by Carl Barks!

...Though maybe not this particular ten-pager!  

It all ends with this nice back cover!

Here's a close-up on the card! 

And, with that we say "That's All Folks!" to Joe's Christmas Reading and Viewing for 2020!  We'll try to do it again next year!