Here's another great one from from the TIAH Archives - seen here for the first time - while we catch up on other matters. Favorite Barks and Gottfredson posts are coming ...uh, soon?
No matter how well you think you know these comics, every now and then you have an unexpected "laugh-out-loud moment", as in DELL FOUR COLOR # 791 JIMINY CRICKET (1957).
In the story "The Meandering Mole", a mole... er, "meanders" up from beneath the ground. Tired of his subterranean life, he decides to try living on the surface.
Problem is that, from living underground and in darkness, moles have notoriously POOR EYESIGHT! Jiminy, ever the good-intentioned, well-meaning busybody, takes it upon himself to discourage the mole from transitioning to surface life, lest he inadvertently imperil himself when encountering the many dangers of the forest!
Among the tricks our Cricket Conscience tries is to scare the mole into thinking a WOLF is lurking nearby!
But, to Jiminy's surprise, and my involuntary outburst of hilarity, the mole is prepared for such an eventuality...
What REALLY SELLS IT is the mole "blowing on his gun barrel" after the shot...
...Not unlike the many times James Cagney (of all folks) did the same - over and over again, actually playing to the audience, in "The Oklahoma Kid", an unlikely western starring New York tough guys Cagney and Humphrey Bogart! ...Imagine that!
Perhaps our "Meandering Mole" could star in the sequel... "The Okla-MOLE-a Kid"!
Art is by the great Al Hubbard, who was so perfectly suited for this type of story, and written by the great - and very prolific - Carl Fallberg! ...Who, uncharacteristically, borrows Vic Lockman's trademark "EEK!" for the occasion!
Glad to see they both survived the encounter... and that it was JIMINY who "learned a lesson" for a change!
In the story "The Meandering Mole", a mole... er, "meanders" up from beneath the ground. Tired of his subterranean life, he decides to try living on the surface.
Click to Enlarge, but you can get the gist even at this size!
Among the tricks our Cricket Conscience tries is to scare the mole into thinking a WOLF is lurking nearby!
But, to Jiminy's surprise, and my involuntary outburst of hilarity, the mole is prepared for such an eventuality...
EEK! is right, Jiminy!
"PHOOF"? Gotta LOVE IT!
Yeah, let's not think about THAT, eh, "Jimbo"!
...Not unlike the many times James Cagney (of all folks) did the same - over and over again, actually playing to the audience, in "The Oklahoma Kid", an unlikely western starring New York tough guys Cagney and Humphrey Bogart! ...Imagine that!
Perhaps our "Meandering Mole" could star in the sequel... "The Okla-MOLE-a Kid"!
Art is by the great Al Hubbard, who was so perfectly suited for this type of story, and written by the great - and very prolific - Carl Fallberg! ...Who, uncharacteristically, borrows Vic Lockman's trademark "EEK!" for the occasion!
Glad to see they both survived the encounter... and that it was JIMINY who "learned a lesson" for a change!
