Round (and Round-ed) Robin!

Ruh-Roh!  Don't look now, but I think I might have a NEW favorite comic book! 

Back in THIS POST, I told of my purely accidental discovery of the new SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP title, by spying the issue below on a comic book retailer's racks. 

I enjoyed all three of the Batman-related team-ups offered by this title, Batman and Robin, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite, and looked forward to more. 

Recreating that wondrous Saturday afternoon chronicled in the linked post, I picked-up the current issues of BATMAN '66, ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, and (of course) SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP, on Saturday, May 17. 

Guess which one I read first? 

Also, which two, of the three comics above, have a character in common on their respective covers?

My first impulse would be to say NONE... but, here is the beauty of the SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP title... at least over its first four wonderful issues. 

When we last saw ROBIN in the pages of SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP, he looked like this...

Yet, in the new SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP # 4, he looks like this! 

Yes, that's really Robin, folks! 

But, if THAT'S Robin, who is THIS? 

Well, just as SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP # 1 reconciled the respective "worlds" of THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES and BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD below...

...Let's let SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP # 4 handle THIS burning question, shall we?  (Click to Enlarge comic panel images for greater clarity!)

DAMN!  Isn't that magnificent?!  Even a reference to Casey Kasem, who actually voiced Robin BEFORE he voiced Shaggy (in THIS SERIES), not to mention in the Batman team-ups of THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES! 

I can't quite find the connection between someone voicing both Robin and Speedy -- but, given this title's brief but spectacular track record, I'm certain it's a great gag too!

Let's run down the list of ALL our voice actors, from Filmation -- on, and see who we have in common! 

 In fact, that's precisely what I (pardon the expression) "marvel" over from this new DC Comic...  The fact that it ACTUALLY SAYS (out loud and for all to hear... er, READ) exactly what we are obsessively thinking, as fans! 

Extreme kudos to the writer of this series, Sholly Fisch, for bringing some exceptionally clever bits to his stories! 

After all, if SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP is going to have, as its playground, all of DC Comics, Warner Bros., and Hanna-Barbera to work with, character version conflicts are bound to come up...

...And I can't think of a better way to deal with them than what Sholly Fisch has done. 

 Can't wait for more... and still holding out hope for a team-up with Freakazoid!

Scooby-Doo is my PAL, Cosgrove!  He'll return my calls... eventually!

 ...Oh, and Sholly... Please title it "Freaka-zoinks!", you can have the title free of charge, if only you'll use Freakazoid! 

Comics on TV: Unidentified Issue of ADVENTURE COMICS.

At the beginning of “Captain Jack”, the second ever episode of the ultra-classic sit-com LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (aired October 11, 1957), we see Wally and The Beaver cracking open a brand spanking new copy of a comic book titled “Robot Men of Mars” – with no publisher’s logo, and some really cheesy art.   

 

But, hark… Once opened, “Robot Men of Mars” reveals itself to be, in actuality, a doctored-up, unidentified issue of DC Comics’ (then known as National Periodical Publications) ADVENTURE COMICS – the title that featured SUPERBOY! 

 Just look over to the LEFT SIDE of the image.  As always, you may click to enlarge. 

The episode centers on Beaver and Wally ordering a baby alligator from an ad in the comic.  And, somehow for the more innocent (…or, less “animal-rights-enlightened” – take your pick) 1950s, this comes across as more or less a normal thing. 

Hey, at least it’s nowhere near as bizarre as THIS AD from the seventies! 

But, never mind the gator… what of the COMIC? 

A 1957 issue of ADVENTURE COMICS.  Could this be THE ONE? 

 
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER has a (in my view undeserved) reputation for being square and cornball.  Indeed, my VERY USE of the words “square and cornball” is probably indicative of MY OWN… um, “square and cornball-ness”.  But Beaver and Wally?  Not so, given what follows! 

Check out the UNSPEAKABLE ATROCITIES that Wally commits on that very “unidentified issue of ADVENTURE COMICS”, as Beaver LOOKS ON, doing nothing to halt his brother’s episode of violent depravity! 

 ARRRGH!  I CAN’T WATCH!  

He’s even cutting a page with Superboy comics on it!    NOOOOOOOO! 

 Click to enlarge, if you've got the stomach for it! 

“Ward”, asks June Cleaver, the boys’ mom, “Have you seen my pair of Kryptonite shears?” 

 

 Anyone able to identify which issue of ADVENTURE COMICS it is?   

  

UPDATE: The ever-reliable Friend-of-This-Blog, JoeCab, informs us that the issue in question is ADVENTURE COMICS # 240, cover-dated September, 1957 -- and just "one issue up" from the issue I chose to illustrate in this post, ADVENTURE COMICS # 239. 

 

Go to the Comments Section to read JoeCab's observations, for which he is heartily thanked! 

Adventure Comics # 240.  Don't cut your copy up, readers!  No alligator is worth that!

 

Knock-Knock! Who’s There? …Batman!

You think he's watching NOW?  ...Keep reading!

Hmmm… I pity anyone who asks “Batman who?” 

 

Okay, folks, I still hate the new DC Comics Logo but, to open the new Direct-To-DVD Batman adventure “Son of Batman”, the story of Damien Wayne, the logo DID provide me with a laugh. 

 

Here’s the sequence, as it appeared on the DVD:

We open on the DC Logo…

 

Batman peeks out from behind the flopping “D” of the “DC” logo, presumably to see if you’re behaving… or paying strict attention to his movie! 

The image may be dark (…as is “The Knight” himself), so look closely.  Click to enlarge. It helps. 

The logo resumes (alas). 

 This is the first time this abomination of a logo has ever provided me with some enjoyment!  Kudos to whoever came up with such a wonderfully unexpected bit!
 

Happy Mother’s Day 2014!

 

Happy Mother’s Day 2014! 

Happy Mother’s Day 2014 to all the mothers out there. 

To my mother, Mary, who pretty much has a post about her here…

And, to my darling wife Esther, represented by this post. 

And, what the heck… to “the forgotten mother of comic books”, Matilda Road Runner!  Click on images to enlarge.

 

 

 

Ah, Matilda, we hardly knew ye...

 

 

Let's hope your ending was a HAPPY ONE...

 

 

...And had nothing to do with HIM!

 

Oh, wait... I just learned she settled to Florida, won a marathon, and got her own (rhyming) talk show! 

 

Didn't want to bear any bad news on Mother's Day!

 

Yogi Bear Goes to Disneyland – This Time for Real?

Little over a year ago, we offered a post called “Yogi Bear Goes to Disneyland”.  You can see it HERE. 

Of course, he didn’t REALLY go.  It was just “Blog Post Title Hyperbole”, designed to draw some additional hits.  But, imagine my surprise when I came across THIS AD! 

Click to enlarge all images! 

Not only did Yogi Bear ACTUALLY GO to Disneyland (if one can believe a semi-cheesy comic book print ad – and who among us would dare not?) but he brought Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat, and an unnamed happy blonde boy who is clearly wearing KEDS (Sound Alert in Link) along with him! 

But, wait… What's that curious object in Yogi’s grasp?  It’s not the expected Pic-a-nic basket!  No… It’s YOGI BEAR WHITE PASTE! 

Take a moment to un-slack your collective jaws, or reign-in your “Tex Avery Wild Takes”…

Okay?  Ready?  I said YOGI BEAR WHITE PASTE!  

Can’t ya just hear him now: 

“There’s no need for WASTE, when you use my WHITE PASTE!  Hey-hey, hey!” 

And, always the conscience of the group, Boo-Boo would likely add:  “…As long as you don’t TASTE!”    

Now, find some rhymes for "Baste" and "Haste"!

But, here’s the really WEIRD PART… There’s a contest, promoted by these Hanna-Barbera characters, and the First Prize is… (wait for it)  a TRIP TO DISNEYLAND! 

Yes, really!  I suppose it’ll probably turn out better than that time Yogi and Boo-Boo won a TRIP TO PARIS!  At least at “The Happiest Place on Earth”, the worst Yogi could do is “cheese-off” Mickey!

 

This makes far less sense than the LAST TIME we spotlighted a "Trip to Disneyland" contest at TIAH Blog.  But, I hope Yogi, Huck, TC, and the unidentified Keds Kid all had a great time! 

And, from the “Recollections and Oddities Department”: 

I actually had YOGI BEAR WHITE PASTE as a single-digit-ager!  Though, I got the TOP CAT container.  Probably because there were fewer items of Top Cat merchandise, particularly by 1965. 

Um, What’s Huck got in the BAG?   

In an ad for YOGI BEAR WHITE PASTE, you’d think that, if he were carrying the PRODUCT, it would be SHOWN!    

It can’t be his LUNCH!  The Disney concessionaires would never allow THAT! 

Maybe this time he’s a revolutionary intending to plant some explosives at “Wally (not Gator) World”!  “VIVA Hanna-Barbera!”  Why not?  He’s been just about everything else!

Includin' a ly-ron tamer, folks!

…And what’s with the HAT and STRIPED SHIRT?  Yogi and Top Cat trotted-out their normal dress for the occasion.  Did “his darling clementine” pick out his clothes for him?  

This ad appeared in neither a Disney nor a Hanna-Barbera comic book, but in Harvey Comics’ MUTT AND JEFF NEW JOKES (November, 1965)!

Finally, take a good loooong look, because you’re probably never going to see the name of DISNEYLAND, with a COPYRIGHT attributed to “Hanna-Barbera Prod. Inc.” EVER AGAIN!  

  

 

Hey, hey hey... who could have PASTED that copyright on there?