Something I Heartily Agree With!

Read the great Blog Post at THIS LINK!  We can discuss in the Comments Section.  See you there! 

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!