This is the cover of ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE # 126 (St. John, Cover Date: August 1955).
And, this is the cover of MY COPY of ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE # 126!
Needless to say, I was not the "original owner" of this comic - and am clearly not responsible for all of the pen markings that have been "added" to its cover!
However, these were no random scribblings, as a closer look will reveal. Unlike the atrocities your humble Blogger committed upon his copy of WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES # 266 at a very early age...
...These "Fan Art Contributions" appear to have been executed with some humorous purpose in mind!
Let's first focus on the figure of Mighty Mouse...
Okay, so he's been given a "mustache"! No biggie except, ironically, it makes him look like his classic nemesis "Oil Can Harry"!
And the additional inked eyeballs make him look a little more "bright-eyed"... Maybe from sniffing a few of those left-over Ralph Bakshi flowers?
But the real creativity is applied to the OUTFIT of our Terrytoon Titan...
His LEFT SLEEVE is ripped and stitched, and his RIGHT SHOULDER sports a patch!
This must have been quite a battle, since we never see Mighty Mouse's costume in such tatters!
The CAT has also grown some additional whiskers - but his EYE-ADD-ONs are really special!
His RIGHT EYE (at OUR LEFT) assumes the imagery of a SLOT MACHINE in action - in sort of the way that actual animators might have done it! When the motion stops, you almost expect a bunch of COINS (or TEETH) to come pouring out of the cat's mouth!
Even with "super-dilated pupils", it may have been difficult to see down in that sewer, so...
...Our obliging artist gave Mighty Mouse an INDICATION MARK to pinpoint exactly where he should come up to foil the cat! Why, I'll bet it even glows in the dark!
"X" (...or a dot-within-a-circle) marks the spot!
Best of all, check out the fleeing mouse...
...His TAIL is caught in a MOUSETRAP! Ya GOTTA LOVE THAT... especially if you're a cat!
Lastly, look at the LOGO...
At first, I didn't even notice that the INNER-TRACING of the word "ADVENTURES" was also added by our intrepid inker! At a quick glance, it just looked like part of the logo!
At least until I noticed, upon closer inspection, that a number of the lines were "uneven"!
The interior of my copy of ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE # 126 was complete, with no serious flaws to distract from my reading pleasure.
Also, the online comics retailer, from whom I purchased it, represented it as a grade of "FAIR"! And, now that I have the book in my possession, I'd have to say (pardon) that the grade of "FAIR"... is, um... "fair"!
You EXPECT flaws such as this to be part of a comic book graded as "FAIR"...
...You just don't expect them to be THIS ENTERTAINING, and that's what makes "Comic-Box Adventuring" so great!
2 comments:
Oh my. This brings back fond memories of befouling innocent coloring books and "Fun Pads" with images of breasts, penises, fart clouds,feces,every racial stereotype you can imagine, and off-color word-balloon dialogue (Even as a young'un, I wouldn't have dreamt of desecrating a comic book--UNLIKE YOU).
The end results would send my younger brother and myself into gales of laughter, and no doubt send poor Mom to scour the Yellow Pages for a good child psychiatrist. *Sigh* Genius is so often misunderstood in its lifetime, wouldn't you agree?
“*Sigh* Genius is so often misunderstood in its lifetime, wouldn't you agree?”
Don’t we BOTH know it, TCJ… Don’t we BOTH know it!
Funny thing is my particular desecration was done at age FOUR… And, even by FIVE, I’d somehow arrived at the notion that these comics were something I’d like to keep “forever” (…not that I was capable of envisioning 2019 or 2020, or anything like that), and so strove to keep them in as good a shape and condition as a little boy could – over repeated and repeated readings over the years!
So much so that I still have a very large number of them today!
As long-time readers may know, my only mag-marring of modern times was both purposeful and for a good cause – and seen HERE!
Though it’s been a heavy burden to carry the guilt of desecrating Carl Barks’ Donald Duck (in 1959) and Paul Murry’s Mickey Mouse (in 1975)!
…If I had to do it, at least I did it to the best!
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