Adventures in Comic-Boxing: And I Would Have Gotten Away With It, Too… If Not For Those Meddling… Um, uh… Magpies?

Go on... Say it with me... "And I Would Have Gotten Away With It, Too…  

...If Not For Those Meddling Kids!" 

Yes, for over FIFTY YEARS (!)...

...Those kids and their dog have been "meddling" their way into our hearts!

But, two decades prior to Scooby's 1969 debut, who was doing the "meddling" as we made our way into the postwar age?  

Why Heckle and Jeckle, of course!  

From TERRY-TOONS COMICS # 76 (St. John, Cover Date: November, 1949)...

...With zany art by cult-favorite animator Jim Tyer!  

Check out Tyer's squad of hard-charging cops, one of whom has even sprouted angel-wings!

And FIVE PADLOCKS on the prisoner!  

So, as we waited for Scooby and the gang to eventually advance the phrase "Meddling Kids" to iconic status (as they surely have done)...

...It's nice to know that Heckle and Jeckle The Talking Magpies had the "meddling" well in hand until then! 

Bonus GCD link by yours truly for TERRY-TOONS COMICS # 76  HERE! 

FYI: Any title in a GCD index found within brackets is an "unofficial title"... and it is in creating these that I "keep the comics-writing motor warmed" during this time of writing dormancy.  Enjoy.  

WASH! SCRUB! SANITIZE! REPEAT!

WASH!  SCRUB!  SANITIZE!

YOU HEARD ME!  WASH! SCRUB! SANITIZE!   

Wash! Scrub! Sanitize! just might become the new CRUSH!  KILL!  DESTROY!  

..If you'll forgive a little in-joke for the LOST IN SPACE fans out there!  

And, could this be better illustrated by a cat and mouse than FLUFFY AND MERVIN, by our great friend Debbie Anne Perry?  

I think not!  

For more of Deb's wonderful stuff go http://www.fluffyandmervin.com/

The Robinson Family would do exactly that, if they weren't in immediate danger of being CRUSHED, KILLED, and DESTROYED!  

Ya know... maybe they lucked-out by never getting back to Earth... 

...At least they can go outside! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: The EYES Have It - and have it BAD! ...Or "Beaming" with Hope!

This is the cover of THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 103 (DC Comics, Cover Date: March, 1967).
 

This is the cover to MY COPY of THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 103.
 

Spot anything unusual?
 

Besides the infamous mid-1960s DC "Go-Go-Checks", that is!  Oh, and "The Adventures of..." seems to be missing from the logo! 

Let's move in a little CLOSER...

YEAH! THAT'S IT!  Check out those BEAMS emanating from Frankenstein's EYES!

They weren't in the ORIGINAL cover design!
 

Methinks, as they used to say in the older Looney Tunes, "SOMETHING NEW HAS BEEN ADDED!" 

Forgivable, since the online comics retail site that sold this to me graded it as a "GOOD +".

But, the bevy of added-eye-beams didn't stop there, but continued on throughout the comic.
 

 

In the opening splash panel!
 

  Remember when dogs just got HAIR on your pants?

It continues on throughout the story...

  ...With even BOB getting into the eye-beaming act!

  It even extended BEYOND the Bob Hope story itself...
 

  ...And into one of those ubiquitous PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS that so often ran in DC Comics of the 1950s and '60s!

  Odd that our anonymous and unofficial "pencil artist" chose to have the beams emanate from the "RUNNING or PARKING LIGHTS", and not from the HEADLIGHTS!

Yet, even with all of this bonus-business - and some additional instances I did not illustrate in the interest of "getting to the point" (if, indeed there IS one), I still regarded this comic to fall within the parameters of what I would fairly grade a "GOOD +"! 
  ...Oh, but wait... there was also THIS!  Click to Enlarge!
 

Yes... THIS... Why it must be "The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title"!

  Unlikely couples that include Frank Sinatra and Phyllis Diller... and, believe it or not, STANLEY AND HIS MONSTER, who would take over THE FOX AND THE CROW title...

...And, five decades later, would team up with Scooby-Doo! 

But, getting back to "The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title", there's also...

  Ringo Starr and Sophia Loren...

  ...With Batman and Robin... and (believe it or not) Ernie Bushmiller's NANCY!

Let's not even consider the implications of Batman marrying Nancy!  Besides, weren't he and Marsha Queen of Diamonds an item?  
 

  Only this time, Batman gets hitched lighting the way with Bat-Beams in his eyes!
 

Would this make Batman the LIGHT of Nancy's life? 

And, while STILL within the parameters of what I would grade "GOOD to GOOD +", this was finally the straw that broke the bat's back!

"The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title" defaced in such a horrible fashion!  Anywhere else, was okay with me - and part of the "charm" of buying old comics - but, to awkwardly mix character allusions between Batman and Popeye: "That's all I can stands!  I can't stands no more!"

Thankfully, there was a local comic show the following week, and I found a near perfect copy of THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 103 - and now I have the best of both bat-worlds...
 

...A Bat-Beam Version...
 

...And a Non-Bat-Beam Version...
 

...Side-by-side in my long boxes, where they belong!  

Before we bring this particular "Adventure in Comic-Boxing" to a close, I should point out, in uncharacteristic fairness to "Those-Who-Add-Their-Own-Penciling-To-Comic-Books", that such unauthorized supplementary penciling is not always as damaging as in this example.

Yeah, I just can't let that go... same for (all together now, once again) THIS, which might have been IMPROVED by some unauthorized supplementary penciling!

Especially if it COVERED-UP some of this bad art!  

But, I'll confess some charity, if not an outright soft-spot, for the anonymous unauthorized supplementary penciler who aspired to give Pete Alvarado an assist in the MOBY DICK story in my copy of HANNA-BARBERA SUPER TV HEROES # 3 (1968)!
 

  Notice how nicely he or she COMPLETED the forward-figure of Moby, to give the whale a sort of three-dimensional look that breaks-out of the borders of the panel! 

Maybe he or she had seen this sort of thing done previously by the great Harvey Eisenberg!

Note the panel-busting of Fred and Barney's FEET and Fred's HAT - from THE FLINTSTONES # 29 (1965)! 

Oh, and if anyone's wondering about all the Monsters and Teenage Superheroes taking over the BOB HOPE comic, we can discuss that in the Comments Section!  ...See you there!