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!
It continues on throughout the story...
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"!
...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...
Let's not even consider the implications of Batman marrying Nancy! Besides, weren't he and Marsha Queen of Diamonds an item?
 |
| Would this make Batman the LIGHT of Nancy's life? |
"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.
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)!
Maybe he or she had seen this sort of thing done previously by the great Harvey Eisenberg!
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!
6 comments:
OK, that's certainly a very *memorable* panel! I do find the Monster's comment that he and Stanley can't marry because they are of different religions to be pretty funny, in view of the fact that the Monster is a failed demon from hell. Also, it's pretty funny because it means that the Monster doesn't see an obstacle either in their being different species or (in 1967!) in their both being male!
Glad you were able to find the Non-Bat-Beam Version so quickly!
Elaine:
There are many reasons I call it “The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title” …You’ve hit upon but two!
This story, as well as the original and concurrent “Stanley and His Monster” series, was written by a great and talented – but, alas, unsung – writer named Arnold Drake!
Arnold Drake had something that has since become rare in comics… he had RANGE! He was equally adept at Bob Hope and Stanley and His Monster as he was at Batman and Doom Patrol (the latter, basically his own creation).
And he did some very funny stuff for Gold Key’s Tweety and Sylvester and Tom and Jerry titles in the 1970s, when they were published out of the New York Office -- including a series of stories that presented classic literary tales as written by either Tweety or Sylvester – who had taken a writer’s course in the first installment of the series.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Drake at a convention a fair number of years ago, and was happy to tell him what I’m telling you today!
How can you fail to love the imagination of a writer who gathers so many disparate characters for the sake of a single gag! I didn’t have this issue, when I spoke with Mr. Drake… If I had, I would certainly have worked the phrase “The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title” into the conversation!
The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title (quite deserving of the title) reminds me of the sort of stunt that Greg often pulled in Walter Melon! Remember that two-pager I sent you some time back? Very Cross Over Melon? …Hey! You still have to run that one on here!
The eye-beams arecertainly an unusual move in their persistence if nothing else. It seems that our anonymous pencil artist also had a reasonable enough grasp of volumes and perspective, judging by most of these examples. The beams in the Single-Most-Awesome-……-Title splash panel may unwieldily collide with the speech bubbles, but the angles at which they hit th efloor actually work out.
Oh, and, don't know if you ever watched it, but the whole thing is reminding me of the Mage sequence from The Twelve Tasks of Asterix.
Achille:
While it is quite annoying to see these fan-art-eye-beams added to nearly every page, ya gotta step back and appreciate the scope of effort (or, as you say, “persistence”) and the execution.
Thinking it over a bit more, I think the online provider who sold me this comic *could* have either lowered the grade, or added a note to the effect of “pencil markings throughout”. Either would have been a more accurate representation of what I received.
Then again, of the two primary providers I deal with (as well as one additional secondary provider), this one has generally lower grading standards and higher prices – but has also been VERY fair in sending upgraded replacement copies at no additional cost, or offering credits in excess of the purchase price. Carl Gray, if you’re reading this, you know exactly who I’m talking about. I’ll mention no names because, for one reason or another, I like them all! …And would recommend them all, with the occasional caveat, of course.
I know very little about Asterix, save that it is iconic enough to have been tributed by both Donald Duck and Superman. (Yeah, I know.. the utter Gaul of me!) But anything that, in any way, conjures up images of “The-Single-Most-Awesome-Page-Ever-To-Appear-In-A-DC-Comics-Humor-Title” would be worth my (all together now… horrifically busy and limited) time!
PS: Speaking of which… The book research is still humming along, as I release some of these older, pre-written Blog posts to keep things lively and fresh around here. …And I can do it all while remaining indoors!
Hope you’re all keeping safe during these very strange days…
Those eye-beams can only be the work of an artistically-inclined member of... the League of the Laser-Eyed Lizards! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
Ya know… I had a feeling it might be!
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