Happy Halloween - 2021!

Averi and a special friend are here to wish you all a Happy Halloween 2021!

Not to be outdone, Avi's little sister, Cici, gets into the act with me in a "very convincing old man costume"!  

But, if you think my "old man costume" is convincing check me out as Averi's friend the scarecrow!

On my knees, with my legs painfully folded behind me and hidden from the camera... I'd say that's one of my best disguises yet!  

Separated at Mirth: To Each His Hitchhiking-Own: Gold Key AND Dell Style!

When I was a car-less teenager, all the kids used to hitchhike to get to the mall, beach, movies, etc.  

Even I went along with it once or twice, reluctantly - as a sort of "Boo Boo to a Yogi-like friend"!

"I know, Boo Boo, we'll go HITCHHIKING!" 

 

But that was long before I began to fight for better bus service in my county, and things were like this...

Versus the far better system we have now.  

Hicksville-bound busses... then and now!

We lived more dangerously back in the early 1970s, and I'm glad to see that the practice has all but vanished in the decades since.  

But hitchhiking was in full force among Long Island's youth when BUGS BUNNY #125 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1969) was released!

And, in December, 1967, long before I ever imagined indulging in such a potentially dangerous method of travel (reluctantly, of course, because I was one of the "good kids"), there was also UNCLE SCROOGE # 73 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: February, 1968), hitchhiking with his own preferred mode of transportation!  

Despite each character displaying his own particular fetishism (be it carrots or money), what we have here - you guessed it - is a hitchhiking SEPARATION AT MIRTH!  

Similar layouts with the main character "large, close, and at left" and the approaching vehicle further back and at right.  

Of course, these were both 1960s Gold Key reprint covers so that means there were Dell antecedents for each... and here they are!  

BUGS BUNNY #36 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: April-May, 1954)  

UNCLE SCROOGE #32 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: December, 1960 - February, 1961)

Bugs Bunny covers are by Ralph Heimdahl.  Uncle Scrooge covers are by Carl Barks.  

As we hope our beloved characters reach their intended destination safely - and that each gets what he wants from their respective approaching vehicles -  we give a great big "Thumbs-Up" (...or should that be THUMBS-OUT") to another installment of Separated At Mirth!  

EXTRA HITCHHIKING BEAGLE-BONUS!

Here are the covers of BEAGLE BOYS #11 and #17, each with an appropriate hitchhiking gag!

And even another Separated at Mirth!

Beagle Boys covers are by Pete Alvarado.  

Gotta love the gag-symmetry: Hitchhiker - Armored Car - Armored Car - Hitchhikers! 

What Did I Do This Weekend?

Gee, this is the second consecutive post that I've titled with a question!  I've really gotta get back into my old groove of "Comic Box Adventuring" and "Mirth Separation"!  

But, to answer that "second consecutive titular question", I must remind you just how much I enjoy reserving Saturday afternoons for reading comic books - and THIS POST will do that nicely!

I don't get to do that as much as I'd like to this days... That old "Horrifically Busy" thing, you know. 

But this weekend (Yes, Saturday AND a bonus Sunday - almost wall to wall) reviewing, researching... and, most important of all - READING many Carl Barks stories of early 1960s vintage in order to prepare story notes for a future Fantagraphics volume.  ...Talk about combining "business with pleasure"! 

Buy these things, folks!  You'll never see a better presentation of these stories, complete with Story Notes and other detailed extra features!  They've certainly made a believer of me! 

Where Have I Been?

 That's a good question... Where HAVE I been?  

Here, there, perhaps nowhere... eating honey with a bear...

Scarfing bagels strewn with lox, hanging with a Crow and Fox...

Reading comics, some like these...

Reading others that feature cheese...

Or kicking back with DVDs! 

...Many DVDs!  

Go ask LOBO... He might know...

...But here's one place... I DIDN'T GO!  

Not in '20... or '21...

...Since COVID had me... on the RUN! 

Okay, everyone... we all know why I didn't go in 2020... because there was NO con!

I didn't expect to one to happen in 2021 either - but somehow it is doing exactly that as I write this!  And, as much as I LOVE New York Comic Con, in this time of Delta and likely heretofore unknown additional variants, I just can't see myself confined to any indoor space that could possibly look like THIS! 

I'm sad about it, to be sure... but better safe (at home) than sorry!  

I'd be wearing a mask, was double-vaccinated in 2020 - and, within the last thirty days, have received a COVID vaccine booster.  But, I'm still not ready to face this... or even a scaled-down version of anything like it. 

So, for the first time in I-Forget-How-Many-Years, there will be a New York Comic Con without me!  Maybe next year...

Oh, but WHERE HAVE I BEEN?  

Does the answer "Horrifically Busy" count as a "where"?  

Lately, I've been deeper "underwater" than THESE GUYS! 

The Blog and my personal communications, in particular, have gone to hell, and, I'm sorry about that!

But, now as I begin to surface once again, and life begins working its way back to normalcy, I hope to begin regular posting very soon!  ...I also hope you all find your way back, because it's all of you that make this thing fun!  

...And what good is anything without FUN!