Family Matters - 2023!

Playing catch-up with the Blog, it's time to... um, "catch up" on a few Family Matters! 

August 19, 2023 saw the birth of Grandchild Number Three - Logan, a boy who will bear both the burdens and delights of having two older sisters!

Averi and Cici "bear the delight" of their new baby brother! 

Averi was quick to say... "Now we are THREE KIDS... and that's ENOUGH!" ...But, do they ever love their li'l bro! 

...And each other! 

Soon it was "back to business" as Averi began FIRST GRADE on September 05, 2023!  

Averi is prepping for the big day!  Cici's just mimicking Big Sis. 

And today, September 23, 2023, is Cici's THIRD BIRTHDAY !  How, time flies! 

 

Averi will turn SIX on this coming Thanksgiving, making them all evenly spaced at THREE YEARS APART!  ...Now, THAT'S planning!  

WE LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: "Pill-Popper Chopper"!

From the "Department of Something You'd Never See These Days", comes this cover from HANNA-BARBERA PARADE # 5 (Charlton Comics, Cover Date: February, 1972)!  

It looks like a typical Ray Dirgo Charlton cover of the time... The characters look "a little off", maybe a little too rubbery, but still recognizable...  

...Until we focus-in on Yakky Doodle's big buddy and protector - CHOPPER!  

What's up with the crossed-eyes, and uncharacteristically silly grin?  

Has he been "nipping at the cooking sherry", as they used to say back then?  

Actually, the answer can be found inside the comic itself - in this sequence of the Yakky Doodle story!

It seems that poor Chopper has had some difficulties with sleeping!  

So, his itty bitty buddy Yakky liberally applies a serious dose of SLEEPING PILLS!  

And all is well, until a BURGLAR shows up, and Chopper sleeps through the robbery of his master's house like a... um, drugged dog!  

Mild hilarity -- and the occasional "awkwardly-worded dialogue balloon" as the one seen directly above (After all it IS Charlton!) -- ensues, as Yakky and Sleeper... (that is, "CHOPPER") set out to right this wrong.  

If only Yakky had read THIS CHARLTON COMIC before sending Chopper off to "The Land of Nod" (...medicated so deeply that he couldn't "nod", if he tried)...

...The whole mess could have been avoided!  

Yessir... ALWAYS listen to POPEYE!  

Or else you too might look embarrassingly goofy on a comic book cover!  

And, when you can look "embarrassingly goofy" on a cover like this one, that's saying something!  

I’m Not an Artist, But… Lost in (ALL THAT EMPTY) Space Volume II!

I'm not an artist, but... a longtime pet peeve of mine is the matter of large sections of EMPTY SPACE on a comic book's cover!

I've posted on this before - on THIS particularly egregious example (below)...

...All the more so because it was created in the far more "graphically conscious" 1990s!

DC's REAL SCREEN COMICS # 105, with a Cover Date of December, 1956, is easier to excuse because of it's time...

...And because the empty space at its lower right, while definitely noticeable, is not nearly as poorly executed as the WDCS cover! 

But why are Crawford Crow and the picnic basket BOTH on the left side, leaving such a wide-open space on the right?  

The BASKET could remain at left, but be slightly "moved-up" a bit, making it more centered between the hammock and the bottom of the cover!

Then, Crawford could remain at the same "latitude" (for lack of a better term), but with his image REVERSED - and moved to the right, looking left at the fire and basket!

I'm not an artist, but... I feel it would be much better balanced that way!  ...Don't you?

Serendipitous Side-Effect Time:  Below is the cover image of MY OWN COPY, of REAL SCREEN COMICS # 105, with an unintended cover enhancement!

Check out what's in the "empty space" at the cover's lower right...

Someone, perhaps as far back as the later 1950s (in those Pre-Price-Guide Days when we were MUCH more careless with our comics), must have spilled some liquid on that portion of the cover...

...But, in keeping with the "campfire motif", it looks like campfire smoke is rising, not only from Crawford's actual cooking fire, but from the "FOX AND CROW" LOGO as well! 

In fact, there's actually MORE SMOKE rising from the LOGO, than from the cooking fire!  Very nicely breaking-up the gaping amount of blank space! 

I'm not an artist, but... I'd say MY copy of this comic, appears better-composed than the actual published version! 

Check 'em "side by side", and you de... "side"! 

Hot stuff... eh, Foxie? 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Never Mind The Creeper... Beware of the SUN!

Here is a copy of BEWARE THE CREEPER #1 (DC Comics, Cover Date: May-June, 1968)...

...And here is MY COPY of BEWARE THE CREEPER #1, purchased at the very end of April, 2022!

That is ONE REALLY BAD CASE OF SUN-FADE! 

Of course, I would never treat one of MY OWN "originally owned" comics like this... so, it must be the work of... ONE OF ITS "GHOSTS"!  ...My term for the previous owner(s) of any comic in your collection that was purchased in the secondary market (...or "third,-fourth,-or-fifth-dary" market, if it's been around for a while)!  

Lucky for me, the interior is just fine showing no ill effects of its overdose of Vitamin D... but, should you ever see a comic book reader or collector who's old enough to have been around in the 1960s - AND HE OR SHE IS SPORTING A NIFTY TAN - please let me know!  I might like to have a word with that person!  

Important Message!!!

SORRY TO DISCOVER THAT ALL COMMENTS PUBLISHED PRIOR TO  JUNE 14, 2023 HAVE DISAPPEARED!   I WILL MISS ALL OF YOUR OBSERVATIONS!  

I  ALSO SUSPECT THAT THIS BLOG IS BEING ATTACTED BY A BOT THAT KEEPS SENDING MESSAGES TO OLD POSTS - SOMETHING THAT CAN ONLY BE NOTICED BY COMMENT MODERATION!  

AS BOTH EVENTS HAVE OCCURRED TODAY (AUGUST 23, 2023), THERE IS CLEARLY A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO!  

TO THE PERSON BEHIND THESE MESSAGES... PLEASE STOP!  I DON'T WISH TO REPORT THIS TO GOOGLE!  ALL SUCH COMMENTS WILL BE DECLARED SPAM AND NOT PUBLISHED!

AGAIN... PLEASE STOP!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: And It Shall Come To Pass - Eventually through Corporate Mergers!

I can't help but wonder if the production person responsible for attributing MGM's Tom and Jerry to Warner Bros. (!!!) in TOM AND JERRY #162 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: January, 1958)...

...Simply goofed... or was a 1950s version of Nostradamus! 

Perhaps he or she foresaw MGM falling under the Turner Broadcasting umbrella... and Turner eventually being consumed by Warner Bros./Time Warner - making this logo CORRECT!  ...A bit ahead of its time, but correct nonetheless!  

Proving that, if you wait around long enough, corporate mergers can bring about ANYTHING! 

But, could even such a prodigious prognosticator foresee the the blunders and horrors of the great folly and disaster that would be the Warner Bros./Discovery merger?  A "disaster" that's NOT "waiting to happen"... because it's ALREADY HERE!

Nah! Not even "Old Nostie" could be THAT GOOD! 

But, this particular instance of erroneous branding must still go down as rather ironic, given what eventually came to pass... why, you could even call it a "Branding Irony"!

Of course, Warner Bros. HAS been known to infiltrate some of the darnedest places...

Yeah, I'm talkin' 'bout YOU, Bugs! 

Thankfully, this error-in-attribution was corrected for the story's reprint in TOM AND JERRY #317 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April, 1979).  

See my notes for the GCD INDEX of the later issue HERE!

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Nice, Doggie! ...B-B-BIG, Doggie!

I'm sure everyone would agree that LASSIE was a BIG canine star... But the cover of M.G.M.'s LASSIE #30 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: September-October, 1956) would seem to show just HOW BIG! 

Assuming those aren't DOLL HOUSES (...or DOLL HUTS?) at the lower right, that Lassie is about to crush with just one giant paw, everyone's favorite collie might as well be the faithful canine companion to KING KONG, rather than Timmy or Ranger Corey!  

A monstrous giant ape and his dog... There's a MOVIE in that, somewhere!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: It's Jeff... NO IT'S NOT!

This just happened to catch my eye - IT'S JEFF #2 Variant Cover (Marvel Comics, Cover Date: May, 2023).

According to the description supplied by... AHEM, Disney/Marvel, "Jeff" is a land-shark... which, I suppose, is better than being a LOAN-shark...

...Or less isolated than being a LONE-shark, but not quite as chatty as a PHONE-shark, nor as sharp as a HONE-shark, nor as complaining as a MOAN-shark, nor as "on-key" as a TONE-shark... and not nearly as intently focused as an [In the] ZONE-shark!  

But Disney/Marvel got one thing wrong... not matter how cute their land-shark may look, picking-off a rubber duckie floating with the Sub-Mariner on it's back, in a presumed bathtub (note the tiles)... Um... How can I say this... IT'S JUST NOT JEFF!  

THIS IS JEFF!!!  Has been since 1907!  

He's no SHARK! ...He may be a STUPE, but not a SHARK!  

And he comes with one of the best "straight-men" in the history of comics... Augustus Mutt! 

So, accept no substitutes... ask for the original by name... HIS NAME IS... JEFF... (as in) MUTT AND  JEFF!

And he's a RIOT...

...Even if he must say so himself! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Scooby-Doo and (I'm asking you to) Guess Who!

From SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? #56 (DC Comics, Cover Date: June, 2015), we present the following nice panel...

Awww... It's Scooby's birthday (I wonder if they count it in "dog years"?) and lots of folks turned out for the festivities... including (at top center) Joe Barbera!  

But, aside from "Mr. B" and, of course Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma...

...WHO ARE THE OTHER GUESTS?!  

Unless they are from the various "made-for-DVD" Scooby-Doo Movies (...as opposed to "The New Scooby-Doo Movies") of which I've only seen the first few... 

...Or one of the more recent Scooby TV shows that I might have passed on like "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue"... 

...Or, even worse, (SHUDDER!) "Be Cool Scooby-Doo"... 

....which we can RULE OUT because the characters are actually drawn quite well... 

...I haven't (if you'll pardon the expression) a CLUE! 

So, my challenge to you is to help in identifying the remainder of Scooby's party guests - or confirm to me that they are just random background characters there to "fill a scene" like a pen-and-ink collection of Hollywood extras!  

...What say you?  

 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: What's So FUNNY?

What's so funny?  Well, any Silver Age comic featuring The Joker is bound to have some mirth (though, not necessarily of the "Separated at Mirth" variety) in the mix, and DETECTIVE COMICS #341 (DC Comics, Cover Date: July, 1965) is no exception. 

The cover copy proclaims "WHAT A SWITCH!" And, The Joker does indeed pull quite a switch on our baffled Boy Wonder!  

But that's nothing compared to the "switch" apparently pulled (perhaps BY The Joker?) in a DC house ad in this very issue...

Why, he MUST be responsible... Just look at him laughing at us! 

But, what's so... er, "FUNNY"?  Let's look a little closer... 

"For THE VERY BEST in FUNNY comics reading"...?  BATMAN and THE FLASH?!  

BATMAN and FLASH comics, especially in the Silver Age, have been known for many things...

...Many ODD things...

...Many, MANY odd things!  

But, being INTENTIONALLY FUNNY was not one of them... as you can plainly... uh, plainly... see? 

...AW, SKIP IT!  

Regardless of what you've just seen, I still maintain that this... 

...Was a TRICK by The Joker... or Mr. Mxyzptlk... or Bat-Mite...

...Or... maybe it was just a mistake by DC's Production Department!  Putting THIS... 

...Where, more likely, it should have been THIS!  

Yeah! That's more like it!  

THOSE comics are MUCH FUNNIER than Batman... Bat...Buh...Ba...

BAT-MITE... NOW CUT THAT OUT! 

Ba-Ba-Ba... BATS All Folks!