Adventures in Comic-Boxing: You Can Almost HEAR Them Say it!

Here's a great one-page gag from ABBOTT AND COSTELLO # 5 (Charlton Comics, Cover Date: November, 1968)!  Story: Steve Skeates.  Art: Henry Scarpelli. 

And here it is broken-out by panel for your reading pleasure! 

With all that back-and-forth dialogue, it's almost like watching them do one of their old routines, isn't it? 

 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Sheer Genius, or Lamest Activity Page Ever?

I'm not really sure which one it is, "Genius" or "Lamest Ever" ... But leave it to Charlton to have been the publisher that created it! 

Click to Enlarge!

Yes, it is exactly what it appears to be... "Fill in the Names of Your Choice on the Apartment Doorbells"... Courtesy of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO # 19 (Charlton Comics, Cover Date: February, 1971) - based on the 1967 Hanna-Barbera cartoon! 

It's one of our neighbors, Abbott... I just don't know who!

   
Did you ever want to live in the same building as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello? 

Just PUT YOUR NAME in one of the blanks, and Lou might be knocking on YOUR door at 3 in the morning, asking to borrow a cup of sugar! 

Though I think I'd vastly prefer Bud and Lou to FRANKENSTEIN and KING KONG... if, for no other reason, Kong would definitely have a LARGER APARTMENT than me - and ALL New Yorkers tend to envy that sort of thing! 

But that's not all, folks!  By filling-in YOUR NAME and, on other bells, ANY OTHER PERSON'S NAME OF YOUR CHOICE, you could live in the same building as Walt Disney, Abraham Lincoln, Jonas Salk, James Cagney, Derek Jeter, Irwin Allen, Gene Roddenberry, Frank Sinatra, Carl Barks, Angus Young, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, LeBron James, Paul McCartney, George Washington, John Wayne, Casty, Walter Cronkite, Former President Barack Obama, Former President Dick Cheney, Raquel Welch - or "that gal or guy you had no chance at all of ever dating in high school"!  

...And, if "that gal" happened to be Raquel Welch (or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for that matter), you could save yourself one blank to fill!  

Me?  I'd add Marta Kristen, Yvonne Craig, and Grace Lee Whitney - and put 'em all on the same floor as me, so I could watch 'em come and go!  But, I'd put Esther right next door - or better yet, on the SAME BELL with me!  ...Fantasy only goes so far, you know!  

Finally, how many of you would put FAY WRAY in that last box?  

...C'mon, I know ya would!  

Hi-ya, neighbor! 

New York Comic Con 2015: Day One: The Adventure Begins!

New York Comic Con 2015 began for me in the usual way.  Meeting first with David Gerstein and traveling to Manhattan's West Side and the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Once there, we are faced with the ever present and enthusiastic crowds, a typically large percentage of which were cos-players and those who live to photograph them. 

A few observations on this, if I may:

What do these elaborately costumed folks do in their off hours and in their secret identities?  Do they keep the costumes in the closet for another year?  Do they travel from con to con trotting-out the same "wares to wear"? 

...I'd actually like to know, if anyone can enlighten me. 

Just to my untrained eye, I noticed fewer Star Trek and X-Men costumes - and more Batman-related (if that's even possible), Anime, and Sword and Sorcery type characters.

Within the Batman subset, I have some additional observations:

Batman is always there, in one form or another.  Most often, far and away, the "Dark Knight" version. 

Robin and Nightwing are almost never represented.

There are ALWAYS many, many, Harley Quinns, Catwomen, and more persons than I'd ever seen before dressed as Poison Ivy!  It seemed you almost could not walk more than a few feet without running into a "Poison Ivy"!  Is there something that would account for "PI's" dramatically increased popularity this year?  

Jokers and Riddlers are also seen in abundance - but not any other villains.  I never see a Penguin, for instance.  You'd think Scarecrow would be a natural for costuming.  Mr. Freeze, Bane, or even King Tut and Egghead, if we care to consider the '66 TV Realm.  

I saw someone cleverly dressed as Green Arrow, with a New York Jets jersey under his cloak!  I guess that would make him (wait for it) "Gang Green Arrow"!  That beats THIS COSTUME from 2013.

And, for Elaine, even The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was represented by one inventive fan who went as far as to carry a stuffed squirrel posing as Squirrel Girl's companion "Tippy-Toe"! 

Comics-wise, first stop was the IDW booth, to say hello to our editor Sarah Gaydos.  Sarah was kind enough to see that I got one each of the Convention Edition covers of the first issues of DONALD DUCK and MICKEY MOUSE.  

Check out some of the characters on those covers: Moby Duck, The Phantom Blot, Gus Goose, Chief O'Hara, Detective Casey, and so many more!   

I found a dealer selling "All-Ages" comics from a spinner rack, from which I bought extra copies of my UNCLE SCROOGE # 3 and DONALD DUCK # 4!

...But that would be all the comics shopping for this first day!  

Beyond that, I did reacquaint myself with a... er, "private label" DVD maker, who had several... er, "private label" DVD products of interest.  As this individual, some years ago, had the absolute best collection of Quick Draw McGraw you are EVER likely to see (...barring some unexpected miracle of a release from Warner Achieves) I was happy to pick up a few more gems that are VERY UNLIKELY to ever see a legitimate release...

They are not perfect by any definition but, because they exist, some additional "holy grail series" are now in my collection. 

Complete series for Augie Doggie, Pixie, Dixie, and Mister Jinks, and the ORIGINAL "Alvin Show" (the one with Clyde Crashcup - and the ONLY one I care about), 43 cartoons of Heckle and Jeckle, 21 of the Hanna-Barbera Laurel and Hardy, and 20 of the Hanna-Barbera Abbott and Costello! 

As those 20 A&C cartoons do not include the ONE released on THIS SET, that means I have 21 of those too!

Also this week, I got the Atom Ant complete series from Warner Archives!  Oh, if only I had a few months off to watch all this great stuff!  

This just in while preparing this post!  The Pixie, Dixie, and Mister Jinks set may or may not be complete (I'll have to check it against an episode guide), but it ends with... THREE Huckleberry Hound cartoons that have NOT been officially released on DVD!!!  

Talk about an "Extra Feature"!  The cartoons are "Huck Hound's Tale" with the now-politically incorrect Chief Crazy Coyote, "Nuts Over Mutts" with the snickering dog prototype for Muttley, and "Legion-Bound Hound" with a redesigned Powerful Pierre!  

WOW!  That's the fun of ... er, "private label" DVDs!  You just never know what you've actually got until you watch them all the way through!     

Dinner with David, Thad Komorowski, Disney Illustrator John Loter, and a brief appearance by Jonathan Gray, at our "unofficial hangout" Daisy May's BBQ USA, rounded out the evening.  

More to come in out next post!  

    

Magilla Gorilla Meets a Killer Gorilla!

Well, actually he doesn't...

It's just a post title in the vein of such films as "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla"...

"I understand you have a... Gorilla for Sale!"

"Uh-Oh!  That guy up there looks BATS!"

And "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff". 

"Whatever you do, don't LOOK DOWN!"

"Personally, I find the little fellow a bit unsettling, as well!"

But, YOU, my readers, WILL meet a Killer Gorilla on Thursday, April 10, when we review the 1997 independent film "The Bloody Ape"! 

It's been too long since we've done a full-blown DVD review around here -- but we're about to "go ape" with one this week. 

Be "Bloody" here for it, won't you!   

Ask and I Shall Receive… Again!

In out last post, I lamented the lack of any official word about the coming of the BATMAN (1966) TV series to official, non-bootleg, Warner Bros DVD, beyond an initial and isolated Tweet by Conan O’Brien.  HERE.

 

"You think YOU'VE got it tough, Conan... Try being a TEN YEAR OLD KID on TV every week since the late eighties!  Losing THE TONIGHT SHOW's a snap compared to that!"

 

Previously, I also lamented the inexplicable lack of DVDs for the 1968 Filmation BATMAN Animated Series (the immediate follow-up to the BATMAN TV series though less overtly campy and somewhat more evocative of Silver Age comic books) – HERE. 

 

Then, almost immediately, I learned that the 1968 Filmation BATMAN Animated Series IS indeed coming to Warner DVD during 2014 – HERE.

 

Even The Joker is pleased at the news!

And, in keeping with that “immediate gratification thing” concerning Batman DVDs, commenter “Rusty” informed me that Warner DID include a significant mention of BATMAN (1966) DVDs in an announcement made last week – just one day AFTER my Blog post wondering why there was no word from Warner. 

"No Word" is NOT "Good Word", Old Chum!

Here’s a quote pulled from the announcement: 

 

“*Home Entertainment – Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will bring fans an array of new Batman titles throughout the year, including the highly anticipated release of the Batman ’66 TV series for the first time ever. Other new releases include animated films Son of Batman (May 6) and Assault on Arkham (summer 2014). Additionally, a 25th Anniversary Edition of Tim Burton’s Batman feature film will be released in the fall.”

     
Oddly, they DON'T explicitly reference the 1968 Filmation series in the announcement! Go fig!

And HERE’S THE LINK to the announcement itself. 

"Holy Rain Check, Batman!  Let's get to the retailer of our choice, before it's SOLD OUT!"

 

The Joker's happy about THIS NEWS, too!

I kinda like having Warner make announcements in response to my Blog posts… So, while I’m on a roll I’ll ask where Seasons 2-4 of THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW are. 

 

And, QUICK DRAW McGRAW, PETER POTAMUS, ATOM ANT, and SECRET SQUIRREL. 

(…And, what the hey, while we’re at it… the Hanna-Barbera ABBOTT AND COSTELLO and LAUREL AND HARDY cartoons, too!) 

 

All the Tex Avery MGM cartoons. 

 

 Completing TAZ-MANIA and THE SYLVESTER AND TWEETY MYSTERIES.    

Where are the color theatrical POPEYEs?

And more LOONEY TUNES – and the continuation of the LOONEY TUNES and TOM AND JERRY Blu-ray series! 

Hey, I can dream (of more immediate gratification), can’t I?  

Let's hope it's NOT "The End" for all these!