Adventures in Comic-Boxing: More "Unexpected" Than Usual!

When you open a copy of DC's horror title UNEXPECTED, you... you... well, you expect the unexpected from an issue of UNEXPECTED!

But, in the case of UNEXPECTED #202 (DC Comics, Cover Date: September 1980), there was more "unexpected" than usual!  

Yesterday (September 13, 2026), upon opening this comic for the first time to log it into my collection, between the cover and first page, I found THIS...

  ...Yes, really!   

Now, over the years, I've found many a stowaway tucked between the pages of a vintage comic book... strands of hair, cookie or cereal crumbs, and even the centerfold of a completely different comic!  

In the case of the hair and crumbs I simply brush them out, and with the unrelated centerfold I left it there in appreciation of the novelty, but what to do with a FOOTBALL WORD ASSOCIATION PUZZLE?  

The other finds are at least somehow part of the comics reading experience (eating while reading, for instance), but THIS?  

However, even this particular UNEXPECTED issue's inexplicably unexpected occurrence has an additional dose of the unexpected to it!  

What more unexpected about this could possibly be, you ask?  

Well I found that unexpected addition hiding in my copy of UNEXPECTED #202... (ready for it?)... on the FIRST SUNDAY of the 2026 NFL FOOTBALL SEASON!  

...And did so while simultaneously watching the NEW YORK JETS season opener - which (after only three wins in the 2025 season) the Jets ACTUALLY WON!!!  ...Talk about "unexpected"!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: One Way OUR COMICS are Better than THEIRS!

When it comes to Disney comics, the European nations have it all over us six-ways-to-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-and-Wednesday!   

To be sure, they DESERVE IT!  They support these things to an extent that we dullards in the USA, would never do!  

But, even as the dim, dogmatic, dictatorship-in-waiting that we've allowed ourselves to become in recent years, we still appear to have SOMETHING over those more-enlightened lands... OUR COVERS!

Just compare our cover of UNCLE SCROOGE #04/Legacy #464 Cover "B" (Fantagraphics [January 2026])...

...with that of Germany's MICKY MAUS #2019-19 (Ehapa Verlag, September 06, 2019)... 

...and compare for yourself!  

We get Kari Korhonen's full page of cover art without the distracting clutter, while they... they... they... aw th' heck with international diplomacy... they get way too much of it!  And too little of Kari's art to boot!

To be fair, the Scandinavian countries, where this storyline originated, also do the covers right...

...And they even get one on us, because they don't have the cover-image-perfection-spoiling UPC CODE BOX!  

At least Fantagraphics keeps it as small as possible!  And YAY for them! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: A Note in the Gutter!

Dear COLORIST of the final story in SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #30 (DC Comics, Cover Date: November, 1980):

If you believe you've misplaced or lost a coloring instruction critical to the story, I've found a note to you from your editor... in, of all places, THE GUTTER... or MARGIN, if you prefer!  

See, it's over there to the right of the panel proper! 

Just LOOK UP and you'll see it!  

It's a rare occurrence when an internal note from an editor leaks out of the hallowed halls of a publisher and onto a printed page!  

As a fellow comics professional, I feel personally and professionally obliged to bring this unfortunate leak to your attention, before this cat/spilled-milk/genie gets too far out of the bag/bottle/lamp!  

As a 1980 comic, it's only been 46 years, and there's still time to shield this spillage from innocent civilian eyes not meant to see it!  

Don't thank me, Colorist... I'm merely respecting the "Comics Professional's Code" that keeps the "ordinaries" and "wanna-bees" from peeking too far behind our magic curtain!  

...Ulp! ...Heh!  Not that any of you reading this on my Blog, are "ordinaries" and "wanna-bees", heaven forfend!  ...Uh-oh!  I'm gonna need some help from another well-meaning comics professional to get me outta this! 

...HELP!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Lion in Wait!

Nobody - but NOBODY - can draw 'em like Sergio Aragones!  

It's come to where I treasure each and every issue of GROO that comes out! 

 Just LOOK at all the DETAIL he puts into the stuff! 

Sergio Aragones aided and abetted by Mark Evanier are an unbeatable combination!  With that said, I invite you to enjoy a Sergio panel that brought an out-loud laugh to my lips, and a still greater appreciation for his talent to my heart!  

From HOUSE OF MYSTERY #175 (DC Comics, Cover Date: July-August, 1698), comes this single-panel cartoon from the first of a regular series called "Cain's Game Room". 

Cain takes over with this issue (above), with tingling stories, and entertaining games! 

Here's our host now, ready to take the kiddies to his Game Room! 

Click to enlarge and see all the detail behind the main title logo!

Cain is the caretaker of The House of Mystery and, starting in his first issue, he's clearly got many fun plans for his guests!  Have a peek below, why don't you! 

After emerging from what looks to be an infinite maze, this guy's heading for his "reward"... and it's not exactly a welcome hunk of cheese!  

Now, THERE'S a LAUGH-OUT-LOUD MOMENT... and I ain't, um... lion! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Leave MOLE Enough Alone!

Here's another great one from from the TIAH Archives - seen here for the first time - while we catch up on other matters. Favorite Barks and Gottfredson posts are coming ...uh, soon? 

No matter how well you think you know these comics, every now and then you have an unexpected "laugh-out-loud moment", as in DELL FOUR COLOR # 791 JIMINY CRICKET (1957).

In the story "The Meandering Mole", a mole... er, "meanders" up from beneath the ground.  Tired of his subterranean life, he decides to try living on the surface. 

Click to Enlarge, but you can get the gist even at this size!  

Problem is that, from living underground and in darkness, moles have notoriously POOR EYESIGHT!  Jiminy, ever the good-intentioned, well-meaning busybody, takes it upon himself to discourage the mole from transitioning to surface life, lest he inadvertently imperil himself when encountering the many dangers of the forest! 

Among the tricks our Cricket Conscience tries is to scare the mole into thinking a WOLF is lurking nearby! 

But, to Jiminy's surprise, and my involuntary outburst of hilarity, the mole is prepared for such an eventuality...

EEK! is right, Jiminy!  

"PHOOF"?  Gotta LOVE IT!  

Yeah, let's not think about THAT, eh, "Jimbo"!  

What REALLY SELLS IT is the mole "blowing on his gun barrel" after the shot...

...Not unlike the many times James Cagney (of all folks) did the same - over and over again, actually playing to the audience, in "The Oklahoma Kid", an unlikely western starring New York tough guys Cagney and Humphrey Bogart!  ...Imagine that! 

Perhaps our "Meandering Mole" could star in the sequel... "The Okla-MOLE-a Kid"! 

Art is by the great Al Hubbard, who was so perfectly suited for this type of story, and written by the great - and very prolific - Carl Fallberg! ...Who, uncharacteristically, borrows Vic Lockman's trademark "EEK!" for the occasion! 

Glad to see they both survived the encounter... and that it was JIMINY who "learned a lesson" for a change! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Nothin' Beats the Classics!

Here's another one from the TIAH Vault, while we're working on the Best Barks and Gottfredson posts!  Didn't wanna keep you waiting too long, now that we're back in BLOG-ness! 

Not a repeat, as some Blogs do/ 

This is wholly new to you! 

Nothin' Beats the Classics!  (...Hey, I later used that as a story title HERE)!  Even when they're CHARLTON "classics"!

Here's a gag - and a META reference - from TOP CAT # 3 (Charlton Comics, Cover Date: March, 1971) to bear that out...

And ya just GOTTA love this!

Come to think of it, there ARE some "Charlton Comic Books" that could get you arrested... on aesthetics charges, anyway...

...But, not this one, though!  

It's even rather GOOD... for Charlton, anyway!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: The Thin Line Between Tragedy and Comedy - and the Power of Writers!

Consider the cover of DETECTIVE COMICS # 419 (DC Comics, Cover Date: January, 1972), a rather stark image for a comic released in late 1971...

Now, consider it again if we replace the grim cover copy with the following headline...

"Remorseful Toy Collector Commits Unique Suicide After Removing His Mint Batman Action Figures From Their Packaging!" 

  

 

Ah, we writers hold such untapped power!  We could rule the world, if only we could find a way to unite!   

...Perhaps it's best we don't! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: How Bambi SHOULD Have Turned Out!

 (Sigh!)  If only Bambi and his mother were jungle denizens, rather than of the forest variety! 

...Love the cover anyway!  

From TARZAN #127 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: November-December, 1961) - Painted Cover by the great George Wilson. 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: I Wanna BE This Guy!

Man!  Not only does he have ALL THAT going for him, but he even gets to be featured on the the back cover of REAL SCREEN COMICS # 15 (Published by DC Comics, Cover Date: December 1947 / January 1948)!  
 

Why, just reading his list of accomplishments and future aspirations is enough to give an average student an inferiority complex!  (Click to Enlarge for ease of reading!) 

You were OVER SIX FEET TALL... IN HIGH SCHOOL!?  ...In 1947, yet?  

I've been out of high school for over fifty years, and I haven't reached that yet!  And I'm not very... er, "high" on my future chances... 

As this is 1947, he even got to hear President Dwight D. Eisenhower BEFORE he was president!  

...And, while most of the nation "liked Ike", Ike probably "liked HIM!"  

Contrary to the request made above by "The Box in Pink", I cannot "...watch this space for the high school champ of [my] locality", because my high school wasn't built until 1956!  

Yeah, I know... That's exactly the kind of excuse-laden, non-positive thinking that never won me any class honors beyond "Most Likely to Collect a Lot of Comic Books".  

In addition to our esteemed Mr. Friedman, REAL SCREEN COMICS # 15 featured a number of other role-model types for "what passed for the comic book nerds and geeks of 1947" to aspire to.  

On the INSIDE BACK COVER (the REVERSE of Tommy's page) was this...

Then again, if there was anyone I would have wanted to be, had I existed in 1947, it would most likely be the guy in THIS INTERIOR AD! 

Seriously, "Tommy" (or Mr. Friedman), if you're really out there, please accept my kidding in the spirit of kindly humor with which it is intended!  

Hope it all worked out exactly as you planned!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Comics DIGESTS?

 Wrong CAPTION, or wrong PHOTO... You decide...

If they're COMICS, I don't recognize any of the characters!  But the ART seems to be good, even if a tad small!  And wouldn't those POSTMARKS devalue the comic's condition from a FINE/NEAR MINT to a GOOD MINUS?  

But the worst thing about them is that they look VERY DIFFICULT TO READ! ...Kinda skimpy on PAGE COUNT, too!  

...Maybe they're COMICS DIGESTS?  ...But VERY SLIM comics digests!

Unlike this one...

Yeah, that's more like it!

Now, let's just try to keep it safe from those nasty, grade-devaluing postmarks!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Disney Mini (not Minnie) Giveaway Comics!

From the pages of BLONDIE #32 (Harvey Comics, Cover Date (July, 1951), we find this interesting promotion for Wheaties breakfast cereal... 

Now I wasn't an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but even *I* would "eat my Wheaties" to get my hands on these!

...Alas, not being alive in 1951, I had to do it the hard way! 

BTW, that's Paul Murry doing the cover for "Mickey Mouse and the Magic Mountain", as well as the interior art for "Donald Duck and the Inca Idol" the latter of which I wrote of an amazing fact about my particular copy HERE!

Harvey Eisenberg also did the interior for "Mickey Mouse and the Stagecoach Bandits", so there are lots of unexpected pleasures to be found among these little gems. 

And there were FOUR SETS of these (with eight mini-comics per set) released between 1950 and 1951. A worthy pursuit for any Disney comics completist!  

EXTRA ADDED ILLUSTRATION:

In my response to our great friend Sergio's comments, I added the following illustration! ...To see why, go to the Comments Section and and soak-up some '60's cereal pop (...with no "snap" or "crackle") culture! 

Just for the record: I hung all of those Pooh toys on the rim of my cereal bowl, as pictured on the box front!  I did not, however, attach them to my pencils, as pictured on the box side!  ...That just seemed too painful a thing to do to a beloved Bear of Little Brain!