Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Where's Walt... Oh!

The traditionalists among us, myself included, tend to lament the corporate morphing of the name Walt Disney into just plain "Disney"...or "Disney's" - demonstrating, perhaps, the omnipresent possessiveness of the ever-gobbling media giant over even its founder. 

But, we find an unusual example of the converse in the pages of DELL FOUR COLOR #805 SCAMP (Dell Comics, Cover Date: June, 1957) in the ad copy for Dell's CHIP 'N' DALE comic...

Take a gander at the possessive proper noun, and blink with wonder! 

 

Yes, the two chatterbox chipmunks could certainly be referred-to as "WALT'S CHIP 'N' DALE", as it's not too difficult to figure out who "WALT" is!  

It's not THIS GUY...

Or THIS GUY!  

But, ya gotta wonder where the "Disney" went, and how its absence passed through a presumed series of editorial reviews.  

...Maybe this is an example of REAL "Disney Magic"!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Oswald's Full-Page Cross-Promotion!

While everybody loves Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, I'll bet few have thought of him in terms of a comic book pitchman... or "pitch-rabbit", if you will.  

But, take a gander at this ad from LOONEY TUNES AND MERRIE MELODIES COMICS #22 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: August, 1943), where Oswald steps up to plug his own Dell Comics title - NEW FUNNIES!  

The ad is on the inside back cover and, because of that positioning, note how Oswald presumes that you have just finished reading this issue of LOONEY TUNES, with a direct reference to "the adventures of Bugs Bunny and his pals", before making his pitch!  

We liked 'em just fine, Oswald!  In fact, they were GREAT!  

Oswald throws it to his NEW FUNNIES co-stars...

Then comes back for the clincher!

OH, MAN... I AM SOOOO THERE!  (...or I would have been if I were around in 1943!) 

Gotta love that early design on Woody Woodpecker!  

I guess Oswald was chosen for this, so he could do a "rabbit segue" from Bugs...

...Leaving me to wonder if Bugs ever took control of the inside back cover of an issue of NEW FUNNIES for similar purposes! 

After all, he CAN be a little "enthusiastic" at times...

For an ACTUAL example of a comic book subscription ad that Bugs invaded, look no further than HERE!  

You get the feeling that Oswald, at least, did it with the proper permissions!

 

That's All [New Funnies] Folks!

Separated at Mirth: KNOT Now, Boys!

The various and sundry "Scouting Organizations" that tend to pop-up in comics may be good for young boys, but they can be murder on a guy's lawn! 

Just ask Oswald the (one-time "lucky") Rabbit and Donald Duck, as they find themselves... "Separated at Mirth!" 

DELL FOUR COLOR # 541 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: April 1954).

WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES # 260 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: May 1962) - By Carl Barks.

There's an ADDITIONAL INSTANCE for Donald...

HUEY DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS # 9  (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April 1971) - By Kay Wright.

Things to note: 

Carl Barks CREATED the concept of the super-scouting JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS organization in the 1950s, but HIS 1962 cover gag depicts the boys as more generic scouts!  

Kay Wright, by the positioning of EVERY ELEMENT of his cover for HUEY DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS # 9, clearly based his cover on that of Barks for WDC&S # 260.  

Ironically, it was Kay Wright, and not Carl Barks, who properly depicts the boys as Junior Woodchucks...  Though, considering the TITLE of the series, how could he not?  

Kay Wright really wasn't THAT terrible an artist... when he was copying Carl Barks' layouts as above, that is!  ...Of course, I will never forgive him for stuff like THIS...

Though Huey, Dewey, and Louie have been most associated with scouting over the decades, it was Oswald's adopted sons (NOT NEPHEWS!), Floyd and Lloyd, who did the gag first! 

The adoption occurs... 

From WALTER LANTZ NEW FUNNIES # 135 (Cover Date: May, 1948).  Art by Lloyd White.  (Gotta wonder if one of the bunny-boys was named after Mr. White, as he first drew them!) 

But, as noted, Donald Duck and his nephews have long been associated with scouting, as evidenced by this cover from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES # 11 (Cover Date: August 1941) and the animated shorts.  

And, what was Oswald doing in his more-carefree, pre-parenthood days?  

And, with that hearty raspberry from Oswald (...back in his "Lucky Rabbit" days) you have DELL FOUR COLOR # 541 (1964), WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES # 260 (1962), and HUEY DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS # 9 (1971) - Separated at Mirth! 


Oh, no... wait!  Here comes Charlie Chicken... yes, THAT "Charlie Chicken"...

...To remind us that HE, TOO, did the "Garden Hose, Knot Tying" cover gag in ANDY PANDA # 35 (Cover Date: August/October, 1956)!  

And, having done so in 1956, he did it before any of those "Ducky-Come-Lately" scouts... Junior Woodchucks, or otherwise!  

Also, Charlie was SO SLY that he was the only one NOT TO GET CAUGHT IN THE ACT!  

...SEE? 

There he goes, innocently tying a piece of string... proving to a suspicious Andy that (...wait for it) he "Knows Knotting!" 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Christmas in... May?

As you might know, Saturday is often a day reserved for reading comics! 

But, Friday, May 24, 2019 was a PERFECT spring day, with a nice wafting breeze felt through the front bay window - at which I read NEW FUNNIES # 71 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: January, 1943 - the Christmas, 1942 issue)!

I had just received this comic the day before, and couldn't think of a better time or situation (the house was empty, quiet, and spring-breezy) to enjoy this bygone treasure!

Didn't matter that it was a CHRISTMAS ISSUE in May, I enjoyed it all the same! 

BACK COVER:  Say, aren't there supposed to be EIGHT reindeer?  Oh, wait... The other four are off reading NEW FUNNIES!  ...That must be it! 

And I KNOW Santa is supposed to be "magical", but how is his arm and wrist able to SLIP BEHIND THE PRINTING on the Gift Card? 

Then again, this wouldn't be the first feat of Christmas Magic he performed for an issue of NEW FUNNIES, would it? 

You can read about that little bit of Christmas in summer HERE! 

But, back to (AHEM!) The Issue At Hand...

Ya gotta love the "Little Andy" in the upper left corner... trying to call attention to the fact that A CANDLE IS SETTING THE LOGO ON FIRE! 

Hopefully, the outcome would be no more serious than Raggedy Ann and her "two Andys" merely being COATED WITH CANDLE WAX (as was the "case-times-two" HERE)! 

...After all, even though it's actually MAY, it's still "Christmas" - and nothing bad should ever happen on Christmas! 

RIGHT?  

RIGHT! 

Especially something as BAD as me playing around with images like this!  

Spending a Sunny but Blustery Saturday Afternoon - in the Way I Like It Best!

For just about all of my life, Saturday has always been my favorite day of the week!  

Clearly, this began once I started school, and Saturday was the first day of the week I could stay home!     

And was made all the more sweet by the proliferation of Saturday morning cartoons!  (...Back when they were GOOD!)

In more "adult" years, school was replaced by work, and all the once-great Saturday morning cartoons had died a long and painfully prolonged sanitized death (those great few years of "Kids WB" excepted)...

But Saturday remained my favorite day of the week!  Sunday was for chores.  Still is!  Also, as Sunday afternoon gave way to evening, a sinking feeling of... not exactly "depression" but perhaps something in that vicinity took over in dread anticipation of the new work week to come!  

Funny thing is, now that I've been retired (from my original career of 35 years - not comics writing... just yet!) for almost two years (!) - and neither school nor work impinges upon my life - Saturday is STILL my favorite day of the week!  

Looking at it logically, there is no reason for this feeling to persist... but it does!  

Perhaps... as with so many things... it has to do with... comic books!  

In the early days, when the Saturday cartoons were over for the week, what did I turn to in the afternoon?  Comic books!  The cartoons were done, but I could (and DID) enjoy comic books all Saturday afternoon long!  

No, that's not ME!  Yes, I WOULD be reading DONALD DUCK (...at least until the latter part of 2018, when such standard format comics became "too simplified" for even this kid), but I would never have allowed myself to be posed and photographed with all those STAR WARS comics!  

During my working years, to celebrate the weekend (since I am not in the habit of getting drunk), what did I turn to?  Comic Books!

And, since I WAS working so much and so long during the week, Saturday was the time for my weekly comic shop visit - and be home in the early to mid afternoon to enjoy my purchases!  

So, Saturday afternoons have always been, for me, associated with (...all together now) comic books!  As I detailed HERE, while still in my (over)-working years!  

Fast forward to TODAY (as I write this) Saturday March 23, 2019... A pleasant, sunny (but not hot) afternoon, just a tad too blustery to enjoy being outside... I had to return my neighbor's trash can from having blown onto my lawn TWICE today, to give you an example!  

What do I turn to on a Saturday afternoon like this?  Do I really need to say... COMIC BOOKS!  

  Get 'em by the BOX, folks!  

And so, in a quiet room upstairs, I turned a chair toward the sun-facing west window and from about 4 PM to about 6:30, when the natural light had faded too deeply into darkness, I spent one of those "Great-Old-Saturday-Afternoons" reading the following comic books from cover to glorious cover!  

MUTT AND JEFF # 144 (Harvey Comics, Cover Date: March, 1965).  MUTT AND JEFF bounced around several publishers before that practice was as commonplace as it would be from the 1970s - onward.  DC Comics 1939-1958...  Dell Comics 1958-1959... and ending at Harvey Comics 1960-1965.  

It was with Harvey that I first discovered Mutt and Jeff, with this issue in 1960 (Yes, as mentioned elsewhere, I was reading comic books before I started school!)...

 MUTT AND JEFF # 120

...And, not long after, discovered their daily and Sunday comic strip (from which nearly ALL their comic book material was reprinted) in a local newspaper!  

Alas, the MUTT AND JEFF comic book would end four issues after this one...

...In late 1965!  But, I remain a fan because I'm such a sucker for old corny humor!   This particular comic was chosen for its "snow gag" cover and interior content, as a way of saying good-bye to Winter 2018-2019!  

Since Mutt and Jeff always leave me wanting more, I followed that up with MUTT AND JEFF # 77 (DC Comics, Cover Date: March 1955), ten years before MUTT AND JEFF # 144)...

...Because there's no such thing as too much Mutt and Jeff!  And, in keeping with our "Winter turning to Spring" motif, notice that the SNOW of Issue # 144 has become the RAIN of Issue # 77!   

While in the midst of reading MUTT AND JEFF # 77, the rest of my Saturday afternoon reading was set by a fortuitous visit by our letter carrier delivering a package from Lone Star Comics, containing the following two issues... 

NEW FUNNIES # 102 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: August, 1945) inadvertently made for the perfect transition from "Mutt and Jeff's Winter and Spring" to "Andy Panda and Charlie Chicken's Summer"!  

Given this, I *had* to read it next!   A great issue, as they all were during this period, the highlight of which was the very early version of Woody Woodpecker as a park-cleaner/trash-man pursuing a windblown piece of paper litter all over town - for six silent pages - written and drawn by John Stanley, no less!   

Sharing that "goodie-box" from Lone Star was REAL SCREEN COMICS # 41 (DC Comics, Cover Date: August, 1951).

Highlights here are the Fox acquiring a BIRD DOG to sniff-out the thieving Crow, with great dialogue between Crow and Dog, presaging the verbal slights-of-hand (of tongue?) that would be the hallmark of the later "The Hounds and the Hare" feature that would appear regularly in THE FOX AND THE CROW comic title)... and the great favorite of mine "Flippity and Flop" (canary and cat, and the dog "Sam") running away from home rather than work hard for "the mistress" all summer!  

...Oh, yes, there was also THIS on the back cover!  

(Sigh!)  Ya know, the kids back in 1951 had some REALLY GREAT COMICS, but not a whole lot else!  Having to entertain myself with something like this might have turned EVEN ME to juvenile delinquency!  

Finally, while not newly-delivered today, but in keeping with the REAL SCREEN COMICS groove - and offering just one more good-bye to winter, I ended my wonderful day of comics reading with REAL SCREEN COMICS # 5 (DC Comics, Cover Date: April-May, 1946).

The sun had already begun "sinking slowly in the west" and I knew that, while my sun-facing window would *continue facing west*, it would soon quit facing the now-setting-sun (nature's reading lamp).  I would not likely finish reading REAL SCREEN COMICS # 5 before darkness descended.  

I was right, and resumed after breaking for dinner!  But so went a perfect day, in which I took a break from all the things that normally make me (...all together now) "horrifically busy"... and relished that which I enjoy most in the world (that is EXCEPT FOR ESTHER AND AVERI)...

...That being READING COMIC BOOKS ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON!  

I'll end by asking all of you a question...

What is your favorite time / place / circumstance, etc.  for comics reading?  Now, or at any other time of life.  

Your "Saturday Afternoon", so to speak... and why?   Let's have some interesting contributions!  I look forward to them!