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!  

Separated at Mirth: Bob Hope - "The Monarch Who's Mediocre!"

Surely, at some point, someone must have described BOB HOPE as "The King of Comedy"!  

Whether or not it ever happened, the covers of THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 58 (DC Comics, Cover Date: August-September, 1959)...

...And THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 89 (DC Comics, Cover Date: October-November, 1964)...

...Make a good case for a "Hope Mirthful Monarchy"!  

Check 'em out side-by-side...

Same layout, but different setting! 

Same guy about to jab Bob... once as a Black Knight, and once as a Centurion! 

SAME EXACT DIALOGUE BALLOON! 

  

The adoring females vary slightly, in both looks and positioning!  

But, most strangely of all... these are TWO VERY DIFFERENT STORIES!  One is not a remake of the other!  Each is unique unto itself!

Yet, they not only share the SAME COVER GAG - thus becoming our latest "Separation At Mirth", but also share the same cover LAYOUT and DIALOGUE!  

You won't see that happen very often!  

THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 58 cover is drawn by Owen Fitzgerald. 

THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 89 cover is drawn by Mort Drucker. 

Oh, and lest I forget, if anyone doesn't get the gag in our SUBJECT HEADER ("The Monarch Who's Mediocre!"), here's the inspiration for that!  

"Mickey Mouse as The Monarch of Medioka" - a classic Mouse Tale, by the great Floyd Gottfredson! 

See?  We'd never leave you hanging, now would we?  

...Though we may leave Bob Hope "hanging"... until he "gets the point"...

...Which, regardless of historical era, looks to be any second now!  

Before he yelps in pain, let's say so long and leave you with THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 58 and THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 89... Separated at Mirth! 

PS: Perhaps Bob might not have been "stuck with his fate" (...or whatever you call those pointy things), if HE had also been "SUPERMAN'S PAL" like Jimmy Olsen! 

THAT'S the kind of "pal" I'd wanna have! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Name That Comedian!

There's something inside LOIS LANE # 50 (DC Comics, Cover Date: July, 1964) that stumps even a grizzled Silver Age maven such as myself...

In an incidental bit that has no impact on the story itself - and, thus, requires no further elaboration on the part of writer or artist - Lois pays a visit to Professor Potter, the Silver Age Superman continuity's version of Carl Barks' all-purpose inventor Gyro Gearloose. 

In our story, Potter has invented a "TV comedian robot", with interchangeable "COMEDIAN HEADS" that perform the routines of the comic whose "head" is attached.  (Click to enlarge!)  

In 1964, I watched ALL those guys... yet, there is one I simply cannot name!

In Potter's hand is Phil Silvers!  Attached to the robot's body is Bob Hope!

On the console TOP are Jerry Lewis and Jimmy Durante!  

On the console BOTTOM are Groucho Marx... and WHOM? 

Drawing a blank (...no, it's not Mel Blanc!)...

...I asked Esther, whose "facial recognition skills" far outstrip my own - and she thought it might be  Buddy Hackett!  

I don't believe the "mystery head" to be round and fat enough, nor the nose bulbous enough, to be Buddy Hackett!  Surely, the NECK is too thin, in any event! 

But, I really can't figure out who it's supposed to be!  Remember, it must be someone who was famous in 1964!  

The only thing I can come up with is that it could be Bob Denver as beatnik Maynard G. Krebs from the TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"! 

And then only because DC produced comics based on Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and Phil Silvers... 

...And also published a DOBIE GILLIS title!  

Only I just don't think so!  

Considering that there were such GIANTS from which to choose - Jack Benny, George Burns, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason (all of whom could have been easily - and recognizably - caricatured) one wonders how this apparent "mystery man" found his way into this "Pantheon of the Comedy Gods"!  

It's not Dick Van Dyke, or Johnny Carson... I'm really baffled!

You're all invited to send your guesses in the form of comments!  ...Help a Blogger (...and beloved Disney Comics translator and dialogue creator) out won'tcha? 

WAIT!  Perhaps that's not a SHADOW under "the unknown comic's" chin... but a BEARD!  

If it IS a beard, it COULD be "future Gilligan" Bob Denver as Dobie Gillis' pal "Maynard G. Krebs"!

But, would Maynard G. Krebs (or Dobie Gillis, for that matter) be in the same class of comedic fame as the others?  ...Again, I just don't think so!  ARRRGH!  

I'll bet not even the rest of these guys know who that is!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: The Beagle Boys vs. ...Bob Hope?

A lot of people (...if by "a lot of people", I mean nobody - ever, past present, and very likely future) have been wondering (...if by "wondering", it would never cross their minds if they lived forever-and-a-day) what an encounter between Bob Hope and The Beagle Boys would be like!

(...If by "encounter", we mean three B-Boys jump one comedian, of course!) 

I mean, we've had The Beagle Boys vs. Uncle Scrooge...

...Even achieving a title of its own!

The Beagle Boys vs. Donald Duck!

...And, on occasion, even The Beagle Boys vs. Mickey Mouse (...via the Phantom Blot)!

...Or Gyro Gearloose!

But... BOB HOPE?

Wait no longer, because the moment is at hand (why am I thinking about the name of this Blog, all of a sudden?)... or WAS at hand way back in THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE # 40 (DC Comics, Cover Date: August-September, 1956)!

Ready... Wait for it... Okay, HERE GOES!

...So, what did you expect, a REAL multi-company crossover?  

If the Beagle Boys existed in Bob Hope's tiny corner of the DC Comics Universe, they would have to be "human-like" and this is probably how such an unlikely occurrence would appear! 

In fact, since they have no prison numbers on their shirts, I'm betting they'd even have names... like "Bo, Barry, and Burly Beagle"!

But their "accosting actions" would remain the same, regardless of "Universe"!

Awww, no... something that off-the-(prison)-wall, could never happen... could it? 

Why that would be as preposterous as Bob Hope meeting The Marvelous Mad Madam Mim!   

...In her alias as "Madam Olga", of course!