TIAHBlog at 16 Presents (Not 16 Candles, but) 16 Covers!

We've all had individual and specific life-changing days!  Days which, for better or bitter, we will always remember!  I, personally, have had many... on BOTH sides of the "Good vs. Bad" ledger! Far too many to bog (...or BLOG) you down with here, even if I *were* inclined to do so.  

But Thursday, August 14, 2008 was one I thought little or nothing about... until some time well after when, as we often do with such days, come to later realize their import.  

It was a day when Esther was away for work and I had nothing to do... yes, REALLY!  This guy who did not *create* the phrase (all together now) "HORRIFICALLY BUSY",  but has since assumed virtual ownership of it - especially when preceded by a parenthetical "(all together now)" - really had nothing to do!  

New DVD day was Tuesday.  New comic book day was Wednesday.  And I wouldn't have a "Thursday Night Film Group" until 2012... so what was I to do?  

Well, to quote the great Doctor Zachary Smith of LOST IN SPACE: 

"Boredom, like necessity, is very often the mother of invention!" 

There were a LOT of Blogs around back then, many of which I admired and visited regularly. (Today, alas, not so much!)  And, while I might not have *actually been* a "writer" at that point, at least I fancied myself as one - what with over 300 comic book Letters of Comment, and regular appearances in Fanzines and APAs since 1994 under the title "THE ISSUE AT HAND" (affectionally shortened to "TIAH")!  

Then, I was struck by one of those "Chocolate and Peanut Butter" moments and thought I like BLOGS, and I like writing TIAH... so why not combine them into TIAHBlog?  

The rest has been 16 years of history (with much FUN) and counting!  

A constant in my life ever since - and one which, I'll readily admit, I let lapse a bit more often than I'd care to - but, unlike all the other things I've written for, both amateur and professionally, this is the ONE THING that's MINE and no one can take it from me... Okay, okay... Maybe Google, but you know... 

So, HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN to TIAHBlog!  

But, instead of the song-standard SIXTEEN CANDLES, we will celebrate with SIXTEEN COVERS!

One each day for the NEXT SIXTEEN DAYS!  Can I manage that?  Well, stop by each day for the next SIXTEEN and see if I can live up to that ambition!  

They will be SIXTEEN COVERS that I like for one reason or another - or maybe it's just the 16th issue of something!  The beauty of it is that even I won't know until I post it!   

But, to kick things off, we shall begin with one that was (and remains) a long-standing joke between David Gerstein and myself... FELIX THE CAT #2 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: April-May, 1948), which I jokingly dubbed "SIX-SCREAM CANDLES", despite the incontrovertible fact that there is only ONE CANDLE present!

You can read the HOW and WHY at THIS POST!  

And, as a bonus - not to be counted among our own "SWEET SIXTEEN COVERS" - is the cover of  POPULAR COMICS #139 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: September, 1947) and dubbed in the linked post as "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF DECEASED"...

...A gag on a particular favorite classic TV show of mine...

So, one down and 15 more to go... Come back tomorrow to see where we go from here!  

Happy Thanksgiving 2022!

When it comes to Thanksgiving in comics, every now and then (...perhaps even more often than not) the turkey comes out on top.  ...Usually after some fierce battle (with or without wits) or an intrusive mitigating circumstance.

But here, in FELIX THE CAT #37 (Toby Press, Cover Date: January 15, 1953 - corresponding to Thanksgiving 1952... 70 years ago!), we find a pair of turkeys getting a more passive break courtesy of Felix himself! 

Felix uses a passing sawfish to cut firewood... (Click to Enlarge)

...And unknowingly saves a pair of turkeys from the dinner table by borrowing an axe (which we can fervently hope is the only one in town)...

...And gets run off by a bear for his troubles!

Hopefully, there are no local axe-emporiums running pre-Black-Friday sales this year!  ..."Axes R Us", anyone?  

Sequence is from a Felix newspaper strip continuity by Otto Messmer that is reprinted in FELIX THE CAT #37.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING, ALL!  

Separated at Mirth: Of Cats, Mice, and Brooms!

Today's "Mirth Separation" features FELIX THE CAT # 14 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: April-May, 1950)...

...And TOM AND JERRY # 220 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: August, 1964)

Both Felix and Tom are at the ready before a mousehole with a swatting broom, unaware that Skidoo the Mouse and Jerry and Tuffy (respectively) are hiding in the very instrument each cat wields as a weapon!  

Further, each cover has a red background...

...And, if you mash them together like this, they could be standing on both sides of the same wall (or, more likely, AROUND A CORNER from one another), covering an "entrance to" and an "exit from" the very same mousehole!   

If you'd care to delve deeper (...and WHO among you would NOT?), you could also note the different esthetics on display in service to the exact same gag!  

The well-worn broom wielded by Felix, and Skidoo's rough-hewn mousehole suggest the more hardscrabble times as the 1940s segued into the 1950s.

In contrast, Tom's "new broom" and Jerry and Tuffy's neat and esthetically-pleasing mousehole (...that is, if it's at all possible for a mousehole to be "esthetically-pleasing") - not to mention that the "Tom and Jerry wall and floor" look as if they've been FRESHLY PAINTED vs. Felix's shabbier background - suggest the softer and more prosperous 1960s!

And I get a little tickle from imagining Jerry and Tuffy and Skidoo as "mousehole neighbors"...

...Sharing a medicine cabinet, as Chuck McCann and Bill Fiore did in the unforgettable "Right Guard Deodorant" commercials!  

Finally, can't you just see Tom and Felix swatting each other, as the mice jump to safety?! 

TOM AND JERRY cover is by Harvey Eisenberg.  FELIX THE CAT cover is by Otto Messmer. 

There you have TOM AND JERRY # 220 and FELIX THE CAT # 14, brooms, mouseholes, and suckered cats... SEPARATED AT MIRTH!  

I’m Not an Artist, But… Still "Famous" After All This Dime ...er, TIME!

Not quite certain if this should be pigeonholed into the "I’m Not an Artist, But…" subset.  Maybe more like "I’m Not a Cover Editor, But…".  

Here is MY COPY of FELIX THE CAT #83 (Harvey Comics, Cover Date: May, 1957).  See anything unusual... especially after taking a clue from the TITLE of this post?  

If not, let's dolly in closer for a more detailed look!

Okay, I dunno about you but, when I see this, I can't help but wonder if it's telling me that the FELIX THE CAT *comic book* is "STILL 10¢" (the presumed purpose) -- OR if Felix *himself* is "STILL the World's Most Famous Cat"! 

That little bit of cover copy should have been left above the title logo, as it usually was. 

 But, then again, "I’m Not an Artist, OR a Cover Editor, But…"!  

...Oh, and while we're at it, let's give a quick shout-out to "BRUCE" (up there) for being one of the many "GHOSTS" in my collection!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: This Can't End Well for Felix!

Sometimes ya just gotta let these darn fool cartoon and comics characters learn a lesson for themselves...

Consider MARCH OF COMICS #24 Felix the Cat (1949)...

It was winter and it was cold, I'll grant you... but, rather than stay up in New York and stick it out, Felix literally WALKS all the way down to Georgia - where (you guessed it), he finds it much too hot!  

Silly cat!  Maybe if you stopped somewhere around Virginia, you'd have saved yourself - and your FEET - lots of trouble.  But, you know how cats are... All or nothing!  

To his cat-credit, he stops complaining and does something about it...

But, what he does... OH, WHAT HE DOES!  

NO, FELIX! DON'T!  ...THINK IT THROUGH FIRST!  

THERE'S STILL TIME TO AVOID DISASTER!  

I CAN SEE IT COMING A MILE AWAY... CANT YOU?  

A LITTLE HEAT AND SUNBURN IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT AWAITS YOU! 

LAST CHANCE!  I'M WARNING YOU! 

OH, WAIT... I'M SITTING HERE IN 2021, AND THIS COMIC WAS PUBLISHED IN 1949 - AND, TO MAKE MATTERS EVEN MORE DIFFICULT, IT REPRINTS THIS FELIX NEWSPAPER STRIP FROM 1932...

 HE CAN'T HEAR ME!  HE CAN'T HEAR ME!  

 FELIX!  FEEE-LIIIIX!  NOOOOOOO!  

I'M SORRY, OLD FRIEND... I CAN DO NAUGHT BUT WATCH IN HORROR, AS NATURE TAKES IT COURSE!  I'M SO SORRY!  

THIS IS IT! 

OOOHHHH!  I CAN'T LOOK! 

NOOOOOOO! 

OH, FELIX... BEING A CAT, I THOUGHT YOU'D KNOW A LITTLE MORE ABOUT BIRDS!  

BUT NO! YOU'RE IN FOR A RATHER RUDE AWAKNING!

IN FACT, YOU MAY EVEN WAKE UP "A CAT OF A DIFFERENT COLOR"! 

Any old CAR knows THAT! 

...It's SNOW on that car, folks... what do you think I am?  

While Felix is washing-off in a nearby creek, we'll end with a link to my GCD Index for this issue!

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Why Dialogue Matters!

Comic book dialogue is VERY important... and not just because people pay me to write it, but because it can delightfully enhance when good - and seriously blunt when bad - the gag it's associated with!  

Take this example from DELL FOUR COLOR #135 FELIX THE CAT (Dell Comics: Cover Date: February, 1947)...

A mad scientist has created a death ray that Felix has stolen and reversed the polarity, creating instead a "life-ray"!  You know... bringing things to life, rather than killing them.  

The expected chase ensues, and one of Felix's delaying tactics is to bring a billboard of a tough boxing champ to life, just in time to kay-o the mad scientist!  

Now, the gag is good enough on its own, but the added dialogue "Boy! - I thought I'd never let that punch go!"  implies that, for as long as that billboard has been around, the boxer has been "frozen" in some sort of "eternal wind-up" and could never release that built-up energy, until Felix intervened!

That is what puts the gag into "Laugh-Out-Loud-Territory"... at least for me!  ...And that's why good dialogue matters!  

 

Even The Beagle Boys know THAT!