In Search of Ancient Bertrams # 2 "What’s Buzzin’, Bertram?"

 

One of a number of things I've become known for as a translator and dialogue writer/creator for European stories published in American Disney comic books is the use of the name "Bertram"! 
 

More is explained HERE! 

But where did my fondness for the name come from?  Well, it was first seen a comic from "my sainted sixties" of course - and, I'll identify it at some point - but for now "In Search of Ancient Bertrams" will spotlight various uses of "Bertram" in vintage comics that would eventually result in making the name a standard of my comics writing work!

Today's "Bertram" is courtesy of MARCH OF COMICS #81 (Western Publishing, 1952) Oswald the Rabbit!  Art by Lloyd White. 

Tired of the rabbit-routine, Oswald's adopted sons, Floyd and Lloyd, try living as birds.  Unfortunately, they still look like rabbits - and that attracts the hungry attentions of Bertram Buzzard, and his wife Beulah.  

 Look out kids, here comes "Big Bad Bertram"!

I'd venture to guess that Bertram might be a cousin (or something) to another, more famous Walter Lantz character... Woody Woodpecker's regular foe, Buzz Buzzard!  

Note the family resemblance!

Barely escaping, as all little comic book animals are wont to do (...and wouldn't we be sad if they didn't), Floyd and Lloyd do not fare well in the roles of fish or bears either! 

And, as expected, they resign themselves to being just plain rabbits, much to the relief of Poppa Oswald! 

Thanks in part to another "Ancient Bertram"... Bertram Buzzard! 

We've got a bounty of Bertrams in store for future installments of "In Search of Ancient Bertrams", so do come on back! 

...Come for the "Bertram"... Stay for the "Burgers"! 

In Search of Ancient Bertrams # 1 "Bertram's Boats"!

One of a number of things I've become known for as a translator and dialogue writer/creator for European stories published in American Disney comic books is the use of the name "Bertram"! 

I can't exactly articulate WHY this particular repeating quirk developed, and so pervaded the my body of work, but a very likely reason for HOW it did dates back to now-vague memories of an issue of BUGS BUNNY that I read in the 1960s.  I'm certain the particular story in question was a reprint from an earlier Dell issue.  

In it, the name "Bertram" was used... and I liked it.  It made me smile.  And, for some still unknown reason, it was funny... and it worked!   
"Bertram", in itself, is not an overtly funny name.  Indeed my first exposure to the name was "Bertram Cabot, Jr.", a pivotal character in the classic episode of THE OUTER LIMITS; "The Man Who Was Never Born" (1963), starring the late, great Martin Landau!  

But, somehow, in the context of the Bugs Bunny story (which I hope to identify and post on, when I locate it as part of The Great Comics Reorganization and Storage Retirement Project), the name WAS funny... and that feeling "stuck-with-me" from that point on! 

Once I was finally privileged to become part of the comic book creative process, I thought to "pay back" the writer of that dimly-remembered Bugs Bunny story and use the name in UNCLE SCROOGE # 275 (Gemstone, Cover Date: March, 2008), in the FIFTH story I ever worked on, as a gag-riff on the once-popular "Beefsteak Charlie's" restaurant chain.  

...And, I've been somewhat regularly "paying-it-forward" to readers (whether they want it, or not) ever since!  

 ...From "Burgers to Burgers" with Bertram!  

And so, as part of the aforementioned (...all together now) Great Comics Reorganization and Storage Retirement Project), I will, from time to time run across "ancient and forgotten Bertrams", scattered across my comics collection like a trail of breadcrumbs, and will report their rediscovery here as part of yet a new subset feature... "In Search of Ancient Bertrams"!

First up (or, more precisely, first FOUND) is from MICKEY MOUSE # 153 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: December, 1974) and the opening splash panel of its lead story "The Secret of Drake's Island", written by Carl Fallberg and drawn by Paul Murry (the comic-book-Mouse's most classic team of creators)!

Catch the SIGN at the lower-most right... "BERTRAM'S BOATS"!  

With a presumed extra-special bonus reference to writer and editor Del Connell - "Catch the Big Ones with Delbert"!

"The Secret of Drake's Island" was originally published in MICKEY MOUSE # 67 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: August-September, 1959), though the reprint referenced here was the first version of the story that *I'd* seen!  

We shall return with more "In Search of Ancient Bertrams", as such Bertrams are uncovered!