Questions You Never Asked: Who was the First Disney Comics “Super Villain”?

In comics, we take the concept of the “super villain” so much for granted that it’s small wonder this is a “Question You Never Asked”. There are “villains” and there are “super villains”. The fine line of interpretation comes down to the scope of their villainy and, quite frankly, the impression they make on both their “good” or heroic counterparts – and the readers.

The Beagle Boys, for example, (…even during Carl Barks’ “Terrible Beagle Boys” phase) for all their enduring tenacity, would probably not be considered “super villains” because they do their thing with mere trickery and brute force. The same criteria also eliminates Peg Leg/Black Pete.

Magica De Spell, by contrast, qualifies, due to her supposedly supernatural abilities – even if a fair amount of that is also “trickery” of sorts. Evil Inventor Emil Eagle also gets a talon in the door, by virtue of his scientific prowess and his “crossover appeal” as a foe to both the “Duck and Mouse” groups of characters.
Even a relative newcomer like alien criminal Tachyon Farflung gains entry to the club, given his otherworldly technology. And Don Rosa’s Black Knight hits all the nasty notes as well. But, just who might be Disney comics’ FIRST “super villain”?

The immediate reaction would be to say The Phantom Blot, one of the most memorable malefactors to menace Mickey Mouse, waaay back in 1939. He certainly qualifies in the “fear factor” department, and has the reputation with both fellow characters and readers alike.

But, while there may be no definitive answer to this question, one answer MAY lie in the TERM “super villain” itself.

It’s opposite; the term “super hero” has been around seemingly since the Golden Age of Comic Books (Predominantly: The 1940s) , if not longer. However, I’m truly at a loss to pin down when – and by whom – the term “super villain” was coined. Even Wikipedia’s entry for the term “super villain” (Click HERE) defines it and provides examples throughout the history of fiction… but offers no definitive origin of the term itself.
I’m not entirely certain that the term “super villain”, as such preceded Comic Books’ Silver Age (Predominantly: The 1960s) – when most of the conventions of super heroics born of the Golden Age were fleshed-out and SOLIDIFIED into the basic tenets that still apply today.

To my knowledge, the term “super villain” had never appeared in a DISNEY comic book… until (Drum roll!) MICKEY MOUSE # 111 – released in December of that unforgettable year – 1966!

Yes, indeed… According to the cover caption “A SUPER VILLAIN operates a dynamite-filled blimp in… THE MIDNIGHT MYSTERIES”!

Ah… BINGO!
In this lead detective adventure tale by writer Vic Lockman and artist Tony Strobl, said “Super Villain” turns out to be the rather presumptuously (…and unoriginally) named “Crime King”!

The Crime King’s reign is quite short – the story was 14 pages long and he, himself, appears in a pathetically puny TWO PANELS (!) of those 14 pages, and was never seen again…

…BUT, at least by this line of reasoning, and quirks of both timing and terminology, we hereby salute “The Crime King” – Disney comics’ first “Super Villain”!

So modest is he, that we don’t even have an Internet scan to represent him! (…And heck, we even found one for Tachyon Farflung!)

Now, aren’t you sorry you never asked that question?

“Worst Packaging Ever!” The Simpsons Season 11.

THE SIMPSONS SEASON 12 will be released on DVD August 18, 2009.

I find myself curious about the TYPE OF PACKAGING it will employ. Hopefully, it will be improved over that for Season 11 (seen above), which was IMHO the “Worst Packaging Ever”!

Indeed, the S11 packaging was, without doubt, the WORST DVD packaging I’ve ever seen from a major studio! Packaging for TV DVD sets has been in decline lately (…see recent releases for PERRY MASON, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, FAMILY GUY, and the various Warner animation collections vs. what had once been typical for such series) – but this one was an experience all its own.

I opted for the “standard” illustrated packaging, as I’ve always done since the “sculpted head” packaging began. When I opened it… I COULDN’T FIND THE DISCS!!!

There was folded illustrated cardboard, with no discs on either side. For a moment, I was truly dumbfounded. Then I realized that the discs lie loose WITHIN pockets of the folded cardboard… and are NOT SECURED by anything.

Not only is this damaging to the Discs (Disc Three already had a noticeable imperfection causing me to return it for an exchange), but these are the MOST DIFFICULT DISCS TO ACCESS of any set I’ve purchased since the early days of 2004! Even the return clerk at Best Buy was flummoxed when opening the package to try to find the discs inside! Can you believe it?

Nothing designed for pleasure should require this much needless effort to remove from its packaging! How does a major studio like FOX approve such a thing! This is more akin to a one-dollar discount store PD package! Every bootleg, I’ve ever owned is more securely and sensibly packaged.

Oh, wait… I get the joke! They used “Krusty Brand” packaging! Never mind!

But, seriously... are they going to repeat the same mistake?

Hokey Wolf in “Chock Full Chuck Wagon” (1961)

Hokey Wolf would probably not be pleased that he is largely unremembered today… though he’d probably find a way to turn that to his advantage in some sort of scam or con-game.
 

Hokey, a Phil Silvers-inspired, smooth-talking wolf, tricked, conned, and mooched his way through the final season and a half of Hanna-Barbera’s THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW – replacing the very popular Yogi Bear, who had spun off into his own TV series.
                   
With his worshipful sidekick, Ding-a-Ling Fox in tow, Hokey did his best to meet the needs of the pair – primarily food and shelter – all the while avoiding anything resembling work.

Hokey Wolf cartoons (usually written by Warren Foster or Tony Benedict) were always enjoyable, but it occurs to me that he may have been overshadowed by the better known (…by virtue of a prime time TV slot and years of Sat AM repeats), “similarly Silvers-spawned” Top Cat – also produced by H-B for the 1961-1962 television season.

Indeed, Hokey Wolf was the only component character of the “Big-Three H-B Funny Animal Shows” of the time (HUCKLEBERRY HOUND, QUICK DRAW McGRAW, and YOGI BEAR) to not be granted at least a one-shot comic book from Dell or Gold Key Comics – back when Augie Doggie, Yakky Doodle, and even Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist (Guest starring creations of writer Michael Maltese, used in Snooper and Blabber and Snagglepuss cartoons!) received individual titles.

(Though comics-wise, Hokey and Ding DID appear as back-up guests in the regular Huckleberry Hound comic book and the three issue “catch-all” title Hanna-Barbera Bandwagon. Hokey also had one unusual and memorable team-up with Yogi Bear in Gold Key’s YOGI BEAR # 10 1962).

So it is that we celebrate Hokey Wolf at TIAH Blog with a favorite of mine: “Chock Full Chuck Wagon”, which pits Hokey against a “Yosemite Sam-like” western cook.

I love the bit where Hokey works a “trade” with the cook, as a “perfect-for-the-scene” piece of Hoyt Curtin stock music punctuates the unfolding of Wolf overmatching Man. Watch for this at about 3:28 in the cartoon.

Also great is Hokey’s sudden deadpan declaration of the exact point where he is “out of range” of the cook’s bullets at 1:14 (“This is far enough!”) – and his “callback” to it at 2:50.

A total side note: Excepts from this particular cartoon have been regularly used as “between-show-bumpers” by cable TV's Boomerang, so Hokey can take at least THAT little bit of notoriety with him to the “Home for Weary Cartoon Wolves” – where he’ll probably end up “owning the place” inside of two hours!

Hey, he just made ME write more about him than anyone has for over four decades… He’s just THAT GOOD!
  
Enjoy Doug Young as Ding-a-Ling and the befuddled chuck wagon master and the great Daws Butler (…about whom was said that he didn’t actually try to impersonate Phil Silvers – but, instead, did “what you expected Phil Silvers would SOUND LIKE”) as Hokey Wolf.
           …And, c’mon WB, let’s get Hokey Wolf and Seasons 2-4 of THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW to DVD!

“A Place Right Out of HIS-TOR-REE!”

As if we needed proof that Hanna-Barbera’s THE FLINTSTONES was about a family that existed in a long-ago and far-away time, the likes of which we’ll never see again, consider this:

In the opening title/theme credit sequence, Fred and family go to a DRIVE-IN MOVIE!


And, in the closing sequence, they stop off at a fast food restaurant with CAR HOP SERVICE!

Dude, that’s like “ancient history”, man!

Questions You Never Asked: When Did TV Shows Shrink?

Here’s a topic I don’t believe I’ve ever seen discussed in any meaningful way.

Over the years, TV shows “shrank”!


Observing DVD running times of shows from my prime viewing period of the Sixties, an hour-long show ran about an average of 50:00 to 52:00.

This would cover the period of Perry Mason, Outer Limits, Lost in Space, Star Trek TOS, Wild Wild West, Man From U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, etc.

There are two “modern” hour-long shows that I collect on DVD – Lost and Heroes. Their running times average 40:00 to 42:00. I’ll assume that is the modern standard.

We’ve lost about Ten Minutes per hour show, and (I’d guess) a corresponding drop-off for half-hour shows. I’m curious as to when that happened.

I suspect it was slow and gradual… a minute here, two minutes there, until ten minutes were excised. I further suspect it happened over the seventies and eighties, but those periods are not well represented in my collection.

Further, did a series actually shrink over its run? I would assume so, if it straddled the periods in question. Ironside ran from 1967 thru 1975. I wonder if the later episodes are shorter than the earlier episodes. Hawaii Five-O might be an even better test case, given the length of its run (1968-1980).

This is why, on the RARE OCCSAION that you ACTUALLY SEE an older show these days, it is always edited – and never aired uncut. I’m curious as to how we went about losing those ten minutes.

I posed this to an online forum, and received a wide range of theories including: Deregulation of the FCC – or back when programs had “specific sponsors”, the ads for other products were limited to give the primary sponsor the most indelible impression with the audience – to just plain old, garden variety corporate greed. But, no clear and winning direction emerged.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome… and, if you see those missing ten minutes (times the number of shows per season!) of LOST or HEROES, please let me know – they might make great DVD extras!

Fantasy Baseball?

Quick, who played in the 1984 World Series?

How about the 1974 World Series?

Some of our favorite classic Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV shows thought they had the answer!

The 1967 LOST IN SPACE episode “The Haunted Lighthouse” revealed that the 1984 World Series was fought between the New York Mets and (what was then) the California Angels… with the Mets having scored at least 22 runs in one game!

1984, at it was seen from times past – thanks to George Orwell, was considered to be a scary year in which many strange and bizarre things would happen. A memorable World Series between 1967’s doormats of the National and American League would have seemed just another “walk-in-the-1984-(ball)-park” for the citizens of that “future year”.

…And, LIS was only TWO YEARS OFF, as the Mets actually DID compete in the 1986 WS – more about which below.

1974’s KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER episode “U.F.O.” had that year’s World Series going to the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs!

It seems very fitting that (what were at the time) the two “CURSED” teams would one-day meet for the championship of Major League Baseball – especially within the context of Kolchak!

Oddly, KOLCHAK, too, missed it by only ONE year, as the Red Sox went to the 1975 WS against the Cincinnati Reds. But, they lost that one – and lost the 1986 Series to the Mets on one of the All-Time Bad Breaks In Baseball History – continuing their “cursed” status until 2004.

Alas, the Cubs (at .500 at the mid-point of the 2009 MLB Season) remain “cursed” to this day – an unexplained phenomenon that even intrepid reporter and supernatural investigator Carl Kolchak couldn’t crack!

Look-out, Carl! That old "Cubs Curse" is once again stalking your city of Chicago!

MLB 2009 – Part Two Predictions!

Today begins the second half of the 2009 Major League Baseball season. And, though I’ve watched all or part of most New York Yankees game this year – and have attended four games, with tickets for two more – there’s been surprisingly little Yankees commentary on this Blog.

Three games before the All Star Break (the unofficial mid-point of the season) the Yankees were tied with archrivals the Boston Red Sox (Boooo!) for first place in the American League Eastern Division.

Then, they lost three in a row to the seemingly superior Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (…Now REALLY! They’ve GOTTA do SOMETHING about that name!), and ended the first half three games out – followed by last year’s American League champions the Tampa Bay Rays at 6.5 games out.

However, the Yankees have a 2.5 game lead in the race for the American League Wild Card over the Texas Rangers and 3.5 over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now considering that they’ve failed to best the Red Sox all year – and have managed precious few victories over the Angels – and somehow even managed to lose 2 out of 3 to the lowly Washington Nationals – the Yankees are in surprisingly good shape, as we start Part Two.

My prediction is that they will continue to flirt with first place (or “almost-first-place”) but fail to catch the Red Sox. I do believe they will take the Wild Card playoff spot, though.

As for the New York Mets, at 6.5 out, they will not catch the Philadelphia Phillies and – because there are too many superior contenders for the National League Wild Card – will sit out another post season.

In September, we’ll see just how right – or wrong – I turn out to be. See you then…