I’m Not an Artist (...or an Editor), But… "What's Wrong With This Cover?"

Here is PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM #3 (Charlton Comics, Cover Date: May, 1972), a comic I've had for months but, it wasn't until I decided to read it today that I noticed something wrong with this cover!  

Anyone wanna take a quick guess as to what? 

No, huh? 

How 'bout you?  Yeah, you?  Take a shot!  Win a prize!  Oh, wait?  No prize?  Okay, then... How about for good old personal satisfaction?  

Hmmm... good guess, but not quite!  No, it's not the GOLD FILLINGS in that rhino-o-saurus' mouth!  Look closely and you'll see them!  Or, is that just a case of Charlton using a little too much yellow?  We'll never know!  

Okay, here's a hint...

Take a look at the book's LOGO...

...Now, look at the cover again...

See anything unusual?  

No?  

Look again... 

LOGO...

COVER... 

Ya get the feeling that something - or someone - is missing?  

...No?  

Maybe if we focus in a little tighter on that logo...

C'mon... Do we have to hit you over the head with it?  

Look again... 

YES! YES! YES!  

PEBBLES IS MISSING FROM THIS COVER!!!  

And, with so many Bedrock teens on the cover,  I didn't even notice until looking closely!  

...Did you?  

Or, bigger question, did Charlton's editors?  

...Ohhh, Charlton... You've done it again!  

"Don't laugh, Bamm-Bamm... They didn't PAY me for that one!"

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Sometimes the Mark is Missed!

Euro Disney comics have been putting us silly Americans to utter shame since at least the 1970s, when the best we could muster-up was art by Kay Wright, Bob Gregory, and a Roger Armstrong who was not even a shadow of his former self!  Not to mention an almost absurd over-reliance on scripts by Vic Lockman, resulting in more substandard work than his (generally good, and sometimes even great) talents would indicate!

THE most egregious example of Kay Wright and Vic Lockman at their VERY WORST! 

So, far be it from me to to be openly critical of the usually fine Disney comics work produced by my fellow European creators! 

But, sometimes, even they can miss the mark, and so it was when someone(s) tried to rip-off the cover of HUEY, DEWEY AND LOUIE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS #22 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1973) for Walt Disney's Ekstra-Haefte #4/1975...  

All I can say is... How Much Inappropriately Placed Character Usage could a Woodchuck Chuck, if a Woodchuck Could Chuck Inappropriately Placed Character Usage!  

Ironically, the original (and far better) American cover is penciled by the very same Kay Wright whose shockingly bad "artwork" (quotes intentional) is seen at the top of this post!  Thankfully, in this case, Wright was inked by the competent Larry Mayer, saving a specimen of Kay Wright's art as much as such a thing can be saved!  

So, hey "Ekstra-Haefte guys"... YOU'RE EUROPEANS!  If you're going to rip off a Kay Wright drawing, you MUST HAVE SOMEONE BETTER  to do the job, rather than looking as if you... (I can barely type the words)... traced Kay Wright... as if anyone would ever WANT to do such a thing!  

And WHY UNCLE SCROOGE?!  Donald Duck was the best possible character to have been in the tent... um, "when the bough breaks"!  And even Kay Wright manages to give him a suitable put-upon expression... 

...With some help from Larry Mayer, so it wouldn't look like THIS!  

And, I repeat... WHY UNCLE SCROOGE?!  It's obvious that you're ripping-off the Gold Key cover, so why not do it all the way?  

Once you've slavishly duplicated every other element - down to the FLOWERS ON THE GROUND (!) what's the purpose of substituting Uncle Scrooge for Donald?  

It doesn't really make sense in terms of characterization as, again, Donald was the best possible character to sell the gag!  

...And, beyond that, Scrooge's EXPRESSION doesn't even FIT THE SITUATION!!! 

Tired and sweaty doesn't even connect to the gag!  

My guess is that this inappropriately used image is probably repurposed art from some other cover or story! 

Whatever the reason, we'll just chalk-up this misplaced image of Scrooge looking as if he just crawled across the Gobi Desert to (...of all the inexplicable reasons in Heaven and Earth) be in a Kay Wright cover rip-off (!) to just another odd Adventure in Comic Boxing!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: You Never Know Who's Lurking in the Background!

Here's an interesting panel from THE FLASH # 202 (DC Comics, Cover Date: December, 1970), which shows not only the degree to which American society had changed at the time...

...But how much these COMICS themselves had changed since the "anything goes" imagination-burst of the Silver Age!  

The cover of  THE FLASH # 202, in contrast...

Certainly more dramatic, with some late '60s - mid '70s comic-book relevance added - but straight forward, and completely eschewing the unpleasant grotesqueries of today's comics!  

But, amid the greater era-reflecting visuals and relevance, we're here to "draw" (Get it? Because it's art?) some attention to a certain someone lurking in the background!  

Someone who is, in no way, connected to our story, but is there nonetheless as an apparent observer of the unusual culture that we had become.   

Look!  Between the caption box and the hippie's head...

IT'S THE "MIRROR-MIRROR UNIVERSE" VERSION OF STAR TREK'S MR. SPOCK!  

GO ON... TELL ME IT'S NOT!  

I think I might have discovered the first STAR TREK comic book crossover! 

A proud tradition that would someday lead us to places like THIS! 

And to think, it all started with this humble, hippie-like beginning!

Like WOW, man! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Here We Go Blathering (and) NUTS in May!

Just an hour or so late for May Day 2024, we present the perfectly picked cover of DELL FOUR COLOR #202 WOODY WOODPECKER (Dell Comics, Cover Date: November, 1948)!

It's MAY, he's BLATHERING... and, at this earlier stage of his development, he's certainly NUTS! 

And fitting for MAY DAY because, after he's treated you to his particular brand of annoying madness, you'll find yourself yelling "MAYDAY!" 

Oh, WAIT... Those aren't NUTS he's throwing about... they're NOTES!  

 ...So, I guess we can say that Woody's out [wait for it] "sewing his wild NOTES!"  

Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha! 

Separated at Mirth: 3-Ds Come in Threes!

The 3-D movie craze briefly flared-up and died-out in the mid-1950s!  It's apex being the year 1953. 

Now, I'm not about to say that comic books were "behind the times" (...because, far more often than not, they looked forward rather than backward) but apparently, in comic books, the 3-D movie craze held on into the next decade...or two!  

For evidence of this, we need look no further than today's "Separation at..." well, not exactly "Mirth"... but maybe...um, "Delightful Weirdness"?  That okay, with you all?   

AHEM!  And so, we present today's "Whatchamacallit Separation" that brings together the heretofore "Separated" BLACKHAWK #157 (DC Comics, Cover Date: February, 1961)...

...And BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #35 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: June, 1971).

And, just like those fondly-remembered movies of the '50s, some scary stuff is "comin' atcha!" 

Put 'em together in reverse chronological order, and they're "comin' at each other!"

...Perhaps it's better - and safer - this way!  

Oh, and from (more or less) the heart of the  3-D movie craze, we can add the first page of WONDER WOMAN #64 (DC Comics, Cover Date: February, 1954)... Actual On-Sale Date: 1953-12-21.

...Showing that comic books also did this bit when it was current!  

There we have the 3-D Triumvirate of BLACKHAWK #157, BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY #35, and WONDER WOMAN #64... Separated at (the Third Dimension of) Mirth!  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Clowning for Kool-Aid!

 Long before CLOWNS were considered scary, and before "DRINKING THE KOOL-AID" took on a sinister and outright deadly connotation, comic book readers were treated to this very attractive ad for America's favorite soft drink powder in the pages of TOM AND JERRY COMICS #136 and #142 (Dell Comics, Cover Dates: November, 1955 and May, 1956 respectively) and CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST #38 (Harvey Comics, Cover Date: November, 1955). 

Doubtless there are more instances of the ad, but those are the three appearances I've logged thus far at GCD.  HERE'S a link to one of them, for the curious. 

As noted in the index: "A clown that looks as if he just stepped out of a Normal Rockwell painting acts as a circus barker to hawk Kool-Aid."

Just an all-around pleasant, nice-looking ad that was far more typical of the 1950s than of the increasingly sloppy years that followed.  (I'm talkin' to YOU, '70s and '80s!)

...And that "smiling pitcher" is just a "forever icon", isn't it?  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: When Aquaman's Away, SOMEONE'S Gotta Talk to Fish!

 
When Aquaman's away...

...SOMEONE'S gotta talk to fish!   

And, it might as well be THIS GUY! 

He seems to be doing a good job of it! 

So much so that even Aquaman approves!  

OUTRAGEOUS!