Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Never Bring a Pickax to a Gunfight...Unless...

The cover of GHOSTS #59 (DC Comics, Cover Date: December, 1977) would seem to bear out the old (shot-in-the) "chest"-nut that says "Never Bring a Knife (or a Pickax) to a Gunfight!"

UNLESS it's a pickax of the "Legendary Super" variety.  

...Then again... 

...Maybe it's just better to wait for a GHOST to come along and save you!

I'd say MUCH BETTER! 

And the MORE GHOSTS, the merrier! 

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!  

Happy Fourth, 2022!

Sometimes it's difficult to believe that we're even STILL AROUND, as both a people and as a nation, given that so much bad has happened in this unpleasantly  disappointing 21st Century.  ...(Sigh! I had such hopes!) 

But, for the past 22 years, it feels like this country - and much of the world, for that matter - is run by STOOGES!  

Thus, our rather suitable image for this post...

Happy Fourth! ...I'm betting MOE is responsible for the bandage on Larry's head! 

Questions You Never Asked: If I Were Writing Superman, What Would I Do Here?

Okay, let's see how closely you've followed my own comics writing/translation/dialoguing work of recent years...

If I were writing the following panel of SUPERMAN, what would I change?  

Send your answers in the form of comments, please!  

The Return of /Son of / The Sequel to "Learn Comics Writing from Sholly Fisch!"

In my opinion, as both a fan and as a professional comic book writer, Sholly Fisch is, without doubt, my favorite comics writer actively working today!  

Could anyone else have written the comic above?  

Or those below?  

I don't THINK so!  

And that's just one small corner of the overall comics landscape that he navigates so well!  

This Blog stands as a testament to that navigation... Just take THIS LINK and see!  

Sholly Fisch routinely taps into that "Something Special" that I can barely reach - on good days, with effort - and only if the stars and planets are properly aligned, in a month with no "R" in it, and when the date is divisible by 20040402 with no remainder!   

And NOW, you can... Learn Comics Writing from Sholly Fisch! 

...And through the respected Kubert School, no less!  Online, in the COVID-free comfort of your own home!  Here's some detail from the Kubert School web site...

 

“For more than 30 years, Sholly Fisch has prowled the night as an award-winning, Eisner-nominated writer, whose 400+ credits run the gamut from Superman to Star Wars to Scooby-Doo, and from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser to Looney Tunes.  By day, Sholly has helped produce dozens of educational TV series, digital games, and magazines for kids, including Sesame Street, Cyberchase, The Magic School Bus Rides Again, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, and lots of things you've probably never heard of. 

“In this 6-week class, Sholly will introduce the mechanics of writing, storytelling, and creating characters for comics in various genres, while students create and share stories of their own.  Not to mention offering practical advice about breaking in (and staying in), working with artists and editors, and what to do when things go wrong.”

Class runs six weeks, 6:00-8:00 PM ET, Tuesday evenings. Begins July 12, 2022! 

...And, if such a thing could be considered an "extra added incentive", I will be attending this session!  I'm already registered, and looking forward to the experience!  So, who wants to join me? ...And Scooby and Batman?    

I don't guarantee they will be there, but stranger things have happened!

 

 Like THIS, for instance! 

Don't let all those Robins beat you to it! Check it out today! 

 

https://www.kubertschool.edu/art-programs/online-studies.html

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Keep Your Enemies Close...

 

Here's an unusual cover for a Western Publishing (Dell/Gold Key/Whitman Comics) funny animal comic.  And, it's one that I like a lot, for it's mere simplicity and effectiveness! 

TWEETY AND SYLVESTER #117 (Whitman Comics, No Cover Date but released in 1983). 

Unlike most Tweety and Sylvester comic book covers - and all of their cartoons - Sylvester is not aggressively pursuing Tweety, and Tweety is not aggressively defending himself against Sylvester.  

Perhaps tuckered-out from all that "aggressive stuff", canary and cat lie placidly in vertically-adjacent and size-appropriate hammocks... But with the added touch of keeping one eye open and trained on the other!  

Proof that every such cover need not be action-packed to carry off a good gag!  

The Secrets of "Mickey Mouse Super Secret Agent"!

One of the most fascinating aspects of the creatively fertile period of the mid-1960s for American Disney comics was - and continues to be - the three "subset" issues of Gold Key's MICKEY MOUSE title (issues 107-109) dubbed "Mickey Mouse Super Secret Agent"!   

Covers and first page scans below... 

Written by Don R. Christensen, drawn by Dan Spiegle and Paul Murry, and lettered by Rome Siemon, this alas-short-lived experiment continues to resonate with fans (like me) and draw the curious (like some of you?) to this day.  

My original "comics mentor" (decades before I thought I could ever break into comics and text-article writing), Mark Evanier has posted a comprehensive look at "Mickey Mouse Super Secret Agent" at his Blog - and, with full credit and appreciation to Mark, I link to it HERE!  

Enjoy!