Number 1298: Going Nuts

This is posting number two of our Funky Funnies week, highlighting some oddball humor comics.

Nuts, which came from the small publisher, Premier Magazines, is actually one of the better Mad imitations. I say that with qualifications. In my opinion no comic ever really came that close to Mad, calling Nuts a better imitation is faint praise. But John Benson, in his excellent compilation from Mad imitators, The Sincerest Form of Parody, gives some space to Nuts. (I'm showing different stories than Benson.) I recommend his book if you're into this type of comic book which, with the success of Mad, sprang up like toadstools after a rainstorm.

The penciler of “Tick Dracy” is unknown, but Hy Fleishman is credited by comic art expert Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr. with the inks, and John Belcastro, using his pseudonym Johnny Bell, did “Prince Valuable.” Fleishman and Belcastro both became known in comics during this era of the early 1950s, and did work in various genres. Fleishman is especially well known for his work, pencils and inks, in horror comics. (Check out the search engine using his name in Karwell's The Horrors Of It All blog for some great examples of his work.)

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Number 185

Sex and Skeletons Without The Sex

This is the last of the Sex and Skeletons postings. I have some good skeletons, but no sex. Sorry, fellas.

As I've said before, I can still be surprised by what Golden Age covers I've never before seen, and this issue of Dark Mysteries, with a gruesome hanging cover scene, is one I encountered recently for the first time. The effect of it is dampened a bit by artist Hy Fleishman's near-cartoony approach.* For its morbid subject matter alone, in the hands of a better artist I'm sure this would be on everybody's must-have double-bag list.

One of Atlas' finest artists, Russ Heath, contributes a couple of great covers. Journey Into Fear is especially effective. I'm not sure exactly what it all means, but it's very eye-catching, and I love the sinister and amused look on the skull's partially turned face.

Our Canuck comic comrades came up with a cover that's beauty, eh. Journey Into Fear #13 has a great cover. Wait! Did I say none of these covers were sexy? A skeleton takes a pic of his vampiric girlfriend in her coffin. It looks familiar…like what I see a lot on the Internet. Bless all you gothic gals who want to share your dark visages with the world.

Strange Stories From Another World #3 is a terrific job by illustrator Norman Saunders. The guy could do no wrong, and no matter what he was illustrating he did a beautiful job. Saunders was also a best friend of Allen Anderson, featured with his own painted cover in the previous posting of Sex and Skeletons. Just click on the link "skeletons" at the bottom of this page.

Finally, Bill Everett, a leading light and artist for Atlas, like Russ Heath, comes up with yet another mind-blowing cover, this time for Venus #19. Looks like Venus is meeting her boyfriend's family, finding out they have a lot of skeletons who have come out of the closet, including her boyfriend.

*Something about the cover of Dark Mysteries #16 reminds me of the underground horror comix of a decade-and-a-half later, when artists like Greg Irons and others used a combination of cartooning and gruesomeness. The character on the cover who is speaking even has long hair, blue jeans and a collarless shirt. Since this book was published in 1954, in the fashion department he was over a decade ahead of his time.

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Number 167


Sex and Skeletons Part 2


Dem bones. Dem bones. Dem dry bones. Or how 'bout dem living dry bones! Yow!

Of course we all know that skeletons aren't out walking around; we all know that when the tissue finally decomposes and there's nothing to hold it together, a skeleton is nothing more than a collection of loose bones. We all know that these horror comics covers with their living skeletons are just symbolic. But still, ulp. We'd all have a jolly time if one of these horrors suddenly popped up in front of us, wouldn't we?

These covers have to do with revenge, a major theme for horror comics of the early 1950s. Here's a butcher who regrets meating a couple of bony guys, displeased by the shop's customer service.



Here's another, by artist Hy Fleishman, of a skeleton getting his revenge on a mountain climber. (The climber whose sleeve is being held seems much too passive for someone confronted with such a sight.)



Another couple of covers have to do with revenge from a murdered spouse. In those cases the publishers got themselves into a tricky spot. First of all, the covers have a sub-theme of adultery. So not only did the enemies of comics get to see gruesomely awful covers, but they could take in that the couple being visited by the skeleton were probably having sex and killed the spouse to get him out of the way. Next to those the butcher and mountain climber covers seem relatively tame.



The husband on the cover of Dark Mysteries #4 seems pretty well decomposed for a guy just buried yesterday, doesn't he?



Here's a fella who's being presented to a woman, but not for a formal introduction, we surmise. We don’t know what he's done to deserve this treatment but it's gotta be bad. We don't see her head but we get to see some boobs. Another great Russ Heath horror comics cover. His skeletons look very scary. Considering what's got this poor chump, she must really be something for his mouth to be gaping so wide.

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