Number 312

Babe and the triple-lunged twins

I think you'd have to look pretty hard to find a more oddball comic book than Boody Rogers' Babe.

A couple of months ago I bought a copy of Babe #10, Feb.-Mar. 1950, along with coverless copies of the first two issues of Rogers' Dudley. Dudley is an Archie-styled comic book, and Babe is a version of Li'l Abner. Boody puts Babe in Abner-type situations, but his plots seem slightly more whacko than Al Capp's, if that's possible. See if you agree when you meet the triple-lunged twins.

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In the Henry Boltinoff posting a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that a few years ago I bought three originals from him. One of the comments to the post mentioned that it would be nice to see them, so here they are. I have a correction…I was wrong when I said one was a Cap's Hobby page; it's actually a Little Pete page, which looks to be an ad for a company called Emenee, if I'm reading it correctly. This may be the first appearance of the other pages, which I don't believe have ever been published. According to indications on the pages they were written off by DC in the early '80s. The pages were too big to scan, so I did them in two halves and friend David Miller stitched them together. Thanks, Dave!

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Number 311

The Hidden Vampire!

In line with my co-conspirators/friends Chuck Wells and Karswell of Comic Book Catacombs and The Horrors Of It All respectively, here's a nifty little vampire story from Atlas Comics' Journey Into Mystery #21, January 1955, making it near the end of Atlas' pre-code horror comics.

Atlas Tales gives credit to Manny Stallman ? with a question mark. Whoever drew it, it's a well-done short.

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Number 310

Beastie Boys!

Karswell of The Horrors of It All is showing Ace horror stories. I have some he doesn't, and vice versa. Here's a neat werewolf story, "Beast Of Skeleton Island," featuring not one but two beastly critters. This is courtesy of Web Of Mystery #13.

I love a good werewolf story. I like the idea of running around in the woods at night biting people. Rowff! A doctor was examining me with my shirt off and said, "You are a hairy devil, aren't you?" My response was, "Especially when the moon is full."

Awooooooooooo!

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Number 309

"...hungrily lap my blood…"

The writing in this Sheena story from Jumbo Comics #93, November 1946, is a really good example of purple prose. Deep purple! The artwork is by Robert Webb, a workhorse for the Jerry Iger shop.

Queen Darma of the Dawn Race (and that's what they call themselves, apparently realizing they're not evolved) looks like she could use a 55-gallon drum of hair remover.

It's very silly, but great fun from Fiction House.

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The Silver Age Superman: The Fortress

Mark Engblom did a terrific series on the Fortress of Solitude last month so it's not my intention to cover that ground again. One thing I noticed when looking at the Fortress stories was that it's not a place of solitude at all. In fact, very quickly it became almost Grand Central Station, as Supes gave everybody the guided and unguided tour. In its first appearance, Batman slipped in:



In the next issue, it became home to millions of people, as Krypton's capital city was added (note however that the concept of this being an indoor place still hadn't been explained to Al Plastino, the artist):



Of course, Kandor had a huge role to play in the Silver Age Superman.

Lois gets a trip to the Fortress in Action #245:



In Action #247, a fake Ma and Pa Kent receive the red-carpet treatment:



Jimmy Olsen got his first visit to the Fortress in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #30 (August 1958):



In Action #261, everybody in Metropolis got to see the Fortress:



In a way, this seems to be the real purpose of the Fortress; not so much for Superman to get away from the pressures of the outside world, but a place for him to entertain visitors and guests.

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Number 308

The Filler Brush Man

I wonder if anyone has ever counted how many individual DC Comics cartoonist Henry Boltinoff appeared in. When I was a kid in the 1950s reading DC he was in every single issue I read. For years he was the filler artist for DC. Boltinoff, who died in 2001, sold me some of his original art years ago. There was an ad in Comics Buyers' Guide from Mr. Boltinoff, three pages for $25! A real bargain. He sent me a couple of full-pagers, and a "Cap's Hobby Shop" entry, all from 1960s comics.

Studying Henry's original artwork showed me he was a meticulous craftsman. Nearly every neatly brushed line is worked over in white paint to make sure it looked as smooth as possible. He probably didn't need to spend that much time on it, but he did. He was a true professional in every sense.

If there's anything else I can say about these examples from my 1940s Batman issues, it's that the gags themselves aren't laugh-out-loud funny, but more like mildly amusing. His work is very appealing, though, and someone thought it was funny because he made many sales of single panel cartoons to prestige publications like Saturday Evening Post. He also did syndicated panels in newspapers for years.

The example on the top of this page is from Batman #37.

Batman #53:

Batman #54:

Batman #55:

Batman #56:


Batman #57:


Batman #58:

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Number 307

Oona Goosepimple's Uncle Oaf

Of all the postings I've done for Pappy's the one with the most blogosphere buzz, resulting in links to this blog, has been Pappy's #269, which featured the Oona Goosepimple story from Nancy #175. Who am I to go against the vox populi and what the public desires? Here's an Oona story from Nancy #170, September 1959.

As with the previous posting, it's written by John Stanley. Even if I didn't tell you, you'd know by the huge OW! when Nancy runs into the light pole.

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