Number 1349: A Briefer-threefer

 

I learn something new all the time. I learned that artist Dick Briefer had for a time drawn the comic strip “Pinky Rankin” for The Daily Worker.  To my knowledge Briefer's politics never showed up in other features he was known for, including “The Pirate Prince,” “Rex Dexter of Mars,” or his most enduring contribution to the golden age of comics, “Frankenstein.”

Today I’ve got three Briefer stories: a Frankenstein story and a Max the Magician story, both from Prize Comics #68 (1948), and a short-short, “Skelly the Liberated Skeleton,” from Boy Comics #29 (1946).

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Some more Tarzan comic strips

I am presenting her a couple of Tarzan Sunday strips. These are from the e-collection of Emile.

S179 - The Land Beyond the Mountains - 1990-07-29 (3076) to 1990-10-28 (3089) - 14 weeks

S180 - Celebrity Safari - 1990-11-04 (3090) to 1991-01-20 (3101) - 12 Weeks

We are now in the reprint of S181.

All thanks and credit go to Emile.

Enjoy,

Venkit

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1000 Comics You Must Read by Tony Isabella

I've lusted after this book for quite awhile, but when it first came out in 2009 I was too broke, and the local comic store had it shrink-wrapped so I couldn't browse it for free to see how I liked it.  In retrospect that was a huge mistake, as if I had opened it up there would have been no way I could leave the store without it.  But I stumbled across it used last week for half price and have been devouring it ever since.

I'll start out with the negatives first.  The biggest flaw I see in the book is that (like the collector's market) it's a bit over-concerned with #1 issues.  In the index, I counted 19 #1 issues under "A" alone.  Second, the size of the book (about 270 pages) along with the fact that each comic has its cover included means that there's really only room for a sentence or two about each comic. Third, Isabella limits the 1930s issues to Superman, which means he misses Detective #1.  That is far from the only significant omission.

On the positive side is just about everything else.  The colors are fabulous, the summaries are generally excellent (if short), and the picks are, for the most part, spectacularly on the money.  Some are hidden gems that I have discussed in this blog, like Hansi, the Girl Who Loved the Swastika, or Mysterious Suspense #1 or Blue Beetle #5 or Mystery in Space #90.  There's also Justice League of America #16, and Four Color #1309 (87th Precinct) and a few ACG comics like Herbie #14 and Adventures into the Unknown #147. Oh, and Brother Power the Geek #1, and Amazing Spiderman #18 and....

You get the picture.  Yes, there are some puzzling omissions, like the phenomenal Mystery in Space #75 (Planet That Came to a Standstill) and (among more recent comics) I can't imagine leaving Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier off the list.  But that's the nature of any list; there are going to be idiosyncratic hits and misses.  The purpose of the book is not to end the discussion but to start it.

Highly recommended!

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Number 1348: Jack Bradbury’s hip Hepcats

Jack Bradbury did the artwork for the Hepcats, a cute 1940s series about a bunch of jitterbugging funny animals. The stories are a cultural artifact of the era, post-War America when teenagers were becoming a force in society. It was reflected by the number of comic books (Archie and imitations) about teenagers and their interest in cars, dating and music.

The Hepcats was a series inspired by the pop culture of the day. Jack Bradbury was an animator and it showed, with beautifully designed characters and comic exaggeration in every panel. Bradbury later drew the famous Disney characters for comic books,* but my personal fondness is for what he did with characters like the Hepcats.

From Hi-Jinx #3 (1947):

 *He also drew Beany and Cecil, a Bob Clampett creation.

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Number 1347: It’s a jungle out there

Here’s another of my “Crime Wave” selections. You may remember a few weeks ago I told you that I had planned on introducing a new blog to show just crime comics stories, but decided I was too lazy busy to do it justice. So occasionally I'll be showing crime stories under this logo just so my plan won’t go totally to waste.

“The Jungle.” a story of a prison escape, is from Crime and Punishment #43 (1951). It’s drawn by the under-rated Robert Q. Sale, who worked in comics for a few years, and did excellent work for several companies. The Lambiek Comiclopedia gives Sale another name, Robert Q. Siegel, which I assume was his birth name. Also according to Lambiek, he died in 1962 at the very young age of 38. The story I had heard about Sale was for a time he shared studio space with Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin and Will Elder in the Charles William Harvey Studio.

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Number 1346: Al Avison’s Red Blazer

I need to get this out of the way first. To me the superhero name “Red Blazer” sounds like a sports coat.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, Red Blazer, the superhero — not the jacket — was created in 1941 for Harvey’s Pocket Comics #1. A few years ago Heritage Auctions sold the original art, and I'm presenting the Heritage scans here.

Alfred (Al) Avison (1920-1984) is the artist attributed. Avison was a comic art journeyman, beginning in the very early days of comic books, and working for many years. He had an ability to mimic other cartoonists' styles, especially Chester Gould and Ham Fisher. Avison did most, if not all, of the covers for the Dick Tracy and Joe Palooka reprints Harvey Comics issued over the years. Pocket Comics only lasted four issues. It’s my belief that comics in a smaller format would be easier to overlook on a magazine stand, but also easier for kids to shoplift. They didn't call 'em "pocket comics" for nothing.

Cover for issue #1, drawn by Joe Simon:

The artwork is on 8" x 12.5" paper, smaller than a standard twice-up comic book page.

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