Here’s a whole bunch of Roy Krenkel illustrations, mostly from Edgar Rice Burroughs printings in the early sixties.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/roy-krenkel-1918-1983-canaveral-press.html

And over here is a nice, reverential analyis of SPIDER-MAN # 18, a lesser known but nearly perfect example of a Marvel sixties super hero comic.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2009/12/worlds-finest-silver-age-comics-amazing.html

Today’s Christmas piece is an Al Hubbard story from Dell’s SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES (actually part of the confusing FOUR-COLOR series) from 1958.

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2009/12/hi-kids.html

Finally, a much later war story from Jack Kirby that the SGT. FURY we linked to yeterday. This is another LOSERS story from his DC turn in the 1970′s.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2009/12/jack-kirby-small-place-in-hell.html

The polar opposite of DC’s often gut-wrenchingly (within Comics Code guidelines) realistic war comics, Marvel’s SGT. FURY & HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS was generally as unrealistic as an old war movie…but then, there were a lot of enjoyable old war movies! Here’s an early issue of what was called “The war mag for people who hate war mags” by Lee, Kirby and Dick Ayers.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2009/12/stan-lee-jack-kirby-classic-sgt-fury.html

For all of its early gung ho excitement, the SGT FURY comic actually got better later on! Here’s the first part of my all-time favorite issue-1968′s Annual. With a Christmas era wraparound featuring the characters in modern day, Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers and John Severin present the snowy “Battle of the Bulge!”

http://www.comicbookwar.com/2009/12/sgt-fury-battle-of-bulge-pt-i.html

An early Neal Adams cover on 1968′s SUPERMAN # 205 belies the fact that the inside features one of the worst (and luckily considered non-canonical almost immediately) stories of its era. SILVER AGE COMICS examines and takes to task this bizarre Otto Binder/Al Plastino attempted retcon of Krypton’s destruction.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2009/12/superman-205.html

Finally today, here from a 1957 of the Atlas (Marvel) title FRONTIER WESTERN is a very early but already nicely drawn sagebrush saga by the great sci-fi and fantasy illustrator Gray Morrow!

http://theblogattheendoftime.blogspot.com/2009/12/clear-streets-theres-gonna-be-shoot-out.html

Sure, Captain America has been in the news, what with Steve Rogers dying and all. And there’s a Captain America movie in the works that’s due out sometime after Iron Man 2. But that’s not why I’m spotlighting the Star-Spangled Avenger today. I just really like Captain America!

Plus, I found this really cool Captain America song by Alexis Korner, about whom I know absolutely nothing. But what a great record! This tune swings like a gate. And given that Captain America is a real swingin’ shield-slingin’ super-hero, it seems apropos.

So, apropos of nothing, here’s a patriotic (I think) song about that red, white and blue super soldier whose name I need not mention again. Click the link below to enjoy!

Alexis Korner - Captain America

Elzie Crisler Segar was born 115 years ago today. His 1919 comic strip THIMBLE THEATRE had been running for nearly a decade before the belated and unlikely introduction of its leading man, POPEYE. The ugly single-eyed sailor with unnatural strength and a strong set of values was quickly recognized as one of the great strip creations of all time and celebrates his birthday this year with the 4th in Fantagraphics’ top notch series reprinting the character’s complete run under his creator. Although E. C. Segar died young after only about nine years on his iconic creation, POPEYE outlived him and his fame and popularity are today on or just below a par with MICKEY MOUSE and SHERLOCK HOMES.

Today, according to Wikipedia, Segar himself is aalso getting his due-”In 1977, Segar’s hometown of Chester, Illinois honored its native son with a park named in his honor. The park is home to a six-foot-tall bronze statue of Popeye, and since 1980 has been the site of the annual Popeye Picnic, a weekend-long event that celebrates the character with a parade, film festival and other activities. In 2006, Chester launched the ambitious “Popeye & Friends Character Trail,” which links a series of statues of Segar’s characters located throughout town. Each stands on a base inscribed with the names of donors who contributed to its cost, and is unveiled and dedicated during the Popeye Picnic. The 2006 debut sculpture of hamburger-loving Wimpy stands in Gazebo Park. A statue of Olive Oyl, Swee’Pea and the Jeep, located downtown near the Randolph County Courthouse, followed in 2007. In 2008, a Bluto statue was dedicated at the corner of Swanwick and W. Holmes Streets, in front of Buena Vista Bank. The 2009 statue of Castor Oyl and Bernice the Whiffle Hen stands in front of Chester Memorial Hospital. An additional 11 statues will be unveiled at the rate of one per year until 2019, when a bust of Segar at his birthplace will mark the cartoonist’s 125th birthday.”

So kick back, light up a see-gar and “Arf! Arf!” your way through some POPEYE strips today if you can to remember one of the most important cartoonists of the 20th Century!

We start out today with a nearly four month run from the late 1930′s of Lee Falk’s MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN-inspiration to dozens of comic book prestidigitators

http://ilovecomix.blogspot.com/2009/12/mandrake-magician-d010-mandrake-in.html

The Groovy Agent somehow comes up with a 1975 BATMAN story that I have never, ever seen before. It’s not bad but not great either. What makes it special is its odd pedigree. Edited by longtime Gotham guru Julie Schwartz, written by controversial Michael Fleischer, drawn by chameleon Rich Buckler and inked by legend Bernie Wrightson!

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/12/random-reads-batmans-greatest-failure.html

More Christmas stories are turning up and MAGIC CARPET BURN is a good place to start looking for them. Here’s Donald’s Nephews and Daisy’s Nieces in “Flying Firs” from CHRISTMAS PARADE # 1.

http://magiccarpetburn.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-parade-1-flying-firs.html

Here’s a fun (and heavily illustrated) look back at a 1974 battle between Marvel’s IRON MAN and the oh-so poltically incorrect Fu Manchu rip-off, the Yellow Claw.

http://slaymonstrobot.blogspot.com/2009/12/marvel-1974-week-iron-man-71.html

A little faded but some lovely Sunday pages (from a comic book reprinting) of Hal Foster’s masterpiece PRINCE VALIANT are worth a look at TEN CENT DREAMS this AM.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2009/12/meet-harold-foster-prince-valiant.html

Here’s an example of EC’s “Picto-Fiction” a post New Trend concept that was designed to skirt the comics code by changing the form of comics as we knew them. It was too big a change and flopped quickly but interesting nonetheless. Here’s Al Feldstein and George Evans from TERROR ILLUSTRATED.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2009/12/number-644-reflection-redux-in-april-i.html

The ever-controversial (in recent years anyway) John Byrne’s fun early art appears in this reprint of Charlton’s mid-seventies TV tie-in, WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/12/byrne-ing-to-read-wheelie-and-chopper.html

A wonderful chicken fat filled example of Mirthful Marie Severin’s 1960′s channeling of the old Kurtzman-era MAD crew shines in Gary Friedrich’s NOT BRAND ECHH version of Spider-Man’s Wedding day (that wouldn’t actually take place for another couple of decades!).

http://comicrazys.com/2009/12/05/with-this-ring-i-thee-web-not-brand-echh-6-1968-marie-severin/

Trust MAGIC CARPET BURN for another holiday story, this time the odd pairing (the kind of which actually happened fairly often in the old Disney’s) of B’rer Rabbit and the Witch from SNOW WHITE! The art is by Jack Bradbury from Gold Key’s WALT DISNEY’S CHRISTMAS PARADE.

http://magiccarpetburn.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-parade-1-brer-rabbit-in.html

The new blog NOTHING BUT BATMAN (a spin-off of SILVER AGE COMICS) analyzes and speculates on a stock BATMAN plot from the late 1940′s and early 1950′s in which criminals try to educate themselves to become better at their jobs.

http://nothingbutbatman.blogspot.com/2009/11/building-better-criminal.html

All but forgotten today by the general public, Fawcett’s SPY SMASHER was popular enough in his day to merit a movie serial during his long comics run. Here, check out the complete contents of issue number six of his mag from 1942.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/spy-smasher-6-august-26-1942-cover-art.html

Finally today, here’s the “Return” story from DC’s SHAZAM # 1, one of the most over-hyped comics of all time. It was the first comic I ever “bagged,” and when I’ve met folks my age over the years who may only have a few comics (my wife included) SHAZAM # 1 was always one of them! Still, a nice beginning with lovely old-fashioned C C Beck artwork.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/12/famous-first-fridays-shazam-1.html

If you’ve been reading how the new video game EPIC MICKEY will be returning “the Mouse” to his adventurous roots, here’s the beginning of one of Floyd Gottfredson’s great 1930′s MICKEY MOUSE newspaper serials demonstrating what those roots were!

http://thadkomorowski.com/2009/12/02/mm-joins-the-foreign-legion-1/

ANTHRO was a failed late sixties DC effort at doing something different. Written and drawn by cartoonist Howie Post who had worked for DC off and on for a couple of decades and was then doing a daily newspaper strio, too, ANTHRO was the less than realsitic tale of a caveboy and his friends, enemies and family. Sort of a stone age BINKY if you will. See for yourself here:

http://mydelineatedlife.blogspot.com/2009/12/post-post-1.html

Here you’ll find some miscellaneous 1970′s art from that master of stylish design, Jim Steranko. Included are one-off book covers and a rare digest illustration for a sci-fi mag.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/jim-steranko-covers-misc-only-digest.html

Finally today, here’s a month’s worth of an unsuccessful 1955 newspaper strip by Warren Tufts entitled THE LONE SPACEMAN.

http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2009/12/cold-space-wars-thursday-story-strip.html

Some nice Jim Mooney art on a SUPERGIRL tale from 1961 highlighting the original LOLCat, Streaky the Super Cat! “The Battle of the Super Pets” from ACTION COMICS can be found today over at TEN CENT DREAMS.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2009/12/jim-mooney-doggies-kitties-chimps-oh-my.html

1971′s KIRBY UNLEASHED “Portfolio” was a huge, hard to store book heavily advertised in DC Comics of the day but ignored by Marvel where the recently departed (for DC) King of Comics was for awhile persona non grata. We fans loved it, though! Relive some of the magic today at:

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/jack-kirby-1917-1994-king-kirby.html

From SPOOK COMICS of 1946 comes the debut appearance of MR. LUCIFER in a story drawn by John Giunta that may or may not (according to GCD) have early inks by Frank Frazetta.

http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2009/12/up-pops-devil.html

Finally, REPRINT THIS goes on at some length about Jean-Claude Forest’s BARBARELLA, the French comic strip that led to the classic (!?) Jane Fonda film of 1968 and how someone somewhere needs to collect it into one English translated volume at long last!

http://reprintthis.blogspot.com/2009/12/reprint-this-barbarella.html

I, D.J. David B., have a confession to make. I was one of those people who bought up multiple copies of Shazam #1 when it was released back in 1973. Not only did I snap up every copy in my local comics shop, but I drove around (oops, I just revealed my age!) to other neighborhoods to try and corner the market. I am so ashamed.

Not only am I ashamed of depriving other kids from reading Shazam #1, but I’m ashamed of my rotten business sense. What was I thinking? Granted, DC had a big display at the comic convention that summer promoting the return of Captain Marvel as if it were the Second Coming. (Actually, that’s a pretty good analogy!) The Second Coming of the Big Red Cheese turned innocent kids into speculators and basically ruined comic book collecting for all time. Go ahead, blame me.

Meanwhile, here’s a nice vintage Captain Marvel cover just to get the bad taste out of your mouth from the above.

All of which brings me to this week’s Comics Tune: The Incredible Shotzam.

This is the most requested song of all time here at ITCH headquarters (exactly one request) so we did not hesitate to find an excuse to share it. As with several other oddball songs previously presented here, it comes from the Comic Book Heroes LP by the Capes and Masks. The story behind it is so long and involved it will have to wait for another time. The upshot of it is this: these tracks were originally recorded as “crime jazz” and re-purposed as comic booky tunes. In other words, they have nothing to do with comics, except for the titles which were goofy parodies. So, for example, an instrumental entitled “Stool Pigeon” might be re-titled “The Atom Smasher Fights the C.A.N.A.R.Y. Gang From the Planet Zeroxa.” Or, “Murder, Inc.” might be re-packaged as “Hey, What Th—?” in order to capitalize on the Batman craze. (It’s stuff like this that keeps record collectors like me on our eternal quest to unravel the myriad mysteries of modern music.)

Confused? Then just listen to The Incredible Shotzam. A record that’s not about Captain Marvel but has a title that’s vaguely similar to the DC Comics revival of same. And if you need a copy of Shazam #1, I still have a few (dozen) left.

Enough of this nonsense! Click the link below and listen!

The Incredible Shotzam