We start out with a real slice of comics history-a 1954 newspaper article/interview with Dr. Fredric Wertham, the psychiatrist whose 1950′s book SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT used it’s buzzworthy title to get comic books a bad rap and change the industry forever. To be fair, time has proven that a lot of them really were crap and the purging of the herd now seems to have been a necessary evil to get to our beloved Silver Age but still… Awww, he meant well.

http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-are-sordid-comic-books-doing-to.html

Not exactly comics but definitely of historical interest, COMICRAZYS presents a ton of rare MGM model sheets from legendary cult favorite cartoon director Tex Avery including this one from one of my all-time favorite cartoons, BILLY BOY!

http://comicrazys.com/2010/02/20/model-sheets-tex-avery-the-mgm-years-1942-1955-various/

And I guess while we’re speaking of cartoon directors, it would be rude not to mention this brief article (with a couple sample strips) on Chuck Jones and his 1970′s attempt at newspaper syndication with CRAWFORD.

http://toolooney.blogspot.com/2010/02/comic-strips-by-chuck-jones.html

Okay, fine, if you absolutely insist on having some comics to read, also, here’s a short Ditko Charlton tale from a 1957 issue of UNUSUAL TALES. If you like it, don’t forget to get your copy of Yoe’s BOING-BOING approved book, THE ART OF DITKO elsewhere on this page for more of the same!

http://ditko.blogspot.com/2010/02/unusual-tales-clairvoyance.html

“Winter Sports in Quackville” — by painter & comic artist Walt Kuhn. Kuhn was an organizer of the famous (at the time, infamous) 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, at the Armory in New York City. The below art by Kuhn was published in 1910, in Judge magazine, and is one of several Quackville pages that he did.

Doug Wheeler

JudgeMag

ATOMIC SURGERY is a newish blog specializing in comic book story shares. Their most recent offering is an AQUAMAN short story from the earliest Silver Age days of 1955 with art by the great Ramona Fradon.

http://atomic-surgery.blogspot.com/2010/02/aquaman-in-court-martial-of-moby-dick.html

Oops! My mistake! Apparently over at TEN CENT DREAMS, their BLACK ARTIST WEEK ends on Sunday, not Saturday. Thus today they spotlight KRAZY KAT’s George Herriman who just happens to be the subject of not one but two-TWO!-upcoming Craig Yoe books! Watch the skies.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2010/02/george-herriman-black-artist-week.html

THE GREATEST APE serves up a whole lot of ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS, FOUR COLOR-style, for today’s Sunday brunch. Bullwinkle, Mr. Peabody and his pet boy, Sherman, Boris and Natasha! Not quite as fun as the Jay Ward TV series but zany in its own right.

http://greatestape.blogspot.com/2010/02/four-color-1152-rocky-and-his-friends.html

Finally this fine Sunday, one can’t go wrong with a couple of sci-fi tales of Will Eisner’s classic, THE SPIRIT, scanned by Pappy from Quality’s POLICE COMICS where Denny Colt backed up PLASTIC MAN for many years.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2010/02/number-688-spirit-of-science-fiction-i.html

For my first test of my new IMac, we start with Golden Age artist Matt Baker in several stories finishing up “Black Artist Week” over at TEN CENT DREAMS.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2010/02/matt-baker-black-artist-week.html

Interracial romance is the theme of a 1973 DC YOUNG ROMANCE reprint over at OUT OF THIS WORLD. Surprisingly good art from the generally dull John Rosenberger and the much maligned Vince Colletta adorns this tale from the prolific Bob Kanigher.

http://kb-outofthisworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/inter-racial-hospital-romance-young.html

From there, check out a nice annotated selection of one page comic-style ads from BOYS LIFE Magazine in the early 1960′s, some by Neal Adams around the time of his BEN CASEY comic strip.

http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2010/02/so-here-are-some-more-chip-martin-ads.html

Finally today, COLE’S COMICS offers a long and intricate part one of a series on PLASTIC MAN’s creator’s relatively brief career as PLAYBOY’s main cartoonist in the 1950′s, a stint that may or may not have led to his eventual and still controversial suicide.

http://colescomics.blogspot.com/2010/02/jack-cole-at-playboy-part-1-first-year.html

Mr. Door Tree has been busy finding choice stuff lately. Yesterday, he offered some vintage Basil Wolverton, for instance. Wolverton’s writing influenced Harvey Kurtzman and his art was a clear influence onearly Crumb. Since both of those two were, themselves, so influential it’s easy to see how important Basil’s work is. Plus it’s downright ROFL hilarious!

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/02/basil-wolverton-hotel-clerk-trilogy-and.html
Today, also at GOLDEN AGE COMIC BOOK STORIES, there’s a half dozen early LITTLE ANNIE FANNY stories from back when it was genuinely funny! Kurtzman and Elder created with this PLAYBOY strip the most lush, expensive strip of its day. The problem is that it eventually became all they did and they were just going through the motions…for years. Even art assists from Davis, Frazetta and Russ Heath couldn’t do much for it when Harvey’s heart wasn’t in it. These early ones, though…WOW!

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/02/harvey-kurtzman-will-elder-little-annie.html

For even more on Harvey, check out the Apocolyte’s look at Mr. Kurtzman’s place in comics history complete with an eclectic batch of his earliest professional work.

http://apocolytesworldofcomics.blogspot.com/2010/02/harvey-kurtzman-one-of-comics-greatest.html

And finally, speaking of Mr. Hefner’s mag, for a batch of 1975 PLAYBOY panel cartoons by other legendary cartoonists including B. Kliban and VIP, check out today’s HAIRY GREEN EYEBALL II post.

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-think-theyll-take-hot-dog-competition.html

Wacky Wonder Woman gleefully ponders the surprise she has for her date tonight!

In today’s first link, our buddy Jerry Beck alerts us to the possible beginnings of a movement to preserve pioneering cartoonist Winsor McCay’s one-time majestic home in Brooklyn, now hanging on as a nightmarish insect-infested “Hell House.”

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cartoon-culture/winsor-mccays-hell-house.html

In 1961, Dell produced two issues of YAK-YAK, a magazine closer in style to Harvey Kurtzman’s then-recently failed HUMBUG than to a standard comic. The good news was that all of the art in both MAD-like issues was by MAD’s own mainstay, Jack Davis. Here’s issue one.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/02/jack-davis-yak-yak-dell-four-color-1186.html

Gene Bilbrew was an African-American artist with whose work I was not familiar. Apparently he started out as an assistant to Will Eisner and then worked with Eric Stanton which led to his creating various bondage and fetish comics. TEN CENT DREAMS, of all places, presents a nice selection of some of Bilbrew’s kinkier, Bill Ward-inspired, paperback covers from the sixties.

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2010/02/gene-bilbrew-black-artist-week.html

Finally today, here’s my favorite Disney superhero, SUPER GOOF, with 1965′s issue two of his long-running series, offered in two parts from MAGIC CARPET BURN.

http://magiccarpetburn.blogspot.com/2010/02/super-goof-2-strange-case-of-doctor.html

http://magiccarpetburn.blogspot.com/2010/02/super-goof-2-part-two.html

Every Tuesday, I, D.J. David B., post to this little blog of ours on the subject of music, as it relates to comics. The nexus of tunes and ‘toons, as it were. In addition to being two things I collect, comics and records have something else in common. Both were created, at least in part, by unknown talents working without credit.

In comics we think of uncredited writers, pencillers and inkers slaving away in an art studio. (It wasn’t until relatively recently that the talented men and women behind the scenes got the credit they deserved. Today, their names are even on the covers!)

Similarly, there were talented musicians behind the scenes of hit records who never got their names on record covers. They were called “session players” and just like the guys getting paid by the page to create comic books in the comics shops of old (when “comics shop” meant a place to make comics, not to buy them) session players were called into the recording studio to anonymously add a guitar part, play a little piano, or put some percussion on what would become a hit record – without their names on it.

Isn’t it interesting that both comic artists and musicians work in a studio? Coincidence? Or something more?

Some of these so-called “session men” went on to be successful on their own. Glen Campbell is a good example of a guitar player who went from session obscurity to fame as a vocalist with his own hit records. Another of these break-out session players was Leon Russell, with his hit single Tight Rope.

I’m not going to attempt to list Leon’s session credits; I’m sure you can Google his name and find hundreds. But I would like to present one of his most obscure records, that just happens to be a tie-in with comic books. Called The Super Record of the Super Heroes, and credited to the Super Dupers (a non-existent band made up of session musicians), this track comes from an album of comics-oriented songs from 1966 (natch!). That sure sounds like Leon Russell on this recording of Captain Marvel Jones.

Click below and enjoy. Shazam, y’all!

Captain Marvel Jones - Super Dupers

In honor of President’s Day today, we present this comic page by Livingston Hopkins, on George Washington’s Birthday (which is next week)! At the time this was published — February 23, 2026 — Washington’s Birthday was annually celebrated, while Lincoln’s Birthday (the other half of the modern made-up mobile President’s Day holiday), went relatively ignored, by cartoonists at least.

This collection of cartoon images appeared on the cover of volume 3, issue number 302, of the New York Daily Graphic, to which Hopkins frequently contributed.

Click on picture, to see an enlarged version.

Doug Wheeler

NYDailyGraphic

For Valentine’s Day, we present this sweet story by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, most popularly known for his great American Masterpiece painting, “Dogs Playing Poker”. Signed “Kash”, this set of ten cards telling a story, sold for $1.00 when it was published in 1877.

Enjoy.

Doug Wheeler

ValentinesDay