Ready for another sequel?

The past two Tuesdays I’ve been celebrating the publication of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, the newest volume from Yoe Books. In addition to excellent reprints of the vintage comics it also features a spiffy cover with eyes that seem to follow you around the room.

This week I’m once again presenting an appropriate Frankentune. We went from classic rock to proto-punk - now I’d like to share some good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll!

This Tuesday’s tune is At The House of Frankenstein by Big Bee Kornegay. Yep, THAT Big Bee Kornegay!

Click the link below to listen!

At The House Of Frankenstein - Big Bee Kornegay

The only other comic book series Great Comics Publishing put out was Choice Comics which followed the Great Comics formula to the letter; a couple of strange superhero strips followed by humor and non-fiction sections. Scott Shaw has named Choice Comics #1 “one of the oddest oddball comic books of all time”; I cannot in good conscience disagree.

Choice Comics headliner was Kangaroo Man, called on the cover “the most unusual feature in comics” and if he’s not isn’t he’s certainly a solid contender. In no way a superhero he was Jack Brian “daredevil American explorer” who with “Bingo the Amazing Kangaroo”… “battle against enemy agents who scheme to destroy America”. The text tells us Bingo was a trained animal who “understands Jack’s every signal and gesture”, but Bingo had thought balloons and could apparently work a parachute so, who’s kidding who? Clearly this was some kind of super-intelligent ‘roo.

Some of the other features included Zomba Jungle Fighter who, surprisingly, wasn’t the only Tarzan imitator/prize fighter hybrid working in Golden Age comics, there was also Oran of the Jungle who appeared out in early issues of Fight Comics. Mediocre stuff but man, that’s one handsome logo. By the way, I call ‘dibs’ on the title Zomba, Zombie Fighter.

Atlas the Mighty is an example of an under reported Golden Age comic book staple; the nearly nude superhero. Even more insidious than the plethora of 40′s mystery men who fought crime in their shorts where guys like Atlas who did it wearing nothing but their shorts, and blue buccaneer boots* (which inexplicably turn yellow during the story). Of course 90% nudity wasn’t as acceptable for men as it is today, and today we still live in a world where the fascist fiat “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service” still exists, making me wonder how guys like Atlas got served at lunch counters and the like.

Then there was The Secret Circle, about a decidedly non-super group of heroes who didn’t even have individual super-hero names…there were a number of those in the Golden Age as well…

…and Fire-Eater, yet another nearly naked superhero, but at least this one had actual superpowers and accessorized his shorts with some cool looking gloves and whatever the hell you want to call that scrap of red fabric that’s stuck to his neck.

Admittedly I didn’t care much for most of the humor features in either Great or Choice and I have no idea which artist signed himself ‘Dic’ but I do like Chimpsey. I mean, that’s some nice cartooning that does a great job of creating a classic 30′s style cartoon type character from scratch, plus, check out the Mutt & Jeff/Donald Duck/R. Crumb sort of car he’s driving!

Unlike Great Comics, Choice Comics lasted three issues. The cover of #2 has Bingo the Amazing Kangaroo thinking some serious smack about super-heroes which must have been a fairly brave stance to take in 1941.

It also featured this really bizarre inner front page promoting their content plus the fact this issue contains “The Bat Song”; obviously the publishers thought, “You knows what kids reallywant in their comics? Words and music to a song they’ve never heard of”. Still you’ve (or at least Ive) got to admire their attempt at adding some added value to their comic book.

Also featured in #2 was the adventures of Rex the Seeing Eye Dog by Filipino artist Rey Isip, a stiff but very handsome feature which may well be the first appearance of a seeing eye dog in comic books and certainly the only time a seeing eyed dog was the star of a strip.

It also featured this fairly unusual editorial comment about being kind to the blind in the final panel:

And because nobody demanded it, another page of Chimpsey…

…and just to prove it’s real, The Bat Song.

I really wish contemporary comic books would have contests like this…

…or ask for reader feedback, like this: I’ve been told by the head of a modern comic book company that instead of asking readers want they want it’s a lot easier and cheaper to just kind of guess.

Like I said, Choice Comics lasted three issues but unfortunately I’ve only found downloads for the first two. I imagine eventually a digital copy will eventually reveal itself to me; I certainly hope so. The Grand Comic Book Database says it contains adventures of both Kangaroo Man and Rex the Seeing-Eye Dog, plus, maybe there’s an explanation in it for this nightmare of a cover…

*you’ve got to wonder where all these guys managed to find blue buccaneer boots in depression-era america — not just buccaneer boots but blue ones; a color not normally associated with buccaneer boots. Me, I believe with all my heart that in New York there was a little shop on a quiet street that sold superhero accessories to the budget conscious mystery man and urban vigilante. You know, you’ve got your name, you’ve made your mask, you’ve cobbled together an outfit out of found objects but you want some thing that will pull it together, really sell the look. A signature item, like buccaneer boots. Practical, useful, but they also say to both organized crime and the police “I’m not just a delusional violent offender with a distinctive wardrobe, take me seriously”.

Click on any picture, to open an enlarged version.

For Native American Heritage Month, we’ve been showing examples of how 19th century American and European comic publishers presented indigenous people to the European-derived public. Such images and stories from all sources, drilled in the view of Native Americans as savages, and white expansion into their lands as the beneficial spread of civilization. Amongst these sources, were dime store novels — predecessors to the pulp magazines — voraciously consumed by the young, and, supposedly, filled with lurid violence. In these, fighting and slaughtering Indians (as well as pirates and outlaws) was presented as grand heroic adventure. Above, in The Food of Our Youth, artist/publisher Joseph Keppler depicts an “Infant Indian Exterminator”, suckling from a bottle of dime novels floating in blood. Keppler’s cartoon appeared on the front cover of the September 21st, 1881 issue of Puck magazine. Below, The Adventures of Tom Brown and His Young Friend Dick; or, Why Little Boys Should Stay at Home, depicting the fate of two young boys who decide to emulate their dime novel heroes. This small fold-out cardboard pamphlet, published circa 1882/1883 by M.F. Tobin, adds color to and reprints an 1881 Frederick Burr Opper Puck strip (without crediting Opper). Wednesday, we’ll re-present an article involving real-life dime novel figure, Buffalo Bill, followed by two new Native American Heritage Month postings on Thursday and next Monday. To find prior articles in this series, click here.

Doug Wheeler

NYPuck KepplerSr NativeAmericanHistory

Here’s a long but fun Gold Key adaptation of the mid-sixties H G Wells movie adaptation, First Men in the Moon, drawn and inked in a rare showcase by Mandrake the Magician artist Fred Fredericks.

http://www.goldkeystories.com/2010/11/first-men-in-moon-march-1965.html

Over at Silver Age Comics, Pat tackles the daunting task of attempting to piece together a biographical sketch of Kryptonian scientist and alarmist, Jor-El. Perhaps you’ve heard of his son, Kal?

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/jor-els-life-story.html

The latest offering over at the Comic Reading Library is an issue of Dell’s Brain Boy, one of the most bizarre superheroes of them all, a sometimes surprisingly violent, cold-war era teen with telekinetic and mind control powers.

http://comicreadinglibrary.blogspot.com/2010/11/brain-boy-5.html

Finally today, here’s a brief tribute to longtime Marvel Production Manager, Sol Brodsky, complete with a reprinting of one of his many well-drawn Atlas stories as well as excerpts from Jack Kirby’s later FF parody featuring the Bullpen.

http://atomic-surgery.blogspot.com/2010/11/it-stands-in-snow-1956-by-sol-brodsky.html

Random Acts of Geekery’s original comics art posts are always a treat but there are some particularly interesting items featured today by John Romita, John Buscema, Frank Thorne, Bernie Wrightson and the original Spectacular Spider-Man magazine cover above.

http://waffyjon.blogspot.com/2010/11/original-comic-art_21.html

Earlier this week, I re-watched the James Bond film Live and Let Die for a blogathon on its villain, Yaphet Kotto. Here’s Marvel’s contemporary Crazy treatment of same-horribly devoid of laughs but nice art by John Buscema, Neal Adams and friends.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/11/sunday-funnies-live-and-let-spy-by.html

Charlton’s Sarge Steel was a particular favorite of his former artist Dick Giordano who kept sneaking him into various DC books after that company bought the Charlton characters. Here’s one of his original adventures with art by Bill Montes and Ernie Bache.

http://www.thecharltonstory.com/2010/11/sarge-steel-no-6-november-1965.html

Finally, in this day and age, almost everything from bygone years is looked at as some sort of nostalgia or art…including Myron Fass’s dreadful Eerie Publications which are both the subject of a new book as well as the subject of their own blog!

http://www.bloodypulptales.com/

We start today with another of artist Rich Buckler’s reminiscences, this one spotlighting encounters with Neal Adams, Roy Thomas, Don McGregor and some rattling of the bones of the recently deceased Bill Dubay.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/11/swash-buckler-saturdays-odd-character.html

Mr Door Tree highlights some amazing artwork from the early seventies underground, Skull Comics, one of a number of comix that imitated EC. This one is a bit NSFW and features art by Greg Irons, Richard Corben, Dave Sheridan and more.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/11/skull-comics-1-6-1970-1972-artwork-by.html

Here’s a fun and lengthy discussion of the merits of Jim Steranko’s pioneering comics pop art style of the sixties, illustrated with some amazing visuals from the first issue of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

http://supervillain.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/seneca-vs-witzke-vs-steranko-vs-everything/

Finally today, here’s an online collection of Defective Comics, a card series from 1993 that lampooned comic book covers, both classic and new-some inspired, others just plain silly.

http://non-wackys.com/Defectivecomics.html

One of the coolest comics-related publications of the seventies, Random Acts of Geekery’s Fandom Library shares 1975′s volume one of The Art of Neal Adams, an absolute treasure trove of rare comics and advertising work from the decade’s defining comics artist. Note Neal’s Spirit from the back cover above.

http://waffyjon.blogspot.com/2010/11/fandom-library-art-of-neal-adams-vol-1.html

Note Will Eisner’s own, original Spirit here in a story told in the original art, aided and augmented by this 1947 point by a number of talented co-workers, assistants and sidekicks.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2010/11/number-845-getting-into-spirit-of-thing.html

Hairy Green Eyeball II goes deep into the rarities with an issue of Marvel’s Groovy, a 1968 experiment in publishing magazine-style panel cartoons in comic book format. It ran three issues…somehow.

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/11/groovy.html

Here’s a heapin’ helpin’ -complete with some genuinely classic covers-of Johnny Thunder, the Alex Toth cowboy hero who replaced the Golden Age Green Lantern in All-American Comics and later changed the JSA’s All-Star home to All-Star Western!

http://hairygreeneyeball2.blogspot.com/2010/11/groovy.html

We start today with a selection from the 1980′s Spanish comics series, Torpedo, originally developed and drawn by the legendary Alex Toth but here the work of writer/co-creator Sanchez Abuli and Jordi Bernet, the artist who made it his own.

http://cloud-109.blogspot.com/2010/11/murder-mayhem-and-mysogony-more-from.html

Here’s another one of artist Harvey Eisenberg’s totally on-model Hanna-Barbera comics, this one a 1960 Quick Draw McGraw that also features Snooper and Blabber as well as Augie Doggie and Doggy Daddy.

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2010/11/quick-draw-mcgraw-no-4-oct-dec-1960.html

From Blackhawk to EC horror to Treasure Chest and Creepy and Eerie, Reed Crandall art is always a treat and here he is with a well done Gold Key mystery story.

http://swords-and-veeblefetzers.blogspot.com/2010/11/mystery-comics-digest-18-doom-by.html

Finally today, some choice Carmine Infantino sci-fi art from a 1952 issue of DC’s Sensation Mystery Comics, a continuation of the title that had long been home to Wonder Woman.

http://atomic-surgery.blogspot.com/2010/11/nightmare-island-1952-by-carmine.html

The story is slight but here is some amazing comic book art from the unlikely combination of Berni Wrightson and Howard Chaykin, originally from a 1970′s issue of Warren’s Eerie.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2010/11/black-and-white-wednesday-beware.html

Speaking of Warren, here’s the first of two parts of Forry Ackerman’s autobiography, including the surreal bits about how renowned feminist cartoonist and comics historian Trina Robbins helped FJA create his “eroticartoon” character, Vampirella.

http://waffyjon.blogspot.com/2010/11/forrest-ackerman-famous-monster-of.html#more

Silver Age Comics takes a detailed look at Mademoiselle Marie, DC’s French “battle doll” who was belatedly revealed to have had a child by Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred…and even more recently to have also had a child by Sgt Rock!

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/star-spangled-war-stories-84.html

Finally today, here’s Dork Nyte, a silly Batman parody from 1986 by William Van Horn, an artist who would soon enough go on to become one of the most prestigious of the post-Barks duck artists.

http://comicrazys.com/2010/11/15/dork-nyte-laffin-gas-2-1986-william-van-horn/

We’re still reeling from the release (escape?) of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, the newest volume from Yoe books. It collects the best of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein stories (natch!) and a nicer job of packaging and book design you’re not likely to find.

In addition to the excellent reproduction of the vintage comic book pages, the book also features a die-cut cover with a nifty eyeball effect. It just begs for customization, either by using it as a mask and letting your own eyebones shine through (see above), or by creating your own custom look as I have done below using a sheet of paper and a Sharpie.

Last Tuesday we presented the quintessential Frankenstein record, the classic-rock classic “Frankenstein” by Edgar Winter. This Tuesday it’s the punkiest of the punk rock groups, The New York Dolls, who give us a completely different song called “Frankenstein.”

Looking at this portrait of the New York Dolls one can’t help but wonder if they were somehow inspired by Dick Briefer’s version of the Monster. Hmm.

To listen to this great record, click the link below.

Frankenstein - New York Dolls