Today I’m offering two issues of 1950′s Atlas comics that I’m betting you’ve never heard of (I certainly hadn’t) which have great covers that their contents unfortunately can’t fully live up to. First up, Billy Buckskin, Atlas’ 1955 attempt to jump on the still moving Dave Crockett/coonskin cap bandwagon. Three issues of it were published.

Unfortunately instead of featuring work by the always wonderful Joe Maneely the Grand Comic Book Database tells me it’s a collaboration between Mad Magazine’s own Mort Drucker and Maneely. It’s not bad and it’s certainly interesting but it’s just not the same as if Maneely was doing the art on his own.

Today’s second curiosity is Police Badge #479, a single issue of which was published in 1955. What a cover! The huge honking logo, the focus on our hero, rookie policeman Jim Hudson and those three slightly dubious looking wiseguys providing the Greek Chorus who look like they’ve wondered off of the set of Guys and Dolls. Gosh, it’s nice.

The issue features early work (signed!) by Don Heck. It’s pretty good, but I’m afraid it just can’t live up to that cover…

My ‘Net pal Lisa M. sent me a link to this site called Comics With Problems. It features some of the weirdest, oddballish comics ever! Let’s take a look at just a few and then you go and spend the rest of your day looking at the rest. So weird!

Let’s start with not one but two Dennis the Menace comics about poison, one from the sixties and one from the eighties.There are also Dennis comics on child abuse and neglect at the site.

http://www.ep.tc/problems/two/

Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates creator Milton Caniff offers the well-drawn (as always) but oh-so politically incorrect WWII propaganda of How to Spot a Jap.

http://www.ep.tc/howtospotajap/

Umm…Captain VeeDee O and Ms Wanda Lust explore the Crab Galaxy in this undergroundish looking semi-comic from 1972.

http://www.ep.tc/problems/four/

Finally today…Learn Cherokee With Blondie and Dagwood…seriously.

http://www.ep.tc/problems/37/

Actually, there’s lots more comics on drugs, abuse, diabetes, babies, safe driving, Internet abusers, guns, birth control, socialism…You’ll even find some familiar artists and characters!

Tom Sutton is another artist who seems to be getting more and more respect after his passing due to the Internet. Here’s a nice example of his Charlton horror, perhaps his best showcase.

http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com/2011/08/night-of-wanderer-by-tom-sutton.html

Mr Door Tree has compiled the various Tower Comics appearances of Andor, thus creating the Andor Saga with art by Wood and Ditko and friends.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2011/08/andor-saga-art-by-wally-wood-steve.html

The Big Blog of Kids Comics loves Al Hubbard and so do we so we’re always glad to see more Hubbard as in here, from Ha-Ha Comics in 1946.

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2011/08/ha-ha-comics-no-34.html

Finally, here’s a fun post about the several less than successful attempts at reviving superheroes prior to DC’s fifties Flash.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2011/08/false-dawns.html

On August 12 Argentinian artist Francisco Solano Lopez passed away. I’ve written, at considerable length, about how much I loved the work he did for the British publisher Fleetway in the 60′s and 70′s but the truth I’ve been a fan of his more adult material for years. And I’m not just talking about the sexually explicit Adults Only Young Witches series. There was also the incredibly dark political graphic novel Anna or Razorguts, a science fiction action/adventure series that flirted with many of the same themes in Young Witches.

One of the things that all these mature works have in common with his earlier work intended for kids done for Fleetway was they were all drawn in the exact same style, as you’ll soon see.

Kelly’s Eye concerned Tim Kelly, a man who traveled to South America to claim his Uncle’s inheritance but instead after saving an old man he was given The Eye of Zoltec. This magical gimcrack bestowed upon him the power of indestructibility and although not a superhero in the American sense of the word, like any proper British boys adventure hero of the time he elected to use the power of The Eye to battle evil. Initially his adventures were pretty standard South of the Border stuff but fantasy and science fiction elements were soon added and things got increasingly weird and creepy. In my opinion they reached their apex during a long sequence where Kelly battled really disturbing looking, nearly indestructible outer space plant things.

While going through a pile of the British weekly Knockout when I came across an ad promoting the first appearance of Kelly’s Eye.

Thanks to the 1967 Valiant Annual you’re able to read Tim Kelly’s first adventure.

I’ve included this story from the 1966 Valiant Annual because it’s about as odd as Kelly’s Eye got — though you’d be surprised at just how often the exact same sort of thing happened to 50′s American jungle girls.

And finally, fairly late in his career Tim Kelly began a series of adventures through time thanks to the Time Clock, the invention of eccentric super scientist Dr. Diamond. Any resemblance to the first incarnation of Doctor Who and his Tardis was most likely absolutely intentional. At first Dr. Diamond was depicted as being a bit mad and perfectly comfortable with putting Kelly into extreme danger if it suited his purposes. Over the years Diamond mellowed, a little, into the adorable elf seen in this rare color Kelly’s Eye story from the 1974 Valiant Annual.

Let’s start over at Nedor-A-Day for some plain old fun cartooning from Don R. Christensen on a Startling Comics tale entitled “Sooky’s Other Self.”

http://nedor-a-day.blogspot.com/2011/08/sookys-other-self.html

Here’s a look at an early sixties adventure of one of my first favorite Silver Age characters, the Atom, complete with lots of art by Gil Kane and Sid Greene.

http://blogintomystery.com/2011/08/17/welcome-to-my-mounting-box-said-the-collector-to-the-atom-the-atom-35/

Haven’t been to Fuck Yeah Kirby for a while but there’s lots of cool art there as usual including Jack’s plan for Science Fiction Land!

http://fuckyeahkirby.tumblr.com/#indian

Speaking of places you should all drop around more often, don’t forget Ferran Delgado’s Blog, in espanol and featuring comics art that you simply have never seen anywhere else, ever!

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com/

As much as we’d prefer to sweep it under the rug of Marvel history, Jim Shooter’s new Universe existed and thus must be acknowledged, as it is today at Mail It To Team-Up.

http://mailittoteamup.blogspot.com/2011/08/marvels-new-universe.html

Here’s the great panel cartoonist, Virgil Partch, AKA VIP, with a selection of Vietnam War era Army-related cartoons originally published by Fawcett in 1969.

http://hairygreeneyeball3.blogspot.com/2011/08/armed-farces-by-vip.html

Here’s Harvey’s odd 1965 one-shot, Blast-Off, featuring a haphazard assortment of fantasy and sci-fi stories by Angelo Torres, Reed Crandall, Al Williamson and even some leftover Jack Kirby art from the fifties.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2011/08/al-williamson-jack-kirby-angelo-torre.html

Finally, congrats to our pal Pappy on his 1000th post, a historically important reprint of Double Action Comics, the ultra-rare, controversial ashcan comic from National/DC.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2011/08/number-1000-ashcan.html

Here’s proof that you CAN judge a book by its cover! The cover of Amazing 3-D Comics from Yoe Books (our gracious hosts here at the I.T.C.H. blog) is really, truly stunning. Of course, you can’t tell from the picture below. You have to hold the book in your hot little hands to get the full effect.

Yes, that image of Tor with the dinosaurs and prehistoric birds is in glorious 3-D. It practically jumps off the cover at you! I count six levels of depth, and that’s just the cover.

Beyond the lenticular (cool word!) cover are classic 3-D comics using the familiar process with red and blue glasses (included). In addition to Tor you get The Three Stooges, Felix the Cat, Jiggs and Maggie, and Sheena Queen of the Jungle. (Before she was a punk rocker Sheena was a queen. Who knew?) Plus much, much more. All in 3-D!

Besides the rare comics, the book features Craig Yoe’s trademark front matter (cool term!) including rare images, insider information, and an exclusive introduction by Joe “Mr. 3-D” Kubert himself.

If you don’t have your copy yet, you can try your local comics shop or bookstore, or order it direct from Amazon by simply clicking here (and paying for it, of course).

You’re probably thinking, “Hey, D. J. David B. has a huge collection and knows a lot about comics and records, but there’s NO WAY he has a song about 3-D.” Surprise! I have one right here. Recorded during the 3-D craze of the Fifties, here’s Big Jay McNeely doing a song simply called “3-D.” Interestingly, the instrumental was recorded in mono. I was expecting 6.1 stereo surround or maybe quadraphonic. Oh well, it’s still a rockin’ record!

Click the link to listen.

3-D - Big Jay McNeely

Professor Tigwissel was, of course, preceded by the comic misadventures of numerous other cartoon strip professors. Nearly all of these bumbling, bespectacled scientists were one-appearance wonders, or at best had a couple serialized appearances — nothing approaching the sporadic seven-year run of Hopkin’s Tigwissel. They certainly, however, influenced Hopkins, who would have seen at least a few of these strips. And so, we’ll begin intermixing our chronological presentation of Tigwissel, with the sequential mishaps of other, early comic professors.

First up, above and below, we have Professor Prag’s Entomological Experiences, by artist Frank Bellew, Sr. This two-page story, detailing the professor’s collecting of bugs (page one), and how his endeavor sets his house to scratching (page two), appeared on pages 861 & 862, of the November 1859 issue of Harper’s Monthly magazine.

(NOTE: Click on the pictures above & below to view larger versions!)

To view previous entries in this series, click here on Tigwissel Tuesdays.

Doug Wheeler

BellewSr

Among comic book collector’s Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat is legendary (or perhaps notorious) for it’s singular title. I’ll confess; for the longest time it was the only thing I knew about it. But I’ve learned that behind the title is an interesting comic, and an even more interesting story.

Muggy was the creation of Hal Seeger, animator, scriptwriter and comic book writer for DC Comics in the late 50′s on titles such as Leave It To Binky and drawn by animator/artist Irv Spector. Along with his work for Fleischer/Famous Studios and Hanna-Barbera he was a prolific funny animal artist and from 1951 to 1954 drew the syndicated strip Coogy.

His art style has been called a cross between Milt Gross and Walt Kelly, which I see. But I also agree with those who say it looks a bit like the Howard Post when he was drawing funny stuff.

Four issues of Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat were published in 1953 by Stanhall…

…and a decade later two issues were published under I.W. Publishing’s infamous Super Comics imprint.

Muggy-Doo (no relation to Scooby) is admittedly a perfectly standard issue funny animal character of the screwball variety, though one with a unique job form of employment; he buys and sells junk. But that of course is only his job; like so many funny animal characters of the 50′s his true calling was pulling scams on his mark of preference. In this case a hound dog named Osh who sported a fez.

The other funny animals appeared in Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat were, in their own ways, more interesting than the title’s headliner. As far as I can Elmer the Elk and Orry the Orangutan were the only representatives of their respective species working in funny animal comics. And if you think that Muggy-Doo is a strange name for a funny animal, the covers of #3 and #4 promised “Also in this issue…Stuffy Derma”.

Stuffy Derma?

OK, he’s, you know, a pig, so “Stuffy”, as in “stuffed”, makes a certain amount of sense. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure “Derma” sounds an awful lot like “dermis”, the layer of skin beneath the epidermis. So in other words, skin, “pigskin”, yeah, that tracks as a name for a pig, but still, it’s still just so odd. But thanks to the Internet (blessings be upon it) it only

Image via Wikipedia

took a few minutes to determine “Stuffy Derma” is a Jewish in-joke; “stuffed derma” is better known as kishka (literally “gut” or “intestine” in Yiddish) a dish made from beef intestine stuffed with matzo meal, rendered fat and spices. I’ve never had it but it probably say all you need to know about me I’d really like to.

I acknowledge this digression is completely gratuitous but then, so is the Internet; but if you are only interested in comic books you might want to skip the following paragraphs:

The weirdest thing about this whole thing is I grew up regularly hearing a song called ”Who Stole the Krishka?” with absolutely no idea what a “Krishka” was. It’s a traditional Polish polka written by Walter Dana that’s best known in this country for the 1963 version recorded by Frankie Yankovic (no relation to Weird Al) and his Yanks. That’s the version I repeatedly heard on The Ghoul, a horror host from Cleveland, heir to the legacy of the legendary Ernie Anderson’s Ghoulardi.

Like his mentor The Ghoul got laughs making fun of the inhabitants of Parma, a Cleveland suburb whose residents were predominately of Polish descent. The jokes weren’t of the “boy them Pollacks sure am dumb” variety of Polish Humor that was making a resurgence back in the 70′s. Rather, they revolved around the oddly specific characteristics an inhabit of Parma supposedly processed, like a predilection for liking Cheese Whiz a little too much or decorating their lawns with decorative chrome balls.

And as incidental music The Ghoul liked to play “Someone Stole the Kriska”, because well, you’d have to ask him. But I assume it was because it was (a) a Polka, a form of music considered old and lame (what probably made it particularly egregious to him though was a rival Cleveland channel ran a hour of polka music a week on a program called Polka Variety — if you need a point of reference think of the SCTV’s sketches featuring the Shmenge Brothers). And (b) “Kriska” was a foreign word that sounded funny mostly because it wasn’t in common parlance and in the 70′s most foreign words were reflexively considered “funny”.

And since I am compelled to over-share here are the lyrics:

^{Someone stole the kishka
Someone stole the kishka
Who stole the kishka,
from the butcher’s shop?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Someone call the cops!}

Fat and round and firmly packed
It was hanging on the rack
Someone stole the kishka
When I turned my back
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Someone bring it back!
Someone stole the kishka

Someone stole the kishka
Who stole the kishka,
from the butcher shop?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Who stole the kishka?
Someone call the cops!
Yusef found the kishka
Yusef found the kishka
Yusef found the kishka
And he hung it on the rack.
He found the kishka
He found the kishka
He found the kishka
Yusef brought it back
Heeeeeyyyyyyyy
Hey!
huh-huh-huh-huh

Or you could just click on the link to this clever YouTube video:

Who Stole the Kishka_(medium_H.264-AAC)

But about Stuffy Derma himself, though the story criminally overuses his intended catch phrase of “I’ll say kid” I have to admit I really liked the sweetly innocent Stuffy Derma and the surreal logic upon which “Shipped Ahoy” hangs.

And here’s another Muggy-Doo story, from the Super Comics version of the comic.

Here’s where, in my opinion, the story gets interesting. In 1963 Seeger made a pilot film for television (though it was also shown theatrically) featuring Muggy-Doo titled Boy Pest With Osh. It was animated by Myron Waldman, a Pratt Institute graduate with an impressive list of animation credits with the Fleisher/Famous Studio. The “I.W.” in I.W. Publishing stood for Israel Waldman, It is of course entirely possible two completely unrelated people with the same last name could be involved with Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat. But I don’t know how likely that is. I could find no reference to a Israel Waldman in any of Myron Waldman’s online obituaries — and I found no online obituary for Israel Waldman.

I suppose what I’m trying to suggest here is though I.W. Waldman specialized in publishing unauthorized reprints maybe his reprints of Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat weren’t all that unauthorized.

If you’d like to watch three minutes of Boy Pest With Osh (which is where I learned “Osh” was pronounced like “Gosh”, which seems obvious I knew but I was pronouncing it “Oosh”) just click on the link below:

MUGGY-DOO BOY CAT(medium_H.264-AAC)

In 1965 Hal Seeger created The Milton The Monster Show, a cartoon from my childhood I remember liking quite a bit. As the title indicates the star was a monster named Milton but each half hour episode included three 7-minute segments featuring different characters. One featured a memorable funny animal superhero called Fearless Fly (at least I remember him) while another was a revised species version of Muggy called Muggy-Doo, Boy Fox…

…and another was Stuffy Durma!

Although in this version he was a stereotypical human hobo who had inherited ten million dollars, bought all the trappings of wealth then discovered he preferred his old life.

Let’s start the day with some kids comics-Walt Disney’s Scamp and Bongo as drawn by the great Al Hubbard, one of the many uncredited Disney artists back in the day.

http://www.bigblogcomics.com/2011/08/scamp-bongo.html

Al Hubbard was a later artist on The Adventures of Peter Wheat but here’s an early issue done by Walt Kelly in the same year Pogo made the jump to newspapers.

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2011/08/number-999-such-treat-was-peter-wheat.html

Still more kids comics! Can a true comics fan ever really get enough of JohnStanley’s Little Lulu? Here are three stories from 1946 that just leave you wanting more.

http://stanleystories.blogspot.com/2011/08/b-be-careful-of-doll-three-stories-from.html

Finally today, did you know Alex Toth did an adaptation of the movie The Time Machine for Dell? I didn’t and yet here’s the evidence in all its early sixties glory.

http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2011/08/alex-toth-dell-four-color-1085-time.html