Well, my week sucked last week. How about yours? Let’s drown our sorrows in some comics-related stuff. Whaddaya say?

Our pal Rip has been on a Tarzan kick lately, today leading to some lovely seventies Tarzan portfolio art from Neal Adams.

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2012/06/tarzan-and-black-art.html

Tom Spurgeon interviews Ed Brubaker, one of the very few contemporary comics writers whose work I actually like.

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cr_sunday_interview_ed_brubaker2012summer/

The great Al Kilgore resurfaces with a couple of tales from Rocky and His Fiendish Friends.

http://andeverythingelsetoo.blogspot.com/2012/06/goblin-gimmick-my-creepy-shadow.html

Finally today, here’s a whole site devoted to Bill Ward’s influential Torchy Todd.

http://torchytodd.blogspot.com/

More new stuff posting daily at Booksteve’s Bookstore Plus! I’d appreciate it if you’d check it out. With the plumbing issues we had this past week, we really need to get some cash together so if you don’t like our asking price, make an offer. Thanx!

http://bookstevesbookstore.blogspot.com/

Below & above, the aftermath of the 1912 Republican National Convention, as seen by various cartoonists including William Charles Morris, Oscar Cesare, and Frank Michael Spangler. Having chosen the lesser popular of their candidates (but the one preferable to Wall Street), the G.O.P. Machine is showen marching to “Rule or Ruin”.

The full aftermath of this decision, I’ll be posting next Friday, when the G.O.P. insurgent camp, splits away from the Republican Party.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

The cartoons in this post, come courtesy of the July 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics William Howard Taft T.R. Teddy Roosevelt

Our up-to-the-century coverage of Chicago’s 1912 Republican National Convention, continues with cartoons swiped from next month’s “future” — the July 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine!

Above, cartoonist Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling shows Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, late into the night, still playing their political game.

Below, John Campbell Cory and Richard Keith Culver depict the “victorious” Taft.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Above & below, by “Bart” (Charles Lewis Bartholomew), Rollin Kirby, and others, more questioning of the price of Taft’s victory in securing the Republican nomination, in comparison to what shape the fight has left the G.O.P. in.

Below, Harry J. Westerman and others, depicting the G.O.P. rubbing in T.R.’s loss of the nomination, and still expecting him to tow the Party Line for Taft.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics

It has occurred to me I hadn’t done a post about a full color, American Golden Age comic book anthology in quite a while. So when the fates (in the form of the Digital Comics Museum) offered up an issue of Hit Comics, one of my all-time favorite Golden Age comics, how could I not do one about it?

Especially since Hit Comics #18 is an issue I’ve been wanting to read for decades, due to the striking Reed Crandall cover and the fact it features the first appearance of my one of my favorite also ran superheroes, Stormy Foster, The Great Defender. He was a pharmacist who took a super vitamin and fought crime — on the surface there’s not much to distinguish him from the rest of the rank and file Golden Age mystery men. Except for the fact…

1) He belongs to that select subgroup of superheroes who’s proper name was a part of his nom de guerre (Power Nelson, Futureman, Brad Spencer, Wonderman, Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, etc.). I thought this was a pretty cool superhero name when I first read about him in the Steraranko History of Comics. Of course what I didn’t know then was Stormy Foster was the name of the pharmacist, not the superhero. Which is a shame since Stormy Foster is actually a better name (though probably one better suited for a 40′s comic strip about a girl adventurer) than “The Great Defender”.

2) He belongs to that select subgroup of superheroes who fought crime dressed for track, i.e., with bare legs (Dynamic Man, Captain Future, Phantasmo, Master of the World, etc.

3) He belongs to that select subgroup of superheroes who fought crime with facial hair (The Angel, Mr. America, Mr. Scarlet), Though his appears to have been a side effect of his super vitamin as it only appeared after he took it.

You wouldn’t think pharmacies would be a hotbed of superheroic activity, but The Blue Beetle was always stopping by one to get a dose of his super vitamin. And Bob Benton, the secret identity of The Black Terror, used his pharmacy as his base of operations; speaking of which, Stormy bore a striking resemblance to Bob.

Oddly enough Hit Comics never produced an actual hit, a genuine breakout character until Kid Eternity showed up in #25. Mostly the series was the home of such never-wases like The Red Bee, Neon the Unknown and Hercules. Superheroes didn’t get much simpler than the Quality version of Hercules, he was just a guy named Joe (that was his actual given name) who was born really, really strong who just went about looking for cool stuff to do. He had no supporting cast, no sidekick, no base of operations, no returning villains (that I know of). Plus, he was one of those social justice oriented heroes, the type who got involved in tainted milk scandals or when substandard materials caused buildings to collapse, as you can see here as he takes the side of a bunch of disgruntled employees over a group of job creators. Socialist bastard.

The 1912 Republican National Convention opened with sitting President, William Howard Taft, firmly in control of the Party Machine and Bosses, at a time when it was the Bosses who chose most of the delegates to Conventions. 1912 was also the year that a handful of states had reformed that process, for the first time allowing delegates to be chosen directly by the people, via primaries. The majority of those delegates, belonged to former President Theodore Roosevelt, who was much more popular with the people than Taft. T.R. came to the Convention, expecting that Taft’s delegates, knowing this, would rebel against the Party Bosses, and switch sides to him. Today’s posting of cartoons from the July 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine, focuses on the fight over those delegates.

Above, Ohio cartoonists Ole May, Stinson, and Billy DeBeck, focus on Ohio delegates being forced by Ohio Party Boss Harmon — and the rule that states couldn’t split their vote — into nominating Taft.

Below, Ole May again, William Kemp Starrett, and Harry J. Westerman.

Click on the above & below pictures, to read their captions, and view the cartoons in detail.

Above & below, the delegate fight, and Teddy Roosevelt getting “steam rolled” by the Taft’s Party Machine. Cartoons by Clifford K. Berryman, W.A. Rogers, John DeMar, John Campbell Cory, and others.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics

The best friend romance comics ever had, here’s a profile of the delightful and always informative Jacque Nodell who almost literally has comics in her blood.

http://sequentialcrush.blogspot.com/p/about-me.html

Here’s a fairly long run of the early peak years of Mort Walker’s classic Beetle Bailey strip.

http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2012/06/platoon-laugh-tuesday-comic-strip-day.html

Here’s some always welcome Al Williamson Flash Gordon work along with a little history of that character.

http://thewarriorscomicbookden.blogspot.com/2012/02/flash-gordon-1-flash-gordon-and-mole.html

Finally, it’s not a new post but here’s a marvelous post about the late Don Newton’s journey from fan to pro.

http://chainlettersfordisturbedchildren.blogspot.com/2010/09/don-newton-fan-to-pro.html

Another big update of pop culture-related items is up for sale at BOOKSTEVE’S BOOKSTORE PLUS! this week. I’d give you some examples but some of them are selling as fast as I post them! Well, let’s just say that all the items in the above picture were still available as I wrote this but I can’t guarantee for how long. Go take a look, If you’ve got an ITCH to get some good deals on some little-seen items, you’ll find some there! Thanks!

Tomorrow, the 1912 Republican National Convention starts! Make certain you have your train, trolley, bi-plane tickets, or your jalopies, ready to make it to Chicago!

Above, one can’t have an insurgency against the system, without loads of cash funding from the same oppressors you’re hoping to overthrow! In the June 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine, our cartoonists Pedro M. Llanuza, Bronstrup, and others, appear to find this aspect of T.R.‘s freedom campaign, a bit hypocritical.

Click on the above picture, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Not from Cartoons Magazine, but rather from Nelson Harding‘s booklet, The Political Campaign of 1912 in Cartoons, comes the below cartoon, “Help the Blind!”

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics Teddy Roosevelt

Put on a Superman costume and you’ll look like Superman. It’s a concept that dates way back to 1938. Even a dog looks like Superman in the right outfit!

This was proven time and time again in the comic books, as Clark Kent took off his glasses, put on the red-and-blue suit and – Shazam! – he was Superman. The scene on the cover of Action #150 proves my point.

This comic is listed on eBay now for $100,000. Bid early and often.

So it was only natural that Herbie Mann dressed up as Superman for the cover of his 1978 disco hit entitled “Superman.” After all, he was Herbie Mann already so he was halfway there. (He could have dressed as Herbie The Fat Fury, but I haven’t found a song yet for that character so it’s just as well.)

.The Japanese release even sports a drawing of Herbie as Superman.

So get up and boogie down to “Superman”! Extra points if you do it in costume.

Click the link below to listen.

Superman- Herbie Mann

All this week, our Election Year coverage will focus on the 100th anniversary of the historic 1912 Republican National Convention, requiring a week-long raid into the July 1912 issue of Cartoons Magazine. Today features the heralded approach of Teddy Roosevelt, to the 1912 Chicago Convention.

Above, on his way to Chicago, Roosevelt decided to give a speech in Gettysburg, inspiring cartoonists Oscar Cesare, Alfred West Brewerton, and Cy Hungerford, to some non-complimentary comparisons of the insurgent T.R. to Party spiritual founder, Abraham Lincoln (sans vampire slaying).

Below, cartoons by Robert Satterfield, Cesare, Boardman Robinson, and others, depicting Teddy Roosevelt at first debating whether to attend the Convention, and then making his charge in.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and read their captions.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics