Jerry Beck , friend and longtime supporter of both Booksteve and I.T.C.H., has a brand new version of his old website, Cartoon Research. It’s only been around a week or two but here are some impressive highlights.

One of my favorite things about CR is the regular appearances of the great cartoon historian Jim Korkis, here looking at a Goofy mystery.

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-mystery-of-goofys-duo-freeway-phobia/

Another great animation expert on board is Fred Patten, introducing himself here and adding some words on Osama Tezuka.

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/fred-patten-tezuka-and-atomcat/

Here’s Jerry himself with the ultra-rare unsold cartoon pilot, Planet Patrol.

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/planet-patrol-by-grantray-lawrence/

Finally today (although there’s much more at the site!) here’s a WB Cool Cat cartoon mixed in with a piece on the final days of Looney Tunes.

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-last-days-of-looney-tunes/

Above, “A Hodge Podge on St. Patrick’s Day” by cartoonist Livingston Hopkins, from the front page of the March 17th, 1874 edition of the (New York) Daily Graphic. Enjoy!

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

Doug Wheeler

NYDailyGraphic

From the February 1913 (above) and April 1913 (below) issues of Cartoons Magazine, Canadian male cartoonists Arthur G. Racey and Hunter chide American Suffragettes to leave Canadian women out of the struggle for equal rights, as they are happy without them… (Again, according to two male cartoonists.)

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and better read the words within them.

To find prior Women’s History Month postings, click here.

Doug Wheeler

Women’s History

Thanks to Bill Black’s AC Comics in the past I’ve been able to enjoy several very nicely drawn (by John Dixon, better, if only slightly, known for the Australian comic strip Air Hawk) reprint adventures of Australia’s version of Catman. Knowing almost nothing about Australian comics I did my usual amount of internet research and while I generally like to use two or three sources I discovered that there was precious little on the subject there. So most of this installment of Comic Book Compulsive comes directly from Kevin Patick’s “Comics Down Under” blog, specifically an installment titled “Catman — The Translated Superhero”.

Apparently Frew Publications In some way still obscure Frew Publications acquired the rights to the Golden US version of the character and the Australian version debuted in the second issue of Super Yank Comic. Which is, OK, I objectively know is not the coolest name for a comic book ever, but after a lifetime of hearing “Yank” being used as a derogatory term it is kind of wonderful hearing it being used as an actual selling point. The character was written and drawn by Lloyd Piper, and the only major difference between the two Catmen was Australia’s had a boy sidekick named Kit while the America’s had a prepubescent girl named Kitten helping him out. And pants; the Australian Catman wore proper grownup man pants.

Coincidentally enough,”The Secret of the Swamp” was reprinted several times in Australia since it’s first appearance in Catman Comics #12 back in the late 1950′s. Given the fifteen cent price tag on the cover I’m guessing this reprint is from either 1970 or 1971.

I apologize. Last Tuesday I shared a truly horrible record. I tortured my loyal readers and you let me know loud and clear. To make up for it, I’d like to offer this gem. It’s a real GFR (great, fantastic record). With a little luck it will take the bad taste out of your mouth from last week.

As you may have guessed, the song is “Linus And Lucy.” But just as those two Peanuts characters have evolved over the years (see chart above) so has Vince Guaraldi’s classic tune. I think you’ll enjoy this revved up version by Gary Hoey.

Click the link below and listen!

Linus and Lucy - Gary Hoey

For today’s Women’s History Month posting, we present My Wife Turned Bloomer, a rare fold-out comic strip book by British comic artist Watts Phillips, published likely no earlier than 1850, and definitely no later than 1852. The term “bloomer” refers both to a style of women’s pants, and to the women who wore them, as women wearing pants was a radical political statement, by those women who strove for equal rights with men!

This short little booklet by Phillips, manages to pack in just about every joke on the subject, with Mr. Peregrine Perkes coming home after a few weeks absence, to find the entire household (including the dog!) wearing bloomers, women smoking tobacco in every panel, his wife — under the influence of a militant American Womans Righter — taken over his library/den, women learning martial arts, driving carriages, giving political speeches, and subjugating the men to perform what had been their chores! All of it perfectly horrible to any British (or American) male!

Later this month we’ll see some of these same jokes, still in vogue fifty years later in the 1890s! And, I’ll note, many of them were still being made during the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s! (Example, in the weekly “Sonny & Cher” variety show, whose most popular ongoing sketch involved Sonny as the househusband and Cher as the family wage earner.)

Enjoy!

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

Doug Wheeler

I know that in it’s time the show was legendary, but not only is there an entire generation (verging on two) who have never seen it because it was filmed in black and white chances are they never will. So, for the record, The Phil Silvers Show was a sitcom set at a peacetime midwest Army base that ran on CBS between 1955 to 1959 starring comedian Phil Silvers. He played Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko, the living embodiment of the old army game, a fast talking, greedy conniving gambler and conman who both routinely fleeced and protected the men under his command. ruling the motor pool like his own private fiefdom.

All of which is important to know to fully appreciate Atlas’ comics Sergeant Barney Baker #2, presumably written by Stan Lee and drawn by (he signed it!) the great John Severin. Given up until this point in his career was best known for his work in the war and western genres his work here is quite a revelation — here he shows us the style he’ll later use while working for Cracked magazine for thirty-five years. In the past I’ve said some pretty harsh things about Stan Lee’s 50′s ‘humor’ output, and it’s over reliance on cheap joke book gags. But this is actually not bad for a line for line, note for note rip-off of a The Phil Silvers Show. As to why this was not deemed legally actionable by the show’s producers is beyond me — the only thing differentiating this from the genuine article was “Barney Baxter” is tall and thin while Bilko looked like…Phil Silvers.

In 1956 Atlas published three issues of Sergeant Barney Baker, a year before DC Comics got the license to do a Sergeant Bilko which lasted eighteen issues.

Pappy’s posting some Wolverton. One of our rules around here is to always link to Basil!

http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/2013/03/number-1330-big-green-cannibal-monster.html

Nick Caputo on Bill Everett and cowboys at Atlas and Marvel. What’s not to like?

http://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2013/03/wild-bill-everetts-1960s-and-1970s.html

Here’s a fascinating piece on Julius Schwartz and the early days of the Silver Age.

http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2013/03/julius-schwartz-builds-empire.html

And finally, a multi-facted look at the King of magicians (see what he did there?), Mandrake!

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2013/03/king-of-magicians.html

It’s back to the American Women’s Suffrage Movement, for today’s Women’s History posting. Above, from the January 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine, artists Fred C. Nash, James E. Murphy, and Billy DeBeck, on attitudes involving the movement.

Beneath, from December 1912, cartoonist Fontaine Fox, displaying another attitude.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in detail, and better read the words within them.

Above, H.T. Webster, De Beck, and Ralph Everett Wilder, on the advance of women into other arenas viewed as the purview of men.

Below, the increasing power of women, necessarily leading to the reduction of the male, according to cartoonists Burt Thomas, Wilder, and Terry Gilkison.

Both the above & below pages, are from December 1912.

Doug Wheeler

Women’s History

Pin-Up Pete #1 was an innovative 1957 one-shot from Toby (the publisher mostly known …o.k., entirely known for The Purple Claw, a sort of supernatural superhero title much beloved by Bill Black) which features almost nothing but one page splashes featuring pin-up style illustrations of attractive women. It is not very good, but it is very odd, and up until about two days ago I had no idea it even existed, and given that I’ve devoted almost my entire life to comic books isn’t that that kind of wonderful and amazing?

“The Cassanova of the Marine Corps” was himself not a Pin-Up but rather a guy that collected them then felt compelled to not just share his collection but to “entertain” his fellow “gyrenes” with tales of his romantic misadventures and sexual failures with them. Supposedly at the time this sort of thing was supposed to be moderately amusing; I suppose I’ll just have to take their word on it.

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