The British weeklies Fantastic, Pow and Smash were a trio of titles that jumped on the superhero bandwagon with a mix of American superhero reprints and indigenous original material with mixed results. Smash was the most successful, running 257 issues between February 5, 2026 and April 3, April 1971. As always I find it fun seeing classic American comic book material in black and white, in this instance it’s a partial reprint of 1960′s Daredevil #15 featuring some beautiful work by John Romita Sr. Although it is pretty strange Daredevil getting the crap kicked out of him by The Ox, a generic big guy with the strength of your average club bouncer and a fondness for Son of Frankenstein style vests. He was the most formidable member of The Enforcers, a trio of toughs that included Fancy Dan, who was a snazzy dresser, and Montana who had all the powers and abilities of a cowboy.

And of course there’s a special sort of frisson seeing the little seen 60′s comic strip Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder by Joe Giella in a weird color scheme (that doesn’t seem so much a “choice” as “something went horribly wrong at the printer”) and rubbing shoulders with Marvel’s Daredevil.

The rest of the comic is original, the humor strips Bad Penny, Percy’s Pets, The Nervs, The Swots and the Blots, Ronnie Rich and Grimly Feendish, which I don’t care for as much, as well as a couple of odd adventure strips, the nicely oddball Brian’s Brain and thoroughly bland superhero Rubber Man. Though it should be noted Bad Penny, professional Uncle Fester impersonator Grimly Feendish and Brian’s Brain all made appearances in the Albion series.

When billionaires aren’t engaged in the sport of placing bets on how far an injured worker without health care can hop before he falls, they get in boats. (See our cartoons regarding the Titanic!)

It’s appropriate that this year’s America’s Cup was held in San Francisco, on the centennial losing effort of a wet rich guy who really knew how to “tea bag” it. Above and below, from Cartoons Magazine, are various cartoonists’ take on him.

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

Above, Fred Morgan’s cartoon, from the September 1913 issue.

Below, two pages from July 1913, with cartoons by Ole May, Heaton, and Clifford K. Berryman.

Further below, another page from the September 1913 issue.

Doug Wheeler

Sir Thomas Lipton

“Hail Hydra, immortal Hydra. We shall never be destroyed. Cut off a limb and two more shall take its place.” That’s from memory, my loyal ITCHers. It was about 48 years ago that I first read those words and I still remember them. (No truth to the rumor that I recite them before going to bed.)

True confessions time: Strange Tales #135 was the first Marvel comic I ever bought. It would be a lie to say I dug out my original copy and scanned it for you but please pretend I did for the sake of this blog. Thanks.

Yes, it was Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. that first made me part with 12 cents for a Marvel. Or Nick Furia Agente de C.I.D.E.L. as they called him in Mexico. I know that S.H.I.E.L.D. original stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division. I have no idea what C.I.D.E.L. stood for.

Of course, the reason for all this nostalgia is that TONIGHT we’ll see the premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the new TV show based (somewhat) on the events depicted in Strange Tales and (mostly) on the Avengers movie. It’s on ABC at 8:00 pm Eastern, check your local listings. Since I’ve been waiting 48 years for this event, it’s kind of a big deal. Unless you’re an LMD (life-model decoy) you’ll be watching too.

Here’s to Agent Coulson and his brave crew, wishing you all a great debut. To commemorate this occasion, a piece of authentic S.H.I.E.L.D. music.

Click the link below and enjoy!

The Avengers - Agents Of Shield

While never exactly my favorite Quality title I’ve always enjoyed Feature Comics, though mostly for the inexplicable reprints of Lank Leonard’s newspaper comic strip Mickey Finn . Feature Comics began life as a combination of old strips and original material, and while it generally struck a balance between humor and adventures features the reprints were widdled down until only Mickey was left. Though oddly enough there were a couple of humorous one and two page humor fillers that started out as strips, Rube Goldberg’s Big Top and Ed Wheelan’s Lala Palooza, which were continued by artist Bernard Drabble. Unlike Kid Eternity I never really had a problem, as such, with the comics headliner, Doll Man; I found his adventures to be generally well drawn if a little on the dull side. Perhaps because the possibilities of a six inch superhero possessing the strength of a regular sized guy was kind of limited to going unseen, then springing up and snacking crooks in the jaw. But maybe that was enough for kids in the 1940′s.

But after coming across the impressive list of proper supervillains he fought, according to the Public Superhero Wiki, maybe I’ve haven’t read enough Doll Man stories. Among the bad guys were the Angle, the Bearded Lady,Beauty, the Black Atom, Black Gondolier, Bollini, Botanist, the Brain, Cateye, the Crimson Claw, the Crimesmith, the Druid, Dr. Thirteen, Fat Catt, the Flame, the Fool Killer, Goon Gibett, Hag, Hand of Horror, the Headless Horseman, the Highwayman, the Huntress, the Hyena, the Image, Iron Mask, King of Beasts, the Knife, the Laughing Puppeteer, Little Miss Murder, Madame Diablo, Mad Hypnotist, Magog, Mandragora, Masked Rider, Master Diablo, Mechanical Man, Mephisto, Mind Monster, the Minstrel, Mr.Curio, Mr. Skeleton, Murder Marionettes, the Night, Nite-Owl, Peacock, Phantom Duelist, Pluvius, Queen Mab, Queen of Ants, Shawunkas the Shaman, Silver Dollar, the Skull, the Sphinx, the Sword Fish, Thrawn the Lord of Lightning, Tom Thumb, the Undertaker, Vibro, and the Vulture. But this issue featured The Corpse, Slick Murdock, “a killer sentenced to die in the electric chair” who (for no apparent reason) came back to life as a crispy zombie and went on a murder spree.

Wow. I generally don’t do this, but I think it important I underline what I consider to be the story’s bullet points:

Doll Man unnecessarily punches out a cop — at that size he could easily run away or elude him, but no, he (excuse the expressions) smacks the bitch up.

The Corpse smacks a woman, who frankly kind of had it coming, while shouting my new catch phrase; “Fool! You Don’t Obey! You Are Stupid!”

The Doll Man cops a squat on a ladies decolletage, or is that cop a feel?

“A tiny man enters the scene”.

Although quite capable of killing with (to quote the Grand Comic Book Database) his ability to ” instill rigor mortis in living people”, keeping with his supervillain theme (i.e. guy what gets killed in an electric chair) he also has an electric ray gun, which seems to be kind of overkill. Besides there’s the little matter of how and where he got it. Plus, ”Eeek! A little man!”.

And sadly according to the Public Domain Wiki this was the one and only appearance of The Corpse, which seems like a terrible waste. He’d make a great Batman villain. Paging Scott Snyder…

Also in this issue was an outing with Zero, Ghost Detective.

Then there’s those humor fillers I was writing about. First, a couple of Lala Palooza one pagers. Here’s an example of it when it was drawn byRube Goldberg (this sample is from the Masters of Screwball Comics website)…

..but frankly I prefer the Bernard Dibble version.

Then there’s The Spider Widow. A beautiful woman who decides to fight crime as a Halloween witch is strange enough, but the strip also frequently featured appearances by The Raven, a flying superhero who somehow never got his own strip. Here they fight an unhyphinated Spider Man, a weird, half naked Spider Man..

And finally a couple of Bernard Dibble Big Top one pagers.

I think it’s time we put the I.T.C.H. spotlight on Batman again. It’s been a while.

As I’ve said here on many (many) occasions, the 1966 Batman TV show was such a phenomenon that its effects were felt across the country in a myriad of ways. Never before or since has a comic book character had such far-reaching impact on American culture. You’d have to go to The Beatles to find a mania as invasive as the Batmania that swept the nation then. Maybe it was Beatlemania and the British Invasion that prepared us for Batman? Were we predisposed to pop cultural manias in ’66?

Here we are some 47 years later and the reverberations are still being felt. Action figures and bobbleheads commemorating the Batman TV show are now being released now to a bat-hungry public. What took so long?

Aside from the bat-merch that appeared in 1966 – along with bat-jokes, bat-stickers and bat-everything-else – Batman even spawned a dance! Let your mind drift bat to 1966 as we all do the Batusi!

Click the link below and dance!

Batusi

Supposedly the drawing below by Rob Liefeld was the result of a “humorous” tweet exchange between Brian Bendis and Liefeld. It’s a “joke” because, who would want to do a new Millie the Model comic? Well, me, for one, especially if it was drawn not by Liefeld but the suddenly at liberty from DC Kevin Maguire. Do it as an “Ultimate Millie” soap opera or, preferably, a “historical” set in that far away period the 1960s. Not that that is ever going to happen…

But it did get me thinking about the actual Millie the Model which is why I’m posting this issue, drawn in it’s entirety by Dan DeCarlo before he became the signature Archie artist. I honestly don’t have anything to say about this except, gosh, it’s pretty.

Today, September 15th, being the Anniversary (from 2008) of our ongoing Great Depression II, this seems as good a time as any to run another installment of Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons.

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

Above & below, both from the April 1913 edition of Cartoons Magazine, we have two cartoons a century old, closely paralleling today’s situation.

In the cartoon above by W.A. Ireland, the big Stock Market players get off, while only the small fry go to jail. (To date, I think only one bit player of 2008 has been prosecuted, with a few others under investigation.)

Beneath, the typical reaction of Wall Street Bankers to the suggestion of Regulation (i.e., “Nothing wrong here”). By Matthew Caine.

Beneath, from Cartoons Magazine‘s March 1913 issue, two fantasies of what we’d like to see happen (and these were likely fantasies in 1913, as well). By Terry Gilkison and Robert Minor, Jr..

Doug Wheeler

financial reforms Billy Ireland

http://cincinnaticomicexpo.com

If you’re a comics and pop culture fan in the Midwest this weekend, you should probably head for downtown Cincinnati for the 4th Annual Cincinnati Comics Expo. Scores of major players from modern comics will be in attendance along with several somewhat legendary creators from more classic times including Scott Shaw! (with his Oddball Comics presentations) and the great Bronze Age penciler Rich Buckler! Also in attendance will be a whole big bunch of media celebs, only some of whom are seen below.

And then…

http://midatlanticnostalgiaconvention.com

Then, next weekend, if you have any money left, head East to Maryland for the annual Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention where you’ll find various celebs who once appeared in comic books in connection with classic TV series (Robert Loggia, Johnny Crawford, Larry Storch) and, of course, one celeb who once stole a classic TV series based on a comic book from its stars-Catwoman Julie Newmar! Newmar also appeared, as old fogies will recall, in the stage and film versions of the LI’L ABNER musical.

It’s out! No, not the new FF (although I suppose that’s out too). I’m talking about Konga, the second volume in the Ditko Monsters series from Yoe Books/IDW (our gracious hosts here at the Super I.T.C.H. blog).

Konga is one of the greatest of the great apes of the big screen, surpassed only by King Kong and Mighty Joe Young. Just look at this poster!

On the four-color page, however, Konga plays second fiddle to no one. When it comes to comics it’s Konga who’s king, not King Kong. Why? Because Sturdy Steve Ditko drew Konga for Charlton Comics and just about everything Steve touches becomes a classic. (Although I’m not sure how the big ape espouses the philosophy of Ayn Rand, but it must be in there somewhere.) Whether the giant ape towers over everything or is shrunk to the size of a rat (don’t you hate when that happens?) Ditko’s Konga kicks butt!

The book is a Konga-riffic treat for comics collectors since it follows the Yoe Books high standard of quality paper and deluxe binding, plenty of fascinating front matter, and the unretouched comics pages just as they originally appeared. It’s as thick as a phone book, for those who remember what a phone book is. Rare photos, rare artwork, and a nifty cover texture like real ape hair (!) which you have to hold in your hand to appreciate. Not to mention every cover and every page of Ditko’s impressive Konga output.

If you tried to buy these rare original comics in stores you’d pay thousands of dollars – if you could even find them! You would expect to pay hundreds of dollars for a hardcover book like this. But now you can have this 328-page book for the low, low price of just $27.29. And if you order before midnight tonight you can get TWO copies of Ditko Monsters: Konga for double the price. But that’s not all! Order three copies and give them as gifts.

It’s available now on Amazon or at your local comics shop.

To commemorate the release of the Konga book we have a Konga song, appropriately enough. This record is by Arch Hall, Jr., a cool cat with a Wild Guitar, made even cooler by the fact that Jack Webb made a movie about his father. But that’s a subject for some other blog.

Click the link below and enjoy!

Arch Hall Jr & The Archers - Konga Joe

We’re in the midst of “Villains’ Month” at DC Comics, in which all of DC’s supes were sent emails inviting them to attend a timeshare conference — you know the spiel, just bring a few forms of identification (bank account, credit cards, social security numbers), and for a few hours of your time listening to a sales pitch — no requirement to buy — you’ll be given a gift worth thousands of dollars!

DC’s villains, of course, know a scam when they see one, and didn’t bother. But the heroes can be so trusting and naive, they’re apparently spending a whole month trying to secure their “gift”, while paying no attention to what’s happening to their accounts (or their world)! Obviously, these guys and gals all need to go Back-to-School!!

Which is my lame way of leading us into…

Above, from the October 1913 issue of Cartoons Magazine, we have “Little Willie Goes Back to School”, by Bronstrup.

Below, from November 1913, “School Days - Now and Then”, as viewed 100 years ago, depicted by Stinson. With current budget cutting, some modern lawmakers want to reduce education back down to the log cabin days that “Granddad” is shown remembering.

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

Below left, for those who believe overprotection of our children is something begun with the current generation of parents, we present you with, “Standardization” of Play, by Charles “Doc” Winner. From March 1913.

Also, right, by George W. French, “His First Girl”. That’s what school learning is actually about!

Doug Wheeler

CollegeComics