As we come to the close of 2014, it’s a tradition to reflect on the events of the past year. Or in this case, the past five years. Yes, it’s the fifth anniversary of Yoe Books, our proud sponsors here at the I.T.C.H. blog. Yoe Books is Making Comics History!
Man, time flies! It seems like yesterday that The Art of Steve Ditko was just a gleam in Craig Yoe’s eye. Now, some 50 books later, Yoe Books is a premiere publisher of rare, out-of-print comics and so many cool coffee table books that I had to buy a bigger coffee table. You can see the complete list here.
To celebrate this occasion in the appropriate fashion, Craig and Clizia created a crazy promotional campaign that’s worthy of Stan “The Man” Lee himself. In fact, that’s who they stole it from!
It’s called the Y.Y.Y.S. (or Yippie Yi Yoe Society, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) and it’s a hoot and a half, especially if you’re old enough to be a card-carrying member of the M.M.M.S.
If you were one of the lucky few bloggers, critics or media outlets to receive this membership kit in the mail, consider yourself privileged. If not, I’ll share with you some images (and a song, of course) just because that’s the kind of guy I am. Face forward, true book reader!
Y.Y.Y.S. members received a clever welcome letter, a cute sticker, and a marvelous membership card (suitable for framing).
Best of all, the kit includes a record (or, “DVD” as the kids today call them) with both the Voices of Yoe Books and the Y.Y.Y.S. Marching Song. How fun is that?
And since I’m a nice guy (see above), here’s the Y.Y.Y.S. Marching Song for your listening pleasure. Click the link below and start marching!
BONUS! Here’s the super-cool video that goes with the song. Just click the Yoe eyeball!
Here’s an Atlas comic that I’ve wanted to read for quite a while. For reasons unknown around the middle of the eighteen issues run of the military anthology comic Navy Action became Sailor Sweeney, after which it becameNavy Action again. This series within a series was focused on the peace-time somewhat comic adventures of Sweeney and his mates, eating machine “Tubby”, girl chasing “Lover Boy”, gambler ”Big Deal” and New Yorker “Broadway”. But whether fighting commies, busting crooks or getting involved in sit-com style antics the focus of the stories invariably were on Sweeney and his immediate superior, Petty Officer Mulligan. Perhaps because both were smitten with the pretty Commander’s niece Joanie Jones, Mulligan hated Sweeney’s guts and always thought he was up to unspecified “something”. Which was pure paranoia on Mulligans part; because whether on duty or on shore leave, Sweeney, as well as the rest of the crew, were perfect gentlemen. During the height of WWII, comics were full of similar comic features where soldiers, sailors, and Marines routinely engaged in brawls and girls chasing. Maybe it was just a different time, or Stan Lee didn’t want to jeopardize the sales of Atlas comics at military PX’s, but Sweeney and his pals conducted themselves like perfect gentlemen.
Once you get past the really nice Joe Maneely cover you got three pretty solid stories drawn by Syd Shores (plus a darn nice non-Sweeney Navy four page story by Don Heck ,”Torpedoes Away!”, which Heck even got to sign, which I’ve chosen not to post).
The entire crew here at Comics Tunes Tuesdays (that’s me) wants to wish you a happy holiday and thank you for your continued patronage for these past seven years. Now enjoy this song of the season.
Click the link below and enjoy a little peace on Earth.
The holidays are here and that means reliving cherished childhood memories. One of my fondest Christmas memories is driving to Little Falls, NJ (not far from the place of my birth) to see the Christmas lights. These weren’t just ordinary holiday decorations, they were really something special. You know that one house in the neighborhood that is completed covered in decorations? The people that run lights around the doors and windows, along the rain gutters, in all the trees, in order to prove to the neighbors that they’re the most devout believers on the block? We made it an annual pilgrimage to drive by this one house and see what new decorations had been added. A waving Santa on the roof, live reindeer in the garage, singing snowmen and snow-women? Nothing was too much.
Traffic was always tied up, horns were honking, and the neighbors found even more reasons to dislike this Christmas eyesore. But my favorite was the Nativity Scene. There were Joseph and Mary gathered around the Christ child. Animals were lowing. The Three Wise Men were approaching bearing gifts. Along with Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Pixie & Dixie and Mr. Jinks. Yes, overwhelmed by religious fervor, anxious to out-do everyone else on the street, they included crude plywood cut-outs of popular Hanna-Barbera characters along with the Three Wise Men – changing the Christmas story slightly. Improved? You decide.
I always enjoyed the sheer sacrilege of it all, especially since that was the opposite of their intention.
To commemorate this annual atrocity we have a song about Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinks.
The cartoon cut-outs didn’t look quite this good.
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Click the link below and make a new Christmas memory!
Some of you probably saw the headline above and thought, “Gee, D.J. David B. is late with his Thanksgiving post. How could he forget Thanksgiving?” To you I say, “Wrong, punkin’ puss!” I’m actually early with next year’s Thanksgiving. Not one to leave things to the last minute I thought I’d start now celebrating Thanksgiving 2015. You’re welcome.
Naturally, it isn’t Thanksgiving without Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. So gather the family ‘round the table about 11 months from now and enjoy this holiday classic along with your traditional meal.
Next week, It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I’m getting a jump on next Halloween.
I have previously dealt with a number of comics featuring perhaps my favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Huckleberry Hound, the blue hound dog voiced by Daws Butler. I’ve even already covered the UK’s Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear Weekly more than once, so why cover this particular issue of that title from 1967? Two words; Space Ghost! Or, is that Space Ghosts? Please to check out the cover:
Now, check out the covers to the following two issues:
See it yet? How about now?
Or now?
That’s right, for some reason on the cover the comic refers to the property in the plural, Space Ghosts. Now, being a man of a certain age I grew up watching the show and am just enough of a know-it-all that I like to think I know everything about it. But is it possible that at some point in its development was it called Space Ghosts (the cover art seems like it was taken from early promotional material) because Jan and Jace were also known as Space Ghosts? Was it called Space Ghosts in other English speaking characters for some reason? Or was it some kind of very mistake? I’m working on a mystery without any clues over here so if any of you have any idea what’s behind this you know how reach me.
As with previous issues of this title this one is a mix of what appears to be US produced material, which is good to great, and British material which is shaky to substandard.
One point of interest about the above ‘eh’ Jonny Quest strip?
Jonny’s packing heat! He couldn’t have gotten away with that in the cartoon series, even back then.
As much as I love British comics I must concede that on average their licensed comics are pretty awful and that does double when the material is more or less straight adventure. Take this double page spread of a Space Ghost installment featuring not so much Space Ghost, but someone who dresses up like him for kid’s parties fighting a guy in a dress.
Another example of the ‘meh’ quality of British licensed comic is The Impossibles strip, which is pretty painful for someone like me with fond memories of the slow. I’m just glad that Frankenstein Jr. was spared this sort of spectacularly lackadaisical, slapdash, off model treatment.
With all this talk about Gotham, The Flash, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (not to mention Arrow, which I haven’t mentioned yet) I’m ready for a change of pace. Are you?
Let’s get away from the spies, violence and meta-humans (not to mention arrows) and let our minds drift back to a simpler time of fairy tales and kettle drums, fractured by Jay Ward, as only he can fracture them.
Note: This song sounds like a lullaby. Please do not listen while driving. Remember, friends don’t let friends drive while asleep.
As previously established I am more of a mere rank, yank enthusiast than an actual expert on British comics so slack must be cut for me. For instance, I’ve frequently said that the British comic industry was pretty much dead and done by the 1980′s and that’s not entirely true. Both of the major of publishers, Fleetway and DC Thomson, made some valiant efforts to try to turn things around during this period by making their comics more contemporary and more violent. I speak specifically of the notorious ‘comic nasty’ Action, but you could also lump Warlord and Bulletas well as the revival of Eagle and the launch of 2000AD into the effort. A much milder attempt, at doing a new story paper for slightly younger boys, was DC Thomson’s Buddy.
It ran from 1980 to 1983 and was aimed at “boys who like action, adventure, and sport” and serving as a combination mascot and host was a generic regular kid named Buddy. As is often the case the first issue included a free gift in this case a “Pop Pistol with Two Free Bullets”. And is often the case it wasn’t canceled, but ‘merged’ with Victor, another DC Thomson comic.
To my admittedly American eyes DC Thomson comics of this era were drawn in a rougher, darker style (which could have been an honest attempt to connect to contemporary kids or just cheaper to produce, one or the other) and each strip featured a striking, eye-catching logo.
First up is Limp-Along Leslie (which was originally a text feature in the comic Wizard from 1922 to 1963). It featured the adventures of an orphan kid who walked with a limp due to a car accident, making him an early example of a comic featuring a differentially abled protagonist.
Another strip that began like as a text feature was The Wolf of Kabul, about a British agent named Bill Sampson who was disguised as a native, Lawrence of Arabia style.
Deep-Sea Danny’s Iron Fish was another long-running feature that began life as a text feature about a kid named (naturally) Danny and his one-boy super submarine that was shaped like a fish. Originally it was boyed by a Danny Gray but in the Buddy version it was (for some reaosn) Danny Boyle.
Tuffy, A Boy All Alone, about a homeless kid and his faithful dog.
Each issue featured a biography of a current sports hero or TV personality. I have to take them at their word that this was and is an actual person.
There’s the nicely drawn, highly detailed historical strip Hammer.
Buddy was short on humor features, but it did have the brilliant Jonah by the great Ken Reid.
I had no idea there was an 80′s revival of one of my all time favorite British characters, Billy the Cat.
And finally there was the nightmarish Boy On The Run. Sure, it was a standard ‘kid in trouble on his own’ strip but rarely has the word ‘nightmarish’ been more accurate. By keeping the details maddeningly vague as to who the kid actually is and who’s pursuing him makes things seriously shuddersome.
According to the internet future issues, included adventures of such classic characters as General Jumbo and Q-Bikes so I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the series.
