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International Team of Comics Historians
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Thursday, March 13, 2026
Police Women: Cartoons Magazine Centennial September 1913
For Women’s History Month, we present an article on Police Women, found in the September 1913 issue of Cartoons Magazine. Click on the above & below pages, to make the cartoons & article large enough to read.
Women’s History — DougWednesday, March 12, 2026
Women’s Suffrage: Cartoons Magazine Centennial June-July 1913
For Women’s History Month, we have two Cartoons Magazine articles on the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, one each from June 1913 and July 1913. Click on the above & below pages, to make the cartoons & article large enough to read.
— Doug Tuesday, March 11, 2026
D. J. David B. Spins Comics-Tunes: Spider-Man Yadda Yadda Yadda
By now it’s all been said. There are nearly as many Spider-Man songs as there are Batman songs. Still not convinced? Check out this heavy metal version of the theme from the 1967 Spider-Man TV series. And I’m not done yet! Tune in next Tuesday for another Spider-tune.
Click the link below and commence head-banging.
Monday, March 10, 2026
COMIC BOOK COMPULSIVE — Masterman Comic #12As you know I’m over fascinated with obscure UK superheroes from the 1950′s which is why I’m posting Masterman #12. A half dozen issues of the title was published by United Anglo-American/Streamline between 1952 and 1953 and featured American schoolboy Bobby Fletcher who was given the magical Ring of Fate by an Egyptian Prince which when rubbed when turn him into the adult superhero Masterman. United Anglo-American did everything possible to convince British readers that this was an imported American comic, from it’s contents, a hodgepodge of superheroes, science fiction and westerns, down to the blatantly counterfactual cover copy reading “All In Colour”. But I’m guessing they didn’t fool anyone, not for very long anyway, and while I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to read an issue Masterman I can’t actually say I enjoyed this issue all that much. Previous issues were pretty standard Captain Marvel swipes but clearly at some point young Bobby got access to a time machine and started making regular jaunts to the far future where he was a “space sheriff” or somesuch, in an obvious attempt to jump on the 50′s SF bandwagon.
In the 50′s American publisher Fox published two issues of Will Rogers Western and at roughly Streamline published two issues of Will Rogers Western Comic which is the only explanation I have for why this story appears as a backup here. — StevelandTuesday, March 4, 2026
D. J. David B. Spins Comics-Tunes: Spider-Man Re-Covered!
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that I have been spotlighting Spider-Man these past few weeks. The point I’m trying to make (are you paying attention?) is that there are oodles of songs about Spider-Man, perhaps almost as many as there are Batman songs. Like any good scientific theory it requires lots of research, rigorous testing, and plenty of hard work. Since I don’t have time for that, I’ll just share another song about Spider-Man.
You may recall (back on December 11, 2025) that we discussed the connection between Peter Parker and The Ramones. Both are from Forest Hills in Queens, New York. Both are outcasts and misfits. And both overcame obstacles to become heroes! As far as I know, The Ramones were never bitten by radioactive spiders, but I can’t prove it didn’t happen.
Naturally, The Ramones covered the 1967 Spider-Man TV series theme (as heard here). And now their cover has been covered by Brats on the Beat. That just shows the staying power of this song. It even has a cover version of a cover version. Top that, Batman! Click the link below and pogo!
— DJ David B. Monday, March 3, 2026
COMIC BOOK COMPULSIVE Large Feature Comic #11 — Barney Google and Snuffy SmithI didn’t actually read Snuffy Smith in the comic strip section of the Akron Beacon Journal, my hometown paper, growing up, but I was always vaguely aware of the fantastically lazy, unemployable and unlikable miniature grotesque and his strained marital relations with his much bigger spouse. To my mind it was just a rural version of Andy Capp, another one of the Beacon’s strips I saw more than actually read. I never gave it’s rustic setting a second thought seeing as how at that time the TV networks were front loaded with hillbilly themed comedies (Hee-Haw, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, etc.). It looked like this:
Even at an early age I found Snuffy’s predictable antics barren at best, and never dreamed that the strip had been around for decades under the name Barney Google, a much different and, to my mind, better strip. The creation of the incredibly talented Billy DeBeck it was one of those early comic strips that was insanely popular, in particular the ”Barney Google Song” , a.k.a. ”Barney Google (Foxtrot)”, the song with the haunting refrain “Barney Google—with the goo-goo-googly eyes!’
Over the years I finally was able to read chunks of Barney Google in collections and old comic books but I never got the chance to read it on a regular basis, which was, I told myself, the reason why I could certainly admire the skill behind the strip I never actually warmed to it. Oh I admired the hell out of Billy DeBeck’s work,but contrarian son of a bitch that I am, I felt his signature creation wasn’t Barney or Snuffy, but Bunky, the super intelligent baby who became the star of “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath”, the strip which for years and years literally topped the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith Sunday strips. Your opinion may differ but if you want to see it for yourself you can check it out here: http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/2010/06/nemo-3-billy-deback-and-parlor-bedroom.html
In 1934 hillbilly humor was a national craze and while visiting the tiny Blue Mountain community of Hootin’ Holler Barney was introduced to his cousin Sniffy Smith. And for reasons yet to be discovered in spite of his distaste and distrust of big city ways the tiny moonshiner abandoned his wife and child for long periods of time to mooch off of Barney’s meager opportunities. In their fairly squalid adventures Snuffy attempted to deal with urban life; hilarity supposedly ensued but I’ve pretty much got to take their word for it because I for one just don’t “get” the appeal of Snuffy Smith. And I’ve really tried; thanks to the King Features website, comicskingdom.com (who, unbeknownst to them, provided me with the “after and before” examples of the strip seen above) I’ve steadily been working my way through 1939 for almost a year now and I just flat out don’t see the funny. Maybe it’s just that “hillbillies” (like, say tramps) are just one of those things that just don’t age very well. And I must confess I find Snuffy’s mountain patois to be mostly impenetrable gibberish. But, mainly, I just don’t find a serial philanderer who’s also a homicidal maniac with a hair trigger to be all that funny and frankly can’t understand why America found him so damn amusing. It just doesn’t make sense, unless Snuffy was using his magical “eyeball” (basically an evil eye) to convince a generation of readers they just couldn’t do without the desperate antics of an insufferable douchebag.
Like most comic strip creators at the time DeBeck must have felt a lot of pressure to get a least one of his major characters into uniform, in spite of the fact both Barney and Snuffy were both obviously too old and demonstratively unfit for military duty. With Snuffy being the most popular he got the nod and I have to hand it to DeBeck; he found a way to get a character so thoroughly repellent and antiauthoritarian (in a lot of ways Snuffy Smith was a proto punk) involved in standard Army Game antics without “rehabilitating” him in any way. And where before Snuffy would settle problems with either physical violence or barely understandable invective here he schemes his way around the rules, revealing a keen intellect. And I bet the newly conscripted servicemen must have just loved it
Believe it or not Snuffy even made it to the movies in the remarkably named Hillbilly Blitzkieg. See for yourself: )
Friday, February 28, 2026
Dreams Come True (Part 2)
Closing out this year’s African American History Month postings, we have more extracts from the late 1940s/early 1950s advertising booklet Dreams Come True! (click here to see Part 1). It was published by the Black and White Company (which made beauty products company for African Americans), and illustrated by African American artist George Lee. The pamphlet consists mostly of cartoon-illustrated ads, plus a number of one-page cartoon bios of African American historical & contemporary figures. Above we have a bio of Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson, and below, musician Fats Waller. Further below are found bios on Robert Abbott and Richard Wright. Click on the above & below pages, to make them large enough to read.
Most of the Black & White Company’s beauty products, were aimed at making African Americans appear more like whites. The ads shown in last week’s extracts involved bleaching/lightening skin color; the first two ads above are for products to slick down one’s hair, making it appear more like white people’s hair. Beneath is for an acme treatment.
Black History Month AdvertisingStrips — DougThursday, February 27, 2026
The New House That Jack Built, 1865
African American History Month continues, with the 1865 Civil War Anti-Slavery booklet The New House that Jack Built, with verse by L. Whitehead, and cartoon illustrations by Henry Louis Stephens. I was planning to scan my copy, but then I found that the complete book is already online. So, I merely scanned my cover plus the illustration above. Clicking on cover, below, will open up Archive.org‘s fully scanned version.
Black History Month H.L. Stephens — DougTuesday, February 25, 2026
D. J. David B. Spins Comics-Tunes: Yep, More Spider-Man!
For the umpteenth week in a row I’m shining the Comics Tunes spotlight on that ol’ web-slinger himself, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Why not? My thesis is simple, there are an awful lot of songs about Spider-Man, perhaps second only to Batman. Don’t believe me? Listen to this! Click the link below and dance!
Monday, February 24, 2026
COMIC BOOL COMPULSIVE — Blue Bolt UK #4OK, this one is weird. It’s a British comic from the late 40′s. early 50′s which reprints material from the Novelty Press incarnation of Blue Bolt comics that uses the L.B. Cole from the later Star Publications version. A much, much edited version of the L.B. Cole cover. I mean, I can understand why the beautiful half naked girl is no longer in the dinosaurs claw, but why was the dialogue (“Stop, Stop, Don’t Shoot!”, “You caution not to anger the great beast, else he slay the woman!”) cut? And even one of the…guys was edited out. Speaking of which, who the hell are those guys supposed to be anyway? Members of the space based Legion of Blue Bolt Appreciators?
As always, blessings be upon the Grand Comic Book Database and The Digital Comic Museum (and Comic Book Plus) from providing me both the information and the materials for this weeks post. Front loaded for some reason (maybe because British comics really seemed to like these sort of historical comics back then) is an episode of the 10 part “Last of the Mohicans” adaptation that ran in Target Comics.
Also included is the Sub-Zero Man story from Blue Bolt #2 by Larry Antonette.
And a Simon & Kirby Blue Bolt story from Blue Bolt #3. As you all know I usually enjoy seeing American comic book art in black and white, but as much as I love the work of Simon & Kirby I’m afraid that’s not the case here.
And finally here’s a much better looking story featuring one of my least favorite Novelty Press characters, Candid Charlie. He’s one of an apparently endless series of teen characters major publishers floated in the late 40′s in a desperate attempt to keep from turning off the office lights. On the plus side he’s definitely not an Archie clone, and negative, there the creators clearly over estimated how many laughs could be squeezed out of the premise of a camera crazy teenager with an insane pompadour. Can you imagine the amount of product he would have had to used to keep that thing erect? Wow.
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