Once upon a time, as many of you know, Li'l Abner ruled the comic world from his little home in Dogpatch. Until Star Wars came along, Al Capp's Abner was the undisputed king of merchandising and its popularity crossed all boundaries - from bedroom lamps to Broadway plays.
So, it should come as no surprise that our hillbilly heroes had numerous knock-offs. The comics pages abounded with names like Ozark Ike, Looie Lazybones, Dan'l Flannel, Eustace Hayseed, and even an unabashed Hillbilly Comics title. We'll be coming back to look at all of them, including the Ringer, but today we'll start our look with Pokey Oakey - simply because he had a good introductory launch, starting with being highlighted on the cover of his debut...
Don Dean's hillbilly boy kicked off with a nice intro page to set things up, then takes off running. Not the typical 6-8 page opening story, but a multi-chapter tale with a one-thing-leads-to-another flow similar to Capp's newspaper strips.
...okay...
That might seem like it's the end of a short joke story, but things continue next issue.
First, however, Black Hood wants to make sure the new star of the book feels welcome...
...and now we can continue...
Blood?!
Okay... One more...
Don't worry. They'll probably shoot him in the head, so he'll be fine.
Here are the covers to parts 2 & 3 -
Pokey tallied up a little over 3 dozen tales before fading away, as trends tend to do.
We'll see a bit more of him as we come back to look at some of the others, but i'm saving The Ringer for last.
So, it should come as no surprise that our hillbilly heroes had numerous knock-offs. The comics pages abounded with names like Ozark Ike, Looie Lazybones, Dan'l Flannel, Eustace Hayseed, and even an unabashed Hillbilly Comics title. We'll be coming back to look at all of them, including the Ringer, but today we'll start our look with Pokey Oakey - simply because he had a good introductory launch, starting with being highlighted on the cover of his debut...
Don Dean's hillbilly boy kicked off with a nice intro page to set things up, then takes off running. Not the typical 6-8 page opening story, but a multi-chapter tale with a one-thing-leads-to-another flow similar to Capp's newspaper strips.
...okay...
That might seem like it's the end of a short joke story, but things continue next issue.
First, however, Black Hood wants to make sure the new star of the book feels welcome...
...and now we can continue...
Blood?!
Okay... One more...
Don't worry. They'll probably shoot him in the head, so he'll be fine.
Here are the covers to parts 2 & 3 -
Pokey tallied up a little over 3 dozen tales before fading away, as trends tend to do.
We'll see a bit more of him as we come back to look at some of the others, but i'm saving The Ringer for last.
page art by Don Dean from Top Notch Laugh Comics #s 28-30 (1942)
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