More Twinkles From Tinkle

In many ways, Tinkle, the children's comic from India at which we've been peeking, reminds me of old UK children's comics. The mix of fables and adventures with history and science strips felt quite familiar when first encountering the magazine. Beyond the folk tales mentioned earlier, they also often touched on things close to me in some way, like one of my heroes growing up - Benjamin Franklin...

Have i babbled on about Sun WuKong at all yet? Even those not fans of his tales are likely somewhat familiar with The Monkey King with all the movies that have been made touching upon the legends. (He was even the focus of the movie that brought Jackie Chan and Jet Li together. (And the character played by Jet))
But if you're a fan, before too long you're likely to encounter Hanuman. Hanuman came first, and it is said that Sun WuKong is a later incarnation. So before you go bury yourself in Journey To The West, maybe take a look at the roots of The Monkey King. And here, we have the roots of Hanuman himself, with Ram Waeerkar back once again for the artwork...

As mentioned above, Tinkle included comics featuring history and science - and sometimes both combined...

In the early days, Tinkle had a regular feature i enjoyed called Meet The _______. Each strip focused on a different animal, or sometimes even a plant. They ran from 2-4 pages, and covered a wide variety of creatures, ranging from Chickens and Worms to Pangolins and Tigers.

Here's a sample with Meet The Tiger...

We'll be back this afternoon with more Meet The _______ comics from Tinkle.
See you then.

page art by Pradeep Sathe and Ram Waeekar from Tinkle #s 4, 5, 13, & 14 (1981, 1982)

More Tinkle Tales

Today is broken, but managing to get a late post into the queue - a continuation of yesterday's Folk Tales from Tinkle. Here's a quick trio of tales while we try to get things fixed around these parts...

page art by M. Mohandas, Pratrap Mulick, and V.B. Halbe for Tinkle #s 6, 13, & 17 (1981, 1982)

The Empire Strikes Ken

The last issue i ever saw of Rocket's Blast Comic Collector was #152. That issue didn't come out until 1982. By that time conventions were commonplace and the dealer's room aspect of the zine had faded away, no longer serving a vital need. Now there were more articles and artwork, and it was the first "New Look" issue with all of the content now typeset, leaving behind the old unpolished zine feel.

I like to think that the RBCC continued for a good while after that time but, as i said, i never saw more issues. I'm not sure if i saw any further issues of James Van Hise's other zine, Enterprise Incidents either. Around that time life was pretty strange with young children and multiple jobs and job changes - it was still a few years before artist became my full-time occupation. (I think i was working as an electronics tech about that time, but i've mentioned how tenuous my relationship with time is previously) So conventions tapered off around then, and i lost my window on that world.

Anyway...  What we're doing here today is a little mini-comic that appeared within the aforementioned issue - The Empire Strikes Mitch. Mitch being artist Ken Mitchroney, a semi-regular contributor in those days to both magazines, who decided to have fun with a bunch of Star Wars cartoons.

If you're wondering why you haven't seen more of Ken's work - you probably have.
His designs, storyboards, and animations can be seen in many places over the last few decades in places like Tiny Toon Adventures, Mosters, Inc., Toy Story 2, Shrek 2, The Lego Movie...  lots of places. And, last i knew, he was a supervising director for Cartoon Network.

So, he's a little busy for the comics these days.

pages by Ken Mitchroney for RBCC #152 (1982)

Now, Somewhere In The Black Holes Of Sirius Major...

It took Bill Mantlo about six years to decide how and when to bring the world's favorite raccoon back from oblivion after Wayfinder ended up in limbo.
When he did, Rocky was already upstaging the big stars...

Rocky was retooled and brought into the main Marvel universe through one of those very strange periods in the Hulk's history when he's off in other weird worlds. It's been openly acknowledged that Rocket was inspired by John Lennon's pet raccoon and his song in various interviews. But in case you had any doubts, let's enjoy his colour debut with the appropriate background music. A song that opens with the line...

And, indeed, Hulk Smash with great efficiency. In almost no time...

...and while not afraid, they've got better things to do than waste their time with Keystone Cops. (Kids - google it) So, it's off to their ship, where Rocket shows how much he understands the Hulk...

Strange images which tell an odd tale of HalfWorld - Half barren and roboticized, half garden paradise. There is, unsurprisingly, trouble brewing between the two halves...

You see the otter in green?
Her name was Magill and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Lylla.

Rocket manages to persuade the Hulk to come along, and soon they find the wreckage left behind by the Black Bunny Brigade's attack...

Pyko claims that Gideon's Bible is purely gibberish, but Jakes isn't buying it. Before they can do anything else, word comes in that Rocket Raccoon and company have arrived in local space...

And, shortly thereafter...

Yes, folks. It's the '80s and Killer Klowns From Outer Space are a thing.
But not for long...

And that's it for Hulk - he's outa here.
While making his offer and sending Hulk back home, Pyko makes it very clear that he can read and comprehend Gideon's Bible, but has no intention of letting it disrupt life in the Keystone Quadrant.
But Rocket's story continues...

35 years later, we've seen a lot of "someday"s. Rocket's story grew more elaborate as the chance was presented to explore further, and before too long he was out in the galaxy at large. But those are a pile of other stories. And we all know where he ended up.
Hollywood.

How many of you think that next tale is a Harlan Ellison homage/parody/shout-out?

pages by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema & company for The Incredible Hulk #271 (1982)