Safety Sunday! (or The Captain Was A Lieutenant (There Can Be Only One))

I do believe we're overdue for an Un-Comic; it's been a fair bit.

For the unfamiliar, Un-Comics is what we call comics that didn't appear in standard comic books. They may have appeared in magazines, books, industry publications, etc.,.

Today, we've got a major comics star doing some public service work - Captain Marvel and the Lieutenants Of Safety. (actually written by Otto Binder and drawn by C.C. Beck!) versus Demon Danger and the terrible hazards of Kite Flying -

Don't you feel safer now?

There were three of these public service comics published in 1950. Next times, the deadly dangers of Climbing and Darkness!

Be good, stay safe, and take your meds -

page art by C.C. Beck from Captain Marvel And The Lieutenants Of Safety #1 (1950)

Party Online Was So Different Then

Let's jump back to a time that most young folks today could scarcely conceive. A time before phones were portable and omnipresent.

Once upon a time, we didn't even have exclusive phones. You shared a "Party Line" with your neighbors. But, you may wonder, how did you know if the phone was ringing for your house or another? You each had a different ring pattern. 

Of course, this means that you couldn't use the phone if your neighbor was on the line. On the other hand, if you were bored it was easy to listen in on private conversations. In later decades, Party Lines became separate numbers that multiple parties could connect to simultaneously, allowing teen telephone parties. I think those are long gone now, too.

Today, let's jump back to 1946 to learn more via an Un-Comic from the Bell Telephone System teaching about the party lines -

I know it's a short one, but that's all for today. The system is up and running, and proper software is installed; now i need to pull the drive from the old system so i can transfer data. In theory, we're back on track. 

Stay tuned to see how theory and practical application collide...

page art from Bobby Gets Hep (1946)

Choose Your Own Introduction #01

Introduction 01:

When i was a child, my parents decided to put the family on a diet. We were in the first batch of adopters of the zero-carb diet - the horrors of no bread or pizza! (They tried a meatloaf crusted 'meatza', but it wasn't the same)

At any rate, during that time they switched over to Shasta diet sodas - a nasty little chemical concoction in a can. By the time we lived through that phase, something had changed. I thought that those nasty little sodas had destroyed my taste buds, but actually the soda manufacturers had dropped sugar for high fructose corn syrup during the interim. It wasn't until decades later drinking 'Real' Pepsi in Mexico that i figured out what had happened.

That formula change made Coca Cola undrinkable for me, giving it a cigarette ash aftertaste mixed with the chemical bite. We were living in the state of Georgia at the time - Coke Was It. Pepsi existed, but one had to forage independently for it. Eateries served Coke.

Not too many years later, we moved cross country to California. Not only was Pepsi aplenty, but there was a Royal Crown bottling plant in our new home town! To my taste buds, Pepsi and RC were fairly equivalent and both superior to all competitors i had sampled.

Now i had two favorite sodas with my preference leaning back and forth between them. RC was the outsider, so closer to my heart - but Pepsi had that nice tooled leather holster for my can.

How is one supposed to decide between the two?

Well, i know what the stars say...

...but with whom are they agreeing?

***

Introduction 02:

There is an odd category tucked into Un-Comics.

As regular readers know, Un-Comics is what we call comics that appear outside of comics, usually in magazines or books. Sometimes in boxes of breakfast pastries or cereal or packaged with a toy. Et cetera.

Today we're looking at Un-Comics that appeared in comic books. A contradiction? Well, yeah, but... there is a reasonable rationale here.
They're comics, but they were advertisements and so, in a sense, not part of the 'comic' itself. Some of them featured regular characters with ongoing adventures that lasted for years. There was a trend toward using comics to advertise in comics, and many followed the fad.

Let's look at the Adventures of "R.C." and Quickie for an example. I've spent the last couple days digging through comics during the time period these adverts ran - from 1944 to 1951 - and i've found most, if not all, of them. Two dozen one page ADventures -

 They must have really liked that one...

Now i suppose i'm going to have to start collecting "Pepsi" the Pepsi-Cola Cop, Volto, Tootsie, "U.S." Royal, Thom McAn, and some of those other ADventures...

ads from various issues of Sensation Comics, Flash Comics, Action, Adventure, Captain Midnight, Boy Commandos, Mary Marvel, Funny Stuff, Real Fact Comics, Hopalong Cassidy, Ozzie and Babs, Strange Adventures and Fawcett's Funny Animals (but they were lots of other places, too) (1944-1951)

Blue Monday Bonus - Un-Comics From The Sewer

Say you're a fan of 'trashy' movies. You love discovering what weird creations have sprung from the minds of those artists who dwell off on the sidestreets, far from the main Boulevard of Dreams.
Where do you go to find them?

Okay. You go to the internet these days - though it can be a daunting expedition that may leave one suffering from things that can never be unseen. It's often safer to find a trusty guide. For the past 20+ years, one man has put his sanity on the line for us, bringing back his (and his team's) reports from the Cinema Sewer - a guide named Robin Bougie. We'll be talking more about the magazine, but today's focus is on their frequent use of Un-Comics for both stories and reviews.


That's the focus of the latest post in our adult content 'back room'. To view the accompanying artwork, visit the full post on The Other Voice Of ODD!
The rest of the text is presented here for context (and search engines, since they can't get past doorman)


Given the focus of the magazine, it should come as no surprise that the creators seem completely unfettered, in the finest underground comix tradition. They are designed to express personal voices - quite bluntly and proudly. (In the dark corners of my mind, the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny is fought between Robin Bougie and Chris Gore, both summoning their troops from the best/worst of cinema)

So, here's a sampling of Cinema Sewer Un-Comics, ranging from film reviews to slice-of-life experiences to a History Of Bukkake and celebrity features and condemnations...



They even did a profile on The Fake Detective, Ed Lake -



Ed's done some great work over the years. I encountered him back in the late '90s while crafting some fakes (all clearly labelled, per his suggestion). The few months i spent playing with those taught me more about Photoshop than a decade of professional work using the tool. (In case you were wondering why.)

Sorry - couldn't find any on the active systems. I'd have to go digging in the archives to find examples.


page art by Robin Bougie, Kim Dietch, D.J. Bryant, David Paleo, Phil Barrett, Josh Simmons, Priscilla Equis, Joseph Bergin III, and Hugo for  Cinema Sewer #s 16, 18, 19, 20 & 22 (2005-2009)

Saturday Night Movie Double Double Feature

Tonight we've got a Double Feature, in two meanings of the phrase. There's the obvious Two Movies meaning with a pair of old RKO Radio Picture features, and the less obvious reference to the dual nature of our titles tonight - both Movies and Un-Comics.
Tonight's movies are comic adaptations that ran in Cavalcade magazine back in 1948. For a while in the late 1940s, they adapted a movie every month. Then they branched out into original comics. Of course, we'll be seeing more of them here over time.

Tonight, however, we've got a couple of big ones - Return Of The Bad Men starring Randolph Scott

(pause for salute)

...Robert Ryan, and Ann Jeffries, followed by Fort Apache with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Temple. Both adaptations are drawn by Phil Belbin.
I hope you've got the popcorn ready...

movies illustrated by Phil Belbin for Calvalcade August & December (1948)