A Gen-u-ine Pin-Up Duck

Despite that title, there'll be nary a sign of Howard The Duck in this post. He's busy with the Guardians Of The Galaxy this season; also he doesn't fit our Old Friends Week theme.

Today we'll be talking about another duck, one from Howie Post. We've got a question leading into this one...

When is a Funny Animal not a Funny Animal?

Doodles Duck may be listed in the 1940s Funny Animalphabet, but he and his friends are a grey area. A brightly coloured grey area, but nonetheless...  Are they really Funny Animals if they're toys? 

Folks have been doing toys-come-alive stories long before the Toy Story movies, and Howie was doing it back in 1947 with a series he launched in Leading Comics, starting in #23. They were short, just 5 pages each, so here are the first three stories to introduce Doodles and his Toyland Playmates to you...

A couple issues later, Post decided he could take things further. If toys can come to life for the stories, why not pictures in books?
 

Howie had fun in Toyland for a few years with Doodles, and when he headed off to other strips, Sheldon Mayer took over for for several more years. But, if you go looking, it can be a bit tricky to follow. The strip bounced around between different comics. Besides Leading Comics (and Leading Screen Comics), Doodles also appeared in Comic Cavalcade, Funny Folks (and Hollywood Funny Folks), Funny Stuff, Movietown's Animal Antics, The Raccoon Kids, Nutsy Squirrel, Real Screen Comics, Peter Porkchops, and The Dodo and The Frog.

So...  Happy Hunting!

page art by Howie Post from Leading Comics #s 23-25 & 27 (1947)

Death Ain't Supposed To Hurt!

Well, damn - this one's way behind. 

Between February and May of last year we ran four out of the five tales of Joe Guy - America's Foremost Hero! I kind of thought we'd run them all, but discovered that was pure delusion. So today, at long last, we have the final tale. If you don't want to go back and read those above links and don't know who Joe Guy is, here's the short version: He's the illegitimate son of Superboy and Amelia Earhardt, now marketing himself as America's Foremost Hero!™. Beyond that, just know that it's a weird world. I mean, different weird from how this one's gotten. And not a particularly enlightened one, though that may well be intentional. Partly, at least.

First up, here's the spread from the top of the first two pages, since you can't see the image when the pages are stacked vertically...

Now on with Jim Stenstrum & Abel Laxamana's twisted tale...
 

That whale splat rates somewhere between Oregon and Magrathea. But don't bet on this one making it to video.

page art by Abel Laxamana for The Rook #13 (1982)

Jimmy Wears Pink Too!

I mentioned yesterday that we'd be revisiting with folks who've appeared here previously. 'Folks' is used here to refer to creators, characters, and publications. Sounds much better than 'topics' to my inner ear.

To kick things off, let's welcome back Grass Green, making 3 Stooges with Mark Burbey and Eddie Eddings. I guess that works either way you read it. This one comes from RBCC #152...

Hmm...
Y'know, i don't think we've looked at Eddie Eddings yet...

We'll have to peek soon, eh?

Up next, we've got a one-shot Fly Girl, from Trina Robbins, no less. (How has Trina not appeared here yet? She's done some damned Odd things over the years.) 

At least, i think she's a one shot. There might have been some strips featuring her in The East Village Other, but i've only got maybe a half dozen issues and it's not exactly cataloged. This one pager comes from Gothic Blimp Works, which was published by the EVO back in 1968...

Trina's Sky Doll is not to be confused with Barbuci & Canepa's somewhat more famous Sky Doll, who has at least 3 books out there.


Now let's visit once again with a favorite of this blog (and of The 1940's Funny Animalphabet), that mysterious maker of madness - Ellis Chambers. This short tale is from a 1950 issue of Dizzy Duck (#32, for the curious who don't want to go all the way down to the credits notice), and so it belongs here and not there.

To wrap up our batch of bits & pieces, here's a lovely Ralph Bakshi based wrap-around cover from #149 of the Rocket's Blast Comic Collector from Wendy Pini -

Yeah - we need to run another batch of RBCC covers soon.

page art by Grass Green & Eddie Eddings, Trina Robbins, Ellis Holly Chambers, and Wendy Pini for RBCC #s 148, 149 & 152, Gothic Blimp Works #2, and Dizzy Duck #32 (1950, 1968, 1979, 1982)

Aw - - It Was The Biggest One I Ever Had!

Tis the end of the weekend, and the end of the first tale of The Enchanted Flivver, from Capt. Frank Moss and Frank Borth. This time we've got three chapters to conclude our story...

Definitely a story from another time. 

There were two more tales - The Return Of The Enchanted Flivver and Where's Henrietta? If my peripatetic mind cooperates, we'll touch on that third one this week, and why i chose this story to run currently.

Meanwhile, i've been digging through those old piles and i suspect we'll spend much of this week visiting with old friends from previous posts.

But, i'm rambling and so - i'm off!
(but you knew that)

page art by Frank Borth for Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact #s 294-296 (1960)

Anybody else got a clue...?

As you might have noticed, i've been digging through old files for the blog, pulling out things that have been sitting around for a bit.

I'm not always the most organized person. I still rely on old habits from when my mind and i were a constant team and little things like notes and labels were not important. So i got confused when i hit this piece of art from the great Joe Sinnott, with no damn clue from where it was pulled - the only label is SinnottSSTB, and it's in a stack of things i was pulling from 1977. Is that the year it's from? Is ThunderBunny that old?

And just, in general, WTF?

I suppose i'll eventually stumble back across the source, but that could be a very long time from now. Anybody else got a clue about the origin of this piece?

art by Joe Sinnott for ... where you not paying attention?