Sorry, John & Marsha - They Got The Names Wrong (+FF&G)

One of the (many) great things about Stan Freberg is that i can run across a comic from 65 years ago and still hear Stan's recordings in my head when i read it...

Some odd fun for us old folks, and perhaps younger listeners of good ol' Doctor D. If you were wondering, the comic came out just 3 years after the release of John And Marsha.

But, it sure doesn't make a lot of post, does it?

Hey! We just saw Frank Borth again this past week. How about we let him show us how to draw Benjamin Franklin?
 

Yes, i've been digging into the old blog piles. Maybe we'll finally get back to one of those dangling threads around here and follow up on one of the first gender swaps which are so fashionable these days.

Meanwhile, you know what else i've been missing?

Friday Fun & Games.
Think we can get that ball rolling again?
Let's find out...
 

It's possible that the puzzle page above was drawn by the same guy who did the one below from later in the same issue: our old fave, Ellis Chambers - 

Okay, that'll do for a restart. Maybe it'll even continue. Either way, we'll have what answers there be on the morrow...

page art by Ed Haas from Get Lost #1 and Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun And Fact v.21#18 (1954, 1966)

plus puzzles (not telling yet)

Slick Dick or Spacey Tracy

Some days, like some parodies, are odder than others. Today's a bit of both.

What do you get when "Dick Tracy" and "Superman" cruise around enjoying "Fearless Fosdick"?

Let's find out...

Eh?

page art by Fred Ottenheimer from Eh! #6 (1954)

Tartag Countdown

Yesterday i made mention of stumbling across a story drawn by John Tartaglione which i enjoyed the splash panel artwork, but we went off in a different direction.

Today, we loop back. Here's that 7 page story...

This 6 page tale is the first confirmed story pencilled by Tartaglione...
 

This 5 pager continues our cycle of picking up one thread one pulling at another. In this case, Joe Maneely - how have we not seen him at all yet on this blog? (Same way we hadn't seen Tartag, obviously. But we'll be back)...
 

This 4 page tale is probably my favorite of the batch, just because...

This 3 page story is the first time i know of John working directly with Stan Lee, long before his best known works for Marvel...

This 2 pager is or is not the first of his 2 page tales, depending on whether or not you count illustrations for the 2-page text features. (Today, we're not)
 

And, lastly - his first confirmed cover for a 1 page piece -
 

By the way - did you know that his son, John C., is an artist in his own right? I'll try to herd the ol' brain around so show some of his paintings.

page art by John Tartaglione from Justice #23, Young Men #11, War Comics #6, Venus #14, Adventures Into Weird Worlds #14, Romantic Secrets #15, and Secrets Of Love And Marriage #9 (1951, 1953, 1958)

Random Post Day

I've been feeling rather disconnected from the outside world (even more than my norm), and very wrapped up in the painting and design work. So there was no blog post planned at all this morning. Oh, sure, we've got more Space Mice and things lying in wait, but the ol' frenemy brain wasn't going there just now.

So, i decided to just grab a random comic out the back corners of the cave and see what we got. It turned out to be Justice #23 from Atlas Comics back in 1951. The first page was the start of a sweet bit of art from John Tartaglione, a name familiar to old fans.

"Perfect!" thought i. 

We won't be seeing that today. (But soon)
The book ended with a tale from Bill Molno. Well, that's a nice bit of intersection - we just saw how Molno was ghosting for Jerry Shuster only a week ago.

Sometimes Random works pretty well. Better yet, i found two more tales drawn by Molno in a couple other random issues pulled from the same year. So, enjoy some random Crime and Romance comics from the brush of Bill Molno -

Oh - and if you're wondering about how the painting is going...   The current batch would have to appear in our back room, so we won't be going there just now.

Even Kelly is embarrassed to be there...

page art by Bill Molno from Justice #23, Lovelorn #14, and Crime And Punishment #37 (1951), paint art by -3- (2020)