19 April 2020

Wheelan's Weekend Film Festival

Back in 1939 at the dawn of Comics, Ed Wheelan created a strip for Movie Comics entitled Minute Movies. These were essentially old serials in half-page comic strip form. They were printed in two-colour format (black & red ink) and featured regular players - a brilliant concept, really. But Movie Comics lasted only a half dozen issues and Ed moved over to Flash Comics where he invented Flash Movies decades before we came to know them. After a few months, he decided to bring back the Minute Movies, now fully realized in concept.

Directed by Art Hokum and starring Dick Dare, Hazel Dearie, Will Power, Blanche Rouge, Paul Vogue, Lotta Talent, Andrew Handy (Don't call him Andy), and the rest of the Minute Movie Players - including the great villain Ralph McSneer, and comedy buffoon Fuller Phun. Not to mention, Milo the chimpanzee.

Each issue they'd mount a new production - Now Showing All Month!


As you can see above, Wheelan also got the jump on Bob Rozakis by several decades, too. It's interesting that this Answer Man delivers only the answers - figure out the questions for yourself! 
Ed kind of presages another feature i've been planning (ask the Mindbender from Mars, he knows. As usual.)

As noted in the green box above, Minute Movies did not appear in the next issue, but returned in #18 and stuck around for almost 50 more issues.


You didn't think i was kidding about Milo, the chimp, did you...?
 

Our weekend film festival continues this afternoon. And we might even get to meet the great Director.

page art by Ed Wheelan from Flash Comics #s 16, 18, & 19 (1941)

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