Showing posts with label 1943. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1943. Show all posts

25 July 2020

The Yankee Wasn't From Conecticut (or Can't Get Enough Dick (your choice))

Before we dig in to today's Dick Briefer brief, let's make a quick stop at the first page of the first issue (#3, because - comics!) of Boy Comics, from whence today's tales originated. And bring back a logo we haven't seen since the early days of this blog...


We'll not be looking closer at this guy...

(Obviously the victim of steroid shrinkage)

...because who knows what we might see!

But, also - it shows one of the big problems for today's feature. The early issues of Boy Comics are scarce. So much so that i've only ever seen microfiche copies of most of them. Out of his first dozen appearances, i only have 4 paper copies.

So, naturally, those will be the ones we look at today. 

Yankee Longago - The Boy Of To-Day In The Land Of Yesterday, like another Yankee recorded by Sam Clemens and popularized by Bing Crosby, isn't so tightly bound by time as most folks. In his first adventure, instead of leaping back to King Arthur's court, he found himself in the lands of King Cole (who was NOT a merry old soul). He quickly established himself as someone worthy of note by putting out Bad Bimbo's eye with a rubber band & paper clip. Shortly after, he was cranking out bicycles, parachutes, and weapons of war to bring about change in the land before returning home.

However, on his second 'trip in time' he did find his way to Arthur's time - back before Arthur was King. After helping him to pull the sword from the stone, Yankee winds up facing off against an evil Merlin before returning to his own time.

And now we come to his 3rd tale, the first i have on paper. So let's join with Yankee as he meets Al - the Alchemist (and a couple more famous characters)...


A couple issues later, Yankee was meeting up with Napoleon...
 

Having previously corrected "Chris" that he was seeing Brooklyn, not India, Yankee's travels brought him closer to home...
 

Our final tale today brings Ponce De Leon to meet Longago at the Fountain...
 

Between 1942 and 1946, Dick Briefer did about two dozen of Yankee's adventures.
I'll see how many more i can dig up on paper.

page art by Dick Briefer from Boy Comics #s 5, 7, 12, & 14 (1942, 1943, 1944)

02 July 2020

Three Minute Matinee

I'm still having trouble surfacing from the depths of The Third Colony. While i'm enjoying the progress there, that's not very entertaining for you. And not getting to sleep until the sun interrupts the work doesn't help get posts up early in the day, that's a certain. So, rather than ramble today, let's just sit back and enjoy a triple-feature from my favourite acting troupe of the 1940s - Ed Wheelan's Minute Movies players.

Okay, maybe no rambles, but one quick comment. The opening panel on this first one makes me think that some of the European comic artists i encountered back in the '70s and '80s were fans, too...




I don't know about every month in Flash Comics, but we'll surely see some more here eventually.

But, now i'm off to work on Big Sys...

page art by Ed Wheelan from Flash Comics #s 36, 40, & 41 (1942, 1943)

26 June 2020

Rosie? Is That You?

I bumped into an odd notation in the Grand Comics Database this morning. I was looking at an old issue of War Victory Adventures and noticed that the Rosie The Riveter strip indicated that this was her first and Only (discounting reprint) appearance...


...so, i ask you then, who is This...?
 

...or This...?
 

Obviously, though sharing the name of the iconic Rosie The Riveter, they're all different characters. And all three only appeared once, naturally during World War II in 1943 and 1944.

So, while i remembered other Rosie comics, the GCD entry was still correct while being incorrect.

Oh, BTW - the final segment of TIM ran yesterday in our back room for adult content, The Other Voice Of ODD!. I forgot to mention and link to it.

Sorry about that.

page art from War Victory Adventures #3, All-New Comics #10, and Green Hornet Comics #16 (1943, 1944)