Mutants Walk Among Us

We sure ran a lot of posts in a row on the same guy, so let's take a minor break from Don Rosa - but we'll stay with the RBCC.

Kurt Busiek is highly regarded for a number of reasons, not least of which is investing new life into old stories. When he and Alex Ross created the Marvels mini-series back in 1994, he cemented his legacy as a highly knowledgeable historian of their world.

Some of us already knew that. A decade and a half earlier, he worked with Scott McLeod to bring us The Mutant Handbook -

Little did we suspect how it pointed towards the future.

Bonus! Here's a couple extra pin-up pages of Scott by Scott -

page art by Scott McLeod from Rocket's Blast Comic Collector #s 148 & 152 (1979, 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)

Moon Madness With Buck & Wilma

We haven't seen nearly enough of Gray Morrow's works around here as yet. Let's use our recent look at Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers parodies as an excuse to fix that a little bit. (Actually, if i could have found my frelling copy of his Amora, we could have slipped him into the parodies proper.)

This tale from Heavy Metal magazine, written by Jim Lawrence with art by Morrow, isn't a parody, but it is an odd piece that feels like a distorted reflection in some ways, due to the weird world in which they find themselves...

page art from Heavy Metal (Sept 1979)

Saturday Solutions, Once Again

Quick answers to yesterday's Quick Quiz -

1>

From Larry Elmore, a name all old school D&D fans should recognize, comes Gidget Meets The Squirrel Dogs From Outer Space.

2>

The man tormented by the whispers is Doc Mason from John Findley's tolerably awesome Tex Arcana, a tale of which i've been a fan long enough that back in the '80s, before going full time into the artwork the electronics technicians with which i worked were called the Techs Arcana ("We're so good, we're magic").

3>

The might of Marveldom assembled was gathered to end the threat of...  the F.F.'s mailman...?

I told you there was something odd about Willie Lumpkin.

page art from Heavy Metal (April 1979, March 1981) and The Fantastic Four Roast (1982)

We Knew Him Well

As regulars know, it's often difficult for me to direct my kitten herd of a mind toward my desired destination. I'm giving up, and just letting it go where it wants for a bit. So queue up The Rolling Stones' classic Sympathy For The Devil to play while you enjoy the pages below, and let's see where the day takes us, eh?
(Really - It's much more enjoyable if you take the trouble to read along with the song)

From Tan Don't Burn, August, 1979 -

Oh.
To clear up a minor bit of confusion...

Tan, Don't Burn by Mantxo Algora

page art by Gene Day & Bill Payne, cover by Mantxo Algora, for August Heavy Metal (1979)