Cleaning Up With Hank And Lank

Last week we saw one of the most unusual superhero characters of all time, The Eye, from Frank Thomas.
As you may recall, yesterday we were on our way to visit Camp Comics when we got distracted en route. 
Once we did finally arrive at Camp, much to our delight did we find another very odd superhero creation from Mr. Thomas. Meet Hank And Lank -

Hank and Lank not only appeared in all three issues of Camp Comics, they appeared in about 3 dozen more comics in short (0.5-1 page) tales. Only, they weren't themselves any more after the original trilogy. 

Not even when Harvey Kurtzman was drawing them.

BTW - there are plenty of reasons for us to dig deeper into those three issues, like Dave Berg... 

...not just more Hank and Lank.

page art by Frank Thomas from Camp Comics #1 (1942)

The Lighter Side Of Death Patrols

Earlier today we saw what Al Jaffee was doing in Military Comics back in the days before MAD Magazine. A few pages down the book, another major member of the Usual Gang Of Idiots was delivering deranged comedy with a group that echoed the most famous stars of the title - the Blackhawks.

This was another international squad of flyers, in a rather different vein, the Death Patrol...

BTW - They lived up to their name, despite the comedy stylings. This splash is from issue #10. Only one of the members depicted is a survivor since issue #1.

Obviously, from both the title of this post and the signature above, we're talking about Dave Berg as the current artist on the strip. It was originated by Jack Cole, who drew the first three episodes. Berg took over with the fourth issue and stuck around to both write and draw the stories until the series ended (the first time) in #12.

When Dave took over the book, he started killing off old characters and bringing in new members to diversify the team. He added the sovereign of an African nation invaded by the Nazis, a Native American, a Russian, a Woman, a Latino, and even a Frenchman.

Way ahead of the times in diversity. 
Not so much in handling. We get a bone-in-the-nose cannibal chieftan, a headdress wearing Indian chief, a Bolshevik borscht-eater, et cetera...

As you might have noted, the tales are often narrated by someone who was there.
Or by something who was there...

Beyond both being done by famous MAD pre-alumni for the same comic book, Inferior Man and Death Patrol had something else in common. 

So now we're all set up for next time...

page art by Dave Berg for Military Comics #s 9-12 (1942)

The Lighter Side Of Martian Invasions

We've got just a quickie post at the moment. Yesterday (per posting time reference) was a bit of a trial. I wound up being dragged across Idaho in burning heat for too many hundreds of miles and a wretchedly large number of hours to help a friend. I'm making this post with some ready material as i wind down for what may be around the clock slumber. Hence this short post in case i'm not functionally awake again today.

A great many of us grew up reading Dave Berg in Mad magazine, most notably his Lighter Side Of... features. So deeply ingrained is that association that we often forget that he worked in comics for well over a decade before joining the staff at Mad back in '56. In fact, he even worked as part of the Will Eisner Studio and did features for Timely/Atlas/Marvel.

Since we'll be looking at Venus sometime soon, let's go to a back-up tale in issue #13 of that comic for a look at his work five years before he joined up at Mad (author unknown) -

It's been said before, but - I'm off!
G'night all.

art by Dave Berg for Venus #13 (1951)