Flash To Flush To Flesh

Let's look at some of the early parodies of Flash Gordon. He's one of our cultural archetypes, with his spawn still going strong. (see Star Wars, et al.) Let's not forget, of course, that Flash was the spawn of Buck Rogers. We won't be ignoring him. (Actually, we will be ignoring him today.)

There is at least one parody earlier than the ones we have here today listed for Lala Palooza in Feature Comics #32. (Don't bother with the digital golden age archives. What i've seen of #32 may have the right cover, but the interior seems to be issue #44. There is an odd superhuman in Poison Ivy reminiscent of Flash, but only in appearance.)

Conveniently enough, since we've been doing a lot of Funny Animals lately, the next earliest i've found is Flash Rabbit from All Top Comics #s 1 & 2, written by Pat Parrish (artist unknown) -

Zany #2 brought us Flush Gordon -

Whack #2 remixed the name to Flush Jordan with artwork by William (Alex) Overgard...

...and Humbug #10, Jack Davis had fun mixing it with the paranoid times and gave us Flyashi Gordonovich, Intergalactic Commissar...

...while Wally Wood was hinting towards later work over in Mad #11 with the title Flesh Garden! -

Of course, there have been many more over the years - we're only scratching into the 1950s here. But this post is getting long, so...
So long!

page art by listed creators, otherwise unknown, for All Top Comics #2 1 & 2, Zany #2, Whack #2, Humbug #10, and Mad #11 (1946, 1953, 1954, 1958)

X was Y

It was one of those days...

You know what i mean?

brain pain from Animaniacs #19 (1996)

Fuzzy Memories

One thing i enjoy perusing during my Comic Archeology digs is the old advertising. We've taken a peek or two, and we'll certainly go diving into old adverts in the future.
Today, let's look at a narrow group - some comic book back covers from  50  51 years ago in 1967 -

Hmm...

Perhaps those are not quite how my fellow geezers remember them? Let me offer a bit of aid in remembery with the front covers to those same comic books -

Surely that helps, right?
If not, then join us later today when take a look inside - and outside - of these little '60s oddities.

indicia to follow (1967)