Showing posts with label Pat Parrish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Parrish. Show all posts

26 April 2020

Cosmo Cat's Secret Power

In our past perusals of Cosmo Cat, we seem to have skirted around the first issue of his own title. So, let's go there this morning.

Perhaps is was the unconfirmed nature of the artwork that pushed this back. It is suspected that Ellis Chambers may be responsible for these stories, but that seems purely speculation. And then there's the possibility that Pat Parrish was Ellis Chambers. But, again, we operate with no means of confirmation.

So, let's be like History and forget that for now. 

As the subject line says, Cosmo Cat had a secret power - this story reveals a power greater than his strength, flight, crime & suicide detectors, and et cetera -


That could certainly be an Ellis Chambers ending to the tale. And how about that secret power?
 
Not a bad little hidden ace, eh...?
 

Of course, these days every comic book character seems to have that ability.

Cosmo had a second story in that first issue, so let's continue onward -


And here's the cover for that first issue -
 

page art maybe by Ellis Chambers? from Cosmo Cat #1 (1940)

29 July 2018

Sunday Funnies - Cat & Walrus

So... apparently it's the weekend and i kind of missed Friday and Saturday. The dangers of existing outside of time in general. No going to back to fix things now, but we can do some Sunday Funnies, even if we're running a little late.

No, The Cat & The Walrus wasn't a strip - nobody threw darts at the animal board to come up with that particular pairing - at least, not that i've encountered thus far. We just have some strips prepped for Walrus Whopper and Cosmo Cat, so let's enjoy them together, eh?

First up, the return of Walrus Whopper and his tall tales. This time we start with his first appearance (creators unknown) from Animal Antics #1 -


...and another fish story from a few issues later...


Meanwhile (both premiered in the spring of 1946), over in All Top Comics, Cosmo Cat was making his debut in the first issue, written by Pat Parrish with art from Ellis Chambers. (That's not an "official" assessment - but it certainly seems to be the case to me, both in artwork and in the title lettering.)


And, again, there is no official listing for the artist on this next strip, but Ellis Chambers seems most likely, and that could be a partially obscured 'E.C.' at the bottom of panel one -


Okay. I know what day it is now. Guess i'd better go get tomorrow's calendar ready to run...

pages from All Top Comics #s 1 & 5 and Animal Antics #s 1 & 3 (1946)

28 July 2018

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)