Borth's Buttons Bonus

We continue with Frank Borth's solo tale of Buttons' UFO from yesterday. This time we've got chapters 3-5, with possibly a special bonus for the 5th installment.

We'll talk about that when we get there. Let's get started first -

Let's go to the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. for this next chapter. In their archives is a copy of Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v24#15 that is potentially Quite Special. There are penciled notations in the margins that appear to be from Frank Borth himself. Is that possible?

Well, yes.

Just about 15 years ago, Frank Borth did an extensive interview for them regarding his time working on TCoF&F. It is quite possible that Frank either bequeathed his personal copies to them, or allowed them to scan his personal collection.

I have an inquiry submitted to the Librarians. I'll let you know if i hear back with any concrete details. Meanwhile, be aware that a couple of the notations continue on the following page -
 

Wasn't Ashtabula the home of the Rasa family?

Yeah, it's late and sleep is still elusive. We'll be back with the three concluding chapters.

page art by Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v24 #s 13-15 (1969)

Back To Borth's Buttons

As i noted last week when we started Draw-Along With Frank Borth, i was actually going to run another serial when i remembered that dangling bit and went back to it instead.

My sleep has still been savagely fractured - when i lay down, i'm back up within 30-90 minutes. Ugh. Much ugh.
But, since i'm up again for a bit, i decided to go ahead and start prepping pages and run the first two chapters today instead of waiting until tomorrow to begin Buttons' U.F.O.! -

Buttons' UFO was something of a successor to The Enchanted Flivver. But this time, we've got a Bathtub instead of an old auto. (Yes, there is an in-story explanation for it)

Another significant difference is that this time Frank Borth is handling both Story and Art as a solo production. The series ran in 8 chapters. Let's get started this afternoon with the first two, and we'll continue tomorrow -

Oops.
We'll see how that plays out when we continue on the morrow...

page art by Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v24 #s 1 & 2 (1969)

My Favorite Booby Bear (Not Bare)

Before The Bear came to stay at Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact, there was Booby Bear hanging out with Perky Penguin. For extra Fun - the strip was drawn (and written?) by Jim Mooney. Mooney is one of those guys who seemed "fresh" enough to my friends and i back in the '60s & '70s that we never realized just how long he'd been around in comics. These come to us from 1946 and he'd already been drawing comics for a half dozen years by then.

Perky Penguin And Booby Bear was a short feature, only two pages per. It started running in the second year (the first full year) of TCoF&F, and had 9 episodes that year. (#6 is my fave) Here are the first year's worth of the strip -

As noted above, my fave for this year is watching Jim Mooney getting meta and having fun with 'reality' almost 75 years ago...

Over the next few years, Perky & Booby returned for another 9 or 10 strips (plus one more a decade later, but that was a reprint). Booby Bear may have been there before The Bear, but he wasn't there nearly as long. Perhaps because Mooney was doing a lot of work for DC and proto-Marvel at the time. He was drawing Captain America and Batman & Robin, among others - so he did get pretty busy. Or maybe they just found out what else Jim liked to draw, and figured he wasn't a good fit. (Probably not that last one)

Or maybe somebody realized that Perky Booby wasn't a great combo for a Catholic comic? (And Jim walked off laughing at how long he got away with it?)

The World may never know...

page art by Jim Mooney from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v2 #s 1-4, 6, 8, 16, 17, & 19 (1946, 1947)

Bears In Space?

Sleep still savagely fragmented, and now breathing getting in on the fun. Or lack of breathing, to be more accurate - bad sinuses; allergic to the planet sort of thing. So brain extra scattered, and it's time for my monthly foraging run down the hill. Not going to do a lot of writing at this point. 

Fortunately, we've already got another tale featuring Eric St. Clair's familiar Bear already prepped and ready to go. Here's No Peace For Bears -

That place sure looks better than Jellystone, doesn't it?

page art from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact v10 #s 1-4 (1957)