Let Evil Perish With Evil

Recently we've been picking up debris strewn from old posts, plucked at dangling threads, and generally tried to pick up things left hanging over the past couple years. Of course, in the process, more bits were left half forgotten along the way.

We were talking about Chen Chang and the Yellow Peril comics, and it was planned to continue with a contrasting strip from the time - Dr. Fung, by "Arthur Dean ", yet another golden age pen name with a mystery hidden behind it. Artwork was initially from Bob Powell, who we've seen previously with his classic Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer strip, as well as one of our Fly Girls, Lee Preston of the Red Cross. Powell authored at least some of the stories, and may have been the original scribe.

Here's a trio of Dr. Fung's early tales so you can get a feel for the strip. All 3 are both written and drawn by Bob Powell -

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that this was a comic free of cruel stereotypes...

...but it was a stark contrast to much of what was published at the time. The hero was a Chinese man, though stereotyped quite a bit, it was not in a generally derogatory manner. And yes, of course, he was partnered up with a jodpurs wearing great white hero to make him more palatable for the reading public in the USA.

The Doctor first appeared in the somewhat infamous Wonder Comics #s 1 & 2. Wonder Comics featured Wonder Man, a direct intentional Superman rip-off commissioned from Will Eisner. The title was, unsurprisingly, quickly sued out of existence. The only copies i've ever seen are micro-fiche, and bad micro-fiche at that.

With issue #4, Wonder Comics re-branded and became Wonderland Comics, wherein Dr. Fung continued until the title ended with issue #33.

He's no Di Renjie, but he's a nice contrast from 80 years ago.

page art by Bob Powell for Wonderland Comics #s 4-6 (1939)

Sunday Morning Funnies w/ Ellis Chambers

It's been quite a while since we've had our Sunday Morning Funnies feature, so let's go with a fair sized batch today - all by one of our favorites around these parts, Ellis Holly Chambers.

Given that The 1940s Funny Animalphabet is off on its own now, we'll avoid his '40s funny animal works today. We'll look instead at work from the '50s and strips starring human rather than animal characters.

Let's start with one i mentioned very recently while talking about Wonderland Comics. Here's The Boy Pirate -

When speculating upon what might have happened to Ellis Chambers, i sometimes wonder if the drug use sometimes caused problems with his editors, possibly leading to hiring him less and less over time. While they seemed to like his work, the same might not necessarily be said for him. The tale above stands mute witness to this possibility. Twice more it ran in the same title, once the following year and again three years later. In both cases, his signature had been removed from the lower right corner of the title panel...

...and extra shame given the more interesting colour schemes used in the reprints.

Bonus Ellis Oddness:
I don't often post memes/image-macros here, but we've got a worthy exception here today. However, it will only fully make sense to those who are familiar with Howie Post's recollections of Ellis Chambers. (See Comic Book Artist #5 or this post for details.)

As often as i've seen this one out there, i don't think i've seen it better used. Certainly not for our purposes.
Thanks to Nick for sending his creation my way!

page art by Ellis Chambers for Wonderland Comics #8, Buster Bunny # 3, Sands Of The South Pacific #1, and Marmaduke Mouse #s 23, 33 & 56 (1946-7, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955)

image macro by Nick (2018)

Leaving Wonderland

If you've been reading along, you know we've been looking at one of Howie Post's odd little delights - Alex In Wonderland. Alex had only 9 tales in which appeared in the 9 issues of Wonderland Comics, along with a few other series from Howie including M'sieu Macaw and Max The Magician. The book also featured another character we'll visit later - The Boy Pirate (with at least one drawn by Howie's old ...mentor? (no, that's not it) ... Ellis Chambers).

But, for now, let's finish up Alex's trips to Wonderland with his two final tales -

I guess Howie knew this was going to be the last Alex In Wonderland tale, because Alex gets run out of Wonderland!

Okay - maybe not.
Or, maybe. That last line from Macaw could be referring to the Wonderland in reader's imaginations since he didn't say anything about next issue or Wonderland Comics.

Whatever the case, 72 years later we still haven't seen them again on the printed page. (But if you're really dying for some more Alex, issues 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, & 9 featured Alex In Wonderland stories for the required two text pages.)

One thing i neglected to point out, though the credit was visible on page one - the first Alex In Wonderland story wasn't written by Howie Post. It was the work of Jerry Gale. Later stories are thought to have been written by Howie, but that may not be the case.

page art by Howie Post for Wonderland Comics #s 8 & 9 (1946, 1947)