Wait Half A Mel...

I'm Up!

I know it's past noon, but i'm just waking - not crawling back into the cave. Obviously too late for Sunday Morning Funnies, but we'll have a post this afternoon - after i caffeinate.

Since i am here and planning to post, we won't be following the new Mel Tormé policy. Here's half a Mel instead to tide things over...

We'll be back in a few hours with even more stupid...

Living The Butterfly Effect With The Velvet Frog

A Kid wiggles his fingers in the UK and causes changes halfway around the world. Funny how those things work. And, no - we're not talking vague theory here. It happens all the time, and happened around here just in the last 24 hours.

Of course, the nature of chaos systems is such that while we can predict an effect, predicting the exact nature of that effect is near impossible. (And it certainly doesn't help when you toss my old peripatetic mind into the mix)

So, less babble, more specifics, eh?

Comments with Kid on yesterday's post led to thoughts of a painting of Mel Tormé. Gordie left visions playing in my head with Mel in a giant mushroom forest, brightly colored rain falling - the drops in the shape of music notes. Eventually i sat down to start doing some layouts for such a painting.

I'm not entirely sure what happened next, but i wound up with a new character in Kelly's game instead...

...yep, the Velvet Frog is now walking around town; and performing on the weekends.

And, no - that's not just static drawing, the animated model is now hanging out with the rest of the cast...

(Yeah, he's a Ladies' Frog)

There are actually 3 viable already-existing potential explanations for his existence within the game. Rather convenient, that.

You may perhaps recall from a previous pic of the GC Rejects that the Penguin surrogate in this world is played by Howard The Duck in the role of Señor Oswald...

This neatly fills a plot gap for me. I needed an obsession for Oswald, and trying to steal the Velvet Frog away for his SOT Border (South Of The Border and get sotted) club fits in perfectly.

By the way, the merging of Kelly's Game and This City finally has a name, and temp title screen - ever growing...

I figured a crowd shot was the simplest way to go, and a lot gets coveyed with that crowd. There's about 60 figures currently, but at least half of the main characters aren't included yet. I suspect that before long we'll pull the camera back and start re-arranging while jamming in a few score more.

Okay - enough babble on The Third Colony, on to more, better Velvet Fog. While we're talking about Mel Tormé, did you know he had a few comic book appearances hiding in his past? (So many of the greats do, it seems)

Let's head on back to 1948 for the first of them - Juke Box Comics #2, with Jerry Fasano doing the artwork...

Mel also made a few more single panel appearances over the next few issues...

...including a record review -

Two years later, he appeared on the cover of Youthful Romances #10 -

Okay, technically he was on the cover of Juke Box Comics #2, but that was just his name in a slot on the jukebox. It was really a Dinah Shore cover. So i didn't include it.

He was also the narrator/star of the lead story in that issue of Youthful Romance, with art from Harry Harrison and Bob Bache (writer unknown)...

...and they dedicated the postal required text pages to the Velvet Fog -

As near as i can tell, that's the complete comic book career of Mel Tormé. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find him hiding in other pages.

White Black Venus

So far, so cooperative... so we're back with with that teased peek at a lady under the covers of Contact Comics. The lady in question is Black Venus - a woman ahead of her time.

How ahead of her time? Her lover got Fridged (I was going to link to the Urban Dictionary, but those people are too stupid to spell the word frigid) a half century before Kyle Rayner's...

The following issue, L.B. Cole took over on the artwork. Let's take a look, shall we? 

Oh - if you're confused about her seeming closeness, dancing with another man the issue after the death above... that's her job. Mary LaRoche, Black Venus' secret identity, is a USO Dancehall Hostess. That's how she can operate in a theatre of war.

Those were the only two Black Venus stories illustrated by Cole. But the next story was drawn by Nina Albright, and two of the remaining 5 were from Harvey Kurtzman!

Oh, yeah - we'll be back.

story art by L.B. Cole from Contact Comics #s 3 & 4 (1944)

Making Contact With L.B. Cole

Y'know - i left one of the big ones off the list of contractually obligated brooding - Old Geezer. 

Here's the kind of brood i get to enjoy - I'm now the oldest surviving member of my family line. This past Xmas brought confirmation the the rest don't care to hear from me. Not that we've had bad relations - just no relations in general. But they're republicans, so they may just assume i was chasing after Dad's money or something.

Fortunately for me, that whole Family Is Everything concept was something rather alien to my life experience, so not too big a deal. I'm far more concerned with my larger family of Humanity, and whether or not we'll survive early adolescence. (Obviously the species won't be maturing out of that phase any time soon)

So, let's drag the ol' brain out of the cave shadows and put it to work, eh? 

L.B. Cole is another of those old creators whom i thought we had looked at previously. Nope - just a bit over on the 1940s Funny Animalphabet, and not much of that. So let's start with Contact Comics. The only title published by Aviation Press, it ran for 12 issues in 1944 & '45, and Cole did some lovely work for the covers -

While i like the leap forward in Aviation for that final issue, it's kind of hard to picture someone yelling "Contact!" and a hard prop spin starting up a rocket engine, no?

Okay. I'm going to give the brain a break, and hopefully i'll drag it back later today with a peek at a lady under the covers.

cover art by L.B. Cole for Contact Comics #s 1-12 (1944, 1945)

Stealing Mel From ME

Mark Evanier has a problem with people stealing Mel Torme from him. I think i'm gonna do it, too.

Probably no surprise that i'm doing it different than most. I'm not stealing his marvelous Xmas Mel tale, i'm stealing his Mushroom Soup. And Mel.

You see, when Mark gets too busy to blog, he throws up a mushroom soup graphic. When i'm here but having trouble posting, i think ol' Mel is going to be my signal. 

Likely i'm not too busy to post. More probably it's a matter of not being able to communicate, or being unable to gather mental traction, or simply brooding. As a Hermit, as an Artist, as an American without an America...  I'm way behind in my contractually obligated brooding.

Maybe next time we see Mel, i'll catch up on some of that here. For now, i've been scraping off the past couple days and starting to prep a return of L.B. Cole; and not the Funny Animals this time.

Hmm... 
Actually, it might be the first for L.B. Cole here rather than the 1940s Funny Animalphabet. 

So we're overdue.

Anyway... When you see Mel, you know i'm still alive and here, just not ... Here.

It's MEL! (No, i didn't steal it from ME. Mine's better)