Muktuk Raking

I still haven't figured out what to call it when the post is nothing more than "ooOOOOoooo - LOOK! Pretty picture!!" At least, not the colour pics. (BBW Art is a feature that hasn't debuted yet) Frankly, not a single angle that's bubbled up holds appeal for me. Nor is any so wretched that i feel compelled to use it. I'm sure something will occur to me, but in the meantime...

ooOOOOoooo - LOOK! Pretty picture!!

 

This is Alex Horley's cover painting for issue #2 of Muktuk Wolfsbreath: Hard-Boiled Shaman, a delightfully odd Vertigo 3-issue miniseries from back in 1998. The series is worth coming back to for a look inside, but today i was just perusing pretty pictures. And trying to think of a name for this feature. (Or is running covers with clean cover art a separate feature of its own? Where's the damn editor?!)

Alex Horley artwork from the exterior of Muktuk Wolfsbreath: Hard-Boiled Shaman #2 (1998)

Saturday Solutions #002

Here's the answer to yesterday's Friday Fun & Games puzzle, tightly packed to preserve freshness (for 43 years):

Puzzle Solution from Amazing World Of DC Comics #2 (1974)

Meanwhile, 43 Years Ago... Friday Fun&Games #002

It's time once again for

 

We've visited FOOM a few times already. Let's stop over on the other side of the street at the Amazing World Of DC Comics. From the first issue, a puzzle from the Answer Man himself, Bob Rozakis:

 

Remember, it's 55 titles, not 52! And the years is 1974, so boot up the way-back processors and start hunting. 

Word Search Puzzle from Amazing World Of DC Comics #1 (1974)

Damn

We lost another  of the Great Ones today:

 

We Miss You Already

And now, a palette cleanser for your eyes after that last taste.
A Ruiz Burgos* Saturday Sampler platter:

 

Just lovely, aren't they? These are 9 his 10 Saturdays. For a much better look at these, and a gallery of his other comic book based paintings, you really should visit his site. 

===

*(Ruiz Burgos is only the last half of his name. The first half has escaped into one of my memory holes, and the website was broken, refusing to feed me the bio page)

My Apologies in advance

CAUTION!

This Post May Be Disturbing For Some Viewers.
Proceed At Your Own Risk.

Post continues after the Bat-Bumper...

Um...   nope.
I don't have an introduction for this. Rule 34 would be easier to explain.
Better to talk after. I'll put on a pot of tea while you ...  um...  

...here - just look

I don't know if familiarity with the original Rubens painting makes first viewing better or worse. I can say that context didn't really help. Also - love the addition of the peeping toms.

So...

What the hell just happened to you?
Hillary White (Rabbit), that's what.
And don't expect her to apologize for it. She'll just slap you again.

That's Waiting To Surprise Bae. (Did you want to know that 'Bae' has been established as Darth Vader in other paintings?)
But, if you like getting slapped like that (I do) then head on over to Hillary's Portfolio and enjoy yourself!

Fewer Death Traps

Welcome to Comics Archeology 303. (What? You wanted 101 from a guy with a 3 fetish?)
Those of you who do not already have your books, please send me all the money.

Today we'll be discussing a very recent find. I was mining an entirely different vein when a glimpse of something called Willie Lumpkin caught my eye.
I started reading Fantastic Four more than 50 years ago. Willie Lumpkin's been around since WAY back in FF#11.
This guy:


Now, let me point out a couple things right up front.
First, as indicated by that '50 years ago' reference, i'm from a time when 'fandom' meant you and a few kids you knew who traded comics for something new to read. Generally you all shopped at the same one or two places with spinner rack (so they didn't have to waste a lot of space on them comic book things). But, y'know - Billy's big brother went up to Macon where the 5&Dime had TWO spinner racks, and titles we'd only heard of in ads in the books our store ordered. That's an event that was on the scale of the San Diego Comic Con (or whatever it's officially called these days. I haven't been in this century) And that's about the extent of new information we got on what was going on in the world of comics.
There were no magazines, no databases, no connections. If you REALLY felt the need to try to connect beyond that little local tribe, your only option was to write to the fans who got their letters printed, once Stan Lee (he was first, right?) started printing their addresses with the letters.
Second, due to some sociopathic hermit tendencies, disconnection remains my lifestyle, despite attempts at otherwise over the years. (Even APAs - topic for another day)

Combine the two, and this means that there are going to be big gaping gaps in my knowledge. I may well know what's known to me, but my knowledge of ignorance is quite limited. That being the case, it may turn out that some things we discover here in Comics Archeology are actually well known to everybody outside my cave. In those cases, perhaps my ignorance itself will be entertaining in this age of reality tv programs.

So - moving along with the topic at hand - Willie Lumpkin.
I chipped around this new vein and found several dailies and several Sunday strips. Lo and behold - they're about a mailman named Willie Lumpkin.

 
And it's credited to Lee & DeCarlo! WTF? Was Stan off writing strips in 1960?
I tried to foist this mystery off on someone else, but just a week later, while reading through an old interview with Stan from Oui magazine back in '77 (Great articles, but no - I didn't just buy it for the articles) and near the end this exchange pops up:

Not long after that, i stumbled across* this in an interview from Comic Book Artist #2:

So - Yup!
Another odd bit in the Stan Lee story of which i was unaware. As lost to history as the names of his children. (Seriously - has anyone ever heard them referred to by name? And who's that Lieber guy working on the Netflix Marvel series? Any relation? Argh - more mysteries!)

===

*(This is why it's hard for me to get too angry at the Universe enjoying itself so much using me as the punchline to many of its jokes. It makes up for it be dumping things i want to know, and strange things i didn't know i wanted to know, in my path for me to find. I'd never know to look for The Man With The Smallest Penis In Existence And The Electron Microscope Technician Who Loved Him, so the Universe sends those things to me instead.)

Willie Lumpkin breaching worlds from Fantastic Four #11 and Willie Lumpkin dailies (1963&1960)

Hunt Emerson Predicts The Future

Hunt Emerson called it back in 1983:

 

lightly tweaked Rear View of Graphixus #2 by Hunt Emerson (1983)

Marvelite Memories Maximus, Son

Back in the very first issue of FOOM (the official Marvel members-only fanzine) they initiated a new feature, though they had yet to name it Bullpen Bios. I present that page here in full that you may enjoy Stan Lee's bombastic hyperbole in his bio, and for us old geezers, a bit of what John Buscema was doing before he burst onto the late 60s Marvel comics scene. (It was the late 60s - of course it was a 'scene'!)
While reading that introductory word balloon, keep in mind - this is the very first issue.

Notice that to inaugurate this feature, they chose what they thought were the most important figures to introduce - the guys writing & drawing the Fantastic Four - emphasized by using the FF to introduce the feature. They are, after all, the First Family of Marvel Comics. Their adventures form the very core of that universe, both on and off planet Earth.

They are obviously the most important part of the Marvel Comics Universe.

Sure wish the decision makers at Marvel Comics could get their diapers changed and remember that.

(Yeah, yeah. I know. Imitating Snell again. But when the man's right, he's right!)

Page 3 boys from FOOM #1 (1973)