Then Came Five...

...
The 5th issue of Army & Navy Comics arrived on the stands with no warning on the cover of what was contained within...

Leafing through, it might seem the same as the previous four issues...

...and Private Rook returned for what is, as far as i know, his final appearance...

Of course, Private Rook's adventures were both insane and degradingly mocking of the wartime enemy, as usual...

There were a few joke pages and the obligatory text feature, but tucked in the middle were six pages of Odd (especially for a book aimed at members of the Armed Services) that would take over the title on the following month, and for most of the next four years:

(Yes, that's The Shadow. No, that's not Bird Person.

I'm going to pretend that's Kent Nelson, sans helmet, hanging next to Mandrake*...)

And then things got weirder...

all pages from Army & Navy Comics #5 (1942)

*(I think that's actually SuperMagician, not Mandrake, but he looks so close...
more importantly "That's Not Bird Person" is actually DOC SAVAGE! (Really))

Oh! It's Later.

Didn't think i meant "later today" when i said we'd come back to look at Private Rook later, didja?
Here's his tale from Army & Navy Comics #4 (the same issue from which we pulled the two earlier stories from this morning's post.) Unfortunately, neither i nor the Grand Comics Database have any clue who wrote or drew this strip, or those presented this morning.

the Odd adventures of Private Rook from Army & Navy Comics #4 (1942)

Army & Navy Games

The Army & Navy may have built up quite a rivalry over the years, but once upon a time they shared a comic book:

It didn't last long - only 5 issues...

...and those few issues were...  a liitle odd...

Private Rook, whose blurbs adorn the covers above, tended to longer stories - 16 pages typically - but we'll likely come back to check him out. Let's look at a couple shorter features. One was Dizzy Diaries - the kind of strip you're only likely to see in a wartime (1942) comic book:

Other strips focused on our boys - and girls...

It was a strange little comic book. But in the next issue, a new feature would debut and things would get truly Odd as he took over the title...

strips from Army And Navy Comics #4 (1942)

NOT The 3 Brothers...

Let's jump way back 80 years ago to 1937, back when Will Eisner was still calling himself William. In the dawning days of the comic book when they were still trying to figure out what to call these new critters, we find Eisner working on Funny Picture Stories.

Eisner gets top billing on the table of contents, even in those early days:

I love some of those other titles - Rocky Baird (Adventurer and World Tramp), The Swamp Rat, Battling Beau Brummel, Camera Of Crime....  7-11 Gang? Huh?
What the frell is that? 7-11 was still known as Tote'm Stores for another 9 years after this was published. So what's the 7-11 reference? Hmm...  we'll have to come back to that. But first - you know i can't pass up a good 3, so...

You may have noticed that Eisner was also credited for Silver Speed in the TOC. That's not a story, just a two page spread:

They had hockey outside of Canada 80 years ago? Hnh.

Meanwhile, back at The 7-11 Gang...
I went back and read it. The name is referenced 3 times:

That's all we get for an explanation of the name. So, either someone (Tony Basso? The editor?) just thought it sounded good, or they were an ongoing feature whose name was explained previously, or there's a forgotten cultural reference eluding me here.
Hmm....

The Brothers 3 by Will(iam) Eisner for Funny Picture Stories #4 (1937)

Blue Monday Bonus - This Time It's Personal

I've been doing some data sorting, so there's a fair stack of my work nearby. Here's some of my paintings fit for a

NOTE: All but one of the images in this collection of my artwork contain nudity, and thus have been moved to our back room for adult content. The text remains for context information.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive of the original post to view the artwork.

Some paintings are created to be background material in other paintings - advertisements and such:




And the rabbit hole goes deeper... I've mentioned before that i paint from photographs. (Yes, even with paintings like A Dream Of A Wrong Turn. It's good to have existential cameras) So sometimes paintings get 'nested'. Look in the upper left background of that last 3 Gun Kid advert, and you'll see this painting done to go in the background of the painting to go in the background of the paintings illustrating the odd little scifi tale crawling in my head:



...and if you look behind the crowd on the left side of  this government warning notice*, you'll see the Evil Clown Cologne advertisement above, though it's mostly occluded by the bodies. On the right, you can see this print on the wall behind the runner:

Which might, of course, help explain the recursive artwork.

everything by -3- (Century 21)

*(Yes, in my world the government have found the perfect tool for fear mongering: Molemen! The could be beneath you right now!)

Little Can Be Big

Let's skip across the pond for today's

Vittorio Giardino's erotic pastiche of Windsor McKay's classic Little Nemo In Slumberland is simple fun, though elegantly layered. The collected edition opens with several 2-pagers playing with the concept...

NOTE: The images from this post contain nudity, and thus have been moved to our back room for adult content. The text remains that you may make a fair guess as to whether or not you wish to look at the pics.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive of the original post to view the artwork.

After a double length, 4 page strip, he breaks out with a multi-part 32 page tale that make the book an enjoyable read. Here's a few of the title panels from her dream trip:


If you're going to go looking, here's the covers of the English, French and German editions (in alphabetical order - sorry, mes amis) just for comparative fun:


Bonus for all you folks who were already well familiar with Little Ego. Here are the bonus sketch pages from the French edition:

(And that's why we're a few hours late today - digging out the French edition for the bonus pages)

Little Ego by Vittorio Giardino (1989)