The Lighter Side Of Martian Invasions

We've got just a quickie post at the moment. Yesterday (per posting time reference) was a bit of a trial. I wound up being dragged across Idaho in burning heat for too many hundreds of miles and a wretchedly large number of hours to help a friend. I'm making this post with some ready material as i wind down for what may be around the clock slumber. Hence this short post in case i'm not functionally awake again today.

A great many of us grew up reading Dave Berg in Mad magazine, most notably his Lighter Side Of... features. So deeply ingrained is that association that we often forget that he worked in comics for well over a decade before joining the staff at Mad back in '56. In fact, he even worked as part of the Will Eisner Studio and did features for Timely/Atlas/Marvel.

Since we'll be looking at Venus sometime soon, let's go to a back-up tale in issue #13 of that comic for a look at his work five years before he joined up at Mad (author unknown) -

It's been said before, but - I'm off!
G'night all.

art by Dave Berg for Venus #13 (1951)

Blue Monday Calendar 2018 Week 29

This week's Gil Elvgren pin-up painting is Let's Go from 1957 -

art by Gil Elvgren (1957)

Sunday Morning Funny Animals

I seem to be stuck in the '40s, so let's just roll with it. For our Sunday Morning Funnies this week, Funny Animals of the Fourties seems like a workable theme, eh?

Let's start out with another visit by Walrus Whopper -

DC's Comic Cavalcade featured a host of funny animals back in the '40s, including Dodo & Frog, Nutsy Squirrel, Blabber Mouse, the Raccoon Kids, Tortoise & Hare, and Goofy Goose. But the big duo, who stuck around for decades, was Fox & Crow -

Pelican Pete was an odd bird, no doubt. Beyond his Felix style "bag o tricks" pelican beak, he also lived... 'between worlds' seems the best description. Take a look at this tale, featuring art by Otto Feuer -

pages from Animal Antics #5, Comic Cavalcade #30, and Leading Comics #29 (1947, 1948)

Everybody Loves Jimminy

Everybody...

...and not just for answering the age old question: "Who would win in a fight between a goat and a lion?" -

Now we know.

But - Damn. I was wrong, again.
There are five Jimminy and the Magic Book tales in the final issue of More Fun Comics, not four. That means either my story count (and that of the Grand Comics Database) is off by one, or an earlier issue only had one story. But i thought i saw two in each? Was one of the five in the final a reprint? (Nope)
I'll have to go looking for the answer.

At any rate, all three of today's stories come from that final issue - #127.
We go off into three different directions with these tales - Prehistory, Outer Space and the Spirit World. (The other two stories were tall tales & treasure hunting with Captain Burly and an adventure with The Lonesome Wizard, if you was one of  them curious types.) As always, Jimminy was written by Jack Mendelsohn with art from Howie Post.

I found the answer to the question posed above: There was only one Jimminy tale in issue #123. So the total story count still stands at 16 Jimminy And The Magic Book adventures.

Here's the cover to #125, from which the Superman/Jimminy pic topping this post was pulled:

The cover on the issue for these stories is an ugly mess. I'll try to clean it up for a later post. (...but it'll take a lot of time with the currently available machine and tools.)

stories by Jack Mendelsohn and art by Howie Post for More Fun Comics #127 (1947)

Saturday Solutionizing

Running a bit late, so here's the answers right quick:

Seriously? "The Apes"? He may have dwelt among "The Apes," but he was raised by Kala. (Bonus points to TC for noting the specific tribe as well)

While Sheena was most notably labelled "Queen Of The Jungle", was she the only one?
The Phantom's "Bad" ring left only a Skull mark - no crossbones. (There was also a "Good" ring to mark those under his protection with 4 'P' swords making a cross)

Kudos to TC for his soutions. While not quite complete, those he answered were all correct, sometimes more correct than the quiz's "official answers"

quiz from The Great Comics Game by John Stanley & Mal Whyte (1966)