Sincerely Flattering Flash

We previously looked at a few Flash Gordon parodies from back in the 1940s & '50s, but we only stopped due to the growing length of the post, not lack of material. Satires continued over the decades, sometimes tucked away in odd little corners, like this tale from the 2nd issue of Drag Cartoons back in '63. The story was published without art credits, but when the original art showed up for auction it was attributed to Mel Keefer -

From the 1970s, let's look over in one of our favorite old fanzines, the Rocket's Blast ComicCollector. In RBCC #134, Ron Wilber took part in the Flash Gordon celebration that filled the issue with his own satirized take...

Even as 1980 rolled around, Flash was still getting spoofed, as here by Dave Angus & Kevin O'Neill in 2000 AD -

Of course, once the Sam Jones/Queen version of Flash Gordon hit the theatres later that year, parodies naturally experienced a resurgence in popularity once more. Here's Paul Kupperberg and Bob Camp's version of the film, sporting a cover painting by Bob Larkin...

By the way, that story from the RBCC that we opened with came with a pretty cool Flash Gordon illo from Steve Fabian (Whom we somehow have yet to get around to featuring even though i started tucking things away for posting over a year ago) on the cover -

We'll be back this afternoon with another batch, and even a little bit of Buck Rogers, too.

page art from RBCC #134 (1977), 2000 AD #181 (1980), Drag Cartoons #2 (1963), and Crazy #75 (1981)

The Art Of Flesh (and Friends)

We've been looking at a bit of Flash Gordon parody lately, which quite naturally leads to the most ambitious effort in that arena - Flesh Gordon. Which means we'll be having this little discussion in our adult content 'back room' - The Other Voice Of ODD!

We're looking at the artwork, so we're only looking at the first movie. Flesh Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders used no artwork for the title sequences, so they don't get to play today. But, no worries - we've got some others to join us in a bit.

So after we take a look at the title sequence artwork by  Cornelius Cole III...

...we'll be taking a peek at a few other parodies from Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Bill Pearson and Pete Poplaski.
And, no surprise, we'll toss in a bit of George Barr, too...

Slip on back past that brute checking ages to view the complete mirror of this post on The Other Voice Of ODD! and check it out.

artwork from Flesh Gordon (1974), Snarf #5 (1972), Witzend #11 (1978), and Naughty Knotty Woody (2007)

Blue Monday Calendar 2018 Week 31

This week's Gil Elvgren calendar is a 1947 Repaint of 1944's Ankles Away -

art by Gil Elvgren, of course (1947)

Sunday Funnies - Cat & Walrus

So... apparently it's the weekend and i kind of missed Friday and Saturday. The dangers of existing outside of time in general. No going to back to fix things now, but we can do some Sunday Funnies, even if we're running a little late.

No, The Cat & The Walrus wasn't a strip - nobody threw darts at the animal board to come up with that particular pairing - at least, not that i've encountered thus far. We just have some strips prepped for Walrus Whopper and Cosmo Cat, so let's enjoy them together, eh?

First up, the return of Walrus Whopper and his tall tales. This time we start with his first appearance (creators unknown) from Animal Antics #1 -

...and another fish story from a few issues later...

Meanwhile (both premiered in the spring of 1946), over in All Top Comics, Cosmo Cat was making his debut in the first issue, written by Pat Parrish with art from Ellis Chambers. (That's not an "official" assessment - but it certainly seems to be the case to me, both in artwork and in the title lettering.)

And, again, there is no official listing for the artist on this next strip, but Ellis Chambers seems most likely, and that could be a partially obscured 'E.C.' at the bottom of panel one -

Okay. I know what day it is now. Guess i'd better go get tomorrow's calendar ready to run...

pages from All Top Comics #s 1 & 5 and Animal Antics #s 1 & 3 (1946)