Sunday Morning Wolvertoons

Hey! I actually know what day of the week it is for a change, so i guess we should do some Sunday Morning Funnies, eh? I'm in the mood for some of Basil Wolverton's delightful oddities today, so it's all Wolverton this morning.

Most often we see his more famous creations like Spacehawk, Powerhouse Pepper, and Scoop Scuttle. Let's avoid them today and stick to the side-streets and back alleys of Wolvertown. His artwork appeared in all sorts of titles, sometimes making it easy to miss some of his work, even if one is a fan. Today's strips come from a variety of sources - Sub-Mariner (back when he was hyphenated), Human Torch (back when he wasn't Human), Tessie The Typist, Comic Comics, Joker Comics, Black Diamond Western, and Star Comics.

Some are one-shots, others, like Mystic Moot and his Magic Snoot (with over a dozen tales) were ongoing series that are often forgotten or overlooked today -

Just to be extra odd, Leanbean Green is a one-shot, even though there are three episodes. They appeared as consecutive pages in Joker Comics #17 -

Bingbang Buster, however, was another ongoing series, with over a dozen appearances -

 

This one is earlier than the rest, from back in 1938, and is not signed. The style is simpler than later works, but all indications (including Jerry Bail's note that he was working for the publisher at this time) are that this is Basil Wolverton in early days -

Dr. Dimwit was just slightly more than a one-shot, with just 3 appearances -

Inspector Hector brings us a two-page mystery for you to solve along with him -

We pause for spoiler space while you contemplate the mystery with some Funny Boners -

Okay - now we continue with page two of Inspector Hector and the solution to the Cartoon Crime Mystery -

page art by Basil Wolverton for Tessie The Typist #6, Star Comics #16, Sub-Mariner Comics #9, Joker Comics #s 17 & 18, Comic Comics #9, Human Torch #8, and Black Diamond Western #22 (1938, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1950)

Frankenshift

As we left Dick Briefer's unique version of Frankenstein, it was moving away from being a superhero strip - but seemingly unsure of where they wanted to go. (When i  use the term 'they' here, i'm referring to Briefer and his Editor. It's likely he was involved in the long term planning, but i could be very wrong. It might have solely been Briefer making the decisions)

After chasing Frankenstein's body about for a bit (even encased in steel) and a few one shot tales, we got the story we saw last weekend, in which Briefer was waiting for the news on where things were going.

The story which followed that one was a retelling of a Biblical tale...

Hmm...  Do you think they decided on Divine intervention to make sure nobody thought they were implying something by having the Devil betting with Frankenstein?

Or is my mind off wandering again? Or both.
Anyway...

Unless Dick was waiting for a report back from Hell, that probably wasn't the tale he actually took off to start drawing. In my mind, it was this one from two issues later, when they decided on their new direction -

No - I'm not going to leave it there. Here's the next tale so we can see how things get started (again) -

We were moving in the direction of his classic comedy strip, but not without some detours...

page art by Dick Briefer for Prize Comics #s 31, 33, & 34 (1943)

VEP's Frankie

While we're in the neighborhood(s), let's stop and look at a strip that Victor Pazmiño did for Famous Funnies shortly after Seaweed Sam. Shifting from the seven seas to the starry skies for his new direction, we got the short lived Frankie Future.

As far as i can determine, there were only these seven episodes. There may, however, have been one prior to what we have here. We start with issue #82 here. I've never seen #81, and nobody seems to even know what the issue contained. The Grand Comics Database has nothing more than the cover, and that they only have from when it was reprinted later. If somebody has a copy of the issue - they're not telling.

As for the story, it might have started with the short statement i the first panel, or there could have been a previous installment that left him in this predicament. Perhaps time will tell...

"Who is the 'Speaker', and What is in the chest?"

I don't think Unsolved Mysteries covered this one.

EDIT: Yes, i saw that they announced a revival of Unsolved Mysteries today. I put this in the queue yesterday and had no clue at the time.

page art by Victor Pazmiño for Famous Funnies #s 82-88 (1941)