Seeing Eye Comics

So, i was chatting with the Mindbender (from a more than social distance) about some of the old Centaur comics line and i mentioned that i was using one of their characters in The 3rd Colony. 

Eventually, it occurred to me that we had yet to see that character here, even though it was one of the great ODD characters of the Golden Age. So let us turn back to 1939 and gaze upon The Eye.

I'm not going to try to describe or summarize The Eye for you. Here are the first three tales by Frank Thomas from Keen Detective Funnies and you can see for yourself -

 

As you can see, the Eye was an interesting character, but rather limited in dramatic character interaction for an ongoing series. However, i thought that as a mysterious guide, aid, and plot mover, The Eye might work rather well in a video game context.

Or maybe it's just more clutter in project.
Either way, i rather like The Eye, or Detective Eye as it was sometimes known (like in its own title).

Here's is the cover to the 3rd tale above -

I expect we'll be seeing more of The Eye - maybe quite soon.

page art by Frank Thomas from Keen Detective Funnies #s 16-18 (1939, 1940)

Cosmo Cat's Secret Power

In our past perusals of Cosmo Cat, we seem to have skirted around the first issue of his own title. So, let's go there this morning.

Perhaps is was the unconfirmed nature of the artwork that pushed this back. It is suspected that Ellis Chambers may be responsible for these stories, but that seems purely speculation. And then there's the possibility that Pat Parrish was Ellis Chambers. But, again, we operate with no means of confirmation.

So, let's be like History and forget that for now. 

As the subject line says, Cosmo Cat had a secret power - this story reveals a power greater than his strength, flight, crime & suicide detectors, and et cetera -

That could certainly be an Ellis Chambers ending to the tale. And how about that secret power?
 
Not a bad little hidden ace, eh...?
 

Of course, these days every comic book character seems to have that ability.

Cosmo had a second story in that first issue, so let's continue onward -

And here's the cover for that first issue -
 

page art maybe by Ellis Chambers? from Cosmo Cat #1 (1940)

Been Doing Alyce

I've made mention a few times of work i've been doing this past week. Allow me to elaborate a smidge.

Every now and again i like to make myself a new "Alice" for some paintings in various 'Wonderlands'. And that urge seems to be upon me once more, as you may have already deduced. So this week i've been building Alyce and working out some initial tests for the current Glass Wonderland to explore. 

Most of the last 18 or so hours has been spent cramping my hand with the first test painting in the series (with a few breaks to eat and put together this morning's post). I may go back and make some small changes after sleeping and looking upon it fresh, but for now i'm willing to proclaim it as 'Finished'

As noted, this is the first in a series, so please pardon that the focus of the piece is as yet unseen. This is, of course, greatly reduced from the original 20"x30" version -

art by -3- (2020)

Thirsty ADventures

Last time we looked at some ADventures, it was for "R.C." and Quickie. As i mentioned then, back when i drank soda my preference was for RC or Pepsi. So, i guess this time we should look at "Pepsi" the Pepsi-Cola Cop, eh?

I was actually surprised when i went gathering strips for this feature. Out of well over 100 appearances, there seem to be only 5 actual strips being repeated over and over. On the plus side, that makes them rather easy to collect and display -

Where it gets oddly interesting is back at the beginning. There were three more adverts that ran only once each and were seemingly never repeated. As a purely guesswork answer as to why, i'd suspect it has something to do with the artist on that first trio of ads - the legendary Rube Goldberg! He was already a popular media presence, and his contract may have granted him more remuneration that Pepsi wanted to spend?

No real clue, but here are those first three from 1942 -

Now i'm thirsty...

page art by Rube Goldberg and Graham Hunter for many titles (1942-1947)