Monstrobot No More

No posts this weekend.

Sadly, my worst fears were confirmed this week when i went looking to see why Snell hadn't updated his blog in over a month. When you type in somebody's name and Google suggests "Obituary" is never a good sign.

Brian Snell died of natural causes at the young age of 55 in the middle of last month. When i was trying to decide how to build a connection between my hermit cave and the outer world, it was Snell's blog that inspired me to start The Voice Of ODD! He was at it for a decade before i even started.

Now his voice has been silenced.

The Voice Of ODD! will be silent this weekend in his honor.
Instead, go read something on Slay, Monstrobot Of The Deep!
For example, see why i haven't written much on comic god-of-odd Bob Haney. (Snell's got 68 posts on the guy, so i was only able to get there first once) Browse the topics and you're sure to find something of interest. Snell left us with nearly a dozen years of entertaining comic blogging archived for our enjoyment and edification.

It wasn't nearly enough.

We'll miss you, Brian.
I'll be back in 3 days.

Seagull & Shoestring's Blooperman

What's that?
You thought you already saw Blooperman in our previous Frankenstein post? Well... yes and no.

I mentioned that Dark Horse had released a collected edition of the first seven issues of Dick Briefer's Frankenstein. They stopped an issue too soon. In issue #8, Briefer took things further. Not only a  Superman  Blooperman tale, but the introduction of  Jerry  Siegel  Seagull and Joe  Shuster  Shoestring, too -

I wonder if they're planning a volume two?

page art by Dick Briefer for Frankenstein #8 (1947)

A Fiery Horse Drawn In Black & White...

80 years ago this month was the copyright date for an odd issue of Large Feature Comics from Dell. Typically, each issue featured a different character and was usually reprints of previously syndicated daily comics.

Not so for #7, Hi-Yo Silver, The Lone Ranger To The Rescue -

Instead of comic reprints, the issue featured a 48 page text story written by Fran Striker. For the issue, including cover art, Henry Vallely provided a total of 35 illustrations...

Eight of those were full page illos. Henry E. Vallely worked at the dawn of the comic book era, but did very little work for the comics books. This comic was closer to his typical work, illustrating books starring such familiar characters as The Green Hornet, Zorro, and - of course - The Lone Ranger.

Here are the full page illustrations from the tale:

Vallely is another of the early creators at whom we'll be looking closer at some point. Though mostly forgotten now, he was well respected enough in his day that when Dell needed new chapter pages for Hal Foster's Tarzan strips it was Henry they called upon to deliver them. And when Bob Kane needed artwork to crib from for his first Batman story, Vallely is believed to be one of the two primary sources for his images.
So, yeah - we'll be riding back this way again.

Oh - from out of far left field...

I saw someone saying that the title of The Lone Ranger is a lie because he always has Tonto. So, for those who don't understand the name...

There was a Ranger patrol that was ambushed and all were believed to be murdered. But - they were wrong.
A Lone Ranger survived to hunt down the gang and avenge the others. That is what the name means - not that he's alone now, but that he's the lone survivor.
(Note - Han Solo doesn't ride solo, either)

And, now -
¡Vámonos! We Ride!

artwork by Henry E. Vallely for Large Feature Comics #7 (1939)

E.C. Frankenstyle

Let's do another quickie post today.

While Dick Briefer's classic Frankenstein is the most famous comic parody of the creature, it was far from the only such strip. Let's visit with another old favorite around these parts - Ellis Chambers - and his take on the creature from 1951 -

page art by Ellis Chambers for Holiday Comics #2 (1951)

Frazetta Covers Buck

Not getting along with language right now, so let's just do a quick look this morning.

We've poked around a bit in early years of Famous Funnies - let's jump to the end. Nine of the final ten issues of the first true American style comic book featured a strip that had run since #3 back in 1934 - Buck Rogers. Always nice to see, but what made these special is they were all done by Frank Frazetta -

To my knowledge, these were the only Buck Rogers drawings done by Frazetta, along with an unused 10th cover that was later reworked and used for the covers of EC Portfolio #2 back in the early '70s.

cover art by Frank Frazetta for Famous Funnies #s 209-217 (1943-1945)

Frankenstein: Homecoming

As we saw last time, Dick Briefer turned the reformed Frankenstein into a Nazi fighter for a bit.

Ever wonder why there are relatively so few copies of comics from back in those days when they were frequently printed in the millions? This might offer up a clue, eh?

The tale also ended by urging the readers to recycle every scrap of paper, including the one in their hands.

The following issue introduced a pair who would become ongoing cast members for a while with the pronouncement "Trouble Starts Right Here!" -

The next issue brought Frankie back to the USA, along with his new companions. They spent the following few issues settling in to city life...

Then came issue #49, in which we've not only fully embraced the comedy nature of the series, but also looped back to the beginning with reference to his days as the villain of a superhero comic -

As noted previously, the comedy era is the most famous phase of Dick Briefer's Frankenstein comics, and it was at this point that he spawned his own title. The book was a bit irregular getting started. Two issues in '45, then 3 more in late '46 before settling into a bimonthly schedule with the March/April issue in '47.

Since beginning this series, i discovered that Dark Horse released a collection featuring the stories from the first seven issues of the title -

We haven't really touched upon those issues here, nor likely will we, if you looking for more of the series to read. We will look a bit more at the comedy years now that we've caught back up.

But, of course, in time the series evolved again...

page art by Dick Briefer for Prize Comics #s 42-49 (1944, 1945)