x=?

So...  yesterday may have left some folks just a tad discombobulated. The short chapter of Mal-Ig from George Metzger was from the middle of the tale, which certainly didn't help. I have only a few issues of the Gothic Blimp Works, making the tale hard to track. All the more so since it is sometimes indexed as Mal-18 or other variants. (Mal-18 is a separate but related tale)

Luckily, it was collected a couple years later in Witzend, the legendary profan magazine from Wally Wood. (No, that wasn't missing a 'e')

Here's the original tale, plus a new page added for the ending...

There. Now i feel better.
Didn't want to leave you all feeling confused.

page art by George Metzger from Witzend #4 (1971)

Hermit Ramblings

My head's been scattered lately, and postings have been light, as you may have noticed. I think i'm just going to ramble for a bit today. Maybe that'll empty out some of the clutter, eh?

To everybody wanting to pressure Sony to let Spider-Man play in the MCU:
Why are you pressuring Sony instead of Disney?
Disney seems to be the ones trying to grab all the money - as is their SOP*. I get that you love Spidey - me, too. But look close at what damage you're willing to cause, and what price you're likely to pay in the long term. Are you being used as a villain's bitch? Have you taken the time to try to find out what the actual driving issues are before jumping into the fray?
Learn what a "Useful Idiot" is, and try to avoid being in that position.

*(SOP = Standard Operating Procedure. Like remaking all those animated movies because they don't have to pay the original creators again so they can suck up more cash. (Animated movies aren't protected by the same laws as live-action films) Like forcing theatre owners to operate at a loss for the right to show their films while preventing them from showing the competition. (And only ONE theatre in the entire nation has the courage and integrity to stand up and call them thieves the first time. So it got worse. It's now to the point where it feels like an immoral act to go to see a Disney movie in the theatres.) And give it a year, at best, before they're witholding scenes to add in for re-releases to gobble more bucks. That pattern of 'God Corp.' behaviour ("Grab It All - Own It All - Drain It All") makes it highly likely the big D is using the public to give it to Sony.

Don't be the D.)

Well, i guess maybe Krypton might actually be a fairly decent show. I hadn't even considered looking at it. I've got a long standing policy of avoiding Syfy channel, which is a terrible shame given how greatly i celebrated the birth of the SciFi channel. (Changing their name to avoid confusion with actual scifi was their best move)
It's not that they never make a good show, you see. It's that if a show is good, they'll cancel it. It's a solidly established pattern, so no reason to watch their programming. It'll either suck or be taken away.
They canceled Krypton, ergo...

Old geezer hermit's getting cranky, eh? Lightening up, and speaking of comic book television...

...you might have already guessed that i rather enjoy that one. Also...

...though i have yet to watch Season 6. Waiting until after i see Spider-Man: Far From Home since that's likely to heavily impact the series; perhaps as much as Captain America: Winter Soldier did.


You know what we need? A campaign to Make America Great Again -

Remember back when politicians had to work to avoid even "the appearance of impropriety"? Now admission of sexual assault or conviction of a felony isn't an impediment to public office. 
Let's Make America Great Again! Make crime a crime for politicians again.

Remember back in the middle of the 20th century when the average CEO made what about 50 of his average employees earned? Now they tend towards what 500-1000 or more would earn, essentially stealing the wages of hundreds of employees to feed their addiction. 
Let's Make America Great Again! Cap executive salaries relative to employees.

You can see how this works, right? It's fun - give it a try.



The Best Thing about the current political situation in the USA?
I never again have to listen to a self-righteous Republican go on about how they're the 'party of morality' and try to seize the high moral ground. Now i can cut them off, laugh at them, and call bullshit. They embraced a "man" that they had said was absolutely immoral as soon as that would give them power and money. That's not moral superiority. That's whoring, plain and simple. But without the ethical standing of a working prostitute. (Do please note that not all Republicans are "Self-Righteous Republicans")


Hmm...
That 'lightening up' didn't last too long, did it?


Why are people upset that another country tried (is trying) to buy our elections? The Supreme Court put our elections up for sale with the Citizen's United decision. You'd have to be an idiot to not expect people trying to buy it beyond the ones you're to whom you're selling it. Especially after our government announced, post-911, that it was stepping up their efforts to buy elections and distort news media in other countries. You may not remember, but be assured that folks in those other countries recall it just fine. Go ahead and get upset, but at the right people. Be upset and angry at the people who put our country up for sale. Wanting to buy a fixer-upper is a natural impulse if you've got the cash for it.
Let's Make America Great Again! Get the money out of politics - including the ridiculous practice of campaigning for office many months and years before the elections instead of, you know - actually Doing The Damn Job you're trying to buy your way into!
Of course - actively colluding with foreign parties (regardless of the country) working to purchase our government is another thing entirely. I think it's called 'Treason'...?

 

Hey!
How many of you have participated in anti-American activities?
Are you sure?
Ever pee in a cup to get a job? That's anti-American to the core. That's "Guilty Until Proven Innocent", and one of the biggest tools that was used to make Americans more subservient to authority. Three decades later, it's amazing what the average citizen will accept.

 

Well.
That was a smidge of bitter ramble, non?
I'll try to go in a different direction next time.

I guess after all that, i should show you some comics, eh?

Here ya go -

 

 page art by George Metzger from Gothic Blimp Works #7 (1969)
ramblings from the hermit -3- (2019)

Mystery Artist Revealed

Well, i left it up an extra day since traffic was so slow - only a couple hundred people passed on by. 

But...  nobody? It was his birthday for an extra hint!

Here's a couple of them with the signatures restored...

Apparently, you don't know Jack.

art by Jack Kirby Uncanny Stories #1 and National Detective Stories #2 (1941)

Don't Ask Any Questions, Just Get Those Horseshoes Off As Fast As You Can!

Y'know...  It's been ages since we looked at any of the old magazine artists. Of course, one reason for that is they are often very hard to identify since they frequently went uncredited. I wind up with piles of "Who is this guy?"

So let's play Mystery Artist and look at some magazine illustrations from back in the early '40s to see what you think...

Some of them look a mite familiar...

page art by Mystery Artist from various

(You didn't really think i was going to spoil it here, did you?)

Let Evil Perish With Evil

Recently we've been picking up debris strewn from old posts, plucked at dangling threads, and generally tried to pick up things left hanging over the past couple years. Of course, in the process, more bits were left half forgotten along the way.

We were talking about Chen Chang and the Yellow Peril comics, and it was planned to continue with a contrasting strip from the time - Dr. Fung, by "Arthur Dean ", yet another golden age pen name with a mystery hidden behind it. Artwork was initially from Bob Powell, who we've seen previously with his classic Vic Torry And His Flying Saucer strip, as well as one of our Fly Girls, Lee Preston of the Red Cross. Powell authored at least some of the stories, and may have been the original scribe.

Here's a trio of Dr. Fung's early tales so you can get a feel for the strip. All 3 are both written and drawn by Bob Powell -

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that this was a comic free of cruel stereotypes...

...but it was a stark contrast to much of what was published at the time. The hero was a Chinese man, though stereotyped quite a bit, it was not in a generally derogatory manner. And yes, of course, he was partnered up with a jodpurs wearing great white hero to make him more palatable for the reading public in the USA.

The Doctor first appeared in the somewhat infamous Wonder Comics #s 1 & 2. Wonder Comics featured Wonder Man, a direct intentional Superman rip-off commissioned from Will Eisner. The title was, unsurprisingly, quickly sued out of existence. The only copies i've ever seen are micro-fiche, and bad micro-fiche at that.

With issue #4, Wonder Comics re-branded and became Wonderland Comics, wherein Dr. Fung continued until the title ended with issue #33.

He's no Di Renjie, but he's a nice contrast from 80 years ago.

page art by Bob Powell for Wonderland Comics #s 4-6 (1939)