TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Fourteen: "OG We There Yet?" Part Two!

Yesterday we highlighted DONALD DUCK # 109 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1966), and its lead adventure story "Og's Iron Bed"... but hold on to your "iron bedsheets", 'cause we ain't done "OG-in'" yet!  

Let's review a few historical facts about this book, and the day I acquired it...

A bi-monthly Gold Key title, as was DONALD DUCK # 109, with a  SEPTEMBER cover date would have been released in JULY.  Therefore, I would have come across this issue in JULY, 1966. 

And, in July, 1966, I would have been delightfully on summer vacation from THIS STRUCTURE...

...Back when it had REAL doors and windows, and no attending dumpsters!  

In those primitive and barbaric - yet, paradoxically, warmly nostalgic - days, comic readers (...we weren't FANS back then, we were READERS - and stop READING on my lawn, ya pesky young'un) were at the mercy of the newsstand distribution system! 

Okay, maybe not as far back as THAT!  We're talkin' 1966 here!  But what a GREAT picture! 

I can count as many as FIFTEEN comics in that photo that are in my collection... one of which I just got last week!  You can probably guess most of them!  ...And, no... I never wore overalls and a beanie-type hat like that! But, advance it somewhere close to 20 years in time, and that could have been yours truly!  Single-digit-age me even kinda LOOKED like that... such an adorable little tyke!  Whatever could have gone so wrong!   

ASIDE TO SERGIO: That last paragraph is an example of the loopy and improvisational typing I referred to in another set of comments!  I just looked at the photo and began typing away, on the road to who-knows-what!  Didn't know any of that was coming... and only the vaguest idea of what's coming next... if that! 

Where were we?  Oh, yeah... newsstand distribution of comic books!  

Most kids looked forward to Saturdays and Sundays - and I was no exception - but MY favorite days of the week were Tuesdays and Thursdays!  

WHY?  Because on Tuesdays and Thursdays NEW COMICS were put out on the shelves and racks of small stores all across the (still safe, but inching toward eventual danger by 1966) town in which I lived.  Not only in my town were Tuesdays and Thursdays what we now call "an event", but anywhere else in my region that traveling to was possible!  By 1968-1970, I would be traveling by bus to the far corners of my region in search of increasingly elusive comics on almost a weekly basis - and those days (and those trips) began in me an interest in bus transportation that led me to being a local bus transit advocate today!  

From other accounts I've noted, the "Tuesday and Thursday thing" was sort of the standard for the release of new comics. 

It was one such Thursday toward the end of July, 1966 that, for reasons long forgotten, I was spending a nice summer afternoon at a nearby aunt and uncle's house, in a decidedly nicer neighborhood than my own - both then and now!  

Their house had a nice screened-in attached back porch with a large picnic table -- the very definition of comfort vs. the "uncovered brick fortress" we had at the back of our house!  Though I really did have many years of enjoying 1960s comics out on that "uncovered brick fortress".  And, on that Thursday in July, 1966, I would have a particularly memorable day-of-same in the "nice screened-in attached back porch with a large picnic table" at my aunt and uncle's house!

Earlier in the day we'd gone shopping. In their local strip mall center there was a newsstand store. As it was THURSDAY, I made sure to check it out!  ...AND WHAT DO YOU THINK I FOUND?  

Try THIS...

But even more amazing was THIS... 

And out on the SAME DAY, just like my 1965 experience with UNCLE SCROOGE #58 and THE FLINTSTONES #28, as detailed HERE!  

Only I didn't have to rush through them during my "home lunch period" and go back to school!  NOPE, I had the WHOLE AFTERNOON to enjoy these puppies... or perhaps "ducklings"?  

And, enjoy them, I did!  In the LAST POST, I described "Og's Iron Bed" as "one of the best - and most ambitious - Donald Duck stories of the period".  I dove into it first, and it well and truly lived up to my "future-hype"!  Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl's best collaboration, with the possible exception of their consumerism-satire story in THE JETSONS #2 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April, 1963), discussed somewhere in the depths of THIS POST! 

However, THE BEST OF UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK #1 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: November, 1966) was nothing short of a magnificent gift from the Comic Book Gods!  

As the cover says, it did indeed reprint "Two Famous Disney Classics"...

"Back to the Klondike"... 

 Cover by Carl Barks. 

...And "The Ghost of the Grotto".

 Cover by Carl Buettner. 

Ah, but there was a THIRD "Famous Disney Classic" to be found in the pages of this 25-cent ticket to Comic-Readers'-Nirvana... Carl Barks' famous story of "The Land of Tralla La"!  The "Bottle Cap Corruption" story! 

And, needless to say, it was the first time I saw any of these great Barks stories!  

One funny thing is that Carl Barks' art had evolved so much over the years that, while I could tell that  "Back to the Klondike" and "The Land of Tralla La" were by the same artist, I thought that "The Ghost of the Grotto" was by a different artist entirely!  

...And that "Giant Robot Robbers" and the other "contemporary-to-1966" Uncle Scrooge stories I was then reading were by a THIRD different artist!  

Nevertheless, that was quite an afternoon out on my aunt and uncle's (all together now) "nice screened-in attached back porch with a large picnic table".  One that I recall so vividly to this day!  

Of course, with these two ever-memorable comics, it would have also made for a special day on my family's stark "uncovered brick fortress"!  ...Maybe even in some dingy alley, somewhere!  Yes, they were THAT great!  

Gosh, I hope that was enough "stream-of-consciousness-typing" to satiate Sergio!  :-) 

Finally, what could possibly put a capper on such a perfect day?  ...How 'bout THIS?  

It was a THURSDAY, in 1966, remember?  

That meant that, by the time I was deposited back home, there was a summer rerun (...remember "summer reruns"?) of Part Two of this week's installment of BATMAN to enjoy on top of all that great Duck stuff (...as opposed to "Stuffed Duck") 

 "Stuffed Duck"... That's ANOTHER JOKE, SON! 

Yeah, after a "joke" like that, I'd run away too!  

But, before you do, Dynamic Duo (Aren't you glad I didn't say "Before you DUO"?), stick around for one Bat-moment more as I name  THE BEST OF UNCLE SCROOGE AND DONALD DUCK #1 our Cover Number Fourteen!  

Wheee!  Only TWO MORE TO GO, and then I get my life baaack!!!  ...Haaaa-haaaa-heeeee-heeeee! 

TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Thirteen: "OG We There Yet?" Part One!

Welcome to TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Thirteen:  "OG We There Yet?" Part One! 

...Or "A TALE of THREE COVERS!"  ...And our "three covers" are now on the runway, so let's meet them!  

FIRST: From the year 1966... the Pinnacle of Pop Culture (at least if you're ME) hailing from Western Publishing, Poughkeepsie, New York, by way of Gold Key Comics, Los Angeles, California... PLEASE WELCOME...  DONALD DUCK #109 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: September, 1966)...

This prime specimen of Silver Age splendor contains the FIRST PRINTING of the Donald Duck adventure "Og's Iron Bed", one of the best - and most ambitious -  Donald Duck stories of the period!  

Heh! Being a "first printing" you might call it (...wait for it) ...the "OG" "Og"!  ...Get it?  

So "Prime-Silver-Age-y" was "Og's Iron Bed" that it was chosen for the Silver Age section of the Fantagraphics hardcover DONALD DUCK THE 90th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (2024)!

 

The cover is not reprinted with the story... BUT the original cover illustration is reproduced at approximately 3" by 3" in the book's Table of Contents -- marking the first time the original unaltered cover illustration has ever been reprinted in the USA!  

Oh, no... wait... there IS one tiny difference... the LITTLE BLUE CLOCK STAR (...If you were expecting a pun on "ROCK STAR"... sorry!) that is to the LEFT OF THE CRESCENT MOON  is missing!  Oh, well, ya can't win 'em all!  I guess we now have FOUR VERSIONS of this cover!  

 Sing it with me: "When you MISS upon a star..." 

Here's the GCD INDEX for DONALD DUCK #109!  ...With lots of recent additions made by yours truly, so, unlike like the comic, this index is NOT ...the "OG" "Og"!  Ya gotta milk these jokes for all they're worth! 

NEXT: With a noticeably different take on the same cover... ALSO from Western Publishing, Poughkeepsie, New York, by way of Gold Key Comics, Los Angeles, California... SAY HELLO TO... DONALD DUCK #198 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: August, 1978)...

Aside from many of the cover elements, including the title, moved around or outright eliminated to accommodate the (all together now) INTRUSIVE UPC BOX, the sides of this cover image are not cut-off or trimmed in this illustration... the original (you, know... the "OG" "Og") was simply WIDER and could display more of the vertical edges of the image.  ...Oh, and Gyro has BLUE HAIR! 

FINALLY: Rounding-out our cover competition, from Gemstone Publishing, Timonium, Maryland or York, Pennsylvania (they moved around a bit)... LET'S GIVE A WARM ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO... DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #342 (Gemstone Publishing, Cover Date: August, 2006)...

A THIRD variation that makes room for the (all together now) INTRUSIVE UPC BOX, but fakes us out by putting it on the back cover instead!  

I've spent so much time introducing our three contestants that it's time for bed (...another one of those late-night ramble-written posts that have become the hallmark of this series), therefore ("and to-wit", as Snagglepuss might say)... 

 ...You can read about their quirks and the reasons for their differences HERE!  

Now, eyeball 'em all in order and send your thoughts to our Comment Section.  

Sorry, later editions... but for our Cover Number Thirteen, we proudly select DONALD DUCK #109 -- the "OG" "Og"!

So, are we finished with "Og's Iron Bed"?  At this late hour, who can tell... Maybe yes... Maybe not-yes... Come back tomorrow and see!  G'night! 

TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Four: Lunch Specials!

It was was quite the "special lunch" indeed that fine day in the later spring of 1965!  But first, a bit of background...  

I may have said that I spent my childhood in a neighborhood that was once a thriving county hub that, almost overnight, turned bad and outright dangerous. Summer 1960 until February 1969, to better place it in time. 

You could almost say it was a "tale of two cities", with profuse apologies to Charles Dickens! Through 1966, it was, at best, a suburban paradise and, at worst, just an ordinary convenient village.  With so many different places to buy comic books, all within reasonable walking distance, it was a great place to spend virtually the entire Silver Age!  Those four-colored twelve-cent tickets to Utopia seemed to be just EVERYWHERE, and I was more than happy to reap the benefits of such a bounty!

 I still have most of mine, and nearly all of them look better than those in this stock photo! 

By 1967, things suddenly took a dramatic change and, by the fall of 1968, it had gotten so bad, so threatening, so dangerous that I refused to go to school out of fear for my safety.  Had I possibly known in 1968 what the future's "cyber-bullying" would be, I would have gladly traded it for the torturous reality I faced every day!  Regardless of good or bad times, it was a particular quirk of this school that led to some decidedly wonderful lunches for me...

 My school abandoned and boarded-up sometime in the "20-teens". Only picture I could find. 

One problem I DIDN'T HAVE was getting "beaten-up for my LUNCH MONEY"! 

Why? Because I DIDN'T CARRY lunch money!  Why? Because my combined elementary and junior high school, built in 1911, per the cornerstone... (as hard as this is to believe) had NO CAFETERIA FACILITIES... and we students were (as hard as THIS is to also believe) were DISMISSED from 12:00 Noon to 1:15 PM... and SENT HOME FOR LUNCH!  Yes, really!  

Could you imagine this in today's world?  Could you imagine mothers being home every day to receive their offspring and serve them lunches in their kitchens?  Could you imagine kids having to (and BE ABLE TO, distance-wise) walk (most of us unattended) home and then back to school for an afternoon session?   ...If you meet Mom in heaven, don't tell her about all those 1:15 to 3:45 afternoon sessions I resorted to some "creative ways" to avoid attending - once released for lunch! 

Now, as things were still good in 1965, there were some distinct advantages to this, for me at least. 

For one, I was out of the stifling school building, and would run the three blocks home like a road runner!  

For two, there was always a reasonably good lunch waiting for me. Something, alas, not all kids had. 

And for three - and best of all - sometimes there were COMICS waiting for me, which I joyously devoured along with lunch!  

By then, I had solidly moved from "young casual reader" into "never-miss-an-issue" mode, as discussed in THIS POST and one way to "never-miss-an-issue" was to SUBSCRIBE to as many titles as my meager allowance and generous-to-her-grandson GRANDMA MILLIE would provide! 

Our mail would generally arrive by 10:30AM, and so any subscription comics delivered that day, would be waiting for me on the kitchen table when I arrived home for lunch.  What a WONDERFUL FEELING THAT WAS!  

The day that is the subject of this post provided a particularly memorable yield, so much so that I remember it distinctly to this day.  Try to imagine what a Gift-From-The-Gold-Key-Gods this two-issue bonanza was through the wide eyes of eleven-year-old me! 

 UNCLE SCROOGE #58...  

...And THE FLINTSTONES #28!

Each one a prime Silver Age specimen of its respective title!

"The Giant Robot Robbers" was one of the best Uncle Scrooge outings of the (much-unfairly maligned) sixties-period of Carl Barks' incredible - nay, historic - run on the title.  Even inspiring an informal, though also effective, adaptation for the TV series DuckTales (1987). 

THE FLINTSTONES #28 has my vote for The-Best-Ever-Never-To-Be-Surpassed issue of THE FLINTSTONES that ever was, and very likely ever will be! 

Stridently reflective of the FIFTH SEASON of THE FLINTSTONES TV show, which was in summer reruns (...remember "summer reruns"?) at the time of its release, #28 offered "The Pirates of Skull Island", a lead adventure story in keeping with the "adventure plots" that kept the Fifth Season lively and memorable. Think "A Haunted House is Not a Home" (with Uncle Giggles Flintstone), "Dr. Sinister" (with Madame Yes "I'm too important to be captured!"), and, to me, one of the best eps of the entire series "Time Machine" (with its trip to the 1964 New York World's Fair!)

Oddly, to digress, my favorite seasons of THE FLINTSTONES are Season One, and Season Five! Both seasons "did what they did" better than any of the other seasons - especially Season Six! 

Harvey Eisenberg did some of his finest art for this story and when you can say THAT, you're really saying something - considering he routinely did stuff like this!

Harvey Eisenberg died in 1965, perhaps even before THE FLINTSTONES #28 was published. At the time of his death, I felt that he even surpassed Carl Barks (though ever slightly) as the best artist of the Western Publishing stable. Take a peek at a page of interior art from "The Pirates of Skull Island" and some panels from "The Giant Robot Robbers", and decide! 

For many years, I've said, "IF YOU'RE GONNA GET ONLY ONE ISSUE of THE FLINTSTONES, THIS IS THE ONE TO GET!" 

...And get the UNCLE SCROOGE, too!  They're two of the best Gold Key Comics of what was an extraordinary creative period for them! (1964-1966). 

I read both of these comics during my home lunch break and, as was my custom at the time, read them both AGAIN that evening after my homework! That made for one great day... except for that "homework part", that is! 

One great day, with one great lunch, thanks to Gold Key's subscription department and the United States Postal Service!  

And so, our "16 Covers -- Number Four" goes to both UNCLE SCROOGE #58 and THE FLINTSTONES #28... as a Two-for-One Lunch Special!  

 Where will we go tomorrow?  Come back and see! 

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: A Great Cover Image with a Muddled Meaning!

Check out this wonderful cover image for THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES (2024 series) #3 (DC Comics; Cover Date: May, 2024 - On sale as I write this!)... 

...Which is a near-perfect send-up of the "Celebrity Window" running gag from the Batman TV show.  

Or, as I described it at GCD: "The cover is a parody/homage to the oft-seen bit on the Batman TV show (ABC TV, 1966-1968), where Batman and Robin scale a tall building and a celebrity leans out of a window to address them in mid-bat-climb."

LEFT: The Green Hornet and Kato (Van Williams and Bruce Lee). RIGHT: Sammy Davis, Jr.

I say "near-perfect" for one reason... the homage is very clear but, quite frankly... the GAG ITSELF is NOT!  

It seems to me that either something FUNNY, or at least a CLEVER REFERENCE, should be coming from Catwoman's or Scooby's dialogue balloons - BUT IT ISN'T!  

Or, perhaps Batman - or especially Shaggy - SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN SUCH A LINE... but no!  

How about Shaggy unintentionally doing something dumb 'n' dangerous to inadvertently imperil our courageous climbers - or maybe leaning out far enough to fall -  if only to justify Scooby's line: "Rhi can't look!"

As it is, it wastes a great image by making it, like... incomprehensible! 

The best I can do is describe it as I did in my GCD index of the issue: "As Batman and Catwoman scale a tall building to return stolen jewels to their rightful owner, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy pop out of the "Celebrity Window."  You can see the entire GCD index HERE! 

Indeed, it would have been better with NO dialogue balloons at all!  Just perfectly conveying the fine homage it was intended to!  

On the plus side, the open window nicely obscures a small corner of THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES logo, as one might expect a glass window to do!  ...Don't they have window screens in Gotham? 

 ...If only the window was large enough to obscure the dialogue balloons as well!