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 Eight: A Gag So Funny, It Overcomes Poor Art!

By their very nature, comic books have sported lots of FUNNY COVERS! 

For instance, the classic comedy stylings of MUTT AND JEFF and "imitative brother act" FAT AND SLAT!   ...Copied right down to having a CAT and a DOG, respectively! 

Archie even published a comic literally titled LAUGH...

...Which, alas, did not always live up to its name!  

But many of them did, including this unlikely instance of Donald Duck doing the same gag as Mutt and Jeff! 

Even such favorite characters as JUDGE DREDD and LOBO  got into the act!  

...And Lobo didn't even HAVE TO APPEAR ON THE COVER to pull off a good gag!  

But, here's today's question?  (Um... did we have one yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that?  ...Help me out here... I'm DAFFY from "eight posts in eight days"!) 

...NO, NOT YOU!!!

...Where were we?  You know I'm doing all of these ON THE FLY (...and is it ever a STRAIN on that insect's back!), without my usual meticulous pre-planning - so, small wonder I'm so DAFFY!   

 Are we doin' THAT BIT again?! Scwam, you cwazy Duck! 

Okay (finally), our QUESTION Of The DAY:  "Have any comic book covers ever made you LAUGH OUT LOUD?"

If so, feel free to tell us in our Comments Section!  

I can easily think of one offhand that DID make me laugh out loud when I first saw it... and STILL DOES on the rare occasions that I pull it out...

DONALD DUCK #167 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: November, 1975)!  A slapstick gag I find SO FUNNY that it even OVERCOMES BEING DRAWN BY KAY WRIGHT!!!

...NOW, THAT *MUST* BE A FUNNY GAG!  

 Don't ask me how the guy responsible for THIS...

...And ESPECIALLY THIS...

...Could have brought out the amount of mirth he did in that one cover illustration.... but, somehow, it happened!  GCD says that BILL WRIGHT (...who did amazing stuff like THIS)...

...INKED THE COVER, but the figurework (note Donald's squared-off beak) is KAY'S, not BILL'S!  

Larry Mayer was sometimes able to "save" Kay Wright's art into something remotely resembling respectability, but there's no sign or evidence that he was involved.  

There's also no known evidence that he was working off another artist's rough layouts, as he did with some of the JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS stories that were written (and sketched) by CARL BARKS in the early 1970s.  

Despite all this, THE GAG REMAINS FUNNY! Which owes much more credit TO THE GAG ITSELF, than to the pencil artist!  

But, WHY is this gag so funny!  I have an answer to that question but, with humor being as subjective as it can be, you may see it differently... OKAY, HERE GOES...

It is the relative POSITIONS OF POWER between the two characters that makes it work!  

The fact that Uncle Scrooge can exact CONSEQUENCES from the accidental indignity he suffers at the (literal) "hand" of Donald - accounting for Don's "almost afraid to look" expression - is what makes it funnier than if it occurred between two characters of EQUAL STATURE, or if the "power character" is the one inflicting the pain!  

As an example of the latter, would it be as funny if BUGS BUNNY had done this to Elmer Fudd?  Not really *as* funny, because you'd expect that from their dynamic.  

...And it really wouldn't be funny at all, if Elmer were to do it do Bugs!  

Just as Stan Laurel would be able to do it to Oliver Hardy, but not vice-versa!  

 An ad for a comic that never happened! 

This is the type of gag that would work well for George Jetson and Mr. Spacely... (A Charlton panel illustration, of course! - Note that they (poorly) copied Gold Key's "The End" logo! 

...But, oddly enough, not so much for Fred Flintstone and Mr. Slate - because their "relationship", such as it is, functions at a "less familiar" level and at a much greater distance!

That said, it would also work for the rarely-acknowledged-but true-nevertheless prototypes for George Jetson and Mr. Spacely - Dagwood Bumstead and his boss Mr. Dithers!  

They certainly have a SCROOGE/DONALD or JETSON/SPACELY type of relationship!  They may have even invented it!  

So, while I wonder what it might have been like if it had been drawn by Carl Barks, Don Rosa, or William Van Horn, let's hear it for Cover Number Eight (and the, Puff! Pant! halfway point of our 16th Anniversary marathon) DONALD DUCK # 167...

...One of those rare covers that makes me laugh out loud! And, despite its artistic shortcomings, manages to do its job well!  

.....................................................

PS before I go: What I said about doing these 16th Anniversary posts "on the fly" is true (...okay, maybe not that part about the "insect's back"). 

Each morning I have NO IDEA of what I'm going to do (...that's kinda like every morning, whether I Blog or not! COFFEE, please!).  Don't know which cover I'm going to select and don't know what I'm going to write about the cover that I don't know I'm going to select. 

Uncharacteristic of me, I truly WING IT, often fighting back sleepiness as I end up doing these late at night.  

It makes for a more rambling - but organic - type of post!  Don't know if I like that approach as a general rule, but I think its sorta fun for this special occasion!  What do you all think? 

TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Three (x3)!

Everyone has their thoughts on, and their predictions for, THE FUTURE... but how many of them have ever turned out right?  I don't mean "right" in any sort of "general sense", but REALLY, ABSOLUTELY, BANG-ON, GOT-IT-IN-ONE CORRECT?   

...No, can't say that mine have either! 

I never imagined I'd someday be in a situation like my present one.  Rather, I thought that "everybody's-go-to-future-that-never-happened-example", FLYING CARS, was more likely to happen by now!     

...And, on the remote possibility that they DID, mine would most likely be out of Deutronium Hyper-Neucleonic Blend Rocket Engine Fuel!  

...I'd probably look more like the "Charlton Version of Myself", than the "Gold Key Version", as well! 

Nevertheless, predict we do, and we'll do a hypothetical exercise in "future possibilities"...

 ...Yes, "future possibilities"... phrased thusly because, in light of recent developments, and with good reason, we've become somewhat hesitant to use the phrase "What If" around here for a while!  

Indeed, if left unchecked, "What If" shows every indication of becoming the next "Legendary Super-Pickax"...

...And we wouldn't want THAT to happen, would we?  (But, I digress... "legendarily", of course!)

We present a hypothetical exercise in "future possibilities" relating to the 16th birthday/anniversary of TIAHBlog (...do Blogs even have "birthdays", "anniversaries", or some other unit of commemorative measure?)

THIABlog came into being on THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2008... just one day after Wednesday, August 14, 2008 - that is to say "New Comics Day - Wednesday"!

Now, I'll never be able to recreate exactly which comics I bought on that day, but it's a good bet that there would be something from GEMSTONE...

...Something from DC...

And probably some favorite licensed property put out by a small publisher, like JUDGE DREDD or LOST IN SPACE...

BUT, I asked myself because nobody else would, which NEW COMICS would you get on NEW COMICS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 (the 16th "DATE" Anniversary of TIAHBlog)?  

...Ya know I didn't really ask myself that back then, but go with the bit, okay?  

Well, to tie back to my opening paragraphs, I would have gotten THAT prediction wrong, too!  

No Gemstone, or any other regularly-published standard-sized Disney comics that would catch my interest yet!  

Little or no DC because, other than their SCOOBY-DOO titles, they seem to have driven me, and my interests, away. 

...But what did I say about "some favorite licensed property put out by a small publisher"?  Well set off the sparklers and drop the confetti because I GOT ONE RIGHT!  

But not exactly that REALLY, ABSOLUTELY, BANG-ON, GOT-IT-IN-ONE type of "right", because I had no idea which "favorite licensed properties" there might be, or which "small publishers" would furnish them.  

Finally, HERE, after all that 16th Anniversary and predictions blather, are our Covers for installment  Number Three - times 3.  Everything else above doesn't count toward the "Anniversary Cover Total" (Sorry, Yogi!), but you get a Three-for-One bonus for August 16, 2024!  Not bad, eh? 

DICK TRACY #4 from  "Mad Cave Studios":

JONNY QUEST #1 from "Dynamite Entertainment":

And, just in time for the Presidential Election Season, RICK AND MORTY FINALS WEEK: CONTESTED CONVENTION #1 from "Oni Press":

All of these "favorite licensed properties from these small publishers" are giving me the Joy-of-Reading that the bigger fish have moved too far away from!  I will be indexing all three at GCD soon!  Stop by and check them out!  

So, with Three-For-One Friday completed, let's see where we go next for installment Number Four!