"Rumpus On Rex," drawn by Reed Crandall, is from Buster Brown Comic Book #30. There is no copyright information, no publisher listed, much less a date, for this shoe store giveaway comic.The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and Grand Comics Database tell us that Tanya the Space Siren appeared in Buster Brown issues 29-32. From the look of the artwork it appears to be mid-1950s. Smilin' Ed McConnell died in 1954. I assume it was produced in his era.
Crandall's artwork is, as usual, superb. He could draw sexy women! Tanya is a real hottie, warming the Interplanetary Police rocket tubes, no doubt. As much as I enjoy Crandall's depiction of the leggy Tanya, my amazement is that this was aimed at kids. I'm sure it caught the attention of the boys of that era. For those of us over-aged kids, Tanya looks great, too.
After I originally posted this, George Freeman added in the comments section that the inking was by Ray Willner.
The Grand Comics Database lists "Rumpus On Rex" as reprinted in 1998 by AC Comics for Golden Age Greats #12.
Al Williamson draws Lassie! Well, kind of. If Lassie was from outer space, that is.
This is one of Williamson's post-Code ACG strips, from Forbidden Worlds #78, May, 1959. It's well drawn, using photo references. For all I know the stray of the title could have been Lassie, traced from photographs. Several of the human figures are posed, especially the woman.
The story is a heartstring-tugger by editor Richard E. Hughes, writing under the name Greg Olivetti. Olivetti, get it? That was a brand of typewriter, for those of you too young to remember those labor intensive machines that pre-dated word processing.
DC had two sets of characters called Three Mouseketeers. The first was introduced in Funny Stuff #1 in 1944, and was a takeoff on Alexandre Dumas' famous literary characters. The second set was introduced in 1956, drawn by Sheldon Mayer, who had edited the first series. It was more contemporary, featuring a sort of Tubby and his Clubhouse Pals, mouse style. The characters, Fatsy (also called The Captain), Patsy and Minus were the Mouseketeers.* This unnamed story is from Funny Stuff #6, Fall 1945. At the time it was published by Max Gaines' former division of DC Comics, All-American. By Funny Stuff #7 All-American and DC had kissed and made up, then reunited. From there Max Gaines went on to create EC Comics.The fine artwork is unsigned, although the Grand Comics Database credits it to Ron Santi, who signed the "Bulldog Drumhead" strip in the same issue as R. Santi . "The Three Mouseketeers" episode seems a morbid story for a kids' funny animal comic book, but then as now, murder is entertainment. At least in this story the murder victim wasn't really a victim, or even murdered.
I thought for this special day you might like a really early comic book horror story. It even has a witch.
The story comes from MLJ's Blue Ribbon Comics #22, March 1942.
I did a little research and saw that the feature, "Tales From The Witch's Cauldron," began in Blue Ribbon #20, and was continued in Zip Comics, because #22 was the last issue of Blue Ribbon. I believe it comes from the same source as the EC horror comics of a few years later, the original radio program, The Witch's Tale.
To me the most horrible thing about the story is the lead character lets a doctor listen to his chest, then tell him he has three months to live…and the dope doesn't get a second opinion!
The Grand Comics Database tells us that Joe Blair wrote the script and Sam Cooper did the artwork.
Have a great Halloween and keep your hands out of the kids' trick or treat bags. As for me, well, I'll be busy on Halloween day wrapping Ex-lax in Hershey wrappers for the arrival of the little kiddies. They usually stop at Pappy's Putrid Palace, a crumbling and ancient, cobwebbed mansion…but once is enough. They never come back! Bahahaha!
Scans for this story kindly provided by 1506NixNix.
Bulletman was created by Bill Parker, who also created and wrote the early adventures of Captain Marvel. The artwork for this story, "Bulletman Fights the Gagman," from Master Comics #40, July 1943, is by the Jack Binder comic art shop.
Jack was brother to Otto Binder, who did the bulk of the writing chores on the Captain Marvel stories. At the time Jack and Otto were valuable contributors to the success of Fawcett Publications. This story seems pretty good considering it is a shop job, worked on by several hands.
The Gagman might've gotten his arsenal of weapons from the Johnson Smith Company, the mail order novelty business that advertised in most comic books of the day. Maybe those ads inspired the character.
Bulletman, and his gal pal, Bulletgirl, wear anti-gravity helmets, which is why they look like Coneheads. I wonder why anti-gravity helmets wouldn't cause disruptions, make them light-headed, or cause Bulletgirl's hair to float rather than stay down.
Finally, this blog tells you G.I. Joe fans that this Bulletman isn't the G.I. Joe Bulletman.
Here's a gruesome little tale, taken from Ghost Rider #10, 1952. Dick Ayers was at the peak of his powers in this story. His storytelling and drawing ability were at their best during the early '50s, in my opinion. It's obvious that Ayers loved the subject material he drew, whether it was western, or horror, or both, like this story.
Ayers drew a guy hitting the end of a rope really well. If you don't like gruesome pictures, then don't look. Showing a hanging was one, amongst many, of the things that got comics in trouble. Twenty years later, in a freelance job for the non-code Eerie Publications, he drew another gruesome hanging scene, this time with popping eyeball. ME Comics didn't publish horror comics, so Ghost Rider was the closest they got to the horror comics genre. However, "The Hangman," not part of the official Ghost Rider canon, is a good example of a horror comic story. Take away the western setting and it would fit right into an Atlas horror title.
This well-illustrated story appeared in a magazine called Monsters and Things #2, dated April, 1958. No credits are given.
Monsters and Things was a 25¢ magazine I remember from the magazine stands, spending time loitering, looking at this sort of thing. It was made up of monster movie stills and three of four text fiction pieces. At the time I wouldn't have dared bring home a magazine devoted to monsters. My mom would have tossed it. I was already on shaky ground for buying Mad and its imitators. While I remember this issue of Monsters and Things from its appearance on the stands, I didn't find this copy until 1980 or so. The cover and a couple of full-page interior illustrations are by Bob Powell.The comic story appears to be a black and white reprint of a pre-code horror story. "Curse Of The Living Crossbones" is of the variety of horror story where a young attractive couple gets drawn into the supernatural. ACG used to specialize in this type of story during this period, but this isn't an ACG story. They didn't use the mechanical lettering method.
Pretty good pirate yarn, though, ye swabs. Yarrrr.
The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and Grand Comics Database tell us that Tanya the Space Siren appeared in Buster Brown issues 29-32. From the look of the artwork it appears to be mid-1950s. Smilin' Ed McConnell died in 1954. I assume it was produced in his era.
