#674 - The latest Mandrake daily reprint

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Bảy, 21 tháng 6, 2014

Courtesy Emile, we have the color reprint of D270, a story called Alibi Algie.







This idea of an identical twin being in a different place at the same time as the perpetrator of a crime was a favorite theme in a few very successful Telugu and Tamil movies. Added to that we also have a Scotland Yard inspector who looks like who else but ...

Download the story here and shower your thanks on Emile.

Enjoy


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Number 1594: There wuz giants in them thar days!

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Sáu, 20 tháng 6, 2014

If the credits in the Grand Comics Database for Marvel’s Black Rider #8 (actually #1, 1950) are correct, then the artists who drew this story are giants of comic art. That seems appropriate since the story is called “The Mystery of the Valley of Giants.” GCD says (with their ? meaning they’re not quite sure) that the story was drawn by Syd Shores, Joe Maneely, John Severin and Russ Heath. Wow! What a crew. If you are an art spotter you can go through and see where each artist’s style pops up.

Not only are those art credits interesting, the cover photo is claimed to be Stan Lee in costume. Maybe any gun experts reading this can tell me if the pistols Stan “Black Rider” Lee is holding are real. To me they look like a set I wore circa 1952. They came with a Hopalong Cassidy outfit I got for Christmas.




















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Some Lesser Swipes

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Tư, 18 tháng 6, 2014

As I mentioned the other day, I have been working my way through the mid-1950s Superboy issues looking for more swipes by Weisinger and company.  I came across two more, although these were not quite as blatant.  First:


Despite the rather obvious swipe of the cover concept, the stories themselves have only a superficial similarity.  In the Superboy story, Clark was unaware that his teacher had instructed the class to wear Superboy costumes for Superboy day in Smallville, because he had been absent from the classroom when the order was made.  In the Supergirl story, a TV producer had given everybody at Stanhope copies of her uniform (including Linda), but hers was damaged when she used it on a mission in her other identity.  The latter story turns out to be an effort by the TV guy to expose Supergirl's secret identity.  In the former, Clark sweats it out that the reason he was chosen to be dressed in plainclothes was that someone had guessed his secret, but it turns out instead that hidden inside his jacket was a letter signed by everybody in town thanking Superboy.

It's comparable to these two stories with identical titles:

Same concept, different execution. In the first story (from Superboy #50) a gang of crooks have come to Smallville to hide out with their loot, although one of the underlings is worried about the rumors that a young lad has super powers has recently been making things tough for the local criminals.  The boss, as shown, finds the concept of a Superboy to be ridiculous, although he soon learns otherwise.  In the later story, Superboy goes to a nearby old West town where the local hoods haven't heard of him.
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Number 1593: Supermouse’s Euro-look

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em

Supermouse is American, but in artist Milt Stein’s drawings he lives in what looks like a European town of another era. Castle towers pop up in backgrounds, doorways are arched, streets are cobblestones. It gives a fairy tale look to the funny stories.

In writing to me about Stein years ago artist Jim Engel referred to him as “the Supermouse artist.” I don’t disagree. As talented as other artists who drew the character might have been (and there were some excellent artists, including Al Hubbard, Jack Bradbury and Gene Fawcette) in my opinion no one had Stein’s flair with the character. Some of it had to do with his training as an animator, but some of it had to do with the ambiance he provided the strip in his backgrounds and locales.

From Supermouse #1 (1948):













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A couple of other postings I like featuring Supermouse. Just click on the thumbnails.





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Number 1592: The one-and-done costumed heroes

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Hai, 16 tháng 6, 2014

“The Case of the Crumpling Skyscrapers” is the one and only appearance of Rocky Ford and Judith Allen, private investigators. At night they take on disguises, he as the Scarlet Nemesis, she as the Black Orchid. The gimmick is they don’t know each other when their masks are on. Duh. Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has this to say about the characters:

“. . . comic book characters can be awfully dense about not recognizing each other if there's a mask in the way . . . But their relationship was never given a chance to develop. The Black Orchid and The Scarlet Nemesis had only one adventure, then disappeared without a trace.”

The article credits George Tuska with the art. Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr credits Ken Battefield and an unknown inker for the job. I am with Jim on this — it is not a Tuska job.

There is another character in this story, an eccentric “retired millionaire,” Jim Crow. Crow wants to knock down all the buildings to make more room for the pigeons. Can it be that there was a writer and an editor in those days who did not recognize the name “Jim Crow” as being the term used for racial segregation in the American South? You can read more about Jim Crow. This story, from All New Short Story Comics #2 (1943) is a curiosity that leaves one puzzled.









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Number 1591: Earth people good, space people bad

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Sáu, 13 tháng 6, 2014

After surviving the shock of Wednesday’s post with the devious Earthmen preying on the innocents of another planet, we get back to fare we are more used to. When it comes to people who live on other planets we are xenophobic. We’re xenophobic with those who live on our own planet as well, but here we have alien stand-ins. Tradition in science fiction returns: we are the good guys, they are not.

The two stories today come from Avon’s Strange Worlds #7 (1952). Gene Fawcette signed “The Space Gods of Planetoid 50”, but the artist(s) of “Sabotage on Space Station 1” gets a “?” from the GCD.

This ends our week of skiffy stories.















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