Print

[MarkWarner]

If I were creating an eBay listing for last week's book, Streamline #4, I would be making sure I got in key words like rustic, folk art, fanzine and underground. I thought it was a great read, but it got a slightly above lukewarm reception from the group as a whole.

Now for this week's choice. I do worry that the members and visitors to CB+ might be spending a little bit too much time reading comics. But I thought if we cut down on that, it might free up time that would then just end up being wasted doing chores and stuff around the house!

I then had an idea, that maybe we could use that newly acquired free time for a hobby or two. And "as if by magic", I found an old entry on the reading book list for Captain Hobby Comics #1. Ideal! It can be found here: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20173. We will concentrate on the main feature "Old Coins tell Strange Tales"

[SuperScrounge]

Old Coins Tell Strange Tales - Not bad.

Hobby Lobby - Interesting.

The various do yourself projects are interesting.

Ace Bradley and his Cloud Commanders - Okay.

Trick Merlin - Not bad.

An interesting little comic, as a kid I probably would have tried a number of the things included.

[Captain Audio]

I liked it.
Read the first stories and skimmed the rest. I'll go back over this one again when I have time to give it its due.
Excellent educational material with enough high adventure to keep the kids interested.

[Morgus]

a rare one. It would appeal to kids, but not talk down them either. Fun stuff, adventure, and even sneaks in a legit lesson or two. They did a good job, even though sometimes I thought there were two artists used for OLD COINS TELL STRANGE TALES

[crashryan]

Interesting and entertaining. Also puzzling. I assumed this was a Canadian comic, based on the the GCD price (10 cents Canadian) and the use of British spellings (centre, neighbour) in the features. Then I noticed that not all the features used British spellings and some, like Captain Hobby's framing story and the flying wing how-to, were American-themed.

Consider the lead story. The framing sequence is drawn by a different artist than the main story. In the main story, Captain Hobby's last name is always a bit too long to fit comfortably into the balloon. Finally, the chest of gold never actually appears in the main story; Captain H only refers to in the framing sequence. The main story might easily have been a simple sea-captain-vs.-pirates story.

Then I noticed that Garth Silvers' name in the Ace Bradley story also seems to have been re-lettered. I add all this together, think too much, and end up wondering if Captain Hobby Comics was assembled from pieces of other comics. Suppose the pirate story and Ace Bradley never had anything to do with hobbies. A framing story was created featuring Captain Hobby, and the young skipper's original name re-lettered accordingly. Maybe Ace Bradley was a simple flying story, and the blueprint and the hobby reference in the splash panel were pasted in later. Indeed, the subhead describing "easy instructions" has a squeezed-in look. Of course I could be imagining things.

Anyway, the stories are okay and the art is generally good. My favorite artist is the guy on the main Captain Hobby story. He sure likes his Frank Robbins! The Trick Merlin art also has its moments. Alas, poor Trick is inundated by a flood of dialogue on page 31. Fortunately he survives. It's odd how the men speak Damon Runyonese.

I went through a half-hearted stamp collecting phase. The hobby was promoted hard in the 50s. I remember having a bunch of Third Reich stamps, all of them overprinted with inflated values. There must have been a glut of those stamps. Comic books of the period are full of ads for them. Maybe today they're worth something. When I was a kid "worthless" Confederate money was a gimmick in many fortune-hunting stories. Nowadays the bills are collectible.

My other early hobby memory is building--rather, attempting to build--one of those old solid-body model plane kits. What a lot of work! You had to carve the fuselage from a rectangular chunk of wood and sand it to shape. Then you built the wings using balsa wood ribs which you covered with paper and "doped." I confess I made a mess of it. I have great respect for kids who built these things in the days before plastic models.

[narfstar]

Looks like crash is right the story was a generic pirate story with a framing sequence added. Notice the weird placement of the girls arm with her hand on the coin. The art was not too good on the framing sequence or the story. The story was decent enough. Story has a pretty brutal ending.

[paw broon]

Quite enjoyed this.  The stories were exciting enough for young lads of the time, although I'm sure Cap's ship would have had no chance against a well armed "pirate" vessel with a ruthless, desperate crew, despite the "cunning plan"and natives with spears.  I was confused about the gold Spanish dollar, as I was sure there was the famous silver Spanish dollar which was everywhere, mainly because of the silver mines in Mexico.  When I looked online, there was no mention of the gold coin.  Anyone clear this up?
Ace Bradley was a regular flyer story and I think there is a Biggles tale with the same sort of plot. This story reminded me of some old avaiator movie serials - no bad thing.
The magician just wouldn't have made it out of the smoky room with the cash, after getting up the bad guy's nose.  I felt this was a bit like a moral tale combined with trying to interest kids in magic tricks.
The hobby pages would have interested me when I was a wee boy.  I was keen on stamps for a while and also built model kits, particularly planes, having a few suspended from my bedroom ceiling.  Favourite was a Mitsubishi Zero.  Most of the finished models had bits of glue where they shouldn't have been.
I tnink I would have liked this comic every now and then when I was young.

[MarkWarner]

This post is delayed, as I had a long train journey planned to see my granddaughter, and I thought that the book might keep me occupied and out of mischief (as it happens it did not).

So here we are with an "educational" comic, and the main story is about coin collecting. When I was a nipper I had a lot of hobbies including my bone collection, but coin collecting was one of the major ones. So I bet I enjoy this! 

And I did! There was a good pirate story line. But, I am already wondering if Captain Hobby might be a teller of "tall tales".

I made the plane on the train. In fact I made two just like they said.





I am afraid I did not make the Tom Thumb Golf Course as I was busy decorating the plane I just made. I also did not make the whistle as it looked a bit too difficult.

After the triumph of my planes, I saw the instructions for the one you can make using the back cover ... and it is NOT there I AM GUTTED!!

My artistic skills are that of a slightly backward 5 year old so I skipped the art lesson. When I have some time I will practice the glass trick. I might just manage it.

Verdict: A big hit! Some good reading, some hobby ideas and some instructions. I wish the back page was here. Has anyone got a scan of it??

PS: After i finished the book I still had time to kill so I made a plane like we used to do, and then just to show off I made an origami frog. This impressed a very pretty young lady sitting close to me, so the tart that I am, I made her one as well.

Pity I told her I was off to see my granddaughter, not one of my best chat up lines:(

Anyway here are the other bits.

[narfstar]

Mark those are the type of posts we need more of. Just having a bit of fun

[MarkWarner]

Fun is why I am here