As a new member of this reading group, and a creator of funny animal and humour comic book stories, I decided to post contributions to all the older comic book threads finished before I joined, which cover books with substantial amounts of funny animal and cartoony human comedy stories. This 197 page book includes several funny animal and comedic stories.
However, as i flipped through the book, I was reminded of the interesting aspects of the "Commando Cubs" story I noticed when I first read that story some years ago, when I obtained a copy of this book. So, I will review that story as well.
1) The Commando Cubs
This story is just too ridiculous even given that we know that USA has always been very Chauvanistic, and would have been even moreso during WWII (Book is from early 1944). First of all, there is a big problem in that this appears to be the last episode of a serialised story, as The Commando Cubs (American school-aged kids)are in southern England, seemingly on a school educational tour, but are traveling un-chaparoned, probably right in the restricted staging area for test maneuvers and staging for D-Day. Why are US children in England (a war zone) during the height of a World war??? Why are they allowed to be away from the adults in charge of their care? Why are they allowed to roam free in a military restricted area? It's hard to believe that the British, Canadian, and US military security forces guarding their training areas would not only miss seeing a bunch of American teenagers, but also civilians who are behaving suspiciously, not in military disguise, who just happen to be German spies. What are these suspicious-looking civilians doing in a military zone? Why have they not been stopped and questioned? If they have been, why did the authorities fall for their excuses (they couldn't have had reasonable ones), and let them continue to roam freely?
Also, it seems very strange that those teenagers could take a boat and navigate their way from southern England to the specific spot in Norway where The British military intelligence had a sabotage mission planned, and then actually carry out that mission, lose their ship, and escape the German troops, find a small motor boat, and take that back to England without maps, and avoid all the German patrol ships guarding the coast of Norway.
I understand that young male readers like to imagine themselves as being great, brave, and strong heroes. But this is wayyyyyy too much to believe, and because of that, would have taken most of the potential enjoyment of reading a story with this general plot. This is a similar reaction I got to the superhero stories. Even at 5 or 6 years old, I'd have hated this story for insulting my intelligence. I know for a fact that there were some Norwegian children that even risked their lives helping in the underground war effort, and became heroes. But they did things that were actually possible. Even at 6 years old, I'd rather have read a comic book story that had a plot I could believe. That's why I've always liked a lot of real science in my science-fiction, and hated pure fantasy (that bears no resemblance to The World I have experienced all my life up to the time I read the story (whether at 3, 6, 12, or 74 years old). This story could have been adventurous, with a young boy as lead character, but in a more plausible way, such as Robert Louis Stevenson's stories like "Kidnapped" or "Treasure Island". The other two episodes in the book were also ridiculously unbelievable, and the artwork also subpar, having the figures quite distorted when trying to portray action.
2) Barnaby Beep - (Written and Drawn by Carl Wessler)
This story (and I use the term loosely) was written strictly for laughs, but wasn't likely to get too many. The artwork was a little bit lower than average quality for funny animal comics of 1944, but that was the best feature of this weak story with a few low-brow jokes, and an uninspired, expected, slightly ironic ending. A big disappointment. A timid fraidy-cat, afraid of his own shadow, aspires to getting into a fraternity who only accepts brave members. On his "try-out" testing night, he doesn't have money for a cab, so he takes the shortcut to the clubhouse walking through a graveyard and being scared by ghosts. He gets to the club where the existing members haze and abuse him, until the last test, where he is taken, blindfolded to the
site of his final test. Of course it is the graveyard where he'd been before. Very much an obvious cliche story, with little thought given. Actually, I expected him to be led to a haunted house where he'd have to "live through the entire night" to pass his test.
3) Little Oliver
I don't know what type of "animal-person" Oliver is supposed to be. He looks like a beaver/Squirrel half-breed. The artwork is not very good - especially considering that William H. Wise got its artists from Sangor's shop of ex-animators. The story is lousy, too. The hero goes to a fraudulent fortune reader (what other kinds are there?), who tells him to be assertive, while Butch, the criminal thug, who is also a rival for Oliver's girl, goes to the same swami, who tells HIM to behave meekly. The thug finds out that the swami was a fraud, so he finds Oliver again to beat him up, but luck helps Oliver knock him out, instead. And on top of the story morals ending wrongly, Oliver tells his girl, in the last panel, that "there was a moral to what happened to Butch. Not much originality or thought in this story, either.
3) Funny Bees-Ness (Drawn by Al Hubbard)
The artwork is very good in this one. I think it might be Al Hubbard, who drew several stories starring Bees and ants for Sangor during the early to mid 1940s. The story is a play on the ancient fable of "The Grasshopper and The Ant". There are a lot of nicely-staged action panels and great facial and body-language expressions, and nice physical gags. Very nice story for fans of comic art (especially animated action fans). This was probably the highlight of the book for me.
4) Jocko and Socko
One look at the monkey main characters, and their names telegraphs that this story is going to be nothing but slapstick, with a plot that's not for deep-thinking intellectuals. Jocko, the smart one (only by default) hypnotizes his moronic friend (Socko) into thinking he's a lion, and he almost eats Jocko. Then, trying to win $100 (a LOT of money in 1944) for staying in the boxing ring with a giant, mean-looking mauler, he tries to hypnotize the mauler into thinking he is just a 3-year old kid. Unfortunately, as any cartoon fan might have guessed, Socko gets hypnotized instead. Of course things look bad (suspense is needed), but, also as we guessed, the mauler doesn't have the heart to hit a little kid. Socko, acting like a little kid, ties the boxer;s shoes together and he trips and hits his head on a post, and is knocked out. The boxer ran away from the arena to avoid having to pay the $100. But Jocko and Socko run after him, unafraid because Jocko can hypnotize him (so they think). Unfortunately, the hit on the head made him cockeyed, so he can't look Jocko in the eyes. The gags are expected cliches, and the story ends with a horrible pun. The artwork is a little lower than average quality for its time. So, this story is nothing special.
5) Kangarube - (Written and Drawn by Karran Wright)
A country hick farmer boy (kangaroo) goes off to the big city to get a job. A crooked crocodile-man sees him as a stupid patsy, and tries several times to fleece him of his money, even dressing up as a woman. The Croc tries to sell him 50 wooden nickles (cliche) for $1, but the Rube has to test it. A gambling slot machine
just happens to be standing on the street just next to him. Needless to say, he puts the "nickel" in and wins the jackpot (hundreds of real nickels), so he doesn't need to buy the wooden ones. The end is abrupt, and unexpected, with the Croc just having a disgusted expression while the Rube gathers up the nickels. Not much of a "story". The artwork is okay on the figures, but there are almost no backgrounds. Very disappointing.
6) Sappy Happy Hyena - "He's No Cow-Ard" (Drawn and written by Don R. Christensen)
A very slapstick, animation action-driven gag-driven "story". The art is good.
7) Spotty The Missing Lynx & Silly Civet (Drawn and written by Don R. Christensen)
The lead characters are peddling acid-based spot remover, which angers their potential customers. They meet a leopard who wants his spots removed. They paint him solid black, and he's satisfied until rain washes it off. He's still angry, so they cut off all his hair, which also removes his spots. An unexpected, funny ending. The art is very good (action and expressions). All in all, worth reading.
8} Little Otto (drawn and written by Wilky)
This 3-pager is a stretched out pantomime gag. Otto is commanded by his drill sergeant to drive his jeep to the parade grounds to practise driving it. Before he can even drive away from his barracks area, he crashes into a cabin, demolishing it. Clearly not able to control it at fast speeds, he races his jeep up and down steep hills, off roads, across streams, knocking down rows of tall trees, racing through formations of marching soldiers, almost killing them, through road signs, and screeches to a halt right in front of his sergeant. Last panel, we see him in the last panel, eating in the mess hall with all the other soldiers, but he has 3 pillows tied to his rear end, and is standing while eating. Apparently, his sergeant gave his butt a good kicking. Not very funny, and the art isn't very good.
9) Pansy Pigeon
About a female pigeon-person, who has joined The PAC (Pigeon Air Carriers (instead of being a WAC). She's very happy to serve her country in its time of need. On an important mission she's captured by The Nazis. Hitler is a "pig" who speaks with a mixed German and Brooklyn, New York accent. Grilled under hot lights, she staunchly refuses to spill valuable information. Pansy was a hero for giving up phony plans instead of the real ones, leading Pigler (Hitler) and his army into a trap, where he was captured. The last panel has Pansy telling women they should join the PACS (meaning WACS in real life) - a wartime advert to get citizens to help the war effort. That same ending was in the last panel of each episode of The Commando Cubs, asking kids to gather paper and other supplies needed for the war effort.
10) Rufus (Drawn and Written by Ken Hultgren)
A crooked bear-person, tries to cheat Rufus, a country hick monkey-person (dressed like Edgar Bergen's country hick puppet, Mortimer Snerd) to get even with him for outsmarting him in the past. The crook and his Rat sidekick talk Rufus into playing a friendly card game (poker), despite the rube's protests that he doesn't know how to play. They cheat him out of a lot of money, but see he has a lot more. They stop him from leaving by offering him a special soda drink (made with gasoline, kerosene, and dynamite)-hoping it will knock him unconscious so they can take all his money. Of course, the hick LIKES the drink, and wants more. The crooks hit him on his head and take the money to a bank to open their own account. But the teller calls for the police. Rufus is visiting the 2 crooks outside their jail window. He tells them the man who gave it to him said it was "hot money", but he felt it was cold. The crooks cringe in frustration. This plot is the exact format of Hultgren's series for Giggle Comics that started maybe a few months later that same year. The artwork was excellent, as always with Hultgren. The story was not bad. As usual, the expressions on the characters were really great. This was the highlight of the book, for me.
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Topic: Week 179 - America's Biggest Comics Book (Read 5319 times)
