Print

[MarkWarner]

I was in a minority giving Jack Armstrong the thumbs down. I really can't see me doing the same this week as I have a softspot for comic ghosts, well in fact all ghosts. So this week's book should be a hit with me!

Spencer Spook #101 can be found at https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18894, and the story we are concentrating one is the first one starting on our page 3.

[narfstar]

Move over Casper because Spencer is better. That first story was such craziness that I really liked it a lot. Spencer is a cross between Spooky and Casper. I am sure the popularity of Casper brought about all the knock offs. Spencer seems aimed at a little older audience with the puns used. I am going to read the rest of this book later.

[Mazzucchelli]

This comic was fun thoroughly and although I didn

[Drahken]

Spencer actually predates casper, though he was probably more popular later due to casper's popularity. More spencer stories can be found in giggle comics #21+. There are also some other casper clones here, such as spunky and timmy, which makes me think that a "contrast and compare" event might be an interesting thing to do one of these weeks, instead of a standard single comic one (or perhaps have multiple weeks in a row be part of the event, with a single comic per week).

While spencer is pretty good, the stories & characterization are too inconsistant. In the first story he's a very friendly ghost and to train in order to be able to scare plus he's never heard of a ghost being able to take off it's sheet, yet in his second story in the very same issue he scares too much and needs to train to be friendly & takes off his sheet as if it were nothing. Even his boss is incosistant, saying in the first story that being friendly is bad, then saying that not being friendly is bad in the second one.
Still, one tends to expect certain inconsistancies in these types of funny comics so that doesn't really detract much from the experience.

[narfstar]

Sounds like an article you could write for Alter Ego Drahken. I thought that the Casper Cartoons were first but Spencer was actually a couple months earlier. Although Casper was in a 1939 children's book. Given the time it would be unlikely the Noveltoons had seen the Spencer comics when Casper was originally in production. One of those timing coincidences.

[crashryan]

I never heard of Spencer Spook before. The two Spencer stories in this issue are fun, especially the first one. However I'm really -puzzled by the disconnect between them. As has been pointed out, Spencer's personality is completely different in the second story. What's more he's drawn differently. Not just a difference of style; artist Hawley seemed to be working from a different model sheet than Irv Spector. (Who could be better for drawing a story about ghosts than someone neamed Spector?)

The story in "Duke and the Dope" wasn't much but it features great funny-animal cartooning.

"Watch the Birdie" wasn't good at all. It's apparently a leftover from Funny Films, which was also a dud. Comics just aren't the place for the fast-paced sledgehammer action of movie cartoons. And the gimmick of starting the story with a kid pointing at a movie screen in incredibly lame.

I've seen the "Video Vic" ad a hundred times without reading it. Now that I've read it I'm baffled. Exactly what is the "crusher gang" he wants to join? Everyone wears uniforms like a comic book secret society. I gather that after building his muscles Vic becomes a TV wrestling star. But who's the  guy with the mustache? A wrestling promoter? The head of the secret society? Very strange.

[SuperScrounge]

Spencer Spook - Ummm... okay, I guess. The story just didn't grab me, nor did the art impress me.

Spring Fever - Uhhh... yeah... not that great.

The Duke and the Dope - Much better and entertaining then the first story. Better art too.

Junior G-Men - Better than the first text story, although a bunch of kids beating five kidnappers streteched credibility.

Second Spencer Spook - What the heck? Did this book have an editor? Shouldn't there have been something to show the artist how the character should look for the sake of consistency? The writing makes me wonder if this was a reprint as the character is so different from Spencer in the first story.
BTW the artist is credited as "Hanley", but the signature looks more like Hawley to me.

Watch The Birdie - Boy, Sylvester & Tweety sure look off-model. Oh, wait... it's not supposed to be them???

While I didn't hate the book, I didn't love it either.

[Morgus]

I liked the art and story of the second Spencer Spook better then the first...the art of the first one just didn't grab me...probably just a personal taste thing...plus, I get the feeling the SECOND STORY was made before the FIRST one...and that they wanted to blow hot and cold between Spencer being too scary and not scary enough that way as a continuing theme....the hypnotism story I liked better then either..."Strongman's Club of America", huh? There were a couple of muscle ads in the issue..did 98 pound weaklings read this comic?

[bowers]

 I have heard of this guy before, but this is the first Spencer Spook comic I've read. First question- why do ghosts love to wear derbies? Not only Spencer, but Casper's pal Spooky, and Timmy's sidekick Maxie sport this jaunty headgear.
I liked the first story the best. Well-written, making me enjoy Spencer's personality and his tricks and dodges. Devious, but likeable. Pretty good art as well.
Duke and Dope was just ok, as was Watch the Birdie. You have to have fillers!
I didn't find the second Spencer tale as good as the first, but it did have it's moments. As mentioned before, there is definitely a difference in the lead character. I think I prefer the first version.
All-in-all, I must say I prefer Spencer to both Casper and Timmy the Timid Ghost, although I might not have as a child reader. Good choice. Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

Good point bowers. I like Spencer better than Casper. As a kid I had not read Spencer but I liked Spooky better than Casper but think I would have liked Casper better than Spencer. Different perspectives come with age.

[MarkWarner]

I just hope the book is a little bit funnier than the cover. Even if the ad for Joe Bonomo's Black Beauty (page 2) is a quarter true, I think I might get myself one.

Ok well I suppose it wasn't too bad. I think Spencer will get very samey, but this is my first small dose and it was nice light fluff.     

If I was a kid at the time I'd have had to get about 10 jobs. Most of which would be to buy the things advertised. Just a buck for an 8 inch aircraft carrier, 5 catapulting jets and a supporting fleet! Bargain! This is followed by a nice one-page story with a good moral about not being a truant.     

The Duke and the Dope was a standard workman like story, which I enjoyed perhaps a bit more than was warranted. I know I might be ODing the ad comments ... but the next page is for a Superman outfit and I don't think I have seen anything like it in our mags before! Mighty red suit? $6.98 Next a one page story that again is a bit moral, but nothing bad about that!

On to another Spencer Spook story. I was confused and now feel a bit let down. This story is the opposite of the first and Spencer is being told how NOT to scare people. BTW, next page it produces a galleon ... but I failed on the fish/insect

We finish off with Funny Films Presents: Watch The Birdie. Which was the best bit in the comic. Had a real animated cartoon feel to it.

Verdict: To be truthful I was a little bit disappointed. I would give Spencer a second chance though.

[Robb_K]

This comic was fun thoroughly and although I didn

[The Australian Panther]

Robb_K, I'm impressed at the trouble you are taking to go back to look at older reading group posts. This one was before my time, and what you say about it makes me want to take a good look at it.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18894
I remember ( at a very young age) reading my younger siblings CASPER and SPOOKY comics and enjoying them. What was it about Ghosts that in the 50's made them a subject for comics aimed at Children?     
Cheers!

[crashryan]

It's far from my area of expertise, but I speculate that (for some reason) "Casper" hit it big at Harvey and all the other publishers piled on spooks in hopes of cashing in. So did Harvey, for that matter, with Spooky, Tuffy, Wendy and (arguably) Hot Stuff. Casper had first appeared in cartoons from Famous Studios in the 40s. In 1959 Harvey bought the rights to Casper and other Famous Studios characters. I found an interesting Casper Chronology at:

https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Casper_the_Friendly_Ghost

I saw a part of the first live-action Casper movie when it was in theaters. I was an adult, of course, so I have no idea what kids made of it, but it creeped me out. There was no question that Casper was a dead 12-year-old boy. At least he wasn't a baby. What seemed especially tasteless was a sequence in which his father seems about to die to join Casper. Very weird. Haven't seen any of the more recent shows listed in the article.

[Robb_K]

Robb_K, I'm impressed at the trouble you are taking to go back to look at older reading group posts. This one was before my time, and what you say about it makes me want to take a good look at it.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18894
I remember ( at a very young age) reading my younger siblings CASPER and SPOOKY comics and enjoying them. What was it about Ghosts that in the 50's made them a subject for comics aimed at Children?     
Cheers!

i always thought Casper was very babyish.  He was cute and cuddly, and the stories were very simple and stunk from the stench of being way too preachy and educational, rather than entertainment.  I don't like comic book stories made for little children.  I like real stories about real people, who have well-developed personalities, with whom I can identify, in that they can be brilliant, stupid, dedicated, careless, mean, selfless, a hero, or a coward and loser, depending upon the situation, so the reader never knows how an unread story will end.  We got that with Carl Barks, but few others.

On the other hand, Spencer Spook, who usually was drawn by a very good artist, and had reasonably good writers, had a regular "theme" that he was not very good at his job of haunting, and he was generally in a difficult situation from that, and the 7 or 8-page story would move towards him succeeding in getting out of trouble, or getting into worse trouble, through hard work, brilliant ideas, bumbling, or good or bad luck.  So, in that sense they were somewhat less formulaic than strips with characters that always act the same, and are goody-goodies, like Casper (so sweet that you want to vomit). 

I recommend going back to the earlier Giggle Comics from 21-65, all of which contain both a "Spencer Spook" story, a Ken Hultgren "Duke and The Dope" story, and often a funny and well-drawn Jack Bradbury story, with one of his own funny characters.

Yes, it is true that many of the different major comic book publishers copied "Casper", to have their own "friendly ghost".  ALL the Casper clones were garbage.  And I didn't like "Casper" at all, after his first 10 or so issues.