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This was the first issue of Blue Beetle I bought (in '68). It was in the spinner rack at a local drugstore for what seemed like months, and when I saw it listed for some outrageous price in Howard Rogofsky's catalog* I figured it must be special (plus I was also a Ditko fan), so the next time I went to that store I got it. I ended up eventually back-filling the other Ditko Blue Beetles before I quit collecting around '73.

*little did I know he charged high prices for everything

Link to the comment: Blue Beetle #5

Bill Bumlin [A Treasury of Comics 3]
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96302

The Cover - and I'm going to be boring - I apologise.

For me, it spoils things when I know them to be inaccurate.
That's a coiled spring, and no, the Romans did not use them.
Oh, back then armies had some astonishing seige machines which could throw projeciies but no coiled springs.       

In medieval times torsion springs, made of bull's hair were used to effectively launch stones and other projectiles. The torsion springs were used in conjunction with a long wooden arm that assisted the launching mechanism.
It wasn't until after 1000 A.D that the first mechanical springs were used where the metal's elasticity became a true function of a device, this in the form of clocks.
The coil spring as we know it today was patented by Richard Tredwell in 1763.   

Also, that Rock could kill the policeman which also spoils the joke for me.
It works with funny animals or Warner Brothers cartoons because they are degrees away from reality.
Bill Bumlin (Bill Bumbling?)
The artist is good. Are there two creators here? Artist and Writer? I wonder because most of the dialogue is redundant and unneccessary. That dulls the story downl.
These are all stories that are very visual, but they don't work because the readers apprecialtion for a visual gag has to be instant - instead of which you spend all your time reading the text and you don't get the effect from the art.
Thinking about it, comic artists who had expereince in animation seem to have an understanding of visual storytelling that others don't. 
'Strange as it seems'
This shows how popular 'believe it or not' was back in the day. Imatation (they say) is the sincerious form of imitation.   

Thanks Robb - I'm glad I had a look at these.
It's also frustrating that we have so many books on CB+ that are chopped up because part of the contents is not yet PD.
cheers!   

Smitty 2
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=25472

The cover wouldn't attract me to buy the comic. You have to buy it and read it to understand the point.
I like the art.
The problem with comics made up of newspaper strips is that the collections often begin in the middle of a narrative, so you have to spend time working out what is going ond unfortunately, you have to care.
This will only happen if you know and understand the characters.
This does not happen here.
The 'little moose' character is like something out of Lil Abner, but without the humour.
The problem is that this is not a story - it has no beginning and no end, which makes it a collection of anecdotes.
There seeem to be two SMITTYs. The cone in the one page gag is considerably younger.
Also, have we got the whole book?
Ends very abruptly on page #36 and that doesn't appear to be the end page.
Very disappointing.
Some of this strip is probably quite good.     

Teaya,
CB+ welcomes you!

  English is my second language so sorry in advance if I make a mistake.

Teaya, I am a teacher of English as a second language.
I assure you, if your words in your post are typical, then your command of English is better than many native speakers.
Spend some time getting to know the site and all its secrets anf treasures.
you'll be glad you did. 

cheers1

Smitty #2 1948 - Smitty In The North Woods

After reading this book again for this exercise, I realise that it probably isn't the best choice of the Smitty books to entertain The Reading Club's readers (although the average humour in the comedy newspaper comic strips of The 1920s, and '30s would seem very dull and stilted to modern readers, in any case.   Unfortunately, even the "cleverest and funniest " of the Smitty stories wouldn't be better enough to change the general impression.  I probably should have chosen "Bringing up Father", instead, represented here at CB+, in one of the early Dell or Ned Pines' Standard Comics "Jiggs and Maggie" issues.  Berndt's artwork is decent, but not good enough to carry the old-fashioned humour.  And, the Western Tradition's success story, of "the clever young boy outwitting the experienced old man" theme is too old and too often used to interest new readers.

(1)Smitty (Herbie(Herby)) 1-Page Gag
Smitty's little brother shows some cleverness in playing a harmless but annoying trick on a mean soda jerk.  I guess it's likely to be dull to most readers.  And probably only a little nostalgic for readers who had previously seen the prank played on someone.

(2)Smitty - "In The North Woods" (Title given for Cupples and Leon's 1932 book reprinting of the newspaper strip)
Unfortunately, Western Publishing's project editor dropped the ball from the start of this book, by not adding a narrative box, with an introduction summary of what occurred in the newspaper strip portion of this "story" before this book's first page.  He chose to eschew that "favour" to the readers, as Smitty's and his Boss,  George Bailey's guide reading the letter that tells him they'll be arriving is a decent place to start the story for a novel, as all the information they need to know to follow the story COULD possibly follow, to establish the main characters' relationship, and why they are taking the trip.  However, as any good comic book editor will tell you, "each comic book needs to stand on its own", as if its purchaser/reader has never before read its series, or seen its characters.  So, by necessity, a basic impression of the character of the series main actors and their motivations and at least a hint of the immediate setting must be shown very early in the story (most often on its first page, especially in stories with a short page count).  And so, for stories of less than 20 pages, it's usually a hard and fast rule that the story's main character MUST appear on its first page (which is why the half-page splash panel containing Smitty and his Boss was made especially for this printing.  However, because that scene used in the first panel occurred much later in the story.  So, by already breaking a cardinal rule of not showing the main characters in "real time" on its first page, the narrative box with a brief synopsis of what's happened before, is needed.

I see now that Smitty and his boss' guide, George, does on Page 2, reveal that he will be their guide on their hunting trip.  This would be very repetitive IF a preliminary narrative were used.  So, not having the main characters on the first page in real time  causes an awkward conundrum that can't be fixed.  Worse yet, Smitty and his Boss appear, out of nowhere, with no narrative.  Their dialogue explains some of what the reader needs to know.  But, at ther VERY LEAST, the editor should have added a narrative box with the word, "Meanwhile....", or "Meanwhile, not far away.... ".  As I and several others commented above, the amount of repetition is ridiculous, and so, very annoying.  The mild "jokes" are very weak, and uncreative.

The story moves slowly, with not a lot happening.  The pacing never moves towards a creschendo and a big climax (showdown).  It just ends.  That implies this is just a "slice of life", as opposed to having an important story to tell that includes some kind of conflict or soul searching.  So, I feel that I chose a fairly uninteresting comic book to review.  I feel that The "Bill Bumlin" book is a better choice, because, although not terribly funny nor well-structured, it provided fodder for constructive criticism, and lerssons in "what NOT to do, and what to aspire to in comic book story writing.

(3) Smitty(Herbie) 2nd 1-Page Gag
This 2nd Herbie gag again  shows him being clever, in tricking his dog into the bathtub, for a bathing that most dogs hate. It's not terribly funny, but brings a smile.

(4) Smitty 1-Page Gag
Lots of buildup of both Smitty and his Boss to have a fun day at the baseball game, cheering for their favourite team.  After all that cheerful anticipation, there's a surprise at the end that they aren't sable t do any cheering because they are afraid that the giant bully-type fan of the out-of town team would not like their cheering for the home team, and might get physical about it, IF they would dare to do so.  Again, not terribly funny, but brings a faint smile.

Delightful.Thank you!
Columbia comics were great.

Link to the comment: Dixie Dugan 7

this is The only appearance of TNT. a year later and DC’s version appeared in Star Spangled Comics #7.

Link to the comment: Amazing Man Comics 21

Welcome Teaya.  Glad you found your way here.
Lots of old-timey comics and so much else to find and enjoy.
Please join in the conversations and let us know what particularly interests you in the world of comics.

Hi all

Sorry I'm a bit late getting to it this fortnight.

Smitty #2 1948

I always try to remember that comics were a product of their times and we can't expect the political correctedness we see today. As soon as I looked at the cover, though, I immediately wondered how first nations people would be represented. Having read the comic, I'm still not entirely sure. Trapper George was represented  fairly favourably (from my white Australian perspective). Little Moose was used more as comic relief. Nothing was terrible, though a few things made me cringe. For example, when Smitty tells his boss that the tracks are almost human. Then in the next frame, they see a tepee and the boss says, 'Almost human is correct. It's Little Moose!'

As others have pointed out, there was a lot of repetition, especially in the scenes where they were travelling to the mine. We heard over and over that Little Joe was afraid of the other Indians and had to be careful. Thanks Crashryan for the explanation of how continuity worked in comic strips. But as you've mentioned, this wasn't a great example.

The story has a lot of problems. For example, Ligttle Moose is doing everything he can to hide from his former tribe who want to kill him. But as long as he dresses like a little white boy, no one seems to notice his face looks like a much older man with a whopping great nose.

Also, it seems to just stop without much of a conclusion. As it's a strip, I though maybe it was continued in the next issue, but that one starts with a new story.

The humour is of course old-fashioned, though that's to be expected. Still, I'm not sure there would have been big belly laughs back in the day either.

The one-page gags weren't bad, but not great. Re the first one with the glass over a paper napkin, I had a similar one I did a couple of times. I must have seen it on TV or something. You fill two glasses with water (I used plastic cups because I'm nice). Then you tell someone you're going to do a magic trick and ask them to put both hands out with palms down. Then you carefully put one glass on the back of each hand. When it's all balanced and it looks like you're going to do your trick, you just leave the room. Gold! Though the last time I did it, I felt guilty and took the glasses off my friend's hands before disaster struck.

Always interesting to see comics from different eras and see how humour has changed, but I'm not a big fan of this one.

Cheers

QQ

"Fawcett's Funny Animals" was sold to Charlton Publishing (Comics), along with "Animal Fair Comics", and a large stock of not-yet-published drawn stories, which became "Funny Animals" published by Charlton, for another 8 issues. There were still many unused Fawcett-produced stories, that were subsequently used as fillers in other Charlton Funny Animal Comics, such as Atomic, Mouse and Atomic Rabbit, and Atomic Bunny.

Link to the comment: Fawcett's Funny Animals 83