[MarkWarner]

Well we made it to the big ONE ZERO ZERO!!! After asking which book we should celebrate this feat with, I had a few suggestions and they were all pretty much in the same vein!

Basically it was "no-brainer". So, this week, as you may well have guessed we have Famous Funnies #100.

It can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=36993,  and its a free for all about what you want to read and comment about.

[SuperScrounge]

Cover - Man Buck Rogers, really looks off-model and apparently the artist had such trouble with Oaky Doaks that he turned his head at a really uncomfortable angle to avoid drawing the face. BTW 100th Anniversary is wrong since that refers to 100 years, so what would fit 100 months? Monthaversary? Lunaversary?

Life's Like That - Cute, not laugh out loud funny, but I did smile at the spinach one.

Fearless Flint - Despite the plot holes, despite the occasional inconsistency in how his power works, despite (or maybe because of) H.G. Peters odd-looking artwork, I can't help but enjoy Fearless Flint. By the way, what was it with Eastern Color heroes & their needing to touch something to change? Flint needed to touch metal, Man O'Metal needed to touch something hot, Hydroman (after Bill Everett left) needed to touch liquid, Music Master needed to hear music & Rainbow Boy needed to be touched by sunlight.

Above The Crowd - Not a bad factoid comic.

Napoleon - This comic can be hit or miss, the second is the best of the bunch. Loved the evil look on piano-playing Napoleon's face.

Connie - Nice little adventure strip.

Jitter - Never really cared much for this comic in general and this one didn't impress me.

Dickie Dare - The finish of one adventure & the start of another makes a pedestrian chapter of a usually entertaining strip.

Invisible Scarlet O'Neil - Exploding oranges, that'll wake you up in the morning. ;-)

Highlights of History - Sigh, not really a highlight of the comic sadly.

Scorchy Smith - Okay installment.

Oaky Doaks - Oh wow, they're parodying Big Chief Wahoo in this installment. :-D

Sky Roads - Okay, but nothing special.

Roy Powers - Eh, could be better.

Olly of the Movies - Kind of a dull installment.

Larry Frames the Fire Demons - Hmmm... okay.

Mescal Ike - Ehh... never really grabbed in general and these strips are no exception.

Chief Wahoo - Steve Roper before he got title billing. Okay.

Rather like reading an extra long Sunday comics section. :-D

[crashryan]

As SuperScrounge said, this is an like an extra-long Sunday comics section. Some features I'm familiar with, others not so much. But there's lots to like.

I don't miss "Buck Rogers". Despite my love for retro-technology, this period's Buck doesn't appeal to me.

"Life's Like That" was still running when I was a kid. Ho hum then, ho hum now.

I get the impression the publishers believe the entire family reads Famous Funnies. I mean, "beauty patterns"? Nowadays it's hard to believe they'd publish kids' names and addresses. But that's how I learned about comics fandom: my letter was published with my address in an issue of Strange Tales, and someone sent me a copy of Jerry Bails' Guide to Comics Fandom.

I shouldn't like "Fearless Flint" but I do. Odd character, crazy artwork, good fun. I can't figure out whether everyone knows Jack is Fearless Flint. His fellow miners don't bat an eyelash when he changes form in front of them. For that matter his nighttime assailants don't seem to notice either. That horse looks like Carousel meets My Little Pony. You know, if Flint changes whenever he's struck by metal, he ought to carry a little hammer with him. When danger threatens he can pop himself on the head and roll into action.

Interesting story about Augustus Post, but I've never heard of his "famous actor" brother, Guy Bates Post.

"Napoleon" is always beautifully drawn but many of the jokes fizzle in the final panel. I like the nightmare episode a lot. McBride gives Napoleon such an expressive face.

Frank Godwin eye candy in "Connie." It's great that the panels are so big. Later reprints shrink these strips to the point of illegibility. The final image of Connie sleeping is simply gorgeous. By the way, the blog "Stripper's Guide" (http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/) has large scans of this story from their original newspaper printings.

I haven't seen much of Waugh's "Dickie Dare". I like his cartooning but this being the end of a story I can't judge the script. I read an old magazine article about sick people who paid to sit in a radium mine believing they'd be cured. Apparently they hadn't figured out about radiation poisoning.

"Invisible Scarlett O'Neill" has always put me off with its Chester Gould/Zack Moseley art style. It strikes me odd that the woman fears being fired if her gender is revealed; at this time women were taking over all kinds of "male" jobs when the men left to join the army. I don't envy Gasper his delivery job. One customer idly tosses up an orange and catches it--farewell, Mr G!

Man, that's a lot of pen pals!

Mansfield's historical feature is interesting...that girl sure gets a bum rap. Sealed into a wall without even a cask of Amontillado.

Again it's nice to see "Scorchy Smith" in big panels. Bert Christman is right up there with Sickles and Caniff. I wonder how he would have developed if he hadn't run off to China and been killed.

The more I see of "Oaky Doakes" the more I like it. Fuller's cartooning is splendid, and the anachronistic scripts are amusing. I'm embarrassed to admit that until I read SuperScrounge's comment I didn't notice that Fuller is spoofing "Big Chief Wahoo."

"Sky Roads" hasn't much going for it. Leon Gordon (=Leonard Dworkins) is nothing special and the joke is stale. It's surprising how common this trope used to be: hero saves the Chief's bacon and the Chief insists on giving him a wife. This time it's slightly different. Usually the proffered women are fat and homely.

"Roy Powers" gives us more Frank Godwin, but the action seems distant because Roy spends most of his time facing away from the camera.

I just don't get the payoff of Napoleon and the bath suds. Someone please explain it to me.

I've never seen "Olly of the Movies" in a newspaper. At first I thought it was a comic book original, but Google says no. Trouble is, I can't figure out who "Olly, Dot, and Dimp" are. The big-mouthed guy in white is Faro. Are Olly, Dot, and Dimp the three girls in the last panel? So who is Corinne? I guess I ought to find out by reading more episodes in this sequence but I don't feel very motivated.

"Funland": in the "parts of a house" puzzle I got "Pantry" and "Stairs" but I can't figure out the last one. The most prominent feature in the picture is the fellow's posterior. But this being 1942 it certainly can't refer to "butt" or "ass." Perhaps "bend"? "Flower"? "Pick"?

"Mescal Ike" baffles me. Who's Ike? The kid wearing a Stetson and a Yellow Kid shirt? What does it all mean?

"Chief Wahoo" looked better drawn by R. B. Fuller. Woggon's cartoony style doesn't fit well into Steve Roper's adventurous storyline. Something strange about Woggon signing himself "Wog." Isn't that an old-school racial slur?

Another lively Napoleon art job. I love McBride's dog-in-action drawings. But the joke falls flat again. Dog gets stuck, man tries to help, man gets stuck too. Big deal.

On to the back covers. Get out your sewing machines, everyone, then Choose Your Prize the American Way!

Final assessment: a few duds, but mostly good stuff yielding plenty of reading pleasure.

About that 100th "Anniversary." Marvel and DC also used to label milestone issues as anniversaries. Drove my picky mind crazy. Personally I favor "issuversary."

[Morgus]

Sunday comics section comparison was on my mind too...reminded me of a lot of those old collections that republished dailies...and (I guess) that's where some of this stuff came from...it was interesting seeing the artists break out of the traditional graph paper lay out into more imaginative presentations...I don't know how you GRADE what I read...it was fascinating from a historical point of view and to see what it shows about the times...including the first public service announcement with the Axis leaders as bowling pins...very nice..

[narfstar]

I am not a fan of the newspaper strip reprint comics. I do not like the short few page continuing stories. I did read Fearless Flint. I enjoy Peters odd art style. Jack changes to Flint when hit by metal so they capture him and hit him in the head with a metal gun butt. OK. Then he just happens to know the horses are best friends. Story was fun in its GA oddity but not much to commend it.

[paw broon]

For the 100th. book for the reading group we get #100 of an anthology title. This is very reminiscent of many British comics, being a collection of short episodes of longer stories and humour and fact pages and fillers. But we did it much better here as most of the content in Britsh comics was new and most of the comics appeared weekly.
That said, there is a lot ot read and enjoy in this one, with the stand out for me being Connie.  A nicely done, good to look at strip, although I have to admit to a preference for the sf adventures she got involved in.
Fearless Flint is a new hero to me and although I'm not a great fan of the art, it's always good to be able to add another superhero to my lists.  The author goes out of his way to tell the reader that the bolas weights are metal, which surprised me as I was sure in that culture the weights were stone. 
The Dickie Dare segment is pretty useless, being a changeover piece to the next story.  Boring.
The issue picks up again with Invisible Scarlet O'Neil but it must have been annoying to have only 4 pages and have to wait a month for the next bit.
Scorchy Smith has a darkly atmospheric feel and while it's not Sickles, it's still well done.  I just don't like those torture bits.
Oaky Doakes doesn't appeal to me.  Don't like the characters, it's not funny or exciting and, to me, it looks ugly.
Sky Roads is corny.  Who's idea was that strip? Surely it was never very popular.
Well, well, that Roy Powers is a bit big and old for a boy scout.  Or is that a different uniform?  Cultural difference here?  Could just be my ignorance.
Was it worth including Olly of the Movies?  2 pages and we haven't a clue what is going on and even if we did, we've probably forgotten it from a month ago.
Chief Wahoo appears to have been drawn by "Wog" - not a very pleasant abbreviation here.  One of our members has mentioned Wahoo somewhere else on the forum.
All in all, interesting, just not great entertainment.
Finally, I wonder what the real life version of the Gene Autry Complete Holster Set looked like, because that's something I'd have loved as a wee boy, but it was probably a disappointment.

[crashryan]

You're right, paw, Roy Powers is a Boy Scout...but he seems to be acted by one of those thirty-year-old "teenagers" from Rebel Without a Cause I wonder about strips like Roy Powers, or like Olly of the Movies, for that matter. They carried on for years without leaving a lasting impression. I guess, given that every American town had a newspaper, strips like Roy Powers were intended for smaller dailies that couldn't afford big name strips.

[bowers]

An awful lot going on in this one. As a kid, I probably wouldn't have read all the stories but there are enough that I liked to make me spend my dime. In collections like this I usually read all the adventure strips first then the fillers and features. The rest I skim through and read what interests me.

Rather bizarre art in Fearless Flint, but not a bad story- as far as it went! He's an unusual hero with an interesting power. Lots of the usual 40's racial stereotypes in this one. The black character used the word "done" in every one of her balloons.

Enjoyed the Stookie Allen feature. He did a very similar one for several issues of Argosy magazine.

Started to really get into the Connie jungle story. Good art and a strangler lily!

I like the character Dickie Dare, but not much going on this month.

Invisible Scarlet O'Neill is a also a favorite. Exploding oranges?

Liked the Highlights of History- good art.

Scorchy Smith reminds me a lot of Terry and the Pirates but I still enjoyed it. Very good art and story.

Never cared much for Oaky Doakes.

Sky Roads was tolerable, but only because I like aviation comics and Aztecs!

Didn't find much else in the book that appealed to me except the ads. Loved the Axis bowling pins and the candy bank scam.

A pretty good book for this somewhat awkward type of format. Too bad Buck had to be removed. Happy 100th to all! Cheers, Bowers

[twiztor]

hey all!
i joined in the first ten or so comics of the reading group, and stumbled into the 100th anniversary edition, so decided to jump back in! here's my thoughts:

Famous Funnies #100
-Fearless Flint.
i've never heard of the character, but i very much enjoyed the story. in fact, i'm going to download FF #101 to see the conclusion! the artwork is pretty inconsistant, and the story seems to make great leaps (in both story pacing and in logic) but it's adventurous and fun.

-Connie.
interesting artwork. it seems much more detailed than you usually get out of golden age books. that being said, it's not particularly good. and maybe it's just because i'm not following this story month-to-month, but i found it very scattershot and i'm not the least bit interested in seeing what happens next.

-Dickie Dare.
what the hell did i just read? primitive artwork and a plot that makes Family Circus look like Charles Dickens.

-Invisible Scarlet O'Neil.
while reading the first page, it made me glad that i don't randomly run into murder scenes. that's not exactly what i want in my life. i actually enjoyed the story (such as it is). i'm not sure who this woman is, or why she can become invisible, but it seems like she's doing good with her power.

-Scorchy Smith.
Mandarin Wu is the most blatant Fu Man Chu ripoff i've ever seen. that aside, this story showed promise. the artwork was pretty decent, and from the snippet of story shown i'm interested. Had i followed this from the beginning i'd rate it higher. but why do they call him Scorchy?

-Oaky Doaks.
was this supposed to be a comedy strip? maybe i just don't get it.

-Sky Roads.
decent enough artwork, but once again only an eighth of a story. i'm finding it harder and harder to attempt to get involved in these with no setup, little story, and no payoff.

-Roy Powers.
this one was just dumb. the art was static and the story was basic as can be. i can't imagine this strip every gets any sort of popularity.

-Olly of the Movies.
wow. another swing and a miss. was Gertrude supposed to be ugly or something, because the artwork didn't convey that to me. and am i supposed to feel bad that a guy who was rigging a beauty contest got taken?

-Chief Wahoo.
man, they've got some strange names in this one. i liked the art and the setup seemed promising. i don't have too much to say but i'd be willing to give this one more of a try.


overall, with (almost) all the stories continuing to the next month, i can see why this mag would keep readership. even if you don't love all the stories (and i can't imagine anyone would!) there was plenty of variety for everyone, and something to keep you coming back.
by far my favorite strip was Fearless Flint.

[MarkWarner]

I am SUCH a sieve head I forgot t post my comments yesterday. D'oh!

Here we go for the 100th time! The first thing that strikes me, is that America has recently joined World War II. The one pager about an ex-balloonist and early aviator, Augustus Post, yet again brings it home what a different world our books are from. He was alive and very much kicking when this book was published.

On our page 4 there is a section "Out Of The Mail Bag" This is an example:

"Sheila McCaffery, Birkenfeld, Oregon, is organizing a club for girls 10 to 14 years old whose name is either Sheila or McCaffery. She is also interested in hearing from pen pals who collect postage stamps."

Damn!! This white man will have to read the next issue to see what happens to Fearless Flint! It seems to be whenever Jack Bradley is about to be killed, he automatically becomes Fearless Flint! A very annoying trait if you are a would be assassin! What exceptional art in Connie, that Frank Godwin guy could certainly draw! And, what a ripping yarn. Being English I talk exactly the same as Sir Robert in the Dicky Dare strip:

"I say you chappies are a queer lot! I saw you dancing around in the jungle, and yet when I chugged in my plane toward your boat a bloke started potting at us  ... we had quite a time before we tied him up! Just a shade baffling what!"

Mescal Ike was a bit strange, I am not sure if his name it is a drug allusion. Invisible Scarlet O'Neil is so readable! I knew quite a few of the strips, but there were a few I had never heard of: Skyroads, Roy Powers & Molly of The Movies. I guess Skyroads is Terry / Tailspin Tommy clone?

Verdict: A huge hit! Am really pleased that we made it to a 100 books and this is a really fitting one to celebrate it!

PS: It's a real pity that GCD (the Grand Comics Database) has not indexed most of this series.

[crashryan]

I became curious about Olly of the Movies, mostly because it was so confusing. I read the previous issues of Famous Funnies and found the strip's storyline disorganized and choppy. This wasn't entirely the writer's fault. The Famous Funnies editor left out some important stuff (like the introduction of the Faro character).

Anyway I Googled for more info about Olly of the Movies. I didn't find much, but what I did find was interesting. In the annals of the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, I discovered a 1935 lawsuit brought by Olly creator Julian Ollendorff against The Wander Company, a radio production outfit. Ollendorff claimed Wander ripped off his strip for their radio serial, Molly of the Movies. He alleged Molly plagiarized Olly's storyline and characters. The Molly people countered that their show was adapted from a book of the same title copyrighted in 1933, the year before Olly began its run. While they agreed both show and strip concerned aspiring movie actresses, they maintained Molly's characters and situations were entirely different from those in the strip.

There follows a mountain of affidavits, a sample Molly script, a sample Olly daily, and more legalese than you can shake a vacuum tube at. Sadly, I found no record of who won. My money is on the radio company, because they presented the 1933 copyright papers for Molly and there was no question that Olly didn't appear until the following year. I'll bet Wander could have turned around and sued Ollendorff for ripping them off, but apparently they just wanted to get him off their backs.

Oh, I also found Olly of the Movies in a newspaper, The New York Sun. The same paper also carried Dickie Dare and Napoleon and Uncle Elby, two of Olly's Famous Funnies companions.

I find this sort of thing fascinating. No hard feelings if the rest of you if you don't...

[bowers]

Keep up the great detective work, Crash. I, too, am interested in stuff like this. Cheers, Bowers

[SuperScrounge]

A few years back I discovered a site, the Fulton Postcard, that had scans of New York newspaper microfiche (quality ran from okay to unreadable) and because of curiosity of these old comic strips in Famous Funnies & other comic books, I would type in the names of different strips or authors (the only way to search the site was a search engine, or go through the individual page scans one by one, they had no index).

One of the papers (forget which one) had Olly of the Movies. Oddly enough, they didn't carry it on their regular comics page, but earlier in the paper on, or near, the page with what's playing at the movie theaters.

Sadly the computer I had downloaded them all onto died.

[crashryan]

Glad you found the research interesting, Bowers. I read a bit further into the court proceedings and learned just why Julian Ollendorff was so upset about the Molly of the Movies radio serial. It turns out that shortly before Molly hit the airwaves Ollendorff had made what we'd nowadays call a development deal with another production company for an Olly of the Movies radio program. The launch of Molly torpedoed that project nicely.