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[MarkWarner]

I have spent a great many hours navigating the slightly surreal waters of Comic Book Plus. However, the discussion and subsequent investigation into horse bleaching that last week's Border Patrol #2 created, led me to do a fair amount of eyebrow raising (Mr Spock style).

This week's book is hot off the press. A suggestion came in saying "Why not choose Bobby Comics. Nice art and looks like fun for the group". And as I am running low on suggestions (HINT, HINT!!) I thought "Why not indeed".

So here we have Bobby Comics #1 https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=60168 and the story we are concentrating on is the first one "Bobby And Capt'n Patch". I just flipped through this and I am certainly going to do a cover to cover read!

[narfstar]

I read this one the whole way through. It is a beautiful book. Most of the stories are lots of silly fun. The Bobby story was good from the beginning. It would take two weeks at 800 miles an hour to get to the moon in a rocket but a few minutes in my rocking chair. No rhyme or reason just because. We even get some good and bad science lessons on the moon. You can fry an egg in the sun but we are fine standing here unprotected. Mighty Man was sent to the moon but nobody seemed to care that he never came back.

Zingo was an OK read, once again without no explanations of why he was chosen to get the formula. Poor Papa was wealthy enough not to be too upset that his kids ruined the floor. He would reward them by taking them fishing. This story did not have enough of a bang up ending. Hugh Dunnit was not a favorite. It did not read well and who knew if an elephant got gas he would float away. Frankie Fieldmouse did not grab me either. Neither did Fish Fables or Classroom Boners. I did like Pel and Mel getting their just desserts but the ending was the only point to the story.

Peter Pupp was my favorite story along with Bobby. It made no sense that Peter took the king along except he provided all the humor.

I give the book itself a thumbs up. Over all it is one of the nicest looking books. It seems that LEADER was ah high quality publisher of all their books. It is too bad they were not around long.

[Morgus]

They LITERALLY don't make comics like this one anymore...probably can't, either. We're more science literate, so it would take a LOT for kids to accept the idea of a rocking chair to the moon even as a fantasy. You'd need a gimmick of some sort...a Harry Potter spell, a John Carter rocket, SOMETHING to suspend the disbelief and get around the lack of air. (Okay, I get it...this was a thinly veiled way to educate the kids and they probably had five or six facts they had to get in..after that, over to you Mighty Man.)

The robots in PETER PUPP reminded me of the ones they had on science fiction pulp covers at the time, like the ones E E "Doc" Smith published in... Funny how a certain idea is fashionable for a while...everybody can only draw a robot ONE way until someone else comes up with a more eye catching idea...

The art made up for the scripts and was pretty nice.

[SuperScrounge]

Bobby & Capt'n Patch - Cute, and surprisingly factual for a silly story. I mean once you introduce the idea of traveling to the moon on a rocking chair you'd think the writer would be less concerned about giving out otherwise factual tidbits.

Zingo the Zooper Zebra - Cute.

Fatt and Lean - Eh.

Poor Papa - Eh, better than Fatt & Lean though.

Hugh Dunnit Detective - Yet another lame Sherlock Holmes "comedy". How many thousands of these Holmes knockoffs were there?

Great Snakes Alive! - Eh, clumsily predictable.

Frankie Fieldmouse - Nice art, but the story wasn't much.

Fish Fables - Different... not very good, though.

Classroom Boners - Not bad.

Pell & Mell - Eh.

The Corn Belt - Cute.

Peter Pupp - Not bad.

[Morgus]

I think CLASSROOM BONERS would have made a great title for a 70's/80's soft core drive in special...right up there with SHOULD A SCHOOL GIRL TELL...but those days, along with this weeks' comic are also long gone..I can still remember the near accidents outside our local drive in when someone showed a skin flick and the traffic would go crazy...we still have three or four drive ins around this area...(London Ontario) how are the rest of you guys fixed? Are they long gone in America yet?

[crashryan]

Here in Southern California, Drive-Ins went extinct decades ago. Most of the LA theaters were turned into swap meet venues. Recently I read of an attempt to resurrect a local Drive-In in a sort of retro/hipster context, but I haven't followed the story so I don't know where it is or whether it caught on.

[crashryan]

As narfstar remarked, this is a good-looking comic. Printing and color are much better than that of most later comic books. The art is generally good; most of the stories are not.

Of course as soon as I saw the inside front cover I thought, "Heck with these cute comics, introduce me to South Seas Girl and Captain Cutlass' female sidekick." But back to the subject at hand...the big feature, "Bobby." is pleasant though very little-kiddy. I realize Cap'n Patch's rocking chair is supposed to form a framing story for an imaginary adventure, but until the last panel we get the impression the adventure is really happening. Iger's artwork isn't spectacular, but it's nice and the good coloring helps.

The first thing I thought seeing "Zingo the Zooper Zebra" was My Little Pony. The kid looks like he came from the MLP universe. The story is pretty blah. Willie the Wizard is a paradoxical character. Visually he's a typical 30s stereotype native but he speaks normal English. Perhaps the writer didn't picture him as an African? Overall the artwork is pretty good.

The remaining features are nothing special. "Poor Papa" has decent art but the payoff of the story is weak. "Hugh Dunnit" is a terrible mess, although the artist experiments with creative layouts. This feature would work better as an animated cartoon (though the story wouldn't be any better). "Freddy Fieldmouse" has a 60s underground comics look. "Fish Fables" is just plain weird. "Fatt and Lean," "Pell and Mell," and "Corn Belt" are bad.  As for "Classroom Boners," I remember having a few of those myself. "Peter Pupp" has a certain charm (due mostly to the giant robot) although the art is a bit crude. I know Bob Kane created Pupp; is this his work?

Final analysis: Good artwork, great coloring and production, poor stories. 7 out of 10.

[MarkWarner]

Wow, I really liked the first Bobby story. I thought the art and story was a bit reminiscent of The Little Prince and Little Nemo. I also liked it that there was some science involved. Despite, not all of it being quite correct, it certainly explains the basics to kids.

Zingo the Zooper Zebra carries on the slightly surreal feel to this comic, which unless it does something very stupid is going to be a resounding hit!

The story lines for Fatt and Lean, and the following Poor Papa are a bit "meah". I do, however, really like the art work in both of them.

Hugh Dunnit Detective is TOTALLY crazy. It begins with him (aka Sherlock Holmes) bathing with a frog called Edgert. Then he and Dr Squatson head off to see the Chief on their orange crate scooters. GREAT!!! The ending completely baffles me though. I have no idea where/how the elephant reappeared.

A bonus is that the text story is fairly readable. The Frankie Fieldmouse tale has an easy life moral, and the next one, Fish Fables, is about as weird as it gets. As is Classroom Boners and Pell And Mell. The one page Corn Belt was actually mediocre, blimey!

We finish with Peter Pupp fighting Lucifer D. Evil for control of King Colde's Goody -Goody Kingdom. Wonderful!!!

Verdict: A massive hit. I really had a great time reading this. It has to be one of the most enjoyable books the group has read.

[narfstar]

I think this is the closest Mark and I have come to identical feelings on a book. Of course I usually do not read the whole book. Mark, the elephant had gas which caused him to float away until hit by the cannon ball. Yeah, it took me a moment because it was so weird.