[MarkWarner]

After last week's horror we now make a 180 degree turn and head for a bit of children's humor.

I found this written on a scrap of paper at the back of my desk draw ... so it must have been recommended by a reading group member, but who is now lost in the mists of time. I am not expecting too much from this  week's book which is L'il Rascal Twins #12 ,  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=23011. The story we are concentrating on is the first one "Ice Cold Pop" ..but as it is only 5 pages I hope most of us might read a bit more

[SuperScrounge]

Ice Cold Pop - Ugh! Just did not find this funny, amusing or anything postive.

Bully Belayed - Ditto.

Reel Robbery - Is that George Gately doing the artwork? The head crook looks like Heathcliff's owner.

Captain Corey's Curiosity Corner - First time I've ever seen a text filler and thought, "Oh, thank goodness."

Roped - *sigh*

Special Assistant - Didn't even have cartoony art to distract from the lame writing.

Musclin' In - Sadly this story is the best one... not that there was a very high bar to clear.

Come back lame horror comic, all is forgiven!

[Morgus]

Growing up, THIS was the kind of stuff that was bought for us. I imagine a kid at the time would have dug it.
The stories had a beginning, middle, and end, and were pretty much all the  same...The art REALLY reminded me of those animated intermission breaks they had at the drive in, with the time counted down for you in minutes. I wonder if some of the artists for this did those as well.
The ads were the best part. The army set, the tank, all cool ads I remember. I wish I had either the Zorro or Popeye 'colour t.v set'. Bet they're worth a kings ransom now.
All of it is gone forever now. Kids would murder you if you tired to make them read this stuff today. So, on that level, it works as a nice piece of history to see what folks used to give their kids to read...

[crashryan]

As a lifelong fan of adventure (so-called "realistic") comics, I'm always surprised how much longer "funny" comics ran than their western/detective/superhero contemporaries. Li'l Rascal Twins ran 13 issues, Li'l Tomboy ran 16 in her solo book and Li'l Genius ran 48 in his! These are darned good numbers for Charlton comics. So somebody must have bought them. Personally I don't remember seeing Charlton kid comics when I was young. Plenty of Dells, Archies and Harveys. Charltons weren't well distributed around our neck of the woods.

I tried to consider this comic from the perspective of a pre-teen kid but too many years have passed. I don't know if I'd have laughed at the book or not. I remember disliking Dennis the Menace-style comics. To me, a wimpy introvert, such kids were obnoxious bullies.

As an adult I can't say much for it. "Ice Cold Pop" is too frantic for my tastes. The other stories are so-so. I don't understand why Li'l Tomboy bothers training Li'l Genius if all she is going to do is don a Mission Impossible mask and thrash the bully herself.

The Eddie Extra tale is another of those annoying stories which work only because the main character is mind-numbingly stupid. But "Jersey's" unusual art style kind of appeals to me. It's strange how the cops look like they're supposed to be caricatures of actual people.

Speaking of art, the drawing on the Li'l Rascal twins isn't too bad. I'm with SuperScrounge: I don't know if that really is George Gately, but the secondary characters sure look like his.

Wrapping up the issue is an unusual text feature: detailed lessons in magic, tennis, and soda-pop making. It's a nice change of pace.

[narfstar]

It was the frantic pace that I actually liked. The story was short enough not to too bad. Typical type of story so it was overall OK

[Drahken]

I generally prefer humorous comics like these, teen comics, funny animals, etc over the more stereotypical golden age horror/mystery/etc ones. The vast majority of my comics growing up were harvey & archie ones, with a few superhero ones and some odds & ends funny ones thrown in.
That being said though, I found this comic rather dull. It's main redeeming feature is the fact that you can get through the whole comic in just a couple minutes.

[Mazzucchelli]

It

[WalterLoydLilly]

...Is the Dennis the Menace referred to here Hank Ketcham's American character (Certainly the one this Yank knows !) or the identically-named British Dennis the Menace , who started the same week! in Great Britain in the 50s and who (I had one either BEANO or DANDY annual from the 80s once with  him .) REALLY! was/is a bully , attacking " softies " in his neighborhood & getting violent comeuppance for it ?

[paw broon]

I think the ref. is to the American Dennis. The British one is referred to in N. America as Dennis and Gnasher nowadays to avoid confusion, and the Ketchum version is known simply as "Dennis" in the UK.  The British menace is a bit of an icon here, and as a proud Scot, I can boast that The Beano, Dandy, Topper etc. are/were all published by the Scottish company, D.C. Thomson, who still turn out weekly and monthly comics, as well as licence the characters for tv.  I passed their London office while on a bus last week and the big screen was showing a Dennis the Menace cartoon.  Fortunately the bus was stuck in a traffic jam and I got to watch a few minutes of mayhem. Dennis a bully?  I suppose he is. But you need to see the adventures of The Bash St. Kids, Bully Beef and Chips and a few more strips to guage the level of anarchy and mayhem (bullying if you like) that took place in British humour comics.
Now I need to read this weeks group choice and let this get back on topic.

[crashryan]

In my reference to Dennis the Menace (the American one) I made a poor choice of words when I called him a "bully." He didn't beat up or harass other kids, which is what bullies do. I was trying to describe kids who create mayhem for everyone around them yet remain unaware of the damage they're doing. Most of the time they make a mess because they're ignorant of how the real world works, For example they open the fire hookup in a department store because they don't realize it will shoot out water. The rest of the time they seem to create disaster out of sheer orneriness.

I wonder if the ignorant-kid mischief maker appealed more to adults. Dennis the Menace began as a panel for adults. Maybe adults smiled at kids getting it wrong...in one sense D the M is a bratty version of Family Circus. The humor in both arises from cute (it says here) kids misinterpreting the adult world.

One of the reasons I loved Carl Barks' stories when I was young was that Donald's kids knew exactly how the world works. They were intelligent, resourceful, and brave. Their status as kids gave them an edge over the adults. Their imaginations bridged the gap between their world and that of the adults, who'd lost their own imaginations as they grew up. It's no wonder the kids were usually the ones who solved the problem of the day. They were the kind of kids I wished I could be. I never wanted to be Dennis the Menace (though I would have loved to have had a dog like Ruff).

[paw broon]

Yes, but would you have enjoyed having a Wire-Haired-Abyssinian-Tripe-Hound like Gnasher?:-
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jUvspHZi_yI/TX_kQZJdr2I/AAAAAAAAHpI/TS82Tyzwj7w/s1600/dennis_69.jpg

[paw broon]

This wasn't very funny, although I admit to a small smile while reading the bank roberry story.  It all seemed a bit trite using supposedly cute kids to endear you so you don't' notice the lack of humour.  A bit cheap all round. 
When contrasted with funnies I've enjoyed over the years, this effort pales into insignificance.  I enjoy Archie, which is perhaps odd as it's so American, but also the duck stories by Carl Barks - some of which are works of genius imo.  And when you look at some British humour classics, e.g. Bash St Kids, Jonah, The Broons, they are genuinely funny.   

[Morgus]

Carl Barks is an under rated American genius, and I love the fact you can get the reprints in both expensive hard cover and more economical versions...(for broke guys like me...) The artwork and the stories were nearly perfect. Same with Little Lulu...really amazing work. Now, a step down..Dennis the Menace I used to read and liked a lot...especially the comics the ghosts came out with in the 60's....I have never been able to figure out WHY...now they sort of seem sad, when you find out the back story to it all...And way way down below any of them, you have stuff like The Little Rascal Twins...journeymen comic artists and writers trying to make a buck. Now, in a way, I feel for them...sort of like baseball teams that have NO chance of getting to the World Series this time of year, but still go out and honestly try. And maybe this was the best these folks could do...That, and maybe being a new guy here, I'm still digging the notion that I can dial up comics that properly speaking should be long forgotten with no trace at all left behind...very cool in a way...

[WalterLoydLilly]

...I have a felling I know what you're referring to , Morgus , but what " sad...back story " to Dennis The Menace are you referring to ?
  The comic strip started with him capable of being bratty/really malicious , I used to have Fantagraphics' book of the first two years or so of the daily panel (Ketcham supervised but did not draw EITHER the comic book or even the Sunday page !!! He considered himself a panel , not a strip , cartoonist .) , that showed that , and I'm told the comic book started out that way as well .

[Morgus]

The way I always heard it, the strip was based on the REAL son of the Ketchams...to the point where the wife said one day his son was a 'real menace'. Of course, the kid's name was Dennis and it just took off from there. The wife/mom was supposed to have a drinking problem. Dennis DID say in later life that he was resentful of Ketchum using his real life misadventures in the strip...last I ever saw, (real life) Dennis was running a tire retreading shop...balding, overweight, with the money being parceled out to him. It was an interview in PEOPLE if memory serves, and he sounded pretty bitter. 

[bowers]

I agree that this was the kind of comic somebody would buy for a kid. I wasn't forbidden to have super-hero or war comics, but I had to buy them for myself. My parents were always good for a Dell comic or maybe a western (my dad loved these) when we went to the supermarket. In the mid-50's, the supermarkets in our city had large comics sections with a table and chairs for the kids to read while the folks did the shopping. Free baby-sitting for the parents! And if any comics were crumpled or torn, I'm sure the store just put them in the "did not sell" pile for a credit. I think I vaguely remember reading "Lil' Genius" on occasion.

This one is a "rapid-fire" comic- a fast paced gag and then on to the next. Who cared if the joke fell flat? There was another on it's way! Not much interest to me today, but I would have liked the craziness as a kid and that was the target market. Also, these characters were around for awhile so they had to have something going for them.

A perfectly acceptable '50's  kiddy comic. It gets an OK+ from me. Cheers, Bowers

[MarkWarner]

A slight admission from me is that so far all the "kiddies" comics the reading group have perused have scored a hit from me. I'll claim that it's nice just to switch down a level or two. So I am pretty sure this will be added to the plus side of the ledger.

And I was right! Rather than bore you with my comments about each story. I'll just say they were light and jolly. I also liked the animated cartoon feeling to it and the art. Nothing to write home about, but I certainly feel a tad jollier after reading the book than before.

A couple of random observations:

There is an interesting (well for me anyway) advertisement for Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club King-Size Balloon Toys. Blimey that's a bit of a mouthful ... you get 10 for a buck plus 10c postage. 

How strange, a juvenile book with few words suddenly springs two full on pages of quite tightly packed text, "Captain Corey's Curiosity Corner". That was not bad at all. How to make your own soda or sundae, and some neat tricks and potentially dangerous tricks involving fire and boiling water.

Verdict: A hit. If I had kids around the house who bought this, I'd certainly read it (after they were tucked up in bed).