[MarkWarner]

The Reading Group sagely nodded their heads in approval of our last book Detective Picture Stories #1 which was judged "a nice, meat and potatoes comic".

I guess that description may well be applicable to this week's choice. I am really surprised that we had not already opened the pages of a Poppo of the Popcorn Theatre comic.

However, this is now being rectified. For no particular reason I plumped for the last one of the series, which is #13, and can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=24819. The story we will concentrate on is the first one "No Homework Today".

Happy reading!

[BoldVenturePress]

Comic books like this are surreal, to me at least. I read "No Homework Today" and "Dishing It Out," as they're linked. By the end of the second story, I was getting a mild headache. Same thing happens when I watch too many Gumby cartoons.

Poppo is a fun comic ... the word "sweet" might even apply. But I find it best to read in small doses. Read "No Homework Today," then put the comic down. Come back to it tomorrow.

Problem is: The stories follow a reasonably logical line until THAT ONE plot element surfaces ... someone drops something, or whatever ... and then hilarity ensues! You're driving uphill and then everything bottoms out at once, like the Space Mountain ride at Walt Disney World. It also strikes me as odd that everyone accepts a clown walking around their neighborhood without a second thought.

Finally (for me) check out the Poppo back story on the inside front cover ... "Born to the circus, and the joy of making others laugh, hiding his own sorrows so others may be happy, he is the clown of all ages -- FOR all ages." Does Poppo have a defining moment of tragedy in his origin story?

[SuperScrounge]

No Homework Today - Okay, although by itself it feels incomplete since each "story" is just a chapter in an overall longer story.

Dishing It Out - Okay.

Go Fly A Kite - Cute, I think the slapstick worked better here than in the previous two chapters.

Swift Changes - Kind of a wrap-up chapter.

Center Ring Facts - Eh.

Tricks - Okay.

Not bad. Although one does wonder why Poppo wears clown makeup all day even when just relaxing around the house. ;-)

[John Kerry]

First off I enjoyed this one. The individual stories each led to the following story. This was unusual for a humour book. You could read a story out of sequence and be fine, but it makes more sense if you read the one before it. The stories were enjoyable and it was nice to see that one teacher loosen up somewhat at the end. It is a pity there were no credits as personally I found the art to be qute serviceable. All in all a nice package and I am definitely read some of the others.
A couple of other things to mention. According to GCD this was available from supermarkets. That would explain the blank back cover. Presumably some sort of store logo/stamp would go there. There is also a reference to a Popcorn Theatre television show. The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television has no entry for it though. Does ayone know anything about the show. I am presuming it was either a syndicated program or perhaps a franchised one ala Bozo oand Romper Room.

[narfstar]

As a math teacher I especially enjoyed the first story. It was a very strange mix of humor and morality play. The art was pretty good and I think it may have been Biro. Second story was also pretty good. I would call it a hit. I liked the first part enough that I read the rest. I enjoyed it also. Sure it was not always very realistic but what comic is. It was fun and I still think it might be Biro art. If the teacher never learned any teaching tricks things were a lot different back then.

[crashryan]

Poppo the Mystery Clown, more like. Curious about the TV references--and never having heard of the man--I did some digging. I came up with very little. What little I found seemed (like so many internet writeups) to be people copying what others have said without checking. What I know for sure is that The Popcorn Theater was a kid's show on WABC-TV in New York. I found 1956 listings for it both in a newspaper and in a trade magazine survey of show ratings. A posting on a site devoted to kids' shows mentions WABC and Poppo the Clown, but its dates are suspect. The years--1958 rather than 1955/1956--are clearly wrong. Also suspicious is the assertion that the show premiered in September and was canceled in December of the same year. Other TV tie-in comics have outlasted their boob-tube namesakes, but I can't buy the idea that anyone would publish a dozen issues featuring a show that only lasted two months. One last factoid I unearthed is a 1955 listing for Popcorn Theater in a Southwestern daily paper. This suggests the show was syndicated. The much-copied posting states that "no one knows" who played Poppo. However given that Poppo and The Popcorn Theater are "copyrighted and patented and the sole property of" one George Gale, it's not unlikely that Gale played Poppo. Sadly I could find nothing useful about George Gale, with or without Poppo.

So how about the comic? Inoffensive. A bit didactic. The stories are good-spirited and try to teach moral lessons without shoving them down a reader's throat. I like the the continuity between the individual stories, uncommon in kids' comics.  There is some obvious re-lettering on pages 19 and 26. I think dialogue was added to clarify the story by identifying who's who. It doesn't say much for Mr Jones that he's more interested in re-election than he is in justice for Bumpy. A touch of the real world? The artwork does its job. Not great but not bad. After years of seeing Charles Biro's name pasted on comic stories I've concluded that I have no idea what his art looks like. This may be him and it may not.

The magic tricks are interesting but I am most intrigued by the second item in "Center Ring Facts." I leave it to someone else to ferret out information about 17-pound Anita the Living Doll and her forty cigarettes a day (!!).

[John Kerry]

Ask and you shall receive. Here is a link to information about Anita.
http://www.sideshowworld.com/43-Little-Folks/2014/Anita/Worlds-Smallest.html

[Morgus]

I was reading this one on line and the wife went by and said;"Oh, that's GOOD artwork. What's the comic?"
I told her it was Poppo the Clown. Neither of us had heard of it.
"But," I said, "Crashryan will tell us all about it.  You just watch."
She just looked at me.
Sure enough. I come out of the two stories and there is his bio already solved. This impressed the wife. Told her Crash was the go to guy for info for our group.
Charles Biro's art kept the pages turning, and like Narfstar, I was impressed the most with the first story. A principal in a comic book telling someone that a teacher was too authoritarian stuck out in my mind as unusual for the time. I think I'm more used to authority being just routinely accepted during this era.

Hey, when it comes to the art, how come I'm reminded of those Spire religious comics like 'Hansi: the Girl Who loved the Swastika' by Al Hartley? Sorta weird, that.

[narfstar]

Anyone else think this is Biro art?

[MarkWarner]

No Homework Today: Well apart from fractions I also learned that clowns wear their make-up even when they are not clowning, even after they retire. Or at least it would appear so.

Dishing It Out: I rather enjoyed this. It only seemed to take a minute or two and I am half way through the comic. So not great value for the hard earned 10c I would have paid for it.

Go Fly a Kite: Poppo endangers a kid's life and is the hero.

Swift Changes: Wraps up the story. Which managed (just about) to avoid being sickly. This was a constant threat throughout the whole book.

Verdict: A hit. I liked the way that the stories followed on. A bit of thought has gone into this. Although I certainly would have read this, but I would have tried to borrow a copy or swap. It only took a few minutes to read cover to cover. But, hopefully I might have been able to find a television set and watch him for nothing.