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[The Australian Panther]

Time for the next selection. Still looking for my first choice and haven't found it yet. Making a selection for the reading group makes me very aware of the riches of CB+. Decisions! Decisions!
This one combines the two interests that I pursue on the web, I frequent Music Blogs under another avatar.
And I was reminded of this when I was on a Jazz Blog which had a link back to this very book on CB+!
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20346&b=m
My comment there dates back to 2017.
Please Enjoy and comment.             

[Andrew999]

Terrific choice, Panther. This is a cultural gem, isn't it?

There used to be a similar comic book in the UK in the early sixties called Valentine - now owned by Rebellion - although they were more a case of taking a song title and writing a story around it. Hopefully, one day, that noble company will make scans available on the net for a nominal charge.

I'm not a great jazz lover but I do enjoy the swing, jump 'n' jive side of the spectrum. It was great to read some background on the artists - if only through the lens of a fan publication.

Always a big fan of Spike Jones, of course - who couldn't be? Loved the slightly loopy, flowing Alex Toth pencils - caught myself singing the Banana song in my head and told myself to stop (DAY-OH!)

I'd never heard of Tex Beneke but the smooth sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra are eternal. In The Mood was a favourite but also Pennsylvania 6-5000. I thought the art was very static here.

Webster's pencils on Woody Herman were more lively. My wife plays clarinet so I do enjoy the works of Woody, Artie and Benny from the golden age (though I sneakily prefer Acker Bilk, much to my wife's disgust - In a Persian Market is a particular favourite)

Perry Como had a long and distinguished career - even into the sixties. My mother was a huge fan. I was never one for crooners but I liked his lighter stuff - Magic Moments and that one about the fifty American states - What did Delaware boy, what did Delaware?

At least there was some action in the Benny Goodman script - must be difficult to inject drama into a biography, so full marks to Sid Greene for trying.

Overall, an enjoyable read - brought back memories - but I'd still love to see some of those reprints from Valentine!

[Robb_K]

This one combines the two interests that I pursue on the web, I frequent Music Blogs under another avatar.
And I was reminded of this when I was on a Jazz Blog which had a link back to this very book on CB+!

i, too, am a member of several music fora (not Swing Music, but Rhythm & Blues, Soul, and "Northern Soul").  I like Jazz and Blues a lot, too.  My 3rd forum genre is sports (Ice Hockey, to be specific).  So, I may be choosing a sports-themed comic book to review during the coming weeks.

This book was interesting, giving a quick-sketched look at some of the most popular headliners in Popular (Pop) music and bandleaders in Swing music in the late '30s and 1940s.  Having been alive through much of that period, and that having been the music of my parents' generation, I am well familiar with all the celebrities who had bio vignettes in the book.  I didn't really learn much from those.  Given the times, I'm  glad the editors or publishers weren't afraid to have, at least the one African-Americanartist among them (Duke Ellington), and they put him in a decent (non-prejudiced) light.  Personally, given the times, I'd have also included Count Basie.  But, still, I'm impressed by their look at him as a Human, same as the others, rather than as a "negro" stereotype).

The most entertaining parts were the two attempts to tell new stories; the story about the crooked "friend" of
Woody Herman's, who could book him for a show at their high school, and the other with a crook posing as a
music school teacher, who could teach kids Swing Music. The stories were nothing unexpected, but, at least, had some "new reading material" other than very ordinary sketchy bios, that told what most readers who bought the book already knew.

The standout item in the book WAS totally unexpected.  That was the particular artist of the Buddy Rich story (R. Johnson) drawing Rich as a baby and 5-year old performing drummer, having the face of a teenager, and of an adult, respectively.  The 5-year old was drawn as a midget, a normally proportioned adult (midget), rather than what a baby and five-year-old look like.  Even though the rest of the artwork isn't all that good, I don't think this was a matter of poor drawing skills.  It's so very far off, that I think it was done purposely, although I can't imagine why he would want to do that.

Had I been a couple years older, and a Pop or Swing Music fan in 1948, I doubt if I'd have wanted to shell out a hard-earned dime for such a book.  However, if there had been a book full of bios or vignettes about R&B Vocal Harmony Groups out in 1953, highlighting groups like The Orioles, Ravens, Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, The Flamingos, and The Dominoes, you can bet that I'd have grabbed a look through it, reading some of it at the newsstand, before buying my Uncle Scrooge or Walt Disney's Comics & Stories. 

[SuperScrounge]

Music Was Never Like This!! - Interesting, but could have been a little longer, more in-depth.

Tex Beneke Carries On - Ditto.

Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive - Ditto.

Serenade starring Woody Herman - The basic plot reminded me of another story I'd read somewhere (or it could have just been a common scam) the bio bits felt forced and not natural.

Paging Mr. Husing! - Interesting to read of a disc jockey who preceded Rock & Roll.

King of the Juke Boxes...Perry Como - Not bad.

Jivey and Groovy - Eh, okay, I guess. Not as funny as the writer & artist thought it would be, but not terrible either.

Serenade with Benny Goodman - Either tell a biography or a fictional story don't try to Frankenstein them together.

So You Want to Lead a Band - Okay.

Duke Ellington - Interesting.

Buddy Rich - The artist seems to draw young Buddy as a ventriloquist's dummy.

Al Jolson Beloved Minstrel - Not enough depth.

Guy Lombardo Says - Eh.

Sweetheart of the Juke Box Jo Stafford - Nice drawing.

Not so much biographies as bio-ettes, snippets of their lives rather than a full story. Some of the attempts as likenesses... eh, how many reference pics did some of the artists have to work from?

[gregjh]

Hey what did Spike kick the goat for?! He invited her into the band 

[crashryan]

Cuz the goat was eating one of the instruments (wonder how well goat teeth work on brass?).

[Morgus]

Alex Toth draws Spike Jones...just perfect.

The whole enterprise was wonderful, but also reminded me of war time propaganda comics, in the sense that the artwork was obviously very carefully based on approved photographs supplied to the publisher...so there could be little or no straying from them..just how close they actually came to duping the pictures varied...Perry Como, while a good story, tended to wander in how close it came to looking like him.
But the stories were well crafted for the two or three pages they would run.

Well done and a great blast from the past..

[crashryan]

Night before last I had this all typed up when I accidentally closed the wrong window and lost everything. Here we go again...

Juke Box reminds me of True Comics published by Parents' Magazine Press. Both feature numerous super-short stories offering diagrammatic once-overs of their subjects. For this reason I found myself thinking more about the music makers themselves than about the stories. My parents listened to a lot of Big Band music, so I was familiar with these musicians.

I love Spike Jones. Though Alex Toth was obviously still learning his craft, he does a good job here, especially on Spike. Jones' music was so crazy that it's easy to miss how complex his arrangements were. Mark Evanier once showed us examples of Spike's charts. Everything was meticulously planned to the last pistol shot.

Tex Beneke had a good voice and did a fine job keeping the Glenn Miller band going. The art is typical Fred Guardineer, with carefully-drawn but stiff figures and clean inks. Guardineer's style fits this kind of story. He draws an unusual mirror shot on page 10 panel 4, though having the panel overlap the next one confuses things a bit.

Johnny Mercer's entire career shoehorned into two pages!?

Woody Herman: I like the idea of putting a real-life subject into a fictional story. The extra pages also help flesh out the bio. R. Webster's art is adequate. It's funny that in page 17 panel 2 Woody calls himself "The Boy Wonder of the Clarinet" while the picture shows him holding a saxophone. One point is confusing. The standing man in panel 4 of page 18 is Red Norvo, who played vibraphone for Herman in the mid-1940s. However when Norvo was mentioned earlier it was as a client of arranger Ralph Brewster. We weren't told that Red was also a member of Herman's band.

Ted Husing: It's easy to forget that once upon a time disk jockeys were unusual. And that they were seen as a threat to live musicians.

Perry Como was a weekly TV tradition when I was a kid. Como's voice was warm and clear. He was the last of the old time crooners. George Mandel does a decent art job. His likeness of Perry comes and goes depending upon whether he had scrap for a particular angle.

Jivey and Groovy is typical GA teen fare. The car in the splash panel is the best thing about the mediocre art. Back in the 60s we teens thought "groovy" was our invention. It seems the word had been around for a long time.

There must have been a lot of musical con artists in the late 40s. Benny Goodman follows in Woody Herman's footsteps as he brings down a bogus music school. (Could these fellows be teaching Professor Harold Hill's Think System?) It's hard to recognize Sid Greene in this early work. He puts a lot of effort into the art and it pays off. Extra points to Sid for a convincing drawing of the backside of a console radio (page 33 panel 6).

So Sammy Kaye was a talented college athlete. Who knew?

Duke Ellington: Not only is it good to see an African American musician featured, but it's also good to see an African American artist illustrating his biography. Did the Duke really have a blind man choose his clothes?

Buddy Rich: SuperScrounge is right. Young Buddy looks like a ventriloquist's dummy. Artist Johnson does a good Sinatra, though.

It's ridiculous to cram Al Jolson's long career into a two-page ad for his biopic. Poor Larry Parks doesn't even get a look-in.

Guy Lombardo: Surprisingly, Mr New Year's essay was one of the more interesting things in the book. He (or his ghost) writes candidly about what makes his band's style. It reads like a professional talking shop with a colleague. Quite unlike the usual comic book text filler.

Jo Stafford with her chili bean breakfast toots the book to a close. Juke Box is an entertaining, out- of-the-ordinary comic.

[The Australian Panther]

First, my comments on the comments.

Given the times, I'm  glad the editors or publishers weren't afraid to have, at least the one African-Americanartist among them (Duke Ellington), and they put him in a decent (non-prejudiced) light.  Personally, given the times, I'd have also included Count Basie.  But, still, I'm impressed by their look at him as a Human, same as the others, rather than as a "negro" stereotype). 

Basie is covered in one issue 3, as is Ella Fitzgerald . Louis Armstrong is in issue 4, Cab Calloway in issue 5. Even tho they were still treated as second-class citizens, Negros who had status as musicians had a degree of respect that was not granted to others. It wasn't for nothing that Louis used to smile sweetly from the Bandstand and sing "I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal you!'

Had I been a couple years older, and a Pop or Swing Music fan in 1948, I doubt if I'd have wanted to shell out a hard-earned dime for such a book.

Which convinces me that these books were aimed at females, who would shell out for such a book. They were after all big record buyers.

Paging Mr. Husing! - Interesting to read of a disc jockey who preceded Rock & Roll.

Swing, Radio and 'Disk Jockeys' went together in marketing and put the pieces in place for the explosion of RocknRoll in the 50s.

Jivey and Groovy - Eh, okay, I guess. Not as funny as the writer & artist thought it would be, but not terrible either.

This strip is also proof that this was aimed at females. When older artists and writers try to tune in to a teenage wavelength, the result is almost always mistimed and out of sync.

Some of the attempts as likenesses... eh, how many reference pics did some of the artists have to work from?

Since this material was important for promotion, getting likenesses right was more important than you might think. Which is why we can see that more time is spent on the faces than much of the rest of the strip.

Spike Jones' music was so crazy that it's easy to miss how complex his arrangements were. Mark Evanier once showed us examples of Spike's charts. Everything was meticulously planned to the last pistol shot. 

 
You can't do supposedly chaotic freeform creative work [Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Monty Python, Buster Keaton, Sex Pistols, Mad Magazine  - to name a few] without the paradox that there is very strong structure underpinning everything. Otherwise it doesn't work.

It's easy to forget that once upon a time disk jockeys were unusual. And that they were seen as a threat to live musicians.

 
And that didn't change, when the new wave of Club DJ's hit in the 80's and people were listening to DJ's spinning discs and doing computer loops and so on, many musicians felt threatened.

There must have been a lot of musical con artists in the late 40s. 

     
Whereever there is a perceived way to make easy money, there are conartists. I have a deposit in a Nigerian Bank account if your are interested.

Did the Duke really have a blind man choose his clothes?

That seems unlikely, since the Duke was immaculate in everything he did. I will have to research that! 
So, my thoughts -
Spike Jones/ Alex Toth.The Splash I assume refers to what was at the time a well-known Spike piece. The illustration of Spike, wide-faced and bow-tie on an angle, sets the requisite mood for mayhem. Two (or three?) fonts on the first page.
Spike's music is all about sound effects and Toth uses sound effects on the page and the word balloons are clear, but chaotic and outside the panels, which works for this story.
The last panel emphasizes the knowledge and decision-making behind the apparent craziness.
I think that either Spike picked this to do, or perhaps more likely, the editor chose him personally for the piece.
Tex Beneke/Fred Gardineer. Don't know who scriped these but I have a feel that one person scripted the series and chose the artists to fit the musicians. This is a narrative, shows how Beneke was encouraged by Miller to reach his full potential, which explains his commitment to Miller's legacy.
Johnny Mercer.  The more I look at this material in detail, the more I realize what deceptive Gems
these scripts are. All the detail you need is in the wordage, even if there is only two pages of it. The Artist can only add to it!
Woody Herman/ Webster
This story obviously had an educational purpose, It might be fiction, but the scenario was probably real at that time in musical history.
Jivey and Groovy - Art nothing special. The story is a bit of a cynical put-down of 'swooning' girls.
Benny Goodman/Sid Greene
The Splash page emphasizes Goodman's popularity, then the story explains it. Yet another story about music con-men and a nice use of the music to transmit code.Excellent story.
Sammy Kaye/Fred Gardineer. Story explained and plot led into right in the splash.
Duke Ellington/A. C. Hollingsworth
This story is quite different from the others here. Starts by emphasising that the Duke was a true Renaissance man - very cultured. Most of a page on the 'vibe' of being a blind man.
'800 Volumes on the history and culture of the Negro race.' I hope there is a Duke Ellington Library somewhere. Unfortunately, the text letter at the end is a bit hard to read.
Buddy Rich/Johnson. Back then it was not uncommon to put very young children in stage and music performances - Buster Keaton's parents were throwing him round the stage before he was 5. These children learned from a early age and became masters of their craft. Totally impossible today.
Al Jolson. Currently I find myself wondering what Jolson's legacy will be, now that blackface is absolutely nonPC? 
Hope you all enjoyed the choice. Robb will have another for you in a few days.                             

[SuperScrounge]

Duke's blind vocalist was probably Al Hibbler.

No idea if he picked out Duke's clothes or not, though.

[lyons]

Brief biographies of musicians would not have tempted my boyhood coin, but a fun series and an entertaining read.  Thanks Panther. 

[Morgus]

So I have this friend of mine. His Grampy got us to make a CD of The Coasters for him once, and in passing he said that back in the day, they were 'The only band that mattered'. Which, I think, even Joe Strummer would have been pleased with.
So, I was visiting the other day, and mentioned the Duke Ellington story in JUKE BOX. He smiled craftily and asked if it mentioned BLACK BROWN AND BEIGE. Well, damn, I thought he was almost The Amazing Kreskin and asked how he did it. He told me Ellington worked on that particular piece for most of his career, and was never satisfied with it. Recorded it a few times, but never felt it got to where he wanted it. It was always on is mind. It was something he always plugged when he got a chance at it.
Then he told me that without even thinking about it, Ellington had done something just as good, and maybe even deeper.
"Every time he played the national anthem, it covered the same ground. The story of black peoples existence in America. The joys, sorrows, contradictions, and the pride. How they love the country, but how, often it does not love them back."
He put on the version from the Newport Jazz festival to make his point. Now all of us are Canadian, but I cannot remember the last time The Star Spangled Banner made me shed tears. It did this time.

A parable. 

[The Australian Panther]

Morgus, Thank you!