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[Robb_K]

This fortnight's books for reading and review are a comparison between Standard's "El Bombo Comics 1", which represents specially selected El Bombo re-formatted United Features early 1940s newspaper strip stories from earlier Sparkler Comics  and Eastern Printing's "Big Chief Wahoo 1" Sunday newspaper strip pages.



Both characters are very similar, being chiefs or son of chiefs of their stereotyped primitive rural native North or South American native tribes, who come to big American cities to see the modern wonders of that different way of life. I can't help but wonder if BOTH of those strips were patterned after Argentinian, Dante Quinterno's Patoruzu newspaper strip, which started earlier, in 1936, but reached international stardom very soon after starting, and before those 2 American strips started. "Big Chief Wahoo" started in US newspapers at the end of November 1936, about 5 months after Quinterno's. "El Bombo" started in 1941, directly in Sparkler comic books (but was produced by United Features' staff as a new feature, especially to fill out their new comic book series.

Here is the link to "El Bombo 1":     https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=27247


Here is the link to "Big Chief Wahoo 1":      https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=61787


I hope you will enjoy this interesting comparison.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it, The "Big Chief Wahoo" Sunday pages are as they were printed in the newspapers, rather than re-formatted into comic book-style continuing short stories.  I'm not even sure if there are Sunday pages missing, as, although many consecutive pages seem to be related and form consecutive, continued scenes, many others are not related to their 2 surrounding pages.

Happy reading!



For those of you interested in the possible source of inspiration for these 2 newspaper strips, here is Fox Features' un-issued front cover for Dante Quinterno's Patoruzu, as well as a link to the reissue publisher's US printing of The origin portion of Quinterno's Patoruzu Argentinian newspaper strip:

Scan of The Adventures of Patoruzu front cover here:


The planned and intended inside pages to Patoruzu can be found here:  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=7255
inside Green Publishing's "All Top Comics 6", issued in 1957 (11 years after Fox Features had planned to issue it).

Patoruzu, the newly-crowned Chief of Argentina's Tehuelches Tribe, decides to visit the big city, just as El Bombo does, and Big Chief Wahoo does a little bit, as well, but not at the start of his story, unlike the other two.

[SuperScrounge]

As I understand it, Big Chief Wahoo was supposed to be called The Great Gusto and follow the adventures of the W. C. Fields inspired Gusto.

Somewhere in the development process the decision was made to name the strip after Wahoo. Whether the popularity of Patoruzo had anything to do with it or somebody thought Wahoo was the more interesting character, I couldn't say.

[crashryan]

SuperScrounge is right. When the strip began in 1936 it originally starred The Great Gusto. I remember having seen (in a newspaper archive; I wasn't alive for it!) at least one paper that ran it under that title. According to Don Markstein:

"So short was Gusto's tenure as star, it was over before his strip even started. Early response from newspaper editors indicated he'd work better as a second banana, so the creators switched him out, and the character originally intended as second banana, Big Chief Wahoo, became the star instead. Gusto didn't even appear until the strip was almost a week old."

But that was only the beginning of the strip's strange history. After a few years (1940) Wahoo met photo-journalist Steve Roper. Over the next couple of years the feature became more of an adventure strip and Roper took the lead with Wahoo as sidekick. It was retitled Steve Roper and Big Chief Wahoo and eventually just Steve Roper. Wahoo disappeared. Roper carried on for a number of years until he was upstaged and basically replaced by tough guy Mike Nomad. The title changed again, this time to Steve Roper and Mike Nomad. That was its title when the feature finally bit the dust in 2004.

[crashryan]

I'm going to remark on both books, but one at a time.

Big Chief Wahoo:

Believe me, I tried. Three times I sat down determined to reach the end of this book and I couldn't do it. This would have played much better in the newspapers where you got a week's rest between gags. One after another like this they get old quick. They aren't the worst jokes in the world but most aren't terribly funny. Wahoo seems to change personality depending on the gag. In some he seems naive to the ways of the world but so clever that he always comes out on top. In others he just seems dumb.

I have no idea whether there was a connection between Wahoo and Patoruzu. Was Patoruzu really that well-known in the USA in 1936? I certainly don't claim to know all there is to know about American comic strips, but I've been interested in their history since I was in high school and I'd never heard of Patoruzu before he was posted on CB+.  The fast-talking pitchman with a travelling medicine show and an Indian stooge is something of an American pop culture cliche. By the way, in the strip Wahoo was a multi-millionaire thanks to oil having been discovered on his property. This fact is implied in several of these episodes but they don't make much of it. I've seen few early strips so there's a lot of backstory that I don't know. For instance I don't know where Pigtails came from. Most of the Wahoo I read in the library collections were from the late 30s and early 40s. At that time the daily strips formed a continuity and the Sundays were stand-alone jokes like those in this book.

In conclusion, rather a dud. On to Bombo.

[Robb_K]

I'm going to remark on both books, but one at a time.

Big Chief Wahoo:

Believe me, I tried. Three times I sat down determined to reach the end of this book and I couldn't do it. This would have played much better in the newspapers where you got a week's rest between gags. One after another like this they get old quick. They aren't the worst jokes in the world but most aren't terribly funny. Wahoo seems to change personality depending on the gag. In some he seems naive to the ways of the world but so clever that he always comes out on top. In others he just seems dumb.

I have no idea whether there was a connection between Wahoo and Patoruzu. Was Patoruzu really that well-known in the USA in 1936? I certainly don't claim to know all there is to know about American comic strips, but I've been interested in their history since I was in high school and I'd never heard of Patoruzu before he was posted on CB+.  The fast-talking pitchman with a travelling medicine show and an Indian stooge is something of an American pop culture cliche. By the way, in the strip Wahoo was a multi-millionaire thanks to oil having been discovered on his property. This fact is implied in several of these episodes but they don't make much of it. I've seen few early strips so there's a lot of backstory that I don't know. For instance I don't know where Pigtails came from. Most of the Wahoo I read in the library collections were from the late 30s and early 40s. At that time the daily strips formed a continuity and the Sundays were stand-alone jokes like those in this book.

In conclusion, rather a dud. On to Bombo.

Both El Bombo and Patoruzu were rich and young newly-installed chieftans of the respective tribes.  So, those two strips had more in common than either did with Big Chief Wahoo.  It was really El Bombo that I felt was partially patterned after Patoruzu.  While it is true that most people in USA hadn't heard of Patoruzu by 1936.  But, it was an institution in Argentina, and some of The US' newspaper comic editors were well aware of that.  I'm sure that when United Features was scrambling to fill out the pages of its burgeoning new comic book series books, its editors took Patoruzu's popularity in The Spanish speaking world's newspapers into consideration, when deciding to have one of their better artists, Bernard Dibble, draw El Bombo as a regular feature of their new Sparkler Comics, around the beginning of The 1940s. 

[SuperScrounge]

El Bombo #1

First story - Too much of the dumb character getting away with stuff that should have gotten him arrested.

Second story - A little better, kind of a Brewster's Millions situation, but just random.

Third story - This was more interesting, but I think it needed more pages for the story to breathe.

Fourth story - Eh, okay.

Looy dot Dopes - Eh, okay.

[SuperScrounge]

Big Chief Wahoo #1

Minnie Ha-Cha... was her tribe from the Borsht Belt? 

The Slango section is the least funny part of this comic.

Not really a surprise that Allen Saunders is better remembered for his dramatic comics rather than his comedy ones.

Well, I made it all the way to the end. Do I win a prize? 

While it's not the worst comedy I've read, it's just so-so, probably okay if it was one comic alongside a bunch of other comics once a week, but as a collection... ugh!

Surprisingly I actually preferred the El Bombo book which I wouldn't have expected having actually read it, but at least El Bombo tried telling longer stories whereas this was just 64 standalone Sunday pages. *shrug*

[SuperScrounge]

For instance I don't know where Pigtails came from.

In one strip she mentions her aunt Lulu Hipps and in a later strip we find out Lulu is the landlord of the building that Gusto & Wahoo stay at.

[SuperScrounge]

All Top Comics #6

Patoruzu was a lot of fun. Wiped the floor with El Bombo and Big Chief Wahoo.

Uncle Otto - Okay.

Do You Know Why - Meh. Nothing special.

[Robb_K]

All Top Comics #6

Patoruzu was a lot of fun. Wiped the floor with El Bombo and Big Chief Wahoo.

Uncle Otto - Okay.

Do You Know Why - Meh. Nothing special.

Yes, I like Patoruzu much, MUCH, MUCH more than El Bombo, and Big Chief Wahoo makes Vaudeville Jokes seem funny.  But, I do like the artwork.  I wish CB+ would get scans of all The Argentinian Patoruzu publications. Currently, we just have a few Patoruzito issues.

[gregjh]

Interesting reads. From what I can see, the styles are very similar both in terms of artwork and characterisation. I personally prefer Mr. Bombo,, his strips being slightly longer to allow for more than a single quick set-up gag and he just comes across as slightly more likeable.

Both characters would never, ever get anywhere near the light of day in modern society and any writer who even suggested a stereotyped character like them would be out of work quickly, I think. That's one of the things I find interesting about old comics, they provide a window into society of the time. 

[crashryan]

El Bombo

Today I'm looking at the other half of the double bill.

I liked El Bombo #1 much, much better than Big Chief Wahoo. For starters it tells stories rather than presenting a series of unrelated gags. El Bombo himself is a more likeable character than Wahoo. They're alike in that both are naive and both solve many problems by beating up their adversaries. However Wahoo's irascible personality quickly grows old. Bombo's childlike good nature is easier to take in the long run.

I didn't think I'd like the feature while reading the first story. Though it's a popular theme, the old "naif in the Big City" story is hard to pull off. On the one hand the hero must be ignorant enough to misunderstand everyday things. On the other hand the hero can't be ignorant of things we'd expect him to know whether he's naive or not, otherwise he just seems stupid. For instance, it makes sense that El Bombo might be confused by a "bellboy" without bells. But having come from (or at least been paraded through) a modest town in a civilized country, he'd know what police are and what they do. When a bunch of armed, uniformed men come rushing into his room after he has thrashed a gang of thugs, El Bombo would know darned well they're cops, not bellboys.

The "land of the free" segment is the worst example. Again, El Bombo didn't crawl out of a cave. He knows what money is. He knows who Rockefeller is and he aspires to earn a "hun'erd millyum dollar." So he'd certainly know that saying America is "the land of the free" doesn't mean he can run around grabbing whatever he wants without paying. That's just dumb. I'm glad Dibble, or whoever it was, took the character in a different direction.

Among the other stories I liked the haunted house sequence the most. I enjoyed Dibble's cartooning. The thousand-dollar-bill montage on page 10 is a hoot.

There's something peculiar about the pacing. If I understand Robb correctly these stories aren't cut up from newspaper strips but new work produced for the comic book. Still there are moments when it seems that if they weren't made from newspaper strips, maybe they were written to be cut up into newspaper strips. Take page 10. It ends with El Bombo and Biltybux pouring money out a window. On the next page we are in a zoo. An awkward caption tells us our heroes have "saunter[ed] off for a brief recess." The rest of the page and the next page read like three-panel gag dailies joined together. Suddenly the storyline ends with "to be continued" and  we're off to a haunted house and a circus. Curious.

In conclusion, I'd read another El Bombo but I wouldn't read another Big Chief Wahoo.

[Robb_K]

El Bombo

Today I'm looking at the other half of the double bill.

I liked El Bombo #1 much, much better than Big Chief Wahoo. For starters it tells stories rather than presenting a series of unrelated gags. El Bombo himself is a more likeable character than Wahoo. They're alike in that both are naive and both solve many problems by beating up their adversaries. However Wahoo's irascible personality quickly grows old. Bombo's childlike good nature is easier to take in the long run.

I didn't think I'd like the feature while reading the first story. Though it's a popular theme, the old "naif in the Big City" story is hard to pull off. On the one hand the hero must be ignorant enough to misunderstand everyday things. On the other hand the hero can't be ignorant of things we'd expect him to know whether he's naive or not, otherwise he just seems stupid. For instance, it makes sense that El Bombo might be confused by a "bellboy" without bells. But having come from (or at least been paraded through) a modest town in a civilized country, he'd know what police are and what they do. When a bunch of armed, uniformed men come rushing into his room after he has thrashed a gang of thugs, El Bombo would know darned well they're cops, not bellboys.

The "land of the free" segment is the worst example. Again, El Bombo didn't crawl out of a cave. He knows what money is. He knows who Rockefeller is and he aspires to earn a "hun'erd millyum dollar." So he'd certainly know that saying America is "the land of the free" doesn't mean he can run around grabbing whatever he wants without paying. That's just dumb. I'm glad Dibble, or whoever it was, took the character in a different direction.

Among the other stories I liked the haunted house sequence the most. I enjoyed Dibble's cartooning. The thousand-dollar-bill montage on page 10 is a hoot.

There's something peculiar about the pacing. If I understand Robb correctly these stories aren't cut up from newspaper strips but new work produced for the comic book. Still there are moments when it seems that if they weren't made from newspaper strips, maybe they were written to be cut up into newspaper strips. Take page 10. It ends with El Bombo and Biltybux pouring money out a window. On the next page we are in a zoo. An awkward caption tells us our heroes have "saunter[ed] off for a brief recess." The rest of the page and the next page read like three-panel gag dailies joined together. Suddenly the storyline ends with "to be continued" and  we're off to a haunted house and a circus. Curious.

In conclusion, I'd read another El Bombo but I wouldn't read another Big Chief Wahoo.

Everything I've read about El Bombo stated that United Features hired Dibble to write and draw this new series, in 1941 to help fill out their new Sparkler Comics line, as unused past newspaper strip pages were quickly being used up.  Dibble had been a newspaper strip artist.  New ongoing story strips were marketed to newspapers by their writers and artists using stories that had already started with smaller newspapers, or, in the case of totally new strips, on speculation, by the author and artist having completed the first several weeks to showcase them.  Apparently Dibble had already developed this strip idea to sell to newspapers, but before he could sell it, he was approached by United features (his current client for another strip), to develop a new strip for their new, Sparkler Comics, comic book line.  So, already having the earliest El Bombo episodes ready to go, he simply adapted what he had already drawn for United's anthology comic book.  The El Bombo #1 comic book was the only comic book issue dedicated solely to that character.  But, the strip was drawn for Sparkler, and most of the Stories in El Bombo 1 were from among the earliest Sparkler episodes (and thus, having been formatted for the newspaper).  I never noticed the Sparkler episodes after the first 7 or 8, looking choppy, like they were reformatted.

[Johnny L. Wilson]

It?s interesting to read entire books built off ?culture shock.? I laughed at the bad puns and improbable misunderstandings in both, but the underlying assumptions of good-hearted, but somewhat jejune representatives of simpler cultures being thrown into the disorienting cauldron of a more complicated consumer culture were unsettling. I enjoyed and am thankful for both reading experiences, though a bit humbled in my own lack of awareness of these questionable media archetypes. It also hit me toward the end of my reading that both of these eponymous characters needed a ?friendly native guide? in the guise of a wealthy (in El Bombo?s case) or worldly-wise (in Chief Wahoo?s case) Anglo male to help him navigate our consumerized society. But, as usual, I digress.

In an earlier age, one probably wouldn?t have thought anything about a simple, bumbling indigenous South American who comes to the U.S. to seek his fortune. As the first story makes clear from the first panel, El Bombo isn?t the cleverist member of the tribe, but his good heart and positive intentions tend to win out. It is easy to believe that the author/artist is from the comic strip background because the stories and gags are very tight. The phony dialogue/accent given to El Bombo is humorous at times, but I?m glad we?ve moved past that. Please note that this character does not suggest that all of the indigenous peoples of this, originally fictitious and later Guatemalan, village are ?simple,? just El Bombo. Unfortunately, since Wahoo is supposed to be a chief, his <i>faux pas</i> would reflect poorly on his whole (admittedly fictitious) Native American Nation. I?m not trying to moralize here, just describe some of the culture shock that I occasionally feel when reading literary products of any era which are signs of their times. I particularly liked the bit at the end of the first story where El Bombo thinks the police are bellboys.

As for Big Chief Wahoo, I?d wager I?m not the only one who imagined W. C. Fields doing Gusto?s patent medicine spiel on the cover. And, I couldn?t help but think of all the superheroes who depended upon semi-magical, pseudo-scientific substances (before Ralph Bakshi had Mighty Mouse snort that white substance, that is) to gain their super powers whenever the chief guzzled down some of the Kazowie Kure-All (the ?juice of the cacti? as Fields was wont to say). I found most of the Slango bits at the end of each page to be rather tedious, but I loved ?fountain pen = squirt-um-up words? and tennis as ?snowshoe-spank-um-ball.?  I wonder how many of our readers have ever gotten their fingers pinched in a wringer washer so that they understood ?clothes wringer = swing-um-squeeze-um?? I doubt many would recognize why a trolley car would be a ?covered-wagon-with-um-fish-pole-on-top? unless they?ve been on a very old-fashioned transit car (in all fairness, most I?ve experienced have had more than one electrical connection). Of course, even though it?s not very sensitive of me to laugh at the quaintness of these misunderstandings, I just have to remember that these jokes are from the middle of the last century. In the night club story, I was caught off-guard when the ma?tre-d was asking to check Chief Wahoo?s reservation and the chief tells him to go ahead, but it?s a long way to ?teepee-town.? In both comics, but particularly in Big Chief Wahoo, the phony names offered both chuckles and insights into, at least perceived, society at the time.

I had to admire the use of a rebus-style puzzle as Wahoo?s letter to Minnie in the jail story (actually, it was more a pictographic code than a rebus, but it was still a neat little twist), but thought the invitation to the picnic in the later story was better.  Then, the challenge to ?fill-in? one?s own rebus in mid-book was another creative idea coupled with the Thanksgiving invitation at the conclusion of another story. The only ?Dizzy Dictionary? rebus I didn?t quite get was ?Commentator.? I assume that ?tater? as in the potato pictured is involved, but I don?t get the ?comment.?

And, even though some would just call it ?filler,? I thought the paper doll and paper doll dress templates for the princess at the end of four stories, Wahoo himself at the end of one, and Pigtails at the end of three others were cute. It appears that one about two-thirds of the way through the book was designed by late child star, Jane Withers, before she grew up to be a character actress. I was in elementary school (and a comic reader) in the 1950s and you would still find paper doll books in drug, grocery, and five-and-dime stores like Woolworth?s. I well remember my Mom making paper doll clothes from old Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Wards catalogs by simply cutting out the clothes so that she made her own little rectangular tabs. So, that one little frame reminded me of that era in a big way.

Teaching young readers how to trace to scale and impose an image on something simple like a door stop was also an interesting addition to the mix?though I?m not sure how many comics readers had access to jigsaws. Today?s parents would be horrified at a strip suggesting such an activity. (smile)

I wouldn?t go out of my way to read either of these titles again, but the experience was worth it?along with several puns that were amusing in context but would never fly in today?s world (e.g. ?Parachute = teepee-gone-with-um-wind? or ?Wedding ceremony = copyright-um-squaw?). Of course, in addition to my ?personal? culture shock described above, there is also my personal preference toward longer stories (even though we were forewarned about the Wahoo title being reprinted Sunday comic strips). The bottom line is that the humor in these stories is very much like the word games Gracie Allen would play on her husband, George. I don?t think anyone thought that made all wives something less in brain power than their husbands, but then again, maybe that?s where all the ?blonde? jokes originated [Even though Gracie herself was brilliant out-of-character, as you?d know if you ever saw her as celebrity guest on a quiz show.]

Sorry for this stream-of-consciousness review, but these titles touched on so many memories and artifacts that, even though it was originally published before my birth, it stimulated thought in many directions.

[Robb_K]

(1)Its interesting to read entire books built off culture shock. I laughed at the bad puns and improbable misunderstandings in both, but (2) the underlying assumptions of good-hearted, but somewhat jejune representatives of simpler cultures being thrown into the disorienting cauldron of a more complicated consumer culture were unsettling. I enjoyed and am thankful for both reading experiences, though a bit humbled in my own lack of awareness of these questionable media archetypes. (3)It also hit me toward the end of my reading that both of these eponymous characters needed a friendly native guide in the guise of a wealthy (in El Bombo?s case) or worldly-wise (in Chief Wahoo?s case) Anglo male to help him navigate our consumerized society.

As for Big Chief Wahoo, Id wager Im not the only one who imagined W. C. Fields doing Gustos patent medicine spiel on the cover. And, I couldnt help but think of all the superheroes who depended upon semi-magical, pseudo-scientific substances (before Ralph Bakshi had Mighty Mouse snort that white substance, that is) to gain their super powers whenever the chief guzzled down some of the Kazowie Kure-All (the ?juice of the cacti? as Fields was wont to say). I found most of the Slango bits at the end of each page to be rather tedious, but I loved fountain pen = squirt-um-up words and tennis as snowshoe-spank-um-ball.  I wonder how many of our readers have ever gotten their fingers pinched in a wringer washer so that they understood clothes wringer = swing-um-squeeze-um. I doubt many would recognize why a trolley car would be a covered-wagon-with-um-fish-pole-on-top unless theyve been on a very old-fashioned transit car (in all fairness, most Ive experienced have had more than one electrical connection). Of course, even though its not very sensitive of me to laugh at the quaintness of these misunderstandings, I just have to remember that these jokes are from the middle of the last century. In the night club story, I was caught off-guard when the maitre-d was asking to check Chief Wahoos reservation and the chief tells him to go ahead, but its a long way to teepee-town. In both comics, but particularly in Big Chief Wahoo, the phony names offered both chuckles and insights into, at least perceived, society at the time.

I had to admire the use of a rebus-style puzzle as Wahoo?s letter to Minnie in the jail story (actually, it was more a pictographic code than a rebus, but it was still a neat little twist), but thought the invitation to the picnic in the later story was better.  Then, the challenge to ?fill-in? one?s own rebus in mid-book was another creative idea coupled with the Thanksgiving invitation at the conclusion of another story. (4)The only Dizzy Dictionary rebus I didnt quite get was Commentator. I assume that tater as in the potato pictured is involved, but I dont get the comment.   

I was in elementary school (and a comic reader) in the 1950s and you would still find paper doll books in drug, grocery, and five-and-dime stores like Woolworths.

I wouldnt go out of my way to read either of these titles again, but the experience was worth it along with several puns that were amusing in context but would never fly in todays world (e.g. Parachute = teepee-gone-with-um-wind or Wedding ceremony = copyright-um-squaw). Of course, in addition to my personal culture shock described above, there is also my personal preference toward longer stories (even though we were forewarned about the Wahoo title being reprinted Sunday comic strips). The bottom line is that the humor in these stories is very much like the word games Gracie Allen would play on her husband, George.

(5)I dont think anyone thought that made all wives something less in brain power than their husbands, but then again, maybe thats where all the blonde jokes originated [Even though Gracie herself was brilliant out-of-character, as youd know if you ever saw her as celebrity guest on a quiz show.]

(6)Sorry for this stream-of-consciousness review, but these titles touched on so many memories and artifacts that, even though it was originally published before my birth, it stimulated thought in many directions.

(1&2) I was raised (both in Canada, and The Netherlands) in large extended family complexes, with older cousins and their parents (my grandparents, uncles and aunts, great uncles and great aunts), during the late 1940s and 1950s, and grew up reading both all the American comics we had in Canada (plus the Canadian Whites during The War) and the Dutch comics of my older cousins from the 1940s, as well as my own throughout the 1950s.  Much of what was on TV during the 1950s in Canada was old British, US, and Canadian films from The 1930s and 1940s.  I hung out with mainly older people than I.  So, I was very much in the generation of the humour and values of the 1930s and 1940s media.  So, in addition to all being very nostalgic for me, I understand the societies' values from those times very well.  I am more a product of those times than even my own times.  I was raised by people from one or two generations before me, and who were old-fashioned for their own times.  So, after working for The United Nations in 3rd World countries in Africa, The Middle East, and The Far East for 9 months, each year for 20 years, upon my return to Holland, and even moreso to USA, I had to live through a similar culture shock to what El Bombo, Big Chief Wahoo, and Chief Patoruzu did (albeit on a lighter scale - but not all that much lighter as one might think).

(3) Yes, The White Mans Burden, to lift the backwards natives of underdeveloped countries into the shining light of Western Civilisations technology, values, and wisdom, and knowledge.  An unbelievable attitude to take, for ME, even in the early 1950s, but it really was what the bulk of the population in The Western Countries believed back then (and many still do even now).  Patoruzu also had a Tuxedo-wearing upper class Argentinian from Buenos Aires, explaining the sophisticated big city ways to him, same as the other two had their citified guides.

(4) The potato was just a COMMON tater - rather than an uncommon  (e.g. Special) one, I suppose. 

(5) Gracie Allen was a Smart Cookie, as we used to say in the 1940s and 50s.  She was a genius at subtle humour.  It was more her timing and attitude in her delivery than what she actually said.

(6) Nothing for which to be sorry, in the slightest!  We WANT to read everyone's opinions and reactions to reading these books.  We get more insight into what people from different times and different cultures think, and how that compares to what we think about these books, their material, and the issues surrounding them.  More often than not, learning about what others think gives me more, rather than less, reinforcement of my connections with other Humans.  And Id bet several others here feel the same.

[paw broon]

I started to read Big Chief Wahoo .  Surely that's all WC Fields? I can clearly hear the voice and delivery. And it looks a lot like him.
The fat about the train, 3rd page, reminded me of the cracker in Oh Mister Porter, the Will Hay classic. Hay arrives at the deserted station, it's pouring, knocks on the ticket window, the blind goes up and Moore Marriott says, "Next train's gone", and slams the window down.
I might try some more later as there might be enough Fieldian style nonsense to make it interesting.
El Bombo I just don't get.
Patoruzu, Patoruzito, at least had adventures, but I've only seen a few Argentinian versions and my Spanish isn't great.
The comments about American tv comedy leave me a bit out of it as I haven't seen many and in recent decades there are very few I've found funny.  It's a culture gap I suppose.But Fields was hilarious, to me, while Life with the Lyons wasn't.
I will try a few more pages.

[paw broon]

I opened El Bombo.  Didn't laugh, didn't smile.  No chuckles.  But, I enjoyed the pictures. Not much more I can say about it.

[Robb_K]

Now for my own review: 
Not a lot to add to what has already been stated by others.  I think that Big Chief Wahoo is quite a bit contrived, and  not all that funny.  And I dislike a book full of single-page gag-driven extremely short scenarios.  And the repetition of the same gags of the naive stereotypical country bumpkin native not knowing what is going on in the more complicated, fast-moving, Western civilised city, and the tough, no nonsense Chief gets old quickly.

While El Bombo is a more sympathetic character, being more legitimately friendly and naive, but true to his word and highly moralistic.  It's a lot nicer to have stories, even if they are short, than to have nothing but gags.  I do agree that the same types of naivete jokes, and super-strength jokes also gets old quickly with El Bombo.  But his stories have some appeal, and his character is more likeable.

El Bombo Introduction Story
A decent introduction.  I liked that Dibbs started his series by having him come from a Mayan invented Central American nation (Tamalia).  I didn't like that he or his editors changed it later to the real Guatemala.  Bombo's extreme naivete is funny and semi-realistic in this first episode.  But it should have been phased out fairly quickly after a few early episodes.  I like that bad men tried to take advantage of his being an atypically vulnerable mark, which is certainly realistic.  And I like him not backing down, and fighting back with vigour.

El Bombo Meets P.T. Biltybux
This is a really entertaining episode with Bombo and Builtybux giving away the multi-milliionaire's money to worthy recipients (something like "The Millionaire" T.V. series and the one-shot films on which it was based.

El Bombo and Builtybux Rent A Haunted Mansion
This is my favourite episode in the book, due to the fantasy and interesting artwork, and atmosphere.

Haunted Mansion #2 - Intro of Beautiful Captive Woman and Mansion's Ghost
This episode is very good, as well, and about as good as the previous for the same reasons.  The Ghost is an interesting character.  But everything that was good about it has its bubble burst by revealing it was all a show put on by a practical joker.

El Bombo and Builtybux Buy A Circus, Entertain a Lot of Children For Free - and Cure Several Crippled Kids  Some funny scenes and clever gags in this one.

Circus Episode #2
More of the same.

Looy Dot Dope Sunday Page Gag 1
A daydream burst, and dreamer returned to grim reality.  Not funny to me, at all.

Looy Dot Dope Sunday Page Gag 2
Looy and friend in an emotional and dramatic action scene, which turns out to have been an exercise in an acting class.  Very ordinary.  Not so funny.

Patoruzu was much better than both because it had a good-sized adventure story.

[The Australian Panther]

Although I have looked at the previous comments and am aware of their jist, not for a week or so, so I will comment on this pretty much without reference to them.
El Bombo

These characters are of a Genre - the innocent aboard, in which you place a character in an environment in which he is not naturally a part of and has no background in or experience of.
The cover art is very good and positions the character as simple and good-hearted and determined to do the moral thing.
First story - 'Everybody love him, even Animals' the artist has made that clear by the cover, but repetition helps to get the message across.  His gigantic size emphasizes that he is a misifit and 'he mucho dumb'
Page two fills out some details, he knows some things about "America' and like all immigrants from poor countries dreams about getting rich.
'Then I sit down and rest like blazes!' He's a realist.
Gag about Statue of liberty - emphasizes his childlike immaturity.
Immediately he creates Havoc through misunderstanding, and attracts real trouble.
Page 7 - but he can take care of himself.
Story 2
So now we have defined BOMBO we can put him in situations.
Mr BiltBux - also a genre or should I say a cliche? The very rich man isloated from reality by the hangers-on who are really only concerned with his money.
"First we vamoose Doctors" - can we do that in 2021 - I wish we could!
Story 3
Now we push the envelope a bit and get into fantasy territory - and a cannibal. 
Story 3 contained in story 4 
Two people separated in a haunted house? Haven't seen that before.
And of course its not real ghosts and spirits.
Story 5
Lets just say , another standard plot involving the innocent abroard character.
Story 6
And Again.
Loopy dat dope Not a bad strip,  but typical. I don't envy anybody having to write a gag strip for months at a time.
If I had picked this up from the newsstand sight unseen, I would have enjoyed it.     
Big Chief Wahoo 1
Well, here we have the innocent abroad again but this Character I don't warm to as much as I did to El Bombo. There is a bit of Popeye in here. But there is a bit too much physical violence and anger for my taste.
Wahoo is more an imbecilic with Anger management problems. 
Some good gags. I like Ammonia the Horse.

Cheers!