[SuperScrounge]

I know that a low-budget, horror film version of Winnie the Pooh has been released

I believe that Pooh: Blood and Honey was released earlier this year in the US, but didn't last long, so I was surprised when going through the Pluto ap on my TV last night, they had the movie, under Cult Classics. I didn't watch it and I seriously doubt it has built up a cult audience in the short time it's existed. But for those interested it can be found on streaming services.

I believe it was made after the first Winnie the Pooh book went into the public domain, so Disney would have little to say on it as long as they only used things from the first book.

[Robb_K]

Let's Pretend 2
Finally, a book in The Fairytale and Folktale genre.  It's from D.S Publications, so its quality isn't nearly as good as the Fairy Tale books produced by Western and Dell, featuring such accomplished artists as Walt Kelly.  In fact some of the stories' artwork is quite crude.


Drakestail - (Most popular in France, but was well-known Europe-wide, and even in Turkey).

The artwork is passable, but nothing special.  This comic book version follows the general thread of the folktale, but leaves out showing a couple events that would set up the story, and better explain the worthiness of the protagonist to have such good fortune in the end, and how, and why he received his magic powers.  It is also a bit awkward that Drakestail and his friends are animals (and, of all things, an anthropomorphic ladder), while his enemy, the , king, and his niece, the princess, and his palace workers, advisors, and soldiers, are humans.  And, in the end, the protagonist duck is awarded the Kingship, his kingdom, and to co-rule, together with the human princess, leading us to picture them being married.  So the weird situation of the relationship of the humans with the anthropomorphic animal people is not introduced as part of the story's setting. 

How and why did Drakestail obtain the magic powder to make other beings and objects small and back to normal, at his will?  And how do they survive in his stomach acid?  I would have liked to have had at least 6 more pages, to add scenes of Drakestail as a businessman, making business deals and money, and his doing favours for his "friends" who help him retrieve his money (perhaps getting them out of dangerous trouble through using his money, or risking his life to save them.  And also, I'd add a scene where the king spends his money on a frivolous pastime, and then begs Drakestail to loan him money. 

Clearly, the version of this folktale that is most popular in our time is so far from its origin, that we can't even see any potential links to the possible real-life common events that led to the development of the oral tradition that spawned it (such as periodic bad weather years leading to mass starvation events, which led to farmer parents needing to abandon the youngest, weakest, or least healthy children in the forests to starve to death so the rest of the family would have enough to eat to stay alive, which led to the story of "Hansel and Gretl").

The White Cat
This folktale about the king who has 3 sons, and he tests them to see which one will inherit his kingdom, probably is older than most of even the most ancient tales, going back before there were kingdoms, or even city-states, to the times of the earliest farmers, when the eldest son would usually inherit the father's farm, and the other sons were jealous of him.  The form we know best is probably this French 17th Century version, in which the king gives his sons' several tests to distract them from overthrowing his rule so they csan take over his kingdom.  Their first test is to find the funniest dog.  The youngest son finds one, with the help of a white cat enchanted princess.  The young son feels his brothers should have another chance.  So, the king sends them on a second test, to find the most beautiful princess.  So the youngest son returned to the enchanted castle, and brings the cat to his father.  The white cat (enchanted princess) asks the youngest son to chop her head off.  His reluctantly agreeing to do so ends her enchantment, bringing her back to human form.  The young son will marry her sand rule over her kingdom.  A weird story that must have been changed so much that the moral is not clear. 

The Conceited Dragon

An old lady (a witch - The Forest Mother) fell into a stream and was hurt.  A young prince rescued her.  She tells him she will reward him.  She promises to give him the World's most beautiful girl, a princess who was stolen by dragons.  She tells him where he'll find her, and gives him a whistle to blow when he's in danger. It all seemed to easy, as the whistle brought The King of The Eagles to help The Prince, and the princess hasd learned that The Dragons' mare's colt could fly, and conveniently, its flying was the only thing that was immune to The Drasgons' magic.  So they flew on its back back to his kingdom, and were married.  I don't understand the point trying to be made by this story that seems to have no meaning or purpose(it certainly doesn't entertain, at least, THIS reader.  I wonder if even a very young girl would like it.  Her parent reading it to her would be continuously bombarded with questions many of which can't be answered to any satisfaction.

Hop O' My Thumb
This seems to be something like "Jack and The Beanstalk", only with three young boys, instead of just one.They try to find refuge from the forest's hungry wolves, by entering a giant's castle.  This story is, by far the simplest.  Yet it has an unexpected ending, and so, it ids, at least, somewhat likeable.  Although, it, too, seems to have several parts to it that don't seem to have much to do with the general storyline.  This is what happens when stories are passed on through oral tradition, when each next storyteller can add things to the story to make it partly his or her own.  The smallest, youngest of the three brothers saves his kingdom from an attacking army, and yet, he only asks the king for something minor and simple that he wants (needs) - a set of stilts, so he can be as tall as normal teenagers or adults.  I can see how THIS story can appeal to young children.

I've seen this comic book before, and never bought it, even second hand for 5 cents.  I'm glad I didn't.

[Robb_K]

All-New Comics 2

Mystery of The Hilarious Flight
Great Splash panel story intro narrative describing the fighter-plane trainees going mad and killing each other, while laughing insanely.  The art work is adequate, but the figures don't seem correctly proportioned and the facial detail is lacking.  A very straight forward story with a VERY short-lived mystery, with suspense only for a few panels.  An American traitor, working for TheJapanese, sabotaged his fellow pilots during air training, by sending laughing gas through the air vents into their barracks while they slept.  They acted insanely, shooting at their comrades' planes during flight exercises, thinking it funny, acting like little boys who don't really know death is final.  Everything in the story was predictable once the saboteur's method was discovered.  The story premise is good, but the pacing and placing of clues and giving the answer could havre been better placed so more suspense could have been built.

Crisis on Kiel Canal

During the height of WWII, in 1943, in London, A British Rangers (Special Forces) Captain kills a German agent and obtains a German secret map of facilities at Kiel, which his Rangers squad is now sent on a commando mission to destroy.  The interesting thing about this story is that the Ranger raid is attempted by speed boat, instead of by airplane bombing, or parachutists dropping, doing their sabotage, and then trying to find "safe homes", agent hideouts used to save Allied agents, who land in enemy territory on sabotage missions.  This is especially unexpected because of the extremely heavily armed and manned German forces at The German coastal Sea Wall fortifications, and what happened to the Canadian/British test raid at Dieppe in summer 1942. 

A bit of a Author's license deliberate fabrication or just a lack of researching was the placing of "rocky crags" on the shore near Kiel.  That entire North Sea coast from The Dutch border to Rügen Island) and really all the way to Danzig, is completely flat land.  I've been all along it, and passed through Kiel and its harbour scores of times, travelling from Hamburg to Denmark. They enter a secret underground canal (I think made up specifically for this story-as I don't recall ever hearing about such a canal).  Chalmers' Rangers discover a prison dungeon, containing fellow Allied commando prisoners, who can show them a secret passageway to The Kiel Canal's docks.  But the "prisoners" were really German soldiers, who led The Rangers into a trap filled with many German soldiers.  But Chalmers and a few of his men slipped away from the Germans before they rounded up The Commandos, and they must have jumped some German soldiers, and stole their uniforms and weapons.  So, Chalmers, disguised as the German agent he killed, (even with his eye patch), along with his few men, killed his Commandos' captors, and went on to destroy several German battleships and lots of the docks on The Kiel Canal. 

The artwork is decent, and the action looked realistic.  A good story, realistic enough that it could possibly have been true.  But, as I surmised, such an attack wouldn't have been attempted based on what The Allies found out at Dieppe in 1942.  The Allies destroyed Kiel's harbour and the naval facilities on The Kiel Canal by The RAF and US Army Air Corps bombing it day and night for weeks.  A single small boat with maybe 15-20 commandos wouldn't have even arrived near The German shore with anyone alive, let alone be able to successfully destroy battleships and harbour facilities.  It would have been sending those men to their doom for no gain.  But it made a good action story for a comic book.

Depth Charge

Now comes the silly, illogical, un-researched, fantasy story, that seems out of place in this book.  I can't wait to see how the author explains how oxygen is breathed by humanlike beings underwater, and why poisonous extremely salty seawater being sucked down their throats when they talk while under water, they don't drown or destroy their brains, like what happens when shipwrecked sailors run out of water, and don't catch enough fish to supply the moisture they need to sustain their lives. 

So, we are to believe that they oversaturate their seawater with "air"  (an oxygen/nitrogen mix?).  But, they don't have gills to remove the saltwater from their bodies. One would think a storywriter would have learned about evolution in school.  Even during the 1940s high school and Gymnasium students learned about how it took at least several million years for land mammals to adapt to ocean life, changing their breathing systems and adapting to the extremely high salts concentration, and streamlining their bodies for less resistance when swimming, and developing flippers for creating speed and maneuvering through the water.  Why would the humanlike, recent land-adapted beings have been dwelling long enough in that high-pressure saltwater environment long enough to develop resistance to the high water pressure, the costic effects of salt, and develop a way to breathe oxygen and nitrogen directly from water, without also developing an effective way to expel water taken in, and also ways to travel quickly through the water to avoid predators???  And how do they hear the tooting of a horn under water.  Would that little sound, muffled by the water surrounding it actually cause enough vibration to send it far enough for others to hear through their waterlogged ears

This story appears as if it were written by a 5 year old child.

And, why do the Sea-Humans run through deep water, whose pressure must be high and very heavy, when even IF their body could tolerate that pressure, it would be a lot easier to swim through it in the desired direction, than try tor remain vertical and "run" through it.  I guess the author never did any swimming below maybe 10-15 feet.  And we are supposed to believe that a vacuum operated by the little people flings large boulders at a very high velocity through that high-pressured water, at the bottom of an ocean???

The story, itself, aside from its technical problems, is very simple and has yet another logic error.  The Author tells us that there are thousands of little people warriors ready to attack, and that The Mermans are suffocating from lack of "air" and several are almost to the point of asphyxiation.  So, how do those few that still can even attempt a physical act overcome thousands of well oxygenated beings???

It appears that the author of this story wanted to quit working for this publisher, and was also trying to get his editor fired for hiring non-professional imbecilic story writers.  I'll probably go straight to Hell for speaking ill of the dead, but this is one of the worst comic book stories I've ever read (and I've encountered LOTS of them). 
Judy Joy
I'm very familiar with "The Joy Family" strips that appeared in a lot of different Fox 1940s books.  It seems to have been a clone of Blondie and Dagwood, with Ollie being somewhat gullible and lazy, but somewhat resourceful when trying to get out of doing work, or getting his way for something he cares about.  Judy, is often smarter, and also critical of Ollie's boyishness.  A neighbour named "Mr. Nexdoor", how clever! 

A walking policeman asks Ollie to chase after a criminal with his own car!  And, of course, he crashes his boss' car, which he borrowed for his holiday trip.  The vacation is cancelled, and Judy says they can stay with her mother for the 2 weeks.  So Ollie joins The Civil Defense Home Guard, as a fire-watcher for 2 weeks, ton avoid that fate worse than death!     Not bad!  The kind of newspaper comedy strips that filled our newspapers when I was a wee chap.

The Case Of The Crumpling Skyscrapers

A private detective and his secretary, who spend their off hours as Superheroes fighting crime!  A novel idea! 
And a retired millionaire named "Jim Crow".  I wonder if he's an African-American, or a Southern White Racist???  A loony millionaire who plans to destroy all the buildings in New York so his pigeon friends will have room.  But they'll lose all their former roosting spots!  The 2 Superheros foil the criminals, and part without finding out who the other is.  It's really rare that the setting is much more interesting than the action portion of a story.

The Curse of Gold
Was Bud Plant a disciple of Will Eisner?  Several of his background characters look like Eisner's style.  Interesting that "The Phantom Cloak" that would make someone invisible was thought of, and maybe even being worked on way back during the early 1940s, and it has been made practical (although not yet perfect) for military use since the early 2000s.  It  is a translucent plastic which can make someone invisible in bright light, by reflection of light in different directions.  The hero, The Scarlet Phantom, uses the cloak that makes him invisible, which was invented by his father, who was killed by spies who came to steal it's prototype.  Typical Superhero fare.  The wronged son of the murdered scientist, at least gets a little vengeance, capturing the man who ordered the murder, and sending him to life in prison, or execution.

Moe, Joe and Co.
This filler short strip was not credited, but I'm sure this was penciled and inked by Art Helfant, who drew a lot of fillers for Harvey Comics during The 1940s. Now that I've gotten to the end I see his signature.  Like all his other short fillers, this one is filled with slapstick Music Hall and Vaudeville-type humour, puns and the like.  Typical newspaper type short comedy strips.  That was a popular style back then.  But I never thought such boring, no-brow humour was funny, even as a child.  And the artwork is way too generic to be interesting.

Old Lady Dynamite

An old lady who adopted 3 orphaned boys, leads them as a "gang" of crimefighters.  She is captured by the murderers who her sons are chasing.  The local crime boss, running a protection racket is behind the murder.  The police plane pilot son, aims his plane in a deep dive, almost to the ground, to make the Boss' thugs dive to the ground, so his mother can grab their guns. The other 2 sons apprehend the gangsters.  Not a very interesting plot, so the author tried to make the heroes different enough from the typical detectives or superheroes that this new series would be interesting.

Overall analysis:

This book contains a few interesting stories, but most memorable is by far, the worst comic book story I can remember.

[The Australian Panther]

Spitfire Comics 1
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=27074
Since this was 100 pages, I could probably have just posted this one.
This book feels to me as if it was just rolled off the production line, with nobody really caring about the contents.
The Spitfire
First, the cover, showing a dogfight, is deliberately deceptive. I can imagine a plane-mad comic reader of the day, being really annoyed with the first story.
Scenario:-
Artist and writer in the bullpen - 'What's a good idea for a superhero?'
'Spitfire is a good name.'
'What's his superhero power?'
'Ahh, he spits fire?'
General laughter.
'Lets make him a medieval swordfigher'
'Bit of a fop. Blonde curly hair.'
'Lets ave him actually fly a Spitfire."
How does he get to the future?'
'Rip Van Winkle?!' 
Everybody cracks  up! "Lets do it'
Page #21. Somebody can't spell NAZI. Needs an editor.
Since when is 'Black Douglas' an Englishman? 
How come the same gas that puts him to sleep for 200 years, can kill NAZI's?
The whole thing is too silly to keep criticizing. But I love finding things like this on CB+.
Flyman
So there was a FlyMan in 1941.
1/ Why would you assume that it would be a good idea to shrink someone to 12 inches tall 'To fight Crime'?
2/ Incredibly brutal. Kills one guy with a knife as big as himself.
3/ Does he stay small?
The Clown.
There were a few 'Clown' characters during the Golden Age.
Not much to say about this one, except I doubt it would inspire fear in anyone.Some clown costumes do though.
Maple Syrup Rescue
In it's own way, this is just a silly as SPIT FIRE. Also, are they in Canada?
Garry Morgan
Another story set in Canada? Why? If this was published by Harvey?
Magician from Baghdad
Pretty straight forward narrative , but an interesting variation on a GENIE story.
Rurik Against the Vikings.
Second -rate Prince Valiant. Many swipes. 


       

[The Australian Panther]

Let's Pretend 2
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=24399

The cover and two stories here are by Erich Gold, under the pseudonym 'Eric Peters'
Goltz, Eric Peters
(12 May 1899, Austria - 20 September 1979, USA)
He had quite the career, but this element will be of most interest to readers of CB+.

Besides cultural cartoons, Erich Gold was also noted for his political caricatures. A socialist and Jew, he particularly aimed at ridiculing the prominent members of the Nazi party, especially his caricatures of Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, which were considered hilarious. By the time the Nazis came to power in Germany, Goltz had to flee from Berlin back to Vienna, where he continued his artistic work. Between 1933 and 1938, he remained a prominent contributor to the Viennese press. In his cartoon column for the Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 'Der bissige Bleistift' ("The Biting Pencil"), he continued to comment on the spreading Nazi terror. His last drawing in the Viennese press appeared on 10 March 1938, three days before the "Anschluss" annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. Again, Gold had to flee to avoid persecution by the Gestapo. In a 2009 interview with Alter Ego magazine, his first wife Lily Renée said Gold "borrowed a pair of skis and skied over the Alps into Switzerland, leaving everything he owned behind him." During World War II, almost his entire family were killed in the Holocaust. 

  Between 1947 and 1949, he was married to comic book artist and fellow Austrian refugee Lily Renée Willheim and together they worked on stories for 'Abbott and Costello Comics', a celebrity comic book by St. John Publishing starring the Hollywood comedy duo. Working together on most of the early issues (1948-1950), Peters drew the two comedians, while Lily Renée tackled the girl characters and did the inking. After their divorce, Peters worked on 'Abbott and Costello' on his own for a while. For D.S. Publishing, Peters and Renée also drew funny animal comic books with 'Elsie the Cow' (1949-1950), the mascot of the Borden dairy company, originally designed by Vic Herman. In 1950, Eric Peters also drew covers and stories for D.S. Publishing's fairy tale comic book 'Let's Pretend'.

Drakestail Is he making a point about Donald Duck, here, that a male mallard is a Drake, not a Duck?
This story conforms to a classic fairytale format. Hero is on a journey, collects various miscellanious objects which turn out to be useful to him to defeat the villain/solve the problem.
The White Cat
Another fairytale. Main character is given a task, demonstrates character, is rewarded, lives happily ever after.

ROLAND PATENAUDE (1912-1989)Roland Joseph Patenaude was born on July 11, 1912 in Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, Canada.
"[he also drew for comic books. His work appeared in Fox Comics, MLJ, Harvey, Holyoke, Marvel, and Novelty Comics. He drew several memorable covers for The Blue Beetle Comics. He signed some of his drawings for comics as "Patenaude" or "Pat."] 

The Conceited Dragon I don't think 'Eric Peters' took this work as seriously as most of his other work.
But if you were buying this book for a young child, I'm sure they would enjoy it.
Hop O'My Thumb
I think this is re-telling of a classic fairytale. No artist credit. 

[The Australian Panther]

All-New Comics 2
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=37526
Mystery of the Hilarious Flight
'Joker' Gas? 
Crisis On Kiel Canal
'Yawn'?
Depth Charge
'There's been more than enough written about this one.
Judy Joy
This is basically a 'Blondie' clone.
Case of the Crumpling Skyscrapers [Scarlet Nemesis and Black Orchid]
This is the interesting one .
First,no origin, just an introduction to the characters and straight into the action.
Clearly this is not the first time they have gone into action, since the bad guys recognize them immediately.
No information on their powers either. Nemesis has a helmet with a light-ray on it (In the first panel) but not during the narrative.
I like Black Orchid's knife. Also the costume. Pity they didn't last.
DC appropriated the 'Black Orchid' name for their own character. They have tried several times but never made a character that lasted. In the first iteration, she was actually a mutated Orchid!
Also - on the first page, he rescues her, but in the story, she rescues him. Talk about inconsistent!
The Curse of Gold
This is the origin of 'the Scarlett Phantom' but there's no logo or masthead. Also, 2 'scarlet' heroes in one book?
He's supposed to have a scarlet cloak, which we see in his hands on panel #8, page #42. but his cloak is yellow?!
On # 46 there is a major problem with the colouring.
This is credited to Joe Kubert. I doubt it. It's more like a Lou Fine clone.
Mo, Jo and Co.
Fail!
Something quite peculiar here
The card only credits creators up to 'The Curse of Gold'
The "Additional information' lists another story, 'The secret weapon' 7 pages which does not appear.
Seems this was a 68 page comic and we don't have all of it.
Hope you all enjoyed these.
QQ is here tomorrow with something new.

[crashryan]

Hi, everybody. I've been largely absent from the Forum lately, thanks to ERL (Excess of Real Life). I'm working to return to the fold. Although this particular reading group selection is old news by now, I can't resist one comment.

The Spitfire
Sooooo... Spitfire's superpower is... the ability to release gas? Wow! I've had a superpower all my life! Especially after eating beans!

When I read this comment my mind flashed back to my first encounter with Japanese comics. It was in the late 70s, long before the global manga boom. In Seattle was a huge Japanese grocery store. Wandering through the aisles I discovered a trove of Shonen Jump, Shonen Sunday, and other juvenile weeklies. I'll never forget the "they'd never put this in an American comic!" moment when I scanned a Jump story about a crime-fighting street kid. I don't remember the character's name but I sure remember the crime of the week.

In a crowded Japanese train, a half dozen big bruisers, obviously bad guys, spread out amongst the crowd. On the boss' signal they all bend over, reach behind themselves, and lower flaps in the seats of their pants, exposing their bare glutei maximi. The entire gang cuts the cheese simultaneously. Choking, the passengers, even the engine driver, run screaming from the train, dropping purses, briefcases, and such in their haste. The gang scoop up the loot, rebutton their britches, and make their getaway.

Despite years of loosening standards, I've yet to see a mainstream American comic address the subject of crime by crepitation.

[Morgus]

Good one, ‘Crash.
Took me FOREVER to crack their code when it came to reading them. I kept TRYING to figure out WHY all these guys were getting nosebleeds...did they miss a panel or something?

And that was NOTHING compared to their ‘erotica’ a pal from Shanghai brought over. You’d just scratch your head and ask “why?" a lot.

But, as was pointed out to me, this WAS a culture where The Ventures outsold The Beatles by a ratio of 5 to 1. Expect the unexpected.