[Quirky Quokka]

Robb said:

(2) Afraid of the Dark

As QQ stated above, it seems illogical that covering one's eyes during all daylight time would make a person's actual night vision significantly better.  However, I DO KNOW from experience, that spending long periods going about one's business in total darkness heightens one's OTHER senses (hearing, touch/feeling, judgement of distances of things), based on the sounds caused by movement, and the vibration you feel if close enough) can be greatly increased.  I was an athletic counsellor for a mixed athletic activity group of disabled and able-bodied members.  I especially encountered the blindfold use for full days while training to be a skiing guide for a blind skier (who I served in that capacity for 9 years).  To get that job, I had to have a training in spending full days wearing thick and heavy blindfolds that allow NO light in, for several full days, and skiing with a sighted guide.  Even after I was his official guide, I would spend a full day, periodically, with the blindfold on, to keep the enhanced other senses in mind, and still have the better knowledge of what my client could do or know, and what he couldn't do or know.  There was also the element of perceived "fairness" to the student (from his point of view).  Many students would be much less confident, and reluctant to try things his guide asks him to do, knowing he can do them, IF the prospective guide didn't spend a day or two skiing blindfolded along with him, guided by a different, sighted guide.  That proves to the student that his guide will know more of what the truly blind skier faces, and thus, know better what he is really capable of doing.  So he will trust the guide/instructor more, and not be as rebellious.  I had the same type of training to be a guide to a one-legged skier.  I had to not only ski all day on one leg, but walk around on one leg all day for some days along with the client.

So, yes, the soldier who blindfolded himself all day DID NOT likely improve his actual night vision enough to mean a lot.  But he DID heighten his other senses to the point where he'd better at his soldiering job in the dark of night.

Thanks for the extra info, Robb. What an interesting experience that must have been. It would take a lot of courage to ski while blindfolded or ski on one leg, even with a guide. When were you doing that, Robb? I think there are a lot more opportunities for disabled athletes these days, with the Paralympics and Special Olympics being a lot more prominent. It must have been a lot harder in years gone by.

(3B) The Sniperscope and the Snooperscope

QQ stated: "I did wonder when these were invented, as the soldiers in 'Afraid of the Dark' could have sure used them!" The Info Page states that they were developed, and used during World War II.  So "Ski" should have had them available, at least during his stint in Korea.  Maybe they were available only to special units?

Thanks for the extra info. That makes sense.

Bushwacker is a term all Americans and Canadians know well, because it was used in The Old West of the 19th Century.  It probably originally was coined during earlier centuries from the Stone Age level Hunter-Gatherer tribes that struck bushes with sticks to drive the small prey animals out into the open to catch and kill them.  The tribesmen would first hide behind the bushes to quietly and slowly sneak up on their prey.  Then strike the plants' woody parts, to make a lot of noise.

I think the reason I had assumed it was an Australian term is that there is an Australian band called 'The Bushwackers' that specialises in all things Australian, and that's the main context in which I've heard the term. I guess there's nothing new under the sun 

https://thebushwackers.com.au/

Cheers

QQ

[The Australian Panther]

QQ said,

And your comment about Gilligan's Island reminds me of the scene in 'Galaxy Quest' when Tim Allen's character is trying to explain to the aliens that the 'historical documents' they've been watching are just make-believe. He says something like, 'Surely you don't think Gilligan's Island is real?', and the aliens all look sad and say, 'Those poor people'. Love that movie.   

Love that movie and love those aliens in that movie.

cheers!

[SuperScrounge]

The fact that I'm able to say that about all the stories in the first Charlton Glanzman book, make me feel that I can't afford taking the time out to read all 4 of this thread's featured Charlton combat genre books.  I'll take a look at the 2nd., but if I feel it is similar, I'll just flip through it.  I have to admit that the artwork is good.  But it isn't phenomenal enough for me to look at the pages just to see the art.

You should probably jump to Marines Attack #1 as it did have a moving first story.

[Robb_K]

Robb said:

(2) Afraid of the Dark

As QQ stated above, it seems illogical that covering one's eyes during all daylight time would make a person's actual night vision significantly better.  However, I DO KNOW from experience, that spending long periods going about one's business in total darkness heightens one's OTHER senses (hearing, touch/feeling, judgement of distances of things), based on the sounds caused by movement, and the vibration you feel if close enough) can be greatly increased.  I was an athletic counsellor for a mixed athletic activity group of disabled and able-bodied members.  I especially encountered the blindfold use for full days while training to be a skiing guide for a blind skier (who I served in that capacity for 9 years).  To get that job, I had to have a training in spending full days wearing thick and heavy blindfolds that allow NO light in, for several full days, and skiing with a sighted guide.  Even after I was his official guide, I would spend a full day, periodically, with the blindfold on, to keep the enhanced other senses in mind, and still have the better knowledge of what my client could do or know, and what he couldn't do or know.  There was also the element of perceived "fairness" to the student (from his point of view).  Many students would be much less confident, and reluctant to try things his guide asks him to do, knowing he can do them, IF the prospective guide didn't spend a day or two skiing blindfolded along with him, guided by a different, sighted guide.  That proves to the student that his guide will know more of what the truly blind skier faces, and thus, know better what he is really capable of doing.  So he will trust the guide/instructor more, and not be as rebellious.  I had the same type of training to be a guide to a one-legged skier.  I had to not only ski all day on one leg, but walk around on one leg all day for some days along with the client.

So, yes, the soldier who blindfolded himself all day DID NOT likely improve his actual night vision enough to mean a lot.  But he DID heighten his other senses to the point where he'd better at his soldiering job in the dark of night.

Thanks for the extra info, Robb. What an interesting experience that must have been. It would take a lot of courage to ski while blindfolded or ski on one leg, even with a guide. (1) When were you doing that, Robb? I think there are a lot more opportunities for disabled athletes (2) these days, with the Paralympics and Special Olympics being a lot more prominent. It must have been a lot harder in years gone by.



Thanks for the extra info. That makes sense.

Bushwacker is a term all Americans and Canadians know well, because it was used in The Old West of the 19th Century.  It probably originally was coined during earlier centuries from the Stone Age level Hunter-Gatherer tribes that struck bushes with sticks to drive the small prey animals out into the open to catch and kill them.  The tribesmen would first hide behind the bushes to quietly and slowly sneak up on their prey.  Then strike the plants' woody parts, to make a lot of noise.

I think the reason I had assumed it was an Australian term is that there is an Australian band called 'The Bushwackers' that specialises in all things Australian, and that's the main context in which I've heard the term. (3) I guess there's nothing new under the sun 
https://thebushwackers.com.au/
Cheers
QQ

(1) I was in the recreation group during the 1970s.  (2) The Special Olympics existed back then.  But, you are correct that it's a lot easier for disabled people to enjoy sports now, with all kinds of special devices.  For example, now we have sit-in sleds that are on small "skates" that are small and very like boot skates, rather than sled runners, and a paraplegic with a very strong upper body (as is common in paraplegic athletes), can move their "sled" like a skater skates, turn in tighter radius than the size of the sled would indicate. So, they can play "sled ice hockey" that is analogous to wheelchair basketball".  One-legged Runners now have plastic fibre flexible prosthetic lower limbs with a synthetic springy prosthetic "foot" to be able to run like an able-bodied 2-legged person.  A similar prosthetic limb is available for missing arms or arm segments.

As to my guiding disabled skiers: We started skiing on the easiest "bunny" slopes.  Eventually, the one-legged skiers could get all the way up to the most difficult slopes, IF they were athletically inclined.  The blind skiers needed to stay down on the easier slopes, because they'd have a much more difficult time on the difficult, steep slopes near the tops of mountains, because the terrain is much more changeable quickly, and most importantly, the blind skier follows the sounds of his or her guide, clicking his or her ski poles together.  The higher up one goes on a mountain, the winds become stronger and noisier.  That noise could make it difficult or impossible to hear the clicking poles.  The blind skier would stop dead and call out for the guide, who, skiing ahead, would have continued downward quite a ways before hearing the shouts from behind.  Then each time the blind skier stopped, the guide would have to climb back up to meet him or her.  It's very impractical.I've found that out from my own experience.  But the real danger is that, depending upon the height of the snow pack (based on time of year), bare rock outcroppings can show up with little warning, when one is skiing fast.  A sighted person can avoid them because he or she can see ahead.  If skiing around a rock outcropping takes a wide turn, the guide has to yell back towards his student that there are obstacles in the way and he's making a wide, slower turn, and the student must slow down and listen carefully for the clicking.  Very few blind skiers can ski well enough, and adjust quickly enough to ski anywhere but the beginner slopes.  Of course, this happened only at ski resorts, and disabled groups would stay mainly on "the baby beginner lift, check in with the lift operator, so he or she would slow it down for our people to get on and get off the lift.  We had a regular season relationship, annual passes at an extremely low-cost discounted rate.

Serious one legged skiers develop VERY strong leg muscles in their one leg, as they have all that pressure on one leg, while two-legged skiers constantly alternate from one to the other, removing the pressure after short periods. Also one needs to have much stronger muscles to direct his/her body while staying balanced and upright (and even moreso in a crouched position).  Those who are serious and work hard at it develop tremendous balancing skill, and can become just about as good a skiers as almost any 2-legged skier.  One-legged skiers are not often noticed these days, as the prosthetics are so functionally good and comfortable enough to wear while skiing.  So, withe the prosthetic foot in a boot, and wearing pants over the prosthetic leg, and the leg functioning like a natural one, no outsiders would notice any difference.  Back in the 1970s, the protheses were uncomfortable trying to run or ski, and would detach with impact. So skiers skied on only their one leg.

I had to demonstrate one legged skiing on the same one leg as the student had (left or right).  So, I had to build up the strength in my left leg to match that of my right, as I was born right-legged (usually from same orientation as handedness).  Having done a lot of training for one-legged skiing and done a lot of same, may have saved my life, and certainly saved me from paying $1,000 for a search and rescue operation to rescue and evacuate me and two friends from near the top of an 11,500 ft mountain in The Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.  I went back-country Nordic skiing from a 6,000 foot base up to about 10,000 feet on a 3 day weekend with two co-workers, who were intermediate skiers.  On the third late afternoon we were up at about 10,000 feet (as high as we wanted to go, and we needed to ski down to the parking lot and drive back to Los Angeles (8 hour drive) to arrive home near 1 AM, to be able to get to work at our office the next morning. I was skiing on very narrow Norwegian deep powder skies with no metal edges.  There was new snow over some icy patches, so I got one of my skies (and leg) caught in a rut (small cravasse), while my other ski continued downward.  The torque on my stuck leg was so strong that my meniscus (cartilage in my knee joint) tore, and wedged between the joint, so my leg couldn't support any weight.  My two friends weren't good enough skiers to pull me down lying on my two skies and metal frame backpack made (tied) into a platform.  So, I had to ski down on my one good (left) leg.  Luckily, my one-legged skiing had made it strong enough, and my balance on it had become so good that I could go down all the way to the car.  It was quite steep, so there weren't any flatter runouts where I could lower my speed when I got going too fast. So I had to throw myself into areas of deeper snow 4 times, to keep from having an accident that would have injured my knee more (like a  torn ACL or so.  I actually reached the parking lot before my friends, because they fell several times.  It was snowing heavily even before we started downward.  IF I hadn't been able to ski down we'd probably had to stay where I was, and wait for the forest rangers' rescue party, which would have only started searching for us 3 hours after I wrote we should be arriving back at the ranger station.  That would have likely been 5 hours or more after I'd been injured.

[paw broon]

WOW!!!

[paw broon]

Clobber. Clobbered.
Words I have always known and used.  Clobbered means to have been hit hard, probably on the head.
Clobber is/are? clothes.

[Robb_K]

The fact that I'm able to say that about all the stories in the first Charlton Glanzman book, make me feel that I can't afford taking the time out to read all 4 of this thread's featured Charlton combat genre books.  I'll take a look at the 2nd., but if I feel it is similar, I'll just flip through it.  I have to admit that the artwork is good.  But it isn't phenomenal enough for me to look at the pages just to see the art.

You should probably jump to Marines Attack #1 as it did have a moving first story.

Thanks for telling me that.  I'll take a look at THAT one.

[The Australian Panther]

Paw said,

Clobber. Clobbered.
Words I have always known and used.  Clobbered means to have been hit hard, probably on the head.
Clobber is/are? clothes.   

Always thought they were Australian words. Clobber - to seriously thump.
I live and learn.

[Robb_K]

Paw said,

Clobber. Clobbered.
Words I have always known and used.  Clobbered means to have been hit hard, probably on the head.
Clobber is/are? clothes.   

Always thought they were Australian words. Clobber - to seriously thump.
I live and learn.

I looked up the word's origin, guessing it came from an Old English root.  But, I was very surprised to find out it is a VERY modern word, believed to have been coined as English slang in 1941 by RAF fliers, believed to have been the onomatopoeic mimicking of the repetitive sound of bombs exploding in the distance.  I had thought it was used in USA since the 1800s.  But it was only first used only first used a few years before I was born.

[crashryan]

Sam Goes to War

To begin with I must state that I dislike war comics to begin with and I dislike Charlton war comics most of all. Only Charlton romance comics come close to matching the war mags' reputation of delivering, issue after issue, a mind-numbing parade of interchangeable stories with rubber-stamp artwork. There were occasional exceptions to be sure, especially in the Dick Giordano era, but I missed many of them because I'd become so sick of Molno-Nicholas-Alascia-etc. that I didn't give them a glance when they hit the stands.

Sam Glanzman is the star of these selections, so let's talk about him first. I was late in truly appreciating Glanzman's work. I first encountered him in early-1960s (post-Western Publishing) Dells and developed a sort of love-hate relationship. I loved his work on Voyage to the Deep, Dell's crazed ripoff of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. His undersea shots, with shadows of surface waves falling on the sub, were brilliant (I swiped the effect several times). So were his full-page fantasies of a flooded New York and a new Ice Age.

On the other hand I hated his Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle because Kona looked like a pudgy middle-aged action hero who should have stopped making movies a decade ago. This is an aspect of Glanzman's style that made him better suited to war stories than to heroic adventure: his people always looked aging and world-weary, grimly slogging through tough times.

I also appreciate the effort Glanzman put into drawing believable machinery. He was the only Charlton war regular to do so. Charles Nicholas' vague attempts to draw ships and planes were bad enough but Bill Molno's gawdawful fakes were even worse. These guys established the Charlton house style, churning out hundreds (maybe thousands?) of identical war pages. Beside them Sam Glanzman shone like a beacon, despite Charlton's lousy coloring and crummy printing.

So I salute thee, Sam. Now to the stories. Like every other Charlton comic the majority of their war stories were written by super-hack Joe Gill. He was legendary for booze-fired marathons spent banging out endless single-draft scripts at breakneck speed. The process showed. His scripts were repetitive, shallow, and boring. As others have pointed out, a typical Gill plot was "this happened, then this happened, the end."

I took Scrounge's suggestion and sampled Marines Attack #1. From the first page it was obvious these stories weren't written by Joe Gill. They had points. They had beginnings and ends. They weren't loaded with rambling captions. Reading them I wondered if Glanzman himself may have written them. I see the GCD made the same speculation. The stories may not have been prize winners but they were readable. Glanzman did a good job on the art. My main complaint is that his faces tend to look alike and sometimes it was hard to tell who was who.

I don't know if Joe wrote all the other books. Maybe not D-Day; It doesn't have as many Gillisms as I'd expect. The rest of the stuff, though, is the same old same old. I'm glad Glanzman got to crawl from the Charlton swamp up to the better-paying markets. His "USS Stevens" stories were personal tales written by someone who'd lived them. If they'd been published by Charlton they would never have been seen.

One digression. When I was young I was given a set of Grosset & Dunlap's Tom Corbett, Space Cadet juveniles. I loved 'em. They were illustrated by Lou Glanzman, Sam's older brother! Lou was still about halfway into his career. He'd started drawing comics for Centaur in the late 30s. In his later years he became a noted painter of historical and biblical subjects. When I was older and a comics fan I learned of this connection and revisited my Tom Corbett collection. I was struck by similarities in Lou's art style and Sam's. In an interview Sam credited his brother as his major influence. Lou even signed his work "LSG" just as Sam signed his stories "SJG." By the way, Lambiek says there was a third Glanzman brother, Davis, who worked in production at Charlton.

[Robb_K]

Marines Attack 1
Glanzman's artwork is good.  But, as usual, Charlton's 1960s colouring is very random and unnatural.  So, I don't like that.  Again, the stories are much too short for my taste.  There is little chance to fit in a proper setting, character development, and decent plot progression in so few pages.  The theme of this book seems quite different from that of "Army Attack 1".  This one seems to be dedicated top showing what The US Marines was all about.  "Army Attack" seemed to just be drawn to show combat scenes, but tell no story, nor show the different aspects of the soldiers' training and life in The Service, nor focus on why that Service exists.  So, in that sense, this book was a more interesting and worthwhile read.

(1) Every Man A Hero
Although way too short for my taste, this story about a hero who lost his life saving his best friend's life, was compelling enough to hold my interest, whereas all of the stories in "Army Attack 1" seemed to run together in my memory, and were just "watching some men in combat, but little "story" other than that.  The reader could put himself or herself in place of the 3 main characters: (1) The hero, who risked his life to save his best friend, (2) The friend who he saved appreciating that his friend risked his life ton save him, and (3), the hero's wife, who appreciated her husband's best friend telling her how much he appreciated what her husband did, an letting her know that he didn't die in vain because he was such a hero, doing such a noble and selfless thing.

(2) The Corpsman
I didn't know that US military medics were called "corpsmen" - or was that just their name in The US Marine Corps?  Only 3 pages.  We get a tiny, view of what a military medic does on the battlefield during heavy fighting.

(3) War Begins - Text Story

Ordinarily, I would skip the short text story, but because this is true history, and is about a US-UK war, which involves Canada, and written from a US point of view, I am interested to see how the point of view differs from a Canadian history's point of view.  I knew the history of The War of 1812 fairly well;, but hadn't known how much President Thomas Jefferson's embargo on Americans trading with Britain hurt New England shipping companies, putting many of them out of business, and didn't know that the economic depression in USA's East Coast seaports was so severe.  The seizure of American seamen and pressing them into becoming seamen on British Navy ships was always much more publicized and stressed.  I knew that The British were selling guns to First Nations tribal leaders which ended up in the hands of Native American tribes in The US states and territories in The Ohio Valley, who had skirmishes with US settlers there.  These complaints led to politicians in  The US West (Ohio Valley,  Great Lakes Area and Mississippi Valley, who were against The Democrats' policies and campaigned for waging war against Great Britain, ton drive them completely out of North America.  The British voted to relax the US goods embargo, but it was too late.  The War Hawks won out.  The outlining of the early military situation and campaigns in the war was good enough. 

(4) Shape Up Or Ship Out
This short story demonstrates the heavily disciplined, intense, rigourous training The US Marine Corps used to make that military organisation the most dependable to accomplish a military objective in The US military arsenal.

(5) Training Camp - One Page Vignette
WOW!!!  Trying to demonstrate what The US Marine Corps Training Camp is, and WHY it exists in ONE measly page!!!!  Talk about distilling things down to their essentials!   

(6) The Loner
This story has a little interest to it, with an angry "loner" wanting to destroy The Japanese Army all by himself, for their having killed his 3 brothers.  His going off on his own often jeopardises the safety of his troop, but his sergeant uses that trait to have him cover alone, for the entire troop's escape.  He saves all their lives by delaying a tank from catching up with them, and in an unrealistic one-panel epilogue, the loner tells his troop leader that he's learned his lesson, and now understands that teamwork is best.  We didn't really see him learn his lesson.

(7) I'm A Marine - One Page Vignette
A young Marine, who is afraid, learns to overcome his fear, and not become frozen, and so, is able to shoot and kill the enemy soldiers.  He becomes proud of having done that, and proud that he is really a "Marine" now.  This is a whole story full of things to think about (ability to take life away, the fragility of your existence in this life, the wondering about what this life is and why we are here, and what will happen when we die, the value of your life to others, how they'll be affected IF you don't return, how large organisations of people can be proud of their members learning to take lives because they are told it is necessary for "The Greater Good"(safety or freedom of others etc.) all in just one single page of drama.  This one page is worth more than the entire book of "Army Attack 1", just because of difference in focus (or lack of it).

[The Australian Panther]

Army Attack 1
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=24096

I discovered Sam G. in the 60's and like the rest of you, war comics aren't my genre. There were two sources.
One - Dell's Kona of mystery isle. We have these on CB+ but apparently not #1 which is actually
Four Colour #1256.
Here it is - the origin.
https://voiceofodd.blogspot.com/2018/05/introducing-kona-monarch-of-monster-isle.html
[ The series was plotted by Don Segall, scripted and drawn by Sam Glanzman.Later stories were scripted by Paul S. Newman.]
It's been speculated that Segall may have been under the influence of some substance or other, because the stories are crazy fantastic nonsense superbly illustrated by Sam. I think, as an artist he liked the book because it gave him the opportunity to stretch out.
The other source - for me was his two and sometimes 3 page stories about U.S.S. Stevens fpr tjhe DC war books. This was one of the only DC War series not scripted by Kanigher (of whose work I am not a fan.)
It was also unique in that it was autobiographical. The stories were prose pictures of the life of the crew of the ship, mostly not in battle.Wonderful stuff.
Jim Shooter apparently liked the strip so much he commissioned Sam to redo them - apparently couldn't get the originals - and Marvel published them in two volumes. (Please feel free to correct me if I have this wrong)   
This is the most current collection.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0486801586?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_au
U.S.S. Stevens: The Collected Stories Hardcover – Illustrated, 20 July 2016
by SAM GLANZMAN (Author)

This full-colour, hardcover treasury collects every single Stevens tale he ever published, more than 60 short adventures from Our Army at War, G. I. Combat, and other 1970s DC war comics as well as longer pieces from Marvel's 1986 revival of Savage Tales magazine and the more recent Joe Kubert Presents. Plus, this outstanding collection also includes the final, four-page story about the warship, newly written and illustrated by Glanzman himself. Exclusive Bonus Material: . New four-page U.S.S. Stevens story by Sam Glanzman . Letters from President Barack Obama and President George H.W. Bush. Extended footnotes and story annotations by Jon B. Cooke. Sam Glanzman's WAR DIARY #1-4. First appearance of the U.S.S. Stevens in a comic book. New Foreword by Ivan Brandon . New Introduction by Jon B. Cooke . New Afterword by Allan Asherman

So,
Army Attack #1
Twelve Dead Men.
Sam's work is often more a visual snapshot of a series of events that a story with a conventional beginning and end. Starts with action, explosions and everything in motion and continues that way till the last panel.
Is the title supposed to be ironic? The men in the half-track are 10, plus Lt Dick Rudley and himself. 12. 
Afraid of the dark
Splash panel illustrated exactly what the dialogue demands. And pain/shock is expressed vividly on the face of Stanley Wiznewski.
Since the story states,'In March 1951, Lt Stanley Wiznewski collected a Silver Star and Purple Heart the hard way, going up a slope - and delivering a grenade that made it easier for his company to survive.' This is likely a true story. Interestingly Sam doesn't illustrate this event. the story gives us a portrait of the individual.
The Army's Aces
Non-fiction about the use of the helicopter in Korea.
The Sniperscope and the Snooperscope
This is the second story here featuring the problems of fighting war at night.
Saving Face
Vietnam. Interestingly, Sam has illustrated stories in this book from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. Always determined to be accurate re uniforms, weapons and the specifics of different fields of battle.
This is a story, two characters - different races, different armies - We see the spy in the restaurant - just a visual clue - Vietnam was a war where it was folly to trust anyone you didn't know well.
Leyte Leap
Splash - the full-page illustration with a smaller panel superimposed was a technique Sam used more than once.
The details of what gear they had when parachuting into battle would be accurate.
This story may also be a true story. All the detail indicates it. He places the story in a real location at a real time. Sam specialized in this.
It would be a mistake to see him as a war lover, he is always concerned with the individual and the psychology of a group of men trying to work together in battle.
Supporting each other and survival are paramount in his work.
cheers!   

               

[Morgus]

Nice to have some Sam Glanzman to look at, Panther. It was (what?) about a year ago we did the last batch. I always compared the Charlton war comics to the KRAFTMATIC MOVIE my dad would watch on Saturday afternoon. You know, a cookie cutter western that had Gordy Tapp from HEE HAW during the commerical breaks. The idea was to numb you into senselessness and create a ready audience for the commercials.
And a lot of the time, the ads in Charlton comics were the best thing about them.
Sam of course was several cuts above the usual Charlton hacks, but even he had trouble getting rid of Gill’s stories that were like a chain around his leg. Every time a story coheres or has a plot, the data base wonders if it’s Sam’s stuff instead of Joe’s. Always wondered what he would have done with some writers from EC. Glad he got to DC to show his stuff and yeah, he should be remembered more.

The books are a bit frustrating. You can almost hear people breathing down his neck to get the job done and not worry about the quality. The Charlton ‘style’ didn’t help. (Was someone on staff colour blind?)

Hey, Q.Q., what’s an Australian hunting boomerang? Or is that just crappola? Fave ad that made me laugh out loud was the RECORD RIOT 60 SMASH SONGS. Now, I’ve read too many MAD magazines NOT to look at what songs were featured, and Um Um Um Um Um broke me up. It really reminded me of those lines that MAD would put in to indicate the writer was struggling to get the number of songs up to 60. But lo and behold, there WAS a song like that...from Wayne Fontana and the Mind Benders, no less.
Hey, Crash, you usually have the low down on the cons these guys ran; were the sharks teeth REAL? Or maybe just plastic? And if I ever open up a tiki place to replace the defunct TRADER VIC’S, I’l name it YUBIWAZA and use that same font in the neon sign.

[The Australian Panther]

Hey, Q.Q., what’s an Australian hunting boomerang?

Morgus, a boomerang is a weapon, designed to bring down prey at a distance. So they are all 'hunting' boomerangs.
I've seen a couple of "War" spears' and boomerangs used in fights between men. Historical artifacts. Quite serious weapons. There were also 'Woomeras', Hooked shorter wood pieces. You hooked the spear into the woomera, and threw the spear with the woomera to increase the distance of the throw. The 'Aborigines' had  quite a sophisticated understanding of aeronautic principles. 

cheers!

[The Australian Panther]

I have a lot on my plate right now, so I'm not going to have the time to comment on the rest of the choices.
I regret this, haven't been in this position before. But I will post comments down the track a bit.
My sincere apologies.
Guest reviewer tomorrow. Something quite different.
Cheers!   

[crashryan]

Morgus, my guess is that the shark's teeth were genuine. I read once that a single shark loses one or more teeth every day. It is constantly growing new teeth...the new ones push out the old ones, which fall away. Looking online I see that one shark can dump tens of thousands of teeth over its lifetime.

There's enough of a shark-tooth collectors' market to warrant the production of fake teeth. I found a quite a few guides for determining whether a tooth is genuine. But my guess is that fifty-plus years ago, before there was such a thing as a global marketplace, there would have been plenty of the real thing to sell in comic books.

About Yubiwaza...I took a smattering of Japanese in college, where I learned that yubi-waza translates literally as "finger technique." This led me and my comics pals to speculate that Yubiwaza is the art of  extending a rotated fist toward an aggressor and elevating the middle digit. We concluded however that this technique would be more likely to get one a thorough thrashing rather than making the enemy flee in terror.

[Quirky Quokka]

Hey, Q.Q., what’s an Australian hunting boomerang? Or is that just crappola? Fave ad that made me laugh out loud was the RECORD RIOT 60 SMASH SONGS. Now, I’ve read too many MAD magazines NOT to look at what songs were featured, and Um Um Um Um Um broke me up. It really reminded me of those lines that MAD would put in to indicate the writer was struggling to get the number of songs up to 60. But lo and behold, there WAS a song like that...from Wayne Fontana and the Mind Benders, no less.

Hey Morgus - I see Panther's already answered your question about the boomerang. When I was in primary school in the late 60s/early 70s, about the only thing they taught us about indigenous people was that they used boomerangs and woomeras as weapons and made dilly bags to carry things in. Kids these days get a lot more in-depth study of indigenous culture, which is a good thing. I remember reading a 'Batman in the 50s' compilation, and there was a white Australian character in there who used a boomerang to combat crime. I think he was a ranger. And I think he made Batman a boomerang he could use. Struck me as strange at the time, but I guess cultural appropriation wasn't such a thing back then.

And I think I found the chart-topping list you were talking about. Um ... I can't say I've heard the 'Um Um Um Um Um Um Um' song and maybe that's a good thing, but could be handy if you forget the words on karaoke night. As they don't list the artists, I gather it's probably one of those records where you get the hit songs, but sung by cover artists. It would be interesting to see how many songs have the same names. This is too early for Donny Osmond's 'Puppy Love'. Hubby and I did the first dance at our wedding to the strains of Nat King Cole singing 'Unforgettable', and Mum had a Nana Mouskouri album that had 'Mama' on it, if it's the same one.

Cheers

QQ

[Quirky Quokka]

I have a lot on my plate right now, so I'm not going to have the time to comment on the rest of the choices.
I regret this, haven't been in this position before. But I will post comments down the track a bit.
My sincere apologies.
Guest reviewer tomorrow. Something quite different.
Cheers!

No worries, Panther. Don't feel that you have to go into a lot of detail with the other readings, as there have been a fair few comments. Life happens. You do a great job keeping the reading group ticking along each fortnight, and we appreciate your efforts.

Cheers

QQ

[SuperScrounge]

Years ago I looked up info on Yubiwaza. Couldn't find the online article I read years ago, but found some with the info I recall. The martial arts master also seemed to be scammed by the publisher.

[paw broon]

Well, there was the Batarang, Captain Boomerang, the boomerang villain in Arrow, and the Australian tv show, The Magic Boomerang which caused time to stand still while in flight. And of course Daredevil.
Um6 was originally done by Major Lance I think.  Both versions are worthwhile.
Panther you do more than enough.

[Morgus]

Paw’, YES!! The Magic Boomerang!! Right up there with Skippy the Bush Kangaroo! And the doggone thing would make this sort of a theremin noise when it was in the air...Uncle Len would quib; “The Magic MUSICAL boomerang. Available for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, and supermarket openings”
Broke me up every time.
Q.Q.:  Yeah, the version of  “Puppy Love” before Donny was a hit for Canada’s own Paul Anka. “Unforgettable” with Nat King Cole sounds about right as this list was put out in 1964...but who KNOWS what “Mama” was? I mean they even had “In the Mood” at number 22. And what do you want to bet that ‘Mr Boss Man’ is ‘Big Boss Man”? Wouldn’t want the kids to DISRESPECT anyone, right???
‘Crash had an entry on the whole racket a couple of years back. By the way, ‘Crash, neat-o info on sharks teeth. And kind of creepy...
’Super, there’s some videos on youtube showing you some of the Yubiwaza moves...better then the book, I’ll bet..But I still want to open a tiki lounge named after it...
Hope things calm down for you soon, 'Panther.

[crashryan]

‘Crash had an entry on the whole racket a couple of years back.

Thanks for the shout out, Morgus, but though I started the subject its real star was our own Robb, with his encyclopedic knowledge of record-making.

[Robb_K]

Well, there was the Batarang, Captain Boomerang, the boomerang villain in Arrow, and the Australian tv show, The Magic Boomerang which caused time to stand still while in flight. And of course Daredevil.
Um6 was originally done by Major Lance I think.  Both versions are worthwhile.
Panther you do more than enough.

Yes, "Um, Um, Um,Um,Um, Um" was originally sung by Major Lance (whose daughter was recently the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.  Interesting enough, and quite a coincidence for this topic, The song "Boomerang", which was written to help spur on a new Chicago dance, "The Boomerang", was also co-written by Major Lance, and sung by one of his neighbours (Otis Leavill (Cobbs), both living in the same Near-North Side Cabrini-Green housing project, where Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, and his little brother Billy Butler, grew up.  They all were some of the greatest stars of The Chicago (Soul) Sound of the 1960s.  Motown's great Sax player, Junior Walker and The All Stars recorded "Do The Boomerang".  Like many other "dance-craze songs, this so-called dance never caught on outside of Chicago.

[Robb_K]

Nice to have some Sam Glanzman to look at, Panther. It was (what?) about a year ago we did the last batch. I always compared the Charlton war comics to the KRAFTMATIC MOVIE my dad would watch on Saturday afternoon. You know, a cookie cutter western that had (1) Gordie Tapp from HEE HAW during the commercial breaks. The idea was to numb you into senselessness and create a ready audience for the commercials.

And a lot of the time, the ads in Charlton comics were the best thing about them.
Sam of course was several cuts above the usual Charlton hacks, but even he had trouble getting rid of Gill’s stories that were like a chain around his leg. Every time a story coheres or has a plot, the data base wonders if it’s Sam’s stuff instead of Joe’s. Always wondered what he would have done with some writers from EC. Glad he got to DC to show his stuff and yeah, he should be remembered more.

The books are a bit frustrating. You can almost hear people breathing down his neck to get the job done and not worry about the quality. The Charlton ‘style’ didn’t help. (Was someone on staff colour blind?)

Hey, Q.Q., what’s an Australian hunting boomerang? Or is that just crappola? Fave ad that made me laugh out loud was the RECORD RIOT 60 SMASH SONGS. Now, I’ve read too many MAD magazines NOT to look at what songs were featured, and (2) Um Um Um Um Um broke me up. It really reminded me of those lines that MAD would put in to indicate the writer was struggling to get the number of songs up to 60. But lo and behold, there WAS a song like that...from Wayne Fontana and the Mind Benders, no less.
Hey, Crash, you usually have the low down on the cons these guys ran; were the sharks teeth REAL? Or maybe just plastic? And if I ever open up a tiki place to replace the defunct TRADER VIC’S, I’l name it YUBIWAZA and use that same font in the neon sign.

(1) Gordie Tapp was from your neck of the woods, London, Ontario. 

(2). The original "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" was, as Paw told us above, sung by Major Lance, in 1964, is one of my all-time favourite songs.  !964 was my favourite year for music, and my favourite year overall.

[Robb_K]

Well, there was the Batarang, Captain Boomerang, the boomerang villain in Arrow, and the Australian tv show, The Magic Boomerang which caused time to stand still while in flight. And of course Daredevil.
Um6 was originally done by Major Lance I think.  Both versions are worthwhile.
Panther you do more than enough.

Yes, Major Lance sang the original of "Um,Um,Um,Um,Um,Um".  But, of course, that word didn't sound like "uhm", as if the person making the sound were hesitating, trying to think of something, but rather, it is the African-American sound for indicating that something is a doggone shame, or was an ordeal to have gone through, most frequent in the form of "mmm, mmm,.....mmm!", with a slight hesitation before the 3rd and the latter emphasized much more. Something especially bad or very trying.  Often it is made in a moaning sound, like the person is in pain.  The man was moaning from emotional pain, likely being hurt by his woman cheating on him, or leaving him.

"Walking through park, it wasn't quite dark, there was a man sitting on a fence,

Out of a cloud, had his head lowly bowed, he just moaned, and it made no sense,

He'd just go.....Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, ...... Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um ...... Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um....

Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um,

I just couldn't help my-self,  I was born with a curious mi-ind,

I asked this man just what did he mean when he moaned... if he'd be so kind,

And he'd just go...Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, .... Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um .... Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um....

Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um

( Nice Horn and twangy guitar break )

Now that I've grown up, and The Woman I Love she has gone, 

Now that I'm a Man, I think I under-stand, just why every woman's singing this song,

Listen to them sing....Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, .... Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um .... Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um....

Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um

Can't You hear 'Em now...