[profh0011]

I have a BUNNY comic, which was one of the oddest "treasure" of my then-small collection.  It's one I tend to forget about when I think back on those days, but I must have read it several times more than MOST of the comics in my collection.  (When you have few books, you read 'em over and over a lot.)

One of these days I MUST do a blog feature on my earliest comics.  There was such variety in them!


It's funny, when I decided to do a funny comic about a not-too-bright girl, I called her "Bunny"...  BUNNY ROGET.  (It was a tribute to BUCK ROGERS.)

[jimmm kelly]

By the way No. 1: I happened to find too late on eBay a coverless copy of COMPLETE BOOK OF COMICS AND FUNNIES. Found it only after the auction was over--still kicking myself about that. But I copied the first page from that auction and used it on the blog.

As you can see from this page the comic was copyright 1944 by Editorial Art Syndicate - Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. Publishers.

That publisher must've been a company that functioned as a surrogate for Ned Pines--in the same way that THE BIG ALL-AMERICAN COMIC BOOK was also published by Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. Publishers as a surrogate for All-American Comics.

I thought that was an interesting detail and might be useful in tracking down a copy of COMPLETE BOOK OF COMICS AND FUNNIES.

By the way No. 2: I was quite surprised that Bob Hughes credits the Supergirl stories reprinted in ACTION COMICS No. 360/G-45 (March-April

[jimmm kelly]

My second minim page looks at Doll Man vs the Fuehrer of America in THE DOLL MAN QUARTERLY No. 2 (Spring

[SuperScrounge]

By the way No. 3: Some of the page counts in my blog might be off by four. I couldn't figure out if some of the numbers given by sources or on covers were counting the cover or not counting the cover. Generally, for the sake of consistency, since 80 PAGE GIANT does not include the cover, I used the interior page count. On the GCD site, I couldn't be sure if indexers were counting the cover or not. It seems more likely to me that the page count (not counting the cover) should be divisible by 16--a half signature. But with some comics--especially the squarebound--it was possible to add less than a half signature.

Indexers are supposed to count the covers.

Which isn't to say that all the page counts at the GCD do that, but according to the rules of the GCD they are supposed to.

The page counts printed on various Comic Digests from Archie Comics only count the interior pages (at least, it's been that way with those digests I own).

[jimmm kelly]

Indexers are supposed to count the covers.

I'll try to apply that knowledge. For my blog, of late, I've been using just the interior page count because that's what usually appears on the covers and advertisements from publishers, in my experience. Instances of counting the covers seem less frequent. So I figure it's better--creates less confusion--if I use that count in my blogs and make note of the counted covers on the occasions when that arises. But now I'm second-guessing myself and I'll have to go through my blogs to make sure I've been consistent.

You would think publishers would advertise a higher count if they thought they could get away with it. But it may be that certain numbers are more pleasing to us than others. I think square numbers are more pleasing. 4 squared, 10 squared may be more pleasing than 68 or 96. Not that 96 isn't a nice number--it has nice symmetry--but I don't think in the 10 fingered world it can compete with 100.

I like the number 36, but the number 32 seems even better--2 to the fifth power. Anything to the fifth power has got to be awesome.

[jimmm kelly]

Another minim item. This one on The Dynamic Duo's Double-Deathtrap from DETECTIVE COMICS No. 361 (March '67). My favourite story of all time.

I'm really pushing the spoiler page with this one. I don't like to spoil stories for people who haven't read them--so the idea of doing this kind of feature allows me to link to a spoiler without ruining the comic for folks who want to check it out first. But I've noticed that while I get a lot of hits on the main pages, the spoier pages get almost none. And there's a lot there for brave souls to check out.

[jimmm kelly]

My latest blog post--KNOCK ON WOOD--asks the musical question what do Woody Woodpecker, Don Arr and Big Little Books have in common?

And speaking of music, I was listening to some Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters recordings off the internet yesterday and--man--I gots to gets me some of those records. Danny and the sisters are having so much fun on those. I was killing myself listening to them.

If you want a good time, go look for their recording of "Amelia Cordelia McHugh." Sublime.

[jimmm kelly]

WARNING: after you see my latest blog, you'll want to hug your comics and keep them safe. This is not for the faint of heart. Click the link below if you dare, but prepare yourself for the worst thing a comic book lover could ever see.

My Favourite Funnies No. 22: THE RUIN

[wilbatson]

I'm a new member and I'm writing you with a question about Comic Book Plus. Hope you can be of help. I posted an introduction but as far as I can tell it hasn't landed in the forum. Did I do something wrong?

[jimmm kelly]

Your introduction post was there--I know because I read it. It seems to have been modified.

https://comicbookplus.com/forum/index.php/topic,13.800.html

Maybe try posting it again or ask MarkWarner about it.

EDIT: Well actually your introduction is there but in a different forum--
https://comicbookplus.com/forum/index.php/topic,10156.msg58090.html#msg58090

Maybe like me when you went looking for it you got redirected to the wrong forum. Easiest way to find your posts is to click on your name.

[jimmm kelly]

OTF.22.08.15 -- My latest On the Fly blog post visits Liverpool home of the Beatles, from whence came BEATLES BUBBLE GUM! Also celebrating the 51st anniversary of the Beatles in Vancouver--which I didn't see (darn). If you only visit one of my blogs, make it this one, please please me.

[jimmm kelly]

Another minim page--this one on Troublesome Double, from TIPPY TEEN No. 22 (March 69), plus other features of that issue.

[SuperScrounge]

Just looking at that Big Ethel-esque face on Troublesome Double, I'm 90% sure that's Samm Schwartz's work and some of the poses you posted from that story look like poses from Schwartz-confirmed Jughead stories.

[jimmm kelly]

I used panels with air around them, because I thought that was neat and a kind of signature of Troublesome Double. But there's a nice silhouette panel in that story that I didn't use for the blog. And there's silhouette panels for Socks Appeal and Treasure Bent, as well. I've read this is something that Schwartz would do. Of course, a lot of other artists do that, too.

However, I think that the Animal story--Outside Wire--is most like Samm Schwartz, from what I know from his Jughead work.

Doug Crane puts his name on one of the stories here--Two on the Isle--and he uses silhouette differently to create a contrast between foreground images in silhouette and midground images in detail. I've seen his name on other stories in various TIPPY TEEN comics, so I wonder if that means only stories with his name on them are in fact by him.

Letter Perfect looks different from any of the other stories in the mag (not as good) and I don't think it was done by either Schwartz or Crane.

[SuperScrounge]

For me I tend to notice either a distinctive face (Jughead, Big Ethel, a recurring bald guy in the background), poses (shock, fear, running) and the overall lanky, coloring book style outlines with little to no shading before I notice things like the airy panels or part of a figure going over a panel border.

Funny how different people spot different "tells" first.

I sometimes think there should be an art-spotting website where people list what they use to recognize various artists.

[jimmm kelly]

Well, I have to confess, my main resource is my gut. I look at pages and think that looks like so and so. But it's not all that reliable and if I think about why my gut tells me this then I can't put my finger on it. I must be seeing something, but it's not something I can articulate--and I'm not sure I want to.

I'm always in awe of the people--like so many at CB+--who have a much more rational approach and can spot things that would go right past me.

[SuperScrounge]

Oh, yeah, my gut (well, my subconscious anyway) tells me that such and such drew it, then I consciously start analyzing the art to be sure.

A while back I was indexing a Golden Comics Digest for the GCD, and I was reading this Barney Bear and Benny Burro story when my subconscious said, "Carl Barks."

What? This can't be Barks, it's not a Donald Duck story or even Disney Characters!

"Carl Barks."

Now I've never been a Barks art spotter, although I had recently read a collection of just Barks' Duck stories, so I tried to remember what had stood out in those stories (in particular more shading lines than usual) and it seemed similar. The story also felt like a Duck story (Donald & Barney both have tempers). But the thing that cemented it was a shot of Barney & Benny driving and the pose of the silhouetted car in the mid-ground looked almost exactly like a shot of Donald in his car.

So then I pulled out my books on comics & comics history and found a reference stating that Barks did indeed work on the Benny Burro series. So yeah, my subconscious seemed to know what it was talking about there.

Of course my subconscious isn't perfect (the DeCarlo drawalikes can often fool it) so analyzing the work for specific tells is just a way of double-checking my instinctive reaction.

[jimmm kelly]

Here is something I noticed about SA giants. Harvey came out with their superhero line after the popularity of Batman on TV. Their teen Bunny comic outlasted their thriller line. Tower had more Tippy Teen and her friends books than superhero books. Even MF Enterprises had more Henry Brewster books than Captain Marvel books. Just an interesting observation I made.

MY FAVOURITE FUNNIES No. 23 developed out of this comment from narfstar earlier on this thread--and morphed into my latest blog post: I Was a Teen-Age Giant.

[jimmm kelly]

One thing I noticed when I was scanning covers for the Archie comics is that on the covers in the early '60s, it says PDC in small letters, this then changes to MAC. Then in the early '70s it changes to Fawcett.

What's this all about?

[SuperScrounge]

I believe those are the distributor marks.

Other comics will have similar marks like ANC (American News Corp, I believe) or IND (Independent News). Not sure what PDC or MAC are short for, but they were probably the companies that distributed the comics to the various newsstands and whatnot.

[jimmm kelly]

That's what I figured. I have no idea what PDC and MAC stand for, but Fawcett clearly means Fawcett, which would indicate that Fawcett was distributing Archie's comics for them in the '70s. Which I find interesting.

I've just updated and modified my checklist of 61 Things that are Super--which actually lists 75 things (now with pictures and links). I also added an A - Z sub-page to that page, which makes it easier to find specific things (for my own benefit if no one else's).

[jimmm kelly]

I've now updated my checklist for 12 Last Months of Batman and Robin with better information on each story and lots of pictures--plus a sub-page if you want to quickly go through the list of stories in chronological order according to on sale dates.

[jimmm kelly]

Another blog page revised, this time The Yot Time F'got!

Many added cover scans and updated info for this LUCKY COMICS feature from Jon St. Ables. But much more needs to be found--so I'll probably have cause to update this one again in another two years.

Hopefully there are people out there who will be adding more to the Maple Leaf comics on CB+.

[jimmm kelly]

The first of what should be an ongoing--but only when I have the time--series of book reports on funny book books. This one being on SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT--A Handbook of Horrors.

There have been multitudes of blogs and articles about SOTI. And I didn't want to add to that. But I think what is lost in all those commentaries is the sense of SOTI as a book about comics. I don't know if there was another book before it that actually made comic books its main subject. And even though the aim of the book might not have been to the liking of the fanbase, the very fact of SOTI as a funny book book was something I wanted to get back to--rather than adding to all the clamour over its point of view.

It's sort of like what SUPERMAN THE MOVIE is to comic book movies--it sets the template for all the other works that will follow.

[jimmm kelly]

For anyone that's interested, THE FIRST DAYS OF THE ACTION ACE takes a look at Superman's early run. The next issue of my blog will continue with that--once I've written it.

I also did a checklist. 20 Original Months of Superman.

For both of these I looked at all Superman comic books and comic strips that would have come out in 1938 and 1939 up to the end of that year (when it just so happens that Vin Sullivan leaves as editor).