selegue

What a gorgeous cover! An early and unusual "crossover" too. Reprinted in Silly Symphonies 8 (Dell Giant) -- I actually have a copy! I wonder whether I can find it. Does anyone know who drew it? I don't think it's Kelly. Is the back cover illustrated too? Thanks, BZ. Jack

First appearance! Jack

...and here's why I was waiting at the Short Bus stop this morning. Fresh off their rave reviews at the 10-cent thread, here are Sergeant Bilko and his sidekick, Private Doberman. (Seems to be a Dog Day.) I'll just copy that post for those of you who don't look at the Silver forum. Jack Sergeant Bilko 4, Nov-Dec 1957, from the popular TV show starring Phil Silvers. Cover (the previous owner knew that a little Vandyke on the colonel would make it funnier) And a good interior page with an Oksner hot babe secondary character A spin-off, Sgt. Bilko's Pvt. Doberman 8 from Aug-Sept 1959. Duane Doberman was played by character actor, Maurice Gosfield. cover: Splash panel with more Oksner girlies. Saturday Night Fever prototype! If this book appeals to anyone, I have a duplicate -- PM me! Did Fred Hembeck really revive Sgt. Bilko for Marvel in 1988?

Cloven hooves. It's the Demon Dog!!! I'm worried about that qualifier. Where else have you been seeing dogs with cloven hooves? Just lie back on the couch and speak calmly. Losing one digit saves the cartoonist time. This is one of the next steps. Jack maybe it's Sam

The names of the characters sure don't seem destined to survive long. "Alkali Ike"? I wonder what that's about. Do you suppose that he has a sidekick, "Acid Abe"? I have #10 (somewhere -- I should dig it out and index it. Not a single issue of the series indexed at GCD.) but don't recall any information about his name. From "Alkali Flats" in the deserts of the American Southwest, I suppose. Funny that ACG called the book "Funny Films", suggesting to gullible kids that these were characters from animated cartoons. Jack, a real playa

Funny -- I used the search function to find the thread, little realizing that it had just been revived! HAH! The cover shares the "hand on the pole" motif with its immediate predecessor on the thread, Uncle Milty! Unlike Milty, I don't think that Boots had any sort of "reputation" You can get your wife to look at your funnybooks? Jack

More DC celebrity humor. Sergeant Bilko 4, Nov-Dec 1957, from the popular TV show starring Phil Silvers. Cover (the previous owner knew that a little Vandyke on the colonel would make it funnier) And a good interior page with an Oksner hot babe secondary character A spin-off, Sgt. Bilko's Pvt. Doberman 8 from Aug-Sept 1959. Duane Doberman was played by character actor, Maurice Gosfield. cover: Splash panel with more Oksner girlies. Saturday Night Fever prototype! If this book appeals to anyone, I have a duplicate -- PM me! Did Fred Hembeck really revive Sgt. Bilko for Marvel in 1988? Jack

I'm a tightwad and it would cost a $1000 to slab it. Maybe another day. A tightwad, who owns a primo copy of Detective Comics 27. Tightwad. Right. Jack owns TWO reprints Greedy SOB You bet. Should I scan 'em and post 'em in the Greedy SOB thread? Jack nah, Sal would be inconsolable

I'm a tightwad and it would cost a $1000 to slab it. Maybe another day. A tightwad, who owns a primo copy of Detective Comics 27. Tightwad. Right. Jack owns TWO reprints two more than me. i have read the story, tho. does that count? Oh, man. Here we are in BangZoom's "God's own comic book collection" thread, and someone is jealous of my Famous First Edition in good- condition with a 3" spine split. *SNIF* I'm so grateful that I ought to send it to you! Jack or is it my Millennium Edition from the dollar bin?

I'm a tightwad and it would cost a $1000 to slab it. Maybe another day. A tightwad, who owns a primo copy of Detective Comics 27. Tightwad. Right. Jack owns TWO reprints

What was striking were the many parallels: US Postal no delivery threat but also such language as: "corrupted the young by glamorizing criminal behaviour" and the "fearful increase of youthful criminals... "...right here in River City!" It could also have Meredith Willson! Jack, a bum with a capital "B" and jokes memorized from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang

Does it prove that advertisers agreed with you and couldn't be persuaded to buy ads in Ace romance books? Another good, if brief, review -- shows that you wear no rose-colored glasses about the late Golden/ Atomic Age. Interesting interlude about Comstock! Jack

HAH! I agree, but backwards. Whenever I see "Price Variant" in a subject header I first read it as Prince Valiant! Jack Me too............there's a thread in Comics General with the words Price Variant (a topic that holds absolutely no interest for me) that catches my eye every single time!!!! That's exactly the subject line I mean, and exactly my reaction to it. Jack (I shudder to think what a "Prince Variant" strip would be about.)

It's the cover showing how Superman LEARNED to be a ! (What was the rationale for Jor-El picking his kid's dog? Pound was closed?) Jack

HAH! I agree, but backwards. Whenever I see "Price Variant" in a subject header I first read it as Prince Valiant! Jack

Gotta be Maurice Whitman, right? Funny how much less respect he gets than Matt Baker. Great cover artist. Jack

Same haircut. If it's not him, it's Dean Martin. Jack is that Jerry with the branding iron?

TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!! Oh, you mean Schomburg covers? Jack

Thanks. They made'em cute in that family Of course, with Schaffenberger pencils, they're all cute! In fact, almost interchangeable except for the hair color and style -- even Lana. Jack

I'd never seen that cover (like most JO's in fact) but it's fun. Is Lucy a throw-away character or part of the regular cast? I'm not familiar with her. Lois Lane's little sister, a "stewardess" as they used to be called, Jimmy's long-term love interest. Their relationship, usually built around making one another jealous and "teaching the other one a lesson", was almost as twisted as Lois's and Clark's. Good ol' Uncle Mort. Wikipedia entry has lots of post-1970 information that I didn't know about. That cover just invites wisecracks, right? From Jimmy O being "all hands" around Lucy (with a nod to Velvet Underground's "The Gift"), to Amazing Spider-Man 100 prototype. Jack

Fantastic articles this week. How can you crank these out at the end of the semester? I don't even have time to finish reading them this week! Like your women in flowered sarongs fetish or the women in tubes fetish over at BangZoom's place, you've found mine. Voluptous red-haired heroines front and center. If I were to get hooked on Golden Age collecting, Firehair and Rangers would probably be my starting point. Unfortunately, that would mean competing with hoards of GGA and Fiction House collectors. That Murphy Anderson story is gorgeous! More comments later, I hope. Jack

Is it permissable to write something critical of Schomburg on this thread? His Timely covers are fun, but I think this pair shows how repetitive they could be. Virtually identical foreground and background layouts except that Torch has reversed direction. Torch diagonal from lower left to upper right, Toro to lower right, coastline(?) with the same angle on both, triangular land mass or something to upper left, aircraft parallel to Torch, scurrying soldiers all over the place, etc. Take a look at the GCD thumbnail galleries 2-51 and 52-92 and I think you'll see how few cover layouts he used during the middle period of the run. Was he basically working from a template then filling in busy detail each month? I know, I know. Schomburg was a god among cover illustrators, comic books are at best a repetitive medium, the covers did their job of enticing little Johnny to spend his time every month, I'm jealous because I don't own any, fill in your own epithet. Was anyone else struck by this while looking at these covers side-by-side? Jack

That jogs my memory. Not Fago but Chad Grothkopf, a great funny animal cartoonist (Hoppy the Marvel Bunny) who worked in all sorts of genres (Johnny Quick). I think that his best stuff was Timely funny animals (Krazy Komics, etc.). Thanks, Jack

You really got some great stuff today! I have a reader copy of that one (somewhere) -- yours looks terrific. I agree with you about the interior artwork -- Ali Baba especially, if I remember right (but it's been a long time since I looked). I don't remember whether anything was signed. Could it be early Al Fago? Jack

Sorry to derail the Parade of Timely covers. I started a thread in the Restoration section. Anyone interested, please chime in there. CO2 cleaning Thanks, Jack