selegue

FRANK Shuster? So this is by Joe's cousin of "Wayne and Shuster" fame! When I've seen this item mentioned before, I thought it was by Jerry and Joe! Jack

What was who thinking? The guys in the ship? Jack

Odd cover gag, isn't it? The phone rings on the receiver's end, not the caller's end! Jack applying too much logic to comic book covers

WOO-HOO! These are terrific. I don't know whether you followed the discussion over at the Duck thread, but any interior shots of Sniffles, Kelly-drawn or other wild features would be appreciated. Jack PS -- You obviously saw the Duck thread since you just posted there.

I'm not Billy, You have something to be thankful for today. Two things! Jack (And so does your husband.)

Apparently hot commodities. I don't have them. *Sniffle!* Does someone that has them know whether they're reprint or original? Jack

Apparently because he's half of a pair of Siamese twins and he doesn't want abuse from his "better half". Those two-gender sets are very unusual! Jack

It certainly looks less and less like Drucker. I do like the very late 50s look to it. For me, it's hard to tell many of these humor artist apart because they carry around the same bag of influences. From what I've read, Owen Fitzgerald worked animation at Disney and Fleisher studios and with Chuck Jones, then Mort Drucker and Bob Oksner both worked in comic books with Fitzgerald. I don't know whether there's any direct influence/overlap with Mike Roy, but if he was doing Jackie Gleason for DC in the 50s, there must be. Jack

I never suspected that they were in there until I got this copy. Good thing this Gem Mint wasn't in a slab or we'd never know! Jack

Or maybe her gal-pal, NEPTINA. "Air bubbles float down...", huh? I'd like to visit that universe some day. Quite a collection of Golden Age girls you've got! Jack

I think that you'll eventually get the point.. uh, points. Both of them. Jack

I'm no expert, since I my second oldest is #45 with the war bonds cover. That one's got good stuff in it, but it's out of reach so I can't cite specifics. I just got the 3nd and 4th oldest Looney Tunes that I own, #56 and 59 (1946), in the same box with #5. The Sniffles and Mary Jane (the mouse still gets top billing) stories are still wonderfully bizarre. You'd like the one in 59 with animated animal crackers -- I'll scan a page later, probably tomorrow. I think that feature stayed interesting through its whole run, since I have other issues up in the hundreds. WB really should reprint the feature in a collection, but I'm not sure it would sell enough copies to turn a profit. The other features in 56 and 59 are typical Bugs and Porky stories. Not quite as bad as when Mickey Mouse and friends moved to the suburbs, but not the wild stories that I've scanned here. Probably a good rule of thumb is that any issue with an "old school" Bugs, before they streamlined him, on the cover is a good bet. Those issues are most likely to have oddball features. Any issue with Walt Kelly is a worthwhile too. He's there until at least #25. In fact, the Pat, Patsy and Pete page I just posted might be his. Can any Looney Tunes experts help out? Jack

Here are two more pages from Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners 6. First, another page from a Loudmouth story, chosen partly because of lots of secondary characters and the use of a silhouette panel. Second, a page from a Reggie van Gleason III story, another of Jackie's continuing characters on his TV show. Notice how much the artist likes panels with a full portrait and blank background, plus another silhouette panel. Mike Roy? So say the experts. Jack

I'm all ears. Cwazy Wabbit! Two more pages from Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies 5, this time with an actual duck to go with the subject line! First, the last page of the odd Elmer Fudd story. Not only does Elmer look weird, look who he's calling Daffy Duck! The story about a remote-control gunboat has a very WWII feel to it. Prof Anteater just shows up out of nowhere on this page. Second, a page from a surreal Pat Patsy and Pete story. Penguin Pete is hunting gold pieces that he left near a pirate lodge under the sea. Several of the pages are magnificent! Check out the racist gag here (a sign earlier said, "Do Not Disturb the Black Fish"), the pictographs in a word balloon, and the great sea goblin, who has a most interesting backstory! Does anyone have a clue about the artists? Notfrom WB's usual stable, I'd say. I'm enjoying this comic book more than any other I've bought in months! Jack

story?/ plot? Jack

Bwahaha. You can have mine for a meeeeelion dollars. Most Looney Tunes are dirt cheap compared to the pre-code horror that you pursue. In general, you'd love the Mary Jane and Sniffles feature, which has a distorted-reality feeling like some of your own work. Alice in Wonderland-like, characters sitting on mushrooms and what-not. The story I posted the splash page from is a "fractured" Jack in the Beanstalk. I think that you'd also like the off-model Elmer Fudd story that I'll try to post a page from tonight. Take a look at Atomic Rabbit 9 posted on the Atomic Age thread if you have a chance. Maurice (whoot-woo) Whitman! Jack

And that, my friends, is why I'm known as the World's Worst Artist Spotter. I would never haved guessed that the artist responsible for these pages also drew the Jackie Gleason cover and pages that I posted. What should I be looking at? Something about panel composition, faces, posture? I wonder where the credit for Ray on Gleason originally came from. Have you seen it anywhere else, Scrooge? Thanks, Jack Check out also the entry for Real Clue Crime Stories. Here are some more Roy art examples:

Yes, it's a beauty of a Swan/Kaye cover. Not so easy to find attractive copies of Adventure in this range, is it? Funny to see yet another chunk of Krypton escaping destruction. By the mid-1970s, I think about half the planet had headed this way when it exploded. Aquaman and Green Arrow backups too! Jack

I'm all ears. Cwazy Wabbit! Manaña. Meanwhile, check out my Atomic Age post. Jack

I'm a sucker for these atomic-powered super funny animal books, especially for a couple of bucks. No swallowing radioactive vegetables that I could find, but Atomic Rabbit 9, Charlton, November 1957, had an interesting suprise. See that signature at lower right? Maurice Whitman! I didn't know that he worked in a funny animal style, especially for Charlton. Same guy as the Fiction House girlie covers? Did he do a lot of this kind of work? Here's a fun Whitman pin-up from the back cover. Jack

Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies 5 arrived. Very cool book! Here's the splash panel of Bugs Bunny, the Super-Duper Rabbit: As predicted, Sniffles gets lead billing over Mary Jane, but MJ is clearly taking over the strip. Classic style, different from later Mary Jane. She doesn't snort any magic dust here, but instead uses magic slippers to "get small". And do you recognize the art of "Leon Schlesinger" here? Early Walt Kelly! He'd return to cavemen more than once, in The Glob and Prehysterical Pogo. This might be his earliest caveman art. Interesting, with some politically incorrect cannibal characters. If anyone's interested, I'll try to scan more pages. There's an Elmer Fudd story in a very open, non-Warner Brothers style. No Pancho Vanilla. Jack but no insight on Sniffles or Bugs' finger? Jack I'll go on a limb but since MJ & S were in # 1, they should be in this issue as well? Let us know when you get it and be sure to scan some of that MJ & S art goodness. Will do. According to Toonopedia, if the feature is here Sniffles should still get top billing over MJ. There may also be a story about the politically incorrect Little Pancho Vanilla. Jack Poof Poof Piffles

On the GCD mailing list, humor comic book expert Steven Rowe checked in with: "Mike Roy is the generally accepted artist on this run. (I cant ID Roy though) It is NOT Fitzgerald. Nadle edited all the DC humor comics from at least 1948 to his death circa 1965. Ellsworth was senior editor from 48 to 59. as the joke goes: it's questionable if he even looked inside a comic after 1953. steven rowe" Steven knows these books well, so I take his word for it. Who's Mike Roy? From the Lambiek site: There are some art samples there, quite different from his Jackie Gleason style. Mike Roy (1921 - 1996, USA) Joseph Michael Roy studied at the High School of Industrial Art, as well as the Pratt Institute. He began his career in the 1940s, assisting Bill Everett, the creator of the original 'Sub-mariner' at Atlass [sic] Comics. He worked through the Funnies Inc. shop, and contributed to comic books by Holyoke Publications ('Hammerhead Hawley'), Archie Comics (funny titles), Hillman Periodical (crime, war and western) and various early DC books. He also appeared in Lev Gleason titles like 'Crime Does Not Pay', 'Crime and Punishment', 'Daredevil' and 'Desperado'. During the first half of the 1950s, Roy produced a large amount of artwork for the romance titles of Better Publications. He later also contributed to many Dell/Western titles. Roy has also worked on newspaper strips. Between 1948 and 1951, he did the 'The Saint' daily and Sunday strip for the New York Herald Tribune. In the 1950s, he made the newspaper strips 'Ken Weston' and 'Nero Wolfe', and assisted on 'Flash Gordon'. In the 1960s followed the acclaimed Native American Sunday strip 'Akwas', and the 'Hoss Laffs' daily and the 'Indian Lore and Crafts' Sunday page. Mike Roy was active until the 1990s, working mainly on educational comics for Custom Comic Services. His final work was 'Screaming Eagle', a hardcover graphic novel for Discovery Comics. Mike Roy also co-founded a museum for Native American and Eskimo art. Jack

I agree, but I didn't want to get the "What time did the Silver Age start?" zealots on my case. Not that people on the Gold forum would attack like they do on General. Jack

I noticed that too -- an error that almost quaifies as a pet peeve (along with phosphorous for phosphorus, loose for lose, and so many others that I could start my own pet shelter). Several apostrophe errors in the book too. I'm not sure whether Ellsworth (listed in indicia) or Nadle was the actual editor, but they weren't paying attention. Jack

Thanks for taking a second look. "a reach out to him or a Drucker expert" = Drucker is available for questions? On-line somewhere? I'll scan more pages from the book asap. Unfortunately some of that darn Real Life work has to come first. Jack